Uncle Skip Brings Punk To Pasadena And Beyond

Musician Skip Reier — aka Uncle Skip, or Captain Suckerpunch — has coined a new term to describe his musical style. “I call it Punk-oustic,” he stated.

On an August afternoon, Reier sat on the patio at Chipotle in Severna Park and crossed his tattoo-covered arms, the sun glinting off his sunglasses as he explained the spirit of punk.

“Just three chords and the truth,” Reier said without hesitation. “A hundred miles per hour to a full stop, ya know? It’s a drag race on guitars.”

The Pasadena resident came a long way since his first guitar lesson at age 10. “I hated it,” Reier laughed. “‘Country Roads’ was the only song the teacher would let me play. I didn’t touch the guitar again for five or six more years.”

Fast-forward “five or six years” later, when our hero, Uncle Skip, stumbled over an old guitar in a pawn shop — and the rest is history. He left the memory of that first guitar lesson in the dust and never looked back. Teaching himself Metallica riffs, he immersed himself in Ozzy Osbourne, Eddie Van Halen and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and soon found himself playing in bands and singing backup. In for the long haul, he rode the changing tides of the ‘80s and ‘90s, from hair metal to grunge and beyond.

“I had long hair, tight leather pants, ya know? I was there for the hair bands,” Reier reminisced. “And then when Nirvana came along, that’s when we all had to learn how to play our instruments again!”

Still, up until as late as 2009, music remained a sideline. Reier made a good living by building houses, especially during the boom. Then the housing market took a sharp nosedive. Work dried up. Things looked bleak. But it would prove to be a blessing in disguise.

“When the bottom fell out on everything, I had the guitar to fall back on,” Reier said, shaking his head — a man amazed at his own good fortune in a random world. “I’m sitting there with a guitar and no job, and I figured, ‘OK, well, I’ll learn some songs.’”

That was when Reier upped the ante, pushing himself to do more solo acts, performing everything from old-school rock to more contemporary bands like Green Day and Mumford & Sons, and doing covers of songs by local musicians such as Mikey Twofingers, SR-71 and The Ravyns. Now, he’s a regular at local venues such as Ryleigh’s Oyster Bar, Fish Head Cantina and Beefalo Bob’s, and he’s never been happier.

“I’m not a songwriter,” Reier said. “I have a lot of friends that write great songs, and I always ask them, ‘Say, can I play that?’ And then I give it my own interpretation.”

Fans can catch an earful of Uncle Skip at the Punk Rock Revival on Sunday, August 30, at the Fish Head Cantina in Halethorpe, where he’ll appear along the likes of The Huntingtons, Darlington and Hot Tub Vomit.

But don’t be fooled: Underneath the tattooed, tough-guy exterior of Captain Suckerpunch lies a heart of gold. His Punk-oustic sound has brought in big bucks for the Maryland USO, the Wounded Warrior Project, BARCS Animal Rescue, and even a DNA sequencing test for the child of fellow musician, Mikey Twofingers, after insurance refused to foot the bill.

And at 6:00pm on August 30, immediately following the Punk Rock Revival, Reier will bop over to the Victory Lounge to do a fundraiser for the family of Robin Ellis, a bartender who recently died in a car accident, leaving two young children behind.

Uncle Skip has definitely had his demons. “I loved drugs in the ‘80s and alcohol in the ‘90s,” he said. “Did I end up in a gutter somewhere? No. Could I have? Very easily.” But thanks to unconditional support from his girlfriend and his daughter, Reier has risen from the ashes in a wonderful new form.
“I’m the happiest guy in the world,” Reier said. “I get to do what I love.”

For more information about Uncle Skip, visit www.suckerpunchsound.com.