My first experience with Rachel Ratner was in Austin, Texas, watching her perform with her band Butts. The two-piece consisted of Ratner and Shannon Perry performing wonderfully goofy punk songs that rarely, if ever, passed the one-minute mark. Topics included how awesome alcohol is ("Alcohol") and how not awesome it is to find yourself in a bathroom without toilet paper ("Wiggle Drip").

Soon, Butts disbanded, but Ratner found a new outlet for her idiosyncratic punk in a three-piece called Wimps. Joined by Matt Nyce and Dave Ramm, Wimps comes across as the next logical step from Butts. The songs are actual song-length, the writing is a little more conceptual, and that full-bodied trio rounds out the sounds quite nicely.

Recently, I spoke with Ratner for my Weekly Volcano cover story about the Java Jive, but due to space limitations, I wasn't able to include much. Here is our conversation, where we touch on Wimps' new EP, the strange reviews they get and how one of their songs got on This American Life.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: It's a pretty big couple of weeks for Wimps. You're releasing your new EP, which is already online, and you had a song on This American Life.

RACHEL RATNER: Yeah, that was crazy! We didn't expect that. It wasn't something that we got a heads up about, or anything. One of our friends just called our bass player, and she's like, "Did you hear?!" And we were like, "What? Did someone die?" She was like, "You're on This American Life!" We were very excited. Don't know how that came about. They just knew about us, or found us somehow, I guess.

VOLCANO: Yeah, that's crazy. I was listening to that episode when you guys came on.

RATNER: Really? It was very surprising to hear us on there.

VOLCANO: Tell me about the transition from Butts to Wimps.

RATNER: Butts had ended in May of 2012. (Laughs) Matt Nyce, who plays bass, is here, and he said, "Butts exploded." But that's not true. We didn't explode, but we had broken up as a band, and then I was missing playing guitar. So, I was talking to Matt, who was missing playing bass, and we thought it would be fun to be in a band. We had been in a band before that, with Keith (Whiteman) from Grave Babies - who we're playing that show at the Jive with - so we knew each other for a while. We needed a drummer, and Dave Ramm happened to be moving into Matt's house, so it was very convenient. He's an awesome drummer, and he was going to be living there. It came together pretty quick, and before you knew it we were playing shows.

>>> Rachel Ratner of Wimps went to school in Tacoma, went to Java Jive shows but Saturday will be the first time she plays the Jive. Press photo

VOLCANO: If I remember correctly, there weren't any Butts songs over a minute long. How is it different writing for Wimps?

RATNER: Some things are the same and some things are different. Everyone's really good at writing music and is very creative and everyone sort of brings their own part to the table. So, in Butts, Shannon wrote all the drums, and I wrote all the guitar, and then we came up with our own lyrics. So, it's pretty similar in Wimps. The difference is maybe that everyone in this band has been playing music for much longer. Everyone's been a musician for ten-plus years. I'm a lot better at guitar than I was. So, we get to write slightly longer songs, like two-and-a-half minutes. But it's still the same in that it's just friends who enjoy playing together.

VOLCANO: This is sort of related to the This American Life thing. There's a video of you guys poorly translating a French review of your record.

RATNER: (Laughs) Uh huh.

VOLCANO: Do you ever find it strange the weird places that you get attention from, as a band?

RATNER: Totally! Yeah, I think we're in a weird spot, because we're definitely from a punk background, we've all played in punk bands. But we don't really, I mean... We sort of crash scenes, you know? Similar to being on This American Life. Or, I mean, we've been getting written up in places like France and Spain. It's pretty exciting to see who ends up finding out about us.

Luckily for you, dear reader, there are more ways than ever for you to find out about Wimps. Pick up their new EP, Party at the Wrong Time, hear "Repeat" on the "Stuck in the Middle" episode of This American Life, and catch them at the world Famous Bob's Java Jive for a rare Tacoma performance Saturday.

WIMPS, w/ Grave Babies, Full Moon Radio, Wild Berries, 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 1, Bob's Java Jive, 2102 South Tacoma Way, Tacoma, $5, 253.475.9843

See Also

The return of Bob's Java Jive

Full Moon Radio is now a quartet