Talking To CJ Pretzel From The Drags About "Dragsploitation...Now" Wasn't A Drag At All!

Originally posted in Teenage Kicks #1

By Devorah Ostrov

L-R: CJ, Lorca & Keith
From the back cover of Dragsploitation...Now!
Photos: Nick Tauro

The Drags — most people assume the name has to do with drag racing but as guitarist/lead "singer" (their quote marks, not mine!) CJ Pretzel points out, there's (at least) a quadruple entendre: "You have the cigarette thing, the cross-dressing thing, the racing thing, and the bummer thing."

In fact, the group chose its moniker with ambiguity in mind. "We liked the looseness of it," says CJ. "It's sort of solidified now, but in the beginning, people didn't know if we would come out in dresses, or what."

Estrus Records advert for
Dragsploitation...Now!

Formed in 1993 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the band centers around the threesome of...

CJ Stritzel/Pretzel: Originally from Arizona, he formed the group when he got tired of waiting for something to present itself. "After a while, I realized that I just had to do it myself," he states.

Lorca Wood: Originally from Oklahoma, this feisty onetime cellist was a novice bass player when she joined the band.

Keith Herrera: Described as "old school" New Mexico, in 1994 the drummer issued the Drags' earliest 45 on Resin Records, an indie label he co-founded with a friend.

The group's latest release is a fun-packed, eight-song 10-inch record called Dragsploitation...Now! (Estrus Records). Also highly recommended: the "Tales from Estrus" compilation EP featuring the Drags' cover of Crime's "Baby You're so Repulsive" and the Drags/PeeChees split 45 on G.I. Productions.

Teenage Kicks: Has the band always been a three-piece?

CJ: No, for a while we had two guitar players, but Robbie moved to Atlanta a few years ago. And there's been a couple of other side Drags — our friend Ray was a Drag, and this guy Tom was a Drag for a little while. But it's been pretty much just the three of us. There was a point where we really wanted a fourth person, but no one's come along who was ready, willing and able. Now, I kind of like it as three.

Teenage Kicks: Were you in any bands before the Drags?

Meet The Drags
Estrus Records promo postcard

CJ: No, this is pretty much my first band; I'd never sang before. And this is definitely Lorca's first and only rock 'n' roll band. She didn't even play the bass before we started; she played the cello as a kid. But we kinda wanted someone who couldn't play because a couple of us already sorta could. And I was trying really hard not to play guitar that well — or just to play it differently. I was trying to do things that sounded cooler. Not really anything that would freak out other guitar players, but just to be uglier. So, that was our idea at first, to have somebody that couldn't play bass, to add that certain spice to it.

Teenage Kicks: And what about Keith?

CJ: Keith just kind of came along. We lost our drummer, and we had a whole summer of just sitting around. I played the drums for a while just to keep it going. And then Keith presented himself, and we jumped at it.

Teenage Kicks: Do you guys consider yourselves a punk band?

CJ: Definitely! I mean... I dunno how to explain why. We do everything ourselves; nobody's gonna do it for us. And we're not making a shitload of money. We just do what we do. And I think that's as good an encapsulation of punk rock as any.

Teenage Kicks: Do you have a big following around Albuquerque?

CJ: It ebbs and flows. Sometimes it seems like we're doing really well. Sometimes it seems like no one gives a shit.

Gas Huffer, Clawhammer & the Drags at the Whisky
(Poster art by Chris Cooper aka "Coop")

Teenage Kicks: Is there a scene in Albuquerque?

CJ: Yeah, there's some bands that are really good. And there's a couple of places to play. That's all you need, really. But there's not enough bands so that you can go out every weekend and see a different combination of bands. The plan now is to make a record and be gone as much as we can. I don't wanna play there every two weeks.

Teenage Kicks: How did you hook up with Estrus Records?

Dragsploitation...Now!
(Estrus Records 1995)

CJ: We sent them our first record [the "I Like to Die" 45]. We'd seen the Estrus ads; they had great little monsters and stuff in them. And we thought they looked really cool. We were always stealing the stuff from their ads to make our flyers. So we figured, let's send 'em a record! So, we sent them a test pressing with a postcard from this breakfast restaurant.

   This restaurant... it's like a whole city block and it's in a barn. It's called the Frontier Restaurant. We discovered that they had these postcards with their Frontier Sweet Roll on them, which is their claim to fame. So, we wrote on the back of the postcard: "We just made this record!" I don't know what we expected; if we expected to get signed, or what. But they called us back and said, "We wanna sell the record." A good chunk of that first pressing was sold through the Estrus mail-order catalog. And then we went on tour through that. So, we were kind of halfway connected with Estrus even before we were signed. And when we got back, they offered to put out a record if we made one. 

Teenage Kicks: I know the Drags have played on some Estrus-package shows. Is that something the label tries to set up regularly?

Comic book version of the Drags included
in the "Tales from Estrus" Vol. 3 compilation EP

CJ: I don't know about regularly... We've done it a few times. We flew out to Chicago and played with Impala, the Lord High Fixers, the Mono Men, and the Insomniacs. And we've done it out here with the Mono Men and the Trashwomen a couple of times. But it's not like it happens all over. You've probably got an inflated idea of how much it happens, 'cause it happens here a lot. But it doesn't happen as much everywhere else.

   Dave [Crider, Estrus owner] was talking about going down to Texas and doing a show, but it hasn't happened yet. He was actually talking about buying a bus, and we'd all travel together — like the old soul revues. Each of us would play two songs and haul ass off the stage!

Teenage Kicks: Is the trash/sleaze culture something you guys are heavily into?

CJ: No, not especially. That's something that's sort of been put on us. It wasn't really about Rat Fink, or whatever. I have an appreciation for stuff like that, but it wasn't why we did it. I just wanted to have a rock band, you know.

   And the stuff we've done, like "Elongated Man" — it was a joke! This guy told us about Elongated Man, and we didn't believe it. Like I said, we're not really experts. But we ended up calling the song "Elongated Man" just because we thought it was a cool title. Since then, people have said, "Wow! You named it after Elongated Man. He's so rad!" But I still wouldn't recognize Elongated Man from... whoever!

Teenage Kicks: All the songs on the album are simply credited to "The Drags." How does the songwriting actually work?

CJ: We do it kind of collaboratively. I come in with something, and we mess around with it. And then I kind of scream until I find two or three words that go good together. And then we try to figure out what the song is about from there. 

The Drags 
(back cover of Can't Stop Rock and Roll - Estrus Records 1997)

Teenage Kicks: How did the split 45 with the PeeChees doing a Drags' song and vice versa come about?

CJ: Somebody sent us a letter asking to do a single. And we said, "Yeah!" before we thought about if we had any songs. 'Cause we write songs kind of slow. We called the PeeChees about something else and they said, "We just got this letter to do some single..." And they didn't know what song they were gonna do either. I dunno... It wasn't the most original idea on Earth, but we decided to do each other's songs. And when we presented the idea to the label, they said, "That's weird." 'Cause that's what they were thinking about doing.

"Tales from Estrus" Vol. 3 
featuring the Lord High Fixers, Impala & the Drags

Teenage Kicks: Do you purposely try to get a lo-fi sound with your recordings?

CJ: Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. There's been times when we wanted to add a little extra heat to it, so we did that. And sometimes it sounds really good, and sometimes we've been burned on it. And there's been times when we thought it sounded a little high-tech in the studio, but once we got the record, it sounded really neat. And there's other times where we thought it sounded really neat in the studio, but when we got the record back, it was a little grosser than we'd intended.  

Teenage Kicks: I've heard that the "Anxiety" single [the A-side of the group's recent 3-song 45 on Empty Records, which also features "Elongated Man" and a cover of "Flying Saucer Rock and Roll"] was recorded on the spur of the moment. Is that true?

CJ: We did that completely on the fly. We did it the day after Garage Shock [95]. Our van broke down, and we were sitting in some hotel. Blake [owner of Empty Records] had talked to us the night before about wanting to do a single sometime. Usually, that's like the rock equivalent of "let's do lunch." So, we called him up the next day and said, "If you can get a studio, we're gonna be in town." And we had a single recorded within 24 hours of when he asked us to do it!

Poster for Garage Shock 95 with the Makers,
Supersnazz & the Drags (to name a few)

Teenage Kicks: Are you inspired by other vocalists?

CJ: I have been since I started. But when I first started, I was mostly inspired by fear. Just straight-up fear. I figured, "I need to do this because no one's gonna do it for me." And it horrified me. I was in the bathroom for the whole night before we played our first show. It was such a horrifying experience. Since then... There's people whose singing I really enjoy, and I think you can be inspired by other people's singing. But you've got your own equipment. There's not really much I can do to sound like other people.

Teenage Kicks: I want to ask about the stories behind a couple of the songs on Dragsploitation...Now! One of my favorites is "My Girlfriend's in the F.B.I."

CJ: That was probably the quickest song I've ever written. It just kind of came to me when I was driving around one day. What was the word that I heard? Usually, that's the way it happens. I'll hear a word somewhere, and I'll start running with it when I'm driving around in my car. My car doesn't have a radio, so I have to keep myself entertained. So, I was driving around and it just came to me. I had it written by the time I got home. All I had to do was figure out how to play what was going on in my head.

Teenage Kicks: What about "Teenage Invasion"?

Mono Men & the Drags at Kilowatt in SF

CJ: Same deal. I just thought it was a really great title. I just thought "invasion" was a great word! That's actually the fourth incarnation of "Teenage Invasion." You know, there's the old philosophical question: If you change the head and you change the handle, do you still have the same axe? It used to have a different verse, but we thought the chorus was cool. So, we changed the verse. Then, we thought the chorus wasn't so cool. So, we changed the chorus, etc., etc. 

Teenage Kicks: The new "Tales from Estrus" compilation EP, (which includes the Drags' cover of Crime's "Baby You're so Repulsive") comes with a comic book featuring all the bands. How does it feel to be depicted in comic book form?

CJ: Oh, that was so cool! Dave told us that was going to happen, but it didn't really sink in at the time. But once we got the comic books back, it was really great! Although, for the record, I don't wear Converses. They make me look like I have duck feet.

Teenage Kicks: Why did you choose to cover "Baby You're so Repulsive" on the EP?

CJ: It was just kind of a neat song. I think one of Keith's friends had the record. We hadn't really heard of Crime. I mean, I knew that "Hotwire My Heart" was theirs — the song that Sonic Youth did. But that was about it.

Teenage Kicks: Have you heard anything back from Crime?

CJ: No, but you know, all our songs are ripped off from something else anyway. We keep expecting to hear from a whole lot of people. Haha!

★ ★ ★

Here's a link to the track "My Girlfriend's in the F.B.I." from Dragsploitation...Now.