Who in the hell is MF Ruckus?

nineties that never got the recognition they deserved, and L.A. Guns usually need no introduction. But I digress!

Every song I’ve heard from Mf Ruckus has been a lesson in kick ass rock n roll. Remember, almost all the recordings have been live and it’s pretty impressive when live music sounds this good. If this is what they sound like live then I definitely have to see them. With songs that sound like they could have been written from anyone from Thin Lizzy and AC/DC to Poison and GN’R these guys could be force to be reckoned with. These guys should appeal to everyone whether they are metal, punk, rock, hard rock, rockabilly, or….whatever.

Mf Ruckus is no stranger to the Denver, or out of state touring circuit. In fact, Mf Ruckus was a well-known band in Denver, just under a different name.

Interstate Live recently had a chance to discuss all things Mf Ruckus including the ‘death’ of their old band with vocalist Aaron.

Interstate Live: Sad to say but I never was able to catch a Forth Yeer show, but I knew Forth Yeer was breaking up a while back. Now that you are back as Mf Ruckus has it been tough to rebuild your fan base?

Aaron: The people who really dig us made a transition from one band to the next pretty smoothly. Some people took a little while longer, but that was all part of our design. We've been allowed the opportunity to gain new fans as a new band, but also to retain those die-hard fans from the Forth Yeer days.

I.L.: What is the line up in Mf Ruckus compared to Forth Yeer?

Aaron: In all honesty, it's the exact same guys. Sorry for the rouse folks!

I.L.: When did Mf Ruckus come to be and why? Is Mf Ruckus part of the reason Forth Yeer broke up? If not, why did Forth Yeer

break up?

Aaron: We've never officially told any of the details to anybody in the press, but I guess now is as good a time as ever. To make a long story slightly shorter, Forth Yeer Freshman was a band started by some dudes I knew back in the late 90's when I was in high school. They needed a bass player, so I lied about my skill level and joined. As fate would have it, line-up changes occurred and I ended up taking over as front man and my best friend Logan O'Connor took my spot on bass.

The style of music went from sloppy four chord drunk punk to thrashier punk/hardcore/metal type of stuff and eventually, after several comings and goings of players, we became more of a straight-up Rock n Roll band when Tay Hamilton joined the band in '03 or '04. He totally changed the game. He taught me about blues and really got me into the classics. We started going to Chicago a lot on tour after forming a kinship with this killer bar band called "Road Crew". Their lead guitar player was this kid who didn't look a day over 15 named Tony Lee. He ripped so hard! For years and years we'd go back and forth on tour and always end up getting lit and telling Tony, "Dude, one of these days, you should just move out to Denver so you and Tay can be the greatest twin lead guitarists in the world". In fall of '08, we get this call and its Tony saying, "So, uh, Road Crew is breaking up. I'm ready to call you guys on your bluff". That was it. He shipped out a trunk full of his personal belongings, his amp and flew out with his guitar. He surfed couches for at least a year before actually getting a job and paying rent.

We became this monster six piece band and the name Forth Yeer Freshman was just weak as all hell. I mean, like, really bad. People wouldn't take us seriously because our name made us sound like some high-school pop punk band. By this time though, we'd been playing live for over a decade so we didn't want to completely lose our fan base. So we just decided to shorten it [the band name] to Forth Yeer. We figured zero connotations were better than incorrect ones. It turned out we were wrong. All the name change did was confuse people. I guarantee I've seen more misspelled marquees and heard more mispronunciations than the average bear. Imagine trying to explain that name to a drunk chick in a bar! So, I begged the guys for at least a year to change the name. My reasoning was that we weren't exactly rock stars, but if we wanted to be it was time to come up with a name that would stick with people for more than five seconds. So, we committed to doing a lot of live recording, we argued day and night about names and organized a tiny little fib about "The Death of Forth Yeer". We even went so far as to book a Viking Funeral/Roast which allowed us to lay the old days to rest. We rekindled some interest in the band and generated a lot of buzz out of it.

One day, we were driving around listening to Wu-Tang and I think it was Ty that said, "Man, wouldn't it be cool if we just called our band 'The Motherfucking Ruckus'?". The van went kinda quiet. Somebody said, "who says we can't?” So that's what we went with. To this day, every once in a while, somebody will see us in a club and afterwards run up to us and say, "You fucking assholes! I

KNEW you didn't break up”! No bullshit. That happens regularly.

It was just time, man. Logan and I were the only two guys left from the old days and the music was light years from what it was. It just made sense.

I.L.: Why form a band like Mf Ruckus, and do you feel you are heading in the same musical direction as Forth Yeer?

Aaron: The real difference I see is not as much in the writing process or in the music itself, but in the manner which we handle ourselves business wise. We still party the pants off any band around, but there's a time and a place. We've got clear goals, a more cohesive show and a far more methodical approach to doing everything. It's like the Terminator (The model 101 in T2, for the record): a fully efficient killing machine, but with far more advanced software than the previous models. The heart of this band has always been the same, who gives a flying fuck what you call it? Most people just call us "The boys" or "Oh...THOSE guys"

anyway.

I.L.: Influences?

Aaron: Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Ted Nugent, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Deep Purple, James Brown, Valient Thorr, Bad Brains, ZZ Top, Turbonegro, Nashville Pussy, Murphy's Law...I dunno man. The different guys would give you different answers. That's part of what makes us such an unstable compound.

I.L.: What made you decide to go with kickstarter.com for funds?

Aaron: I had heard about it through various people and money has always been the one thing that holds us back from all the ideas we come up with. We always have these really exciting ideas, but then it's like, "Welp, who's going to pay for it”? All of our money goes in the gas tank! When I saw that Spittin' Cobras got a van that way, it sealed the deal. Not to mention how successful the Reno Divorce project was.

I.L.: What can people expect from an Mf Ruckus show?

Aaron: Even on our worst night, you can expect six dudes who unabashedly pour out their hearts and souls for a crowd. You can expect to smile, get drunk, get sweaty, laugh your ass off (if you have the humor sense of a 12 year old boy) and who knows, you might see a titty or two. We have people from fifteen to fifty years old who come to our shows. We all just kinda forgot to get old and bitter, so we still think that having fun is cool. You'll see twenty something hipsters stagger around like your sun-burnt uncle at a Foreigner reunion show and then right next to them, you'll see a fifty year old Mom of three shaking her tits like a nineteen year old Guns n Roses groupie. It's really twisted and weird. Come to think of it...what am I doing with my life? I should really go back to college.

You can tell by the interview that there are sure to be some laughs at an Mf Ruckus show, and it just so happens they’ll be playing on January 27th at the Oriental Theater. So if you like kick ass rock n roll, and you want to go out for a good time, check them out.

If you’re a fan of hard rock, help them out on Kickstarter.com at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mfruckus/mf-ruckus-live-album-and-dvd

If ya don’t think they deserve the chance check em’ out live, I know I’m gonna. They sound excellent in their live recordings, so help Mf Ruckus out so they can get the live album done and stay on the road where bands like them belong.

For more information on MF Ruckus please visit:

http://www.mfruckus.com

http://www.facebook.com/mfruckusband

www.reverbnation.com/mfruckus

twitter.com/mfruckustheband

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