As one of my favourite underground Washington DC bands from the early ’90s, Bluetip were on the same label as indie champs – Fugazi. Their music consisted of shoebox angular recordings that often veered towards the oblique, with a strange sense of urgent heaviness mixed with a dash of emo tinged fuzzed up scuzz. Suffice to say, when Bluetip decided to reform for a handful of dates around the UK in September 2008, I just couldn’t bear the thought of not interviewing my favourite other Dischord band.
Can you please tell us as to what the inspiration was for calling the band Bluetip and how did the band form? Who were the key members and what roles did they play within the band?
I wanted to call the band “The Ohio Blue tip” because I liked strike anywhere matches. I liked to play with them. I would try to figure out new tricky ways to light the matches, the best of which was to strike it on my teeth using only my lips and tongue; no hands. I was successful only a few times; a majority of my attempts ending with a soggy match and/or a burnt tongue. I used to put them in my mouth like toothpicks because i thought it was cool. I stopped chewing on the matches when I started getting sore throats because sore throats aren’t cool. Anyway… ...