Phoenix post-punk band JJCnV celebrates 20 years of music making

There’s something about commitment that transcends technique, and nothing about honesty that I don’t trust. Like Twinings Tea or Levi’s Jeans, for every end there is a means. If you are anything like me, then you love a good cause, something that is committed and stands proudly unimpressed by passing trends. Something real, sincere and not staged. The locally-based band JJCnV embodies those traits. The trio turns 20 this weekend and is celebrating with a show at 8 p.m. at Rips on Nov. 8.

Arizonans, we are lucky to have this group of musicians who have stuck to their guns in pursuit of their artistic vision. Before I go any further, I must first come clean.

This is a story that is close to my heart, a love letter to several musicians and bands whom I adore, and how they have remained perfectly true to their craft. Janis Joplin Crap and Vomit, what the letters JJCnV originally stood for, turns twenty years old this month. (PNT note: We talked to the band about how the Janis Joplin estate had something to say about that.) The band is happy these days for you to decide what those letters stand for. Have fun with it.

The trio is composed of Dana Stern on guitar and vocals, Pete Hinz on bass and vocals and Jeff Barthold on hoagie hats and masks … and drums. Some vocals, too. 

Together, they have been one of the pillars of loud Phoenix weirdo rock for the last two decades. If you’re lucky enough to catch them live, then you know that a JJCnV show delivers the music and the unexpected. I’ve seen everything from a pop-up horn section, aka “The Blowhards,” which consists of Mark Anderson on sax and Trent Morue on trumpet, to thousands of soap bubbles floating around a dingy biker bar to a solo vocal rendition of Bette Midler’s “The Rose” in a Las Vegas pizza restaurant. 

Needless to say, if you see them live, be aware, shit can get kinda strange. Listening to JJCnV recordings, on the other hand, can bring on a whole different set of feelings, emotions and sounds. Quick, tight stuff, post-punk grooves, ferocious feminine frolicking, synthesized weirdness, great lyrics, humor, noise and good old rock n’ roll. Most of which is usually accompanied by a glorious ‘chef’s kiss’ of a bass tone. They do all their own recording and producing by themselves, and in my opinion, are the very definition of pure Phoenix DIY ethos. 

Also helping to celebrate JJCnV are Haunted Cologne, Lenguas Largas and Knife Fight. I first met Andrew Jemsek of Haunted Cologne about 22 or 23 years ago. I think he was about 15 years old or so. I have a memory of yelling at him and his brother, Tristan, for sword fighting in the front yard with my good golf clubs. I remember being at some of their first shows and thinking what a sincere and original musical birth I was witnessing. Just two knucklehead brothers on a horrible-sounding drum set and a broken accordion. Tromping through songs with hilarious lyrics and great titles like “The Existential Polka.” Though the band has taken on a more traditional configuration since, the music is just as unwavering and unapologetic. There is something else that happens to a musician with time and devotion, and that is evolution, and theirs has been compelling to follow.

In the case of Issac Reyes of the Tucson-based band Lenguas Largas, we are talking Darwinistic. I first met Issac twenty-something years ago during a house party show at the infamous Tempe spot known as The Farmer House. Although I love the purity of his punk rock bands back then, like Shark Pants and especially The Swing Ding Amigos, what he is doing now just blows my mind. It is truly a testament to how a musician can grow so much while remaining exactly the same. As for Knife Fight, I guess I’ll let you know sometime in the year 2045 when another 20 years have passed.

JJCnV, of course, will still be exactly the same as they are now and the same as they were twenty years ago. Truly untainted and perfectly themselves. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to slip on some jeans and have a cup of tea. 

Enjoy this chat with the JJCnV crew, Pete Hinz (vocals, bass), Dana Stern (vocals, guitar) and Jeff Barthold (drums, vocals)

Phoenix New Times: Do you guys remember the first show you played as a trio?
Pete Hinz: It was the Ruby Room. Oh, Ruby. Ruby Room, with The Skinwalkers.
Jeff Barthold: Skinwalkers. Ray Reeves. Yes. And DJ Nathaniel. Willie from The Skinwalkers got his drum hardware stolen from outside. Yes. During the show, because he had it. He left it outside, and like went in and did something. Came out and all gone.

How long did you two, Pete and Jeff, play as a duo before that?
Hinz: We probably played for like a year and a half before we even played out.
Dana Stern:  They practiced in our old house. Mine and Pete’s old house. Like every weekend for hours on end. And there was a lot of laughing and a lot of just loudness.

Do you guys play any of those songs from the original duo anymore?
Hinz: A couple of ’em, yeah, we are gonna be playing those at the show
Barthold: Stop! Now you are giving it all away.

You’ve done a lot of recording. When did that start?
Stern: Well, you guys did a recording before me.
Hinz: See, that is why we had Dana start playing because like, I was adding like guitars to our recording and I was like, ‘oh, we need a guitar player.’
Stern: Pete said, ‘I’ll never ask you to be in this band because it’s too much togetherness.’ (laughs). He started adding guitars, and I was the easiest. I was the most convenient, I had experience being in a band, but I had never been in a band where nobody told me what to do. (laughs).

So, how long from the first recording with you three to this last one?
Everybody: Oh my god. I don’t know. The first recording. Well, wait, it depends. Do we count the first recording? Yeah. I would count that because we did the first thing we put out, we decided to do a quadruple split. So it’s two seven-inch records with one band on each side of each record. And we’ll have some of ’em at the show, ’cause we still have ’em, um, they sold like hot cakes.
Barthold: We have been holding them in reserve for this moment, we said, ‘let’s hang on to these for the 20-year anniversary show’ (Laughing).

How many different people have played with JJCNV over the years?
Hinz: Not that many. I mean, Steve Jansen played a couple of times. Andrew Jemsek, Trent Morue, Mark Anderson.

What would you all say has changed from those first shows to the last show you played? Has anything changed?
Everyone: There are some, there’s been a lot of places that, so many fewer, I think, like big places. Well, places that were important to us at the time. Like Hollywood Alley, which is gone. Trunk Space. The original, original Trunk Space. We played there a lot. Yeah. The second one, we didn’t play very much, but that first Trunk Space was just like Hollywood Alley. They were each, in their own way, a hub. Yeah. For everything. We never played at the original Modified, I don’t think. But our other bands did.

So you are starting out playing these shows with not a ton of social media, right?
Barthold: No, I think there was MySpace.

You guys had a MySpace page?
Everyone: (Laughter).

Do you think technology has changed anything about music scenes at all? 
Stern: Yeah. I think, don’t you guys think that? I mean, for one, that’s kind of the only way to, like, tell anybody about shows. If I didn’t have bands, I probably wouldn’t be on social media personally at this point. But I think now, sadly, the way of the, like, the days of awesome, like paper flyers with cool designs and handwritten stuff, it just, it doesn’t seem like it’s really a thing anymore. Which is a bummer.
Barthold: Well, we used to have this great promotion!
Stern: I want to say this on the record! This happened before I was in this band, and I’m probably gonna say that about a lot of things. It was great, including the name. The name existed before I was in the band.
Barthold: Was in this band, our first recordings as a duo. We used to, uh, burn CDs, and here’s what happened. We would try to give them to people, and no one would ever take them. Like, we’d go to Hollywood Alley. People wouldn’t take ’em then, or they would take ’em. But then we found one in the bathroom at Hollywood Alley. So we decided that every time we go to the bathroom, we’re gonna leave one in the bathroom. We’d sit there and watch people, and they’d walk out with them. They took them when they thought they were getting something that they shouldn’t have. Yeah. Because it was left there. They’d take it and look at it and want it. 
Hinz: It was like you had to make them think they got it because they wanted it. They found it, not because we were giving it to them. (Laughing)
Hinz: People always like it when they feel like they’re getting one over on somebody. 
Barthold: It never took long because it was like, oh, someone left this here. So obviously, people are really into stealing from other people.
Hinz: And burned CDs were like, you know, pretty popular back in the day.
Barthold: But at that time, too, that was like, like tough technology to come by, but Pete could do it at work. This was like before you could do any of that, just like at home or whatever.

What advice do you have for a kid in Phoenix who’s starting to play music right now?
Hinz: Put us on a show (laugh).
Stern: Yeah. We love all-ages shows. I would love to play more all-ages shows.
Hinz: I have no idea what advice I’d give, I mean, like, just have fun.
Barthold: Use the Dorian scale more.
Stern: Oh, Donald (Martinez) says, that’s what I do, and I was like the Dorian scale. Okay. I didn’t know what that was until he told me.
Barthold: Have fun and use the Dorian scale. 
Hinz: I mean, well, have some personality.
Stern: I see people online on like, so-called professional, you know, music forums and stuff where they’re talking about like how to promote on TikTok and how to promote on Instagram. I’m like, I have no idea how to do any of that stuff. 
Barthold: Which is the reason that we’re playing our 20th anniversary (laughs), and we’re still playing the same place. 
Hinz: We’ve historically been bad at promoting ourselves. We’re bad at remembering. We have merch, which is probably why we have so many things that we’ll be bringing to this show.

Have you ever sold anything at a show? 
Hinz: Yeah. A lot of times, it’s because someone will ask, ‘Do you have anything for sale?’
Barthold: If we remember to bring it, then we’ll sell it.

Have you ever considered setting up the merch table in a bathroom?
Stern: That might be a great idea, we will do it at this show!
Barthold: That way, they can take it and throw it right into the toilet. Yeah. (Laughter.)
Hinz: I wanna say that this whole conversation is how most things have happened in this band.  

So let’s talk about songwriting. How does it happen?
Barthold: I usually come up with all the ideas, and then I tell them what to say and what to play, and they do it. Reminding them, of course, to use the Dorian scale.
Hinz: Typically, the person who sings it brings it to practice, and we learn it.
Stern: Yeah. We show up with completed songs, and we have a motto: ‘No jamming here!’  ’cause I don’t jam. 

Does anybody have veto power in terms of lyrics? Or are there any lyrical topics that are off the table?
Barthold: My hearing is so bad that I can’t tell what the lyrics are anyway.

Do you ask to see them on paper prior to signing off on playing them?
Barthold: No. I play the drums. They are all mumbled anyway. Nobody knows what’s being said.
Hinz: Nobody cares.

Have you ever been shocked to learn the lyrics to one of your songs? 
Barthold: I don’t think I have.
Hinz: I mean, for me, the problem that I’m more like, I’m scared. What did I just write?
Stern: Well, I know there’s one song of mine where there’s a line that says ‘I am only a piece of,’ and Jeff thought it was, ‘I am holding a pizza.’ And so now, when we play that song, I say, ‘I am holding a pizza’ because it’s a much better lyric.
Barthold: Holding a pizza (laughs), I never knew what you were saying during that until just now. I really do think you were saying, ‘I’m holding a pizza.’

So if I ask what your song “Abracadaver” is about, you’d say?
Stern: No idea. No clue. There are only a couple of songs I have in this band that are about things. The song Linda is about Linda Goodman, the astrologer, about her book “Love Signs.”
Barthold: “Abracadaver” is about potatoes. 

You mentioned Mark Anderson. What has he meant to this band over the years?
Stern: Jeff is doing an impersonation. 

I believe his limbs are akimbo.
Hinz: He gets excited.
Stern: When he’s around, I mean, we are all older than him. Yeah. So we’re kind of like his parents. Okay. Kind of teaching him the way of the world (everybody laughs)
Barthold: Especially when we have to spank him. 

Would you consider him a hype man?
Stern: One million percent 
Barthold: He’s the Flavor Flav of JJCnV, and he doesn’t need the giant clock for attention.
Hinz: He does without.
Stern: He emanates that vibe. He, I mean, he’s just like an exuberant human, you know? And he’s so … his excitement is so genuine. Like, he’s not trying to be the center of attention. He’s not a hey-look-at-me kind of guy. He’s just excited, and he loves doing stuff with friends, and he loves doing stuff, you know, with people. It’s like, ‘Hey, I love what you’re doing, and I wanna be a part of it.’ And it’s just fun.

Over the twenty years that you all have been playing in Arizona, are there any local bands that you like?
Stern: There is a band called The Vinegar Sting that honestly was like my favorite band. That is a true statement.
Hinz: But then they got too esoteric and jazzy, and they kinda of lost their way. I mean, that happens to the best of us. (laughs).
Barthold: We hope they’ll find their way back.
Hinz: It became too much Sun Ra instead of This Heat for me. 

Okay, enough. Any other bands?
Everybody: Man, we played with so many bands. Ultra Maroon is a great band. We played with them a lot. All of Matt Spastic’s bands, as some of them were the first bands we played with. Too many to mention. Lenguas Largas, Websites or whatever John Polle, P-O-L-L-E, is involved in
Hinz: Whispering Wires, Gem Show.
Stern: We were fortunate to get to know John and become friends.
Hinz: WooGeez. I mean, who else? We’ve played with so many people that’s a really hard question. I don’t want to leave anybody out.

Have you guys ever been on a bill with any touring acts or anything around here?
Stern: Who? We played with Melt Banana. Um, which was really fun. That was like early on.
Hinz: With Heroine Sheiks was our first show.
Barthold: 20 years ago tomorrow was that show. Wow. And we got it because we knew (promoter) Fun Bobby, because we hung out at Hollywood Alley all the time. And we told him we had a band called Janis Joplin Crap and Vomit. And he laughs and goes, Hey, you guys wanna play with the Heroine Sheiks? You know, you know how it is. It’s that new band novelty.
Hinz: Yeah. New band Novelty. Yeah. You know, like after playing out for a couple of years, then they’re all like, ‘Oh, that band again.’

Do you think New Band Novelty should be an actual band name?
Stern: That band might get a lot of shows. NBN.  

So Pete. Is it true you also play in a band called Broken, but it’s spelled B-R-O-K-I-N, and you are the quintessential bro rock band?
Stern: Pete regularly comes up with different band names and stuff because Pete is a punster.

Very funny. If you had to change your band name tonight, what would you change it to?
Stern: Fake Captain.
Barthold: Jeff and the Jeffettes.
Stern: Why wouldn’t it be Jeff and the Jerks?
Hinz: It’s already been used.
Stern: Sauvignon Blanc is the name of my Lady Gaga cover band.

Do you guys have band plans for the future?
Barthold: I don’t know, we’ll play the show, and we’re gonna practice tomorrow. 
Hinz: I don’t know if we ever have like, band plans.
Barthold: You mean long-term goals? Nah, never. We were thinking at like 40 years. We’re gonna bring out the rest of those records. 
Hinz: Yeah, we’re gonna hold back some.
Stern: 2045. You’ve got to be there. It is gonna be crazy!