After taking a sip of his blackberry smoothie, Brian Peoplis, drummer of the Milwaukee-turned-Madison band The Box Social, can't help but bestow some wisdom upon his bandmates.
"Do you know that Naked almost introduced a smoothie that was peanut butter and jelly, but they said it was too good and just so thick and so delicious they couldn't introduce it?" he inquires, to receive responses of horror. "I kid you not. True Fact."
"Peanut butter and jelly mixed together, and you can drink it? That's so sick!" guitarist Nick Woods exclaims before asking for a drink of his own.
Twenty minutes later, Peoplis is back to spouting random facts in top form.
"This is a bold prediction," the comedic journalism major says out of nowhere, "I'm gonna go Bucks 62 and 10 for next season — no, 72 and 10 — we're gonna tie the Bulls all-time record in wins. That's right from me."
Bassist Dave Griesbach is quick to chime in and back up his home team.
"The ten will be sympathy losses, too, when we're not playing our real players because the playoffs are already clinched."
There are bands that take themselves way too seriously and still others who are simply a joke — and then there's The Box Social, a happy medium of four average guys from around Milwaukee who can carry one hell of a tune and have a good time doing it.
The band, whose sound is reminiscent of Phantom Planet or, as vocalist Nick Junkunc describes, "like Nirvana playing Tom Petty music," has undergone a great deal of transition since its beginning in Milwaukee basements during Junkunc's and Peoplis' high school days. Despite changing line-ups numerous times, the guys of The Box Social finally seem to have come into their own with guitarist Woods and the group's newest addition, Griesbach.
"The basement scene let us sort of fuck up over and over and over again without any negative consequences until we kind of figured out how to get things going," Woods says.
These days, the group is working toward recording a new album and taking the sound back to its original, poppier direction. Each member of the No Karma Records band plays his own unique role in the ensemble, with Junkunc penning all of the songs, Woods handling business matters and Peoplis and Griesbach in charge of bringing great joy.
"Basically, we're the bring-the-thunder section," Peoplis says.
"Well, first off, we're the rhythm section, so that implies thunder alone. We're pretty much the tightest rhythm section in history," his partner in crime, Griesbach, jokes, "but when we're not doing that, we're pretty much forcing these guys to rage PBRs in the van — while it's not moving, of course."
It's antics like these that keep the boys' tours interesting. While on the road, they've stayed overnight in Wal-Mart parking lots around the nation, succumbed to malt liquor-fueled Pizza Hut eating contests and even had their equipment stolen from the van. Yet, according to them, the tours only keep getting better.
This past summer, the boys of The Box Social hit the road with songs off their EP Blown to Bits on a West Coast tour that took them through Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego and back around through parts of Arkansas and Tennessee. With gas prices soaring to new heights and a $65 expense each time they filled up their Dodge Caravan's tank, the tour could have easily become a total bust. Luckily, responsive crowds made navigating nearly 7,000 miles of open road in their trusty soccer-mom vehicle worth every dime.
"What I really liked about Washington was the show we played there was like four different bands, all completely different genres — like there was a super hardcore punk band, us, a 3-piece kind of bassy noise band and then a jam band, and everyone stayed pretty much throughout the whole show," Peoplis says.
After confessing that even he wouldn't have sat through an entire show of random bands, Junkunc says it can sometimes be difficult rousing the Madison masses to attend The Box Social's shows, and his bandmates finish the typical scenario, hardly missing a beat.
"Oh, you're on East Wash. Ummm …" Junkunc begins.
"… Man, I just cracked open a 60 pack, and I've got an Orv's in the oven, there's no way I'm walking down to see a show now," Woods jokes.
All kidding aside, the young band has thoroughly enjoyed the transition from their Milwaukee roots to becoming University of Wisconsin-based, especially in regards to the opportunity to play to a wider audience in all of Madison's 18+ venues.
"Half the time, or more than half, all of our friends are under 21, so when we play at bars, it's hard to get anyone to come there," Griesbach says. "It's like all your friends are trying to sneak in with like IDs from Virginia."
"If you have a city that's composed of entirely 21-and-up bars, it's like, there's no place for a band to grow," Woods says of the importance of 18-and-up venues. "By the time you're 21, you haven't been making any money in a band or whatever and it's not fun to play when you're 17 if there's none of your friends there to watch you."
Tonight, The Box Social will take to the stage of one such 18+ venue when they open for UW alums Rainer Maria at the Annex and they're looking forward to playing for a crowd of their peers.
"It'll be a good show and we want to meet everybody who's there. We're really not as big of assholes that I'm sure this interview is implying," Woods says.
Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show kicks off at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. For more information visit www.intheannex.com or check out The Box Social online at www.theboxsocial.net.
