Raw, dirty, straight-up. A shot of vodka or Kissy Kamikaze? Who knows. Either way, this New York punk band, including scene veterans Andy Shaw (formerly of INDK, Morning Glory) and Tibbie X (formerly of the X-Possibles), are ready to kick ass and not even bother with taking names afterwords. That’s cause names are for suckers.

The band were recently nice enough to take some time and answer my annoying fanboy questions about punk rock in NY.

So when and how did Kissy Kamikaze come together?

Tibbie X : I took some time off after X-Possibles broke up and then decided ‘ok, I gotta have an awesome band again.’ Posted on Craigslist. Suzy posted something about looking for a female singer and I was looking for female punk guitarist. Carrie is the only non-suckass female drummer I know in NYC so I Internet stalked her. Andy was a gift from Carrie.
Suzy: I realized I knew Tibbie, or at least knew of her ‘cause our old bands played a show together once.’ So it was less of a strangers hooking up thing.

 Read more of the interview after the jump.

You guys all have impressive individual “pedigrees” in New York punk rock. Do you see marked changes in the show circuit these days in terms of venues, DIY booking, and stuff like that? Obviously underground punk music in general has come a long way in the past 20 or 30 years, but are there any particularly differences you guys see that strike you?

Tibbie X: I think it’s pretty awesome to be able to find a record and then Myspace the band and end up chatting with them. The whole online thing has made it a lot easier to be able to talk with bands all over the world. Internet radio and zines are great for getting songs out. I used to have to spend a lot of time and money mailing out demos and following up and trying to find out when stuff was being played on indie stations. When CBGBs closed, a bunch of people complained that the music scene is dead and NY’s changed. There are shows almost every night of the week, zine parties, ABC No Rio, etc. The scene is huge. If anything I think there are more bands and more going on than in the past because it’s easier and cheaper to make an album and self promote.

What do you think about trying to make it in any sense these days in punk rock? And when I say “make it,” it definitely includes just trying to stay afloat as a working band?

Suzy: I play music for fun. I think that’s why I’m able to do it. I know there’s no money, I just love doing it. I don’t ever expect to make it. I just want to play music for people that still love seeing live bands. I fully expect that I’ll be paying out of my own pocket for recording or equipment, or sometimes cabs just to get my stuff to the club. Punk is a really specific little world. If you like punk, you’re usually obsessed with it.  You fucking love punk music and you just have an infinite music collection of everything. You share music with other music obsessives. You still spend all your money on CDs and records and you can never ever have enough of it.

You’re pretty adamant in exclaiming the fact that you’re from NYC. I mean, it doesn’t get any clearer than “Fuck LA,” which is an awesome song by the way. Was there any particular reason for this sort of leaning? It’s not something you usually see these days as much, not that I’m complaining, mind you.

Tibbie X: I wrote the lyrics to “Fuck L.A.” while in L.A. We were driving around forever and I had enough. NYC is a struggle but it weeds out the weak and there’s something real here that I love.
Andy: I have a “NYC,” “I Love NY,” and “718″ tattooed on me. If you feel it you feel it, that’s it.
Suzy: I go with what I know. I write about everyday stuff. Living in NYC is my every-day life. It’s the toughest place to stay alive. I’m proud I was able to make the cut. So I guess that’s our thing. Gotta be something, well that’s what we are. We’re a NYC punk band.

Any plans in the near future? An EP or full-length maybe?

Suzy: We’re always writing songs. We’re always saving our pennies for future recording of those songs.
Tibbie X: We’re waiting on our recording guy Ian to finish building his studio so we can do a full length album, he smokes a lot of weed though, so it’s taking awhile. I’d like to make some videos. We’re always playing shows, and writing new songs.

Did you ever notice that Kissy’s color scheme looks vaguely watermelon-ish?

Suzy: I wish we had our own candy. I’d like to see Tibbie Pez. Myself, I’m too mean to be a candy. Maybe an action figure.
Tibbie X: I accidentally turned an old apt into a watermelon. We did the walls hot pink with neon green trim and we found a huge black leather couch on the street. It was like resting on a giant seed.

What do you think is the best late-night place for snackage in New York City? I’m always partial to White Castle, fries or pizza.

Tibbie X : Esperanto Cafe on MacDougal Street is open 24 hours with a great window view for mocking drunk people. Suzy: I love Gray’s Papaya even though the recession special has gone up in price a lot since I moved here.
Andy: Gray’s Papaya hot dogs. That’s my joint.
Carrie: Rai Rai Ken in the East Village. To be honest, I’m usually in bed by midnight, dreaming of young hairless boys like yourself.

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