Fayetteville’s The Phlegms is one of the most exciting bands to emerge from the local punk scene in the last few years. The band (Avery Lee, Grant Williams, Ethan Nash, and Peter McKitrick) is everything you want a punk band to be: sonically dynamic, lyrically powerful, and impossible to ignore. They’ve been the band to see at Backspace for a while now, and have shared the stage with heavyweights Protomartyr, and Shame.
The band recently released a 6-song EP called Smile – available on Bandcamp, Spotify, and on cassette via Tape Dad. They were also awarded free recording time at East Hall Recording as part of the studio’s 15th Anniversary celebration.
The Phlegms are currently one of my favorite local bands to see live – along with Terminus, Ankle Pop, and White Mansion. They’re playing at George’s Majestic Lounge on Thursday, March 28 with BRONCHO and The Good Fear.
I asked vocalist Avery Lee some questions about the band – here goes…
Who: BRONCHO / The Phlegms / The Good Fear
When: 8:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28
Where: George’s Majestic Lounge
Cost: $12-$15 + fees at Stubs.net
More: See the Facebook event
How did The Phlegms begin? Can you give us a brief history?
Me and Grant met our freshman year of college in 2012. We were both virgins ripely fallen from Christian homes. I didn’t see much of Grant after that until four years later. I guess they were all bored on the couch one day and decided they were gonna be a band and do band things, so they planned a show for a week out and asked The She to play.
They later asked if I wanted to front Peter And The Grants and I said yes, but that name sucks.
What have you been writing about lately?
My writing process is a lot of revisiting old journals from a time when i was processing a lot of trauma. Lately it’s been about the resentment I feel from growing up female. There is so much posturing you’re implicitly and explicitly told to do. Whether it’s getting your skirt pulled down when you’re a toddler or the pressure to get married (to a man) and have kids when you’re older. I think it’s probably worse in the South since we’re all supposed to be polite, proper and soft spoken.
Who are you listening to right now?
Between the four of us, we’ve been really into Viagra Boys, Tunic, Key Glock, Turnstile, GRLwood, Mitski, Petrol Girls and Tom Boil – who are some buds out of Tulsa.
Any embarrassing band stories you’d like to share for the first time?
There was a time last year where everyone was trying to leave Springfield after Push And Pull Fest but no one could find me. They were looking in separate bars, calling my name on the street, but it turned out I was just sound asleep on the toilet. Later, we played at Colorfeed in Tulsa and I broke the bathroom within five minutes of arriving. I just had to stay silent when people asked why it was out of order. To be fair, I think it was a sketchy ass toilet to begin with. Lots of toilet stories.
What are your plans for 2019?
We’re going to SXSW and doing a Brooklyn run in June.
