Golden balls

Their name may not be as familiar to those outside the pogo monarchy as The Offspring or Blink-182, but Goldfinger do a roaring trade on the international pop-punk circuit. Already on their fourth studio album Open Your Eyes, the quartet recently sold out the Astoria and the Garage in London, and similar venues throughout Europe and the States.

A curious mixture of the slapstick stock-in-trade of the genre and more mature lyrical and musical themes, Open Your Eyes is the sound of a bunch of miscreants on the brink of growing up. Bass player Kelly LeMieux explains: “A lot of the songs on the album are kind of ‘wimpy,’ a little too wimpy for my taste. But John [Feldmann, frontman/songwriter] felt he needed to get some stuff off his chest.”

Feldmann himself is at least as strange a decoction as the new album. He has been a vegetarian and active animal rights campaigner for six years. He is vehemently anti-First Amendment, as is evinced with crystalline clarity on Open Your Eyes track ‘FTN’ (Fuck Ted Nugent). He is a sought-after and technically proficient producer. And all this while maintaining the requisite sophomore sense of humour to write such nonsensical nuggets as ‘Spank Bank’ and a 50-second version of the tongue twister ‘Woodchuck’.

But also on the record are an anti-MTV polemic (‘Spokesman’) and a song about Feldmann’s tempestuous relationship with his father. Our boy is definitely growing up; the reason we didn’t get to talk to him in person is because he’s on his honeymoon. So what does LeMieux – still single, shirtless and ‘hardcore’ – think of all this nuptial needlework?

“Marriage has actually affected our guys (Feldmann and drummer Darrin Pfeiffer) in a good way. Darren was a little too out of control, you know, beating up cops and stuff like that. We needed him to mellow out. I like it when the girls come out, because I don’t have to deal with the guys’ insanity.”

Despite all this suspiciously ‘settled’ behaviour, the band still tours constantly. For LeMieux and Feldmann that is the prime directive of the band, regardless of the attendant hardships.

“It’s a gruelling lifestyle,” he admits. “A lot of people don’t understand what goes into it. They think you show up and magically you have all this energy. They see the tour bus and say, ‘Oh you must be a millionaire, you own that bus.’ No, dumbass, we’re renting this bus and it’s costing us a fucking arm and a leg, so go buy a goddamn T-shirt and one for your girlfriend too, so I can feed my dog when I get home!’.”

Touring may be Goldfinger’s bread ’n’ butter but they are also aware of, and keen to explore, new technological media. As well as listed tracks, Open Your Eyes offers prank phone calls (courtesy of Pfeiffer), a German-language version of ‘Spokesman’ and an enhanced CD portion featuring deeply silly tour footage and an honestly harrowing montage of animal abuse in farms accompanied by the acoustic track ‘Free Me’.

The strange brew of bathos and pathos may take some getting used to, but LeMieux claims it’s a worthwile investment. “It’s a good record. We’re a good band, man. We try to make our music as entertaining as possible. I mean, I like mellow stuff too. I loved the last Coldplay record Parachutes, and I love Sade’s early stuff. But with bands that rock, I want them to rock. Balls out or nothing. Our balls are out. Know what I mean?” I think so.