Chicago Surf Rock: An Interview with The Bingers
Talking with the DIY band about their long-awaited LP “Stay Satisfied” on Tall Pat Records, getting their songs in commercials & more
by Katie Ingegneri
Welcome to Chicago, surf-rock capital of the USA…maybe. At least if The Bingers have something to do with it.
However, The Bingers aren’t just “surf-rock,” straight nostalgia rip-offs (although that is part of the vibe, and certainly not unwelcome). They combine it with indie rock and punk influences for a sound and style that keeps you on your toes through their recordings and high-energy live shows, hearkening back to the good ol’ days of rock n roll but living vivaciously in the 21st century. After years of great EPs, they’re finally pulling the trigger on releasing a full-length LP, “Stay Satisfied,” through the esteemed Chicago DIY label Tall Pat Records. (Oh and it’s pronounced like “bing-ers,” not the “binge-rs.” It’s an old-school stoner term that means bong rip! How can you not love them?)
The Bingers were one of the first Logan Square-oriented “garage rock” bands that I experienced in the DIY scene here in early 2015, seeing them for the first time in the basement of now-defunct home venue Dandelion, and I’ve been coming to many of their shows ever since. I was excited to finally sit down for Houseshow with brothers Ronnie and Teddy Appert, two-thirds of the group that also includes Jack Callahan. They all take turns switching off on guitars, drums and lead vocals, something you don’t see in many bands these days (the only one coming to mind for me are the brothers of The Lemon Twigs, Michael and Brian D’Addario).
Back in 2015 I initially thought for some reason that Ronnie and Teddy were twins, cause they look similar and different enough for that to seem plausible, but no, they are just regular bros, originally from about 25 miles outside Chicago, along with Jack, who they’ve been playing music with since they were teens. Now as “grownups” with real jobs and a house, they’re based slightly north of Logan Square and play shows in the city often.
Ronnie and Teddy and I had a drink at Longman & Eagle’s OSB. Like anywhere in Logan Square, you usually see someone you know, and in our case it was their label proprietor, Tall Pat Sullivan, who was around to chaperone his band during this chat with a cutthroat media type such as myself.
We discussed some of their history as a band, their DIY approach to recording by doing most of the work in their own home and outsourcing to friends, and most notably, we talked about how their music has ended up in various commercials and films, including a Veuve Clicquot champagne ad, the James Franco film “The Adderall Diaries,” and perhaps most exciting (and this is coming from not a sports fan), Gatorade’s recent Chicago-pride ad celebrating the Cubs. Even though I work in advertising as my day job, I never really knew how getting music in ads worked, and it was really interesting to me to learn more about how they ended up in these spots as a band with a DIY approach.
Their record release party is on 4/20 at the Empty Bottle, a “joint release” (get it??) with Peach Fuzz’s new EP, plus Glyders. The Bingers said they have “liquid lights” on hand to enhance the party vibes — it’s gonna be a fun Chicago music night at the Bottle for sure. You can pick up a copy of “Stay Satisfied” at the Bottle show and it’s released officially on April 21. Read on for more of our conversation!
Katie Ingegneri: This is your first full-length, right? I guess I didn’t even process that it was the first.
The Bingers: Yeah, it’s kinda wild. Cause we have so many songs looking back on it, but they’ve all been on tiny EPs, like 3-song EPs —
Are any of the songs ones you put on your EPs, or are they all new?
These are all new. After this we’ll probably be done, so we’ll have this record, and another record that’s in progress of songs we started with this record and finishing them up, and probably do a greatest hits record.
So did you record them yourselves?
Yeah, we mostly always have, but this time, Ted got functioning gear which he can talk about…Our friend Shimby [McCreery] introduced us to Tall Pat, who met him through Chris [Kramer], from Slushy. I was looking for a tape machine, a reel-to-reel, and he had one that was like totally mint condition, so I ended up hiring him before he moved to Atlanta and then that’s what we used to record.
Just at your house or whatever?
Yeah, basement. It was the first time we recorded with Josh [Condon], from Glyders, at his old practice space — that was our last EP which Dumpster Tapes split with Bleach Party. This time, we had an 8-track, half-inch tape, reel-to-reel.
So you just have a studio set up?
Yeah, it’s cool that we can just walk down there and start recording if we want to. And usually it’s set up for practices, and we don’t have mics set up, but when we go to into recording mode we’ll kinda position stuff and it works out. I guess it’s a subjective thing, but it doesn’t really sound that bad, for being in a basement. [laughs]
Totally — and then did someone master it?
Yeah, usually Shimby — like from the start, even the stuff we put out ourselves, we did most of the recording, and then we met him when we were doing our first stuff, so Shimby has pretty much mastered everything.
That’s cool. So how long did it take you to record this new album?
Oh man, see the downside to that chill, cool approach is that it takes like two years. [laughs] No, but really, it was well over a year — we joked in 2015, is when we started recording this? Winter of 2016, and we were hoping for a spring release in 2016, and we finished recording in springtime, I wanna say March or April. But it was from then until now, so about a year — of the art, the mixing, everything. It’s like we have 3 heads. Part of it is our fault too, but then like working with friends, and there’s so many emails back and forth, like “oh dude, I totally forgot about that!”
Yeah, it happens. DIY. Comes together eventually. Yeah I mean, I first saw you guys almost 2 years ago, at Dandelion.
That was a really fun show. That was a great show.
Yeah that was like, May 2015, I wanna say. That was just when I was discovering the scene. I miss all the house venues. Hopefully the show I’m doing at Cole’s [that the Bingers are playing at!], will be a like houseshow at Cole’s.
Bring in some dining room furniture inside Cole’s, and breakable shit, put some of your parents’ artwork on the walls.
And like, drag in a couch that people can step on, it’ll be good.
Who did the artwork and stuff for the new album?
Our friend Ben, who Ted went to school with, he was into the idea of helping us and he’s done a lot of our stuff, and he did this stuff too. B-sides, most of our flyers, besides the last EP, Joe Schorgl from The Sueves did that…but yeah, our friend Ben has done most of our artwork, which is cool, to keep it cohesive. We are creative musically, but none of us are visually or illustrators at all, but we all have great ideas and it gets really hard trying to agree and explain to each other.
And then Jesse Fox actually took the picture on the cover of us sitting outside. That was a fun day, we played a show with [Jesse’s Cincinnati-based band] Slippery Lips and Flesh Panthers, and she took pictures at Tastee Freeze. Ben did all the artwork behind it.
Yeah, Jesse’s awesome. I used her for an article, she does good stuff. They should come back here, that was a fun show. Are all your songs originals — I know you do some kind of cover stuff…
Yeah, these are all original. The last one is basically a ripoff of “Sleepwalking,” but different lyrics — I mean, a riff is a riff. We did a covers cassette tape with Dumpster Tapes. That was fun, we did like 14 cover songs, super quick, recorded on a four-track.
What I like about your sound is that it’s so retro in some ways, like throwback, but also original obviously. Did you always play music before you got the band together?
Teddy: I was in a band in like seventh grade, like a punk band through high school, and Ronnie and Jack also played music together. When we found ourselves in the city again we were like “let’s all live together” and start a band together.
Our first show was at Poncho’s…which is now Quencher’s. No no, Township. But it was called Poncho’s at the time, and this kid I went to school with asked if we wanted to play a show, and we didn’t have any songs. “We have like 20 days, we need at least six songs, come on.”
So then you all just write the songs together?
There’s a few songs, like “Land Lobster” was one of those songs, like the first song we ever wrote. It was like a cheesy blues riff and then we just started doing a Beach Boys vocal thing over it and each wrote a verse and sing a verse. But a lot of stuff we write separately and then we’ll come together — someone will have something brewing in their head, whether it be just like, a rhythm guitar, or some cool riff, or even a lyric line, we’ll bring it to the table at practice. For the song structure, we’ll all throw our heads in, and the person who brought that idea to the table will write the lyrics for that song. Unless, there’ve been plenty of times where it’s like “I’m having trouble writing lyrics to this one, let’s all sit down.”
Cause you guys also trade off with drums, and guitar and stuff.
Yeah, that kinda happens cause we each play guitar, that’s how we write, like singing and playing guitar, so whoever gets the idea for the riff or the melody or the lyric line in their head, they’ll present that to the rest of the band and the other two other guys will be like, “I’ve got a cool drumbeat,” “I’ve got a rhythm part,” and it just kind of evolves.
So now you’ve made it this far…
Yeah, it’s been surprising. We haven’t had many goals as a band, and we’ve like, exceeded every one…we’re still relatively young, you know. I guess we could tour more, but it’s like, we have a house, full-time jobs, and whatever. We’ll see.
It’s nice to have a creative outlet in your life.
Ronnie: I would not be able to work my job without music.
Teddy: If I came home from work and did nothing, fell asleep on the couch, it would just be awful…But I need work, my job, cause to support yourself fully as a musician is not going to happen either, unless you totally luck out.
You guys did have some of your songs in those movies, and ads and stuff…
Teddy: Yeah that goes back to the things we never expected, ever. Like “Land Lobster,” the first song we ever wrote, has been a work horse, and every now and then we’ll hear “so and so wants to use ‘Land Lobster,’” and we’re like shit, why not. That’s why I bought the tape machine, to record, and it’s what funds a lot of the shit we do.
Ronnie: It’s cool and hilarious that it’s fucking “Land Lobster,” like you said, that song is a work horse and it’s paying for shit, so it’s like alright, I’ll take it.
It was the ad, and the James Franco movie…
That one was “Cheetah High Heels,” which was another one of the first songs we wrote. “Sizzler,” was in another online commercial.
So how does that happen, do you just like send it to like, a company?
Teddy: When The Bingers first started I was playing with my friend’s band, Pink Frost, and they turned me on to a licensing company that used to be based in Chicago but now are LA. They’re called Ghost Town. They’ve got friends in the ad world and the film/TV world.
So you send them yourself and they put them in a library or something?
Yeah and if the right thing comes along, they’ll pitch it out and see if it works or not. We found that it’s very wild wild West when it comes to like, what you’re gonna get and what they’re gonna offer. Especially now, it’s so saturated. “Land Lobster” is not by any means great-sounding, recording-wise, it doesn’t sound great. So if that doesn’t work, there’s another kid in his bedroom who recorded another song just like it and he’ll take a hundred bucks, you know?
I remember the champagne ad.
Yeah, that was surprising. [laughs] Like champagne, really? It was a cool one though, like when we were out, “I’m gonna grab a bottle of that champagne!” And it was like 60 bucks. We wanted to celebrate, but it was like “nah, just gonna get the cheap stuff.”
Did that Franco movie ever come out?
Teddy: It did, and it got like awful reviews, terrible, but bad to be proud of reviews. [laughs]
Ronnie: And I will tell you though, I’ve seen so many bad movies, I watch a lot of movies and a lot of bad ones, and that was not a bad movie. It was decent.
Teddy: We all watched it together, like “I wonder when the song’s gonna be on,” like what part of the movie and it’s literally like the first fuckin’ three minutes of the movie, the song’s playing, and after that I just fell asleep. [laughs] I haven’t even seen the whole thing.
Well maybe there’ll be more with the new album, you never know. You’re probably one of the only bands I know in the scene who’s gotten music like that…
That kind of exposure, yeah. Yeah it’s weird, we see who they represent on their website and it’s like “oh man, I know like all these bands, that’s cool,” but there’s so many things and Internet ads that you never knew existed.
That’s good for you guys. Although I guess the thing about ads, they don’t usually say who the band is.
True. Sometimes, we can add that to a contract, like yeah they can use it if they give us a little credit or something. There’s room for negotiation. And we still don’t really know what we’re doing, so if and when we get an email, we’re like “is that fair? Do we agree to that?” Like you said, it’s cool to just be in it and learn about that stuff.
Is there anything else you wanted to talk about with the new record?
It’s really good. The release show should be a good time. Check it out, bunch of bangers on it — summer jams. We always wanted to release a record in the spring, for all the years we’ve been a band, and it’s never worked out. This one finally worked out. And 420 is fitting, very fitting. Full circle. It took 5 years to get it right, but we did.
[Tall Pat comes over to our table]
Pat Sullivan: What’ve you guys been talking about? What can I add to the conversation?
How long have you known these guys?
It’s my wife Dana who was like “this is the greatest band in the entire world.” Your seven-inch was one of the first ones that she was like, “yeah, I have a say in this, cause we’re spending our money on it and I want some input,” and right off the bat The Bingers was the thing she wanted to do, more than anybody else. I think the first time I saw you, she dragged me to see you guys opening for Jaill at the Beat Kitchen.
The Bingers: Oh yeah, with Slushy. That was a great show.
That was a really great show. That was the first time I saw you guys, it was tremendous.
We wore suits that night. People went nuts. That was a wild show.
It was like five, six rows of all women just losing their shit.
[laughs] It’s cause we had suits on.
It was just like “which ones are they dating, they can’t all…” It was pretty incredible…It’s been fun to watch you guys grow as artists. The record’s the perfect distillation of where you guys are at now, and where your sound has always been heading towards.
Check out The Bingers at Soundcloud and Bandcamp and pick up a copy of their new record at your favorite local record store!
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