At SXSW 2012 the Phoenix met up with Nashville’s Tropical Punk — last seen by us when they destroyed a couple of Allston basement ragers last year. They brought a similarly spirited show to Cheer Up Charlie’s in Austin the night before we sat down for an interview in the back of Fast Folks bike shop in East Austin. We talked about Nashville mostly, plus how they all met, SXSW, and their experiences playing Boston DIY shows. An appropriate track to check out after watching this interview is “Together In Texas”, a song they penned at SXSW a couple of years ago. It appears on their new LP Ends of the World. According to the band: “It’s called Ends Of The World because on the second Wednesday of every month for the past three years, we have a party and pretend the world is ending at midnight. The album is really about that.” Rad.

Interview by Liz Pelly. Video by Nina Mashurova.