The Other is the sound of King Tuff escaping.
From what, though? The psychological trappings that come from touring for an inordinate amount of time? The expectation to play an on-stage persona that he himself cultivated but may not necessarily identify with anymore? The pressure to continue delivering on a certain genre of music for which you and your contemporaries are well-known?
Take your pick.
King Tuff's fifth album, and first on Sub Pop, represents a kind of sonic jailbreak. In it, he successfully upends his bag of musical tricks. Not an easy feat to pull off, especially when you've been honing that particular set of tricks for the past four albums. Impressively, you fall in love with the new sounds so quickly that you forget about the old ones. It doesn't hurt that the album is one of the most effortlessly confident, endlessly replayable things he's ever done. Yes, it's still loud and weird.
With a show at Barracuda coming on May 6th, we spoke with King Tuff (real name Kyle Thomas) about the first song he ever wrote, dancing with Sir Paul McCartney, seeing a sleeping Sasquatch and more.
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Do512: If everyone else disappeared from Earth, where would you live?
King Tuff: One of them frickin' Hobbit houses from the set in New Zealand. You can go to the village there, still. I could go back to the Shire, where I belong.
What's the worst party you’ve ever been to?
King Tuff: I don't think any party is bad. I think people coming together and celebrating life is always good... (laughs) Probably the worst one I can think of was this year's New Years; I had the flu and I was having a party in my bed.
What will you always order if you see it on a restaurant menu?
King Tuff: Probably a frickin' Crème brûlée, you know? That's my weakness: anything with a caramelized top. If you want something good, just fucking scorch some sugar on top of it. You could do that to anything.
Photo Credit: Olivia Bee
What was the first song you learned on guitar?
King Tuff: I never really learned cover songs on guitar. I just always made up my own songs. The first song I ever wrote was called, "Pickle Boy." That's my first song.
Is it autobiographical?
King Tuff: You could say so.
Can you give us a little sample?
King Tuff: (Sings)"I woke up one morning and I had a craving, for a big fat pickle that I was saving. I found it in it's hiding place behind my bed, the only way to see it was by standing on my head." Somebody gave me a little pickle pin after one of my shows the other day, and I said, "You have no idea what this means to me."
Describe your favorite shirt.
King Tuff: I've had a lot of favorite shirts over the years; shirts I've worn until they just became a hole. I had a Crass shirt that I wore for a long time that I can't wear anymore, so I want to get it framed. It basically is just a hole with fabric around it now. I recently got a new favorite jacket, which is kind of like a shirt. It's a big yellow jacket. I've never worn yellow before... It makes me feel alive! This one's mustard yellow, so it's bright, but not insane... It's insane.
Photo Credit: @sashaspielberg
What is your least favorite song from your favorite album?
King Tuff: I was thinking about this recently, and I was thinking about classic albums that have a song that's like really not good on 'em, but they're still classic. There are some classic examples, such as "A Man Needs a Maid" on Harvest. I really don't like "You're a Big Girl Now," which is on Blood on the Tracks. Also, "The Long and Winding Road." I don't know what it is about it. I fucking love The Beatles more than anything in my life, and that one has always been the one where I'm like "God DAMNIT!"
It's a little bit sappy.
King Tuff: Yeah. I love Paul, but he may have gone too far on that one.
Is Paul your favorite Beatle?
King Tuff: Oh, they're all my favorite. I danced with Paul the other day, though. I was at his daughter's fashion show, and he was there. It was extremely surreal. He was just dancing around in the crowd and I was dancing along with him to David Bowie's "Let's Dance," and he was singing along "Under this serious moonlight" and I was like "What is my life?" It didn't seem real.
What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done?
King Tuff: Probably moving away from my hometown. It was a huge thing for me, and I really didn't know where I would end up or what I was gonna do. It was like jumping into the void. I had no idea if it was going to work or anything. I didn't have any money and I just left, with a guitar. So, for me, it took a lot to do that.
What smell reminds you of your childhood?
King Tuff: Oh my God. There's a certain smell that I guess I haven't smelled in a really long time. It might sort of be the smell of fried dough and like, foods you would get at the fair. There was this really crazy flea market that we used to go to in New Jersey when I was a kid. It was a giant indoor flea market called U.S. One. It's actually in the movie Mallrats. There was a gravestone in the parking lot... It was a really weird place. But it always had this certain smell of fried carnival food. So if I ever smell something like that, it takes me back to that flea market.
Photo Credit: Olivia Bee
Back when you were younger, not thinking about diets and eating fried foods every day.
King Tuff: I mean, let's be real. I still do that. I eat ice cream pretty much every day of my life and cookies.
What is your most memorable animal encounter?
King Tuff: I tell you what, I had a rabid raccoon in my yard the other day. The motherfucker was up in a tree - middle of the day - having a standoff with a crow. The crow was squawking at it, and the goddamn thing looked like it was drunk, falling around in this tree. It kept almost falling out of the tree. My brother was standing down by the tree, and it spotted my brother and started running down the tree at him.
My brother quickly jumped into the house, and it ran right up to the glass door and was like, coming at him, drooling. Then the goddamn guy was laying on the porch licking his hands and being really weird - this is the middle of the day. I couldn't leave my house because he was on the porch, really freaky, walking in circles. A few days later I came home and he was dead in the yard.
Apparently, there's an epidemic of these so-called zombie raccoons right now. Maybe that's what your raccoon had.
King Tuff: Wouldn't surprise me. The dude was going nuts. There's a lot of them by my house. We have a compost pile, and it was basically just food for them and they were gettin' real fat. I was trying to get them as fat as I could. One time, one of them was just hanging on a fence, and I walked right up to it like "What're ya doin', bud?" and he was just sitting on the fence staring at me.
All the raccoons in Austin hang out at the dumpster by Joe's Crab Shack.
King Tuff: Maybe that's where you should hang out, too! They are cute as hell, though, aren't they?
Photo Credit: Subpop
Have you ever had a paranormal experience, or had something happen that you can't explain?
King Tuff: I did see a UFO once when I was a child. There's a big mountain in my town, in Vermont, that kind of overlooks the whole town. Me and my family noticed this really bright light above the mountain. It looked like a star, but we hadn't noticed it before. We were standing there looking at it for awhile, and eventually, my whole family went inside and I stayed out there just staring at it. It was just perfectly still and then in a flash, it just zoomed across the entire sky and disappeared. It was amazing. I remember we were driving in Albuquerque in the middle of the night and all of the sudden it looked like there were like, rainbow-colored lights flashing on either side of us. Just for a split second. One time I saw a bigfoot, lounging on the side of a river.
You saw a sasquatch?!
King Tuff: I saw a 'squatch loungin' by the side of a frickin' crick. We were driving and I looked at it, looked away, and then I looked back and it was a large hairy humanoid animal lounging! I looked over at Jake, my bass player who was driving, and he looked back at me and he was like "Yeah, I saw it too."
And, you know, Bigfoot exists as kind of interdimensional beings that can be invisible, which is why you don't see them all the time. They can cloak.
