The Bad Things are one of the best bands in Seattle, WA and they put on an amazing show.
Their (evil) leader, Jimmy the Pickpocket, took a few minutes away from making music (and picking pockets) to chat with Sepiachord...

Sepiachord: How long have The Bad Things been around? How did you get together?

Jimmy the Pickpocket: The Bad Things got together in the Spring/Summer of 2002 after me, Jimmy the Pickpocket, and Mad Wilcox’s band A Midnite Choir broke up. Originally we were a 2 piece busking in the Pike Place Market and we played our first show as The Bad Things on July 22nd, 2002 as part of a Pirate Radio Benefit in Freeway Park.

SC: You always do a big show for Halloween. Why is this holiday special to you? Any interesting surprises this year?

JtPP: This will be our fifth year doing our Halloween show Cabaret Macabre. Since we’ve always been drawn to the dark and morbid, it’s a special holiday for us but it’s been an important holiday throughout my life. Fall in the Northwest is probably my favorite time of year. This year will feature us and Baby Gramps, who has performed every year since its inception and Space Accordion Orchestra which features our drummer Lord Kamke. It will also feature the amazing Russian/Gypsy punk of Chervona from Portland, a band I’ve wanted to play with for a while, DJ Darek Mazzone of KEXP’s Wo-Pop spinning Global beats from the Balkans and beyond, and the Hands of Kali, an incredible experimental bellydance troupe that draw on tradition but also takes it into the modern age with a decidedly gothic flair. We’re also taking it out of Georgetown for the first time and bringing it to the Rendezvous which has a lot of history for me as the Midnite Choir used to play there a lot in the old days…when it was a truly sketchy dive bar! That bar probably was the birthplace of the incredible underground cabaret scene that Seattle has today.

SC: Your last big show was your two day release party blow out at the Columbia City Vaudeville Theatre. How did you stumble upon this venue?

JtPP: Me, Captain Panto, and Mad Wilcox all live in Columbia City with Lord Kamke and Stanislav being close by, so that was a factor but I used to go to punk shows at that theater in the early 90’s and then some raves in the mid-90’s when it was the Lesh House. It’s an old Vaudeville theater from the turn of the century that got totally re-modeled in the early 2000’s and has been an amazing venue for Cabaret/Burlesque shows in recent years thanks to Tamara the Trapeze Lady and burlesque groups like the Atomic Bombshells.

SC: You also recorded your newest CD ("It'll All Be Over Soon") in the studio at the Columbia City Vaudeville Theatre. How did that compare to other studios you've used?

JtPP: Chip Butters, the engineer there, is an old friend of The Bad Things and someone who has wanted to work with us for quite a while. We chose him because he has a very analog perspective on recording, which is what we were looking for after the last album. Having access to that amazing theater to record drums, organ, and horns in was incredible and Chip really put his heart and soul into the record. Plus being in the neighborhood was great. It really felt like a homespun project – recording and having the CD release all in the neighborhood we love.

SC: "It'll All Be Over Soon" is your third CD, what makes it distinctive from your first two outings?

JtPP: In some ways, it’s a return to the simplicity of the first album, since “Vaudeville Show” was such a concept album. This was going back to just recording songs and not bothering with all the sound effects and atmospheric sounds that “Vaudeville Show” had. It also has the analog feel of the first one but with some nice additions that ProTools allows. Musically, though, I think it’s our most diverse. I was finally able to add horns to Drunken Doughboy, which was inspired by Balkan brass bands like Fanfare Ciocarlia and was brought to fruition by the amazing Orkestar Zirkonium. Also, the songs are more recent. The other two albums featured songs that I had written during my Midnite Choir years and in the early Bad Things years but these were all, with the exception of “Twilight” written in the last couple years by this lineup of the band. I think it really showcases what this lineup can do musically. This has been the most steady lineup that we’ve had and I think it shows how we all write together and how we’ve evolved.

SC: First the band created the show "The Breaking" with the Can Can Castaways, then they were featured on the second night of your CD release party. How did you hook up with them? Do you have any plans to write music specifically for them to perform to?

JtPP: We had been working with the Castaways on and off at the Can Can because they were already dancing to our CD’s during their weekly cabaret shows. So, we’d just show up and play the songs live with them from time to time. I love their style and I really think they’re the most original and talented group of performers in this city. They have such a physical and quirky style and it totally fits with our music and we all mesh well as people. With “The Breaking” we were able to put all those random pieces into a coherent show and I’m incredibly proud of how it came out. Some parts of that show are so beautiful and it’s incredible as a musician to see how another type of performer interprets your music. It gives a song a whole new life really. They’ve already been working out routines to the new tunes, which they premiered at the CD Release. Whether that will turn into another show has yet to be determined but we’re already talking about doing some of those down at The Can Can in the near future. I think there’s still a lot more we can do with “The Breaking” as well but I would love to do something new tool….we’ll see!

SC: Is it hard to organize everybody in the band to play shows?

JtPP: Yes, but everyone is really devoted to this band. We all have our side projects but really we’ve become like a little family. We don’t gig as much as we used to so that helps and touring is pretty difficult for us to pull off due to marriages, mortgages, and work but we’re pretty happy with where we’re at.

SC: What other Seattle bands do you love to play with?

JtPP: Well, I mentioned Orkestar Zirkonium earlier who, I think, are one of the best live bands in town and are truly incredible musicians and people. I also love Baby Gramps, who is like a father-figure to us and a local legend. It seems like there are more and more bands popping up that do a similar style as us now and that’s exciting. It exciting to see a “scene” of this flavor form and a lot of the more recent bands are great. Some of my favorites would be the Dandelion Junk Queens, Miss Mamie Lavona, and, though not a Seattle band, The Peculiar Pretzelmen from LA….but we’re trying to get them to move here!

SC: What's better: folks coming up to you after the show and telling you how good you were or people dancing while you play?

JtPP: I think a band like us is totally dependent on our audience. If the crowd is just standing there, it’s hard for us to get excited so I would always rather see a drunk, dancing audience than hear compliments. An audience’s enthusiasm is the ultimate compliment and we’ve been really lucky with that here in Seattle.

SC: You manage to temper you gloomy/doomy lyrics with a bit of humor and even whimsy. Is this hard to pull off or is it the only way you can write songs?

JtPP: One thing I always loved about traditional music was how they would have this happy sounding song but you’d listen to the lyrics and they’d be about being unemployed or killing your wife or whatever. I think it’s liberating to sing happily about horrible things because it kind of takes the power away from things like death. When you can laugh about it, then it no longer has any power over you. There’s nothing you can do about it anyway. Bad Things happen all the time!

SC: What were your favorite bands as a kid? Do they have any influence on the music you make now?

JtPP: Well, I went through the token Goth faze as a kid and some of the earlier bands I loved were The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Smiths, etc., then I was really into Anarchist punk rock bands like Crass, Conflict, and Chumbawamba, then Two Tone ska and 60’s reggae, but probably the biggest influence on my music was when I heard Tom Waits’ “More Than Rain” off of “Franks Wild Years” on the local college radio station when I was about 15 or 16. I thought it was a really old recording and I loved the way it sounded. Like it was recorded in an old damp cellar or something. So mysterious and creepy. It wasn’t until about 5 years later that I found out who it was but I remember thinking “I want to make music that sounds like that!”

SC: What would be the ultimate expression of The Bad Things? Would you love to see a huge Broadway show built around your work?

Pickpocket: I’ve always thought of our songs as stories and with The Breaking I really was able to see how well they translate to the stage. I would love to write music for a production someday and it certainly would be amazing to see it come to fruition. I dunno if Broadway is really right for us though….maybe in a back alley off of Broadway! That’s more our style.

SC: Any final Bad Thoughts?

Pickpocket: Thanks for supporting us Sepiachord and creating a forum for all us like-minded musicians. That didn’t exist a few years ago and it’s great to see the community come together and you’re a big part of that! Cheers….