[Photo Credit:  Lucas Zielasko]

Before Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five released “The Message” in 1982, rap music was predominately pushing a heavy party vibe.  That classic track was one of the first exposures that many people living outside of the inner city ever got to the everyday lives and turmoil within it.  In 1988, 2 more gritty, groundbreaking, and genre defining rap albums were released:  Public Enemy‘s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Straight Outta Compton by NWA.  Chuck D and PE introduced a militant, politically-charged lyrical stance with a focus on racial issues and media propaganda.  NWA, on the other hand, addressed the issues by being gangster as fuck, ignoring more of the high level political figures and directing more of their attention on the immediate plight facing their local community of Compton.  Also released that year was the Boogie Down Productions album, By All Means Necessary, which found KRS-One moving in more of a political direction himself.  BDP‘s previous album, Criminal Minded (1987), was much more violence oriented and is credited by many as supplying the blueprint for future East Coast gangster rap.  Whether they were focusing more on activism and education or murder and crack deals, there was one huge similarity between these hardcore groups, beyond their uncanny abilities to scare the shit out of White people.  Embedded in every one of these efforts was an authenticity and sincerity that came through in the music.  One look at the Black Eyed Peas or T-Pain, or any other “hip-hop” disaster that would proudly try to rock a velour top hat, and it’s pretty clear that this legitimacy has gradually evaporated during the last 2 decades.  Now there’s a rapper by the name of Freddie Gibbs who’s determined to not only make rap “gangster” again, but also hopes to return some credibility to the art form.

Over the years, there have been occasional artists that have managed to set the rap game on it’s ear in a similar way, but that scenario has become increasingly rare.  2-Pac and Wu-Tang are prime examples of creative forces that paired actual skill and amazing story telling abilities to provide an engaging, 3-dimensional aspect to the street-life subject matter spotlighted in their tracks.  Gangster rap used to overcome it’s subject matter by displaying itself as an undeniably viable art form and providing a necessary format for voices that were silenced elsewhere.  Eventually, the idea/label/marketing of “gangster rap” actually became the most important element in it, above quality songwriting or even skill.  Even the”backpack” rap movement of acts like De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest has mutated into “conscious” rap which, at this point, is just as much of a diluted concept as anything else.  People like 50-Cent sell vitamin drinks, wear fur coats, and rap about dancing at clubs, showing much more concern with becoming celebrities than with creation at all.  Ice Cube makes childrens films and Snoop Dogg is like Ronald McDonald to suburbanites these days.  These issues of lost credibility are something that Freddie Gibbs is trying to counteract with his music.

Freddie grew up in the city of Gary, Indiana, an area which is a hell of a lot more violent and impoverished than the tune that Ron Howard performed in The Music Man would imply.  Gary is also the town that the Jackson 5 originated from and the reason that they put so much effort into their musical careers to help them finally get the fuck out.  It’s gotten a whole lot worse than that and Gibbs‘ path was a lot less thought out than Gary‘s most famous former residents.  The gangster rapper went to Ball State on a football scholarship.  He was kicked out.  He went through a court-ordered boot camp and joined the Military.  He was discharged.  Like many others, he hustled on the street, supporting himself with proceeds from both pimping and crack dealing.  His lyrics reflect this past as well as more personal issues, such as experiencing the miscarriage of a child and the death of his grandmother.  Along with all of this lost, the rapper was also signed to Interscope Records and lost that deal as well.  Still, his fan-base has continued to grow and, although he has stated and exhibited a focus on quality over quantity, Gibbs has been pumping out a shit ton of mixtapes and material.  Just last December, he released the mixtape, The Labels Tryin To Kill Me, which boasted a ridiculous 81 tracks on its own.

Even with the amount of material that he is capable of producing in a short period of time, he still claims to have a strong focus on creating work that is “all killer and no filler“.  His tracks feel honest and Gangsta Gibbs, as he is often referred, makes numerous comments which attack other artists for appropriating and marketing themselves as part of a lifestyle that people like himself have actually lived.  The Indiana native makes it known that he thinks that the majority of rap music today is pure “bullshit”, while giving props to strong musical influences like UGK and Geto Boys.  He doesn’t have a flashy rap moniker and Gibbs isn’t covered in chains or sporting a grill.  Rather, he is generally shown rocking simple caps with t-shirts and preaching the importance that honesty and determination play in his music.  His flow is tight and his lyrical content is solid, but I’ve noticed something more intangible throughout the limited amount of work that I’ve heard from the artist so far.  Something about Freddie Gibbs‘ work just feels legit.  There’s an earnest quality in his voice and message that ties him to artists like Tupac that he has so much respect for.  His tracks don’t come across so much as a glamorization of the struggles of ghetto life or as a condemnation of it, but simply as a vivid presentation of the landscape.  As of yet, I have only heard a limited amount of his work, but I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve witnessed so far.  Most of all, I can respect his mission to make rap gangster again.  Historically speaking, scaring white people has always been a vital part of the evolution of music in the United States, after all.

SXSW

Freddie Gibbs definitely made his rounds at the recent SXSW festivities, appearing as part of 8 separate showcases in a time-span of only 4 days.  The video below is of Gibbs performing his song, “Murda on My Mind” live on March 18th.  It was filmed for us by John Backstrom and took place at “The Rumbler Room” in a bar called Peckerheads on Sixth.  According to John, Freddie requested a blunt from the audience and was obliged when a man passed one up to the stage.  Apparently, this action was followed by countless shouts of “FUCK THA POLICE!” from the crowd.  The hilarious part is that the rapper didn’t even smoke the blunt during his set, he just pocketed it for later.

“Murda on My Mind” can be found on the album Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuzik

Click here to view the embedded video.

Some things change while others stay the same.  Often times, change is the only thing that does stay the same.  Around here the writing contributors have been sporadic, while the “industry” connections and outside collaborators beyond the site continue to grow.  Each year, there are moments where I can look back and reflect on what has changed in my life, in relation to that exact same time period the year before.  As far as the site is concerned, Feb/March is as good a time as any to gauge and reassess its current state, as press releases and emails flow in regarding Austin‘s yearly SXSW film/music festival.  This year, we received a ton of opportunities, which weren’t made available to us during our first 2 years.  Although this was encouraging for next year, the unforeseen surge of possibilities versus specific inconsistencies in the current “staff” left me doing some last minute fumbling to pull shit together.  Ideas were proposed, ideas were scrapped and, ultimately, all the the disappointments and confusions wound up becoming blessings in disguise.  Believe it or not, the cast of Twilight was actually the catalyst that resulted in us coming away with tons of amazing footage like video of Akron, OH blues-rock duo The Black Keys posted below.

Starting in February, I began receiving emails about the new biopic on the 1970s all-girl rock pioneers The Runaways.  I quickly noticed that, at the bottom of the press release, 2 things were mentioned in relation to SXSW promotions for the film.  The first just listed a pair of screenings, but the second referred to an “opportunity to speak with Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning and Joan Jett regarding the film“.  I easily reread this 30 times, trying to ensure that I wasn’t misunderstanding the insinuation that somebody would actually place my creepy ass in a room with a pair of young Hollywood darlings.  “Maybe I AM going to SXSW this year!“, I thought, but I knew that a decent mix of personal tragedy and pseudo-responsibilities wouldn’t make travel a good idea.  My hunt to send a correspondent out to conduct the interview began with our Austin connection, but quickly hit a dead end.  I couldn’t believe that I was having trouble finding someone who would be interested in being a part of something this ridiculous and those that were, were unavailable.  It was just another eye-opener supporter the idea that I needed to retool some shit and find people who were like-minded an on the same page as I am with my vision.

Before completely giving up on the interview with Joan Jett and the Twilight girls, I had an epiphany.  I knew that Kimya Dawson was going to be performing at SXSW, so I asked her if she would be interested in conducting the interview.  She graciously agreed to do it for us and the publicist, being a huge fan of Dawson, was so excited about the prospect that she agreed to help us make the Kimya/Runaways interview a reality.  However, as the events got closer and no real confirmation or details were coming through, I began to worry.  Then, after talking to the person in Austin who agreed to film the interview and realizing that he was subtly and passive aggressively backing out, because he didn’t want to have to “park (his) car” or “hold (his) camera“, I flipped out and left my apartment for some air.  Fortunately, by the time that I got back home, our writer, Prof. Milton Hersted, had already set me up with a lead for a cameraman.  The guy that I was connected to is John Marvin Backstrom III, an accomplished video student who’s only a couple months away from graduating from Cornish College of the Arts, here in Seattle.  He was already planning to head to SXSW and is extremely passionate about his craft as well as music.  Unfortunately, only days away from The Runways promo events, we were still being strung along without any official confirmation.  I arranged for a publicist to call me and she explained that, due to a hectic schedule including events in New York, confirmation wouldn’t come until the last minute, if at all.  She also explained that, regardless of implications otherwise, there would not be an opportunity to have a one-on-one interview after-all and that Kimya would be expected to hop from table to table in groups to speak with the musicians and stars associated with the film without video documentation.  There was no way that I was going to ask someone who was traveling with her husband and daughter, just flew in from a busy stint at Florida‘s the Harvest of Hope festival, had a schedule of her own to attend to, and was doing us a favor to deal with drama of this shifting game plan.  Frankly, I didn’t want to deal with it any more either, so I simply thanked Kimya for her generosity in agreeing to help me out and then scrapped the whole scene for good.

But, what about John Backstrom?…  He was still going to be strolling around Austin with video equipment.  I had already had earlier feelings that this interview, which way too much focus had been placed on, might be falling apart, so I looked for other opportunities while he was down there.  I found some events that we could get him access too, including the amazing MWTX Party which offered us free reign to video tape acts that ranged from Andrew W.K., Yacht, DJ Spooky, MAN MAN, Billy Bragg and more.  Not only did John cover that event to death, but he also came away with endless more footage.  I didn’t actually meet the videographer in person until yesterday and I was really impressed with the amount of material that he actually documented.  It’s insane.  The greatest thing about Backstrom is that he pulled off the type of wacky, reckless, and bold shit that I always wish that people will attempt but never do.  Beyond house parties, main-stage events, and random parking lot shows, our newest addition found access even when it wasn’t necessarily “granted”, working his way past guest lists and climbing backstage and filming the shit out of everything that he could find any possilbe way to.  Please stay tuned to Monster Fresh for a gang-load of additional SXSW live music footage, as it is slowly being posted over time.  From what I witnessed yesterday, this kid actually managed to pull off better coverage of many of the events than those who actually threw the showcases did themselves.

One of the most impressive overall lineups during the festival was the MOG.com showcase at the The Mohawk on Saturday, March 20th.  John and his accomplice, Ryan O’Neill had plans to fly out the morning of this event, but quickly agreed to push their flights back to the next day to cover it.  The lineup of the MOG showcase was impressive, boasting supergroups like Broken Bells (Danger Mouse/James Mercer) and Demolished Thoughts ( Thurston Moore/ J. Mascis playing classic hardcore covers).  This was a free event with a huge line of people and an hour plus waiting time to get into.  I had managed to get John and Ryan VIP listed for the event, so they were able to walk past everyone and go directly inside.  What I hadn’t been able to okay was filming, but they managed to enter with equipment anyway… which is AWESOME!  Free whiskey was provided and a solid amount of footage was recorded.  This particular video below of the The Black Keys, who headlined the event, is only a taste.  The song “Thickfreakness“, from their sophomore album of the same name, was the lead off track to their set and was filmed with a Canon HV40 video camera.

Enjoy folks, and remember, this is only the first of a more footage to come.  Our thanks to John, who is currently compiling the rest of it, for being so gangster.  This has worked out better than we could have imagined.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Created and run by Gio Tonineli from Pondpatrol.com, GI JOE FEST has provided a forum for enthusiasts of both stop motion animation and the classic Hasbro action figures, since 2007.  What the festival entails is fairly simple: each year open-submissions are accepted for anyone (internationally) who has created a stop-motion film, which includes at least one character represented by a GI JOE action figure.  The submissions close around July, when a pre-selection screening for the festival takes place.  In October, the films are judged and screened at the infamous, Alamo Draft House in Austin, TX.  Beginning early the following year, the final selection of films begin their limited city tour as a festival.

Tonight (Feb. 10, 2010) marks the kick off of the 3rd annual GI JOE Stop-Motion Film Festival, and takes place at the Echo Park Film Center in Los Angeles, CA.  In addition to tonight’s showing, the creators of the festival have also offered a stop-motion workshop, which will take place tomorrow, Sunday, Feb. 21st at 11am.  To instruct the workshop, the festival will be employing the skills of,  2007 GI JOE FEST winner, Jeff Gurwood.

Description of workshop:

The Stop Motion Workshop will offer the opportunity to develop both the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to create a piece of stop-motion animation. The course aims to stimulate students’ abilities to generate an overall perspective of a project – from concept to final product. Tuition is $20 dollars.

Here is a sample of Gurdwood’s work: “LAST RANDY STANDING“

Click here to view the embedded video.

Submission deadlines are on July 20th so, if you’re interested in entering a film for next year’s festival, there is still 150 days left to do it.  Go to gijoefilmfestival.com for information.

-Dead C

SXSW 2009

I hobbled onto the bus, got my seat and looked over at a kid holding a box of cd’s. He was either going to ask what happened to my leg or see if I wanted to hear some “good” music.

An older lady missing her front teeth got on the bus after me. The bus started moving while she was getting situated. She caught her balance and looked over at the box of burned cd’s.  She sat down and asked kid, “What you got there?”

“They just hip hop cd’s for sale”

“OH…he he, I thought they was chocolate bars, he he he!”

I nodded and smiled to myself, and thought, “South by Southwest really is here!”

Lots of bands come into town for SXSW. Great bands, alright bands, and really shitty bands.   By the end of the week I will have seen a good number of each.

There are day shows and night shows. Night shows usually cost money and day shows are always free.

I’ve been in Austin for 6 years, and that helps out a lot also. I don’t spend much money at SXSW. I usually rely on the day shows and personal hook ups.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 19TH

I started my musical adventure at 3:00 on a friend’s porch, drinking a beer and watching the local pimp smoke a cigarette on the street corner, while a customer used his bed and prostitute. We were waiting for another friend to show up.  After he arrived, we rode our bikes down town.  At a red light, we joined a bike pack of burly girlies and continued on together.  This was the first time I had ridden my bike downtown since I got hit riding to work in December.

Day shows start around noon and go until 6:00pm.  They are free and usually all ages.  Badges and wristbands don’t really matter during the day.  Everyone has to wait in the same line.   There are also lots of unofficial  shows. These aren’t listed on the SXSW website.  Showlistaustin.com has most of the official and unofficial shows listed, and it will also tell you if there is anything being offered.  Such things as free beer, free bloody mary’s, free tacos, free pop tarts, and more.

After locking up, we went to get free beer.  They were out of the free beer, so we paid $4 for almost cold beer and watched Black Joe Lewis.  Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bees are a local band I’d wanted to see for a while.  It was like going to a revival and getting healed, without having to hold a snake.  Soulful enough to raise your hands, and rocking enough to not feel like an asshole while doing it.  I was even able to tap my fucked up foot to the beat.  It was a miracle.  Superdrag was supposed to play next, but they had broken down, so we went inside to watch M.ward.  While waiting for him to start, a girl was taking pictures of her friends with her iPHONE.  As it got more crowded, her butt touched the back of my hand, and then her purse shifted my penis.  She walked by me to go to the bathroom and said, “Excuse me, mustache”.  I thanked her for giving me a name.  After a few songs, we left to see Deer Tick, but apparently, while I was making acquaintances with the purse girl, they were playing down the street.

We’d met up with a few other friends and continue on our way.  I wasn’t moving so fast, so everyone was a ways ahead of me.  We heard The Thermals playing a NIRVANA cover from the street.  Then we waited outside while the Akron family finished their set.  They weren’t letting anyone in because the day shows where almost over.  It was a shame because I kept getting texts about free High Life inside.

Night Shows are a little different.  There are some free night shows, but most of them require a badge, wristband, or a cover.  It is a little like the caste system.  Badges get priority over wristbands and wristbands get priority over all the other peasants.  I was given a wristband a few years ago and had a really frustrating time waiting to get into a show, while watching folks with badges walk in and out with ease .  There is another way to get into night shows: relying on hookups.  Most places that are “official” SXSW venues have VIP passes that get given out to their workers and the very special friends of their workers.  With one of these golden tickets you can walk in through the back entrance with a guest.  You end up feeling better than the Royal Badge Holders because you didn’t spend much money and you didn’t have to wait in any line.  You got to go in through the secret entrance!  Just like you were guest starring on ALIAS!

That night I met up with another friend who had a pass to one of the venues.  While we were waiting to see Circle Jerks, we wandered off to see someone make music with Tesla coils.  This was a free show in a dirt lot a few blocks away.   The mid-grade band, which played before the coils got fired up, scared us off.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TkuCtutDAw

I’d seen Circle Jerks when I was 16 (15 years ago) and I got my collarbone stomped on by a skinhead.  It left a big bruise and I was really happy to tell people my story.  Now I’m 31 and waiting to see Circle Jerks again.  Guess what I saw when I looked to my left?  A lot of skinheads!  I was expecting this to be a wild crowd.  Instead, the skinheads remained pretty calm and two SXSW “moms” showed up.  These were two older ladies wearing khaki cargo capri’s and drinking pretty heavily.  I’m almost positive they’d never even thought about having the world up their ass.

That is probably the worst part about this festival; people surround you that are only there to be a part of SXSW.  Most of them are wearing badges.  A lot times they are clueless and don’t even know what they are watching. Ignorance isn’t a great reason to hate anyone, but when you have to take their picture for them because they’ve lost interest in the show that you actually want to watch, it becomes a little easier to get irritated.  Luckily, they left before the encore.  I got to hear “Red Tape” followed by 3 Black Flag tunes, with little annoyance.

I could have stuck around to watch Echo and the Bunnymen, but my foot was pretty swollen.  I limped to my bike and rode it pretty confidently, until reaching a hill. Then I pushed it slowly to the top, and rode home.

THURSDAY MARCH 19TH

Day two began with a slow walk from the bus stop to Daniel Johnston.  I work at a coffee shop that has a lot of homeless folk in the area.  To keep the drug use and unexpected urination to a minimum, there is a one-drink requirement.  I’d asked a homeless woman to leave the shop that morning that looked and talked a lot like Daniel Johnston.  It made me realize how lucky Daniel is that he didn’t become another homeless loiterer in Austin.  He was backed by Hymns, who played by themselves for a few songs before Daniel waddled up to the mic.

Listening to Daniel Johnston is great, but seeing him live adds a deeper level.  You see how broken he really is.  That night, someone told me “I don’t know… he kinda had a lisp, and he didn’t really play the guitar very well… I left after a few songs…” which was why I liked seeing him so much.  He has a lisp, he can’t play guitar very well, he showed up wearing his sweatpants, and made apologies for not practicing enough.  Seeing the reality of Johnston left me feeling, somewhat, emotionally drained, but still happy.

After Daniel Johnston and Hymns, I watched The Wrens while standing next to a lady and her bored boyfriend. Then I walked down to see Trail of Dead and finally found an open bar.  Four free High Life’s later and the day shows were over.  I bought a meat stick and walked back to the bus stop.  I had to pee as soon as I got there.  6^th Street is Austin’s version of a Bourbon Street knock off.  It is usually a row of shitty bars that is a little more suited for tourists, but during SXSW, it becomes a row of shitty bars that are also music venues.  I walked behind the 6^th Street bars to the ally, whicht smells like vomit and friend chicken.  This is normally a really great place to piss, but not this week.  There were bands loading equipment in through every back door, and police on every block.  I had to go inside one of the shitty bars and unload there.

That night, I found out from a friend that Dinosaur JR was playing a secret show at 12:45.  SXSW has a lot of these secret shows.  A few years ago (2006) The Flaming lips played one of them where they opened up with Bohemian Rhapsody.  I was waiting to see if I could get on the list, which would be pretty similar to the VIP treatment I’d gotten the night before.

In the mean time, I met up with some friends at a free night show.  This year’s big complaint was the expensive beer. Most venues were charging $4.00 for a $2.50 tall boy.  To get around the beer prices, we snuck beer in backpacks and avoided eye contact with any official looking folks.  After a while, it was pretty apparent that no one cared about outside beverages.  It seemed like everyone had their own outsourced 6 pack.

After getting a “you’re on the list!” text, I rode my bike downtown, told the back door man my name and walked inside in time to see the second half of the Akron Family’s set.  The crowd cleared out a bit and I walked pretty close to the front and watched the stage get loaded with J. Mascis’ Marshall stacks.  There were a few guys in nicer shirts than mine at the front of the stage.  I figured that they were pretty big fans until I overheard them asking each other if they knew who was on next and expressing how they had hoped that it would be “something good”.   Behind them was a short excited guy who kept jumping up on their shoulders fscreaming,“DINOSAUR JR! Can you believe it?!”  After a while, one of the nice shirts turned around  and told him to calm down.

After the extensive loading, the original lineup walked on stage, J. Mascis, Lou Barlow with his taped up ears, and Murph. I’d always wondered what a stage full of speakers and three old guys could do.  One of those abilities is clearing out folks in nice shirts who aren’t fans.  It took half into their set, before I was surrounded by folks my age and older, singing along and pushing each other over.

The first thing that I ever remember hearing about J. Mascis was that he is a very lazy person.   It usually went hand in hand with how great a guitarist he is.  “He’s AMAZING! And he’s lazy!” I think I heard that said as many times as I’d heard that Neil Pert is the “3^rd greatest drummer in the world“.  It was really interesting to see the band and put that paradox together.  I don’t really know if he’s “lazy”, but he plays really effortlessly.  He resembles a big witch that looks beyond everything in front of him.  Every note that he plays is like an afterthought.  A really hard-to-play afterthought.  Lou and Murph play like machines who were programmed to play with J.  To keep my foot from getting shitty from the crowd, I stood in front of the right speaker.  I left with my ears shaking and rode to the same hill I couldn’t ride up the night before and pushed my bike up again.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5ddhYThwW8

FRIDAY MARCH 20^TH

I woke up Friday and noticed my foot was still swollen.  I went and sat on my shower stool and rubbed around the scars for a while.  For the past two days, I’d been doing a lot of walking.  I had only gotten off my crutches the week before.  After a short period without them, I gently grazed my rocking chair and fell to the ground swearing in pain and convinced that I wasn’t going to be able to walk for a while.  I managed to make it to a bar and stayed until I dropped two drinks.  The next morning I was nauseous and puked through out the day.  I went back to crutches for a day and ate lots of ibuprofen.  I made a pact with myself that I would  not be bedridden by SXSW.

I took the bus to work and sat at the bar.  I looked over and saw Miles from Akron family walk in.  I told him that  I liked the show from the night before and bought him an espresso.  We talked for a while; we have a lot in common.  We both have family in Washington, we both like Ballard, and we both like making espresso.  I didn’t tell him this, but Miles is cool shit.

I took the bus down town to see The Thermals and The Hold Steady.  I’ve never really understood The Hold Steady.  Every time that I bitch about their spoken word approach to song writing, I get hit with, “Have you ever seen them live?!”  This was my week to see them.  They were playing every day and, I think, every night.  I had no excuse.  I now understand why people like them so much.  There are a lot of people in The Hold Steady.  Every one of them performs as if  they were playing in an arena instead of a crammed outdoor stage.   It’s clear that they all love what they are playing.  Most of the folks around me were singing along to every word, which is weird with their songs.  Its like listening to a lot of people reciting the same monologue.  I don’t like listening to fans sing at concerts, but with these guys it felt alright. I think it had something to do with the amount of fans singing, maybe also the heat.  However, my foot started hurting and there was a show on the other side of town that I wasn’t going to miss.  I hobbled to the bus stop, sat on a potted plant and spelled the alphabet with my ankle.

The Evaporators were playing at The Hazard House.  The Hazard House is in West Campus; an area that is full of student housing, both fraternal and non.  Going to school in Olympia, I have probably seen The Evaporators over 10 times.  When I moved to Austin, I figured that I wouldn’t get to see them again.  I was pretty surprised when they played here in 2004.  I saw them with Comets on Fire at an Alternative Tentacles showcase.  Jello Biafra stood behind me for most of the show.  I looked at him and felt we both appreciated “Woof Woof I’m A Goof” for the same reasons.

When I heard that they were playing this year at The Hazard House, I was really happy.  The “venue” looks like it’s held together with sweat and rotten wood.  The stage was the front room.  You could watch from inside or from the porch.  It felt like Texas’ equivalent of seeing a concert in somebody’s moldy basement in Olympia.  I smiled for the whole set and noticed my friend who had the VIP pass had called.  The Sonics were playing, and I really wanted to see them.  My friend had promised her VIP pass to two other friends, which I was finally beginning to accept.  I had figured that I would return to my shower stool and call it a night.  She said that, if I still wanted to see The Sonics, I should get down town as quick as possible.  I had 10 minutes to get there.  By now I was walking very slowly; I could only take quarter steps.  I had just missed my bus and was failing at hailing a cab.  I got a “they’re about to play” text when the next bus finally showed up.  I was dropped off near 6^th Street and I took a petty cab the rest of the way. I made it in time for most of their set.

The Sonics were the most well preserved band I’ve ever seen.  They stopped rock and rolling pretty early on, and it showed.  They had been frozen in time.  They looked older, but they still sounded young.  If I had to guess, I’d say they all became real estate or insurance agents.  Something that would have allowed them to raise families and play in cover bands on the weekends.  I was really happy to see how well they were received.  A guy wearing a badge and a nice hat stood next to me and told me that every band who is trying to play garage rock should go back and listen to The Sonics and study “those three chords and learn them well”. At  the end of the show, the lead singer, Gerry Roslie, (who had a music stand in front of his keyboard for the whole set), told us to “… go over to the merchandise booth, buy a shirt, go home and tell your dad, ‘I don’t care what you say! I’m wearing my Sonics shirt!’”

After they finished, the club cleared out.  I sat on a railing, took my shoe off, and waited for Black Lips.  I first saw them at SXSW 3 years ago during a day show.  They looked like crusty kids and they played like they had studied the right three chords.  The Black Lips are dirty and simple.  Their ugly, yet still in tune, voices always make me smile.
There were three bands between The Sonics and Black Lips, so it gave me plenty of time to look at how fat my foot had gotten.

They walked on stage and the lights went down.  I heard, “we got the Gza in the house.”  Then I heard “yeah yeah, black lips in the house.” And then the GZA joined them for a jam.  It was a great contrast between them. The GZA is very tall and black and Black Lips are short and white.  He apologized for them having not practiced, and kept telling the band to “drop it” and just play the drum and bass.  After doing that for a while, they played “Triumph” and everyone was really excited for the killer bees.  It was sloppy and last minute and I was a little annoyed.

I’m in full support of hip-hop folks getting together with rock and roll folks.  I even saw SUbSET in their hay day, (Sir Mix-a-Lot and The Presidents of the United States of America’s collaboration).  I would have liked to see them do something more intentional than just a jam.  My foot was also hurting and I wasn’t feeling very patient.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsfpho7awtI

After 20 minutes, The Gza left the stage and Black Lips played a few songs and it was over.  I left feeling great about The Sonics and okay about Black Lips and The GZA.  On my way out, I heard Karp being played over the PA.  I frantically looked around to find the soundman and asked if it was he who was playing my favorite band.  He smiled and said, “all night long, nothing but.”  I gave him an enthusiastic “thank you so much!” and walked outside.  I bought a hot dog on the street and watched hipsters and industry people walk importantly in front of clubs. I hailed a cab and went home.

SUMUP

I worked at a wedding on Saturday, and that was alright.  I’d already had a fulfilling SXSW, even with being gimpy.  I didn’t get to see Kylesa, Jucifer, or The New York Dolls, but that’s how it goes.  Every year, something falls through the cracks and it could have been a lot worse.  I spent last year’s Saturday wetting my sheets with sweat and dirtying my toilet with puke, so I felt a little ahead of the curb.  Besides that, I was ready for everyone to leave.

Before the wedding, I went with a friend to a store down the block.  I wandered to the back of the shop and found more live music and more free beer.  You can’t escape it.  Everyone cashes in on SXSW, and they use the same tools.

Most festivals end up costing a good amount of loot.  Tickets, beer, and food add up pretty quickly.  I never spend much money at SXSW.  Taking the increased beer prices into consideration, I spent between 50 and 60 dollars for my three days of music. That was mainly on beer and food. Plus, it’s citywide. You aren’t gated and stuck in a park for three days.  You get to see the city; you can buy beer at a gas station and drink it on someone’s porch while waiting between shows.

Living in Austin and having access to a few VIP passes gave me a pretty big advantage, but even without the local hookups, I would have spent the same and still found a few free bottles of High Life. It’s a lot like the wave pool at the local water park.  Every year you go, you understand a little more of how it works, you have a better time and wind up a little less nauseous.

-Dr. Radical

]]> http://www.monsterfresh.com/2009/04/26/sxsw-local-guide-review-free/feed/ 0 http://www.monsterfresh.com/2009/01/19/dead-alive-interview-with-the-dead-milkmen/ http://www.monsterfresh.com/2009/01/19/dead-alive-interview-with-the-dead-milkmen/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:17:17 +0000 Dr. Radical http://monsterfresh.com/?p=1513

The interview below was conducted by one of our newest writers, Dr. Radical, back in November during Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX.  We had hopes of posting it earlier, however, Dr. Radical was struck by a vehicle which held the transcription time back a bit.  He is fully recovered and we are pleased to provide his first work for the site to you now.  We feel that he did a tremendous job.  He didn’t come away with any current photos of the group so I contacted The DM vocalist Rodney Anonymous to see if he had any available.  He didn’t seem to know where they were located and responded by saying the following in an email:

“Can’t you just use a picture of the Jonas Brothers…or porn?“

Hence, the header photo.  All other images featured are courtesy of  photographer Nina Sabatino (aka: Dean Clean’s sister).  More of her work can be viewed through her Flickr account by clicking here.

Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoy it.

-Dead C

————————————————————————————————————————————————–

The Dead Milkmen

Fun Fun Fun Fest

Austin, Tx

Nov. 8th, 2008

I was a little surprised when Fun Fun Fun Fest started up 3 years ago.  Obviously, Austin already has two major music festivals.  “What could another festival really do for the city?“  Last year was my first Fx3 outing and it filled a void that ACL and even SXSW couldn’t quite fill.  Musically speaking, I’m a little nostalgic and fairly snooty, but I hate being around crowded situations where I feel like I’m the only one who appreciates what I’m watching. At the first ACL that I went to, I had to sit through the Dashboard Confessional just to insure my placement for the Pixies.  Another trapped attendee held up a “Stop Playing” sign and every 15-year-old girl in the area (which was a lot) stopped crying along with the stupid songs to throw empty water bottles at the picketer.  Why would anyone put those two bands back to back?  It’s an asshole mistake.  If you really appreciate “Dash-BORED” you probably won’t truly appreciate seeing the Pixies.

Fx3 is the king of reunions; I had never thought I’d get to the opportunity to see The Angry Samoans, Poison Idea, and Murder City Devils all at the same festival.  I wasn’t sure how they were going to top themselves this year but besides, Killdozer, The Adolescents, and Kool Keith, they booked The Dead Milkmen! Those crazy jokesters from Philadelphia who sang about “taking retards to the zoo”, beating their wife, and “smoking banana peels“.  The DM hadn’t played since 2004, before that they hadn’t played in 10 years.  With a mostly original line up, (except for Dave Blood (1956-2004) replaced by Dandrew Stevens), Rodney Anonymous, Joe Jack Talcum and Dean Clean sat down to talk with me.

Dr Radical: Thanks a lot for coming to Fun Fun Fun, I’ve been wanting to see you guys since I was 16, it’s kind of a dream come true.

Joe Jack Talcum: He’s 17 now.

Rodney Anonymous: That’s what I was gonna say. Who did I want to see when I was 16?  Probably the Sex Pistols, no it was The Clash, who I got to see. So it worked out for me.

DR: Well done. So I heard you guys got to play two sold out shows in Philly as “Les Infants du Prague”, were they bummed that you guys showed up and it wasn’t…

Dean Clean: Yeah, yeah, no I think it was pretty well known around (Philadelphia), the word got out…

RA: We tried to keep it a secret, especially the first one, second one not so secret, but we wanted to… the second one was an all ages show and we wanted…

JJT: Second one we actually played as The Dead milkmen

RA: Yeah, I liked the first one, second one I thought was a lot more fun.

DR: Really? Younger energy?

RA: Bigger stage… the first one had balcony seats

JJT: Less equipment problems

RA: What was that?

JJT: Less equipment problems,

RA: I missed it, what?

JJT: Less equipment problems

RA: There were less equipment problems in the second one.

But as I pointed out in the first (interview), it’s The Dead Milkmen. It’s not like you went to see YES and couldn’t hear Rick Wakeman’s keyboards. I’m only going to make references to music so old that nobody who hears this is going to understand it.

DC: But yeah, they were good, and we just kinda wanted to do a little warm up, just to get used to playing live shows.

RA: Then we’d come out here and be like “Uhhh, how do I plug this in?”

DR: Are you familiar with “Cowcon”

RA: Yeah, the Cowcon

DC: Did they organize something here?

DR: Apparently, it was supposed to be here yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  How do you feel about people being either crazy about you, or they don’t understand you as much…

RA: They don’t “not understand us“, they just hate us.  I fall in the second camp; I’m in the band and I don’t understand us. I’m serious; I tend to like, you know, Nick Cave and stuff like that, but uhm… Oh I like a lot of our songs, I can actually understand not liking us.  Most bands I really like and somebody’s says something, like “I don’t really like them” and I get all defensive.  I also get that way with books, too.  I got that way with “A Secret History” the other day.  I’m like that, I either really like something or I hate it.  But this band, I kind of understand why people…I’m not sure if I would get or like the band if I wasn’t in the band.  So… That’s odd.

JJT: It’s like the people that really, really like us, they expect other people to really, really like us.  And then they find out that that’s not the case, and then they’re disappointed, and they come to us and say, “Well you know…“

RA: Well some people don’t like us but then they really tend to like music that I don’t like, I don’t like those people. But, there are a lot of people that don’t like us and then they like some music I like.

Dandrew Stevens: I always tried to get friends in to them, and if they weren’t then…

RA: Oh, that’s very kind of you…

JJT: And people will meet their wives, or their husbands, their boyfriends or girlfriends because “Oh, they were wearing a Dead Milkmen’s shirt”

“You like them too? I never knew anybody would like them, we must be made for each other”

DR: I know that’s how I made a lot of friends in high school, was you know, if they liked the Descendents and The Dead Milkmen I’d probably like them.

I heard you used to tour in a converted ambulance?

RA: Yes. Called the “jambulance”

DR: Was that the first investment as a band?

RA: It was our first van…

JJT: It was the first big investment

RA: We would run red lights in it with the windows down screaming “Hospital, emergency!”  And then I found this whistle thing somewhere, and that if you’d put it out the window it sounded like a…

DC: WOOOOOOOO!!…

RA: So we’d just drive around with that out the window, we used to, we had …

JJT: And then we got a call from, or our manager got a call from the ambulance service saying “you have to take off the phone number and the…”

[Dean pulls out a plastic siren whistle and blows it.]

RA: Oh! Look at that! Exactly! Dean has one! We used to put that out the window…

JJT: …“one of your ambulance service vans is being rude to people…”

RA: Yeah, after we failed to pick up the third or fourth coronary.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

RA: They’d say “Oh my God, we need an ambulance! Get this man to a hospital!”  We’d lean out the window, “He’s a Christian Scientist, get him to a reading room, he’ll be fine”

DR: What made you move on?

RA: To… out of that ambulance?  It got old!  We put like 200 thousand miles on it.

DC: The timing chain went…

JJT: We had a lot of miles on it.

RA: I loved that…

DC: Then we sold it to another band

Ha ha ha

RA: Yeah, yeah, we sold it to another band… and they were not happy, I remember that, yeah.

DR: I’m from Seattle originally, and I heard how Tad sold his station wagon was by signing it.

RA: Wow, how about that?

DC: A souvenir?

DR: Yeah. Did you think about that?

RA: No, other people would sign the van for us, there was graffiti all over it…

DC: “I controls ze weather!”

RA: “I controls ze weather!” Oh my God!  OH!

DC: I think we left that up in there.

RA: The weird thing about that little kid, we had some picture of this little kid that looked kinda like Hitler, so we put a Hitler mustache on him and “I controls ze weather” because there’s this book called “Morning of the Magicians” that Nazi’s, at one point, believed that they could work out a way to control the weather, which oddly didn’t work for them… but the weird thing is, if you see the film Eurotrip there’s some little kid that looks just like that.

Yes, we had lots of good stuff all over that van, that van probably smelled so bad…

DR: You guys were a real hard working band, you released a lot of albums on tape before you were signed, you did your own touring. After Big Lizard in My Backyard did you miss the “do it yourself” mentality?

RA: No, I’ve played in enough people’s basements…

JJT: We still did a lot of the stuff ourselves.  We recorded our own songs…

RA: We had our own equipment, but I tell ya, I don’t miss, I do not miss playing in somebody’s basement, showing up and finding out we can’t have the show because the kid got a “C”!

Ha! Ha! Ha!

“Oh MAN! My mom is so mad!”

Dandrew: “You can crash at my parent’s house, you have to be out by 8 am”

RA: No, crashing at other people’s places, that I don’t miss.

ha ha ha

We can let that one go.

JJT: Just to keep costs down we’d stay at people’s houses half the time, gradually we’d go into hotels only…

RA: Yeah, when your staying at people’s houses you think you’d like a nice clean hotel, and then when you’re at the hotel you think “I bet there’s fun over people’s houses tonight”

You know, you’re sitting there watching HBO…

JJT: Once we did the all hotel tours, we had our choice.  You know, people’d invite us to parties, and then we’d go out…

DC: No. Because they always booked the hotel too far away from the party. “Oh, you guys are way out of town tonight…”

JJT: Oh, maybe I’m just remembering it differently. I don’t know.

RA: “We’ve got a party, it’s 25 miles that way…”

DR: You guys have played with a lot of people; you played with Debbie Gibson…

RA: Yeah, I’d forgot about that.

JJT: That was a radio station gig. Radio station gigs can be pretty weird. We did another radio station gig with Duran Duran.

DR: And also 2 Live Crew…

JJT: 2 Live Crew was a…

RA: That was a show for…

JJT: New Music Journal.

RA: Yeah, New Music Journal, up in New York.  We played with Guns n Roses when they were “5 Guns West“; they opened up for us when we were out in L.A. um…

Dandrew: Salt n Pepa, right?

RA: Salt n Pepa, yeah, that’s a show I got beaten to a pulp.

DR: Really?

RA: Yeah. I’m a big Salt n Pepa fan, I really love them. So they wanted us to play at this show, and after we played I jumped out into the crowd, and a lot of people didn’t like us, and they punched me, and I held up my shirt later on and I was all bruises.

JJT: People were chanting and getting violent wanting to see Salt n Pepper…

RA: Yeah, normally the more people hate us the longer we play…

DR: Was that during the “Push it” days?

JJT: Yes.

RA: At least I got my picture taken with Salt n Pepa, so that worked out. I was happy about that.

DC: The thing is, one of the cool things about playing today is that we’re actually playing with some bands that we actually played some shows early on with. Killdozer, DOA, Cromags… Did we do a show with Bad Brains?

RA: No, him (JJT) and I went to see Bad Brains when we were in our teens.

DC: At least those three bands we did some early touring and played some shows with those guys, so it’ll be fun to see them again…

RA: How old were we when we went to see Bad Brains?

JJT: 20 maybe?

RA: Were we 20? Wow. That’s pretty weird. That’s like a quarter of a century ago…

DR: Yeah, this is a great festival they do a lot of…

RA: Dengue Fever I found out is on the bill, and they’re fricking incredible. I want to see Experimental Dental School, all these bands I want to see and have never gotten to see, so this is gonna be a good day.

DR: You’re going to get time to go around?

RA: I’m gonna make time, I damn certain better get time to go around. I wanna see these bands.

DR: I always liked that you had a good balance between being funny and kinda sincere in a weird way, you know? You never came across as a joke band to me.  “Punk Rock Girl, is a really funny song, but its really sweet. Did you feel like you had to maintain a balance between “We’re not being too funny”, or “We’re not being funny enough?”

RA: We wanted to have fun with out being taken too seriously, but what you don’t want to do is… you know we’d always have these bands that would open up for us and they’d be like, the local, jokey, funny bands, and the guys would be like “we have a song about taking a crap in the mailbox!” well good for you guys.

[Slight interruption and bad audio]

DR: Do you guys like having more normal jobs?

DC: I kinda like sleeping in one place most of the time, its nice to come out to shows like this once in a while.

RA: If I’d known the business world was going to be this good, I’d have joined years and years ago.

JJT: I don’t really like it. But I don’t want to let my boss know that.

Dandrew: I don’t have a job.

DR: Oh, well done.

The interview was over, I thanked them for seeing me and we all shook hands and I think I told them, “good luck“.

I’ve seen a lot of reunion shows.  Sometimes it’s everything you had hoped for and other times it is severely disappointing. The other big name at this year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest was Bad Brains.  I know I’m not the only excited 30 year old that got on Youtube and looked up old Bad Brains footage in preparation of seeing HR scream and throw himself around the stage before getting mega irie. Instead of that, I got a very stationary, crooning, soft-spoken fellow with a shawl wrapped around his head. If it wasn’t so un-engaging, it may have been one of the most punk rock shows I’d ever seen.  But who wants to pay to be bored?

The Dead Milkmen didn’t treat the show like it was just a paycheck; they wanted to make it an event that mattered. They did 3 encores, and even played a Bauhaus cover.

There was a special kind of unity at this show, I felt a little like I was at Church. I was surrounded by Dead Milkmen fans. A congregation of people who had played “Bitchin’ Camaro” for their friends and found Rodney Anonymous’ impression of Jim Morrison having aids funny. I wasn’t going to become best friends with anyone there, but I could probably stand in the bathroom line and make all right small talk.

-Dr. Radical

I hand Kim a DV camera and inform her that she will be filming the interview and then ask her to watch all of my equipment and notes while I run to QFC to get film. I found out the day before that I would not be recieving the Digital SLR camera that I had ordered weeks prior (this situation will be covered in another article) and so I brought an old manual Cannon AE1 for which I had accidentally bought the wrong film, in my frenzy to reach the venue on time. I purchased new film and rushed back to the bar only to find out that the Camera battery was dead anyway, so I was fucked. No camera to go with the photopass. Another opportunity lost, but such is the way of MonsterFresh.

As soon as we walk across the street to the venue, Neumos Crystal Ball Reading Room, I spot Daniel’s brother/tour manager, Dick Johnston whom I recognized from the documentary. I shook his hand and he led me around the building so that we could get things rolling. If you have seen the film The Devil and Daniel Johnston, you may remember Dick as the brother who’s ribs were broken by Daniel on Christmas. He set up the interview for me and is working as Daniel’s tour manager. Their father is Daniel’s manager and their sister Margie Johnston has been known to help with the management of his art. The family is very involved in Daniel’s finances in such ways as insuring that he is paid sufficiently, that his rent is paid, that he has groceries, etc.

We turn the corner and I see Daniel with his head lowered to the ground and smoking a cigarette. The front of his hair is yellowing from nicotine, he is wearing a faded black Spiderman T-shirt and a windbreaker, and he seems to be oblivious to who he is and what that actually means. He is standing very nonchalant outside of the building, as if he were unnoticible, when we approach. An employee of Neumos asks Daniel if he and/or Dick need anything in the way of food. Daniel has mentioned in the past that he is trying to lose the weight that he has gained over the years, no doubt due to his medication, so he makes sure to specify a “DIET” Coke in his request for a cheeseburger and fries. She says that she will go get some from a place down the street and, when Daniel implies that he will go up there himself, his brother/manager reminds him that he has a sound check to do and ushers him into the building as I follow behind.

At this point, I haven’t said shit and I am holding a vinyl copy of a live radio broadcast of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. I picked it up at my favorite local record store for Daniel, knowing his infatuation with monsters, and figured that I could use it now as an ice-breaker, considering that he didn’t even seem to react to the fact that I was there or wonder why. I say hello, inform him that I was there to do an interview, and give him the record. He responded with something to the effect of, “Man, this is really cool. I love Frankenstein!“. Dick informs Daniel that it will take a minute for soundcheck and that now would be a good time to do an interview, so Daniel agrees and finds a round table in the corner of the venue next to a bunch of trashcans to sit at. As I walk across the room to find a chair of my own, I notice that a couple of fans have lurked in but are standing back respectfully. I pull up my chair, sit down in the Chip & Peppers I scored at a thrift store, and immediately realize that I’m sitting in gum. Not old hard gum, mind you, but fresh sticky warm gum and it’s all over my ass. Fuck it! Just hit “RECORD“. We’re already in it. Let’s do this thing.

Daniel Johnston: Hey Dick, could you get me a Diet Coke?

Dick Johnston: She said she’s working on it Daniel!

Oh, I mean, do they have anything to drink at the bar? Soda Pop or something?

She said she was gonna get you one Daniel.

*Laughing* Where is she? I mean, at the bar. I just need something to drink right now, that’s all.

*towards me*

Okay. Sorry.

DEAD C: That’s fine.

*noticing my notes* I see you’ve done your research, huh?

*Holding up the record I gave him*
Thank you for the Frankenstein album. I LOVE Frankenstein.

I know.

*He laughs*

I saw that today and I was like, “I better pick that up“. I know you’re a big fan.

So, it’s kind of interesting; when you were recording your Yip/Jump album, you were doing that at your brother Dick’s, right?

*He nods as the woman from Neumos places a can of Diet Coke on the table in front of him*
Thank you.

And, so back then, your family wasn’t as supportive.

Uh, huh.

But now, your family’s really, really involved in everything you do?

Uh, huh. Uh, huh.

Is that, to you, kind of like a poetic irony?

I really don’t know. I really don’t know what you said. But, y’know… *shakes head* I don’t know.

Your family’s really supportive of you now though, right?

Mmm, hmm.

…Of your music?

*he nods*

I heard something about you maybe doing something with Alternative Tentacles and you were also talking about a Christmas Album. Did anything happen with either of them?

Uh…what was the question again?

I read something where you just talked about possibly doing an album with Alternative Tentacles and…

Mm hmmm. Yeah, well we’re working on an album called Death of Satan with my group called Danny and the Nightmares. We’ve been working on it for about a year and we’re looking forward to, y’know, eventually releasing it this year.

And that’s gonna be on that label?

Mm hmm. That’s the label we’re shooting for, so we hope we can get it, yeah.

You’ve mentioned a Christmas album, are you still thinking about doing that?

Yeah, a Christmas album. We were were thinking about doing a Christmas album. Well, I had the fantasy of doing a Christmas album with The Butthole Surfers but, it never came around. But one of my producers always wanted to do a Christmas album.

Do you still talk to Gibby (Haynes from The Butthole Surfers)?

Yeah, I’ve seen him around. Yeah, I’ve seen him.

Um, I know you’ve made a lot of films a long time ago…

Uh, huh.

…a lot of short films. And you have a lot of interest in art and music; do you do anything with the films still?

Uhhhh…. Yeah, well we have been making some videos with the group and stuff. And y’know, the movie came out… last year, I guess. But, other than that, we’ve been doing a few videos that haven’t been finished yet.

After you saw the movie- I know you’ve seen it (The Devil And Daniel Johnston) quite a few times now.

Mm hmm.

Did it make you want to keep documenting your life or did it make you, kind of, want to slow down? Because they had so much of your life at once. That must have been a lot to watch.

Just happened, over in an instant. It’s like my life is over the minute they put it on the show. *laughing uncomfortably*</span Sure was embarrasing.

Was it?

But it was kind of funny. I think it has a sense of humor. It’s more like me sitting right here talking to you now. you’re probably thinking, “Oh, what an idiot.“-

No

I was an idiot in the film. That’s how I felt, y’know. But I thought it had a sense of humor. Even though they’re laughing at me, at least they’re laughing.

You see, I didn’t see it like that. It was really exposed but, as far as if you see it that way… I’ve been in a mental ward too, y’know.

Yeah, yeah. I know… boy was that hard to do. I was in a mental hospital for 5 years of my life. And I wasn’t writing, and I wasn’t even drawing that much. It was just a desperate attempt to have a cigarette by the (end of) the whole thing.

*both laugh*

We had cigarettes when I was in there-

Yeah, Yeah.

So that was nice.

They provided cigarettes?

Uh, no. They had a little room… a little area.

Yeah. Well, I didn’t smoke until I was staying in one place and they said, “Here’s a cigarette- Smoke break.” And they would give us cigarettes. So-

That’s how I started too.

-I started smoking just for the heck of it. And then when I went to a different one, no cigarettes. Y’know? And I was like- Every time I’d get a carton of cigarettes, I gave everybody cigarettes. I was like Mr. Popular. And then when I ran out of cigarettes NO ONE would give ME a cigarette. So that just goes to show you… *laughs*

Yeah, they told me I was borderline narcissistic and hypomanic.

*He nods and takes a swig off of his soda can*

And um… the medication. That must have made it difficult for you to write. When did you finally-

Well, they were just experimenting on me like a guinea pig. I mean they didn’t even talk. The doctors never talked to me. They just kept shoving pills down our throats, y’know. When I finally did get out and get the right medication- It’s been the longest time… and I am a manic depression. I have severe- (or) HAD severe depression. But because of the right medication, it’s been about ten, fifteen years now, and I’ve been on top of things and haven’t had to go back to a hospital. So I really am grateful for that.

Yeah.

It’s pretty good stuff I get. I get some anti-depressants. The first time I got it, I was bedridden for a year, thinking I was damned by god or something. Right? And then they gave me the Elavil anti-depressant. I was up the next day, climbed up the hill to my old piano and I started writing songs right away. And, first thing I knew, I went to New York and recorded my album 1990.

That’s a great album too.

Thanks.

‘cuz I listen to a lot of the early stuff…

Uh, huh.

Were you recording those albums, like Hi, How are you?, Were you just recording them on a tape recorder.

Mm hmm.

Because it sounds like on 1990, the production changed and you could hear everything really well.

Mmm hmmm. *nods*

Is that the moment that you felt like you just broke through the medication? When you went up there and played.

Yeah. You mean… to New York?

Well, yeah. I mean, you call it a “Lost Year“, right?

Uh, huh.

After that… (I’m wondering) what that moment is where you felt like you could do that again.

Yeah. I just started writing again *snaps* You know, right away. It comes down to medication. And I tell everyone in the Rock N Roll business that do drugs- Speed, and everything else… get high on marijuana and everything. If they really want to be a Rock N Roller, they outta go to a doctor and ask them for some antidepressants, or different kind of pills, for whatever their ill is. And you get a lot better buzz off prescription medicine. More than smoking marijuana all the time, y’know.

Yeah.

But it’s the truth. I feel great a lot of the times and I don’t get depressed anymore like I used to, which is a real miracle.

I also read something about a film that wasn’t a documentary. You had some people (who) were talking about making and actual… like… a movie.

Right.

And you had said that you would maybe want to star in it? What’s the deal with that?

Yeah. I hope to make more movies and I wanted to direct my own movie, y’know, for fun. That’s what I plan to do.

You’re also into a lot of comics. Are you interested in the Iron Man movie that’s coming out at all, or are you not even into Iron Man very much?

Oh, I love Iron Man. They wanted me to draw the drawing for the movie.

Oh, really?

*nods* For the poster. Y’know? So I did a bunch of them. I don’t think they’ll be able to use ‘em. I mean, if they like them, they could but I’m sure they could get someone to do better than the ones I did. I don’t know, but… it’s like a new Iron Man movie. And then, on top of that, they designed a shoe-

*I stare at his plain white shoes*

*smiling* These aren’t it

*Laughing* Oh, Okay.

But they want me to design a shoe with my drawings in it.

*We both laugh*

What will they think of next?

Who’s that?

Converse.

Oh, okay. Nice.

*reaching into his pocket* I can’t smoke right here?

KIM (GF): Yeah, I think you have to go outside.

Okay….okay

So, I know you’re a huge Beatles fan.

Mm hmm.

Songs like Greivances kind of sound a little more like Bob Dylan. Do you listen to a lot of Dylan?

Oh, Bob Dylan’s right up there with all my heroes. That’s for sure.

So, when you talk about Jack Kirby, you talk about someone whos work wasn’t as good as his other work-

Uh, no

-but you could still see the-

Oh, I’m a die hard fan of Kirby. I just got back, I had almost $500 worth of Kirby comics and books I bought at the comic book store here in town (Seattle) and uh…. so I do love Kirby *laughs* It’s like the Beatles too, y’know. I can’t get enough. I got all the bootlegs and stuff, and I can never get enough.

Do you think it’s the same kind of thing with your early recordings? ‘Cuz I still listen to ‘em and even though they’ve become digital and are on CDs.

Right.

Even though you don’t have the studio, you can still hear the music come through. And then you get to something like 1990 where the production shows what you were doing with a little bit better sound.

*reaches for cigarettes again*

And then nowadays, when you do songs like your song The Beatles it’s really confident and the production is up there. Do you think you have the same quality (as Kirby) and that’s why people still want to listen to those old recordings, even though they were made so lo-fi?

Well. *slams back and tosses soda can* I’m trying to get better production, y’know.

Mm hmm.

I recorded with Paul leary and we did the album called Fun, on Atlantic. We’re thinking about doing another album: Fun 2. Y’know, the second Fun album. And I’m planning top do some recording with Mark Linkous again of the band Sparklehorse. I’ve been working on that for a few years too, so…

So that’s a sequel to the first Sparklehorse album…

That’s right. That’s right, there’s a lot of different projects in the making.

*grabs cigarette out and puts it back into the pack*

It’s just what the medication was, right? Because when you were doing shows for a while you would go off of the meds.

Right.

Is that because you didn’t feel like you could do ‘em without them?

Uh….

But when you got the right ones you felt like you could?

Uh… *shrugs* yeah….I don’t think I’d ever like, re-record. Unless I did like a greatest hits and then I’d like to make some new arrangements, y’know.

Fan (behind me): Yeah, fucking awesome.

*laughing* That’d be cool.

[At this point, Daniel is holding his smokes and is shaking a bit again, so I know it's probably time to wind down]

I know you work on comics and you work on maybe getting comic books. But your art- You sell it so fast.

Uh, huh.

So you don’t really have these steps or back catalog. But you have a lot of, you know…the devil in your pictures. Do you look at that (Satan) as the opposite of art? Do you look at art as your spirituality? Or as just like a medium to express yourself?

*tapping Kools on table & nodding contemplatively*
I agree.

Is that how you see your artwork?

It’s the same kind of thing. You know, I’ll draw cartoons for a while, then I’ll play music for a while, then I’ll watch a movie or two, then I’ll… eat a bunch of food. Then I’ll play some more music. Then I’ll draw a little bit. Then I’ll watch another movie. That’s my day, all by myself. Except, unless my band gets together to do some recording on the weekends. And then we go off on little tours like this. We’ve got 3 more shows and I’m having a pretty good time, y’know. I just hope that everything can work out right so I can record the albums that I want to, and stuff like that. And we get some pretty good crowds too. Sell out crowds too, y’know, so… *shrugs again*

Well, yeah. You sold out Portland and I don’t think that people are just coming to see you because of what you used to make. From what I’ve heard, your material is still really good, it’s still vital.

Well, it’s getting ancient. I’ve come along way from playing the chord organ. But, I really like working with Brian Beattie. He’s got some really cool music.

So do you have a lot of stuff lined up for the next couple albums then?

Yeah. Yeah, we have one more album with Brian Beattie called Rarely with some rare tracks and each tracks is gonna be like, super produced. Real- Something tricky about it. You know, something really cool. He’s got a lot of it done already and that might be the next release, with Brian. And like I said, the new album with Danny and the Nightmares, the Death of Satan (that) we’ve been working on for a long time. It’s kind of a scary album.

In what, with just like, the lyrics or the music too.

The lyrics AND the music. There’s like overdubs and the wrong lyrics and all kinds of things about it… and y’know, fragments of Beatles songs and stuff like that. It’s pretty scary
*giggles*

Well, thanks for talking with me.

Yeah, thanks a lot. I sure appreciate it.

*we shake hands*

Yeah.

Thanks for the album.

I know you want to get a cigarette.

Yeah, that’s right.
*heads out towards door*

I sat in a piece of gum there.

Kim: Did you?

*laughing* Yeah, I totally did.

*overhearing* You sat on a piece of gum?

That’s right.

Oh, sorry about that.

Oh, it’s all good.

I follow Daniel back outside but I leave the camera turned off. I thought of moving the interview outside just minutes into it, so that he could smoke but I don’t know if that really would have made much of a difference beyond adding the distraction of swarming fans into the equation. We did talk a little more outside, however. When I brought up his appearance on Kimya Dawson’s Hidden Vagenda album, Daniel said that he loves her stuff and when he signed my 100 Deadliest Karate Moves book, he said, “I prefer Kung-Fu myself”. He invinted Kim and I to go hang out after the show backstage and we let him get back to smoking and talking with fans.

I researched quite a bit before doing this interview but Daniel is still always going to be a bit of a wild card. I also tried to intentionally avoid entering into certain areas of conversation that I felt may be “too safe” because many of those topics have been adressed in other interviews. I quickly became aware that his answers to these same questions, however, often seem to be inconsistent. In an interview he did with Mondo 2000, while he was in a mental ward, Johnston said the following: “Captain America will return. In the flesh. In the Great Tribulation there will be a great Captain America who will save many from total doom.” Later, however, in another interview with Crimewave, when asked about his claims that Captain America is “real“, he attempted to clarify by saying, “In my theory what I mean is that… they exist on sort of a realm, especially for children… imagination. You know, cartoon characters and things children believe in, they exist. Just like Santa Claus I guess.” He was obivously more lucid and analytical in the later interview and even clearly articulated and reflected about his alternate states of mind and opportunities lost. “I turn down Elektra. It was really stupid and it was because I was afraid of Metallica. And that’s the truth, I was dumb…..Steven Spielberg tried to get me to sign with him and I told whoever it was on the phone that I didn’t want to be ET and that was the end of that… I could’ve been on Steven Spielberg’s label and I was so stupid and they never called back either…that’s two chances I’ve ruined for no good reason.” In reference to his thoughts on the movie Daniel has said “I think it’s funny enough for anybody that has a sense of humour. If there was a laugh track on there it would’ve helped out.” and even, “I’ve seen it about 10 times. I really do like it.” but the response I received was, of course, quite different.

It turns out that the two guys who were lingering behind us during the interview apparently went to highschool with me, so we all went next door to get some drinks before the show and talked about the whole situation that just went down. One of them mentioned that they were glad that I ended the interview when I did, because they were picking up on the same uncomfortably restless vibe from Daniel that I was. They, however, assured me that the interview went really well despite the awkward moments. I, myself, have mixed feelings about the interview and, more specifically, in how Daniel may be percieved through it. It was good to talk with die-hard fans who had witnessed it and have respect for him that let me know that it’s important to show Johnston “the way he is“.

James McNew of Yo La Tengo said, “I once visited him in a mental hospital and it was difficult to have a conversation but when he’s playing he comes alive. We’ve done gigs with him and it’s like performing with Santa or the Easter Bunny, this mythical creature that’s only existed in your imagination.” I feel that this quote really sums up my own experience with Daniel. He got quite a bit of help with the instrumentation in his performance but he still put his soul into the vocals. He performed classics like Walking The Cow and finished the show off by first, playing True Love Will Find You In The End, and then having the entire crowd sing along with him to his acapella classic Devil Town. I realized, after viewing my interview with him repeatedly, that my feelings are very similar to Daniel’s feelings about his documentary, in that they often change. I first viewed it as a trainwreck and I felt like an asshole but now I am more positive than ever about getting the chance to to have this experience. I am now aware that this interview, like all of the others I’ve read, is like a sample of Daniel in a little capsule and I actually encourage everyone to continue on and read the interviewers done by others out there. Just like his music, in the respect that each little song exposes something new about Daniel, it seems that each and every moment captured in his life tends to do the same. I am proud to contribute something new, no matter how small, to help archive his life. There are many expectations that have been put on the artist by others before me and even more expectations placed by him on himself, but I believe that his art is so authentic that it mirrors his personality directly. The greatness of Daniel’s work doesn’t come from the fact that he’s dealt with so many emotional battles, but despite them. Much like a large portion of his musical recordings, there is also a low-fi static around who Daniel really is and, once you get to the center of them both and witness what is beneath, the previous barriers actually dissipate. If you believe as I do, that physical art is really just amanifestation of the intangible into the tangible, no one is more successful than Daniel Johnston. Daniel Johnston writes timeless songs with no perservatives.

Johnston went from making remarkable low-fi tape recordings with his nephew’s toy chord organ to becoming one of the most repected songwriters of his generation, with various incarcerations and mental breakdowns and delusions thrown in, of course. His music has been covered and/or cited as an inspiration by fellow musicians from Tom Waits to Kurt Cobain and he has even worked with the likes of Jad Fair (Half Japanese) and members of Sonic Youth. I first became aware of Johnston, myself, through a Built to Spill album that contained a cover of Some Things Last A Long Time and , although his legend and music continued to spread and, although that is a wonderful and magnificent thing, Daniel has lived through some of the most nightmarish hells and, for years, did not recieve much of any financial compensation for his work or for the pain and soul that he pours into it. Finally, in 2004 Gammon Records released a 2-disc compilation of Daniel’s music called Discovered Covered. One Disc is of Johnston originals while the other disc contains covers from musicians such as Beck and The Flaming Lips. The proceeds from the double album went into building Daniel a home of his own next to his parents residence in Texas and Yo-La Tengo’s cover of the track Speeding Morotcycle was used in a Target advertisement for which Daniel recieved $40,000.

If you are planning to purchase any Daniel Johnston music or merchandise, I strongly encourage you to try and buy it through HiHowAreYou.com or download it through the site YipEyeTunes.com. This is the one sure way, aside from buying directly at his concerts, to make sure that your money is actually going to support Daniel. The official fansite, RejectedUnknown.com is another great source for anything Daniel Johnston, inlcuding updates, interviews, links, etc. If you have gum stuck to your jeans a)heat up some vinegar in your microwave b) apply to effected area of denim c) remove by rubbing spot with a toothbrush in circular patterns. No shit… it works!

-DEAD C