I’m 10 minutes late to the interview. Dammit. I am meeting the two members of the Makeup Monsters at the Spar in Old Town Tacoma. As I enter this down-home neighborhood bar I take inventory of the constituents and search for the two younger looking fellows who make up this musical dynamic duo.



“Thank God”, I say. “They must be running later than me.”



This is normal, of course, because musicians and weed dealers buy their watches at the same lackadaisical kiosk — where all time pieces are set back at least 20 minutes. I grab a seat at a worn down wooden table and place my notebook in front of me, so as to appear like a journalist. I wait three minutes until a kid with a wee bit of teen-hormone-influenced acne walks up to me and asks if I am Chuck Dula.



I am, so the answer to this question comes easy and without hesitation. He leads me into the non-bar area where the other half of the Makeup Monsters chomps down on an irresistible looking Boca Burger that is almost half finished.



They have been waiting for me. I am the weed dealer! Dammit!



It’s nice out and a burger sounds like the truth, but I am a journalist and the story comes first. I will later be offered french fries, an obsession of mine that oversteps even the boundaries of my profession. I eat them without remorse.



The Makeup Monsters are a two-piece, guitar and drum outfit from Tacoma. Their music is smartly written vintage indie rock with great vocal melodies and catchy lyrics. Shayne Weeks and Isaac Solverson are the young artists, yet they write with the experience of grownups. These are not Toys R’ Us kids. They are meeting me at the Spar after playing in Portland the night before and making the car trek back up to Tacoma.



“We spent the car ride listening to The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink 182, and Keith Sweat among others,” they confess.



They seem to have a firm grasp on an era that reminds me of my childhood. It also seems to bring back fond memories for them, although the time in question came before these kids could form memories — which is weird, to say the least.



(Note: Weeks is wearing a shirt that displays Magic Johnson making a lay-up at the height of his illustrious career with the Los Angeles Lakers. Of course, Magic retired in 1991 after finding out he had HIV. These events transpired before either of them were born!)



The Makeup Monsters, more accurately Weeks and Solverson, are 17 years old and still attending high school! These kids are kids! And as I sit in front of them with paper and pen, jotting down notes on what may be the beginning of a prolific career, I feel horribly unaccomplished.



A word of advice: go to the Makeup Monsters’ MySpace page, listen to their music and then imagine them getting their driver’s license last year. The trick is to not cry when you realize that so much talent was given to them and not you. Suck it up.



I asked about influences and who they’re currently listening to.



“We listen to a lot of Tacoma bands like the Nightgowns, Old Elephants, Frisky, Greenfield, and Kusikia,” they tell me.



Damn. These kids are on spot.



Weeks and Solverson are also very adamant that Kyle Brunette, currently of the Tacoma supergroup The Nightgowns, has been a major force in both the music the Makeup Monsters write, as well as fostering Tacoma’s scene as a whole — especially when it comes to recording, which Brunette does from a home studio. Brunette has done all of the recording for the Makeup Monsters, including the band’s soon to be released, debut CD — and his experience has helped Weeks and Solverson fine tune their chops, both musically and as a functioning band.



Along with writing very catchy indie rock, the Makeup Monsters are just plain cool. The band will play Hell’s Kitchen on Friday, April 24. You will need to take this chance to go see them because the band will be taking a slight hiatus starting in August as Weeks goes off to art school in New York. Along with their show at Hell’s Kitchen, the Makeup Monsters will be having a CD release party May 15 at the Helm. This will be the official release of their debut album, which I would suggest my own mother purchase.



[Hell’s Kitchen, Friday, April 24, Girl Trouble, with Durango 95, Makeup Monsters, the Drug Purse, 6 p.m., $7, all ages, 3829 Sixth Ave, Tacoma, 253.759.6003]