{"id":807102,"date":"2020-05-05T05:39:03","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T11:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=993801"},"modified":"2020-05-05T05:39:03","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T11:39:03","slug":"mike-watt-cherie-currie-eddie-spaghetti-team-for-covid-19-relief-song-flatten-the-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/mike-watt-cherie-currie-eddie-spaghetti-team-for-covid-19-relief-song-flatten-the-curve\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Watt, Cherie Currie, Eddie Spaghetti Team for COVID-19 Relief Song \u2018Flatten the Curve\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Minutemen<\/a>\u2019s Mike Watt<\/a>, the Runaways<\/a>\u2019 Cherie Currie<\/a>, Eddie Spaghetti, Josie Cotton and more punk luminaries have teamed for a new COVID-19<\/a> benefit song, \u201cFlatten the Curve.\u201d Proceeds from the track will benefit the Jubilee Consortium and the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlatten the Curve\u201d was organized and produced by manager and musician Bruce Duff, while his Streetwalkin\u2019 Cheetahs bandmate Frank Meyer wrote the tune. In all, 31 musicians contributed to the four-minute ripper, which grapples with the strangeness of social-distancing while still hammering home its necessity: \u201cHey, you gotta spread the word,\u201d goes the chorus, \u201cFrom the inside flatten the curve\/Though you might be a little unnerved\/Please walk the line, flatten the curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duff tells Rolling Stone<\/em> that \u201cFlatten the Curve\u201d came about after the coronavirus pandemic brought a halt to touring, as well as band rehearsals and studio sessions due to shelter-in-place orders. Duff asked Meyer to pen the tune, and within 48 hours Meyer had turned around a fully-produced demo (\u201c[Frank] writes a song a day whether it\u2019s needed or not,\u201d Duff quipped).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Bruce told me the idea and asked me to work up a song idea, I knew right away it needed to be up-tempo and tense,\u201d Meyer says of the track. \u201cPeople are tense right now. <\/span> This is not a feel-good \u2018We Are the World\u2019 type of thing, although we did like the idea of an all-star cast of players. I wanted the lyrics to address staying home in a positive way, but acknowledge how stressful that is as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Duff got the demo, he asked Steve Kravac to replace the drum machine with live drums, and then started sending the song out to an array of artists, asking them to overdub their parts from the safety of their homes. \u201cThe response was great!\u201d Duff says. \u201cThe result has the energy and urgency the song demanded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watt, who\u2019s one of three bassists on the song, says, \u201cAs soon as I got the email request from Bruce Duff, I let him know I was in and came up with bass for the tune \u2014 he said I was the first track in! Glad to be aboard and hopefully we\u2019re part of something to help out somehow with this COVID-19 hell that\u2019s on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eddie Spaghetti of Supersuckers, a featured vocalist, adds: \u201cI\u2019m in a band that makes its living on the road, and that has been taken away from me for who knows how long, so this project is important to me on many levels. I have no idea when people are going to be willing to cram themselves into too small a space with too many in it, all sweating and mingling with one another again and that sucks! But we all need to be smart, stay home and try to \u2018Flatten the Curve!’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are dark times,\u201d says Cotton, who also sings on \u201cFlatten the Curve.\u201d \u201cHistorians will write books about it and scientists will be grappling with this for a long, long time but right now we just have to find a way to live through it and hopefully learn something in the process. This song won\u2019t change anyone\u2019s worldview per se but it feels great to be putting something positive out there for people to have a little fun with. I was thrilled to be included on a project with so many music legends and for such a good cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complete credits for \u201cFlatten the Curve\u201d are available below.<\/p>\n

Produced and mixed by Bruce Duff
Written by Frank Meyer
Pre-production by Frank
Engineered by all 31 participants in self-isolation home studios
Mastered by Paul Roessler
Digital cover art Cherish Alexander<\/p>\n

Performed by FTC
Label \u2013 FugThaCorona<\/p>\n

Drums: Steve Kravac<\/p>\n

Featured Vocalists (in order of appearance):<\/em>
Chris Freeman (Gay C\/DC\/ Pansy Division)
Manfred Jones (Woggles\/Magnificent)
Lisa Kekaula (The BellReys)
Adam Bones (The Two Tens)
Eddie Spaghetti (Supersuckers)
Ben Weasel (Screeching Weasel)
Wendy Stonehenge (Glitter Wizard)
Cherie Currie (Runaways)
Tony Reflex (Adolescents)
Suzi Moon (LA Machina\/Turbulent Hearts)
Frank Meyer (The Streetwalkin\u2019 Cheetahs\/ Blind House)
Josie Cotton<\/p>\n

Backing Vocals:<\/em>
Adam Bones
Cherish Alexander (Josie Cotton Band)
Chris Freeman
Kent Holmes (Brutalists\/Magnificent)
Frank Meyer
Savanah Pope
Ted Jedlicki (Thor)<\/p>\n

Bass:<\/em>
Mike Watt (Secondmen\/Stooges)
Norwood Fisher (Fishbone\/Trulio Disgracias)
Steve McDonald (Redd Kross\/the Melvins)<\/p>\n

Guitar:<\/em>
Adam Bones
Billy Rowe: (JetBoy)
Brian Coakley (Blind House\/Cadillac Tramps)
Brian Forsythe (Kix\/Rhino Bucket)
Deniz Tek (Radio Birdman)
Frank Meyer
Michelle Balderama (LA Machina\/Brainspoon)
Ray Violet (Jesters of Destiny)
Rich Jones (Michael Monroe, Black Halos)<\/p>\n

Keys:<\/em>
Aaron Minton (Prima Donna) \u2013 Theremin
Chris Freeman \u2013 Melodica
Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle\/Pharaoh Overlord) \u2013 synth
Melanie Vammen (the Coolies\/Muffs) \u2013 combo organ
Paul Roessler (Screamers\/Twisted Roots) \u2013 piano, organ<\/p>\n

\n

Popular on Rolling Stone<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Minutemen\u2019s Mike Watt, the Runaways\u2019 Cherie Currie, Eddie Spaghetti, Josie Cotton and more punk luminaries have teamed for a new COVID-19 benefit song, \u201cFlatten the Curve.\u201d Proceeds from the track will benefit the Jubilee Consortium and the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. \u201cFlatten the Curve\u201d was organized and produced by manager and musician Bruce Duff, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-807102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-12 02:39:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}