dan monick

The Sharp Ease started in 2001 and released their semi-final and best yet record Remain Instant last year. They play their final show this Saturday and they will be missed for as long as they are remembered. They meet for beers at the Little Joy. Guitarist Aaron Friscia and bassist Dana Barenfeld could not be present.

What was the very first Sharp Ease show?
Paloma Parfrey (vocals): Dana and I played a puppet show. They were hand puppets. I had been doing poetry work with an arts collective called Trade City and when I started playing music again, we got asked to basically make up a puppet-y song—they wanted a cover but we came up with our own song called “Puppet Song.” It was all about being a puppet and how sad it was: “Do you think you know what it means to be a puppet? Let me tell you a thing or two—stuff it! I remember when I got my first hand! Then you turned me into a dirty sock—that’s all I got!” That was the first show as the Sharp Ease.
And you went on to perform with human beings.
P: And a year later we had our permanent drummer Christene.
How is L.A. different now than when you started?
Christene Kings (drums): It’s more political. It seems like kids are trying to incorporate that more into what they’re doing—the types of benefits that they’re trying to put together and the imagery that goes along with flyering and postering. The things that are their identity! We got a little email from a kid on Myspace—a girl—who emailed us about our last show like “I can’t believe you’re breaking up! I remember your first show at the Smell—at the time I didn’t play music but I was totally inspired and now I play drums and I’ve been in two bands and I’m going to your show! You’re the reason I started playing music—thank you for making great music!” And I was like—whoa! That’s good!
Are you leaving L.A. in better shape than you found it?
C: I think so. I think it was in pretty good shape but I don’t know—when we came out and started doing our thing, we were definitely bringing a lot more melodic pop element, and we weren’t afraid to be like soft and be pretty—really just be ourselves! We weren’t like contrived or trying to emulate something—Paloma wrote what she felt. She took everything going on around her and purged it through her performance, and each individual person in the band played how they felt. It wasn’t like—we gotta be the next Slits! Everyone was very happy to be ourselves. I think that’s nice. Sincerity—maybe some people don’t like that—but it’s what we have.
Is Remain Instant a good capstone to the Sharp Ease discography?
P: No, we put out Falling Together—the last one—that’s why we did the tour! It was the first time we recorded without Rod [Cervera]—it was with our friend Darren [Boling].
C: Darren really captured the raw essence of what we are.
What is the raw essence of the Sharp Ease?
C: We talked about this on tour. Paloma, you were saying you were tired of music and bands that had some crazy identity—all the mystery—you just wanted to come clean and come forth! Why can’t people be what they are instead of having a veil? They’re hiding because there’s nothing there. I always felt we were a band—a unit of people working together making music we all feel completely behind. And we all felt we had a really cool leader—I’m not saying the band is based around Paloma. It isn’t by any means.
P: I’m so not a dictator! I should be more!
C: Can you put D-I-C-K-tator? She’s almost a little pied piper—everyone is charmed by her poetic skills.
P: I talked you into being in a crazy band. “Join the gang! Spend lots of money! Don’t get any of it back!”
C: The way she spoke to us lyrically was so—
Anika Stephen (saxophone): Enchanting?
C: And enticing and she was able to capture a lot of the mood—what’s going on socially and politically—and I still feel very proud to be part of it. It’s like a historical timeline.
What are you most proud of? You’re allowed to puff up a little for the last show.
C: Paloma, you’re good at that.
P: Honestly, there’s so much—after making Remain Instant I could die happy. I know I could die leaving something behind. I remember when you came to my birthday and I was like, “I thought I would have a book done at 20!” I was really sad. I thought I would have had so much more done—“I thought I would have a novel by now!” But I don’t know. I definitely haven’t written a novel, but finishing Remain Instant—I definitely did it. I can leave knowing I left something. I feel like I’ve entered being an adult.
Who are you gonna go see more now that you got some free time without a band?
C: Fuckin A. Devon Williams and the Fuck-Ups! Devon Williams and the Grunge Gods!
Paloma, what is the truest lyric you ever wrote?
P: It’s funny you asked—you’re the first person who ever noticed or quoted a line from “T-Spin.” The rest of that song is lyrically horrible, but “anything worth waiting for will never come” is one of the best things I ever wrote. Because it’s about action. And later on in life “Poem To Liebniz” is kind of the same thing. It’s kind of a long line but: “We do not all bear and are born/we don’t all die happy/so so so so is that it really?/a choice to choose/a choice to choose…” And when I wrote these things, it wasn’t really a judgment—it wasn’t about pro-choice or anything—it was about whether or not someone has these choices. Of not being passive within turmoil—the idea of taking action. At the core of it you’re waiting for freedom—you can’t wait for freedom! That’s why “T-Spin” is almost the same as “Poem For Liebniz”—you can’t wait for freedom and it all comes back to freedom. Whether physical or political or psychic freedom in your community or freedom in your relationship with your family.
So Arthur was right to call you “liberation rockers.”
P: That’s very flattering.
Are the Sharp Ease splitting on good terms?
C: Absolutely.
A: Though it might come to blows by the end of the night.
C: Ask Anika the most important question of the interview!
Were the Sharp Ease the real deal?
A: Most definitely.
What will be the epitaph for the Sharp Ease?
C: We remain instant.
What are you planning for the very last show?
C: We have so many tricks up our sleeves! Rabbits and magicians and shit! Puppets, cadavers—no one gets left behind!
A: You’re gonna need a rock ‘n’ roll detox afterward.
P: Love and all the horrible shit that goes with it—that’s what this band has been about. And when it wasn’t about love, we just rejected it out of our butts.
C: That was gassy of us.

THE SHARP EASE PLAY THEIR LAST SHOW SATURDAY, MARCH 24 WITH THE TAMALA, DEVON WILLIAMS, BD BREAKOUT, FUCKIN A, YOUR MOTHER’S LOVER AND SPOOKY RUBEN AT THE SMELL, 247 S. MAIN ST., LOS ANGELES. 8:30 PM / $5 / ALL AGES. WWW.THESMELL.ORG.