Platinum Boys hit the road, new album on the way

By Joey Grihalva

It’s shaping up to be a big spring for Wisconsin music. By the time beach weather arrives we’ll have new records from Whips, WebsterX, Midnight Reruns, and one of Milwaukee’s choicest rock outfits, Platinum Boys. The P-Boys second full-length — BUZZ — is a fantastic follow-up to their 2015 debut, Future Hits. A few singles, the Junior Varsity EP, plus a consistent touring schedule, kept fans — like comedian Marc Maron — satisfied in the meantime. The new album will be unleashed on the world March 30, via Chicago’s Dusty Medical Records.

Platinum Boys kick off their “Catch a Buzz Spring 2017” tour in Madison on March 10, at Micky’s with Fire Heads, Die Group, and No Question. The party boys will swing through about 20 other cities, including two shows at SXSW and a Burger Records festival in San Antonio. They’ll return home for the official BUZZ release show at Cactus Club on April 1, with support from Midnight Reruns and Dusk.

In anticipation of the new record and tour, I sent three of the four members of Platinum Boys a short, fun questionnaire, in honor of their fast, kick-ass tunes.

(The members being lead guitarist Matty Mayhem, bassist/singer Joey Turbo, and singer/guitarist Hollywood Hewz.)

What’s in store for listeners on the new Platinum Boys record?

MATTY
Listeners to the new record will definitely hear growth from Future Hits. We still got everything you love about fast rock n’ roll songs; guitar solos and all that fun stuff, but also we have a few slower ballads that I think listeners will enjoy.

TURBO
I feel like this record is more thought out than any of our previous releases. We took our time with it and in doing so it allowed us to move in a lot of different directions. It’s got a little more freak to it.

HEWZ
The new record will show how far we’ve come as a band. We’ve fine tuned our sound and are really excited to show people that we are more than just catchy riffs. Expect better lyrics, better songs, but still partyin’.

What do you love about being in Platinum Boys?

MATTY
I love that in Platinum Boys there are very little rules to writing the tunes. To me, that’s a representation of a part of the rock n’ roll lifestyle that Milwaukee hasn’t had in quite some time. In addition to that, writing songs with Joey, Casey, and Skufca comes very naturally and it’s always exciting when we lock something down and we all just kinda look at each other like, “We just did that!?”

TURBO
Everything is easy shit.

HEWZ
I love being in the Platinum Boys because we are best friends. I love playing live with my dudes and watching people sing back our lyrics to us all over the country. I love making friends all over the country. I especially love playing rock n’ roll music.

What is one of your favorite Platinum Boys road stories?

MATTY
We had a day off in New Orleans and got started in the French Quarter at like noon eating some amazing Po’ Boys. We met up with our buddies in the band Bottomfeeders and hung out by the river delta and drank beers for hours. They took us to a bunch of rad as heck bars and we ended up running into Nick Ziemann and Margaret Butler from GGOOLLDD and partied with them for a bit.

I ended up dancing like a fool to an amazing country rock band. After all that we walked back to the Lower 9th Ward where we were staying and I smacked my head on a open window pretty hard. We then got a cab to Bourbon Street at like 3 a.m. and continued the revelry. The last time I visited New Orleans I was like 10, so it was quite a different experience.

HEWZ
On two separate occasions I was gifted with LSD in Iowa City. The second time, I found the girls who provided me the acid the first time and inquired about it after the band we were touring with (CCR Headcleaner) got cut off at the bar for ordering pints of vodka. When I got to the chick’s house she said “Okay, open up,” and sprayed a bottle of liquid acid on my tongue and I started tripping immediately. I tripped far into the next day in the van and it ruled.

TURBO
My favorite time was in New Orleans. We were all low on money and heavily intoxicated, so we pretended it was Matty’s bachelor party hoping to score some free shit. We wound up being closer to being arrested than receiving anything for free.