BY VANESSA SALVIA
Little Punks
Face Eater rhymes with space heater.
T
hree 14-year-olds and two 16-year-olds
have emerged on the Eugene punk
scene with a band called Face Eater. I
spoke with Cassidy Kane, the group’s 14-year
old drummer, and guitarist Max Schramm, who
is also 14.
The young musicians have been exposed to
a wide variety of music throughout their lives,
thanks to family members’ influence. Kane’s
mother is Raenie Kane, drummer extraordi-
naire who’s played with numerous local bands
including The Danged and, currently, The
Shudders. Schramm’s father plays guitar while
his mother runs the stage at Saturday Market.
Vocalist Vince Marucci’s father is the owner of
House of Records. His stepfather works there,
along with Raenie, and both are walking ency-
clopedias of musical knowledge.
With so much exposure to music, it’s no sur-
prise the boys turned to performing for personal
expression. The fivesome, including bassist
Robin Clemmen and Jesse Lynch on guitar, are
friends from school. All but Clemmen attend
South Eugene.
The idea arose 11 months ago “to jam to-
gether just for fun,” according to Schramm. “It
started out as me, Kassidy and Robin,” he ex-
plains. “We decided to get together and jam and
it kind of turned into a band.” The crew honed
their chops playing Nirvana songs, although
that influence has since been dispersed. “Now,
we’re playing all our own stuff,” says Kane.
When asked to describe their music, Kane
and Schramm each speak a few words, com-
pleting the others’ thoughts on the subject, with
the consensus being “rock with a hardcore in-
fluence.”
“Two of the bands that we’re into the most
are Minor Threat and Black Flag,” says Kane.
The friends are big into Fugazi right now; also
MC5, The Descendents, Stooges, and
Minutemen. In other words, just some of the
best punk and rock music ever made. With con-
fidence Kane says, “Of course we think highly
of ourselves, but I’m not sure how much some
of our influences show.”
The name Face Eater was chosen because it
rhymes with “space heater” and also because it
was part of an inside joke, which initially mani-
fested as Face Burner. The catchier name stuck.
The pair says that the best thing about play-
ing in a band is the music, plain and simple. “It’s
definitely not about popularity or anything like
that. It’s just about playing music and having
fun.” Kane follows that up with a quick,
“Yeah!”
Kane and Schramm wrap up our conversa-
tion by letting me know that Face Eater holds a
vaulted place in their world. “Face Eater is the
most important thing. Well, maybe not the most
important, but it’s the thing we all enjoy the
most,” Kane says. “By far,” they both say at
once.
The group will perform at Agate Hall on
Oct. 29 at 8 pm, with local bands Entropy and
20th and Kincaid.
Folk fans will enjoy Zoe Lewis’s perform-
ance at Sam Bond’s Garage on Oct. 28, along
with Brian Joseph. Lewis is a soft-spoken trans-
planted Brit (originally from the seaside village
of Rottingdean) who now hails from
Provincetown, Rhode Island. She has a unique,
vaudevillian approach to folk music, and finds
her modus operandi in whatever inspiring
events and people she’s privy to. In Lewis’s
world, everything is worthy of a song, and the
result is a joyous outlook that celebrates the
seemingly mundane.
One song, “Pies for the Public,” is about an
elderly neighbor and friend whose cupboards
were so bare she could only make one pie. She
sold the pie for ingredients to make a few more
pies, then sold those, and eventually found her-
self with a thriving pie business. Another a cap-
pella song pays tribute to a London flower
seller. Between tunes Lewis banters with the
audience, encouraging them to hoot and holler
if they like, or just sit back and listen, perhaps
enjoying a pennywhistle solo.
ew
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