New Jersey’s punk rock scene has always been filled with wildly talented bands, a strong communal DIY spirit, and a ton of fun. Call it age bias, but the mid-to-late ’90s scene was particularly great. Listening to bands on 89.5 WSOU, or fourth generation dubbed cassette tapes was the norm, and it inspired so many to pick up a skateboard, or a guitar, or just turn up the volume on their Walkman.
One of the bands that absolutely killed it in the ’90s New Jersey punk scene was Lanemeyer. The band, named after an iconic John Cusack character, tore it up from 1997 to roughly 2001, producing numerous records, and even gave a pre-Gaslight Anthem Brian Fallon one of his first touring opportunities.
This weekend, Lanemeyer returns to the stage to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of their record Stories on the Big Screen. They do this by performing at Debonair Music Hall (formerly Mexicali Blues) in Teaneck, NJ with fellow scenesters Humble Beginnings, and the band Jettison.
Fittingly, the band is being promoted by another staple of the ’90s Jersey punk scene — the Bergenfields Girls — a collection of three friends (from Bergenfield, NJ obviously) who promoted tons of punk shows throughout North New Jersey.
Recently we caught up with Mike Doyle of Lanemeyer to discuss their record Stories on the Big Screen turing 20, the reunion show, his podcast about the scene, and Brian Fallon’s time in the band.
It’s the 20th anniversary of your first record, Stories on the Big Screen. With two decades past, how do you view this record now from both a musical and emotional standpoint as opposed to when it first dropped?
I think musically you can hear that it was the beginning of three young guys finding their style. There’s nothing flashy about what we were playing, but there’s something to the lyrics and melody that make the record stand out. My two songs were the first songs I had ever written and I’m still proud of them. Granted they’re super basic but “Fuck You and Your Boyfriend” is still pretty catchy to this day.
As far as Chris [Barker’s] songs, he definitely wrote the two hits on that album (“Me and You on the Big Screen,” and “What A Shitty Summer”). The melody and lyrics of those two songs are so good. Even as a 39 year old, you can relate to loving or have loved someone so much that you hope everyone they meet is as good to them as you would be.
Emotionally, it’s like a time capsule for me because I can remember what I was feeling when I wrote my two songs on the EP. I was 18, in love, and excited to get the fuck out of New Jersey and be free. There’s a sadness to it as well because that dude had so much faith in just wanting to be in a loving relationship. A piece of that has kind of left me in the past 20 years but it’s nice to know deep down I once felt it.
I’m not sure what Chris feels but I hope he’s damn proud of his four songs because they’re so fucking good and I get chills when I hear them.
The album was re-released on green vinyl on Rob Hitt from Midtown‘s label, I Surrender Records. How’d it feel to see your first record out on vinyl?
It’s so fucking awesome. We literally just did this to have vinyl. The fact that it’s green and has an etching on one side that says “GOD I MISS YOU GOD I MISS THIS PLACE” is pretty epic. I’m also excited because I got to design the whole thing except for the cover since it’s the original artwork from the EP.
AND, Rob Hitt is basically one of the nicest fucking dudes I’ve ever met. And I’m not saying that to kiss his ass. Anytime I get on the phone with Rob to discuss the release, I make a mental note that I have to carve out at least 30 minutes because the two of us just geek out on music.
How do you feel about dusting off all these songs for a live audience 20 years later?
We had our first practice on Monday just a few hours after I landed in Newark. It was the first time Sean [Smith], Chris [Barker], Casey [Lee Morgan] and I were in a room as Lanemeyer playing these songs since 2000. The first two songs of the set were a little rusty but after that, it was like the four of us were standing in this ball of energy. I literally had chills and had to stop myself from jumping around. It just feels so right. Not that we’re going to revitalize the band and tour but anyone who will be at the show on Saturday is going to see what I mean.
You created a podcast called This Was the Scene. Can you talk about the punk scene in NJ 20 years ago, and why it inspired you to create a podcast about it?
There are times in our lives that I consider milestones. These are moments when something you were searching for finally shows up and says, “Here you go!” All through high school, I was searching for a place where I belonged and that ended up being the NJ punk scene.
There’s was just something magical about going to a random Elks Lodge, church, or kid’s backyard just to watch bands and be surrounded by people that were just like you. It was such an exciting time. All of us were into the same music, a lot of us had just got our license, wanted to get the fuck out of our town, and Jersey was so small that all shows were 30-40 minutes away from where we all lived. It was kind of the perfect storm.
This helped define who I’ve become in my life and I’ve always wanted to make a documentary about it. I was inspired years ago after watching Kid Dynamite’s Four Years in One Gulp and thought that documenting the New Jersey scene would be fun. Then I realized I didn’t have that much time or money to make this happen.
Luckily, last year I did 20 episodes of a podcast about business because I wanted to create a way to market my animation company. This helped me figure out all the ins and outs of a podcast but I hated the topic I was doing because it was completely contrived. Then one day last November I got fed up with my business and decided I wanted to spend time on something I loved. That’s when the idea for This Was The Scene was born.
Some people might not know that the band is named after a John Cusack character — can you talk about the impetus of the band’s name?
The initial band name was Congress of Cow which was left over from Chris and my first band. We kicked out our guitarist and our drummer quit so we needed to replace them. That’s when we found Sean Smith and Alan Rappaport.
We played a few shows under that name but Sean and Alan wanted to make it their band as well so we started thinking of new names. I was visiting my Dad in Austin at the time and got a call from Chris saying Alan thought of the name. He was watching Better Off Dead and realized that Cusack’s character’s name was pretty catchy. We could just take Lane Meyer and combine it into one word. So that’s where we got Lanemeyer.
I love the name because I think it works with the style of songs we played. There’s something fun about the way it sounds but it also has an element of not being taken too seriously which embodied who we were.
Also, some might not know (well at least Wikipedia said this) that a young Brian Fallon was a part of Lanemeyer. Can you talk about his involvement in the band?
Chris left the band after our seventh tour. He and Sean were not getting along at all and my relationship with him was also dwindling. This was obviously an issue because he was the main singer/songwriter even though I had a few songs on both albums. Casey, Sean and I decided that we wanted to keep going so Sean started reaching out to people to play guitar since I was going to take over singing full-time.
He ended up connecting with this Hot Water Music sounding singer named Brian who had just left his band Surrogate McKenzie. The first time I ever met him was at the Garden State Plaza. The three of us were sitting on a ledge of one the water fountains waiting to meet him and he crept up behind me on the ledge and was like, “I hear you guys are looking for a guitar player.”
That summer, he was definitely a good fit until we went on the two-month tour with the Lawrence Arms that Sean booked (laughs). I believe that was the first tour Brian had been on and it was our 8th. When you don’t have any label support and you’re two bands that no one really knows it makes 60 days on the road super fucking difficult. I mean, Sean and I were pretty intense about the band and I think Brian felt that. Plus, he was always writing songs and really wanted to be a front man which I totally get.
I liked his song, “Alarm,” and our cover of “Somebody To Shove” which he sang was awesome. But we got back from that tour and it only took a few months for him to realize it wasn’t for him. I was pretty pissed when he left because I couldn’t deal with finding another guitarist so I decided to quit as well. But after a few months I didn’t care and never held a grudge because there’s was no reason to.
Years later when Gaslight Anthem started to take off I was super fucking happy for him. It’s always funny when I’m out and hear them playing in the background of a bar or wherever. I always want to tell people, “That dude used to be in my band” (laughs).
Any thoughts about maybe performing with Lanemeyer a little more regularly, or is this a special one time only show?
I would if I lived in Jersey but I think the show is going to be it. I would, however, be down to write a new song or two and get them recorded somehow if we could all do that remotely.
Can you talk about Humble Beginnings and Jettison the two bands also on the show? Any fun stories of sharing a stage with either band? What do you dig about these bands?
We’ve known all of the guys in Jettison since we played in Lanemeyer and they’re awesome dudes. Humble was a band we played with A LOT 20 years ago and even did a tour with them. As far as funny stories, there honestly wasn’t anything crazy that ever happened which would be worthy of reading about. We were just eight funny dudes doing random stupid things. I wish I could say we burned a hotel down or something but we were too lame for that haha.
The thing I dig about these bands is that all of us want to play this show and we’re all stoked to be doing it together. Just to be able to relive that feeling we all had back in the day is pretty amazing. I can’t fucking wait.
