The angular industrial stomp of Houston’s Indian Jewelry has much in common with the sonic depravities of Faust, Suicide and fellow Texan weirdos the Butthole Surfers. Their live shows are seizure-inducing whirlwinds of evil, stroboscopic energy and throbbing power electronics delivered with the force of being hit by a Mack truck, but by all accounts, bandleaders Erika Thrasher and Tex Kerschen, a happily married married couple with a newborn baby girl, are two of the nicest and most well-adjusted people around who also happen to make ear-splitting rock and roll drones for a living.
Indian Jewelry is currently out on their “Expect Delays” tour in the Western region of the United States.
Is it true that you never rehearse? How does that work, do you all go into some sort of hypnotic mind-meld before you walk onstage?
Not exactly, we have rehearsed before, but it didn’t go well. Now we rely more on a technique we call ‘just try to listen to the song on your own time and then go for it.’
Are you two the new Kim and Thurston? How does your daughter like touring?
The new Kim and Thurston? We’re not even the new Sonny and Cher. But if Kim and Thurston were forever lost in a steaming subtropical strip mall of a city, if Kim and Thurston were a little slow on the draw and didn’t get along that well with others, if musicality was completely out the window, social climbing was altogether forbidden, and Thurston had to use a stepladder to reach the books on the high shelves… then maybe we could draw a likeness.
We do tour with our infant daughter, and she has seen almost every graffiti-ridden alleyway in the US and she’s barely seven months old. She gets five adults fawning on her day and night. She hates the carseat but she loves the constant attention.
You must play in Austin a lot, what are the things that people just in town for the festival shouldn’t miss?
We’re from Houston, not all that far away, and here’s what long experience has taught us: All this talk of “beer” and “barbecue” is a throwback to the Bush dynasty; before their reign Austin was a wilder, freer, more psychedelic place. So go veggie (or at least Tex-Mex) and seek out the more illicit realms of pleasure. That is to say, that, like everyone else you’ll find us in line at Tamale House!
Where will you be playing during SXSW?
Playing our showcase with Future Blondes and Lumerians Saturday the 17th at the Iron Bear. That and a party via Austin Psych Fest at the SpiderHouse sometime on the 15th.
This raw, single-shot video from Chris Musgrave was recorded at an Oakland CA underground venue that must remain un-named to protect the complicit. Black out the room, then turn up the volume to make-believe you were there.
