5 Questions for I Am the Avalanche’s Vinnie Caruana

I Am the Avalanche frontman Vinnie Caruana is one of the few remaining great things about punk rock these days. With a resume that also includes the band Movielife, a solo career and a new project with Rx Bandits guitarist Steve Choi called Peace'd Out, Caruana is also one of the busiest guys in the business. I Am the Avalanche recently released 'Wolverines,' the follow-up to 2011's 'Avalanche United,' and it rocks way hard. "I write the lion's share of the tunes for Avalanche, and I never wrote any music for Movielife, besides the vocals," Caruana tells us. "That probably is a big part of why Avalanche has a rougher sound." Caruana took time out of that busy schedule to answer a few questions for us.

Why I Am the Avalanche? Why not I Am the Hurricane? or I Am the Typhoon or some other natural disaster?
My whole life was spilling over, ready to give way. It's what I felt when I named the band 10 years ago.

What was your favorite thing about recording the band’s new album?
BBQing my own dinner every night. Sitting there drinking a beer on the lake, grilling food and talking about our next move in the studio.

In your song 'Brooklyn Dodgers,' you ask, “What ever happened to the Brooklyn Dodgers?” Why are they so important to you?
The song isn't about baseball. It's about the old New York, the Brooklyn my dad grew up in, my roots.

Tell me about your first tattoo.
[It's of] a woman with blond hair and blue eyes done in a Japanese style. I think it represents my mother. My big brother took me to get it after I turned 18.

If you guys were a hipster indie shoegaze-glam-noise-rock fusion band, what would you be called?
Life Mountain.