Perpetual Werewolf

By Roger Barrett

Born from the remaining members of the short-lived Man The Helm, Perpetual Werewolf (Ruben Regalado, Nicole Sexaur, Drew Beckham) have become the definitive band of the venue-shifting Fayetteville punk scene.

Having played every house show venue in recent memory (search YouTube), as well as popping up in Smoke and Barrel, George’s and Rogue, Perpetual Werewolf have become an engaging live act.

Combining the epic riffs of The F’ing Champs and The Advantage, with late ’80s and early ’90s era spazz punk of Angel Hair and Antioch Arrow is a good start to describing PW’s evolving sound.

The music has an upbeat feel that makes the vocals and heavier parts weirder and unsettling.

Early song and live staple, “I Always Get The Villain,” could easily score the chase scene to any ’70s horror movie, while the band’s newest material has become more complex, and almost doom metal.

Ruben and Drew (guitars) have a complimentary dynamic that has become signature, and use effects to compliment a song, not hide behind. One listen to “Astronomurder” confirms this — there isn’t another band in Arkansas that sounds like Perpetual Werewolf.

The band, with members in their late and early 20s, reminds you of a time when punk was alienating, unexpected and fun. After a show at Smoke and Barrel, I threw some questions at the band and they were polite enough to answer in complete sentences.

Your band is from all over. How and why did you end up in Fayetteville?

Drew was living in Joplin … shit hit the fan, he just needed a different town to live in. Ruben and I (Nicole) moved here from San Antonio, Texas, at different times. I moved here with family and he moved here to be with me.

For Drew and Ruben: You guys definitely have your own dynamic as guitarists. How long did it take you to come up with your sound? Tone? Vibe? Etc.?

It just kind of happened really, it didn’t take very long. We just played whatever we thought sounded cool and different, effects wise, using things we already had.

Most bands seem to start out differently than they end up. Is this true for PW?

Yeah, definitely. We actually started off as a different band, we play some of the same songs in PW, but they’re pretty different than when we played them in Man The Helm. Even with the oldest songs we play, we’re constantly changing them and adding things.

You have played lots of houses and venues. Any fond memories? Feel free to name drop bands you’ve played with.

The New Deli house circa 2008, which was our first show ever as Man the Helm. We played with Old Time Relijun, Mouser and lvrs//htrs. And recently we played the VOV festival in Hot Springs with The Chinese Stars, Fang Island, Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers, Mother Hug and Our Friends Fall Silent which was really cool because we’re huge fans of the Chinese Stars. There’s way too many to name here, but some other awesome bands we’ve played with are The Counterlife, Egyptr, Friday, Maybe Saturday, High Magic, Daniel Francis Doyle, Attractive and Popular, Church Of The Snake, Color Club, Pink Drapes, Ginsu Wives, The Al Gore Rhythm, Giants, Fashion Show, The Paper Chase and tons of others.

Other than a split seven-inch and a track on the Arkansas Punk compilation, is there any recorded PW material? Will there be any releases in 2010?

We did a split with three other Arkansas bands, called Bizarkansas, with Church Of The Snake, Color Club and Ginsu Wives. Though, you can’t really get it because we don’t have any more of them. But you can listen to the song “Pulleys” on our Myspace. It may be put out as a seven-inch. We are working on recording a full length this July and hopefully we’ll have it out shortly after that.

Any upcoming shows you want to talk about?

We’re playing a show Friday, April 30, at Smoke and Barrel with Cold Mold, Awesome Color and Hair Police. Cold Mold is Bobby Missile and Anna Wingfield from Church Of The Snake and Color Club, respectively. That will be our last show for a while, we’ll be taking a break from playing shows because we’re going to be working on finishing songs and recording.

Listen to “Our Bodies Work” by Perpetual Werewolf at www.myspace.com/perpetualwerewolf.