Header image credit: @rosequeenphoto
In September 2023, Jeff Rosenstock released his fantastic fifth solo record, HELLMODE, and announced a sweeping US tour to support it. That included an early date at Cat’s Cradle, a beloved venue in Chapel Hill where I’ve seen Jeff (and many other artists) put on performances that range from memorable to all-time great. There was just one “problem” of sorts: that show was the night before a different concert I had planned to attend for months.
“So what?” My past self said. “Musicians do this shit all the time. Why not me?”
Y’all, I don’t know how they do it. Not only was I wiped out the day after a frantic mosh-filled evening, but not even strategically timed caffeine could rouse me to do it again that night. My partner and I carried on to the second show — Rozwell Kid and Colleen Green at The Pinhook in Durham — and practically melted into the seats that faced the stage. That’s where I first experienced Plastic Flamingos in all their ska-punk glory.
Despite how tired I was, their performance gave me energy. They stood out and perfectly fit a fun bill, with Rozwell Kid serving as Colleen Green’s backing band before ripping through their set. After launching the website, I reached out to the band, and we scheduled an interview/bowling hangout after the holidays. It was one of the best venues to chat with a band like Plastic Flamingos, who are as talented as they are goofy and humble.
What have y’all been listening to lately?
Nick: I’ve been listening to a lot of Sorority Noise, Mom Jeans, that sort of just grimy emo stuff. It’s not really the vibe of our band at all, but hey, I’m here to play bass. [laughs]
Brian: Nick got me into Vulfpeck recently, so I’ve been listening to a lot of them. My partner and I have been really enjoying that. And then outside of that, I’m pretty boring. I just listen to the same shit over and over again. It’s the same ska playlist I’ve had for the past 7-8 years.
Kevin: I’ve been listening to a lot of Hot Rod Circuit since I’m gonna go see them on Monday.
What was the moment that got each of y’all into music?
Nick: I started off on drums because my dad played so we had a drum set at home. I was like, “Well that’s sick, I want to learn to play that.” I got a guitar a couple years after that, because I wanted to learn how to do that. And then in 7th grade, my friends wanted to play a song at the talent show, but no one knew how to play bass. So I decided to learn and then kept playing bass.
Kevin: My mom listened to a lot of music in the house all the time, so I grew up listening to a lot of Motown. She had a really great early heavy metal record collection, so she had a ton of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, and rock stuff like Emerson, Lake & Palmer. So I grew up with that, and then I just kind of fell into music with friends.
My first band was in middle school with a bunch of friends and I was the singer. We broke up very quickly, but the drummer left his kit at my house for like six months. So I messed around on it. It was really nice because his dad had done road work with Ozzy Osbourne or some shit, so I had this awesome drum kit to learn with.
After that I started going to shows and started a new band called Closet Heterosexuals. I was on drums and my really close friend was our bassist, but neither of us knew how to play well. Somehow we ended up with two really good guitar players, one of whom was famed Hollywood actor Oscar Isaac. They were both so good that they kind of dragged us along with them. We knew everyone in the scene, so we did the work of being in a band while they were the actual talent.
Brian: My parents told me I needed to learn an instrument. I really wanted to learn the trombone, but they said, “Your cousin has a clarinet she doesn’t use, so…” That was in first grade. And then in seventh grade, similar to Nick, I picked up the bass. My first band’s name was A Perfect Perspective.
Nick: How emo were you?
Brian: Not at all! We were just a band, playing rock and roll. We did covers of Green Day. I didn’t even know what a perspective was when I came up with it, I just liked the alliteration.
Kevin: I’m just picturing a band where everyone has the same shitty hair swoop.
Brian: I mean, I did for a brief moment. When we changed our name to 15 Minute Heroes, we definitely did. Bass was my main instrument all the way through college. Then my friend and I were both bassists and one of us needed to play guitar, so I did it. Since then I haven’t played bass in a band and it makes me sad every single day.
Elliott: I started listening to Queen as a kid. My parents had News of the World on vinyl and I learned how to use their record player so I could listen to it over and over. I started discovering rock bands in middle school, then punk rock. I got obsessed with Sonic Youth and kept listening to whatever I could find.
What’s the history of Plastic Flamingos? How did y’all get started?
Brian: Basically, I was in a creative rut when I moved here. My last band broke up because I moved to Raleigh and I needed an outlet. Sometimes restrictions cause creativity, so I gave myself the restriction of writing songs that were “Jimmy Buffett but punk” and that really helped get out of my rut. After that I started meeting some people like Elliott and Kevin, who I’ve worked with before in short-lived things.
We decided to put our talents together and eventually got tired of the Jimmy Buffett aspect of it. That ended up helping because I felt free to write whatever. The more the band started to become fleshed out, the less restricted we got, and I was feeling more able to do the style that I want to do, which is where we’re at now.
Elliott has the most responsibility out of all of us, outside of the band. He’s married, he’s a dad, and he also lives in Carrboro, so it’s the furthest drive. He’s been in the band for a while and is our wild card. Sometimes he might be late, but he’ll also take a song I write and make it the opposite of what I was expecting in the best ways.
How long have y’all had this four-piece lineup?
Brian: Less than a year. Nick joined in April 2024. The previous lineup was Kevin, Elliott, myself, and another bassist named Ryan, who decided to sow his wild oats. We’re still really good friends and we love the bands that he’s in: CO-ED DORMS and Covenant Eye.
We had some issues finding another bassist but then Nick came along and he understood the prompt. He’s been able to play all the dumb things I’ve been writing and it’s been great because he’s very precise at his playing.
Kevin: Which makes me have to be better. [laughs]
Nick: I’m glad that Brian has a background in bass because most times when people are writing music, they don’t understand the role that bass is supposed to fill. They’ll just be like, “Straight eights on the root notes,” but you get that it should be fun. You can add other things to the bass part that will fit and complement the rest of the song.
Brian: Once Nick joined, we were getting into spring and summer time, and it was like, “Shit, we need to get ready for playing set lists and stuff like that.” We slowed down more than I wanted to but things have stabilized and we’re able to keep up our momentum more this year. But that’s just the nature of a band: people end up coming and going for whatever reasons.
Kevin: And being in a band when you’re an adult is hard.
Nick: I felt like the show we had last weekend [It’s SKAmplicated showcase at Local 506] was awesome.
Kevin: That was a good pick-me-up to get moving. Playing to a full room helps. [laughs]
Brian: Yeah, that was great. I think the band would officially break up if Kevin left though. That’s the honest truth.
Kevin: I’m not sure why.
Brian: Well we have a very good working relationship. You do all the business and a lot of the outreach. I’m able to sit back and work on the material. Without Kevin, no one else is going to do it. I don’t want to do it. He’s been doing this for over 30 years and knows how it goes, which really helps us. Just him being like, “Okay, this is how you get shows. This is how you can book a tour. This is how you can reach out to these well-known acts and try to get booked.” Without that, we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are now.
Kevin: One of the best things would happen to us was forming during COVID. When everyone was doing those livestreams, we hosted a couple of our own. And because we had been a part of The Fest scene for a long time — my first time going was Fest 2 — I knew a lot of bands enough to reach out. When we were hosting those, it didn’t cost anybody anything. We just said, “Hey, send us a video of three songs,” and got a bunch of bands from around the US, the UK, and people I knew through second or third connections.
That helped get our name out. Seeing us with bands people already knew, even though we were completely unknown, was super helpful. Then when we started doing live shows, we picked up some really good gigs because we reached out to bands during COVID. One band, Catbite, are younger and have a plan to be a legit band. We weren’t that, but we reached out, got to be friends, then got the offer to open for them when they came to town.
You go to enough festivals, meet people, and kind of press them a bit and it becomes a two-way street pretty quick. Just having your face out there and getting to know people goes a long way.
Brian: Unfortunately, I’m no longer powered by alcohol, so I don’t have that energy or that untethered “don’t give a fuck” energy.
Kevin: I was blessed to not have to have alcohol to do that. Which is why I’m in sales.
After Nick joined the band, did y’all get back in the rhythm of playing shows and also writing music? Or was the writing going on before you found a new bassist?
Brian: So I write our songs and when I’m doing that, I program drums and everything. I do that all on my end, and then I send it to the band as saying, “This is generally the idea. Here are segments of the songs that are necessary to keep as is, but then let’s just do whatever.”
Before Nick joined, we already had what was originally going to be our second album all written. There were like 25-30 demos and everyone got to vote on their 15 favorite songs to bring to record. We had those whittled down, but then when Nick entered the picture we wanted him to have equal weight into the voting.
Kevin: And then Brian went full-on autocrat. [laughs]
Brian: Every now and then I have of moment of not chaos but going, “you know what, fuck this, let’s try to do something different.” Originally, the album was almost like a double EP, with four songs of old material that was recorded when we first started. They were rushed, I wasn’t comfortable singing that much because I was rusty and we just got it done to put something out. But those songs are still in our repertoire, so I figured, “Why not do these songs right?”
So the first half of the record would be those songs, and then the rest would be hinting at the newer sound. We finished those last year and then I sat with it and decided we needed to do two more songs. We just wrote two more songs with this current lineup and are going back to the studio in February to finish them off.
You mentioned going into more of a ska direction and y’all are looking to expand the band. What is that process like?
Brian: I thought you were going to be like, “are y’all going to get horns?” There’s been such a desire to have horns.
Kevin: But there is not a desire to have more people in the band. [laughs]
Brian: I would love to expand and have different instruments, but sadly that’s not going to happen. Also, most of the horn players that are in ska bands here are all dedicated to one band. I really appreciate that and I don’t want to poach anyone. But it is a bummer that at the ska showcase, everyone had horns, and then the headlining band had zero horns.
Otherwise, sound-wise, the big thing is that with having two guitarists, which is not as common in a ska or ska punk band, Elliott is our horn line. He does all the lead lines and leaves me to do the rhythm. That’s how we’re making lemonade with these proverbial lemons of not having a horn player or keyboardist.
When it comes to the writing aspect, it all started when we had the song “The Shore”, which our old bassist Ryan listened to the demo but not well enough to notice that it was a ska song. He just heard the fun bass line I wrote, and he was like, “Okay, that sounds like it would be fun.” And I was like, “All right, you just opened up Pandora’s box, so now I can write more ska.” It’s liberating to be able to write and not have to go, “well, this doesn’t sound like a Plastic Flamingos song,” and being able to experiment a little more.
With that local ska showcase you put together, what was the process of getting that booked?
Brian: The hardest part was finding a date that worked for like 20 people. There were just so many different band members, and having to be like, “Okay, can you guys swing this?” Even then, there were some people that couldn’t even make it. Some members of Sound System Seven couldn’t make it. Hector from The Unsustainables couldn’t make it. But that was the only date that worked.
I only reached out to one venue, which was Local 506, and asked Steven, “We have these dates, eh?” And he was like, “Here’s what we can do.” After that, it was really just smooth sailing. Thankfully, all of those bands are also filled with adults that are able to just be like, “Let me look at my schedule real quick. [short pause] Yeah, that works.”
Kevin: One of the nice things about being in a band these days is the technology aspect of life. We have a Discord, so we pop it up to chat. It’s so easy now, you don’t have to wait until you go see that person. Or call them on the phone, God forbid.
Who are some of your favorite local or DIY bands?
Brian: The first band that comes to mind is Pangolin, our best friends from Orlando, Florida. There’s Hans Gruber and the Die Hards from Austin, Texas. We already mentioned Catbite, but they’re from Philly. American Television is a great hardcore punk band from Washington D.C.
Kevin: Narsick, Distortions, Manic Third Planet, Worthington’s Law, Teens in Trouble. Ruler, who fucking killed it at our show.
Brian: That was their first show too and it was amazing.
Kevin: Another good local band is Covenant Eye. There’s also Ghost Town Remedy out of Nashville.
Brian: Some other bands to call out would be Bumsy and the Moochers from Chicago. Dad Hats from Nashville. There are so many great bands out there that are better than us, which is also what our upcoming single is about.
Oh yeah?
Brian: It’s called “Third Place Regatta Winner” and it carries on my classic self-defeatist tongue-in-cheekiness of talking about that we’re not the best band. We know, in this area, we’re not the best band. In this state, we’re not the best band. We’re not going to be the best band. I don’t think we’ll ever be anyone’s favorite band. And that’s okay. We’re always going to be third place.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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