Most No Echo readers should already be familiar with No For An Answer, the Orange County, California musical outfit that left its mark on the hardcore scene via their superb You Laugh EP (1988) and A Thought Crusade LP (1989). If you aren't, I'll point you to my in-depth interview with vocalist Dan O'Mahony where we covered their run together, as well as his other bands throughout the years, including Carry Nation.
Founded in 1985, Carry Nation preceeded the formation of No For An Answer, and also featured NFAA guitarist, Gavin Oglesby (Triggerman, The Killing Flame, Blood Days), along with drummer Steve Larson (Insted, A18, The Alligators) and bassist Big Frank Harrison (owner of Nemesis Records, and all-around California Hardcore legend).
Carry Nation reunited to record and release their Face the Nation EP in 1989, and played a slew of shows around that time. The musicians moved on after that into several bands throughout the decades.
These days, Dan is the host of Dan O Says So, a podcast where he's interviewed everyone from Tim Singer (Deadguy, Kiss It Goodbye) to Sam McPheeters (Born Against, Vermiform Records) to Scott McCloud (Girls Against Boys, Soulside).
Sadly, Big Frank passed away late last year, so a memorial show is happening June 22nd at the Garden Amp in Orange County with such heavy-hitters as T.S.O.L., Cro-Mags, D.I., Farside, Infest, and a reunion of Carry Nation. Proceeds will be donated to his daughter, Bella.
With the memorial show coming up later this month, Dan took some time out to talk to me about Carry Nation's history, Big Frank, and his evolving thoughts on hardcore bands reuniting. Special thanks to David Sine for scanning the live photos included in this piece.
Dan, when I interviewed you at your place back in 2017, you said this to me:
"The first band that actually ended up making music and had an identity that cropped up years later was in 1985. That was Carry Nation with Gavin Oglesby."
I start with this because I have never really been clear on the story behind Carry Nation since the band existed before No For An Answer.
Gavin and I were brought together by a mutual friend named John Bruce (later of Half Off and Haywire) and the three of us along with a college friend Jordan Arthur started a version of Carry Nation in early '85. That version was pretty short lived and was sort of replaced permanently late that year when Gavin and I somehow managed to wrangle a session with Big Frank Harrison on bass and Steve Larson from Insted on drums.
That second version was a massive sonic upgrade and while at the time it didn't move forward it made a strong enough impact on us that it was exciting to revisit that lineup after the break-up of NFAA.
Little known fact: for one night only, Dave Mello from Uniform Choice played second guitar in that late '85 lineup.
How would you describe the musical (and lyrical) differences between Carry Nation and No For An Answer?
While they do cover some important issues, some Carry Nation lyrics had a more tongue-in-cheek or provocateur angle as we sought to mock the growing so-called militant straight edge scene back east, which frankly, we saw as friggin' ridiculous.
Musically, you'd have to talk to Gavin as he went some really interesting places with the music, and also with Steve who I thought made some very bold choices with the drums.
Though you and Gavin remained playing together in No For An Answer, did you always have Carry Nation in the back of your mind as unfinished business, so to speak? Since I didn't get into hardcore til the late '80s, I only learned about CN til the EP came out. When you were touring, did people ask you about CN?
Not really, I remember initially just thinking that resurrecting Carry Nation as a side project that would serve as a less diplomatic kind of middle finger statement compared to NFAA just sounded fun. I mean we wrote the whole EP in one weekend. NFAA's only tour was in Europe and we played two or three Carry Nation songs so there was no real curiosity beyond that during that tour, but years later in Speak 714 people would ask me about it all the time.
It always surprises me how many people tell me it's the best thing I've ever been a part of because it was easy to create and disappeared as quickly as it returned. That said, I get one aspect of it, objectively Carry Nation is a much better record sonically than either NFAA release and our stage presence looked like a Jurassic Park dinosaur rumble, NFAA was a little more restrained.
What led to the recording of the 7" you released on Workshed? Were those all of the songs Carry Nation had in the bag, or did you have more that you decided not to cut? What do you remember about the recording session?
I kinda spoke to the motivation earlier. As far as the songs, they were all fresh 1989 creations as we were a bit more seasoned song writers by then. We wrote three more after the 7" was tracked and Frank had scored us some shows. I remember very little about the recording actually as it was just a fun, low pressure situation that nobody knew we were up to.
Carry Nation played some shows around the time of the 7" release. Why didn't you continue together and see where things went? Or was it always planned to do the shows to celebrate the EP and then call it a day?
That has always been a debated topic. I think for three of us, it was largely seen as short term or at least a side thing. To Frank it was a mission, and we benefited greatly from that. He had a unique level of pull and audacity that landed us in some great spaces early in our existence.
I remember getting that Carry Nation material on CD through Lost & Found, the notorious Euro label behind many bootlegged hardcore/punk records throughout the years. How did that deal go down? Weren't you initially going to do a No For An Answer with that label at some point?
Fuck Lost & Found, and by that I mean motherfuck Lost & Found. While on tour in Europe, we determined that they were behind multiple NFAA bootleg items. They contacted our Euro agency, M.A.D., about doing an EP of new material in connection with our tour.
We played along, negotiating an advance of some sort to cover the costs. We never did the record, we robbed the robbers and I'm beyond good with that. Their response was to openly bootleg the Carry Nation EP as a CD and write some liner gibberish about why. Thieves are gonna thieve. Did I mention fuck Lost & Found?
Tell me how this upcoming Carry Nation reunion came together. Before Frank passed, were there ever talks about playing together again?
There were absolutely none. This is an unpaid one off unless something bizarre happens. One time for the Big Man.
You're about to have the first Carry Nation practice in decades. Do you have any anxiety about playing together? I mean that both on a performing and emotional level.
Tons. Personally I've played two shows in the last 5 years. For Gavin it's been even longer. Similar for Steve, I suspect. I sing the songs everyday trying to tear up my throat but nothing replaces the real thing with the real band.
Emotionally, I think, it will feel strange not to have Frank there, this was his baby. My big hope is that we execute on a level that would make him proud and give those in attendance a chance to remember a special man and a special time.
In our aforementioned 2017 No Echo interview, you said the following about hardcore bands reuniting at the time:
"So I feel that the current-day obsession with retro in hardcore, and the willingness to for consumers to pay top dollar for book reports on our childhoods hampers our adulthoods. You don't demand that the blues musician remain a child, so why would we ask that of a hardcore musician? There's no other genre that thinks its just for kids, except pop. But I would rather rank hardcore alongside jazz, blues, and things like that."
Since you've since reunited with 411, and will be with Carry Nation soon, have your feelings on the subject softened or changed completely?
Softened, or at least become more complex. 411 in 2022 had a great deal to do with the political climate and I stand by it, in fact I wish we'd done more, particularly during the general election. With NFAA and CN reunions have been almost exclusively unpaid benefits which I'm fine with but I've gotta say, it's not attractive to me on a prolonged basis. That would kinda take the beauty out off it for me.
In terms of ethics and artistic value, I'm not as big a tight ass as I used to be about this topic, but I'd still say by and large, touring year after year after year on the same 2 dozen songs you wrote during the first Bush administration still draws a pretty standard gag reflex from me personally.
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The Big Frank memorial benefit show will go down on June 22nd at the Garden Amp in Garden Grove, California. Get tickets here.
The bands scheduled to appear:
- T.S.O.L
- Bonds of Friendship
- BOLD
- Carry Nation
- Cro-Mags
- D.I.
- Dr. Know
- Excel
- Farside
- Ice
- Infest
- Justice League
- Love Canal
- M.I.A.
- Stalag 13
- Underdog
- Vision
- Visual Discrimination
- Yuckmouth
Tagged: 411, carry nation, no for an answer, shiners club, speak 714
