Milwaukee Orbit, Issue Nine - November 2000

Four Pitchers of Beer with the Mahogany Throttle
by Trent Hanson

For over a year now, The Mahogany Throttle has been making delightful and delicate instrumentals that combine artful timing and complex, dissonant melodies with solid rock n' roll grooves. Insiders sometimes refer to this as "Math Rock" but the "Throttle" are perhaps on a fringe of their own making. Guitarist David J. White, bassist Brent Budsberg, and drummer John Gleisner are not your typical rock musicians - they can drink dark beer like death metal dudes yet they're incredibly articulate and introspective like The Smiths. Brent has made a name for himself as an outstanding talent in the Milwaukee art scene (remember his mouse traps at the Factory Soirée?) Before Mahogany Throttle, David played guitar in Diesel Wrens and John played drums in the short lived band ghostmachine. When the three got together for the first time it all just clicked. 4 days later they were already playing their first show.

Trent Hanson: "For a lot of bands the music is the easy part - getting along with one another is the real challenge. Are there any tense moments in The Mahogany Throttle?"

David: "It starts out where before you get a feel for one another everything is very austere and you're just like 'this is neat - thank you for coming again.' By the tenth or twelfth practice you're like, 'holy shit! It's still happening and we're playing out.' Then all of a sudden at the siz-month mark that's when I say something - I pontificate or I invent some kind of unattainable reality or something. And all of a sudden it's like, 'Shut up, hump!'"

Brent: "Dave likes to stop in the middle of songs and invent things - huge monologues."

John: "As far as do we hate each other? - uh, it's more a case of we haven't reached like Aerosmithian or Pink Floydian proportions yet. There's a definite - it's a weird kind of brotherly vibe."

David: :It's nice to have that security of knowing that no matter what, there's a kind of telepathy. A glance or a gesture illicits the next movement in the song. That's priceless. It's the cameraderie that makes the shit happen."

TH: How is the Mahogany Throttle different from other local bands? What makes your music unique?

John: "I think there is an overwhelming weirdness to the music that really isn't quantifiable. I've tried dozens of times - from relatives of my girlfriend to friends of mine - to try and classify the music, to give it a reference and all I can say is that it's weird. It's unorthodox."

Brent: "It's experimental but it's still catchy rock n' roll."

David: "Not everybody is going to like instrumental music. Not everybody is gonna want to come and see things that are angular and bouncing off the walls and shifting time. But there are folks out there that are enthusiasts about that and there's a growing appreciation in the indie rock community to succeed."

TH: What would you do if you were the President?

Brent: "If I were the President the first thing I'd do is I would add one more day to the week so everyone could get their shit done."

David: "Would it be a week-end day?"

Brent: "Of course."

David: "If I were President, and uh, I'm gonna give a heady answer - I'd be encouraging the communities that had troubles in the past are given the aid and assistance to be on par with other communities - solidifying a local identity. In the last 30 years, it's been government and corporate interests locked together head to head. Support local growth and development. Oh yeah, I would definitely, definitely pull the U.S. out of places where it is not needed. The days of us being everywhere, up in everybody's business has to cease. Pulling back the whole police force of the world mentality."

John: "I'd actually take a stand on a couple of issues as opposed to avoiding well, capital punishment and abortions...I'd try to make myself enough of an individual that you wouldn't run into problems where 600 to 800 votes would decide an entire election... I'd also cause a reconciliation between the members of Motley Crüe."

TH: What have you drawn inspiration from lately?

Brent: "Musically I've been digging Don Caballero and the things Ian Williams does with his guitar...when I moved here three years ago the music scene seemed really dead to me. I've seen that steadily grow. I'm also involved in the art community and that has totally blossomed in the last few years."

David: "I've been inspired lately by the large number of groups that are playing out right now like Hero of 100 Fights, Murder in the Red Barn, The Danglers, and Camden. A lot of these people are on the circuit constantly playing and recording and touring. I'm kind of proud when people ask me 'What's going on in your scene?' And I can tell them that there's all these things happening. That inspires me to keep going. I've got to mention that I just got a Gibson SG [guitar] rewired with carbon electronics and stereo outs! Double the guitar pleasure, that inspires me."

John: "Playing with Murder in the Red Barn and The Danglers the other night was by far the most fun I've had at any of our shows. The things that those two bands are doing just floors me. Another thing that has inspired me has been the ability of individual expression on the internet to bring thousands of individual viewpoints into a public forum where people can get together and express free of any kind of censorship."

TH: What did you listen to in High School?

Brent: "Butt rock love ballads - that's what I was like in high school. I was really into Poison. The first album I bought when I moved to Wisconsin was Warrant Sweet Cherry Pie.

David: "When I was in 8th grade my next door neighbor introduced me to Led Zeppelin IV...The second I got my hand on Led Zeppelin I went to Radio Doctors with my mom and bought four Zeppelin albums from the cut-out bin that became my staple on into high school. Then I got into the Doors. I will admit this now and it will feel good - this is cathartic to get this off my chest - I was a teenage mutant Jim Morrison. I was sooo totally into Jim Morrison I even put it in my high school yearbook...I can't deny that I was into the mystique and the anti-establishment ethics of the 60's and 70's supergroups."

John: "Beginning of 7th grade I got into hip-hop. The first three tapes that I bought on my own were MC Hammer's Please Hammer don't hurt him, Digital Underground Sex Packets and Public Enemy Fear of a Black Planet. All through high school I was into hip-hop...In the middle of high school my sister introduced me to Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam got me into music with live drummers. After high school is when I underwent my musical genesis as a musician - I got every Floyd album, every Zeppelin album, I grew my hair out, stopped listening to hip-hop entirely and became a hesher. I thought I was a sensitive ponytail man."