hello

dream panther

2011-09-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

dreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdream dreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdream dreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreamdreamp dreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampanther Late Night Gymnopaedia by Dream Panther
dreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdream dreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdream dreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdream dreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreampantherdreamp

Isn't music nice?

2011-08-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

Mount Royal by Mt. Royal

Mount Royal

2011-08-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

mount royal is good. whats up everybody good morning. im at work, collecting on all your debts.

Ormus

2011-08-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

I just met this band online. thank you internet god for your musical blessings!

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://dumpsterfeetrecords.bandcamp.com/album/we-found-her-on-the-side-of-the-road-she-was-a-hitcherhiker-looking-for-lsd-we-gave-her-lsd"&amp;gt;We Found Her on the side of the road, she was a hitcherhiker looking for lsd, we gave her lsd. by Ormus&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

2011-08-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

PAN + HLEGER

2011-08-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

PAN and HLEGER are two strands of DNA separated by 9,984 miles (or 8,676 nautical miles if you’re a sailor). But time and space being only a function of the apprehension of the manifold (obviously), the two genetic artists have synthesized and metastasized to form the super-group PAN + HLEGER. South Africa and Los Angeles, sister cities that share a deep spiritual bond, are finally reunited and it’s two bastard, tweaker sons fight on to once and for all rip your eyeballs away from the computer screens and television ads and video games and away from the distractions of your phony shit-life in order to release you back into the wild where the real human beings sing hymns to cast out the demons and celebrate Bacchanalia in a general sense. Leave it all behind, burn your books, then listen to PAN + HLEGER a la table rasa. Their combo recordings will sound shitty to your dumb ear at first, it did to mine. But don’t be a sucker, listen and ask yourself “When was the last time I heard music this perfect?” I’ve already said too much, PAN is knocking on my door at this very moment and about to take me on a bicycle ride to the coast. As for HLEGER, does anybody really ever know where he is or what he is up to? Is he drinking tea in Johannesburg? Or is he selling furs on the Limpopo to the Bantu? HLEGER, like PAN, is in his own ethereality swimming with the great whites. But as always, as time is becoming pressing, I’ll drop the bullshit. PAN + HLEGER is dirty folk music. It’s lo-fi, but sample ridden. The recordings sound rusty and grimy - a fucking nice breath of authenticity if you’re suffocating like me. This music is living and imperfect, like the twin brothers who recorded it. Music is cool but PAN + HLEGER is better. I am in love with PAN + HLEGER, they are more than a group, they are the way the truth and the light. But if you’re a little intimidated by it and need some advice so that you too can stop listening to bad music and learn to love your new PAN + HLEGER musical overlords then listen to LISA first. It’s a beautiful song.

EDIT: You're right, H.O.D.

HLEGER - StuartFerraro; Meek Joe; Lisa; Lets Get Dissociative; Groups of People; When Red, Dead, and Static; Honda Spaghetti House; I like nature; Leopard Girl; Poor Old Me; Everyday (Cover; Buddy Holly); Bamboo Grove; Korea

PAN - Dad's House; Oregon; Delaware; Olympus Mons; Newt; Lemur; Carlo Rossi; Blue Mango; Heathecliff; Galaxy Island; Nebraska; DeAndre

Uncle Jesse (harmonica)

2011-08-05T00:53:00.001-07:00

Baby Bitch Harmonica Instrumental by UncleJesse

2011-08-04T20:09:00.001-07:00

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://mjmjrecords.bandcamp.com/album/serious-sauce-vol-1"&amp;gt;Serious Sauce Vol 1. by Dream Panther&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

2011-08-03T22:33:00.001-07:00

sewer greats - volume 2

2011-07-31T03:28:00.000-07:00

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://sewagetapes.bandcamp.com/album/sewer-greats-volume-ii"&amp;gt;SEWER GREATS, VOLUME II by Various Artists&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

PAN + HLEGER

2011-07-25T21:19:00.000-07:00

PAN + HLEGER by PAN + HLEGER

brokebackuhoddsac

2011-07-14T10:16:00.001-07:00

7-14-2011 (demo sans vox) by brokebackuhoddsac

carl sagan and music

2011-07-12T23:14:00.000-07:00

PAN (BAND) by Horse the Man

went to the museum

2011-07-12T16:47:00.000-07:00

saw this thing

while listening to this

On a yacht with marilyn manson geting a tan man by TTTRRRAAASSSHHH

not the government @ mcworld

2011-07-11T21:55:00.003-07:00

white owl brown

2011-07-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

PAN

2011-07-11T21:31:00.000-07:00

so excited for the next pan album

can't get this song out of my head

Dad's House by PAN (BAND)

cuddly cactus

2011-07-11T16:39:00.001-07:00

2011-07-11T16:34:00.001-07:00

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2011-07-11T16:32:00.001-07:00

dream panther

2011-07-11T16:14:00.001-07:00

jim gilliam park (more basketball) demo by Dream Panther

hlo

2011-07-11T16:13:00.001-07:00

i think that rain cloud is stalking me by hlo

White Owl Brown

2011-07-06T10:09:00.001-07:00

moodyoldies by white owl brown

ORLANDO MAGIC by PAN

2011-06-13T22:57:00.001-07:00

ORLANDO MAGIC by PAN (BAND)

interview with Random Citizens

2011-04-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

On Monday, April 11th, I caught Random Citizens performing at the Dragonfly bar.

randomcitizens.com

Marvel The Gr8 - "Game Locked Tight" (LEAK) by RandomCitizens

State your names for the record, please.

Brian: What up, this is Brian.

Mike: Mike. What’s good?

Danny: Daaaaniel.

Vazif: Vazif.

Alright, cool. And what’s your name.

Random citizen: I’m not part of the group.

What are you doing here?

Random citizen: I’m filming them.

Oh, I’d like to see it.

Random citizen: It probably won’t be done until May.

Alright, I’ll look for it. Ok, so what’s up? What’s going on? Which one of you is the talkative one?

Brian: Mike.

Daniel: Ya.

Mike: Ya, what’s good. I’m always on the mic, Mike is always on the mic with Random Citizens. We do a lot of shows, we’re like a hip-hop fusion band that does slapping ass shit. Right?

How do you guys know each other?

Mike: We’re out of L.A. but we’re from all over. I’m from Pomona. He’s from Whidbey Island…

Danny: …Washington.

Vazif: I’m from the Bay Area.

[Editor’s Note: According to Brian’s Facebook, he’s from San Jose]

So how did you come together?

Mike: School

Vazif: School, ya. We all just play music everywhere with a bunch of different people and eventually, it just happened.

How long have you been playing together as Random Citizens?

Brian: Seven month?

Mike: Ten months?

Brian: Ya, almost a year now.

Danny: We started last June.

Vazif: So last June. What’s the math until now? It’s April.

I fail at math and calendars.

Mike: Ya, ten months.

So, you’ve playing a lot of shows and getting better.

Vazif: They’ve been playing a lot of clubs, but I’ve finally been getting into it with them now.

Ya, with the live drums?

Vazif: Ya.

And it’s better playing with the live drums.

Mike: Ya, it’s different we can do different shit. The drums give it a more live feel. But, I mean, they’re all equally as good but the drums give it that extra kick.

Danny: Literally.

Mike: Oh!

Vazif: We’re trying to make people dance.

Brian: Drum set puns.

So your on the drums. And you are…

Brian: Mega-producer extraordinaire.

That’s important. To make it all sound good.

Vazif: Ya, make sure we’re not going acapella.

You guys played USC last weekend.

Mike: We opened for Mos Def.

How did that go?

Mike: It was dope. I mean we had a pretty big turn out for going on so early. And we got to meet Mos Def, which was cool.

How was his set?

Mike: Mos Def’s? It was dope. I heard they had a fight.

Vazif: Ya there was.

Mike: I heard. It was dope live, a dope experience. We got to sell some mech.

Danny: We gave Mos Def a sweater with the logo on it.

Mike: It was a pretty fun day.

Do you each do anything on your own, or separately from Random Citizens.

Vazif: Ya we all have side-projects.

Mike: That’s kind of how this all came about. We started working on my solo project called The Hitchhikers Guide to Insanity. And he [Brian] produced the whole thing, and he [Danny] hosted and DJ’ed the whole thing, and he [Vazif] drummed on a couple of the songs. So that’s the beginning of the entire thing. And then we formed Random Citizens. And now we’re planning to put out a project with all of us collectively working on it instead of us just piecing things together. Like all four minds on everything.

Danny: So we all work on the tracks together. I mean, on the first project we all worked on the tracks…but he had all the beats—

Vazif: Ya, he’d have the beat and I’d go and play drums on it, then he’d go and put vocals on it.

Mike: Exactly. For the most part I already had lyrics already kind of in mind, but now we have four minds on the song. I’m a solo hip-hop artist, he DJ’s at clubs all the time, he drums in two bands…

Vazif: …a funk band, Funky Slippers.

Brian: I produce for some bay acts.

Mike: We all work with other artists. We work with his boy from Pomona. Leeboy.

Danny: Leeboy swag.

Mike: He’s coming out with a new hit, it’s called SLAP SLAP. It’s going to be the greatest shit.

[Listen to SLAP SLAP]

Brian: And also bands, recording bands.

Vazif: Everything.

What’s coming up that we should know about?

Right now we’re working on the EP to come out. Basically it’s going to be a five or six track EP with some of the best songs from the guys with some new songs mixed and mastered. Ready to push officially. Because the first release was kind of a free mix tape. I’m putting out another mix tape, just in the process of doing it. Plus we have a lot of B-sides that are out. And [Brian]’s going to come out with mix-tape soon for sure. I know [Danny]’s coming out with DJ mixes. We want to come out with live shit.

Vazif: I mean, we an album that’s been coming out for a year and a half now

Brian: Experimental shit. Me and Mike are going to put out Doobie Houser.

Mike: Doobie Houser. And then also we have a clothing line we’re working on right now called Random Citizens. Crew neck, sweaters.

Vazif: Sweaters hats shirts t-shirts. Booty short.

Mike: in the next couple weeks we’ll have the online site up, so you can buy merch on there. Pretty swag.

Danny: The single She’s a Fox is coming out.

Brian: Oh ya!

Mike: That’s big. That is big!

He doesn’t talk a lot but when he does it’s important. Do you have a music video for that?

Vazif: We’re in the process.

Mike: We got two other videos in the process, one for Up and Up and I think we’re still going to do that other one. Maybe maybe not.

Brian: Someday

Mike: A lot of video’s in the works.

It sounds like you guys have a lot going on.

Brian: Too much. We’re trying to take advantage of every opportunity.

Alright you haven’t talk much, what do you have to say?

Brian: What’s my deal?

Ya. Ok, you’re a producer. So that means a lot of shit.

Brian: To be honest, this is all much bigger than I ever thought it was going to be. At the beginning it was just me and Mike just joking around. Maybe we’ll make a mix-tape, maybe something will come of it. Then these guys were chill and wanted to hop on board. We all have our own talents that we love doing, so we decided to put all our minds together instead. Now people are feeling it, people are coming out to these show. Things are happening for us.

Any freestyles, anybody freestyle.

Vazif: Shiiiiit.

Mike: Give me a beat.

Alright, waybe we’ll save it for later.

Vazif: Ya let me get a few more drinks.

You guys are about to play a set, what’s the pregrame for the show? How do you get ready?

Danny: A couple of beers, some meditation.

Mike: Get all the text messages out. Check some tweets, tweet the world, let them know that we’re about to go on. Not really. Just talk some outlandish shit so I can lose like four followers today.

Vazif: I just drink a lot of whiskey usually. Not tonight though, it’s Monday.

Mike: Fiesta starburst on deck.

Brian: Peanut M&M’s

Vazif: Barbeque pop-chips.

Mike: Pop-chips, ya.

Danny: Make sure you check out the homey Virus.

Mike: He’s the MC. I don’t think he’s here yet. I haven’t seen him. Ya, he’s an MC but I think he’s spitting out here.

Danny: Is it a freestyle thing out here?

Mike: I don’t know. Freestyle, spoken-word, open mic. He’s nasty, though.

You play shows with him a lot?

Mike: This is actually the first show we’re doing with him. He’s just a homey.

Danny: He’ll let us do rap shis at their shows, which is cool cuz they’re like raves.

Mike: So we basically do rap sets in the middle of raves. So it’s the break.

Brian: We really haven’t done the same type of show more than once. It’s always a different crowd.

Mike: Minus the Bar Melody residency.

Brian: Ya that’s like home turf.

Mike: Once a month on a Thursday we throw a free show at Bar Melody on Sepulveda and invite one of our homies to come perform. First time we had Rob Roy come and do a show with us. The second time we had The 87 Stick Up Kids. So it’s basically our homies who are doing music in the area come party with us for the night. A bunch of college kids come out for the night.

Alright, fuck. I’m going to chill with this beer for a second.

Mike: Random Citizens!

Danny: RandomCitizens.com

Mike: Shouts to Miley Cyrus and Mackenzie Lee Kirk. And Sam Shirizu everyone who works with us.

Vazif: Raul Guerro.

Mike: Ryan Sheckler. Nicholas Cage, no fuck Nicholas Cage.

Vazif: Stussy

Brian: Ya, Stussy.

Mike: Shout out to Stussy. Shout out to Dancism. Shout out to all the people I fuck with…people with hairy nipples.

Brian: To the manager of course, Mapuana Hom. We used to party with that girl, now she’s managing us.

Mike: Mapi’s cool. Her shows good as fuck

[Check out Mapi’s show WHATEVER WEDNESDAYS on KXLU 88.9 3-6PM]

Vazif: Shout out to all the bad bitches…and foxes.

Mike: And shout out to The Space God

Brian: Leeboy.

Mike: Oh, oh! Shout out to Wendy Peffercorn.

Danny: Oh, shit. That’s it.

Mike: Ya, that’s it. Stop it.

interview with Cameron Rath of FMLY

2011-03-30T00:46:00.000-07:00

On Monday, March 14th I sat down with Cameron Rath of FMLY in front of a CVS to talk about bikes.

www.thefmly.com

What role does biking play in FMLY? I assume FMYL is you and Noah, right?

That’s how it started and that’s how it’s been up until pretty recently. But the past four months its kind of been changing a lot, since we’ve been taking ourselves more seriously.

How long has FMLY been around?

The idea has been around…people have had the idea forever. The idea of the human consciousness and we’re all one on this earth, that kind of stuff. You can site philosophers a thousand years ago who thought that shit. But the organization has been around for three years now.

What were the last three years like?

It’s been insane. It started out with us just starting a blog to talk about our friends bands and doing house parties, hanging out and smoking weed. That’s pretty much how it started. And then it kind of took on its own life and all these people from all over the world started finding out about it through the blog.

And most of them were kind of like the lost musicians. The bands of the world that thrive off being unknown.

Exactly, the whole DIY mentality. And then it kept going on for a while and we’d do stuff at one space for a while and then we’d move on to another space. We used to have an Asian imports furniture warehouse. That was pretty much right before McWorld. And then McWorld, Bacchus, Kozy Kastle, Kaos Network, Project Infest, and before that we did stuff at all the regular venues.

[public education]

And are there venues popping up still? What’s the newest one?

There’s a new place called Project Infest downtown, and it started pretty recently. It’s a thirteen-thousand square foot warehouse. And then there’s Bacchus, the place on Pico and Crenshaw. We’re actually starting FMLY Mansion.

Where are you going to do that?

In Inglewood. It’s going to be a bike co-op, community garden, and arts and music center. Basically a center to empower people, teach people how to fix their own bikes, teach people how to grow their own food, we’re going to start an after school program for kids to come learn music, learn capoeira, which is a form of Afro-Brazilian martial arts. And just serve an under-served community.

And be able to reach out with all these things that people want to do but there are no outlets for. Or the outlet our shut off.

It’s built into our human nature to want to connect with other humans and to want to be a part of a community and part of each other. It’s just about making that into a positive thing. All these kids in South Central they come from a broken home or they are basically completely shut off from the systems that are there. They turn to gangs, they turn to drugs, they turn to whatever they can to find that sense of purpose.

Or TV.

Ya, and that’s just as bad in different ways. It’s just teaching people that there’s more than that. Remembering what we are here for. Because at the ends of our lives you look back and you either worked a nine to five job your whole life and then what the fuck was the point? You’re going to die anyway and you just served someone else’s purpose…to make the CEO make more money. Or you can say I made a difference in the world , I changed things for the better.

Or you tried.

Ya, at least you tried.

So, back to the top, what role does biking play in FMLY? What’s the relationship?

Well it started when mass riding started getting really big a couple of years ago. I started going on some rides.

When was that? if you could put an approximate date on it?

I’d say the big turning point was the C.R.A.N.K. MOB One Year Anniversary, the one year anniversary of the first party ride. And that was like 2008, probably? 2008, 2007. And that one had over a thousand people.

Were you there?

Ya.

What was that like?

It was one of my first rides, it was incredible. We lit off fireworks on the front of Venice High School. I mean, it was a different thing back then though. I think the stage that it was at then…it was for a different purpose. It was about exploring the environment and breaking down rules in such an anarchistic way.

I feel like that’s a lot of it. A lot of bands, a lot of musicians, you can say ‘Fuck it let’s just tear it down’ but then after you realize that there are people contributing and maybe there is enough here to build off of.

And, you know, it’s the funny paradox because we all want to think that we don’t need governmental structures. But the truth is that we do need structure to continue moving forward. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all.

It’s just about focus. What are the results or it.

And having checks and balances too to make sure that you’re still adhering to your mission.

So, the First Anniversary C.R.A.N.K MOB., were you wearing the chicken suit?

I didn’t start wearing the chicken suit until well into the FMLY rides. But after C.R.A.N.K MOB got too out of control and just too crazy, someone got stabbed on one…

A lot of drinking?

A lot of drinking. And it just kind of turned out to be not was necessary. And then I thought, you know, I’m really fucking sick of venues in general, even the DIY venues I was pretty sick of. So why not just bring music to the streets? So that’s how FMLY Ride was born.

The first FMLY ride was when?

It’s a year and four months old.

[next FMLY ride is Saturday April 2nd]

How many people go on the FMLY Ride.

It’s anywhere between…the lowest point is probably two hundred and the highest point was probably about seven. That was the most we had. But the thing is, with our ride, is that we don’t want it to just be anyone comes. Of course, anyone is open to come, but you can get too many of the wrong people.

You want to avoid those past mistakes.

Ya. And what’s happening with the biking community right now is there are a lot of really positive things but with any movement there are things that could drag it down, too. People inside the movement that are in it for their own selfish reasons. And it’s just about kind of learning how to outnumber those people and sway them to realize that it’s not about getting drunk at night and hanging out in parking lots. It’s about something bigger than that.

I would love to ride my bike to work and have it be chill, and see hundreds of people riding. It’s always way better to ride with a large group, or any group, even a small group. When you’re on your own it feels like it’s you against thirty cars.

I think that’s the big thing. These rides…people come into them and this is the first time that they have biked since childhood and it’s kind of an introductory back into biking. And it gets people psyched about biking because it’s a really fun party. It’s the most fun you can have.

There’s nobody who rides bikes who doesn’t want to convert everyone else to bike riding. It’s the crazy mentality of seeing everybody else and wishing that everybody was on a bike.

Ya, you wish everyone could be as psyched as you were about it. And that’s really what the big accomplishment of the night rides. That’s how a lot of people get into biking. You go on a few bike rides, you drink, you hang out with your friends, whatever. But then you start thinking, you know, I can bike twenty miles at night, drunk…why can’t I bike to school? Why can’t I bike to work? It starts getting people to bike on a regular basis. And that’s where the good comes out of it really. People, once you start biking around, especially in a city like L.A., you start realizing what L.A. really is. It’s a vast urban sprawl. There’s not that much green. All of our natural ecosystems are covered up by pavement and buildings. And everyone is stuck in little metal boxes. And because of that, no one sees what’s around them.

I think that that’s a good point. It’s not that there’s nothing there, it’s just hard to see. Everything is covered up. Once you get out there and once you test the waters for a second and start riding your bike—

—it changes your view. But we do need ways to transport. If we have to transport anything besides ourselves and our backpacks, we’re kind of fucked. You need a car. But it’s what that car runs on is the problem. And how that car functions in society. But the majority of trips that people make everyday, you go less than five miles from your house and come back.

It ends up costing more money and more time.

And for that you might as well ride your bike. It eases traffic congestion, people who do need to transport stuff can actually use the rode in an efficient way, and at the same time it’s less pollution for everyone.

What are some problems that you face when riding your back that you think have some obvious solutions.

I think this new bike plan is going to help a lot because it’s going to cut off a lot of lanes for cars and it’s going to cut down how many cars are going to be on the rode. And congestion is going to get a lot worse and it’s going to force people to think about alternatives. It’s going to force people to get out.

Hopefully it will result in increased ridership as people in cars watch bikes fly by…these suntanned, toned, beautiful bike riders.

And that’s kind of already happening. If you ride your bike down Lincoln at 5:30 in the afternoon, you’re going to be going faster than all of the cars. And the big thing is it kind of opens a pandora’s box in a way, in that when you start riding your bike you see what driving actually does to the city and the alienation it causes, and it makes you think about every aspect of your life. Like, ok, if this is what I’ve always been taught, this is the right way to transport myself, and if that’s not correct, than who’s to say that eating Cheeto’s is the right thing to do. Or where do I get my food? Where is it farmed?

It’s a very simple, very practical way to demonstrate an abstract point. Questioning—

—the whole system—

It’s an obvious thing. You don’t need to be stoned and talking with your friends about XYZ…you’re just on your bike and it’s obvious that it costs money to pave roads and every time a car drives it breaks down and you have to repave them. That’s got to be a big push with the city. It looks like they can’t handle the roads anymore.

We haven’t had any real road repair for fifty years. It’s all potholes.

[what]

In terms of the city’s bike push, I wonder how much of a factor that played in the analysis, like ‘can we possibly fix them or do we need to start looking for other ways.’ And it looks so expensive. Every street you go on, literally every street, has potholes. And when you get into high traffic areas where you’re not near a freeway…for me I’m around Koreatown, and it’s heavy traffic and every street is loaded with potholes.

What I kind of hope for is that we won’t be using asphalt that much longer because. It makes it so that when any water hits the ground, when it rains, it doesn’t absorb into the earth like it’s supposed to, and making it’s way to the ocean through underground channels. It’s not doing that. It just hits it and runs off. If we had packed gravel roads, or packed dirt roads, it sounds old school but it works.

Are they talking about doing that?

I’m talking about doing it. I think it’s to radical of an idea for right now, but you have to think about what can be proposed ten years from now. I don’t think that it’s that unrealistic of a goal to start thinking about ten year from now.

We’re already ten years from ten years ago.

And you know, the evolutionary paradigm is telescoping so the amount of time it takes for us to jump to these conclusions is getting smaller and smaller.

What do you mean by that?

Well it’s like…think about history —

Are you saying that the consequences of our actions are coming to fruition a little bit faster? Like we get to see damage much faster in our time than before.

We get to see any sort of results faster. You think about when the Big Bang happened, right after the Big Bang things started speeding up rapidly. And between the Big Bang and the hominid there’s this large gap where everything was moving very slowly. And between the hominid and civilization as we know it, there’s another big gap, but it was a shorter gap. And then you think about the whole of civilization and then the agricultural revolution, then the scientific revolution was six hundred years ago, we didn’t have real medical knowledge until really about a hundred years ago, the information revolution didn’t come until, at most, sixty years ago. Its further telescoping. What we can hope to start seeing is evolutionary steps within a generation. So the way everything moves so fast now, if you were to put it in a graph it looks exponential.

I never thought about it that way.

The way we receive information now is so much faster than even five years ago.

And the one’s with the loudest and most powerful voices have yet to slow down and look at what we’ve created.

Throughout all of our history, we’ve only had one way of receiving information and that was from the top down. And now with the information revolution we’re able to create the truths and we’re able to put the information out there. CNN is getting their video streams from peoples cell phones.

I don’t know of too many encyclopedia’s being printed.

Nor should there be. The whole idea of experts and authorities is becoming irrelevant. Because as a whole we can all be the authority. We all learn from each other now. We’re at an age, right now, where we’re witnessing the most desecration of our environment, the most corporate greed, but at the same time we’re seeing this new paradigm evolve, the new way to receive information. These revolutions that are occurring without a central leader, it’s like a decentralization, globalization is going to be reaching a critical point soon. It’s getting there.

We’re already there, the first thing the globalize is money. We already crashed that. I think globalization is a revolution in our lifetime that we’re still fucking up.

But check this, only thirty percent of the whole world is on the internet. Thirty percent. I mean, that’s two billion people. That’s not that many people. We have, what, eight billion. If we could get ninety percent, that would change everything. There couldn’t be oppressive regimes anymore, there couldn’t be dictatorships. Because it’s all based on withholding information. It’s all based on controlling truths and that’s not going to be possible soon. It’s already being shown that it’s not possible. We’re reaching a point right now where people are going to be forced to think about what is it that we need to do to survive and these linear systems of operation are not sustainable and they’re not going to last. Cars, oil companies, big agriculture, this CVS we’re sitting in front of right now, it’s not going to exist soon because it can’t. So then we need to figure out how are we going to transport ourselves, who’s going to fix our form of transportation, how are we going to get our food, how are we going to get our water. And that’s why, I think, in a weird way, going out in the middle of the night and drinking with your friends in a parking lot is the first step to creating that. Because it’s such an easy way to get people to start thinking about that sort of thing.

Anything we missed, in terms of bikes.

Um. Obesity is like the number one killer in the country right now. One in three kids have diabetes, that’s pretty fucked. If you just get them on a bike it would solve a lot of the problem.

Seriously, after two weeks of committing to the bike, I feel toned, I feel healthier.

I’m skinnier than I’ve ever been in my life. I weigh one-seventy now. I’ve never weighed one-seventy in my life.

My bike, I just ran over a nail and put a hole in it and I used it as an excuse to eat Jack in the Box and not exercise. Anything else we missed?

I think CicLAvia is going to be a big game changer for L.A. I think.

That’s a funny name for it.

Ya, the original was Ciclovia, in Argentia. It just means getting there via bike. In Argentina, they now shut down eighty miles of rode on Sunday. They’re doing it four times this year.

Those are great days.

Interview with Dead Meadow, part 2

2011-03-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

On Friday, March 11^th, in the parking lot behind a Food 4 Less, I spoke with Jason Simon of Dead Meadow.

www.deadmeadow.com

When I talked to Steve, he mentioned that you were working on your next album.

We just started doing that now. I’m sure he told you that the drummer from our first two records is now back in the band, Mark Laughlin, he left after the last…after the Three Kings tour. So it’s cool, you know, just back. I don’t know, it’s a three-piece so we’re changing one person and it just really changes a lot but also we started the band with him so it feels real natural, cool.

How much time are you putting into that now?

We’ve been in and out..the drummer coming in to play certain shows, but he just moved out here permanently probably about like two and a half weeks ago. He’s been here, you know…writing songs just getting it together. We have a couple of things recorded that we probably won’t finish until after the tour. But they’ll probably sound better after the tour anyway, you know when you’re all tight and you have these songs worked out live now.

So you guys are going to Europe.

Mhm.

Steve mentioned they had a big psychedelic scene in Italy and I didn’t really ask him about it so I kind of wanted to confirm it, since it sounds awesome.

Ya we’ve done a bunch of tours in Italy and it’s always been really cool. You know, people there are just really excited. I mean, are you kidding me? We played a lot of smaller towns in Italy and some of the shows are big some are smaller but they always have such a good vibe. People are really excited and cool. We always have a good time, we know good people over there. The foods good. Play shows, go to a nice meal, go back.

As far as Dead Meadow is concerned, what are your goals? You think you’ll keep going for a long time?

I couldn’t imagine not. I know for all three of us we just really enjoy the creative aspect of it. There’s always more to do. It’s good when you finish one record it seems like you open up a whole world of possibilities and all these ideas to do for the next one. And then I know everyone’s involved in other projects, too. But it’s funny when you step away, after the last one we took a little time. I have this solo record coming out, I don’t know if you had heard that. It came out on Tee Pee Records. It’s under my name, Jason Simon. Ya, it was really cool doing it. It’s a lot mellower. Obviously it’s still me writing the songs so it has some similarities to Dead Meadow but it’s really stripped down, you have lots of acoustic and guitars and drones and stuff like that.

Awesome. A few years ago I saw you guys play with Spin Drift and it was a really great show. And I saw that Steve has Spin Drift on Xemu Records, so I wanted to ask: are you playing shows with those guys, are you cool with them?

Ya we’ve known those guys for a really long time. They’re great. I think their new record sounds really, really good. It’s cool they’re coming out on Xemu, which is the label Steve’s running, which is really great. We’re taking them over with us to Europe. I think they’ll be there for two months, then we come over there for about a month and we’re going to meet up with them.

Those are all my questions. Thanks Jason

Cool man.

interview with Phil Elverum

2011-03-07T13:21:00.000-08:00

On Friday, February 25^th I emailed Phil Elverum a few questions. On Monday March 6^th, he emailed me back the answers.

www.pwelverumandsun.com

How are you? How is life?

I am almost 33. Life is pretty good.

How is P.W. Elverum and Son going? Is it growing/evolving? Are you achieving your goals and what new things are you learning? I’m interested because there are a lot of people/artists/musician/lawyers/bankers/politicians/everybody still learning how to work for themselves, start their own thing, and utilize the internet. So how is it going for you?

It's P.W. Elverum & Sun. It means me and the sun. I have no son.

It's going great. Maybe slightly growing, but it's still just me. To grow more I think I'd need to hire someone. I am busy all the time. So probably I'm doing as much as I possibly could as one person.

I didn't have any goals. Just wanted to explore this weird business realm. It's super interesting and I have found deep satisfaction in figuring some things out, and it's nice to know that it's possible to do my thing on whatever small scale I want and have it work.

What is the state of Phil Elverum, PWE&Sun, Mt. Eerie, and all other projects you’re working on? Do you find yourself moving in thematically or artistically (I hate using that word but it gets the point across) in a definitive direction?

You don't like the word "artistically"? It's an OK word if you ask me.

I'm just doing a bunch of experimenting in the recording studio. Mount Eerie is my art project. Phil Elverum is just a dude who goes to the grocery store. P.W. Elverum & Sun is the company that manufactures my merchandise and sells it, but Mount Eerie is the project that is experimenting in the studio, going into new themes and zones, yes, but I don't know what they are yet.

On www.pwelverumandsun.com/store is the following description of the Dawn LP: “’Dawn’ is an archival core sample from an intensely creative period, the winter of 2002/2003 spent alone in a cabin in arctic Norway, wrestling with ghosts, gathering wood, acting out the myths…” That sounds intense. How accurate is that description? Any other revealing/educational/powerful experiences?

It's pretty accurate. I didn't actually physically wrestle THAT many ghosts, but a couple.

I can't really narrow down experiences that have been revealing, etc.. It all goes into the mix, even the daily mundane. The Norway winter was just a particularly crazy and picturesque time.

[these photo's are from pwelverumandsun.com]

Do you foresee any future periods of such creativity? Are you itching to travel more or tour (geographically or otherwise?) or are you in a different state of mind right now?

I have been taking time off from touring, focusing on setting up a new studio and doing new recording ideas. It is hard to have too many interests. I want to do everything. I want to be wintering in the arctic, I want to go on tour everywhere, I want to stay home and read for 40 years, it's hard to choose.

I read an interview with The Believer magazine [http://www.believermag.com/issues/200907/?read=interview_elverum] where you said: “I had an epic session with War and Peace during an intense time alone in a cabin in Norway. My grandparents sent it to me as a Christmas present and I read it almost without stopping.” What is your best memory of reading War and Peace? Favorite part? Worst memory? Most memorable experience reading it? Lasting impressions or lessons learned from it?

I actually re-read it in 2009, a different translation. It's still good. My favorite parts are when Prince Andrei is shot on the battlefield and he's looking at the empty sky and having this epiphany. Also I remember a part where the Rostov family is on a night time winter sleigh ride to some kind of ball, and just the description of the cold night air and the speed... It's good. Again, impossible to sum up. Everyone should just read the whole thing.

Are you happy with your the your book Dawn? Do you plan on writing more? Do you plan on doing more books and writing?

I'm OK with Dawn. It's a super weird thing, but I knew that going into it. I would love to do more books but these days I don't have a regular writing routine. Maybe in the future.

What are the top few books you want to read that you haven’t gotten to yet? Who are authors that you have learned a lot from or enjoyed most…for someone interested in reading a new book/author?

Right now I'm really into this new T.C. Boyle book "When The Killing's Done". His writing is like candy. Also Jim Harrison. Also Gary Snyder. Also this new book/DVD that's Jim Harrison and Gary Snyder called "The Etiquette of Freedom".

Snyder is someone who I've probably gotten the most inspiration and ideas from. An amazing thinker. He is my hero actually.

I also always want to read more Norse sagas. I'm always in the mood for that. Brutes yelling poems at each other.

Lately I've been pushing myself to read more contemporary fiction in McSweeney's and stuff, just to find new things.

And also deeper non fictional brain truths like Daniel Dennett.

Do you have any essays or writing samples or poetry or words that you would like to share with a complete stranger interviewing you over email? A Phil Elverum original work?

What music or sounds are you enjoying presently…what do you listen to when you put the headphones on or turn on the record player or indulge in whatever sound you prefer?

the same stuff over and over:

Popol Vuh, Burzum, Gurdjieff, Jay-Z, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Kanye, Xasthur, Nick Krgovich, Enya, Bernard Herrmann, Smog, David Lynch, Menace Ruine, etc.

Are you working on anything now that you’re excited about and want to talk about? What kinds of sounds are you experimenting with or perfecting or working on? What projects did I not ask you about that you are excited to share or are ready to be released into the world of people who buy/steal/experience your work? Any friends that are doing good things that people should know about and you would like to share?

For my own stuff I'm working on some new things that aren't quite ready to be talked about yet.

It's weird and difficult and mysterious still.

But I'm releasing 2 records on my label that I'm really excited about. "California Lite" by Key Losers is the new project by Katy Davidson who was in Dear Nora and Lloyd & Michael and writes the most amazing songs. I recorded the record and was so into it I offered to release and luckily she said yes. It's going to be a really fancy beautiful LP in May. I'm pretty excited.

Also a 7" of one song by Nicholas Krgovich who I've been collaborating with on Mt. Eerie stuff for a couple years. It's just this perfect pop/r&b slammer that I felt needed to be focused on in the world, so we're making a cool 7", also in May. We're all going on tour in California then.

This is the final question, the freeform question…Anything you want to share? Thoughts? Concerns? Motives? Objections? Rants? Complains? What did I miss, what passionate thing would you have mentioned or like to have answered that I didn’t even know to ask?

Your question were pretty good. I feel sufficiently probed.

I am still in a weird private incubation zone with my new work so I don't have much to say about it yet. Otherwise I'd be going on and on about it.

thanks

Phil

interview with Dead Meadow

2011-03-02T18:03:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, March 1^st, I sat in a hallway and recorded a phone call with Steve Kille of Dead Meadow.

www.deadmeadow.com

…kind of lo-fi. I just have a phone and a small recorder. So, you guys have been real busy?

Ya, really busy. Me personally.

Is it cool if I post YouTube links?

What do you mean YouTube links?

Like if I put a link to a YouTube video of one of your songs…is that cool?

Oh ya, of course. Go for it.

I just want to ask permission first.

That’s totally fine.

[Dead Meadow]

Ok. What have you been working that you want to talk about, or mention…that we can look forward to?

Well, we’ve been working on a new album, Dead-Meadow-wise. And I’ve been doing this indie record label [Xemu - www.xemu.com]. That’s been an insane amount of work. We have several recording studios, I’ve been involved, recording different bands. And, I don’t know, I feel like when you add all that stuff up together it’s just like a big, time consuming…at the end of the day you never have time for yourself, you know?

But you’re happy, right? You’re doing alright, doing well?

Ya. Oh ya, totally.

What bands do you have on your record label?

Dead Meadow, Spindrift, The Morning After Girls

So you’re playing shows later this year, right? You have some shows coming up in Los Angeles?

You know, we’re always talking about doing some shows around LA because we’re here, Southern California in general. We have a tour in Europe that we’re currently working on.

Oh, nice. Where are you going?

All over the place.

Are you excited to go to any place in particular?

I think this will take us back to Italy, which will be really cool. Because Italy is a really fun place when you’re in a band. It’s kind of like a little band vacation when you go there. There’s a big psychedelic music scene there.

["Italy is a really fun place when you’re in a band...There’s a big psychedelic music scene there." - Steve Kille]

It’s a nice place. Music wise, do you have anything coming out that your excited for or new things that you’re trying out?

You mean like new songs that we’re working on?

New sounds, new ways to record, experimenting. Do you do a lot of that?

Recording? Yes. Ya, tons of it. It’s always kind of like a new…learning new things when you record bands, especially when they’re not your own band, that’s kind of a challenge. In a good way. So, ya I’ve been really excited to try to do some experimenting sound-wise. Doing some different out-of-phase mic’s and stuff like that. We’ll see whatever translates from my learning experience with the new Dead Meadow albums.

Well, that’s all the time we have, thanks Steve! I appreciate it.

Ok, awesome. No problem.

homotownrecord$$$ new video leaked to the masses

2011-02-27T13:54:00.000-08:00

things - (news from the lawst) flesh vessel

interview with mouth of the serpent and running down

2011-02-23T19:11:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, February 22^nd I stood in the parking lot behind 2-Bad Vintage with Max from Mouth of the Serpent [MOTS]. The shows curator/the-guy-standing-next-to-us also was interviewed, his name is Running Down [RD]. We talked about all the things written below.

Running Down

http://runningdown.tk/

http://insurgencyinc.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/runningdownvideo

Mouth of the Serpent

http://www.mouthoftheserpent.com/

http://facebook.com/mouthoftheserpent

Where are we?

[MOTS]

We are at the new Team Link venue.

And who are you?

[RD]

I work the venue.

I just assume that everybody is see is playing the show.

[MOTS]

We don’t have a name for the place yet so we’ve just been calling it random shit on flyer.

And what was your name?

[RD]

Excuse me. Running Down. The venue is, what are you calling it now? The Link Den?

[MOTS]

We haven’t been calling it anything.

[RD]

Oh, well it’s at 2-Bad, which was originally a store now it’s spaced out to make it a music venue. That’s the new schtick now.

And you’re running it?

[RD]

I’m helping out with it. I got something I’m going to premiere tonight.

Oh, nice. Do you want to talk about that, then? And we’ll link it all up on the internet.

[RD]

Oh ya, ok. I’m doing a video for a street art show, a street art gallery show over at the other 2Bad space, 2Bad Re-Fresh. It’s on the 26^th at 8:30. It’s going to go on for a month. It’s Killed, Koffinzs, and Zombie, they’re all street artists. I’m doing a promo video for them for Running Down, that’s the blog. RunningDown.tk…not dot com. We do videos and anything that’s cool, alternative counter culture shit.

So tonight Mouth of the Serpent is playing.

[MOTS]

Yes. We’re going to fuck shit up.

What are you going to play?

[MOTS]

We’re playing a power set, and cutting it down to the core few. We’re not going to scare too many people with the brutal.

How long a set are you going to play?

[MOTS]

Probably twenty minutes. Just going to bust it out nice and quick. We have enough material to go on for a while but I figure we’ll spare everybody since death metal…it’s so brutal. But everyone loves death metal. It’s the most popular genre of all time. Very accessible.

[RD]

Music your parents can handle. The elderly. Churchfolk. Come on out.

Alright, so Running Down, you have artists coming into your space?

[RD]

Ya, there’s actually art here from one of the guys who’s doing the show. From Killed.

And what do you mean when you say art?

[RD]

Well he’s got some sick stencils up in there but he mostly does wheat paste and stickers. But he does stencils, too. They just went out and did some sick bombs.

Where can we find his stuff?

[RD]

You can go to http://melroseandfairfax.blogspot.com/. You can go to Insurgencyinc.com.

But if I was walking around, where can I find it?

[RD]

Oh, hit Melrose. Melrose.

What does it look like?

[RD]

It’s some crazy stuff. Zombie does Jesus, like hipster Jesus…crazy looking dude, it’s cool. We got some other cool stuff, some countercultural shit. Koffinz does crazy punk rock fucking just like sick black and white contrasts. Fucking crazy shit. Fucking…Killed does crazy skull chicks with just the intent to fuck you up.

And what does Mouth of the Serpent feel about it?

[MOTS]

Mouth of the Serpent feels a lot of things about a lot of things. You know? What are things? Other than a McWorld band?

funkstep

2011-02-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

messages from dj baglady

2011-02-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

BGLDYdotWEBSITE - http://bagladybeats.tk/

BGLY TUMBLR - http://djbaglady.tumblr.com/tagged/music

"im doing weekly mixes
put em on the blog????
lets practice soon 4 mudd duck
theres a ten min mix u cood put up"

10ish min mix by baglady

also if you could update the link to bagladybeats.tk
thatd be siiiiiiiik
lets hang
sorry i missed ur call tonight
phonedeath" - dj baglady

dream panther live from the future

2011-02-20T20:38:00.000-08:00

two never-before-heard tracks from the soundtrack to the upcoming 3d movie:

"Dream Panther LIVE from the Moon, My Nig: A Space Commodity...3D Extravagadventure!"

Change We Can Hope In by Dream Panther

Classical sunday homeless jammie blues by Dream Panther

interview with dithyramb

2011-02-16T17:23:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, February 15th I discussed very important things with Dithyramb, like Dolph Lundgren. Some other people were there, too, but I edited them out.

FREE MUSIC FROM DITHYRAMB - http://www.mediafire.com/?2hd0yjm2zwn

FCBK - facebook.com/Dithyramb555

TUMBLR - dailyfoundsounds.tumblr

WRDPRSS - dithyramb555.wordpress.com

So you’re doing bird beats now.

I’ve got some bird beats.

What’s a bird beat?

You know what a bird beat is.

I know. This is one of those questions that I already know the answer to.

A bird beat is a beat or rhythm or pattern or phrase of beats that originated from a bird that I jammed with, that I wrote down, or that I’ve played. I’ve been writing them down lately.

Are there any other bird beat artists out there that I should know about?

Ya, Olivier Messiaen. Messiaen transcribed a bunch of bird songs and he was really heavily into it. I think there’s a lot of birding now. There’s always been bird watching. Have you ever heard of Olivier Messiaen?

[olivier messiaen thinking about writing some bird beats later]

No. Should I have heard of him?

He’s a classical composer. What are you doing these interviews for, out of curiosity?

Mostly to answer my question. So what do you think of Dolph Lundgren’s movie Silent Trigger?

That was ridiculous. I don’t know. Is that supposed to be anti-comedy, anti-drama, anti-everything? Film glorification of ridiculously macho shit?

Germansploitation maybe?

Filmsploitation? Is it supposed to be psychologically engaging? Is it supposed to engage my testosterone?

Where is your music available? I’ve seen you play live many times.

It’s online, I give some of it out. I’d say it’s available to anyone. I got 5,000 hits last year online.

How long have you been doing that?

How long have I been doing what? Being internet available? I’ve been internet available since the eighth grade. Or seventh grade. I think I was internet available as a child, I just wasn’t hip to it. As far as putting music online, though, to answer your question fully, I’ve been doing that since on-nine, putting it online for free.

Now I’m going to pick a bunch of questions from a past interviews; this is the grab bag, lightening round. How many languages do you know?

Zero. Twenty. Twenty-five. A goggleplex.

What kind of stuff can we find?

You can find smart food popcorn white cheddar cheese flavored.

Nice. Do you have work later?

Yes always.

Any final thoughts?

Work. I’m thinking about work now…what I’m going to be working on later today.

Ok, so Dithyramb, that’s what you go as; Dithyramb.

Yes, my moniker.

Are there any other bands that you’ve worked with, recorded with, played with?

Ya, quite a bit. I’ve played in a punk-rock band, a rock band, a ska band, a hardcore punk band, hardcore thrash kind of metal band, I’ve played in an experimental music indie band, and now I’m playing in a more electronic, computer based…lots of different mediums. So just purely on the drum-set, I’ve played in a bunch of different types of bands, but mostly I focus on Dithyramb now.

I’ve seen you a few times now, just as Dithyramb.

I played with Dream Panther one time. I don’t know if you were there.

Ya, I didn’t show up for that one because I didn’t want to.

There was a hundred or more cans of beer at that show.

Do you go to school?

I school in all kinds of schooling. And I play with Baglady in Electronic Entrails.

If you were to make a movie with Dolph Lundgren, what would be the plot?

Action. Lots of jumping. Like someone jumps and saves the whole movie plot in one millisecond. Plot changes at milliseconds of time. Plot changes in mid-air. Plot changes on the back of a truck in slow-mo. Would you like to take this interview outside?

Ya. What’s your website?

I have a blog, I also have a website called Drumweller.com .

It’s very tropical stormy outside.

Is that what’s going on here?

Ya, like one of those southern, Mexican-y storms.

It seems like it’s coming from the south, because I came from the north earlier and there were no clouds. I know that America has been having this snow storm, over like two-thirds of America. You know what they need to have? They need to have satellite imagery of cloudscapes twenty-four hours a day. That would be a great iPhone ap. Million dollar idea. Make an ap where you can see the clouds all day. You ever have any good million dollar ideas?

[clouds]

None that I can think of. Have you?

I’ve had a few. I thought of a million dollar idea where you get statistics on the word you say, the sentences you say. So if you say a certain thing, you can have a stat available on your language, so you know if you’re using the language correctly or not, or if your speaking is not at a certain proficiency, you know what I mean, stats on language? I can’t wait till we have RAM in our brains. That may happen. That may happen in the near future, right? If you had RAM in your brain, you’d have no problem living life. You wouldn’t forget anything.

What do you do for work?

A bunch of different jobs. Work is drumming, I write music for work. Shit, I’ve fixed glasses for a while. That was fun. I learned everything there is to know about optometry, practically. I’ve sold knives. Really expensive Cut Co. knives. I also worked at a botox injection clinic. A lot of fly people get in there, you know?

Where was that?

Southern Redondo Beach.

So final question: talk about music. That’s the question. Do you want to talk about music?

I always do.

Alright, start talking.

What kind of music do you listen to?

My friends mostly.

I was thinking this about music, about how it’s so engaging in so many different ways. Like if you hate your life and are really upset and you listen to upset music, or if you’re psychologically engaged in the emotionality of the music where you get some sort of sick pleasure out of it, like you’re upset, you feel upset, and there’s a soundtrack to your upset-ness, I was thinking about that and how a time in my adolescence I did experience that, and I went through a phase where there was a bunch of different music I listened to when I was upset.

Did you get happy eventually?

Ya. But people who do that all the time, do they ever become aware of the fact that they’re upset listening to certain music that engages them in that way? Or get really high, like ego, off it?

What do you listen to when you’re happy?

Everything. That’s the thing. When you’re happy anything goes and its so universal, happy music makes you happy. As a drummer, there’s that level of, ‘Sure, I want to listen to something so I can learn something and actually get something out of it and make something better out of it for myself, or use it in my own art, or imitate it or do whatever, anything, to just gain from it.’ But there’s also a level of just being elated on what it is, or experience it, or the loss of experience, half brain dead in a way.

What’s the last song you listened to? As of right now.

Oh. It was on the bus. I can’t remember it. It was a classical piece of music. It might have been that one, with the apple over the head.

William Tell?

William Tell Overture. That’s what I heard. Do you know how that goes?

No.

It sounds kind of like that part in Fantasia where it’s like…Duuuu duuum bum bum bum buuuuum bum, buduuuu duuu duuuuum. I wish I could sing it to you, I’m just forgetting it. What was the last song you listened to?

It was Tawee Kiva, live from McWorld. I recorded it and listened to it on my way to work.

From Friday?

Yes, when they played Friday…The End.

dream panther - analogue mountain

2011-02-16T09:41:00.001-08:00

Analogue Mountain by Dream Panther

interview with tenton willey

2011-02-13T14:50:00.000-08:00

On Friday February 11^th I sat on a couch with comedian Trenton Wiley to discuss the nature of the universe.

Yes, we’ve already started. I’m recording this.

So, interview…interview guy. This is going out to the world: If anybody wants to buy some bus tokens, I have about two left that I’m selling for a dollar a piece. I have some sunglasses that I’ll sell for a dollar. I’ll do whatever, I guess. I’ll make you a drawing for money. I’ll perform at your venue for money. I’ll carry things, like move your couch. I’ll have sex with old ladies.

Are you still doing that?

Not right now. She’s all the way in Chicago. That’s so far. I was in Chicago for a while.

For how long?

For like a year and a half.

Will you be going back?

I’m going to visit during the summer. But not completely. Now, if a monkey didn’t make this…I don’t know who else would have made it.

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/24813922@N04/2594759920/]

Copy that link. I’ll post the picture.

Copy image URL. Ok, so what kind of questions are we going to ask each other?

Comedy questions. You do comedy. That’s your focus, right?

I have this wicked cool show on Vimeo. Type in Clapping Club.

The Clapping Club Presents Hair Camp from Don Takano on Vimeo.

The name of the show is Clapping Club. You click on the link for Clapping Club and you’ll see it. It’s about a vegan Venus fly trap, so he’s a cannibal in that paradox, a cool sunflower, and a Christmas tree in a wheelchair with Down Syndrome named Job. And they go to Hair Camp and the leader of Hair Camp is a beehive who enslaves them to give cats the Heimlich Maneuver all day and then they cough up little hairballs that the beehive uses as wigs for the bees. I made a movie with a dead cat called Gummo 2.

Gummo 2 from Don Takano on Vimeo.

I used the cat as a marionette, it’s about how he has to go catch birds to stuff in cuckoo clocks eighteen hours a day. So he runs away from his foster dad-dog and meets a bulimic calendar who vomits the past and that’s the plot. And, I got this wicked sick show once a month at the Mudd Duck.

On what day?

February 23^rd is the next one coming up. And holy shit, that place gets packed. Like the last time I think there was probably close to five or six hundred people, it was really bumping and everyone who goes is really awesome and its donations only. Last Wednesday of the month. DJ Baglady is playing there. He just went on a big sold out tour around the Grand Cayman Islands. So he’s pretty good. I’m so big, I once, when I lived in an apartment complex, it was seven floors big, I did a floor tour. I got to play on all seven floors. Every single floor somebody agreed to let me do a show in their apartment.

Were you well received? Which floor was the best show?

The floor that I lived on, the third floor was the biggest show.

Did you go from seven-six-five, or one-two-three?

It was whoever would let us next. Sometimes we couldn’t get a show in that week and we’d have to wait a little bit, but I mean, this was in New York City, people are busy. Flip-flopping, doing everything, scratching, scratching behind their ears just to survive.

So the third floor was the best show?

Oh ya, it was good. Well there’s this guy Daniel Lloyd who lived on the third floor. I was good friends with Daniel Lloyd until I brought him to a show and people were smoking weed out of one-hitters. And he got really paranoid and thought everybody was doing crack because he’s never done any drug at all and he stopped being friends with me because he thought I was friends with a bunch of crack addicts.

What does Daniel Lloyd do?

He works with computers. He’s a geek. What else does he do? He meets girls on OKCupid.com and then he awkwardly hangs out with them.

He does? People do this?

Ya! Lot’s of people go on OKCupid dates. You never have?

No. Have you?

Oh ya, always very terrible. I just got a text message, I’ll read it. It says, ‘no problem. tell me what you think.’ So…you know, I get tons of text like that all day. Constantly. Constantly.

Do you want to give out your number?

Ya my numbers 773-408-6149. Send me any type of text like that. I’ll tell you other types of texts I get. All day I get crazy texts like that. I also get texts like this, someone says ‘Who’s dis?’. I got a text saying stuff like, ‘too sleepy, my darling, and doo soon.’ It was doo like poop but I know she doesn’t mean poop because she’s old. I got this awesome text that said, ‘Oh it’s cool. I would have went out to the Hollywood Hotel open mic but I was too tired.’

You did an open mic at the Hollywood Hotel?

No, no.

Did you go to one?

No, I watched Minority Report. It’s not as good as I remember it in middle school.

That makes me not want to see it because I have very good memories of it and I want to maintain those good memories.

Why fool yourself?

Because I can.

Why not be involved with the harsh reality of the world. 9/11 was an inside job, Minority Report isn’t as good as I thought it was since middle school. It’s ok, I mean the plots pretty cool and it’s all future looking, so that’s pretty cool. He ran a lot in that movie. He ran a lot. He was pretty good at running from the cops, I’ll give him that. I’ve never ran from the cops before, have you?

No.

I tried to hide from the cops once.

Where did you hide?

I hid, it was in a dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty spot. And we just hid in this big room full of all these big metal broilers or machines of some sort and the whole floor’s covered in dirt. But they sent out a SWAT team, a bunch of dogs, and people with automatic weapons.

Did they get you?

Ya, they got us all. We went to jail for the night. Just for drinking in a squat.

Now what does that say?

Our society’s crumbling.

Trenton interviews his dad from Peter Slank on Vimeo.

My friend Rob and I made up a squat team for a show about squatter-punk-anarchist-cops. That would be good. Well it’s really there’s just two, there’s just these two anarchist cops that they live inside of a dumpster that when they jump in the dumpster it’s a whole big warehouse and one of their enemies is a store manager that stops them from dumpstering and their police headquarters is inside of a squat and the boss is always like ‘You dropped three forties last night, blew up two trains that you hopped’ and everywhere they go they hop a train to get there, even if it’s across the street.

So they’re in Chicago.

They’re everywhere. They can go anywhere a train can go. Actually, one episode they’re just going to wake up on the moon and not remember how they got there. And the whole moon is going to be covered in graffiti.

I don’t want to give away the ending.

No, can’t. The community service they do is people have to tag things all day.

That’s what they give out to people, as cops.

Ya, for community service.

That’s very forward.

Ya, they’re good. They break apart schools and marriages and institutions. That’s good. So what else? What else is interesting to know about somebody? How many languages I know?

How many languages do you know?

I know English. That’s it. I know a little French ebonic Braille.

French ebonic Braille?

I know a little French ebonic Braille. Braille French ebonics?

I think ebonic goes first. Ebonic French Braille.

Ya. I’ve been kind of obsessed lately with the thought of a blind person finding out that a basketball is full of Braille and learning some inner truth about the world that nobody knows.

Maybe only James Naismith knows. He’d know, the guy who invented basketball.

Was he blind?

I’ve never met him, he might have been blind. I’ve never heard that he was blind. But, like I said I never met him.

Well, if he let people know he was blind the secret would be out, people would know how to solve the world. But we’re living in such a society where blind basketball teams not existing is pretty ignorant and I think that’s the level of enlightenment we have to reach before we’ll know what the message is, what the true Bible is on the ball. What do you think?

I’m a skeptic and I can’t really deny that as a possibility. It seems like an interesting possibility, and I don’t know Braille either. So as an ignorant person I’m open to it. If anybody on the internet out there knows Braille and has a basketball please let us know.

Anybody can read my book, it’s called Don’t Be Blind From The Truth, and it’s just about opening up your eyes to the reality of this truth. It’s not like knew Braille, though. Basketballs were invented a long time ago. Like Mayans used to play basketball.

Beekeeper And I

Trenton Willey | Myspace Video

You’re also an avid story developer, screenwriter, tele-screen

Ya, ya, ya. They’re very convoluted and confusing but that doesn’t matter.

What’s the over-arching theme or trend or motif? Do you have any?

No, they’re just weird I guess. The psychedelic moment. Like when I did stand up at the Mudd Duck everyone in there was black except for my friend Mike and this girl Yonaly that came with him but everyone called her ‘The White Girl’ because she was white by association and after every joke I told this one woman went, ‘Now that’s a psychedelic moment!’ That was pretty awesome.

What else do you have coming up?

Oxymorons are good, I like puns and oxymorons. Excuse me, I’m going to blow my nose on some mummy wrappings. This curse I have just keeps getting worse and worse. The more I blow my nose on these mummy wrappings. We have a mummy and it’s been lasting a long time. Plugs? You were saying?

Ya, if you have any shows coming up.

Ya. At the Mudd Duck. February 23^rd there’s a show at the Mudd Duck. And I guess I’m supposed to, I’ll hit on a lot of people at a show at The Actors Gang on the 1^st of whatever next month is. March?

March, ya.

This interviews about aliens, right?

Yes.

This couch I’m sitting on is where I get to talk to a lot of geeks that know everything about science and aliens. So they know the truth, that if you don’t believe in you’re obviously closed minded because you’re not thinking like the people that sit on this couch and this is the couch where people…when you sit on this couch all you do is you think about aliens and pyramids. And like I said, we had two mummies over last night. We get them.

How do they get in? The front door? Do they just walk here?

We have to order them. Mike knows people.

What do you do with the mummies?

We put a stick in its mouth and a stick in its ass and use it as toilet paper. We’ve smoked some mummies. Sometimes we invite people over and they think they’re eating pasta but they’re eating mummy. See it got to the point, I don’t have a passport, but I’m a pyramid dealer because Mike has a passport. He hooks me up with the pyramids wholesale. I don’t know how he gets them so portable. He found a way to defeat gravity. How did they built them to begin with?

I don’t know do you know? I’ve always been taught that they just build them with slaves.

That’s impossible. It’s impossible.

I’m willing to accept that it didn’t happen like that.

Ok, because we saw a crane try to pick up a pyramid block…couldn’t do it. How many slaves is a crane? Lots of slaves. Like twenty thousand?

How do you think they pyramids might have been built?

Either the Egyptians defeated gravity somehow or aliens did it. Or aliens told the Egyptians how to defeat gravity. Or an earthquake could have built it.

Could have the stones gotten heavier? Like, their density of the blocks?

Oh. I don’t know. See that’s realistic thinking. That’s kind of realistic. Do you think anyone’s ever sunk in quicksand and ended up just landing in a different city that nobody knows about?

Ya, I think that has happened.

Like a crazy super underground city.

You mean like in Sonic the Hedgehog when you could travel down in the quicksand and you were in the underground coin layer?

I don’t remember that, but yes, exactly. Except the people that live down there are really weird looking because of their not getting any sun. There could be anything down there. There could be underwater aliens, there could be under-cave, underground aliens. There could be space aliens.

I bet we’ll find a lot of that stuff underwater.

What kind of stuff can we find?

I’m saying like a sunken spaceship. Because if you were to crash land an alien spaceship on earth it would probably land in water and we haven’t really explored much of the ocean.

Can’t we just remove one of the oceans to investigate it? Like shoot an ocean into space. Earth has so much water anyway we don’t need that much water. What can we do with that water?

If you put it in space the salt maybe can separate from the water.

And then we can bring it back and it can be drinkable. We’d get a lot of the way to many species that are already living there that look gross and are slimy and dumb. So I think we should do that. And we can help with overpopulation. We can move super cities there.

It’s really fertile land I bet, the ocean floors. It would be really warm down there.

So how can we make a super-bathtub to move a bathtub into space?

You’re going have to make some sort of straw. It might be a vacuum type thing where you just suck the water up into space.

Last night we recorded a bunch of video of a lot of people hanging out that have been on fire for a long time, like years. They have their own club, of people who have been on fire. And they found out that the way to get rid of the fire was by wind cubes picking them up. Now what do you think, how do you make a wind cube? Like, you can put water in a freezer to make an ice-cube. How do you make a wind cube?

A wind cube? I think you probably have to get a box, like a steel box chamber, and spin the air inside it long enough to teach the air. Maybe you put some water molecules in there and zap it with electricity to keep the turns square, and you train it to do that for a while.

If you put a fan in a box, that’s kind of like a wind-cube. I’d really like to see that. If we put a bunch of wind in a cube and we filmed putting it in a box and making it like that, we can make it so you can spin around the wind and add zappy electricity to make wind cubes that you sell…we could make a commercial of your selling wind cubes. I’d like to see that.

interview with power axe

2011-02-10T23:11:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday February 9^th I was very unprepared to do an interview with Brian of Power Axe.

FCBK - facebook.com/poweraxe666

TWTR - @poweraxeforever

EMAIL - poweraxeband@gmail.com

www.poweraxeforever.com

The name of your group is?

Power Axe.

How long have you been playing shows?

We started in March of 2007. Our first show was that summer. So since summer of 2007.

And you’ve always been in Southern California?

Ya. We’re from Valencia. Magic Moutain area. I moved out here September oh-eight. Ryan moved out here summer of oh-nine.

You’ve been playing a lot of shows lately.

Ya. A lot. We’re playing this Friday at the Mime. And Saturday at the Mime, but we’re DJ-ing. The two that we’re really excited for that are coming up are the 18^th we’re playing at The Echo with Tera Melos and Marnie Stern and then the 19^th in San Diego with them.

Do you do a lot of DJ-ing?

Sometimes. We’ll DJ when we get asked to do shows that are more like that.

Do you throw in a lot of your own music when you DJ?

Not really. We usually play high energy disco. It’s the lavender side of Power Axe.

What’s the other side?

When we DJ it’s like the opposite of what we play live. We wear funny stuff and get super drunk and dance around.

What are your live shows like?

It always depends on the crowd. They usually get super crazy and everyone’s like falling all over the place, punching each other. It’s sort of like a metal thing, crazy time signatures, just me and a drummer and my looper pedal. It’s something that needs to be experienced. I play with a lot of pedals.

What kind of pedals are you working with? What are the nuts and bolts of the Power Axe sound?

It’s basically, I have an octave pedal, and then and overdrive pedal and then a fuzz pedal—

Oh shit.

--and then I have a pitch shifter, and then a delay, and then a looper. And I have this other crazy weird fuzz thing that I don’t use much. But it’s mainly the octave into the overdrive into the fuzz into the pitch shifter into the delay, and then all into the looper, which gets the sound. And then I’ll do some live looping, but I also do some stuff where it’s already on the pedal and then I’ll just trigger samples and play to them.

Nice.

Ya, I’m in the works of getting a new amp. Mine’s all fucked up. I need a crazy loud setup. I should have a new setup in the next week. I just need somebody to co-sign a credit card and then we should be ready to go.

Any other shows upcoming?

We’re playing a lot. We have two shows this weekend, two shows next weekend, the weekend after that we have one and the weekend after that we have one. But stuff comes up all the time. After those shows with Tera Melos we have the FMLY Ride, and on the 12^th we’re playing in Venice at this guitar shop Time Warp with The Shrine and Stab City and a couple other bands. That’s on the 12^th, March 12^th.

Do you have a calendar?

Ya. Everything’s on our website which is POWERAXEFOREVER.COM

Cool, this will all be hyperlinked, people can click on this. What kind of content do you have on POWERAXEFOREVER.COM?

It’s got some cool pictures, a calendar of shows, it’s got a news/blog/reviews section, music, there’s links to the EP. There’s a contact section. It’s got all the essential stuff. We just got it; I did all the designing for it. And then my friend, David, who I’ve known since kindergarten, actually, did all the coding and all the fancy shit.

It’s good to have a friend like that. I’m way out of touch with technology.

It changes all the time. There’s always new stuff.

[Power Axe robbing a liquor store]

Do you have new music coming out soon?

We have an EP that’s out right now that’s called Slaughter the Animals, Poison the Earth. And that’s available on iTunes, Amazon, and whatever, and on our BandCamp, which is PowerAxe.BandCamp.com. Then in March we’ll be coming out with, we have everything done and recorded and ready to go, we’re just waiting on the actual shit to get printed and whatever, and that one’s going to be called The Kinship, it’s our first full length album. It’s going to be good. On Modern Sleeze Records. I’m really excited about that.

So you live…here…what is this…where are we?

I live here at Vlad the Retailers. It’s a gallery space slash boutique store slash I don’ know, whatever. I live in a tiny cubby hole in the hallway. You can get banjo lessons here, we do movie screenings, and we have a comedian that comes on Fridays. But he just kind of talks crazy, you know, he just talks.

What’s his name?

Rick Shapiro. He used to do this thing with Louis C.K. He’s really funny. And I’ve been here since September. At this old shop across the street we played a couple of shows and those were some of the most epic shows we’ve ever played. This one show we played I remember my friend Wilton was hanging from the rafters, jumping all over the place, and everyone was all drunk. By the time we were done playing, there was a layer of sludge across the whole floor, at least an inch thick.

Is that typical of your shows?

I kind of like it when it gets crazy, but at the same time I’m worried about my gear. I don’t really care so much what people are doing during the show, it’s kind of annoying when they don’t move around, but as long as afterwards someone’s like ‘Oh! Good job!’…that’s always good. We played a show at The Smell once and nobody moved, everyone was just standing there. Ryan was yelling at them, it’s like ‘What the fuck are you guys doing? You awake?’

So Ryan talks more, he’s the one yelling at people at shows?

Ya, I feel more comfortable letting him talk. I just write the bass riffs. Someone’s got to be better at handling people and doing crowd stuff. When we play I don’t say anything ever, he’s always the one that’s hyping people up. Being like, ‘What’s our name? Power Axe!’ you know? Doing all that important stuff.

What’s the worst show you’ve ever played, terrible awful show, worst experience?

Uh, well actually just a week and a half ago, after playing a super epic show at The Smell, we played CIA and it was literally us and the sound guy. And the sound guy told us to turn it down. I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ We finished up that song and just left. That one was pretty bad. It’s always annoying when we play with bands and they take forever to set up, or show up late and mess things up. This one show we played with these punk bands, these super-cool hipster punk bands, cross earings, leather jackets, and in between one of the songs you hear this super cool guy in the back say, ‘I don’t hear any singing.’

You don’t do any singing?

No, it’s instrumental.

What other bands have you been playing with?

We’ve been playing a lot with Professor Calculus and all the Modern Sleeze bands like Narwhal Party. Those are all really good dudes. It kind of varies. We like to play with our friend’s band Hot Bodies, they’re from the valley.

Has it been going well? Are you having a good time with Power Axe?

Ya. It’s kind of like what I’ve devoted my life to. I don’t work a full time job because: A.) I don’t want to; and B.) it’s because I want to have as much time to focus on this and put all my energy into this as opposed to being stressed to working and having to pay rent. That’s why I live here. And it’s been going really well. Especially this year. This year’s been going good, we’ve been doing a lot of shows and getting good shows booked, like that show at The Echo. Our websites up, I made a music video and it’s been getting a lot of views. Ya, and our album. The Kinship. Everything’s been going good and everything that’s been happening and we’re real happy about all the people who come out to shows.

You’ve got some tattoos, are you into tattoos?

I mean, as much as the next person. I just have a bunch of dumb things. I’ve got the Power Axe tattoo. There’re actually a couple other people. I have another friend that has Power Axe, the Axe, and another friend with this big upside-down cross on his leg.

We can do a whole photo spread with all the Power Axe tattoos. For everyone who wants to join the Power Axe tattoo movement.

If you have a Power Axe tattoo, we get you into shows for free.

Is that policy?

Ya, that’s part of it. Ya, there’s only a few other people aside from me, but whenever they show up for shows we get them in. The first tattoo I paid for, for my friend. And the other one I said I was going to pay for it, I think I paid for it, or I did or didn’t, I don’t really remember, it was kind of a crazy summer.

[This guy gets into Power Axe shows for free]

Do you have work later?

Ya, I work at the Palladium. And tonight there’s a porn awards show.

Porn awards? Have you done that before, worked a porn awards show?

No.

So you’re expectations are kind of all over the place.

My expectations are very high. Obviously. It just says on the calendar XXX Biz Awards Show.

I feel like I’d be pretty excited for a porn awards show, but at the same time you never know. Everyone might just be dressed normal.

Ya.

What else do you do when you’re not Power-Axe-ing? Do you go to school?

No. I don’t go to school. This is kind of all that I do.

Any final thoughts?

Ya, we’re just trying to help make a better music scene because bands don’t really get big on their own so we’re trying to play as many shows as possible. So if we can all have a good time and work together it benefits everyone. There are a lot of separate things going on out there and a lot of good bands and we just want to make it all work together to build a better community.

interview with dj baglady

2011-02-09T23:08:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, February 8^th, I sat down with DJ Baglady and talked about some stuff…like the alien tattoo on his leg.

baglady_qq by baglady

You have a tattoo of an alien on your leg?

Ya, it’s the Area 51 alien. I was going to put something funny on its forehead like an anarchy sign or 420 but I couldn’t decide on what to put. So it’s blank for now. But it could change at any moment if I get the inspiration and decide what to put. I was also thinking of getting a fractal triangle on its forehead but I don’t think I could get sufficient iterations in there because it’s so small. So I’m going to get that one on my back. Which will be pretty easy to do on my back between my shoulder blades. A fractal triangle with hella iterations. It would be cool. And I want to get a Star Trek communicator on my chest, life size. Like what they had on the show, on my chest right where it belongs. And that’s all I have planned for now. I totally forgot how easy it is to do a tattoo, I had a little tattoo party.

Using a sewing needle and India ink?

Ya, we had a tattoo party, it was so much fun.

Did you draw any tattoos?

Ya I did an anchor on my friend Zeke’s leg. It turned out very nice. I want to do a tattoo performance that’s really cultish and noisy and a lot of flashing lights and decorations and what-not where a bunch of people are involved. Me and my friend Trenton, who’s a comedian, we had this idea about aliens landing on the Earth and building the pyramids because the aliens who landed were noise musicians who got cast off their planet because their music was too extreme for the future. So we want to make this play thing, it’s just them in the warehouse, underground music party scene.

Is it set in modern times?

No it’s set back then. It ends with the interactions between people and these noise gods.

Is it set in Egypt?

There’re different centers. There’re the Egyptian ones, there’re the Mayan ones, you know anywhere where there’re pyramids. Because pyramids are the cassette tapes of the future architecture. There like the coolest trend.

Is that how they’re broadcasting? By triangulating the wave between the pyramids?

Ya, out of the tops. So anyways, back to the tattoos, so at some point, I don’t know who’s going to get tattooed but I see the stage is set up so it looks like a rituals going on, and in the middle is some sort of cauldron with dry ice or something corny like that, and there’s strobe lights everywhere, and everyone is in a circle and they’re all giving the same tattoo to each other on the same spot, but in a circle.

Oh, creepy, like the ouroboros?

Ya maybe, something like that. Something pretty simple. And that’s it, that’s the performance. It would be cool if we tattooed the infinity sign.

You could tattoo the infinity sign while you’re sitting in the shape of an infinity.

Ya, for sure. I think people would be into that.

How many people? Like thirty?

Thirty’s a bit excessive. I’d be worried about health risks because all these people are going to be super wasted. Maybe ten. But I don’t know, a figure eight? That has to be a lot of people, ya you’re right. Like twenty. Ok, twenty, twenty can do a figure eight. That’s a pretty good amount of people.

And that’s the whole show?

I have an idea for the beginning; we have this really crappy projector. And it can project from a VCR on a sheet, and have the sheet come down from the sky and moving a projection across the sheet of this flying saucer landing, and the stage is all black and you don’t know what’s happening on the stage but there’s just this kind of crummy projection of a flying saucer and all these crazy sound effects that we’re making. Meanwhile we’re on stage in a flying saucer, but we’re covered by a tarp, or something, so then there’re the crazy sound effects, and the flying saucer lands, then the sheet goes up and we’re just kind of like jamming inside of this flying saucer. That’s how the thing starts. The rest of it is like maybe some actor type people can come out from the front and they’re all aliens and they start singing about what they’re going to do and how sweet their noise music is. And talk about how the Mayans are washed out and they’re still stuck on that quantum rock shit, or something.

Quantum rock?

Ya, quantum rock. I just really want to go to space.

Which part of space?

I’d like to go to Pluto. I mean it would be cool to go far enough in space that I would be going beyond things we know.

You could go to Mars.

Ya, Mars is real shitty though. What the fuck are you going to do on Mars?

Golf?

I guess, ya. Mars would be good as a golf destination. I’d like to go somewhere that has similar things to our planet, like mountains maybe, but they’re crazy big.

I think Mars would be better if it was colored purple.

I like the purple planets better than the red ones. I was really fucking pissed that Pluto isn’t a planet. Because it was my favorite planet growing up.

It can still be your favorite planet.

No it’s not a planet.

But it’s just a word…planet.

There’s a big difference between a planet and a piece of a planet.

What’s going on with Pluto? I don’t think I fully understand.

It’s just a fraction of the asteroid belt that’s right beyond it. It’s not a planet; it’s different from a planet. It’s just a piece of asteroid that got stuck in orbit.

That’s kind of scary that there’re asteroids that large out there and within reach of us.

Ya, there’s some star stuff that’s going to happen soon, or that’s already been happening that we don’t really know, we can’t see it. But we’re going to be able to see it soon. It’s two stars going into each other in some way that creates superstar.

When will be able to see this?

I have no idea.

Will it be within our lifetime?

Ya.

Will it just be a bright star in the sky?

Maybe. It might lead to the total destruction of everything, though. I don’t really know at all, though. I’m just kind of spewing bullshit out of my mouth.

Ya, where did you get your degree?

From listening to other friends of mine who are smarter than me and the internet. That’s where my degree is from. Books too.

Let’s talk about your last show. You just got a gig as a DJ?

Ya, DJ Baglady. I was at this place called Royal Tea and I guess I’m going to be there on Sunday’s.

Where is it?

It’s on Washington Boulevard in Culver City. It’s almost like Trader Joes when you’re there. It’s this really fancy gallery place where they have a gift shop and its Japanese themed, it’s like cosplay themed. It’s pretty cool, all the waitresses are cute Japanese girls and they wear maid outfits. It’s a brunch thing, I DJ from 11:30 until 3:00 which is a long time but they give me lunch. It’s good times, all you can drink mimosas. I’ll be there this upcoming Sunday. It’s a good time. I got to DJ in front of a one sided mirror. There was a VIP room behind me that we discovered, right behind where I was DJ-ing. It had glass mirrors on all sides but they’re one way mirrors so you can see out. So I was just sitting there hanging out and I could see my computer running. I got to play a lot of my original stuff. I pretty much brought my whole studio out there and mixed that with some good slow tunes.

And do you have more work coming out?

Ya I have an album coming out soon, Quantum Quantize, I have a few mixtapes, I’m trying to set up this internet radio station.

Do you have any website addresses or information to give out?

Shit. I guess I have a Facebook, there’s also BagLady.99K.org. It might be down right now.

Dot 99 k dot org?

Ya it was free. There’s this really good free hosting site…I wonder if I’m going to get an upgrade because of this plug…there’s this really good free hosting service called Zymec, they’re really good. They’re awesome. They support way more languages than most other free hosting services. You get to choose, you can get 99k.org, or izx.com, or whatever the fuck, they have all sorts of really awkward suffixes. All my sites are 99k.org because it’s easy to remember.

Baglady.com was already taken?

Ya, Baglady.com was already taken by some purse company. My grandma knew about them, though. She was like, “Baglady?!? Like the ones who make the purses?” No grandma, it’s just a name I chose for myself.

december 21st 2012 mcworld - 60 watt kid (acoustic because there was a blackout)

2011-02-05T09:09:00.000-08:00

exclusive world video premiere you saw it here first don't even pretend like you saw it somewhere else first cuz you didnt

2011-02-05T08:52:00.001-08:00

things - bear

interview with dream panther

2011-02-02T18:30:00.000-08:00

On Friday, January 14^th, 2011 I met with DJ YHWH of Dream Panther in Silver Lake, Los Angeles to discuss his latest project Analogue Mountain, the state of the union, women, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and more women.

EMAIL - yodoggies@gmail.com

Listen to Dream Panther at: http://www.last.fm/music/Dream+Panther

Download Analogue Mountain at: www.mediafire.com; analogue mountain.zip

What do you think of the world today?

I think it’s a bunch of bullshit.

Could you please elaborate?

It’s a lot of fake ass bullshit. No, you can’t say that.

I think that’s what we want to hear. We don’t want to hear about your music.

Ya, but you know what I mean. I said that very stupidly. You know what I mean, though. I think that it’s very funny, gangster rap, you know all those dudes talking about how hard and crazy they were on the streets and shit, but in all their songs, man, they kept that verse chorus verse chorus, the four-four straightforward timing thing. You think eventually somewhere someone would say ‘Man fuck this. I’m going against the establishment. I’m going against the Gangster-rapism that’s already established. I’ma make this song in three-three. It’s only going to be a verse, and then a hook, and then the chorus, and then that’s it.’ You know? You think you would get concept albums but, no, not really. I mean, they smoke plenty enough weed, so drugs is definitely not the determining factor, it’s just I don’t know what, man. I don’t know what to say, I’m just talking shit.

It’s ok. We’re getting very good stuff right now.

No, you got to stop all hating. You have to stop all hating. It’s like that thing I was saying the other day. Nobody really goes anywhere and makes it; they just mash everybody down below them. That’s all hating is. You’re not making yourself feel better, you’re not making anything better, you’re just hating on everything else.

What are you listening to nowadays?

A lot, a lot. But no, man, it’s crazy to think, though, how much whack music goes down in Los Angeles. Like music you’d never hear. Like thousand and thousands of songs out there every day. You know? All that singer/songwriter stuff. Don’t get me wrong, that stuff is good, but those motherfuckers are whack. But you see, that right there, that’s just hating. I should stop. I guess we could talk about Pico Debarge. I saw Pico Debarge.

Ya, what was it like meeting Pico Debarge?

Oh ya, dude, it was real cool. No, man, it was really weird.

What did he look like?

He looked like a Debarge.

Did he look well?

Ya, but I mean it was just a weird thing, because it was a really weird show. It was a show where all the want-to–be’s crawled out from under the bed to pretend and all the has-beens go to rehash. So Pico was in the has-beens, but he was definitely the star of the has-beens.

Is he playing a new sound, lately?

No, he’s just still playing the rhythm and blues. ‘When your name is nobody, everybody knows your name.’ Which isn’t bad.

How long have you been working on Mount Analogue?

Since about the time I ran across the Panther. So when was that? September?

August?

September. Ya, September. That was the month that really changed it and kicked it off. It’s been done for a while. I’m just glad to get it out there.

Do you like all the music coming out lately? Do you enjoy what other people are making?

Ya. I think there’s a bunch of good music all the time. I think there’s always good music. I think that there’s really something starting in Los Angeles. I think it’s time. The weather’s right. I think everybody’s fed up.

And it is 2012.

So, ya I’m real stoked on that. But there’s a bunch of bullshit, too. But that goes without saying.

What are you doing for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday?

Kicking it, you know. The hope it that more and more people realize what really went down and what really was being said. When I finally revisited all that stuff they teach you as a kid, you just pitter-pat your way through it, but to really examine it and constructively look at it as an adult, it was crazy. I guess at least for me, because I got that very early on. It was like first grade when we learned all that. And it’s just background for the rest of the time. But you never really think about the world, until you grow older and see things as they are. They could be better. All that shit was all the same. It’s all the same thing happening over and over. That shit’s fucked up. It’s not right. It could be better.

Yep.

So I guess that’s all I hope. I think I understand and realize some of these things. So, this date doesn’t specifically mean this huge thing, I keep these things throughout the year, it’s not just a one day thing. It’s not like, ‘Oh we’re supposed to feel empathy, pride, anger right now.’ You’re supposed to feel those all the time.

Have you seen any good movies lately?

Ya, I watched a good movie last night.

What was it called?

It was called Orfeu Negro. Black Orpheus is what it roughly translates to from Portugese. It’s a love story of sorts, but the movie it takes place in Carnival. So tons of drums, singing and dancing throughout the entire movie. Very festive. Very sad. A very festively sad movie.

How are you doing?

I’m doing great. You know, like really, man, when you sit down and you think about it and you think, ‘No, man. I’m not doing terrible, I’m doing great!’ You know, I actually am doing great. I’m high, I’m well fed, I have some prospects I need to go tend to. I’m going to be working later on, making some butter. I don’t make cheddar anymore, I’m making butter.

What are you going to do later?

I’m just going to go drop off my bike, then I got some time, I’ll probably go record. I got a few hours.

Something new?

Ya, I have a ton of shit to get out there already. Wrap it up. And you know I got a few hours, so I say to myself, ‘I have,’ like, ‘three hours to record. If I don’t do my recording in those hours, then that’s it. I’ve wasted my entire recording time.’ Because I think that when you have all types of time, you just get really into making this thing perfect and tweaking the nipples on the knob. And at that point you’re just wasting time. But if you have three hours, and you’re feeling it, then it’s like, ‘Oh, let me just add on some drums right here. Let me just do this.’ Then you get it out there. It’s just getting the thing out. It’s like drawing a picture. You don’t start by taking four hours on the nose. You just draw the face.

This is another interview tactic. You got to go on the Barbara Walters walk.

Hey what’s that thing?

What?

Oh, it’s a cereal box.

Which cereal?

I don’t know. I remember when I used to pour a bowl of cereal, of that Toast Crunch cereal. And when you’re done with all the toast, instead of drinking the milk I just put more toast in.

It’s a nice day.

Oh ya. But ya, man, that toast. I would just put more toast crunch in when I’m done with the first bowl. Put in another bowl. So by the third or fourth bowl, man, by the time you get down to the milk, it’s just pure cinnamon-sugar slime. Pretty sick.

Tasty though.

That was the first occurrence of the idea to me that it wasn’t good. The cereal. When I had that fifth bowl and got down to the very end and all the crap was at the bottom.

All the sediment

Ya, just sitting there. At first I was stoked I was like, ‘Aright! Oh man! Look at all this! I’m going to drink this!’ But, no, that shit’s bad for you.

See, I don’t ask very many questions.

What if I asked you questions?

Alright.

What do you think is going to happen on December 31^st, 2012.

I think everybody is going to get drunk on New Years Eve. I remember feeling the same way December 31^st , 1999. It wasn’t so much that I believed in Y2K, but I thought that if everybody believed in Y2K then something bad was going to happen. Maybe not Y2K, but it’s going to be something, you know?

Do you think it’s possible that the “Y2K” is really just the 2012 thing, but an inaccuracy of the calendar just kind of made it seem twelve years earlier. Like everyone was freaking out about the event in the year 2000 that’s actually supposed to happen twelve years later but just due to the inaccuracy of the calendar they thought that it would be happening at that time. Do you believe that’s a possibility?

I think it’s likely.

So you do believe that there is some catastrophic thing coming?

Something, maybe not catastrophic. But something. I heard there’s a new sign in the zodiac, the thirteenth one is now part of the major Zodiac signs. Because the earth rotated.

I heard it was actually compensation. So you have to adjust it, so you’re no longer in the one that you thought you were.

Ya, you’re now not in that one anymore. See, 2012 already started. All the weird shit, that you don’t think is going to change anything, but it’s just subtle shit.

That changes everything.

What’s your favorite color?

That’s a dumb question. That’s a really dumb question. Gray.

What did you think about Obama’s speech?

Didn’t hear it.

By all accounts, it was a very good one. What about healthcare? Do you believe in universal healthcare? Do you believe it exists.

I don’t believe it exists. And I don’t think the current attempt to fix it is addressing the true problem. Well, obviously. But I think our society is flawed on a fundamental level so it’s never addressing the true problem. Unfortunately.

What do you think about Los Angeles selling parking structures to private companies?

Like I said, maybe not as a society, but the city’s problem is flawed fundamentally.

How so? What is the city’s problem?

The city’s problem is we’re structured and based to function and exist through the use of automobiles, really. That’s the problem, the problem now is there’s far too many people and things moving about. There’s far too many places that have been developed across this stretch of land. The infrastructure doesn’t support moving this many automobiles. It just doesn’t. So, something’s got to change. I think there are two major issues. One is pollution and the second is the infrastructure.

What are some solutions?

You move to something that more efficient that doesn’t produce waste. And you move to mass transit. So that you still have the availability and mobility of individual automobiles but at the same time you have the infrastructure to effectively move large numbers of people and goods.

What do you think of making a river out of the 110 and moving things through water?

I haven’t heard this proposal. I don’t know. I guess I’d have to look at the specifics. I don’t know I was thinking more of electric buses on the freeways. You take out the carpool lane, and you put busses. And you run that shit like clockwork. And every exit they have a stop. To me that seems like a much more effective way to transport people than subways and light rails their making that only stop at touristy spots. They don’t effectively move people from the valleys to the beaches or from the beaches to downtown to work and do whatever else there is. That’s where most people are moving. Most people are not going from LAX to Hollywood. Where do the trains go? LAX to Hollywood. Ridiculous. To Long Beach.

Did you have fun playing FMLY Fest?

Oh ya man, I had a blast. I had about four doobies before. I didn’t get to attend as much as I would have liked.

How did your set sound?

It was fantastic.

interview with andy, executive producer of cat stories

2011-01-31T14:41:00.000-08:00

powertothepupil.com

On Sunday January 30^th, I met with Andrew S. Phillips to discuss his latest project Cat Stories presented by Art for Arts Sake. Caleb Stone (CS) of Professor Calculus was there rudely interrupting throughout the interview, most of his comments have been omitted.

State your name for the record.

My name is Andrew S. Phillips.

What are you doing and why am I talking to you?

I’m doing Cat Stories.

What’s Cat Stories?

Cat Stories is an art show slash benefit. Basically the public submits stories about cats. Happy, sad, whether you love them, whether you hate them, long or short, it doesn’t matter. And then we get all the stories, we divide it among fifteen artists that are in my art group. Each story is going to have its own original, one-of-a-kind work-of-art that’s created from inspiration from the stories.

What’s the name of your art group?

We’re called Art For Arts Sake.

Do you have a website?

We don’t.

Oh.

Thanks for making me look bad.

That’s ok, I’ll edit this out.

CS - But you won’t because it adds character to the interview.

What was the question? Oh ya, talk about Art For Arts Sake.

Hey, let’s start over. I’m not feeling very good about the interview so far.

Ok. Do you just want to talk about Cat Stories then? What are going to be the highlights?

The name of the show is Cat Stories and pretty much the concept behind it is for people to send us any story about cats to catstoriesla@gmail.com. It’s put on by my art group Art For Arts Sake. It’s me and about fourteen other artists – painters, photographers, sculptors, performance artists.

Then after February 12^th we’re going to divide up all the stories between our artists and each story we receive will get a one of a kind work of art made for that story. And in our show the artwork will be hanging on the wall and the story will be displayed underneath it. So it’s a good way to see a re-creation of your story. Forty-percent of the proceeds from the show are going to go to the Lang Foundation; they’re a non-kill animal rescue based out of Los Angeles that does really awesome things. We have some surprises in store – open milk bar, giant litter box, maybe some stray cats running around. It’s going to be an awesome event, it’s going to be probably around late March.

So there will be cats at the show?

Well, I was going to have cats at the show but I don’t think the cats would enjoy being at the show very much.

But can you bring your own cat?

I want it to be like that. You know, ‘Hey, bring your cat!’

Do you have the date set?

We don’t yet, but it will be around late March. It’s probably going to be at Mime School. But of course, just keep checking out the Facebook.

How many cat stories have you received so far?

So far I have about thirty-five. We’re hoping to get about a hundred. So a lot of art.

Will there be music at the show?

Yes, there will be music at the show.

CS – Hey, hold on a sec, check out his picture, this chick, S., she and her friend were all about M. for a while, her friend was all on M.’s d. So she came over, and she had a long term boyfriend but her friend was fucking with M. so they both decided to come over to my pad one night. We brought them back one night and we were like, ‘Ya, alright, we both got bitches.’ But then she was all like, ‘No, I’m not going to bone you.’ But we were making out and it was on. So she hops on, just for like a couple seconds and was just like…[unintelligible squishing noise]…and flays around like a fish being electrocuted. It was the worst sex I ever had. And then at that moment I looked over, as this is happening, this very brief moment of passion if you will, I see M. and the other chick looking at us, like shocked. I guess they walked in from the other room. And then she left that night. No, no, no, she slept out in the living room with M. and her friend and then left in the morning and then the next day she got back with her boyfriend who she had broken up with the night before. I can interpret that as a blow to the self-esteem but instead I’m going to think of it as a moment of capitalizing on opportunity.

And you’re helping out a couple.

CS - Ya, I guesss. These rich girls, they have swag. You guys might want to do this interview closer to the event. Andy, you’re trying to promote this event with this interview, but you have no details.

The only thing I’m promoting right now is getting the stories. Send me stories [catstoriesla@gmail.com]

CS - How many more do you need.

Seventy.

CS - You need seventy? How many do you want to have?

Around a hundred.

CS - Thirty is a lot.

I want a hundred. Mime is a big place. And I want it completely filled.

CS - Can’t you just make the art bigger?

There’re going to be different sizes and I’ve already started shooting. Everything is going to be all different sizes.

CS - But what if the idea is just that everything is big.

I want to have various sizes, and there will be very big pieces.

CS - But what if you go from big to very big?

Because small will bring you in. Some stories are small.

CS - Ok, I trust your artistic vision.

I talked to this girl whose mom creates these huge cat paintings and then embellishes them with real antique jewelry and puts them in antique frames. So she’s going to display some of her shit. I got this guy that has a small room in his house that’s filled with two-feet by two-feet pictures of cats. He’s the leader of a cat themed moped gang called ‘The Meowpeds’.

Oh, is he going to be a part of the show?

He hit me up. He said, I don’t have a cat story…I am a cat story. He sent me pictures of his house and I was like, ‘I want you to help me.’

Do you have any cat stories that you want to tell off the top of your head?

I would love to, but really I’m going to leave that up to the show. There’s been a story about cats helping people cope with the suicide of a loved one, there’s a cat that helped people get through their friends getting murdered.

So there’s fiction, non-fiction…

It’s all non-fiction. There’s a story about a cat that disappeared for two years and came back to it’s owner after two years. Some really awesome stuff.

Very touching.

I started posting on cat blogs, recently.

What are some cat blogs you go to?

What was I on last night? The Cat’s Meow?…Something like that.

CS - Here, I found a link to it. The most popular cat blogs on the internet: Blogging Cat, Daily Cat Picture, Derby Sassy Cat, icanhascheezburger, The Daily Kitten.

The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee.

CS - See this is what people do on the internet. They make lists.

This is weird. People blogging about their pets lives.

CS - Awww, that’s cute. Shall we dance? - cheezburger.com/view/4359727360

That’s a tiny cat.

I can’t wait for the Worst Roommate Ever show.

What’s the Worst Roommate Ever show?

Same concept. Public submitted stories about your worst experience with roommates.

CS - Everybody has one of those. That’s a blue collar art show.

But every show we’re going to do is going to benefit something or some charity. After that show we’re going to do a Slaw Down. Have you heard about the Slaw Down?

No. What’s that?

Ultimate Cole Slaw Throwdown in MacArthur Park. Pretty much it’s a coleslaw cook-off in the summer in the heat. I’m going to rent a donkey. This summer I’m going to try to throw the worst parties ever. No ice buckets. Just summer and buckets of slaw sitting there for hours on end. It’s starts at one thirty in the afternoon when the sun’s high. And there’s no shade. We’re going to do it in the middle of the park where there’re no trees.

CS - Bring your own slaw.

We can’t be sued if we’re not selling anything right? If you bring your own slaw and you get sick then that’s your own business.

CS - If you eat food from a stranger you’re taking that responsibility on.

interview with professor calculus

2011-01-29T16:53:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, January 9^th, I met with Caleb Stone of Professor Calculus in Koreatown, Los Angeles to discuss his thoughts, opinions, the recent success of ProfCalc, and a bunch of other unimportant bullshit. It was a very good interview (see below).

FCBK - www.facebook.com/profcalc

TWTR - @profcalc

TMBLR - http://profcalc.tumblr.com

EMAIL - bookprofessorcalculus@gmail.com

www.profcalc.com

You recently played a death metal show in the valley.

Ya, it was at this bar called Dublin’s Irish Bar, but we thought it would be way better if it was called O’Darby’s.

Why O’Darby’s?

Just because that’s a really funny made-up Irish name.

Was it a good show?

Ya. It was this bar right next to CSU Northridge so it’s where all the college kids come party. So it was one of those… no bands has a huge draw where they’re like ‘Yo, where playing some underground thing,’ and then there’s a bazillion people there just waiting for them, maybe unless it’s Jay-Z and they put it on Twitter like one tweet. No bands do that. It’s all about playing somewhere that already has an audience and imposing your tastes upon them.

It was you, Mouth of the Serpent, and Isolation and Infamy.

Ya, it was the goofiest thing ever. And there was a huge private party there.

Unrelated?

Unrelated to the metal. And they were all sitting right next to the metal and they had a huge table set-up so it wasn’t like they were going to move. So it was definitely funny to see that, to view the imposition first had. Ya the whole night was pretty fun. I got two phone numbers. The ladies were feeling it. My amp was feeding back a little bit, which I wasn’t too happy about.

Oh, sometimes that’s nice.

No, it always sucks. Unless you do it on purpose. Unless you’re trying to be that rock dude, holding his guitar to the amp: ‘I don’t give a shit, I play shit that sounds bad on purpose because I’m so raw and that expresses my musical attitude.’

Did ProfCalc have to adjust for the metal set?

We’re kind of a metal band I guess. We have enough breakdowns in our music. So no complaints there. It was a good night and then we have an 18-year-old girl’s birthday party coming up, which will be a smorgasbord of moral dilemmas. I love that in LA kids do that. I don’t think that kids in small towns go, ‘Yo, I’m turning 18, I better get seven bands, rent a venue, do this huge blow out thing, get three hundred confirmed guests on Facebook. I think it’s great that kids are being empowered to do that, being empowered to shine in this town. Because not everybody is going to have a highlight in their lives.

We’re all just leaves of grass.

Did you just say we’re all leaves of grass?

Ya.

Isn’t the correct term blades?

Blades, blades of grass, ya.

Are they blades?

Yes.

Ya. Sorry that’s just me Larry David-ing out on you. You’re a killer interviewer, by the way. You just got non-stop questions anytime I stop talking.

Leaves of Grass was a book of poetry by Walt Whitman.

But is anybody who is consuming media these days interested in Walt Whitman references? They want Solja Boy references. You just want to be on NPR.

No, this is the slow interview…the eventual interview. We’ll get the goods eventually. You’ll be playing with Things, Dream Panther, ProfCalc, Alpha and Verbs – Red Fox. That will be a fun birthday for that girl.

Oh ya. Red Fox in the building.

And Truman Peyote, one of my favorite names for a band.

Ya, I met that guy. Did you know that his name is also Caleb?

No, I didn’t know that. I just like that name, Truman Peyote.

Ya, he’s from the East Coast. Maybe he’s cool. I don’t know, I don’t even want to think about what I come off to people as.

What are you working on now? How’s life?

Life’s good. I’m trying to make a conscious effort to eat better. I know I’m going to fail but if you try, you’re at least going to do a little better. And just try to eat less, and I know that that sounds like a dumb, anorexic aspiration but it’s hard to create a diet that’s snack based and wholesome. The way to speed up your metabolism is just eat chicken and rice bowls. Just like seven tiny bowls of chicken and rice a day. But it’s impossible. It’s the inevitable progression of our days that sometimes it’s going to end with booze. And when you get drunk you’re going to eat some shit. Or even if you’re just out and you want to be existing out on the go. If you spend too much time in your room, it’s like living in a bubble. It’s like, ‘What am I doing? I’m living in a rat cage.’ But if you’re out you can’t get any nice food for cheap. If you want to eat healthily you have to be a Bourgeoisy-fuck. So I don’t know what the answer is there. Everything is full of sugar.

And red-40 die.

Ya. You have to work to enjoy the shit that tastes good for you. Nothing that immediately appeals to your palette is going to be good for you. That’s why kids eat chicken nuggets and they’re begging their parents to go to McDonald’s so they can get some toy that comes in happy meals. Oh, did you hear about that?

They took out the toys in happy meals in San Francisco.

No more toys. Oh did they only do that in San Francisco?

Ya.

So white. That’s so white. San Francisco is the whitest-bourgeois-iest place in the world, I went there recently.

You’re about to offend a lot of people in this interview.

No. White-bourgeoisy people will be like, ‘Ya. Right. That’s my shit. San Francisco. White-bourgeois. Keep it bourgy.’

Do you want to talk about ProfCalc at all?

Ya we got a new record and you should care. We try to make enjoyable music for the people to rock on to. ProfCalc is all about parfaits, humanitarianism, and bitches. I feel like we could come up with a lot of permutation with that formula. Prof Calc is all about blank, blank, and blank.

ProfCalc is about a lot of things.

Ya, ya. Prof Calc encompasses all sorts of paradigms of stuff. That was a good one, though - parfaits, humanitarianism, and bitches.

Ya, but when you say it you should be wearing gold teeth.

Do people with gold teeth have sex? Do women find that attractive?

I’m pretty sure that they do.

Can we take a poll? Like, after reading this, to all the female listeners, if you’ve had sex with a man with gold teeth, send an email to email@email.com.

You have a lot of video content on your website.

Ya, I’m starting to get better and editing and making videos. But in order to come up with any semi-decent video content, you kind of have to do something despicable. Like really, you have to film someone who’s probably a really nice person acting like an idiot and put them on the internet for all to so. Or you’ve got to film someone who’s drunk and they’re making a buffoon of themselves. Somebody’s getting exploited on some level.

Not always.

Ya, really. People don’t say, ‘Hey check out this video of this guy speaking eloquently on the topic of religion.’ No. It’s like, ‘Check out this viral video of a drunk guy on a motorcycle getting hit by a donut truck and dying.’ That’s what we want to watch as Americans. That’s what we want. It’s kind of nasty. There was a quote that someone said, from a little while ago, but I think it perfectly sums up the state of the nation. It was like, um, ‘Everyone in America loves a good chuckle. And we’re willing to sell our souls for a chuckle.’ Or something like that. And this guy said this in the 60’s. He didn’t know what it was really going to end up being like. It was preemptive.

Very prophetic.

This interview is like, fucking, Vocab-Energizers: The Interview. We’re letting everyone know that we went to private schools and we got big words. Unnecessarily.

I didn’t go to private school.

Ya, but you went to school in Huntington Beach. That counts.

No.

Oh? Was it raw, dog? Did you have to go through a metal detector before you went to class?

No.

This interview is getting worse.

No, trust me, we’re about to strike gold.

Gold, boobs and weed.

For people who haven’t heard your music, how would you describe ProfCalc to them?

We’re sort of about crepes, really.

Crepes?

We’re sort of like the thin breakfast pancake of bands. We’re sort of like the Good-N-Plenty of bands. We’re sort of like the Jay-Z of ska. We’re like the Isaac Hayes of J-Pop. We’re sort of like mittens of bands. We’re sort of like the that-Lego-that-you-can’t-find of bands. We’re like the bagel of bands. The Jesus of late night, for sure. This is getting hard.

Well, we’re cutting deep here.

We’re like the unnecessarily large parfait of bands. I bet there’re a lot of parallels you can draw when you look deep, you’d be surprised how deep we are in general, as people, as lovers. We’re sort of like the cream cheese of bands. I can’t say these things with a straight face.

You got anymore?

ProfCalc is kind of like the swag hat of bands. We’re like the Gucci of music. We’re like the polo belt of music. We’re also about polo socks.

How’re the women in your life.

Great, I met a girl last night. And I think we’re going to hang out today. I think she’s a keeper, man. Because she was cute, but not too cute where she’s going to be all like, ‘Hey, bla bla bla. I’m a big old pain because I’m so hot and all the guys want me.’ And she loves smoking weed. She just texted me: ‘srsly lets go get sum bud n grub’

Tell her to bring a friend.

I’ve never been that guy who’s been like, ‘Yo, bring a freak for my boy.’ Does anybody say that?

No, just say, ‘Bring a friend.’

Ya, I know. Dude that never works because they always bring someone who’s not the right friend.

Tell her to bring the right friend. You have to word it right.

Man, the last part of this interview is brutal.

interview with things

2011-01-29T12:46:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, January 13th, 2011 I met with White Owl Brown (WOB) and Chubby Wings (CW) of Things at the Carlton Apartments near Wilton and Sunset, Los Angeles, to discuss their thoughts, opinions, the recent success of other bands, and a bunch of other unimportant bullshit.

http://sites.google.com/site/thingsbare/

N. Should we get whiskey?

WOB I’ve got to go to work. I work in three hours.

CW Saving children from burning buildings.

WOB I don’t want to go.

CW Feed the masses super-slam meals. What do they call them?

WOB Grand-slams.

CW Super grand-slams.

WOB Most of all, I don’t want to work.

N. Things. Have you been doing anything lately?

WOB Have we eaten anything lately? Ya, just had Chipotle.

CW We split a burrito.

WOB Ask anything you want to know. Anything you’re curious about.

CW Childhood. Trauma’s. Anything you want to talk about. Let’s get it all out.

WOB Bear’s gay. It’s the truth.

CW He’s lesbian technically.

N. Talk about your roots.

CW It’s hard to go back there sometimes.

WOB I don’t really remember much before these moments. Vaguely here and there.

CW I can’t even remember my mom’s voice. I’ll even try to think about the pitch.

WOB I can remember your mom’s voice. ‘Eli!’

CW It sounds worse than that.

N. You just moved to a new place, right?

WOB We have a futon

CW There is a futon. There is a coffee maker.

WOB I had a green light. It got smashed.

CW We got some blue Christmas lights that travel the world with us.

WOB There are no billboards outside my window.

N. Oh really?

CW Yep, it’s big sky country out there.

WOB I have a view of the freeway, the beautiful freeway. It’s awesome.

CW The old 101.

WOB Yep, the 101. Which takes us back to our routes. I’ve grown up along the 101 my whole life.

N. These questions are cutting deep.

CW Getting back to Gilroy, now. And Turlock. Or Turd-lock, as we like to call it.

WOB Remember Fats [Domino]? I haven’t heard Fats in too long.

CW Man, ya. We’d start everyday with Fats.

WOB It’s been like six months. Remember those days? Fats days?

CW That’s a good morning, right there.

WOB Just throw on the record. A double album. That was probably one of the best steals of my life.

CW From where?

WOB Goodwill. I walked out with that receiver, too.

CW They owe it to you.

N. Is Things recording anything new?

WOB Sparsely.

CW We’ve been working on this video. We got through it pretty quick. Just a lot of footage of the city and us being weird in the world. It plays over a recording we did a few months ago. You know, things that bands do and stuff to sell things. Close ups of our faces and butts. Lot of butt-shots. That’s what the people want, you know? We’re taking your advice, the butt shots. We’ve actually put on a little weight so they’d be more impressive.

WOB Better ass.

CW Ya. I had Chipotle today. Just stuff ourselves. Being fat is going to come back in.

WOB Fat is back. There’s going to be a backlash.

CW I’ve already called the double chin fat. That’s going to be forty years from now. People are going to want an extra chin. Just neck beards.

WOB A line beard outlining the double chin. That’s why I’m going to get really, really skinny.

CW That’s what our band’s really about, fashion. That’s what the music’s about, how we look.

WOB Really, mostly. We try to capture that on the recording, what we’re wearing at the time, what kind of make-up we’re into.

CW Like he’ll be wearing a scarf and think, ‘What does this scarf make me play.’ Then I’ll start playing a riff, then he’ll take the scarf and, like, wrap it in a different direction, and it will take the riff with it. We just try to redo that over and over.

WOB What do people usually say interviews? We should read some others.

N. Who are your influences?

WOB Macaroni and cheese. Disney.

CW Robert Mondavi, the wine-ist .

WOB Paul Karcher, Ronald McDonald. Ray Crock

CW Grimace on his bad days.

N. Hamburger Helper?

WOB Ya, especially the mascot. Those mascots, that’s what I used to…in high school, I wanted to be a mascot.

N. Were you the mascot for your school?

WOB No. we didn’t have a team. But I thought when I became an adult I could be a mascot for a real NBA team or a product of some kind. You know? Like maybe I could be that glove from Hamburger Helper. What’s he got that I don’t?

CW That big Hamburger Helper hand just hanging outside Grocery Outlet when people go in. Did you ever go to Grocery Outlet? Is that a Norcal thing?

WOB It’s really a low income area thing. Stale, stale, expired Grocery Outlet.

CW Barely edible food.

N. You were playing some blues at the show last night.

CW Oh, did you hear me? Ya, I was bringing it back to where I came from. This is prison blues. Prison of the mind. That’s where we’re playing from. I was saying, though, if we're going to keep doing that blues, White Owl’s going to give us some hobo-ing.

N. Hobo-ing?

CW Ya, you know…Ho-bo ho-o-bo

WOB Astral hobo blues.

CW Ho-bo ho-o-bo. As-tral Ho-o-o-bo.

WOB Laser guided recyclables.

CW Yep, collecting bottles and cans. Space debris.

WOB All this stuff is just garbage in the future.

CW We're just going to be going around, collecting lost, forgotten satellites and bringing them to recycling centers all across the universe to put gas in our little ship

WOB Those solar panels are going to be worth mad cash.

CW Chevron approved little space station where you and your family live making ends meet off the space trash, of which they call the community you live in. They’re going to call you space trash when you’re older. ‘You been hanging out with that space trash?’ What do you think would be the upper-class planet?

WOB Saturn, I bet

CW Saturn, ya. It's blue. It's got those rings.

WOB Jupiter’s got that huge ring around it too, that’s the mother planet. It’s so big.

N. It's got that big red tornado.

WOB Ya, I just want to be breathed in by that red eye. There can’t still be a tornado, that’s old data.

CW It takes thousands of years to get back to us anyways.

WOB How about that face on Mars, though.

CW It’s still there.

WOB Coffee?

N. Ya, thanks.

CW Yep, we’re playing those blues riffs now. Just blend the blues into jazz seamlessly in a whirl of seamless blues-y jazz.

WOB A soulless blend of blues and jazz.

N. Is that what kind of music are you playing now?

WOB Right now we’re into crotchless. Crotchless pants.

CW Seamless, crotchless.

WOB Seamless, garments. It’s all about fashion, clothing, like we said. It’s like there’s no seam between my outfit and his outfit. That’s what we’re trying to get at. One big double human body sock. One big, consistently constant sock being. We don’t always achieve it. You can see the threads sometimes. Different colors here and there.

CW Sometimes there’s a gaping hole. Right it the middle

WOB But it’s still one. We’re just trying to please everyone, really. We just want to make people happy.

N. What about yourselves? Don't you want to be happy yourself?

WOB I lost my personality to politeness a long time ago. I have no personality.

CW That makes it easier to please everybody.

WOB I just focus on my cheekbones and my facial expressions.

CW The positioning of the scarf. That’s really where most of the expression comes from.

WOB And how my eyes rest looking at the scarf.

N. What about facial hair? How does that fit into everything?

WOB Lately I've been keeping it cleaned shaved. I don't need any of that signaling of my insecurity.

CW The stubble has become a sign of ignorance. You don't want to be caught up in that. You're falling straight into that one.

WOB It's cold on the cutting edge. And the fearful will grow a beard. But then the beard will slow them down and they will no longer be on the cusp, you see? That's why we got these haircuts.

N. I noticed. Both of you got haircuts

CW We're just trying to have a completely clean insight to the metaphoric toothpaste that we're squeezing. We don't want any last little piece of paste in that tube. You got to get the tube completely fresh.

N. How often do you brush? That's called a follow up question.

CW Ya, I see how you are seamlessly moving.

WOB Brush teeth? You mean wash our teeth. How often do we wash our teeth?

CW Sometimes I forget. But I'll usually make up for it later.

WOB I mean, sometimes I am thorough. Four hours a day. But other times, like today I did not brush.

CW I'd say on average, about a day out of the year spent. If you added up all the brushings.

WOB That's all?

CW A full day? Twenty-four hours of brushing throughout the year?

WOB You're not brushing enough. There’s three-hundred sixty five days.

CW You don't think so?

WOB No. You need a whole week of brushing. Forty strokes a tooth.

CW But I really make each brush count. And I brush quickly.

WOB What if our fair astronauts we're going over their equipment with quick brushstrokes.

CW You’ve go to be spry with your brushing. Otherwise it’s going to end up…

WOB …becoming a compulsion? That’s not true!

CW You’re not even really going to get clean teeth, really. Brushing them like that.

WOB My teeth tickle. I think my gums are receding. Then I have this herpes. I have oral hygiene problems.

CW We need a dentist, both of us. My wisdom teeth, they need to fix them.

N. Do you still have some wisdom teeth?

CW I think so.

WOB Some people think his teeth are cute. Little kids like to pet them.

N. How many wisdom teeth do you have between the two of you?

CW At least seven. And that’s including White Owl.

CW We're you singing a lot of In the Flesh last night? Was that not the highlight of the night?

[The previous night, Things played an interpretation of Pink Floyd’s In The Flesh at a show.]

N. Maybe. I'm asking the questions here.

CW Everyone got quiet for a second, remembering that moment in The Wall when they were kids, when they first saw it. Putting everyone up against that wall. This time I had my way.

WOB And you've still got your dad.

CW My daddy's still alive.

WOB How does that make you feel?

CW It actually makes me feel better seeing how I am such a striking resemblance to him these days. It's like looking into the future.

WOB How old is he?

CW He's sixty-nine. Which is a trippy year. You can't tell what you really are at that point. I guess you could go either way. On the brink of seventy.

N. Not quite seventy.

CW Can you put yourself there? Not quite, almost to the expectancy? Unless it’s gotten lower.

N. What is life expectancy? Seventy-two?

CW The last I heard, seventy-two was when we are supposed to die.

N. Let’s talk about 2012, do you want to talk about 2012?

CW I'm supposed to make it to 2056. 2012…I don’t think I’m going to make it.

N. It’s not looking good for you.

CW Ya, we’re on the brink.

WOB That's why we shaved our faces.

WOB We cannot stand down at this time. There’s no other time. The battle’s already begun you can't start it over, now. You can’t run back to get your shield that you forgot. Once it’s already begun you just got to run out there. Welcome death. Welcome it into the room so you can get to know it a little bit.

N. I heard you were shot at last night.

WOB I actually did take some fire. I got hit in the shoulder, I kept playing.

CW One of the guys from The Shrine was rushed to the hospital at about two o'clock in the morning.

WOB Luckily it went through two of the several girls that were hanging on me when I was playing the drums. So it barely bruised me.

N. And the girls?

WOB One girl is in critical condition. One of them is stable. But those are our fans.

CW They were strong girls, too.

WOB This is a battle. It’s a struggle. An ongoing argument about how things ought to be.

CW This shithole. Things are getting harder, slowly and slowly. Like that game Bop-It.

WOB I was playing Bop-It in a Target recently. And I was going on for a long time. And it was good, it was good for my coordination. And I didn’t fuck up, I just eventually put it down.

CW Those are good for your rhythym good for your memory.

WOB What was that other one?

CW Simon.

WOB Simon and Bop-It. We should have both of them. Just no passive activities around here. Why would I take part in something passive like watching tv? It takes up to much of your time and brain. I got fat from watching tv, and I didn’t eat.

CW It depends on what you’re watching.

WOB Ya, I started to watch the Wire last night before bed.

CW When I’m actually in the mood for Lost Highway or Seventh Seal, or something like that and I’m doing something, I think that’s healthy. Having a good background to clean, or draw, do work. That’s when I like tv to take place.

CW It’s just like putting chamber music on. Because you can still read to it. It’s not too distracting. It’s not just a commercial.

WOB Music doesn’t let you do anything to it but just experience it.

CW It’s getting there though. People making soundscapes. It is. It’s funny to walk around Hollywood and seeing ‘Music Business Courses.’ It’s just like, in modern times, what does that even mean? What are we going off of? It’s such new territory in a lot of ways.

N. I guess it’s just another thing for people to do.

WOB Just look everything and all of it. This whole industry is people just trying to cash in on someone’s abilities. ‘How can we spin this as many ways as we can so that we don’t actually doing anything?’

CW ‘How can I avoid putting in a hard day’s work today?’

WOB And in the end they’re consumed by this non-work. They don’t even have selves anymore, their so into their non-work. But they enjoy it. I guess that’s cool, tricking yourself into some strange world.

CW It’s like how cops don’t really help people. That’s too much work. ‘Well, I have this job so the least I can do is just drive around.’

WOB I think I’d enjoy myself a Hollywood job. If things weren’t as crappy as they were. But we know people who want to make movies and we should try to get more excited and try to help as much we can. I just think about how things can be better. But instead it’s just about these people wanting to keep themselves outside of the harsh reality. Of any harsh reality. They live in their imaginations. Which, you know, we do to. We’re doing the same thing, in a way…but it could be good also. But I guess that’s what we’re actually trying to do, to make a new artificial environment inspired by real life that’s better than real life and hope that things catch up to it in a way and even though it won’t be in our lifetime and it won’t be as big as we want it to be, if we can go on doing that, at least that will be out there in the world for people to see. I say we all quit our jobs. Tonight.

N. There’s a lot of people doing good stuff. I was pessimistic for a while. But there’s a lot of stuff out there.

CW There’s a lot of bands going in the right direction. You can’t be mad at a band for not being perfect. We’ve got so many years of the best of the best to pull from so when you see something new, you’re like, ‘Eh, I’ll just go listen to James Brown.’

N. Chum Out, Chum Out’s my favorite band. I don’t really like their music though.

WOB I think I’ve said that same thing, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever listen to them, but they might be my favorite band.’ Their a spectable and they’re really passionate about their take on life.

N. I remember they came in and gave me a three inch record to listen to.

WOB Ya, that green one. That petite sacks side is actually pretty bad ass. Those guys definitely have an act down, a schtick. And I like it’s consistent. They rush in through the door and do not stop until they’re done. I like that, that kind of comedian.

N. I do enjoy them.

CW I think they inspire us to carry on. We're still documenting things. In the form of videos, and words, sounds.

N. A lot of live shows?

CW Ya, we've actually had a few live shows so far this year. Sometimes people even enjoy it.

N. You have fans.

CW Ya, that's kind of a new thing. That there’s actually a group of people who pay attention some of the time. Have a perspective of more than just one show or one cd that they listened to once. And you know...what I like to pay attention to is the other people around us who are making music and they’ve definitely had their influence on us and we’re trying to throw stuff out there, too. It’s pretty interesting. It feels like there’s a lot of relentless people out there. A lot of steps being taken in a similar direction, you know? Like some weird plane that’s starting to be more clear as far as what new music is. Being good at playing something, being comfortable with it. Playing that stuff that you know most people wouldn’t want to hear. Even stuff that you don’t want to hear. I guess I just like annoying music, it just speaks to me more, I don’t know.

WOB Annoying things are still new. People don’t want to go there. But I think annoying is becoming commonplace. Look at all this overstimulation.

CW There are so many sounds out there and bands and different versions of art to make you feel comfortable and safe in this accepted way of expression. Etiquette almost. Noise, and annoying music, is almost like a refuge.