Meet Stunt Drummer, Jesus Lizard Superfans Who Are Bringing the Noise-Rock in Portland
Portland, Oregon’s Stunt Drummer didn’t have one for the longest time – an inside joke that the band eventually decided should be its moniker. They eventually found one to play on their 2023 self-titled debut – only for the band to swap drummers again for their recently released second album, Warm Up, Tiger.
Join The Bad Penny as we talk with guitarist/vocalist Marty Buckenmeyer and bassist Ethan Schee about the challenges of getting a band off the ground, our mutual love for the Jesus Lizard and why Stunt Drummer decided to record live in a small room with minimal overdubs.
Oh, and pick up Warm Up, Tiger here.
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For those of you who prefer reading than rotting your brains by watching an inanimate object for hours on end, here’s a transcript of the interview:
Hello everybody, this is Kurt Orszag again, a music journalist of three decades, and I still can’t kind of believe that when I say it, but thank you for joining us for another conversation with a new band, a new-ish, that I had the luxury of getting approached with this week and instantly fell in love with their music, and they very kindly and generously agreed to do an interview on this lovely Sunday afternoon. The band is called Stunt Drummer, and we have Marty Buckenmeyer, right? That’s right. On guitar and vocals here with us, and we also have Ethan, is it Schee?
Ethan
Schee.
Kurt
Schee, okay, on bass. So that’s half the band. We’ll talk a little more about the other guys, I’m sure, as we have our conversation, but I guess for starters, just so we can kind of lay the groundwork here, you’re based in Portland.
You’ve always been based in Portland, right, with the band?
Ethan & Marty
Yes.
Kurt
Okay. Okay.
And did you form in 2023 or 2022?
Ethan
Do you remember? 22, was it 22, Marty? Maybe even earlier than that, maybe 21, or I think 22, kind of. I remember COVID kind of dwindling right around the time. It was like, it was, I mean, I’ve known Erik for a bunch of years before, and you’ve known Erik for a ton of time.
Yeah. And it was us getting together and just playing was one of the first kind of like breakout and see other people things that I had done since isolation.
Kurt
Your previous band, right? Oh, no, no, COVID Isolation, sorry.
Ethan
COVID Isolation, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it’s a great name, COVID Isolation is a great name for it.
Kurt
And you’re referring to Erik Becker, who is also a guitarist and vocalist with the band, and then the fourth member.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah, go ahead.
Marty
Yeah, it was just the three of us, Erik, Ethan, and I initially kind of like Ethan said, sort of getting together just informally, just to have something to do in person with people and play some music. And yeah, that, and it took a while for it to coalesce into a band and we can talk about that.
Kurt
Okay.
And were all three of you friends at that point, in the initial stage or?
Ethan
Yeah, well, I met Marty at that first practice that we got together with, because he and Erik are pretty old friends. I’ve been playing around in bands in Portland for probably like the last 15 years or so. I was in a band called X’s for I’s and another band called The Cut 45 that were all, those bands played shows with Erik’s bands and we were kind of connected up with that.
And he was in, he was in a band called the King Hen and then American Friction was the other band that he was in. And we did our, we did shows together for a bit, kind of booked each other on to things, kind of helped each other out with stuff. And then started, we just kind of kept in contact as neither of us had bands, but Erik had kind of a basement setup that was always like welcome to have friends over.
And we had both been playing around here for so long that there was just a kind of a good flow of like random musicians coming in and out of there. And yeah, that’s where we all, where this all kind of started was in that spot. But we had been like, I had wanted to do something with Erik for a while before that.
And I actually like was looking back through old like voice memo things of just like little recordings that I had made at home. And it was in COVID time when I had just kind of figured that I was maybe not going to be playing with anybody else for a while. And I was just going to be on my own.
So I just kind of like fantasized projects of when I could actually get people together and play. And I found like three or four things that were just like, introduce this to Erik Becker. Like this would work with him or something like that.
Like a couple of, like a year or two before he called me and said, come over, my friends are playing music. So it had been hoped for for a while, but that’s my history. I met Marty that first practice.
And then, I mean, there is a story to the term stunt drummer. And so there’s like many rolls through of that. So that’s maybe a story for later in there.
But that’s when we met. And I know Marty, you got a long history with Erik as well too.
Marty
Erik and I know each other from Cincinnati back in the 1990s.
Kurt
Wow, okay. So,
Marty
and we both ended up out in Portland kind of separately. And so, and we have kind of, yeah.
So we’ve been friends for a long time.
Kurt
Did you guys share membership in any bands out there?
Marty
No, we were not. Neither one of us were playing music at that time.
Kurt
Oh, wow, okay. Yeah. Ethan, I think you said X’s for I’s was one of your bands, right? Yeah, yeah.
That was very early 2000s, I think. That sounds, that rings familiar. Of course you remember.
What label?
Ethan
We didn’t, that one didn’t ever have a label. We made a couple, we made like a full length recording and I think an EP that we just made some physical CDs of and put stuff up on Bandcamp. But X’s for I’s was not a completely singular name.
I think once we put it out there in the world, we realized there were a couple other ones out there too. But yeah, we just kind of did stuff around Portland and made way more CDs than we ever sold. There’s still a lot of them in my garage.
And the next band that I had, The Cut 45, would usually get like, we would hand out a record and like stuff like three or four of the CDs into the sleeve as well from the X’s for I’s shows.
Kurt
Well, hold on to it because I interviewed a musician who’s 30 years old yesterday, or a couple days ago. He’s got a brand new band as well.
And they put out their first release on cassette. And I mentioned something about CDs. He was like, oh, I hope we can put it out in CD too.
And I was like, really? It’s coming back around, I think. I guess it is. I mean, I kind of get the kitschy novelty of cassettes, but those things also wear out after you play them like 30 times.
Ethan
And then CDs are like clumsy. The Vinyl Revolution, I think, is really cool because you get all the art. They’re real physical.
Kurt
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not only that, but it’s like books where you can put in cabinets. And when people come over, you can have a conversation about them.
I mean, people don’t display their CDs usually in somewhere where you can kind of like go through the artwork and everything. So OK. Yeah, yeah.
So you guys, 2002, I did want to ask you about your 2023 release just to get some clarity. That’s a self-titled album. It’s on Bandcamp, and we’ll be sharing your links and stuff later in the interview.
But I wanted to just make sure this is factually accurate. You guys consider that to be an LP and not an EP, right? Yeah, I think so. OK.
Ethan
Yeah, there’s enough on there, I think, to, yeah.
Kurt
OK. Because whenever a release hovers around like 20 to 32 minutes, I just always kind of ask bands, can you classify it? But that makes sense because the materials that I read said that this new release is your sophomore.
Ethan
Yeah. LP. It was purely like a digital release of us just having a big stockpile of stuff made up that we just wanted to get out in some form or another.
It never made it to a physical tape or CD or record or anything like that.
Oh, I see. OK, cool, cool.
So in some ways, this is like your first tried and true foray. That’s all I consider, yeah.
Ethan & Marty
Yeah, yeah.
Kurt
Did you guys, part of the reason I checked out your music really quickly was because, and I don’t really do this too often, but Alex, he’s the label owner of In Music We Trust, right? Is this correct?
Ethan
Yeah, he’s the PR. In Music We Trust, yeah.
Kurt
He’s PR, OK.
I’ve known him for probably 25 years. He’s a great guy, and I’m happy I relied with him because he’s a tremendously kind person. But anyway, going back to my point is I usually don’t look too closely at the R-I-Y-L recommended if you like.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the five bands that were listed in yours are like probably all of my top ten favorites.
(Marty or Ethan)
Oh, who is that?
So Jesus Lizard, Thriller, J-Hope, Ozzy, Pissed Jeans, and I’m wild.
Yeah, sorry, go ahead. Yeah, perfect, yeah. In fact, I did wear my Jesus Lizard shirt in honor of the interview.
Ethan
Nice. Yeah, I don’t know if you can. Yeah, no, just minutes before, I checked out your top five of 2025, and McClusky came up on that one, which was something we all took a band field trip to about a month ago.
Kurt
Oh, cool, oh, cool, yeah. How far were they? I haven’t seen them live. How far were they?
Marty
Oh, it was fantastic.
Ethan
So good, so good, yeah. I think I’ve seen McClusky maybe twice now, and what’s his other one? Future of the Left once, and yeah, always great, always great. Super funny and just, like, super tight.
Kurt
Great. Top notch performance, yeah. Yeah, it’s always good when a band has, like, you know, it used to be more common, I think, in the 90s, where bands had, like, this kind of sarcastic, wry personality.
I’m thinking, like, the Shellac and Quicksand.
Ethan
Yeah, yeah, very aligned with that, very sharp-tongued. This last time around, I actually think he was having a little bit more of a good time, and that ended up making it not as funny of a show.
Like, even before, I think he was a little cranky, and it made the ribbing that he gave a few audience members was just awesome. But never disappointed. Yeah.
Kurt
I did want to ask you, and I guess I might as well ask now, is have you guys seen any of those bands I listed? Do you have any memories of, like, maybe a game-changing concert experience?
Marty
I mean, it’s funny. On a number of those bands, like, we’ve all gone as a band to see, I think, Unwound, Jesus Lizard, and what was another? I forget if you said McClusky in that list. But it was, yeah, like, I think all of those have been, are influential, and, yeah, I mean, I can just think of seeing.
I saw Jesus Lizard in, like, 1997 or 8 or something in a tiny basement bar in Toledo, Ohio, and there might have been 20 people there, which made me really sad that there were only 20 people there. But, like, they did not, like, they put on the same kind of show that I’ve since seen them play when they’re playing for hundreds of people. And, you know, it was a kind of place that didn’t have a stage at all.
So David Yow was just, like, it’s just in the bar, and he’s just running around. And, I mean, I still feel like this might have been a hallucination, but I’m pretty sure that he was, most of the show, he was kind of in a somewhat of a, like, fight, physical fight and struggle with a man with only one arm. That’s just kind of my memory of the whole show.
And it was like, yeah, this is amazing.
Kurt
Yeah, I wouldn’t, well, you know what? They have that song, Nub, which is… I forgot about that. Yeah.
Ethan
Yeah, I don’t think I caught any of those bands on that first round of things. I lived in a fairly small northern California town.
It took about two hours to get to a city to a show. So I tried, and I got to a lot of stuff. But those guys, like, unwound, I saw them at one of the most recent reunions, and that was amazing.
I heard. And, yeah, Jesus Lizard, same deal. But, yeah, they’ve been band field trips.
It’s been awesome. Yeah. We all kind of came together on it.
Kurt
Yeah, it’s like a common denominator between, I think, all the bands it listed is, you know, I think of all those bands as being very engaged with the audience and their concerts. And I’m wondering if you kind of wanted to do the same with your shows, you know, if that maybe kind of was something you aspired to be doing.
Ethan
Definitely.
And, I mean, that speaks to kind of maybe the smaller crowds a little bit, too. It’s just, like, I remember one of my old bands that I was in, like, it was, we were doing a show. We were doing a show with, like, three other bands.
A couple of them were touring, and it was a middle-of-the-week thing, so there wasn’t, like, much of a crowd that showed. Also probably something else going on in town that had a bigger draw. So, you know, like, we did our best to, like, help out the bands that were coming through town.
But one of them had been, was on the tail end of a tour, and it was going pretty bad for them. And they finished their set, and we clapped and made it as loud as we could. But the bassist was just like, “yeah, thanks, we’re done. Stick around for your band, because you’re next.” And that’s, like, but, I mean, I, it’s always been something where I like to be close to, you know, connected to whatever’s going on, because I’m either up there playing or just another form of it is I’m down there watching. I don’t feel like, you know.
But, you know, I play an instrument, so I want to be in that part of it, too. You know, if I was a camera, if I was a filmmaker, I’d want to be filming it. If I was, you know, a sound guy, I’d want to be a part of it that way.
Marty
But that’s, that’s, it’s just like, like a flow of everybody through it. And I think that our shows have been evolving to where they’ve been getting more, where we’re bleeding out into the audience, too. I kind of feel like we’ve got room to grow on that front, but it’s, you know, Erik is finding himself more and more in the crowd.
And I think we like, you know, there’ve been some venues here in town we play where there is no stage and you’re literally on the floor with everybody. And to me, that’s the most engaging and electric, you know, you really, it feels more like a, just, it feels more informal.
Yeah.
That’s great.
Ethan
At the release show, I was safer on the floor as far as like knocking anything over that was like set up for a microphone or running into you guys. Like I had to actually step down to, to like manage to like stretch.
Kurt
How long ago was the release show?
Ethan & Marty
A couple weeks now. Yeah, a couple weeks ago. Okay.
Kurt
Yeah. I don’t know if this question is really relevant anymore, but I’m going to ask it anyway. Like, are you finding that Portland is receiving you guys really well? I mean, and the reason I preface that by saying, I don’t know if it’s relevant because it seems like, you know, there used to be a preponderance of cities with like scenes, you know, and it doesn’t, it’s hard to tell if there’s really scenes anymore because everything’s so digital, but does Portland have a scene? And if so, like, have you kind of been welcomed there? I mean, I think there’s been bigger ones in the past, but there’s something here now.
Ethan
It’s like, we’re, we, you know, we’re of an age where we like, I think a lot of people that, you know, play this kind of, play this kind of music when they were younger, probably don’t as much anymore. Like, but like in this town, there’s a, there’s at least a lot of folks like like-minded folks and there’s enough places to play small, dirty shows and enough bands to like hook up with and do them together. I know that, like, I mean, I haven’t lived in a lot of other cities besides this, but it just seems like that’s not as much of an option in other places, but there’s, there’s at least like, if not a scene, there’s a little bit of a culture around it, you know?
Kurt
Good.
Marty
I would think that, I think there’s a lot of stuff going on, actually. I think there’s a whole scene here. That’s, I keep waiting for it to blow up nationally.
Cause I just feel like there’s so much bubbling and there’s so many creative bands out there. And most of them, you know, of a generation below us, but are just out there doing some really cool stuff. And there’s just, it just, I don’t know.
I’m inspired every time I go see a show around town and see what’s happening and like learn about another new band who’s, you know, branching out and kind of spreading Portland to other parts of the Northwest or the West coast and doing tours. I just, you know, it’s, it’s pretty amazing. Awesome.
Ethan
Yeah. There’s a lot of people just doing it because they love doing it. And like, if that’s a common thread through all of it and I don’t know.
Yeah. Whatever, whatever age, whatever style, whatever, anything like there’s the through line is that people keep making stuff up here, making music up here. I like it.
Kurt
It’s yeah. It seems like it’s still fertile ground for, for, you know, starting bands and everything. It’s such a great city.
I’m in Boise, Idaho and it’s almost like every year the governor comes out and at some point says like, you know, what, when, when Boise, you know, which is kind of a purple city you know, Idaho is one of the reddest States in the country, but whenever Boise decides to do something that’s like a little bit progressive, like there’s just a big battle over whether or not they could hang the pride flag at the, at the city hall, which is like, but the governor always says like, this city is not Portland. We’re not becoming Portland. And it’s like, no, no, please become Portland.
Ethan
It seems like there’s a, there’s a few bands that I I’d have to, it’s not something I remember from immediately, but it seems like there’s a, there’s a, a, a good touring artery through through Boise for a few shots. So there’s some, are there some places to play?
Kurt
Yeah. There’s other places to play. It’s just, you know, it’s the most remote city in the U S. So a lot of bands, when they go from you know, your city or Seattle and they head East a lot of times they’ll take a different route to get, to make sure that they can get to Colorado instead of us. So, so we do get bypassed quite a bit and I’m afraid that with gas prices rising, we might have fewer bands, but right now because the city’s growing and we have a pretty solid music festival every year. Yeah.
There’s a, there’s a good cycle of events that come through. Okay. So a couple big questions I wanted to ask you guys about.
So let’s talk about the band name and what the myth of the, I’m calling it a myth, but you can correct me if you’d like a myth of that, of the stunt drummer is when I first heard it, I was like, this is this like Evil Knievel filling in for Keith Moon kind of thing, or, you know, we do a lot of art with helmets and helmets and drumsticks and things like that around the beginning. So yeah. Yeah.
Ethan
Marty, do you want to say anything on it or?
Marty
go ahead.
Ethan
Okay. I mean, it was a term that we were using from the beginning because Marty, Marty and Erik had been playing together for a bit and Erik and I had wanted to play together for a bit. So once I got kind of invited over to the spot, I was in and, and down to just keep coming back.
But the, the drummer position, Erik had it all set up for just like whoever we knew to come in, to come in and play. And because we had all, yeah, we had all been kind of at it for a while. We had a collective of good drummers that we knew of different styles.
They’re like, and it was pretty funny because it was like, some people with like kind of crazy dirty three jazz style. My what is it? Jim, Mike White. I can’t remember his name.
Kurt
Jim White, Jim White.
Ethan
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And there was some that had to have that style. We had a few young heads that were like hardcore drummers and just a whole bunch of different stuff.
And it was, it was all people that like to come by for a couple of times and then, and then split. So we, we started calling them the stunt drummers. That was Erik’s Erik’s creation.
Marty
And he kind of numbered them off as like, you know, I can’t really, yeah. Dave’s coming back over. I think he was stunt drummer one, but we had, but this weekend, this weekend we’re going to have three or whatever.
Ethan
And that first release that first first recording is one of the stunt drummers, our friend, Aaron, that plays for a band called J Graves around here. And he, he was, he has studio in his basement and he had, he was fully set up to record. So we recorded with him, taught him all those songs.
And he was, he was the stunt drummer for that particular recording, but it wasn’t, it wasn’t like a settled drummer in the band yet at that point. And so we kept going and going, we hadn’t played any shows either at that point. And we put that out cause we didn’t have a drummer, you know, didn’t have anybody that was reliably going to be there that we could do shows with, but we had like 12 songs.
So, you know, we needed something close to that amount. Yeah. Marty, maybe you want to speak on the part of actually meeting J.
Cause that was more, that’s someone I’ve kind of walked in and that’s like, Oh, you know, someone else I met in the basement.
Marty
Yeah. Yeah.
So Erik had reached out to another friend in town who suggested J as a potential drummer. So J Lever, our, our, our drummer. And you know, he said, I think this guy’s looking for another project.
You know, I think you should, you should meet him. I think he’d be a good fit. And so Erik and I went to go see J play.
He plays in a band still called Yankee Gaucho. That’s kind of like a Flamenco rock band that are super interesting. And a psychedelic element to it too.
Yeah. Erik and I went to go see him play. And then the mutual friend, Ben introduced, introduced us and we chatted with J for a while and kind of hit it off there.
And he was down to come, you know, I think he had listened to some of our tunes. I think Ben introduced and shared him with him. And so he was interested in coming over.
And so he came over and I think we met him. This was like, we already had a show scheduled. So we were looking for somebody to play for that show.
And so he agreed, you know, at least initially he’s like, yeah, I’ll come over. It was like, it was just like three weeks away or something. So we had to teach him the songs and rehearse, you know, and kind of get up to speed.
And so he played that first show with us. And I remember standing around outside afterwards and like, you know, Hey, so what do you think? Do you want to like keep coming? And he’s like, yeah, yeah, let’s just keep playing. So I think that was kind of the, you know, he’s, he became our drummer at that point.
And then we did have another one of the stunt drummers had to fill in after that briefly. But ever since then, it’s like, if J can’t make this show, it’s like, that’s, we don’t do the show. So I think, yeah, Ethan has said recently, like if you pull any one of the four of us out of the band, it’s like, it’s a different band at this point.
Ethan
J is such a workhorse. He was already in like two or three other bands when he said yes to us joining.
And he does not, because of that, he doesn’t miss practices. He doesn’t let anything slip on it. He’s like, I mean, I don’t think I’ve coined this term myself, but I’ve used it for J before that he’s a real like a hard hat and lunchbox drummer that like he just shows up and does the job that you need him to do with full enthusiasm.
And like, yeah, you know, even though he’s like never played in like a punk or speedy band of any kind, he’s just like, I’ll try it. Just, just go, just go. And, and, and it happens.
Kurt
It works. You lock up. Yeah.
Did you guys, did you guys find the phrase stunt drummer?
Marty
It was Erik’s name for all of our random drummers coming through the place.
Kurt
Okay, cool. Are you familiar with Bob Log by any chance?
Marty & Ethan
Oh yeah.
Kurt
Yeah. The image that you have in your bandcamp page of the drummer reminded me. So yeah.
So let’s talk about the, we’ve got about, geez, it’s going so fast. We’ve got about eight minutes left. I want to ask you about your new release.
So, you know, one of the questions that, you know, it was almost always asked a band in an interview about their second album is like, did you feel the sophomore curse, you know, and do you have to fight against the sophomore curse? But I’d like to ask a, a variation. No, I’d like to ask a different question, which is were there things that you learned from making your first record in that you processed and discussed and then adjusted your sound or your songwriting accordingly for this, for this second release?
Marty
Hmm. That’s a hard question, but I was, I think our process to even get to the songs was so different.
You know, this album, when we did the first one, like we said, we didn’t really have a drummer. We’ve been cycling people through. And so with this album, we, we had the luxury of, you know, most of these songs, even if, you know, there might, they might’ve come out of a work session between two or three people on initial riff or something like really, we wrote the songs together and worked out the different parts.
There’s all four of us. And I think that was the biggest difference between the two is that we, this, this album reflected, you know, a true effort of all four people working on the songs together and developing them together. Yeah.
Kurt
I want to go back to something, Marty, excuse me, Ethan, you said like, at the very beginning of the conversation was that you brought some clips that you had recorded to the other guys.
Ethan
Oh yeah. Yeah.
Kurt
You know, are you now at a point where you are, you guys, the four of you bringing riffs and clips and ideas to your rehearsal space, your recording space, like individually, or did you all your songwriting together now?
Ethan
Um, the, we have multiple threads going in text form and a little, little dictation recordings and, uh, like some goofy ass Instagram thread, messaging thread back and forth. That’s a collective of our ideas shooting back and forth. So usually when we come to like, when we come together, there’s something that we all know that we’re, we, we we’ve all sort of shown the other one beforehand.
So it doesn’t completely come out of nowhere. We don’t drop it right in front of them that well, I guess we, we do sometimes, but for the most part, it’s a kind of a running conversation, um, through, through, uh, messages back and forth. And then Marty is actually the most professional of any of us.
And it’s actually like recording all of the jams and practices themselves. He edits them in the morning and then sends them to us the next day, like with titles and names and everything, like way more commitment than I’ve put into like a lot of, a lot of things that I really care about. So I’m like, it’s, it’s really, really helpful and really impressive that, um, it does that.
But, um, yeah, no, I, I mean, with, as far as making, I think both that record and this one are both the first recording and this one, like there, there is a huge difference in that. It’s a four, four piece band writing all the songs. And it’s really, it feels like a part of all of us in each, each one that we do.
But also just like, we are just kind of constantly making new stuff. Like, um, and like the, the speed that that happens that seems to just kind of be constant. And like it, the recording process took about a, about a year just of us to finding the spots, spots to get into the studio.
It’s, you know, so that was, it was broken up over months of time and things like that. And we even like during that whole time, we were like, we just were adding another song in here and there to our own, to our own practices. The point like, um, uh, Chinese windows, one of the songs on there was like, just got in under the wire.
We were just like, we want to put this one on the recording and like, we didn’t have it when we first went into the studio, but like the next meetup we did. Um, and that’s just key that, I mean, I go with like a kind of a Ian McKay idea of it in the old discord days of just like, I’m just trying to document as much as we can. So like, is this record is like the document of what we’ve done in the last.
The Bad Penny (beta) 
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