"In a Rowboat Going From Rooftop to Rooftop..."

That's a bass made out of a washtub to the right. Classic.

In his final answer for this interview, Walt Liquor made the dark and prophetic joke that he'd stay in New Orleans even if it meant living in a rowboat going from rooftop to rooftop over the flooded city. That was a week before the storm Katrina ever existed. Now, lost in America, Crooks & Nannies are touring without a home to return to along with their also-displaced friends A Particularly Vicious Rumor. We proudly introduce these phenomenal bands at a time when they could probably use a little extra support.

Listen to Crooks & Nannies on our compilation.

W & A: Walt, you really get the demons out on all the instruments I've heard you play: banjo, accordion, and fiddle. Do you play anything else?

Walt: That's pretty much it right now, I played piano as a kid, and play a little saxophone in a few other projects around town right now.

What's your musical background? I can't tell whether you learned in school, had a gypsy grandfather, or just taught yourself.

My dad is a piano and harmonica player, so music was around growing up. I took piano lessons for a while, and played saxophone in school. I played guitar in a few garage bands in high school, noisy 70s punk rock-type projects. I got really sick of moving big amps that broke alot, and trying to fix cheap electronics in guitars, so i rebelled and got a banjo, and learned a bunch of old time songs. I broke my wrist when i was living in seattle, and couldnt play banjo for a while, so i borrowed a friends' fiddle and accordion, and spent alot of time practicing left hand accordion and squeaking out fiddle tunes. i liked them enough to keep with them after sawing my cast of a few weeks later, and have been irritating housemates ever since.

The songs are by you and Nina C. Nichols. Do you write together or is it all individual songs that you bring to the group?

We write almost everything seperately, and then bring it to the band. It surprises me how similair our songwriting styles are, i forget sometimes who wrote which songs. It's changing now that i'm writing more songs on accordion, they definitely have a different feel to them.

How did you come to have a washtub bass in the band?

The washtub made alot of sense for us, we wanted some lowend, and electric bass just didnt fit. It's hard to find an upright bass player in this town with any free time. There are lots of professional players, who need to get paid, and the others have a line of musicians wanting them to play in their project. So, enter the washtub, which can be built for about ten dollars and have a pretty accomodating learning curve. Lorent had never played one, but built one and within a few weeks was quite the virtuoso, so it worked out.

Who did the cover art on your self-titled LP? Can folks buy it online?

Miss Nina did all the art on the album, and has a lovely line of sock monsters available if you need a dancing partner for the music. You can email us at Crooks_and_Nannies@hotmail.com for either of these fine collectors items.

Favorite places to play in New Orleans?

The Dragons Den is my alltime favorite place to play and to see shows. It's an old opium den that burnt down awhile back, above a thai restaurant. It's nice and dark, lots of red light, mirrors and ghosts. It also always sounds good, lots of big hanging carpets that help the acoustics alot. We've also started having shows at the Country Club, which is a swankly decorated gay bar with a clothing optional swimming pool. They've been really helpful for setting up bigger shows, and are really down with the freaks and punk rockers invading the ritzy halls of the place. It makes for a nice mix of crowds, and its great to be able to jump in a pool after you play.

I was really struck at the Melvin's show that there's not much else that sounds like Crooks and Nannies. Very New Orleans but sort of in a realm of its own. Who are your big influences as a songwriter?

I started writing songs heavily influenced by old time appalachian music. Listening to recordings from the mountains of kentucky and north carolina, it always blows me away the mood they create, spookier than anything nick cave has done. moving down here confused things a little bit, I';ve started picking up a more ragtime feel on the banjo, those big clunky short chords, and the carnival circus performance aspect. Looking more contemporarily, Southern gothic stuff like Trailer Bride is an influence, and Yann Tiersen is the first composer who made me want to play an accordion. I love what Smog can do with the format of a song, drawing out a few lines until he hits you with the punch line at the end, like a good Flannery O'Connor story.

What albums are you currently into? Weird stuff you'd recommend that people might not have heard?

I'm really enjoying this Brown Recluse record right now, theyre a band from Sanfran, just guitar and some beautiful noisy strings, they came through here last week with Full moon Partisans, another great band, that sounds sorta like if the ex were russian and doing talking heads covers. Fanfare Ciocarlia's Radio Pascani is a pretty intense Romanian brass band record, it's crazy stuff.

Tell me about your upcoming tour plans. Where can people find info online?

A mutant version of Crooks and Nannies is going on the road in September, with A Particularly Vicious Rumor. Nina isn't able to come with, so it will be myself, with a particularly vicious backing band, consisting of J and Olivia from APVR on drums and accordion. We'll be playing a fair amount of stuff from the album, along with some new material, including some dueling accordion madness. The west coast will bring a few more friends and instruments, our bass player is out there and will probably travel up the coast with us, as well as a clarinet perhaps? You can get the dates online on APVR's website, at www.myspace.com/aparticularlyviciousrumor

Where do you wanna be a year from now?

The name of our tour is I'd rather die in New Orleans, and the sentiment rings true, i'll probably still be in this town, hopefully in a house with air conditioning and a stove. Maybe in a rowboat going from rooftop to rooftop over the flooded city with my legions of trained rodents armed with sharpened sticks, a boy can dream...