RICHARD REIDEL and the CCQs

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Interviews with the CCQs

 

CCQs ARE ALRIGHT
CRINGE Magazine

Josh Sleeping Horse of CRINGE Magazine recently sat down to interview Richard Reidel and the CCQs at the studios of WNBG radio at Newburgh.  The group's leader, Richard Reidel, was unable to participate in the interview due to an adverse reaction to a mandatory flu shot.

JSH:  Thanks for coming here, guys.  For the purposes of the interview, can we begin with your names?

CCQ:  No.

JSH:  No?

CCQ1:  They're not important.

CCQ2:  We're the CQs, man.  

JSH:  But for print, it would be a lot easier if we could use each of your names.  You know, the readers.

CCQ2:  They'll understand.  

CCQ1:  It's like, this is who we are, you know?.

JSH:  But what do you call each other?

CCQ1:  "Hey".

JSH:  No names?

CCQ2:  Not important.

JSH:  Okay, then.  How about we just print "CCQ1" and "CCQ2" in the article?

CCQ2:  That's cool.

JSH:  Well, now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about the band.  You both play guitar and sing.  Who plays bass?

CCQ1:  We do.

JSH:  And drums?

CCQ2:  We do.

JSH:  You both play all the instruments.

CCQ2:  We move pretty quick.

JSH:  What role does Richard Reidel play in the group?

CCQ1:  He's the leader, man.  He's the Big Kahuna.  Without him, man, we're nothing.

CCQ2:  You don't even want to think about it.

JSH:  Does he contribute to the songwriting?

CCQ1:  Songwriting, singing, guitar, drums ... man, he can do it all.

CCQ2:  He's like the Liaison Lady, except he's a guy.

CCQ1:  He's got the flu right now.

CCQ2:  Flu shot, you mean.

CCQ1:  Same difference.

JSH:  You play a hard, gritty kind of music.  What are some of your influences?

CCQ2:  No, man, we don't do any of that stuff.  It's against Regs.

JSH:  I mean, musical influences.

CCQ2:  Oh.

CCQ1:  Ramones, man.  They were the first.  Kings of Punk, you know?

CCQ2:  Sid Vicious, Ian Dury and the Blockheads ...

CCQ1:  Probably some Offspring, probably some Green Day.

CCQ2:  Stranglers.

CCQ1:  Black Flag.

JSH:  Okay, got it.  What are your songs about?

CCQ1:  You know, the usual stuff.  Boodle.  Quill.  Uniforms.  Discrepancies.  

CCQ2:  Mail.  Haircuts.

CCQ1:  Important stuff.

JSH:  So, you write about parts of the West Point experience which resonate with you.

CCQ2:  Yeah, pretty much.

JSH:  Do you ever worry that people outside won't "get" your songs?

CCQ2:  Like where, Navy?

JSH:  Annapolis, Highland Falls, New York City ...

CCQ1:  It's up to them.  We just sing what we feel.  If they don't get it, they can listen to somebody else.

JSH:  That doesn't sound very audience-friendly.

CCQ2:  We don't mean any disrespect.  We just are who we are, you know?  We write what we write, 'cause it's important to us.  If we tried to change it, it would be like asking that Da Vinci guy, "Hey, that's a nice picture of the Mona Lisa, but can you make it look more like my sister Donna?"

CCQ1:  Yeah, something like that.

JSH:  How did the band begin?

CCQ1:  It was Plebe Parent Weekend, and I was playing guitar in the showers.  You get really good echo in the showers, especially when the water's off.  So I'm playing around ...

CCQ2:  You were playing "Something Else"

CCQ1:  Yeah, by Sid Vicious, and I look up and there's this guy standing there.  And he's holding a Telly.

JSH:  A Fender Telecaster?

CCQ2:  Yeah, sunburst, white pick guard, the real deal.

CCQ1:  So I says, "You wanna play?"  And he starts in with "Blitzkrieg Bop", by the Ramones.

CCQ2:  Hey, ho, let's go!

CCQ1:  So we started jamming, and we found we had a lot in common. Next thing you know, we were writing songs.

CCQ2:  We wrote "Are You Alright?" in, like, ten minutes. 

CCQ1:  And after that was "Liaison Lady", which took, like fifteen minutes.

CCQ2:  And then "Tactime".

JSH:  Was Richard Reidel involved?

CCQ2:  Oh, yeah.  He's the guy who sent me in there.  He's the guy who inspired us.

CCQ1:  We're just tools, man.  Reidel's the mechanic, we're just the tools.

JSH:  So you've been playing together for about two years.

CCQ1:  Yeah, we'd play every chance we got.  Other dudes are in the rack, we're playing.  Other dudes are at Grant Hall, we're playing.  Other dudes are on the computer, we're playing.  That's how you get good, is you gotta play.

JSH:  What was you first official gig?

CCQ2:  Besides the latrine?

JSH:  Yes.

CCQ2:  Cullum Hall, right?

CCQ1:  Yeah.

CCQ2:  Cullum Hall, for a Plebe Hop.  

CCQ1:  Gotta start somewhere, right?

JSH:  And then?

CC1:  Well, the first thing was to get established on base.  We did the First Class Club, the Library Stacks, the Fourth Regimental Stoops -- anywhere.  We didn't care.  And then after that, to get some gigs off base.

CCQ2:  Within the Regs, of course.

CCQ1:  Yeah, wherever we could go for a weekend leave or OPPs.  

CCQ2:  Bear Mountain, Highland Falls.

CCQ1:  Tough town.

CCQ2:  Newburgh, Poughkeepsie ...

JSH:  You recorded a live album in Poughkeepsie, didn't you?

CCQ2:  Yeah, it was live at the VFW.  Awesome gig.  They even fed us.

CCQ1:  Free food is good, man.

JSH:  So, where do you go from here?

CCQ2:  Well, I got a term paper to write.

JSH:  No, I mean, what's next for the group?  Where do you go from here?

CCQ1:  We need to make a couple of videos.  I dunno.  Wherever we can.  We'll just keep playing, and when people wanna come listen, we'll play for them.

JSH:  Any more albums in store?

CCQ1:  Maybe.

CCQ2:  We'd have to write more songs first.

JSH:  Do you see yourselves making any money from this?

CCQ2:  Nah.  Not much.  Maybe.  If we get enough for a can of Brasso and a couple of cans of Kiwi, that's cool with us.

JSH:  Well, I want to thank you for your time and for your insights.  I wish the group the best of luck, and please say "Hi" to Richard Reidel for me.

CCQ1:  No problem.

CCQ2:  Dude, you got any boodle?

Reprinted by permission

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"Ladycliff"?  What?
Wally Palmer, Newport News

 The minor punk phenomenon, Richard Reidel & the CCQs, are known for their power guitars, snarky vocals, and quirky lyrics about life at the U.S. Military Academy (a.k.a., West Point).  But how about those lyrics?  Wally Palmer of the Newport News sat down with the band to discuss some of their more obscure references.

WP:  Congratulations on the success of your music. 

CCQs:  Yeah, it's pretty cool. 

WP:  Sometimes I get lost in the lyrics, though.  I mean, you don't have to be a West Pointer to enjoy the songs.  But correct me if I'm wrong, some of the songs refer to things which aren't really relevant anymore?

CCQs:  Like what?

WP:  Ladycliff, Big Ed, Liaison Lady …

CCQs:  It's all relevant.  Whaddya mean?

WP:  Well, according to my research, Ladycliff no longer exists.

CCQs:  Look, we don't just write great music.  We also think of ourselves as historians.  Look, West Point has been around for more than two hundred years.  There's a lot of history here, man.  There's lots that went on before we got here.  So, we've tried to preserve some of that history in our songs.

WP:  For the purposes of our readers, then, would you mind explaining some of the more obscure references in your lyrics?

CCQs:  Shoot.

WP: Let's begin with Ladycliff.  You mention Ladycliff in "The Gate Swings Both Ways".

CCQs:  Ladycliff was a Catholic women's college that used to be right outside the main gate.  They closed it down around 1990, I think.  Lots of cadets used to date girls from Ladycliff.  Nowadays they use the buildings for the West Point Visitors Center, and a museum and a bunch of other stuff. 

WP:  Big Ed, in "Get a Haircut".

CCQs:  Big Ed was a famous barber for a lot of years.  He was known for giving real short haircuts.  If you walked out of there with white walls, you were probably in Big Ed's chair.

WP:  White walls?

CCQs: You know, real short around the ears.  Lots of skin showing.

WP:  How about "Liaison Lady"?

CCQs:  For a long time, CCQs carried a black leather envelope between the Cadet Company Commander's room and the company Tac's office. 

WP:  For the benefit of those who don't know -- what's a Tac?

CCQ:  It's a company Tactical Officer.  This is a regular Army officer who is like a military faculty advisor for a company of about a hundred cadets.  He's like God, man.  He's way powerful.  Or she.

WP:  Thanks.

CCQs:  Anyway, this envelope contained all kinds of official correspondence and stuff.  It was called the Liaison Envelope.  The CQ carried it back and forth twice a day.  So we came up with this name for a female CCQ, a "Liaison Lady".  It's our own name, it wasn't ever in common usage.  People didn't walk around talking about "Liaison Ladies".  It wasn't even in Bugle Notes.

WP:  What does the term, "Are You Alright?" really mean?  Does it mean, "Are you okay?"

CCQs:  For a long time, cadets had these plaques next to the door of their rooms, which contained each person's name who lived in the room.  These plaques were called "cards".  When you went out of your room, you had to mark your card.  This means you had to indicate where you were going.  Well, the CCQ would walk around the halls at night, and he or she would check these cards in each room within the company.  He would poke his head in your door and ask, "Alright?"  This means, "Are you where you're supposed to be?"  Sometimes they would even catch you in the hall, going to the latrine or whatever, and they would ask, "Alright in the hall?"  If you went outside your room at night, you had to mark your card appropriately, or else you'd get in trouble.

WP:  The song "Tactime" is full of weird lyrics.

CCQs:  "Tactime" is a goof on a company Tactical Officer, or Tac, that we used to have.  He was pretty much a dweeb, and we used a bunch of his favorite sayings to write "Tactime". 

WP:  In several songs, you use the term "P"?

CCQs:  That's short for "Professor".  Cadets referred to their teachers as "P"s for years and years.

WP:  In the song "As For Class", you talk about misdirected mail.

CCQs:  Back before cadets had their own personal mailboxes, the CCQ used to pick up a sack of mail each day from the Post Office.  He'd bring it back to the company area, and the plebes would deliver it.  Also, the CQ would have to go get the misdirected mail from the Message Center.  This was mail that had a bad or incorrect address, and would get sorted and re-sorted after the plebes tried to deliver it.  So, the CQ made two mail runs each day: once to the Post Office for the regular mail, and once to the Message Center for the misdirected mail.

WP:  In the song "Get a Haircut", there is a line which says, "Aren't you in First Reg?"

CCQs:  Historically, First Regiment was the toughest place to be assigned.  If you were in First Reg, it was assumed that you were straighter than straight.  Part of that was having a real short haircut.

WP:  You mention "hops" in a few songs.

CCQs:  Come on, man.  Everyone knows what a hop is.  A hop is a dance.

WP:  But isn't that a term from the 1950's?

CCQs:  This is West Point, dude.  Need we say more?  Anyway, they'd have these hops on most Saturday nights.  If you didn't have anything else to do, like go to the library and study, you'd go to the hop and try to score girls or get depressed.

WP:  The song "Liaison Lady" contains a reference about a "June Week wedding".

CCQs:  Today they call it "Graduation Week".  For a long time, cadets used to graduate in the first week of June, and all the ceremonies during that week used to be called "June Week".  Because you can't be married at West Point, huge numbers of cadets used to get married right after graduation, and these were called "June Week weddings". 

WP:  Well, thanks so much for clearing these up.  I know many people will listen easier now.

CCQs:  It would be easy to just write songs about today.  But like we said, there's so much history in this place, we think we ought to talk about some of it.  'Cause after all, some of it's pretty funny.  I mean, where else are you gonna hear a word like "boodle"?

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CCQs REFLECT ON THEIR FIRST STUDIO ALBUM
Harry Kiester, TOONSMITH Magazine

 

The underground success of Richard Reidel & the CCQs has headed the band into the recording studio to record their first CD, "Are You Alright?".  TOONSMITH's Harry Kiester sat down with the band to discuss their latest project.

HK.  Congratulations on your first studio recording.  By the way, where's Richard Reidel?

CCQs.  He couldn't make it.  Had to study for a PR.  He says he's sorry.

HK.  You've been a performance band up until now.  How did you change your approach in the studio?

CCQs.  We tried not to change anything.  We wanted the CD to sound the same as our performances.  We owe it to our fans.  It was cool being able to double-track a few things, but we didn't do too much different.  We had to add some echo here and there, to make it sound like a live concert.  But other than that, not too much.

HK.  Let's talk about the songs themselves.  I'll mention a song title, and you fill in the details.

CCQs.  Cool.

HK.  "Are You Alright?"

CCQs.  That was the first song we wrote, so we figured it should open the CD the way it opens all our concerts. 

HK.  Is that also why you picked it for the album title?

CCQs.  Affirmative.  It's a pretty simple song.  There's like only 4 chords or something.  It's about the room checks that a CQ would have to do during the evening study hours.

HK.  At West Point.

CCQs.  Where else?

HK.  Tell me about "Liaison Lady".

CCQs.  "Liaison Lady" is the second song we wrote, like ten minutes after "Are You Alright".  We just dove right into it, without even thinking.  We began playing the chords, and the song almost wrote itself. 

HK.  Many people are confused about just what a "Liaison Lady" is.

CCQs.  For a long time, CCQs used to have to carry this leather envelope back and forth between the company Tactical Officer and the cadet Company Commander.  This envelope was called the Liaison Envelope, and it was full of official correspondence and stuff.  So, we pictured a female CCQ carrying a liaison envelope, and we called her a "Liaison Lady".

HK.  Did you base the song on a real cadet?

CCQs.  Nah.  We made her up.  We never knew a female cadet who was that hot.  We really like the song, though.  It's got good bass and drums, and the chords are great.  We've always said that "Liaison Lady" would be to the CCQs what "Strutter" was to KISS.

HK.  Okay. 

CCQs.  You sort of have to listen to KISS to get that.

HK.  How about "As For Class"?

CCQs.  We began playing this little guitar riff, and we built the song around it.  "As For Class" is a uniform that cadets wear when they're pulling CQ duty.  So, we wrote the song about different duties that a CCQ has to do.  Some of those things they still do, and others they don't do anymore.  We've tried to bring a sense of history into many of our songs, and "As For Class" is one of them.  Like "misdirected mail".  CCQs don't deliver misdirected mail anymore, but they used to, and we thought it was important to put it into the song.

HK.  "As For Class" has a bluesy sort of guitar and vocal.

CCQs.  Yeah, it's not as hard-edged as most of our other stuff.  It may be the most commercial song we recorded.  Who knows, maybe it'll sell, like, a zillion copies.  People seem to like it.  It's the most requested song at our MySpace page.

HK.  "Don't Treat Me Like a Plebe".

CCQs.  It's kind of Beatlish.  Good melody.  Like "As For Class", it's about a bunch of plebe-ish things that cadets have to do.  Some of these things they still have to do, others they don't.  Basically, the message in "Don't Treat Me Like a Plebe" is "Dude, get off my back already."  It means, "I've got enough trouble, I don't need more from you."  Incidentally, this is the last song we wrote.  Up to this point, anyway.

HK.  "The Gate Swings Both Ways".

CCQs.  Ah, now there's a hell of a song.  We really liked writing this one.  It's a revenge song.  It's based on an old saying which means you can get thrown out of West Point just the same way you walked in.  The "gate" is Thayer Gate, which is the main gate to West Point.  The song basically says, "What goes around comes around."

HK.  What do you think of the recording?

CCQs.  It's cool.  It's got good chords, and we used these jungle-like drums to give it a different beat from the rest of the songs.  We wanted it to sound sort of scary and dangerous, which it is. 

HK.  There are a lot of obscure West Point references in this song, like Section Marcher and Ladycliff and "P" and Green Girl.  Do you worry that people won't understand them?

CCQs.  Well, we can’t just sit down and explain them to everybody. Look, if they like the music, they'll go along with the words.  Or not.  It's their choice.

HK.  "Get a Haircut".

CCQs.  This is the song we close all our concerts with, which is why it will appear last on the CD.  Like, how do you follow "Get a Haircut"?

HK.  It may be the fastest song on the album.

CCQs.  Yeah, we like it that way.  The faster the better.  We like the middle of the song, where the drums and the bass and the guitars all get their own solos.  Also, it's got cool chords.  You've got to have good chords if you're going to do them over and over again.  It's just the same four chords throughout the whole song.  We like it during our concerts when people get up during "Get a Haircut" and turn the place into this huge mosh pit.  We like to see them slam into each other.  One day we're actually gonna give somebody a real haircut onstage during this song.  People would go wild.

HK.  "Tactime" is a hoot.

CCQs.  "Tactime" is a goof on a company Tactical Officer we used to have.  He was kind of a jerk, and he had all these weird little sayings.  We just wrote the song from these goofy sayings.  He used to make us sit through these lectures on Monday nights, about military history and crap.  It was a real snooze.  We used to catch a lot of Z's during those lectures.

HK.  "No Discrepancies For You".

CCQs.  This is one of our favorites.  It's got great attitude.  This is another "get off my back" song, about a CQ who's being pressured to write people up for security violations.  That's what a "discrepancy" is.

HK.  What do you like about the song?

CCQs.  Well, besides the attitude, it's got good chords and a really good middle eight.  We pushed the bass and drums up a little bit in this one, to give it a more "thudding" sound.  The guitar solo is also pretty good -- it's simple, but it works.  Good vocal harmonies, too.  We don't normally do too many of those.

HK.  "Turn Out Your Lights".

CCQs.  There are some people who think this is the greatest song ever recorded.  No kidding! 

HK.  Why do you suppose they think that?

CCQs.  The song has pretty good energy.  Those guitar chords just hit you in the face.  You could hang a tank on them and they'd hold up.

HK.  What's the song about?

CCQs.  Each night the CCQ has to do a "lights out" check at midnight.  He or she has to check every room in the company and make sure the lights are out.  He can't go off duty for the night until this is done.  This song is about some jerk who refuses to turn out his lights, and the CQ is arguing with him about it.  "Turn Out Your Lights" is the fourth song we wrote, after "Tactime".  That's why it will appear fourth on the CD, when it comes out.

HK.  Do I sense a pattern here?

CCQs.  Pretty much.  Basically, the songs will appear on the CD in the same order we wrote them, which is also the same order that we play them in concert.

HK.  One more song -- "Table Board".

CCQs.  "Table Board" is a lot of fun.  We wanted to write a rockabilly song, 'cause we love that kind of stuff.  That's how "Table Board" got written, right from the opening guitar.  It's got this loosey-goosey feel to it, like you're weak in the knees or something.

HK.  What's it about?

CCQs.  "Table Board" is all about the Mess Hall, where cadets eat.  It's this massive old dining hall, right in the middle of everything.  West Point has millions of these old traditions that used to happen in the Mess Hall, and we tried to inject them into the song.  The title comes from a mock-trial, where somebody at the table makes an etiquette mistake and everybody yells, "Table Board!"  It's like an Honor Board, except it happens in the Mess Hall.  When you lose a Table Board, you probably lose your dessert. 

HK.  Now that the CD is recorded -- what's next for Richard Reidel & the CCQs?

CCQs.  We're not sure, really.  We suppose we ought to make some videos, but we're not too good with a camera or anything.  Maybe Reidel knows somebody.  Anyway, we're just glad we put the songs down on CD, 'cause lots of people don't get the chance to see us in concert, and this is mainly for them.  So now it's time to go to Grant Hall and grab a burger.  You wanna come?

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