Frankie Ennui Suburban Lawns
 When I first discovered your band I heard Talking Heads and Devo in your sound instantly. Is that the sort of thing you were listening to at the time?
Absolutely. I think several band members went and saw one of Devoâs earliest, if not their earliest, L.A. performance and came back raving about it. I am still the proud possessor of Devoâs first single, in the very cool cover it came in, Mongoloid backed with Jocko Homo. All of us were fans of the Talking Heads too, of course. Eno, Iggy Pop, Television, Richard Hell, and lots of other new wavers or punk rockers were also on my personal play list at the time
Which clubs did you play, and with which bands?
Well, we played all over the place here in the L.A. area. The Masque, The Whiskey a Go Go, The Hong Kong Cafe, Madame Wongâs (both of them), The Roxy, The Country Club, Club 88, the Cuckooâs Nest, etc. A lot of our early shows were thrown at our own studio in Long Beach. Weâd charge $1 for each band that was playing and usually had two guests bands. The ones I remember off hand were The Plugz, The Minutemen, The Brainiacs, The Alley Cats and The Suburbs (friends of Suâs from Minneapolis)
I think we played the Masque couple of times, with groups like The Bags. The first such gig might have been under the band name Art Attack or Fabulons (which we later changed to Suburban Lawns). On one of those occasions, The Ramones were in attendance and later that night we went and saw The Ramones at the Whiskey
We played with nearly all of the local groups in those early days. Beyond the groups already mentioned, we played with The Dickies, X, The Germs, Black Flag, Geza X, Human Hands, The Reactionaries, Fear, The Vandals and a ton of other local great bands
We played quite a few opening gigs for Oingo Boingo (including a show at the Whiskey when they were still the Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo). Danny Elfman was a big fan of Su Tissue. We also opened for Oingo Boingo at the John Anson Ford Theater and the Universal Studios Amphitheater and did at least a couple Halloween gigs with them at Cal Arts
Later, when we were with IRS Records, we opened for U2 at the Santa Monica Civic, opened for the Clash at the Sacramento Auditorium and played with other fairly big names like Siouxsie and the Banshees, 999 and Bow Wow Wow
What a unique vibe. All the bands were great. I think Vex (Billy) had some connection with Tex and her Horseheads for a while there. The OC scene was happening too, but the details, these many years later, escape me
And you played Magic Mountain..
Magic Mountain was probably our biggest (and best paying) headline gig. Great facility, loads of enthusiastic fans and we got to go to the front of any ride line that we liked
KROQ was a supporter of the band, and Rodney particularly, and you were on SNL. Did you think at that point you were going to have a career with SL?
Rodney and all the folks there at KROQ were great. Rodney loved Su too
Doing a video with director Jonathan Demme for Saturday Night Live was a real highlight. What a down to earth and nice guy Jonathan is. He later put one of my songs (with a band called Electric Sheep) in one of his movies, Something Wild (in which Su appeared)
Yeah, we had a recording contract on a label that had lots of top flight bands (the Go Gos, REM, etc.) and we were on T.V., we were making a little money and we were optimistic about the future butâŚ
How did the band write?
Initially, I weaseled my way into the group that eventually (after Su came on board) became the Suburban Lawns by jamming with the other guys and offering up some lyrics for some of their music. At first, most of the music was written by Billy (Vex Billingsgate) Ranson, our bass player (and also a singer) and John McBurney, our lead guitar player, and I would contribute lyrics. So, at least initially, John and or Billy would come up with a riff or two and I would then try to write lyrics to match. That was how Gidget Goes To Hell was written: Billy wrote those great riffs and I added the words. Su added her unique vocal styling. Other songs, like Janitor, were created when John and Billy came up with the music, I wrote most of the lyrics and then Su added the infamous âOh my genitals, Iâm a janitorâ tagline. Eventually, even Chuck âRoastâ Rodriguez, our drummer, started contributing music, as in Mom and Dad and God, where he wrote the music and I added the words. By the time we did the Baby EP, however, we were collaborating less. The best stuff, in my opinion, was created by way of our collaboration
Do you have any favourites? I really like Protection. And Not Allowed and Mom and Dad and God..
My favorites are probably Green Eyes and My Boyfriend, but I love them all. Protection is a favorite of mine too
You wrote the lyrics to Janitor after some conversation you overheard between Su and a friend, is that right?
No. Although on Wikipedia (and elsewhere) it has been written that I overheard a conversation between Su Tissue and Brian Smith where the âOh my genitals! Iâm a janitor!â originated and that such conversation inspired me to write the lyrics, that story is somewhat backwards. The music and all of the lyrics except âOh, my genitals! Iâm a janitor!â were already written when Su Tissue added those lyrics (which lyrics really made the song, in my opinion). For good or bad, Iâm generally pretty literal in my lyric writing (as opposed to poetical) and Iâm not shy about using bad puns
Su was definitely more of a poet than I have ever dreamed of being. The lyrics, except for Suâs contribution, are pretty straightforward science-nerd stuff about all things explosive. Suâs addition, whatever the source (and I have no reason to doubt what Brian Smith has apparently written about how Su came up with that addition), gave the song a poetical spin that added the dimension it needed to make it interesting. Thatâs exactly why, in my opinion, our best songs were those that were written collaboratively
Was the Baby EP the last thing you recorded together?
Sadly, yes
After SL split, you formed the Lawns. Was that going to be a direct continuation of SL, with new band members, or was there a change in musical direction?
Actually, I think (despite what you may have read on the Internet) that Vex (Billy) was not part of that effort. I think it was Chuck, John, a great (now deceased) friend named Tom Corey (of The Fibonaccis) and yours truly that tried to keep things going. Su and Vex went their own way. But it wasnât anywhere close to the same thing without them. That band, The Lawns, eventually fell apart and/or morphed into the Electric Sheep, where we had David Kendrick (from Sparks and later, Devo) drumming and a friend of mine named Gloria Dawson, singing. We were trying to get into more of a hybrid thing, mixing R&B with punk, but it didnât catch on for us
Do you think perhaps you were a couple years too early, and with MTV a household name you might have been bigger?
Probably. MTV was around (barely) and we made at least one video (Janitor) other than the video that was on SNL (Gidget), but it was tough to get airplay in those days. We began a video for Mom and Dad and God but it was never completed.
 The Tea Party. A fascinatingly ill-informed, emotionally-stunted and easily-led group of middle American folk. All supporting the very people who are destroying them. Talk about âasleep at the wheel.â Is America more divided now than you can ever remember?
Yes, unfortunately I think it is, although ironically it seems nearly certain that we are going to end up with two relatively moderate politicians running for the presidency in November, Obama and Romney. No thanks to the Tea Party, however. The âIâm willing to drive the country off a cliff unless I get my way on spending cuts, but donât tax the richâ attitude of the Tea Party People is disturbing and especially so where the economy is already a mess. Not that the U.S. Government doesnât waste a lot of money, however, because it does. Not sure how the U.S. became the worldâs policeman and why war seems to be the answer to every international dispute, but Iâm pretty sure it has a lot to do with money. We need, at least to some extent, to get the money out of our politics, but our Supreme Court apparently differs with me on that one
What you said about supporting the people who are destroying them is, in my opinion, accurate. Why so many in the middle class support low taxes on the wealthy is difficult to understand. Maybe its an aspirational thing. Its puzzling and frustrating
What did you do after music?
I worked in computers for a while and then went to grad school to become a teacher. I taught history and social studies at a high school in Santa Ana for about a week and half before quitting and going to work for an attorney friend as a receptionist. Eventually, I went to law school and have been an attorney here in Newport Beach for about the past 20 years
But I have never stopped playing music and writing songs. After Electric Sheep broke up, I started playing with some old friends from junior high school and am still playing with those guys (John Bitterly, Mark Handley and, later, Rick McDermott) to this day. Our band is called Johnny Mark and the Ricks (for obvious reasons). We play all originals. Our theory is that if we keep writing songs, eventually weâll come up with something good. One of our most recent songs is called ââT Party Peopleâ in which I attempt to channel James Brown and Sarah Palin at the same time. Itâs not easy. We can be checked out atjohnnymarkandthericks.com or on facebook, etc. Our next gig is on Cinco de Mayo, Saturday, May 5, 2012, at DiPiazzaâs in Long Beach at 8:00 p.m. Any encouragement received will be appreciated, but not necessarily good for us
My good friend, Billy (Vex), has, in recent years, been playing with former Suburban Lawns, John and Chuck. More about Billy and the others can be learned at www.myspace.com/pulsatormusic. Enjoy!
 You channel James Brown and Sarah Palin at the same time? Maybe something like: âYou can see Russia, hit me nah!⌠From my hou..houâŚhouse-ah! Good god, ainât it funky nah! YAAAAAAY!!â  I canât recommend the Suburban Lawns album highly enough; if youâre into art rock, and 80s New Wave, or if you like the B52s, Nina Hagen, Lene Lovich and/or the Flying Lizards, youâll probably love Suburban Lawns too
Thanks Frankie Â
