REV. ADAM MCKINNEY: THE FUN POLICE CRACK DOWN >>>

It’s a strange thing, asking a band (or a person, for that matter) what they think of themselves. My interviewing style is still mighty amateurish and I still ask hackneyed questions like, “How would you describe your sound to people who’ve never heard you before?”

Shame.

The Fun Police couldn’t possibly answer that question, and they really shouldn’t. One member gets as far as, “It’s hard to classify our sound … maybe Celtic-country-blues-pop-rock…” before the other members interrupt him with a residing “Nahh!”

What they forgot was reggae, seemingly a major influence on their “sound,” though I now feel weird using that word. It’s one of many pleasant contradictions that define The Fun Police â€" one of the ways that they play with the concept of The Band.
  Onstage, they dress as cops, complete with stage names reflecting their personas Major Mullet, Ranger Ruffhousen, and so on. When not performing in clubs, they busk in uniform, though they express concerns that one day they’ll get nabbed for impersonating police officers. One almost gets a sense that nothing would make them happier than to be stuffed in the back of a squad car for rock ‘n’ roll.

“When we’re not performing, we’re working on something,” they say.

Part of what they’re working on is a series of PSAs that they post on YouTube. They’re nothing if not vigorous self-promoters. The rest of the band’s time is spent in the recording studio, readying their album under the supervision of Conrad Uno, a producer who’s helmed works by the likes of the Presidents of the United States of America, among others.

It seems to be where they’ve been headed from the beginning. It’s always the ones who crack down on fun who end up on top.

[The New Frontier Lounge, with Big Wheel Stunt Squad, Down and Out, Thursday, Aug. 27, 9 p.m., 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]

Filed under: Music, Tacoma,