{"id":2915,"date":"2010-05-06T13:06:06","date_gmt":"2010-05-06T21:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/?p=2915"},"modified":"2010-05-06T13:06:58","modified_gmt":"2010-05-06T21:06:58","slug":"gimme-five-duncan-webster-of-hammer-no-more-the-fingers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/2010\/05\/gimme-five-duncan-webster-of-hammer-no-more-the-fingers\/","title":{"rendered":"Gimme Five! Duncan Webster of Hammer No More the Fingers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/photo-by-jason-arthurs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2966\" title=\"photo by jason arthurs\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/photo-by-jason-arthurs-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/photo-by-jason-arthurs-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/photo-by-jason-arthurs-53x80.jpg 53w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/photo-by-jason-arthurs.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a>They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve known each other since elementary school, played together since middle. But after playing every talent show and garage that would let their high school band make a racket, Duncan Webster, Jeff Stickley and Joe Hall parted ways and set off in wildly different directions.\u00c2\u00a0 Stickley wound up at ECU playing bluegrass.\u00c2\u00a0 Hall rambled down to Brazil and picked up some new riffs.\u00c2\u00a0 Webster did that New York dance where you fall in love, start a band, and then lose both.\u00c2\u00a0 Somehow, after a little time tilting at windmills, the guys all ended up back in Durham.\u00c2\u00a0 The adventures had taken them down wildly different paths, but all roads led home and to making music together once again.<\/p>\n<p>Playing as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hnmtf.com\/\">Hammer No More the Fingers<\/a>, Webster, Stickley and Hall have toured relentlessly, spreading their own spin on \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc90s college rock to anyone who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll listen.\u00c2\u00a0 Their sound is a throwback to those grunge inspired indies of old without sounding kitschy or too nostalgic.\u00c2\u00a0 Coalescing idiosyncratic riffs and thumping bass lines with Stickley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tempestuous drumming and Webster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mundane, Hammer No More the Fingers bang out songs as interesting musically, as they are affecting lyrically. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how hard it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been, living without a friend, in the center of the world,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Webster sings on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shutterbug\u00e2\u20ac\u009d off their record, <em>Looking for Bruce<\/em>, but given the way these guys play, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a feeling any of them will know for long.<\/p>\n<p>And now just five tough as nails questions for Duncan to hammer down:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. If your band were a cartoon character, who\/what would it be?<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/prostars.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2968\" title=\"prostars\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/prostars.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"147\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/prostars.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/prostars-119x80.jpg 119w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/prostars-120x80.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nProStars\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe  Saturday morning cartoon starring Bo Jackson, Wayne Gretzky, and  Michael Jordan. For obvious reasons. That, or the cast of Mulan II.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. What instigated the choice of band name?<\/strong><br \/>\nEvery  band name we were coming up with was terrible or was already in use: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VAue_9I_9HE\"> Vaudevillain<\/a>, Wolf Laser, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jRGrNDV2mKc\">Korn<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XfuBREMXxts\">The Monkees<\/a>. We just got tired of coming  up with dumb band names. So we decided to keep the latest and dumbest  that we had.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Describe the writing process for &#8220;Fall Down, Play  Dead&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>That&#8217;s one of the oldest songs we have. It started off  as a riff that we played in a prior band called &#8220;Dead by Dawn&#8221; back in  high school. All our songs were based on the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Evil_Dead_%28franchise%29\">Evil Dead trilogy<\/a>. Pretty  rad stuff. That was one of the riffs that stayed with us. We just kept  tinkering with the chord progression until it morphed into what it is  now. The lyrics are about a story I heard on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/\">NPR<\/a> one day.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Picture-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2971\" title=\"looking for bruce\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Picture-1-300x298.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Picture-1-300x298.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Picture-1-80x80.png 80w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Picture-1.png 693w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>4. Who\/what might be a few early inspirations or  influences that might really surprise people?<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizmarkie.com\/\">Biz Markie<\/a> is  one of my favorite lyric writers of all time. Every song of his is about  a different, whacked out subject. He raps about being a dude and doing  dude stuff. Very down to earth, and yet weird and hilarious. We used to  cover <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OebqNsNRBtU\">&#8220;Alone Again&#8221;<\/a> from the album <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/I-Need-Haircut-Biz-Markie\/dp\/B0000010E3\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=music&amp;qid=1273095320&amp;sr=8-1\"><em>I Need a Haircut<\/em><\/a>. Great song.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.phish.com\">Phish<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.outkast.com\">Outkast<\/a>, bluegrass, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mymorningjacket.com\">My Morning Jacket<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ween.com\">Ween<\/a>,  and a lot of Brazilian music have a big influence on the Hammer. As do a  lot of books we read, stories we hear, people we meet, and strange  towns that we play.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. What did you dream of being when you were a kid?  (How&#8217;d that turn out?)<\/strong><br \/>\nWe&#8217;re all 26 now, and have known each  other and been playing music together since we were kids. Like 9 or 10  years old. This is pretty much an extension of that. Definitely on a  smaller scale than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AZRLvE1bgzM\">Nirvana<\/a>, because Nirvana is all I cared about as a  kid. We couldn&#8217;t be more psyched about playing in a band, though. It&#8217;s  more fun these days than ever before.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/p>\n<p>Keep up with Hammer No More the Fingers touring schedule and other updates <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hnmtf.com\/\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/hnmtf\">here<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reverbnation.com\/hnmtf\">here<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 And check back next week to see who else will take up the challenge  of   facing down the five. Oh and by all means, give Duncan and the rest of the Hammers a high five when you see them!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Playing as Hammer No More the Fingers, Webster, Stickley and Hall have toured relentlessly, spreading their own spin on \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc90s college rock to anyone who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll listen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[311],"class_list":["post-2915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","tag-gimme-five"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2915"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2976,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915\/revisions\/2976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}