Oh No! and the Tiger Pit
Interview with Jason Sanchez
Words: PJ Cheng
Photos: PJ Cheng

On May 11th, Oh No! and the Tiger Pit played their last show in Gainesville as local residents before moving as a band to New York City.  Ben Mattison, Jason Sanchez, Eric Gordon and Even Mitchell have gone from playing covers to recreating a post-punk sound.  This summer will mark a new beginning for the Tiger Pit but before their farewell roars are heard, they wanted to comment on the place they've called home for the past several years by speaking about the scene, working with the brothers of Morningbell and reflecting on some of the more memorable show experiences. 

REAX:  Can you tell us a little about the history and formation of the group?
Jason Sanchez:  Eric, Ben and I were 3/4ths of a Ramones cover band, The Fauxmones, that played some shows and house parties around town.  We're good friends with the Atria brothers of Morningbell and they had us open for them at the Shamrock a few times.  All of the Fauxmones shows at actual venues were disasters, glorious train wrecks where equipment broke and we played out of tune for most of the sets.  But, that first Oh No! show was actually pretty smooth.  A friend of ours said that "I rocked his balls off," and really, what else can you do with a show?  Then Ben started writing originals and that forced us into thinking of ourselves as more of a band and less of a straight cover band.

REAX:  You have a sound that references vintage post-punk.  How would you describe your sound and how does that translate to the Gainesville music scene?
JS:  There's no one dominant songwriter in the band.  All of us come up with different things that we incorporate.  If you see us live, it becomes quite obvious that I'm highly influenced by Angus Young of AC/DC.  We were called indie rock once and I just think that's wrong, perhaps just too vague a label to apply to anything nowadays.

REAX:  How do you feel about the music scene in Gainesville?  Has it changed in the last few years?
JS:  The Gainesville music scene is a funny thing.  There are a lot of good bands and a handful of great bands at any given time in Gainesville and different sounds/genres, too.  I've heard people say there's too much hardcore punk or some electronic musicians will sometimes complain that they're overlooked and thumb their noses at rock bands but the whole thing is silly.  A great scene needs to have good hardcore, good electronic, good pop, good R&B, good rock and roll and there's always enough room for all of that.  The scene is always in transition because of the whole college town thing and the turnover that it creates with people.  Old timers look back fondly on old venues and the supposed hey-day of Gainesville music that churned out such "great" acts like Less than Jake and Sister Hazel (whose face I want to smash every time I see those damn Village Jeweler commercials around town).  But again, that's the nostalgia talking because the good old days are always better when you look back on them.  I think now, the scene is doing pretty decently. 

REAX:  Tell us about your previous and future releases?
JS:  We put out the six song Ripped Out My Heart EP last year on Orange Records.  We recorded that in a weekend at the Morningbell compound in Gainesville.  We're putting out a new LP on May 11th which we recorded over a five day period in Tampa at the Springs Theater.  It was a great experience and the guys there are total pros and I would do a cable access commercial for them. 

REAX:  What's your most memorable show?
JS:  We played a few shows at Tijuana Flats which has its perks like free beer, burritos and good pay;and its downsides like everyone is more interested in beer and burritos than live music and 2 hour long sets.  We played at an ice cream shop once and we had to clean it up because of the kids and families.  The weirdest show was the O'Connell Center show.  It was a benefit to raise money to fight cancer and we were (playing)down on the floor.  Nothing seemed organized, we didn't really sound check and above us, people were walking on a track to raise money to fight cancer.  So we played and it was so hard to tell if the crowd even wanted us around.  No polite claps after songs; no reactions to anything.  It was just a bizarre event all around and we played after the national anthem was sung barbershop style by a group of girls.