Interview: Baked, Bueno, and Thatcher

Photo by Noah Mertz

Two NYC bands, Brooklyn's Baked and Staten Island's Bueno, hit up Eclectic last night to play the first rock show of the year. These alliterative indie-rockers have been touring around the Midwest and Northeast together, playing 10 shows in the last 11 days.  New and old friendships and family relations tie Baked and Bueno together into an exceptionally goofy, laid-back group of guys. Headlining the show was Wesleyan's own post-punk group Thatcher (Chris Gortmaker '17, Jesse Cohen '17, Ryan Breen '17, Alex Lee '17), who just dropped their debut EP. Thatcher's Chris and Zander Porter of Aural Wes swooped in for a quick interview with the bands before the show.

What was a great concert you went to?

Baked: Yo La Tengo at the Town Hall. That was unbelievable. They were their own opener, played a kind of quiet set, left for like 15 minutes, came back and shredded for over two hours and we had a bunch of weed cookies. We were in the sixth row; it was a sit-down venue. And yeah, I forgot, I just saw Eminem. That wasn't really amazing, but for me it was really awesome, because... I really love Eminem.

Bueno: We went to Bad Religion and Blink together. That's actually a really great story. My dad drove us all the way out there. He got super shit-faced and my dad put him in the trunk of his truck. He was like, "Mike, just get in the back, lay down. No one can see you right now. You're shitfaced." We were 14 or 15. My dad just stayed there, sat on top of the trunk of the Tahoe the whole time and watched the concert from out there. Bad Religion, Blink 182... Yeah.

Thatcher: We all saw Wreck and Reference, Pallbearer, and Deafheaven in Boston together the weekend we were recording the EP. It was fuckin' rad. Crazy frontmen. Angry frontmen. Lots of testosterone, but also a lot of tight pants and heavy-framed glasses. A lot of constriction.

Who is your favorite baseball player of all time?

Baked: When I was kid, my hero was David Cone. Being from New York, and then he threw that no-hitter and a perfect game in the same season. I think when I was like eight years old I was David Cone for Halloween. I had a jersey... a bat and a hat. It was a pretty half-assed costume.

Bueno: Anyone from the Yankees.

Thatcher: Anyone who did steroids. No. Nomar. Just Nomar.

What is your most hated insect?

Baked: Let's go to Isabella on this one. The other day I saw her, there was this, like, butterfly flying towards us. Just a nice little butterfly and we were outside a coffeeshop and she was like, "Nope!" And, when we killed the bee on Mikey's hat. So Mikey from Bueno, a bee landed on his hat. We were smacking him and Mike DB was like smacking him the bug repellent and I was hitting him with my hat...

Bueno: Bees. One time, when I was, a kid a bee stung me on the tongue. I had to go the hospital and everything. I was eating a ring-pop, you know, and a bee comes and flies inside my mouth. It bit me and then fell out of my mouth onto the table right in front of me.

Thatcher: Aw dude, on a related note, one time I tried to buy a VHS copy of A Bug's Life and accidentally bought a copy of Ants, the shittier Dreamworks knock-off. So every character in that film.

What would your ringtone be if only you could hear it?

Baked: My ringtone was the SpongeBob ending credits for a very long time. "Bah-buh-bum-bah-bumm!" I still think about it sometimes.

Bueno: I dunno, probably the same one I have now. I wear my ringtone on my sleeve.

Thatcher: Probably... fart noises. Maybe... something very intimate. I would say, some kind of PC music. Or Gwen Stefani. Some deep cuts of Gwen Stefani.

What is the color of sex?

Baked: I think it would be many, many colors. Have you ever taken LCD? 

Bueno: Definitely purple. With a little bit of white in it. Oh, definitely red, white, and blue, like America. Fucking America.

Thatcher: A throbbing purple. Or brown and orange. Or, no... that doesn't really bode well.

There’s a certain feeling that must go alongside the “release" of something, especially for the first time. What was most exciting, or worrisome, about your first “release”?

Baked: Some of these songs RJ and I have been working on for bands before this band, so this is kind of a culmination of 7 years of working together. I wrote some of this shit in '08 and it took a long time for it to come to fruition. And to see people into it and it workin' out and then we start putting out singles. And settling into a lineup... we've had this lineup for about two years, and this is it, this is the one. 

Bueno: The release of something? You mean like, poop? Is that the question? We are coming out with a new album in November.

Thatcher: This question... Is this intentional? Did you even think of... My first release was probably accidental. What was most exciting, or worrisome? That there was something coming out of my...

Listen to new releases by Baked, Bueno, and Thatcher below.