What do you get when you cross ’90s skate punk, thrash, ’80s hardcore, ska punk, and dinosaurs? Fuck Yeah, Dinosaurs! from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that’s what. If you’re like me and love every single one of those elements, then you’re in luck because these Steel City boys may just become your new favorite band.
If, on the other hand, you’re not too keen on the idea of a themed-band, I urge you to reconsider. Even though, it’s pretty evident the folks in the band are having a lot of fun, they also have some pretty important things to say. Sure, there are some songs about Earl Sinclair and Jurassic Park, but you’ll also hear the band using dinosaurs as a way to call out some of the darker things about us as human.
Last year, the band released 65 Millions Beers Ago, and it really is a gem. Clocking in at just under 30 minutes, the album packs quite a punch. It fits right in with bands like Dead Kennedys, The Dead Milkmen, Bad Brains, and Guttermouth. After listening to the ten tracks on the album, you won’t be able to avoid saying “fuck yeah!”
Below, check out our interview with guitarist and backing vocalist Jon Stefaniak. During the interview, he talks about the new album, and the pandemic’s effect on its release. He also covers what he’s excited about in 2021, some great bands from Pittsburgh to check out, and dinosaurs.
When you were a kid, what dinosaur was your favorite dinosaur? As an adult, is that dinosaur still your favorite?
I guess as a kid, T-Rex was the obvious go-to. Now? I keep gravitating to the Triceratops. What’s crazy is, you hear all these kids now who know all of the different species and subspecies and they can tell you what is what and who is who. I never knew THAT much. We still don’t, in our early 30s. I think we should just start paying a couple five-year-olds to write more scientifically-accurate lyrics.
What is it about dinosaurs that capture people’s imagination so much?
Growing up, I loved dinosaurs as much as any kid does, but I never really had any kind of crazy attachment to them. My guess is the fact that they’re almost mythical, larger-than-life beasts that existed years and years before us humans. We have some evidence, but the full picture isn’t there. There’s much more unknown than there is known – kind of like outer space. And the Ninja Turtles.
Fill in the blank – Fuck Yeah is to Dinosaurs as Fuck No is to:
Racism, sexism, police brutality, etc. Yeah, we’re a goofy punk band that loves having a good time and beer and catchy sing-a-long punk songs, but there’s always time to pause and acknowledge that there is still plenty of terrible shit that is wrong with our society. Especially today, in 2021, that needs to change. The dinosaurs would be shaking their heads at what humans have done to the planet and each other. We’ve done a couple streams and fundraisers over the past few months to raise money for bail funds and BLM. We aren’t a political band by any means, but we’re still going to use our platform to raise money for people who need some help!
We’ve heard of several sub-genres of punk music. To the uninitiated, what can they expect from dinopunk?
The short answer: dinopunk is the music equivalent of dinosaurs skating, drinking beer, smoking weed, and eating pizza in outer space.
Lots of ‘90s to ‘00s skate punk, some ‘80s hardcore sprinkled in, a touch of ska, and some poppier stuff. We’ve definitely heard “that’s some Tony Hawk shit!” multiple times, and I consider that a compliment for sure.
Even though 2020 destroyed everyone’s plans, you were still able to release 65 Million Beers Ago. How has the album been received so far?
I would say things are going pretty great. We can’t play out or tour to push the record, but we’re still steadily moving through copies online (www.jeffgoldblum.org). I’m trying to think of anything negative we’ve heard, but if anyone straight-up hates it, they haven’t told us (yet at least). One common reaction, especially to anyone new to the band, is that expectation of a surface level “ok, dinosaur gimmick band, funny” that turns into more of an appreciation of what we’ve done in crafting this album.
We’ve definitely expanded past the early stages of “here is a song about dinosaurs doing this human thing because it’s funny.” I think our songwriting, as a group, has grown enough to grab attention we weren’t getting when we started. Plus, Zach Jamison (of Latecomer) and Dave Polster (Well Made Music) both did a great job with production, mixing, and mastering.
Even though your songs are dino-inspired, a song like “A Critique of the Human Condition” allows you to take a step back and express your thoughts about people. Was that a tough song for you to write?
“Critique” is one of two songs that was actually written back in 2010 or 2011 and shelved until now. The other being “Museum.” Lyrically, I remember it just flowing one night as a rant. Sometimes there’s a struggle with putting lyrics to music, and sometimes it’s the other way around, but this was one of those nights where I just played some chords and went nuts writing.
There were some revisions with the wording, but channeling the idea of “what the fuck have we, as humans, done to this planet?” made it a pretty easy angle to expand on. Yeah, now that I think about it, that one was REALLY easy to go off on.
How have you changed as a band and as people since Jurassic Drunks?
Ten years leaves a lot of room for evolution. Jurassic Drunks, simply put, was “we have songs we wrote back in 2010 and it’s now 2017, let’s get them documented and put them to rest.” The earliest songs on Drunks were written by Zach and I on an acoustic guitar while I was doing a deep dive into a lot of poppier, three chord punk. Direct Hit!, Ramones, The Ergs, The Queers, Teenage Bottlerocket. “Bloomfield Beach” is the only song on Drunks that was written by the four of us.
65 Million Beers Ago is, like I mentioned earlier, a more cohesive, flowing album. All of the material on 65MBA was written* with the current line up of the band: Zach (vocals), me, Phil (drums), and Trip (bass), established in late 2017. Phil wrote a lot of the riffs for the newer tracks. He definitely brings in the heavier influences. I think we still have that punk backbone in there somewhere, but now you also get some more ‘80s hardcore influences.
Listen to “Life, Uh, Finds a Way” up against “Critique.” They definitely have their different influences, but they still fit into that patented dinopunk umbrella. We like to name-drop the Dead Kennedys and Night Birds as influences these days, too.
As people? Shit. Zach and I were in our early 20s, fresh out of college, drinking way more than we should have, young and vulnerable to the world. Trip and Phil have been good friends of ours for a long time, so getting them on board in 2017 was easy. Now, the difference is, we’re in our early 30s. Instead of killing a 30 pack of High Life and playing Rock Band in a college apartment, we’re splitting four-packs of pounders from local breweries, smoking meats, and having dinner parties at each other’s houses with the WAGs. Adults!
*Side note – Like I said, “Critique” and “Museum” were both written way back in the early days, but they were still tweaked and technically “finished” within the past couple years.
What kind of things kept you sane during 2020?
Speaking for myself, at least, this whole pandemic has been a crazy ebb and flow of productivity, creativity, and ambition. It’s been almost a year, and our last show was February 21, 2020, which feels like FIVE years ago at this point. My girlfriend Sam has worked from home this entire time, and we’re constantly finding ways to break up the monotony of staying in, not going to shows, not seeing friends, etc. etc. etc. I just keep telling myself to keep busy, work on hobbies, and not force anything when the creative itch isn’t there.
I’ve built a pedalboard, which is something I swore I’d never do. I’ve taught myself Reaper and how to record home demos, and I’m constantly finding new stuff to learn in it. Same thing with some animation/video editing software. I’ve wanted to do more visual art and painting, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Video games. Freelance graphic design projects for some side money. Anything to keep the mind and hands going and not just fall victim to Netflix and the weight of the world. Although we’ve watched some good TV and movies, too.
AND, that being said, there is STILL plenty of down time, or days where I come home from work and lack the energy to do anything creative.
Pittsburgh has a very vibrant punk scene. I feel like most folks know Anti-Flag nationally. What other Pittsburgh bands deserve some love?
Trip plays bass in Killer of Sheep – the exact opposite of FYD! – an old-school, politically-charged hardcore band that’s been around for years. He also plays in Feralcat, an instrumental, sax-led prog rock/jazz fusion/art rock band. Sup Roger! He did the sax on “Jiggly Jello!” Last, he’s also the bassist of The Burnrides – a ska band. I think that covers all current active bands that he’s in.
Aside from Matchbox 420/412, our Matchbox 20 cover band that played two shows and opened for Kyle Cook of Matchbox 20. But, that’s another story.
Phil plays guitar in the Star Wars-themed doom/grind/metal band Sarlacc and he’s drumming in another noisy project called Grybus these days.
Zach is an extremely professional model. Go follow @WeekendZach on Instagram.
Latecomer are our buds and lived in a van with us for a weekend in June of 2019, which we plan on doing more with them once the world gets back to normal.
Weird Paul RULES and everyone needs to listen to his stuff. Go look up Weird Paul.
Playoff Beard, Big Baby, Inco Fido, The Filthy Lowdown, the Scratch N Sniffs, Bat Zuppel, Rave Ami, Astrology Now. There’s a ton of good music in this little city. Shit, now I’m just getting excited to play shows again. There are plenty more, and I’m sorry to those I missed. Derek Zanetti has a band but I forget what it’s called. He’s a bud.
Outside of the Jurassic Park franchise, what is your favorite representation of dinosaurs in film?
Yoshi. Super Mario Brothers, 1993. Done. Did you know the producers of Jurassic Park loved the Yoshi animatronics so much, they almost brought the shop on as a second unit? WHAT A WORLD WE LIVE IN.
Fun little story. I remember Jurassic Park coming out in 1993, being five, and my mom making up stories about people who were getting grossed out and leaving the theaters, or puking from all of the violence. She made it sound like this grotesque grindhouse movie, which I never understood why?
Shout out to Carla, who is mentioned in our song “Jiggly Jello!” She’s definitely not some uptight lady – pretty much the opposite. But I never really got to see Jurassic Park until a few years later when Zach got a copy that his grandpa taped off of HBO. (We’ve known each other since first grade.)
What are you most looking forward to about this year?
Unfortunately, cramming a bunch of sweaty, sweat/spit/beer-soaked humans into a small room is probably THE LAST thing that’ll be opening up, but I can’t wait for the day that we can do it again. Until then, we’re gonna keep writing. Trip is building a home studio. Zach got some recording gear. We’re trying to do the remote-recording thing and see what comes of it. We have a spreadsheet of 20-30 songs in various forms of completion, so we’ve definitely been busy and productive. There’s been talks of doing a split, the inevitable LP number three, and even the early stages of planning for a concept album. There’s always something to work on!
Short term, I think we’re just waiting for the weather to break so we can do some outdoor, distanced stuff.
Since I’m the ska guy on the site, I need to know who your favorite ska band is and why.
Tie between Suicide Machines and Common Rider (RIP). Listening to both bands’ albums brings me back to driving around during the summer in high school. It just feels good and the production/songwriting of all of their material is perfect. Nothing too cheesy, nothing too serious, lyrically.
If Streetlight Manifesto counts, they’re a close second. Great musicianship and songwriting, great live show, and my mom comes with us every time we see ‘em. This is like, what, the third time I’ve mentioned her? Hi Mom!
Any last words?
Stay safe, stay healthy, stay sane. I think I can speak for the whole band by saying we all sincerely, sincerely appreciate any attention people give to our dinojamz. We’re just a bunch of close friends who make some goofy dinosaur songs. But, in the end, we still take this band seriously, making sure that everyone is having a good time, and we’re not just throwing wet spaghetti at a wall, hoping it sticks. Hope we can have a beer or two with yinz soon!
And, of course, thanks for having me Dane! Party on.
www.dinopunks.com – gets ya to any of our links
www.jeffgoldblum.org – to the merch