Ever wonder why folks listen to Sleater Kinney so much? Or get pissed at how much of an asshole Toby Keith is? You’re not alone. Sex Object and The Model, otherwise known as The Punk Group, have not only shared your thoughts and curiosities, but for over eight years they have been putting them to synths and rocking guitars. Pretty good for a band that started up as a joke for the Satyricon’s gong show.
“I had the idea and said ‘Hey [Model] why don’t we make a fake band,'” Sex Object says. “And we went up there and did these songs, and we were the ones that won.”
Don’t assume that The Punk Group merely writes songs about people, or even people they don’t like for that matter. Their set is full of songs about fat girls riding bicycles, Heineken, Ataris, rainbows and even MySpace, where they highlight how the social networking site is “good for getting laid.” Their lyrical content has been known to offend, and mostly, the provocation is intended. Today, The Punk Group has become almost as well known for their Devo-esk style as their offensive manner.
“When we’re playing, [Model] will be playing guitar, and I will be playing bass … and then we’re basically playing along to whatever music we can’t play at the time,” Sex Object says. “A lot of people like to use laptops, we don’t. We like to be a little bit more organic about stuff. You know, program the drum machine, put in whatever sounds are going on and do our thing.”
One of their more popular songs, “Sleater Kinney Sucks,” has caused quite the local snicker here in Portland, where the Olympia-born band has now settled and become rather cherished.
“When we made that song five or six years ago, everyone was like ‘Oh my God, you can’t, you can’t do that,'” Sex Object says. “Bullshit we can’t, we’re here in the bar, and talking to all our friends, and everybody else is saying it … basically every song we’ve written has been written by somebody else in the context of, somebody will say something, we overhear it, and then immediately we start cracking up, and there’s a song.”
The Punk Group’s own name is a jab at the music world itself, particularly upon their feelings regarding the punk scene, which has become as authentically rebellious and unique as a mob of Dave Matthew’s fans. By calling themselves The Punk Group, and then playing music that is inherently not the set standard mesh that is “punk” they are, in a way, turning the genre on its head as they take over playing actual unique and original content while spouting jaw dropping lyrics.
However shocking or comedic their songs have been, one thing is for sure, they’re working, and people like what they hear. After only eight years as a band, The Punk Group is getting their own tribute album, titled Shower Time, with renditions of their own tunes from artists all over the world. According to Sex Object, the album should be coming out sometime within the next month.
“We got 25 bands from all over the country,” he says. “We got a great band from Australia, one from France and Thor from Canada.”
The idea for a tribute album was brought to them by an outside record label, however, the label’s idea of a Punk Group tribute album diverged from what The Model and Sex Object creatively had in mind.
“Long story short, we got some people involved and we pretty much took the reins,” Sex Object says. “‘Cause they wanted some bullshit techno artists and just a bunch of crap, and we said ‘No this isn’t a good representation of what we do.'”
The contributing bands recorded their covers on their own, in their own style, some paying to go into a studio. Local radio DJs Cort and Fatboy from KUFO even formed a band just for the project. In the end, the album maxes out a CD’s carrying capacity with Punk Group fervor.
“The versions that people have done, we listen to it and are going ‘God damnit, it’s better than ours,'” Sex Object says. “We told everybody, ‘Don’t make it an exact cover of it, nobody wants to hear that shit. Put your own stamp on it, fuck it up, rebuild it, rework it, destroy it and make it your own, and everybody pretty much did that.”