MF Ruckus, a local Denver band - If you haven’t caught one of their shows, you’ve probably seen their flyers/ posters on a pole or in a store window somewhere in the Denver area. The band is it’s own street team. They believe in the hustle of hard work. “Nobody is going to give a flyin’ fuck about your band as much as you do. You have a choice - you can pass the buck, blame and end up becoming bitter and jaded, OR you can take responsibility for every aspect of your music career.”
MF Ruckus is assembled from various bands that have long been scattered to the wind. Technically, they have only been a band for 2 years, (according to Ty, the band MF Ruckus didn’t start until April 2011) but the core group of members has been playing together for 15 fuckin’ years.
The band played for the first time in the spring of ’97 for a church youth group, calling themselves Fourth Yeer Freshmen. Fourth Yeer Freshmen toured for 10 years straight, at which time they felt there were as big as they could get, so they decided to change their name to: The Fourth Yeer, which seemed to just confuse people. After much arguing and listening to Wu Tang, the band came up with: MF Ruckus.
The current line up for MF Ruckus is: Ty Blooser, the drummer, and corner stone in a group of misfit retards. He’s a logical thinker who helps keep the band together. According to the band, “He learned to play the drums in 1 day at the age of 18.” Logan O’ Connor is the bass player whose hands are like Thanksgiving turkey. He’s also the band’s muscle. Parker Clark-Whitton (who took over for Jerry) plays rhythm and lead guitar. Parker is a wild card who rages on stage, chases girls, and co-writes a lot of the songs. He’s also a major workhorse. Tony Lee plays lead guitar and is a ladies man. He rocks out on stage with his pretty hair and gets the band high. Aaron Howell sings vocals and is the band’s promoter and show boater. He writes most of the vocals and likes to show off his ass, pecker, and his huge balls. All you have to do is ask - Tony’s happy to show them off in front of the crowd. (Believe it or not, he’s calmed down a lot.)Believe it or not he’s calmed down a lot.)
When the band Fourth Yeer Freshman came to an end in Denver and the band Road Crew came to an end in Chicago, our guitar player Tony moved to Denver and surfed couches for a year while writing songs with Aaron. After Tay Hamilton left to form Hot Apostles, the band snatched up Parker Clark-Whitton from The Outta Controllers/ Rosary. The rest is all history, a long history, of death, divorce, and gender reassignment. A lot has happens in 15 years…
MF Ruckus, like the name suggests, are about bringing the mother fuckin’ ruckus! If you have been to a MF show you have seen that ruckus. Aaron the lead singer of the band jumps around on stage at times as if he is having a seizure - but he’s just playing air guitar and feeling the power of the music. From running and jumping around the stage, swinging from the ceiling, climbing onto the roof of a bus, waving a Colorado flag while singing; “Friends for Exces,” to being initiated into The Denver Turbojugend by having cans and cans of tall boys sprayed all over them, MF Ruckus put on a very entertaining show. Believe it or not, Aaron was a theater nerd and went to The Denver School of the Arts where he studied theater. By that he means he “went to class a few times and did some plays before discovering rock n roll, booze and chasing ass.” He openly admits to being a complete attention whore, which can be a good thing for a lead singer. Mostly he just likes to have a good time with people. “Nothing makes my night like seeing a room full of smiling, sweaty, drunk people with their fists and glasses in the air.”
MF Ruckus just finished a new album that is also accompanied by a DVD documentary put together by Mike Peterson from SixEleven Productions. To accomplish this, Mike took 12 shows worth of footage, 8 hours of interviews and who knows how many additional hours of B-Roll - chopped it up and synced it to the audio from the record. It’s full of gay jokes, marker sniffing and drug use. “Trying to cram all that into a one hour documentary is a pretty hellish task.”
The launch of this album was also the kick off to their latest tour in which they performed at the Westword Music Showcase and the Underground Music Showcase. At the time of this interview the band was on the road to Seattle touring in their RV which Tony named, “The Mother Fuckin’ Honeysuckle Rose,” (in honor of his hero; Willie Nelson.) This is the environment in which they flourish. “Every day, we work. Every night, we play. We go to bed sweaty, drunk and exhausted. We get up every morning hung-over and ready to do it all again. We handle it like a business though - which can be a little weird.
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