The Walking Dead: Season 2 recap, featuring an interview with Steven Yeun! Glenn! [INTERVIEW]

April 30, 2012 5 Comments

 

Okay guys, I know the season ended weeks ago, but hopefully by now you all know what happened and I don’t have to worry about spoiling everything. Even though there were complaints that there wasn’t enough going on in this season, there were plenty of behind the scenes drama to make up for it. In July of last year, it was announced that Frank Darabont, who had helped write, direct, and produce the first season. That scared the shit out of most people, knowing he had filmed some of the second season and not knowing the impact it would have on the show. The show had its premiere in October, and it went on a scheduled hiatus, with the other half to debut in February. While it was on hiatus, news outlets started saying that a main cast member asked to be written out of the show when Darabont left, and this cast member had their wish granted. Supposedly that actor changed their mind, but it was too late and they were already written out. Considering that Laurie Holden, who plays Andrea, and Jeffrey DeMunn, who plays Dale, had worked with Darabont on a few movies, my money was on one of them leaving the show prematurely. With a main character leaving and a new director, what hope was there for season two?

 

 

Without going over every single detail, I’ll try to summarize the major events of season two. When we last saw the gang, they had just left the Center for Disease Control because it was blown up by an employee. When the group made a pit stop, the little girl known as “Sophia”, got lost in the woods. While trying to find her, poor little Carl was accidentally shot. The shooter brought Carl and the gang to a farm where people were staying, and where everyone ended up staying. Over their time at the farm, we learned that Lori was pregnant, despite not knowing whether the baby was Rick’s or Shane’s, from one of their forbidden love sessions when they thought Rick was dead. We also learned that Shane was an even bigger asshole who had killed an innocent man so he wouldn’t be slowed down while retrieving medical supplies from a nearby high school. The first half of the season focused on finding little Sophia, but that search ended when she was revealed to have become a zombie and the owner of the farm, Hershel, had been keeping zombie in a barn. The gang also met other survivors and after a violent altercation, saw Rick and Shane take one hostage. We saw the depths that both Rick and Shane were willing to go to in order to protect the group, while Dale understood how much deeper Shane’s depths were than Rick’s. The season ended with Dale getting surprise attacked and killed by a zombie, Shane killing the hostage in cold blood, and Shane trying to take Rick’s life. Rick got the upper hand (ha ha, that’s a good pun if you read the comics) and killed Shane, and unfortunately the zombies overran the farm. The last few moments of the season showed the group realizing that they were living in a Rick-tatorship, if you will, while also introducing us to a woman with a katana and two zombies on leashes and zoomed out to show a prison looming near the group.

 

 

I have to agree that I thought the events of the first half of the season were pretty dull, since it was a lot of just hanging out at the farm and meeting a lot of new characters. Some people completely lost interest with the show at that point, but when Sophia was discovered to be a zombie and no one was willing to shoot her but Rick, I was totally on board. Once the show started up again, I thought things were getting more and more exciting and that the slow pace in the first half was worth it for the events of the second half. Considering Shane was killed very early on in the comics, nobody was really surprised to see him go. In fact, I think some people were even disappointed to see a character who challenged Rick to such a degree get killed off. On the other hand, Dale’s death seemed to come out of nowhere and really solidified my theory about predicting he would be the one who wanted to leave with Darabont. When I thought about Dale getting killed off, I was pretty bummed, because he really brought in a human element to the show. I felt a little bit of comfort when I realized the whole second half of this season was him whining about Shane being a jerk, and that TV Dale wasn’t necessarily the same person as comic book Dale. I think all the comic book fans also predicted the cloaked figure or the introduction of the prison, considering that person and location all play pretty heavy roles in the comics, but I know I didn’t expect BOTH things to happen. I figured it’d be either one or the other, but those last five minutes got me even more excited for the places they’ll go with season three. Considering that the role of the “Governor” has already been cast, all the readers are both excited and terrified to watch the show unfold, and I think all the viewers will be surprised at just how fucked up Robert Kirkman is and what he’ll put his characters through. Even though there are going to be plenty of new characters to meet next season and that we might have a slow start, I’m sure that Kirkman and new showrunner Glenn Mazzara will give us plenty of reasons to make any sort of waiting worth it.

 

 

As some of you probably know, I recently attended the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Exposition. One cool thing the C2E2 website did was highlight who were Chicago residents or who had a career in Chicago, and it was highlighted that Steven Yeun, who plays Glenn on The Walking Dead, was attending. I would say one big difference between the TV Glenn and the comic book Glenn is that we’re able to see a much more emotional side of him. In the comics, the driving force of everything is Rick, and it’s not often we see extended sequences of what’s going on outside of Rick’s world. It happens, but only when it directly pertains to him. Although Rick is the driving force of the show, the nature of the medium forces us to explore more of the characters and Glenn’s is a lot more developed, I feel, than his character in the books. It was this season where we met Hershel’s daughter Maggie, played by Lauren Cohan, who we all knew would strike up a romantic relationship with Glenn. The reaction from Glenn on the show had him scared to get involved with her because he was afraid he would lose her, causing what could best be described an emotional ambivalence. He didn’t seem to care whether she liked him or hated him, and didn’t want to further any of those feelings because it might just make saying goodbye hurt more. Glenn eventually left that emotional state as everyone was leaving Hershel’s farm, but I think we all connected with Glenn in a way that was different from how we connect with him in the books, and Steven did a great job portraying that emotional state. I also couldn’t help but wonder if he took that emotional ambivalence towards his cast members as to save himself the heartache.

 

 

WolfMan: I think season two of The Walking Dead proved that anybody could die, anyone could go away at any moment. Who was the hardest, either actor or character, to say goodbye to this season? Do you know find yourself putting distance between you and other cast members, knowing they could leave at any moment?

Steven Yeun: Every death was hard. I took Jeff (DeMunn) and Jon’s (Bernthal, who played Shane) the hardest. Jon, I knew was coming, but he was someone I spent a lot of time with. And Jeff I spent a lot of time with, too. They were both pretty difficult. As far as keeping distance, no, we know the nature of the beast and I think it’s better to spend quality time and enjoy each other’s company.

 

 

WM: Clearly the show is going in a slightly different direction from the comics. Some things are similar but they are different versions of the same universe. How difficult do you find it to be to portray the television version of a character that’s already ingrained in comic books?

SY: I think our show has found a life of its own and we’re on that trajectory to become its own thing, not to insult the original material. We don’t think about the comic, we think about how things work in this life and all the writers and producers and actors are so great that we all convene and come to a consensus about how things play out.

 

 

WM: To me, the most surreal moment of the show’s success was the fact that it was referenced in The Amazing Spider-Man a few weeks ago. Not the comic book Walking Dead, but when Johnny Storm had come back from the dead and was catching up on all his TV, Spider-Man had mentioned that “they were still on the farm”. It was kind of crazy to see the success of the show bleeding into other publishers. Was there one surreal moment for you where the success of the show?

SY: Marvel does that, don’t they? That this world is part of their world, right? Every day when you walk around and someone might recognize you from the show, it’s really great. I think we were on an episode of Entourage. Ari said “Tell that guy he won’t be able to get a job as a zombie…”, and he said a lot worse than that. It’s just so cool to be apart of something that people really dig and are really interested in.

 

WM: One last quick question, do you happen to know what Robert Kirkman’s beard feels like?

SY: It feels like a lotioned porcupine. Ya know, like a really solidly lotioned porcupine with a little bit of ambrosia.

 

Filed under 4 Stars, Comics, Inane Bullshit, Interviews Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

John Cusack talks The Raven and being on an 8 week vampiric bender [INTERVIEW]

April 24, 2012 Leave a comment

The fact that there are people who are alive and haven’t seen One Crazy Summer is an insane concept to wrap your head around. This was a reality I had to face when I started talking to my girlfriend about the movie and she had no goddamned idea what I was talking about. Luckily, I was immediately able to show her how good it was through the power of Netflix and I am now able to sleep easy. Some people might associate John Cusack and the 80′s with movies like Say Anything or Sixteen Candles, but I haven’t seen either of those movies, so he’s always either “Hoops” McCann or Lane Meyer from Better Off Dead… . Once you start naming movies from the 80′s that an actor has been in, you do that because they haven’t done anything else since then that was worth mentioning. Despite his early success with those light-hearted movies in the 80′s, John Cusack never stopped making movies we all wanted to see. I mean seriously, have you seen his filmography? From Eight Men Out to Grosse Point Blank to The Thin Red Line to High Fidelity to Being John Malkovich to 1408 to Hot Tub Time Machine, he’s constantly reminding us how good of an actor is and how there is no genre he won’t tackle. In his latest film, The Raven, he plays Edgar Allen Poe, who is involved in a cat and mouse game with a killer who is replicating Poe’s stories. At the recent Chicago Comic and Entertainment Exposition, I was lucky enough to be included in a press conference to promote the film.

WolfMan: Clearly Poe is ingrained in pop culture; movies, music, TV, he’s everywhere. Everyone knows at least some of his stories, even if they don’t know it’s specifically Poe. Since Vincent Price in the 60′s, this is the first time we’ve seen Poe in theaters. This is Poe, this is his work. Did you feel pressure, that you were the one to bring him to life theatrically?

John Cusack: It wasn’t as much of a pressure as much as it was an opportunity. If you read about him, you know that he started so many different genres, the seeds he planted just grew in so many different directions. From science fiction and Jules Verne to hoaxes and being punked and pranked, to gothic horror and to this mystical stuff to great poetry. There’s so much to take from. Once he gets caught up in his own genre, you can always go back to his letters and pull language and it was such a great thing to do. It’s not like you’re ever going to have a definitive version of a person. This is one dream of Poe. Someone else will do another. If you can feel the underworld in the movie, or if you can feel it coming out of my performance, then that’s great.

He then went on to compare the process of interpreting someone like Poe to the different interpretations on stage and screen of the composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:

Salieri and Mozart…there was nothing (to work from). You get an insight into Mozart, you get a version of him, but then you get to understand classical music in a way that you probably wouldn’t if it was just a strict biopic, where he did this here and then he was really depressed and stumbling around drunk. It’s a weird blend of fantasy and fiction and legend. Some of the legends around Poe are played with a little bit, and that’s sort of what he did in some of his writings, so I thought it was a cool conceit. I thought it just seemed like a really good version, a good pop-pulp version of him. I just kind of went all in. I didn’t feel pressure, I just gave everything I had into it, and that’s the best I can do.

WM: You mentioned that this isn’t a straight biography about Poe, it blends legends and myth and his stories, but there are still some direct biographical nods to Poe, such as a rival writer being the victim in the pit and the pendulum sequence and the pet raccoon, which alludes to the rumors of Poe dying of rabies. Were there specific poems or stories that you took to heart to incorporate into your personification of Poe, that you used as the most direct references?

JC: I just read him all day and all night when I was making the movie. You could sort of take proxy characters and use then things that he’d said. For example, you could say things that he had said to Emily, the new girl, who’s a fictional girl. After his wife died, he had some romances with some other girls, and she was a proxy for that. His relationship to male authority figures, you could take things he had said to other writers or editors , which is on record, and put it into the stuff I said to Brendan Gleeson (who plays Captain Hamilton) or (Detective) Fields. He didn’t have a relationship with a guy Fields, but he still had a relationship to other people that he thought were inferior to him and he would say certain things to challenge them or push them, so I could take those things. When he says “I have often thought I could distinctly hear the sound of the darkness as it stole over the horizon”, he sort of says that in the movie to Fields, but he actually said it in another context. You have a lot of historically accurate Poe stuff in there, like he did go to West Point and he was athletic, he was a swimmer, that people didn’t know about, but it’s still in a fictional setting. There’s always stuff we could pull, it was amazing. Nobody talked on the phone, people wrote letters, so it’s all there. Amazingly there’s a lot preserved.

WM: I feel like other actors would have had trepidation approaching such a dark character and not knowing how to get out of that headspace, but you said this role is one you’d have fought for, but you had it offered to you. Are there any other historical icons or literary icons that you would fight for the opportunity to put up on screen?

JC: Anything good or anything that can really challenge you and get you frightened and make you think “how do you do this?” but I don’t have anything specific in mind. I’d love to do The Master & Margarita, which is a great Russian book that I think is very cool. I’d love to play Professor Woland but I think someone else has the rights. That’s a great book, I always thought it’d be a great movie.

In regards to the “darkness” surround Poe, he said:

It was helpful that it was winter and it was Serbia and Hungary and we were shooting nights, so I just kind of felt like a vampire anyway. I didn’t sleep much, I felt like I was on a bender for 8 weeks. I just sort of stayed in that headspace of it and then when I got back, I came back for Christmas, and I scared my family. They asked, “What happened!? You need to eat! You look sick.”

I think one reason people are fans of Mr. Cusack are his ability to appear as the every man, or rather, a man who everyone sees parts of themselves in. It’s this endearing quality that makes us always want to root for him and want him to succeed, whether it be as a person or the characters he plays. One big difference with his role in The Raven is that I’m not sure anyone wants to be in his position, and when you see some of yourself in Poe, it might be time to either write some poetry or schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist. Make sure to check out The Raven when it comes to theaters April 27th.
Official Site

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Alan Bagh talks about Birdemic, killer animals, and future projects [INTERVIEW]

March 26, 2012 2 Comments

If you haven’t seen the movie “Birdemic”, which is currently available on Netflix Instant, then you need to stop everything that you’re doing and watch it…before…this…sentence…is…over…period. If you’re into that whole “so bad that it’s good” style of cinema, then this one is for you. I can’t remember how I first heard about Birdemic, probably around the time it was trying to get into Sundance a few years ago, but I will never forget my first viewing of it. Some people say that Troll 2 or maybe The Room might be the most entertaining terrible movies ever made, but I submit Birdemic: Shock and Terror (its full name) to accept that prize. After watching it, I tracked everything and anything to do with Birdemic, whether it be checking out a screening in a theater with director James Nguyen doing a Q & A to following everyone involved with it on Twitter to recommending it to everyone I knew. Through following the film’s star, Alan Bagh, and interacting with him on Twitter a few times, I was able to get in touch with him to ask him a few of my burning questions. Some emails were exchanged, and the answers to those questions can be found below. Reminder, this “interview” took place over email.

 

WolfMan: What Birdemic might have lacked in budget, it clearly made up for in dedication from the entire cast and crew. Between production spanning multiple years and having to defend yourself from animals that weren’t there, what were some of the more difficult aspects of filming the movie?

Alan Bagh: Well we didn’t have a crew so we had to be the crew. Some days I would have to hold a boom between my legs when we were filming. Also, I had to carry all the equipment around to different locations. Furthermore, I did a lot of driving. So I was very exhausted every day that we filmed.

 

WM: Were you ever nervous that it might not pay off?

AB: No, I was happy just to have a movie under my belt.

 

WM: At the Sundance Film Festival in 2009, writer/director James Nguyen took a more guerrilla approach to marketing the film. He might not have gotten the kind of attention most people expect from attending Sundance, but it wasn’t long before Birdemic was all over the internet and TV. How did you find out about how popular Birdemic was getting?

AB: I think the way I found out was one of friends telling me that Birdemic was the clip of the week on the show “The Soup”  and I think it was featured on the G4 channel as well.

 

 

WM: Did you in any way anticipate this kind of reaction to such an overwhelming amount of people?

AB: No, I thought this movie was gonna be locked up forever in a vault and never seen again. I was shocked on how much people actually enjoyed the film.

 

WM: Being one of the lead roles, you are the face of Birdemic to millions of people. There are sold out screenings of this movie across the country where people can recite the movie line for line. You’ve done interviews and talk shows, but is there one experience that really stands out in your mind as your favorite or still find hard to believe you ever had the opportunity to do?

AB: I would say that being flown out to New York for a screening of Birdemic at the IFC (Center). I thought that was really awesome and the audience was great.

 

WM:  I heard about your involvement in “Ghost Shark 2: Urban Jaws”, a self-proclaimed sharksploitation movie whose predecessor is nothing more than a trailer. I’m sensing a trend here, and can’t help but ask: do you have any projects coming up that don’t involve killer animals?

AB: LOL, I do have a couple projects that I’m attached to which don’t have killer animals.

 

 

WM: What are you most excited for?

AB: I can’t really talk about them yet but I will keep my fans updated on my Facebook and Twitter.

 

WM: With the huge success and popularity of Birdemic, it seems like you are a hot commodity these days with plenty of projects making themselves available. What are some of your dream projects that you’d love to get involved in, or some directors you’d love to work with?

AB: I would love to do an action film like Bourne (Identity) or Mission: Impossible, but I also like comedy. I would love to do a film with (Martin) Scorsese. I love all his films.

 

WM: Lastly, and I don’t want you to give too much away, but how is production on Birdemic II: The Resurrection going?

AB: It’s going great, much smoother sailing this time around.

 

 

WM: What are Rod and Nathalie up to these days?

AB: Well I’m living in L.A. and just auditioning for films, and Whitney (Moore, who plays Nathalie) is pretty much doing the same.

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Steve O’ Brien from Team Submarine [SHITTY INTERVIEW]

March 19, 2012 Leave a comment

I already interviewed Nate from Team Submarine, but since there are two members, I didn’t think it would be fair to leave out Steve. As far as his nickname is concerned, I’m pretty sure it started because he included my first and last name into some sort of sing-song rhymey limerick thing, and I tried to do the same, just not as successfully. Did you guys know that Steve knows Dan Berry? Not Dave Berry, the funny guy who writes down silly observations, I mean Dan Berry, the pirate. If you want to meet Dan Berry, just play Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run” and start smashing things while wearing a black and white striped tank top, and he will appear. BUT ENOUGH ABOUT DAN BERRY, BACK TO STEVE O’ BEEVO!

 

WolfMan: Beevo, can I call you Beevo? Beevo, I heard a rumor that you are the original member of Team Submarine? You weren’t even a team back then, you were just one player. What was the tryout process like to allow Lazer onto the team? Layup drills, passing plays, LEGO building?

Steve: If there’s anyone who can call me Beevo, it’s you.  The history of Team Submarine is a little murky.  I am actually the third person to portray “Steve” in the group.  The group started in the 60′s as a two-man comedy/jug band act.  Over the years the material has changed to fit the times and as performers get older they are replaced by younger ones.  Nate Fernald is actually the fourth “Nate” but the first performer to portray “Nate”  with a beard.  It’s a lot like Dr. Who or the Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride.

 

WM: As of this moment, you have commented on my blog a grand total of 1 time. The comment was in regards to the Marvel comic book character, and went a little something like “DD’s got dot double D’s!  No has made that joke before, right?” I made fun of your grammatical error of leaving out the “one” from “no one”, and didn’t even address what the hell “got dot” means. After my harassment, you have never returned. If I apologize to you, publicly, will you come back and maybe post a comment or two again?

S: If you make a public apology on all of the major social networking sites then I would be happy to return to your site with my hilarious and thought provoking quips.

 

WM: On the topic of Daredevil, have you read any of the new ongoing series that started over the summer? It’s a lot of fun. I think one of the reviews I read for it that really summed it up well referred to it as a “swashbuckling” series. There’s also one issue where Matt Murdock is trying to convince people he’s not Daredevil so he wears a red shirt that says “I’M NOT DAREDEVIL” on it and I really want it. Will you make me one?

S: I have not read any of this new series you speak of.  I really lost interest after Brubaker’s run.  I’d be glad to make you an “I’M NOT DAREDEVIL” t-shirt.  I’ll have to read some of those back issues to see what this shirt looks like which means everybody wins:  I’m reading Daredevil again and you get a t-shirt out of it!  Excelsior!

 

WM: Some people might not realize that if they listen to the “hidden” track on your debut album “Correctamundo!” that they can hear a voicemail I left for you about how you fucked up the tag to the end of your entire show, which was also the end of your entire album. What has the aftermath of that event been like for you? Have you developed PTSD  because of it? Are people heckling you during your shows because of it? Will you ever forgive yourself?

S: I’m sensing a theme here: You really enjoy picking apart my mistakes.  It has been a few years since “the incident” as my family calls it.  I am over it now. The best thing to do is just pick myself up and try to move on.  But late at night it still haunts me.  Sometimes my girlfriend will wake me up and tell me I’ve just been repeating “Gay Radar” over and over again in my sleep.  I am a living Edgar Allen Poe story now thanks to you.

 

WM: The Team Submarine website (http://www.teamsubmarine.net/) tells me that you’re a comedy duo from New York, but I thought you were from New Hampshire. What do you have to say to these accusations? What do you think Bo-Bus would say to these accusations? Assuming that none of my readers know who Bo-Bus is, just make sure you say something really funny.

S: What is this, an interrogation?!  You’re right, okay.  We should say that we currently reside in NY but are both originally from New England.  Nate and I were both actually born in Massachusetts.  Bo-Bus would probably think someone’s bedroom door was actually the front door if he heard about this.

 

WM: When it comes to fashion sense, we have come to expect both sweatshirts and ties to be worn by you and/or your partner Nate Fernald. What brought you two to this decision in activewear? Did you just both show up at your first gig wearing these items and are nervous to bring up any other wardrobe possibilities?

S: The first year of Team Submarine we wore shirts and ties with hoodies over them.  I think we liked the idea of having a uniform that set us apart a little.  It made it special and was kind of a nod to the old fashioned two-man acts.  We dropped it after the first year mostly out of convenience.  It was just easier to perform in whatever clothes we were wearing at the time rather than always going home to change into our “costumes.”   Those were the good old days.

 

WM: On the subject of fashion, did you ever own a Starter jacket that had a sports team on it? I know the Charlotte Hornets were very popular when it comes to Starter jackets. And completely off the subject of Starter jackets, who are some of your own personal comedic influences? Not just influences for Team Submarine, but also influences for your stand-up?

S: I never owned a Starter jacket.  My brother had one I think but he was really into sports.  I do remember begging my mom for a Champion sweatshirt because everyone had one of those.  I also wore nothing but denim on my first day of 5th grade.  Denim pants, denim shirt, denim jacket, denim hat.  Still might be the coolest I have ever felt.  There are so many  people and groups that I love in comedy.  I grew up in sort of a strict household when it came to what I was allowed to watch but for some reason Bill Murray movies were always okay.  It didn’t matter if they were rated R or not, Bill Murray got a pass.  I also have a distinct memory of watching David Letterman when I was pretty young.   My folks had friends over so I was just flipping through channels upstairs by myself and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  I loved it.  When I was 12 my parents got divorced  and all of sudden there were no rules so I became obsessed with comedy and gobbled up everything I could find: Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show, Seinfeld.  All of those things shaped my sense of humor.

 

WM: I know you’re a big fan of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. How sad were you when I texted you to tell you Clarence Clemons was dead? Also, I know you are mostly a fan of his more commercial songs from the 80′s, so is it true that your dream setlist would be Dancing in the Dark, Glory Days, and Hungry Heart being played for 3 hours? With a 30 minute encore of nothing but Radio Nowhere?

S: I was very sad.  I remember getting that text back stage at a show right before going on.  When I was younger I thought Bruce was cheesy but then I realized the power of the Boss!  I love it all now.  That is a dream set but I don’t think I could take it.  Those are all big time crowd participation songs and I think I’d pass out.  Better throw a Tunnel of Love in there somewhere so we can all get a breather.

 

WM: Lastly, is there any shit you’d like to talk on me for a second? Jokes that I’ve screwed up that you’d like to mock me for, Bruce Springsteen references that fell flat, or my blindness? Have anything else you’d like to plug or call attention to?

S: I would love to call you out on some shit but I’ve got nothing on you man.  You really grossed out my girlfriend when we all went for breakfast and you put four sausages in your mouth at the same time and never broke eye contact with her.  But that wasn’t a mistake, that was inspired!  I’d like to quickly plug my favorite soft drink: Mountain Dew.  It has always been there for me.

 

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Nate Fernald of Team Submarine [SHITTY INTERVIEW]

February 28, 2012 2 Comments

I guess it’s fitting that this interview is also my 400th post, considering what good (air) buds we are. I first met Nate at an audition for an improv troupe, which is really embarrassing. There was already someone named Nate who had introduced himself, but that Nate also said he liked to be called “Duke”, like some sort of psycho. I mean seriously, who gives themselves their own nickname?! In an attempt to mock him, Nate Fernald then said he liked to be called “Lazer”, and the legend was born. Lazer and I started making jokes together, which turned into making funny videos, which turned into making our own two-man show, calling ourselves the “Poetry Dudes”. Lazer then transferred to a different school in Chicago and started a different two-man show which is wildly more successful than the Poetry Dudes. Yes, I do cry myself to sleep every night, thank you very much.

 

WolfMan: Lazer, may I call you Lazer? Lazer, can you tell me how you got the nickname “Lazer”? It’s quite unique, and I highly doubt there could be ANY story to explain this name that is anything less than riveting. Is it because you wore a lot of blazers, and people wanted to call you “Blazer”, but that sounded too much like the Portland Trailblazers?

Nate Fernald: It’s actually spelled “Layser” and I got the nickname because I was always carrying around a bag of Lays potato chips. Originally, people called me “Lays Master” because I was very cruel and domineering when it came to sharing said ships. But the name kept getting shorter and shorter. First they called me “Lays Master” and then “Laysaster” and then “Layster” and then finally it became “Layser.” And yes, I still have all my chips.

 

WM: Who is your favorite member of the Portland Trailblazers? I’d have to say mine was Clyde “The Glide” Drexler. Are the Portland Trailblazers still a team anymore? I think the last time I followed basketball, everyone was really excited about the Raptors playing. No, not the Canadian team, I meant when those real dinosaurs started playing!

NF: I don’t have a favorite Portland Trailblazer, but I do have a favorite Portland Trailblayser, and it is Kyle Chips. The Trailblazers are still a basketball team, but the Portland Trailblaysers are no longer a chip gang.

 

WM: You are one of the founding members of the comedy duo known as “Team Submarine”. In fact, you constitute an entire 50% of the original lineup! How did Team Submarine get started? How did you guys settle upon the name “Team Submarine”? Is it because of all the time you’ve spent with seamen?

NF: I would like to think I’m closer to 65% of the original line-up Team Submarine, only because the original incarnation of Team Submarine was me and a pair of legs that were somehow able to operate without a body attached to them. Eventually the legs stopped functioning (as legs are wont to do!) and then Tyler Wolf-Arms introduced me to Sleaze O’Brien. And we called ourselves Team Submarine because one time we tag-teamed (as in three-way-intercoursed) and submarine.

WM: HAHAHA, DID YOU GET MY JOKE?! When you say “seamen”, it sounds like “semen”, which is a code word for sperms. You have a short film based around spermy’s, don’t you? You even got a cab driver to let someone pretend they were humping a box in the back of his cab. What are some of the differences in how you approach writing or creating a short vs. how you write or create a bit for your live show?

NF: I just got your joke! And I laughed so hard that I came, which somehow added even more depth to it.

When I write/create a bit for stage, it’s usually more straight-forward. Just words and stuff that people can hear and understand. But when I write a bit for film, it’s usually something that involves things you can’t do on stage, like go in a taxi cab or hump a machine. Most bits are meant to be for stage, but sometime you write one where it’s like “This isn’t possible to do on stage!” and then you put it on film.

PS, still laughing/cumming over that seaman joke.

 

WM: You’ve been able to go to quite a few random towns throughout the country because you of and all of your yuk-yuks. Are there any particularly interesting shows that you’ve had that have caused you to think, “HOLY SHIT, I’M HERE BECAUSE OF YUK-YUKS!”? Also, sidenote, did I punctuate that last part correctly?

NF: I have been to places that I would otherwise have no business going to. We perform at a lot of colleges, so sometimes you get sent to places in the middle of nowhere and you’re like “I didn’t even know this place existed!” And then the show is over and you’re like “Hey folks, what is there to do in this town? Wanna have some fun!” and they’re all like “Go to bed, dude.” And then I got to Pizza Hut.

Sidenote – here’s what I say about punctuation: I got what you were saying, and if the reader GETS IT, then you MUST have done it right. Hey, tell me if this punctuation makes sense:

8===D

 

WM: You have Team Submarine, but you also seem to spend a lot of time blogging some of your funny thoughts, as well as posting funny yuk-yuks on your Twitter. How much time do you spend each day trying to think of yuk-yuks for these two internet thingies? Are there times where you tweet something and then immediately wished you had saved it for your blog, or vice versa?

NF: I don’t spend too much time thinking about twitter and my blog, because when I’m like “I’M GONNA TWEET/BLOG SOMETHING AWESOME TODAY!” then I end up making something shitty because I’m forcing it. YOU CAN’T FORCE ART (but you can force farts). Whenever a yuk-yuk comes to mind, I’ll tweet it. But if it is longer than 140 characters, I’ll turn it into a picture and post it on my blog (which is mostly pictures).

 

WM: When I contacted you for this interview, you made sure to tell me to include another project you’ve been working on, which is your FartTown website (www.farttown.biz). What the fuck is THAT all about? I mean, it’s a funny name, but am I missing something? Who is this “Boogerman” that you are encouraging folks to contact? Why did I just use the word “folks”?

NF: FartTown.biz is the company that I am founder/CEO/CFO of. It’s a leading Internet brand that will help change the way we communicate. Also, I’m getting business cards made for it. That way, when someone is like “Can I have your card?” instead of being like “Sure, here’s my boring card” I can be like “Here’s this weird thing that will make you think I’m a creep. SEE YA!”

WM: You’ve always been a huge proponent of the physical commodity of music, whether it be CDs or tapes of vinyl. I don’t really share your feelings in the realm of music, but have similar feelings when it comes to DVD or Blu-rays. Consider this my offering of a pedestal for you to rant and rave about how kids these days are ruining music with their MP3′s and iPods.

NF: I’m all for the iPod! I love the iPod. It’s great when you’re on the go. But here’s the thing with digital product – people care about it less. Really! It takes less effort to get, and then just gets lost on your hard drive amongst a bunch of garbage and pictures of boobs. Also (generally) CDs and LPs sound better than mp3s. When I am at home and listening to music, it’s just a much better feeling taking something off the shelf and being like “THIS is what I’m going to listen to!” and then you put it in your player and you listen to it and you look at the cover, and the liner notes, and just have THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE. Otherwise, if I’m on my computer I’ll just be like “Let’s try shuffle! SKIP. SKIP. SKIP. SKIP” and never actually listen to anything.

 

 

But if you’re just a casual listener of music, mp3s are great. I am all for them. But I think people should pay for them, or at least some of them. But that’s a whole ‘nother thing for a whole ‘nother time.

WM: Lastly, is there any shit you’d like to talk on me before we part ways? Any upcoming shows or projects you’d like to promote? Here’s your chance! If you can dream it, you can believe it!

NF: WOLFMAN WORE REALLY BAGGY PANTS WHEN HE WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL.

I guess I’d like to promote all my sites:

www.natefernald.com

www.teamsubmarine.net

www.farttown.biz

www.sleazepizza.com

 

 

Yeah, well, I’m sure Lazer wore some pretty embarrassing things in high school, too! I don’t know, probably corduroy pants or a San Jose Sharks hat or something. That’d be embarrassing! Oh yeah, and I just remembered that the last time we saw one another, Lazer brought up the fact that he tried wearing a blazer for a few months. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure he attempted wearing multiple blazers. Not at the same time, just tried a few different styles. It was very Maroon 5 of him. Please oh please I hope he doesn’t read this and bring up the things I wore in college. Anyways, that was post 400, so here’s to 400 more! Oh Cthulhu, can you imagine another 400 of these? Hopefully I die before that happens.

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Tom from No Trigger [SHITTY INTERVIEW]

February 15, 2012 1 Comment

When I started up with this whole “Shitty Interviews” concept, I really just threw the idea out there to see if anyone wanted to be interviewed. That didn’t work, so I started trying to cash in on friends of mine who have accomplished things in their lives to see if I could suck their souls out a little bit. I think that out of all of my friends, Tom has traveled the furthest and most often. Also, when I am with a stranger who is familiar with “melodic hardcore” or “pop punk” or whatever the fuck you want to call it, the name “No Trigger” seems to be the most recognizable. What I’m trying to say, is a I frequently namedrop Tom and use his band to make myself sound cooler than I really am. And in case you forgot, none of the images featured in this article have ANYTHING to do with Tom, other than I used some words he said and plugged them into Google Image. Enjoy!

 

 

WolfMan: Tom, may I call you Tom? Tom, it’s been six, SIX goddamn years since your band, No Trigger, has released a full length album. What gives?! Was it because you thought the last album, Canyoneer, sucked so bad? I mean, I’m not saying it sucked, I’m just implying you thought it sucked. What other reason could there be?

Tom: You might be exactly right. It may have sucked so bad that we needed to give people 6 years to forget about it and try our hand at album writing again. Hopefully it takes this time.

 

WM: Even though it’s been a few years since you’ve had a full-length release, you did release the two song “Be Honest” EP, and have still been able to tour the world. Clearly No Trigger is a band who can make more of an impact with one album than most bands can make after releasing multiple albums. How has your fanbase evolved since your last album?

T: I think our fanbase was just annoyed that we never put out a follow-up album way back when so when we spit out a 2-song 7” last year, they were just reluctantly willing to take whatever they could get. And we just cleverly milked that into a full-scale Australian and European tour. Hopefully by putting out the new full length we will show that we are not actually assholes.

 

 

WM: Speaking of touring, can we expect No Trigger to be hitting the road for another half-decade to follow the release of the new album Tycoon (in stores Feb. 21st!)?

T: If history is any guide I mean yeah most likely. We are great at touring, just terrible at recording new music in a timely fashion.

 

WM: On your last full-length album, every member of the Spawn Til Die community (including me!) was thanked in the liner notes. Considering that website no longer exists, what can we expect of Tycoon’s liner notes? Have some changes in the genre of the liner notes? Still sticking true to the pop-punk mentality of your liner notes?

T: No Sleep (our label) said “Keep it short fellas, space is money.”, so we didn’t thank anyone besides ourselves.

 

 

WM: I have never, ever understand where the name “No Trigger” came from. I remember seeing the sticker with your band name and a knife all over campus, is that because knives don’t have triggers? Have you guys come up with some new stickers over the past decade? Please say there are!

T: I’m pretty sure I am the one who suggested the name like 12 years ago, but even I don’t know where it came from. We handed merch duties over to our guitarist Jon a while ago, so hopefully he has some slick new designs coming up for people to put on their fridge.

 

WM: Something that most people know about you, if they’ve known you for long enough, is the fact that you’re an Eagle Scout. I went to three Cub Scout meetings when I was in 2nd grade, and it never really stuck. Clearly to obtain Eagle status, it requires a lot of dedication and I would assume it’s a big part of your life and something you’re proud of. Are there skills you’ve learned or obtained in your life as a Scout that you’ve incorporated into your band or songwriting? Are these two parts of your life completely separate and distinct from one another?

T: I think the one thing that carries over from scouting and such are the lyrical and artistic motifs we choose to run with. We have a very outdoorsy vibe with our lyrics and artwork and it’s mainly due to my personal connections to these things, which were enhanced growing up as a Boy Scout (and eventually Eagle Scout). They definitely go hand in hand. It’s crazy you ask because on the new record there is even one song that has part of the Boy Scout Oath in it.

 

 

WM: Speaking of big parts of your life, you’ve also obtained your real estate license, another thing requiring lots of dedication. Are their skills you’ve learned as a real estate agent that you’ve incorporated into your songwriting? Hahaha, okay, now THAT one was a joke. But seriously, you’re a realtor. Have you ever tried to get your fans to buy your album, your shirts, and a house?

T: Ha well, its tough to juggle being a suited-up clean-cut realtor and then also a grimy bandana-wearing front man of a melodic hardcore band, but somehow I’ve been able to strike a balance. The best thing is showing coworkers the videos of us playing live. They never believe that it’s me. As far as clients go, I never mention I am in a band unless they Google my name and ask me about it directly. I have sold houses to a few people in bands, bigger bands, but I wont say who to keep in line with my fiduciary responsibilities, of course.

 

WM: The last time I saw No Trigger perform was at one of the (many) Suicide File reunions at the Worcester Palladium. I remember jumping up on stage and onto your back during one song, and I think I knocked you over. In retrospect, I think I was coming on a little strong in our friendship. Will you accept my apology? It always felt like that’s something Spave would have done. I saw that guy in Northampton and he’s still awful.

T: Apology accepted, sir. But now you owe me another one for making me think about Spanish Dave for the first time in 7 years.

 

 

WM: Lastly, is there any shit you’d like to talk on me? Other than the release of Tycoon, in record stores Feb. 21st, any other plugs you’d like to make? Are you wearing shorts right now?

T: Yes I am wearing a pair of cut off camo shorts that I have had since before No Trigger was a band. And yes, our record comes out very soon on No Sleep Records. Get it!

 

 

Thanks again to Tom for taking the time out of his busy house-selling schedule to answer these questions. Make sure you see No Trigger if they swing through your area, because whether their sound is something you’re not really into or just curious about, they put on a really energetic and fun show. I hope they make their way through my town so I can jump on Tom again, except this time it would probably throw his back out. And don’t forget to pick up “Tycoon” on Feb. 21st at your local record store or local website where you buy music from!

 
No Trigger on No Sleep Records
No Trigger Merch
No Trigger Facebook

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Ti West talks The Innkeepers, The House of the Devil, and found footage [INTERVIEW]

February 9, 2012 2 Comments

I think everyone who is a frequent visitor to my site knows I’m a huge fan of The House of the Devil, so I was thrilled to find out that not only was it being shown on 35mm on the big screen in a double feature with Ti West’s newest film, The Innkeepers, but also that Mr. West would be there in person. This would be my second time watching The Innkeepers, and even though I enjoyed it the first time on a small screen, I caught new details on this viewing that made me enjoy it even more. One scene involved Sara Paxton’s character gathering up all of her clothes and shoving them into a bag, when I have sworn I saw a Bad Brains shirt crumpled up in there. I ignored it, thinking it could have been ANY shirt, until I noticed in the credits, under the “Special Thanks” section, sure enough I saw “BAD BRAINS”. You’re telling me this guy makes great movies and likes hardcore? When I asked him about it, Ti also mentioned there was a Descendants shirt in there somewhere too. Maybe I’ll catch that on the third viewing.

 

 

WolfMan: With both The Innkeepers and The House of the Devil, you have these strong female characters that really have to carry the weight of the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed those characters and the way they broke the conventions of most female leads, especially Jocelin Donahue who felt like Mia Farrow in “Rosemary’s Baby”. While you were writing those characters, did you intentionally try to break those molds or were you just writing characters that happened to be female?

Ti West: It’s a little bit of both. I mean, I wrote movies that had female leads trying to do that, but the movies that I’ve written about guys don’t get made. So the fact that I’ve made two in a row and there seems to be this kind of feminist angle, that is an accident. It’s there, I guess, in the work to some degree but I’ve got movies about dudes that just for some reason don’t get made. In the case of The House of the Devil, it was a babysitting movie and would be a tough sell if it were a guy. I try to just write hopefully three-dimensional characters and if it’s about a guy or a girl, it doesn’t really make any difference, I just try to make them good. It’s just I’ve made two in a row and the third one’s going to be about a woman in space and it’s going to be this weird trilogy.

 

WM: From the beginning of The House of the Devil, I knew that it took place in New England. Did you intentionally shoot it in New England because there was something about that part of the country or was it just happenstance that you shot it there?

TW: Filmmaking was on sale in Connecticut so there was a big tax incentive to go there. I wanted I wanted to shoot it in Pennsylvania and then we found out it was on sale in Connecticut. I wasn’t sure if we’d find a place we wanted. It’s funny, I didn’t want to use that house at all and now I can’t imagine it not being that house. So it’s one of those things … financially that’s why we shot there and we just scoured the state looking for a place.

 

 

WM: When The House of the Devil came out, you also had that limited edition clamshell VHS. DVDs left, Blu-rays are gonna leave, do you think there’s something about VHS that might hold the test of time as some sort of collector’s item or was that just a fun novelty thing for that movie?

TW: I think it ties into that movie … if we did one for this movie (The Innkeepers), it wouldn’t make any sense. So I think it’s kind of a one-off, where we had the opportunity to make that. … I think it’ll be a cool collector’s item for anyone who has nostalgia for it. It’s like people (who say) “Oh it’s like records”…it’s not really like records, it’s like 8-tracks. It’s not a particularly good format, we just have a nostalgia to it, whereas records, actually you could make the argument that they sound better or the experience of putting on a record and flipping it over and doing those things is valuable. It’s a cool collector’s thing. I’m fine with VHS being like baseball cards.

 

WM: One of my favorite moments of The Innkeepers was the scene where Claire takes the trash out. I read in an interview that you said that was your favorite thing that you’ve ever shot. Did you know it was going to turn out so well going into that scene? Did you know “This is going to end up being my favorite thing” or was it just that between Sara (Paxton), the direction, the writing, what was it that made it your favorite scene?

TW: It was a scene that kind of meant something to me because I thought it would be funny, but it wasn’t until she going (imitates groaning sounds) and not getting it in and stuff was pouring out exactly … it’s just one of those things that everything lined up perfectly, so no. It was when the execution was done it was like the high-five kind of moment.

 

Image from the upcoming horror anthology “V/H/S”

 

WM: Lastly, you kind of touched upon it earlier (during an onstage Q & A following The Innkeepers), just found footage movies and how sick of found footage movies everybody kind of is, that with V/H/S (of which he wrote/produced/directed a segment in), it’s been described as a found footage movie for people who don’t like found footage movies. What is it that you find so frustrating about those types of movies and why is V/H/S going to be any different?

TW: I don’t have a problem with found footage movies, I have a problem with bad found footage movies. I don’t have a problem with Blair Witch, I don’t have a problem with Paranormal Activity, those movies make sense to me, they are what they are … whereas there’s all these ripoffs of them. It sort of peaked with that “Devil Inside” movie, a movie that I haven’t seen and I have no reason to dislike it, but everyone else seems to hate it. I feel like that was just a scam, it was like a three-card monte scam … when I see a trailer that comes out of nowhere that’s a found footage, exorcism thing, I’m like “I don’t know if I trust this”, but everyone else kind of just fell for it and I feel like that’s the gullible nature of audiences that just got duped on that one. The thing with V/H/S is that none of us are particularly psyched on found footage but there’s a reason for the found footage, it’s not just because that’s popular so we went and made something that way to sell out with. All of them are very clever uses of the found footage. But I think found footage is fine because it’s the age that we live in, everyone has cameras on their phone and are making movies on YouTube, everyone’s accustomed to that so it is an aesthetic that has to stick around, it’s not gonna go away. It would just be nice if it was used, not less often, but if there was just more of a reason to use it.

 

And on the subject of found footage, this conversation took place on the day that “Chronicle” opened, I asked if he was running out to see it, and he joked about how all the trailer consists of is people throwing things, even though everyone’s been saying it’s great. Between hearing his Q & A and speaking to him personally, I understand more and more that he is a filmmaker first, horror movie maker second. I have praised his work for a few years as someone who is helping to pave the way for the next generation of horror movie makers, and only now am I realizing that one doesn’t need to solely do horror movies to still be able to make great horror movies. The Innkeepers relies just as much on horror elements as much as a sitcom likes Parks and Recreation relies on the business of running that department of the government. The horror elements of two people working in a “haunted” hotel help move the story in one direction, but it’s the characters and their interactions that make it so enjoyable. West’s next movie, called “Side Effects”, will star Liv Tyler and is a science fiction movie set in space. I’m sure that will still appease the horror fans, but will venture into a direction. I think the next genre should be the vampire genre. Except instead of making it about the vampires, it’s a movie about some vampire killers…ones that are without fear. Yeah, I think he’d do a great job making a movie about fearless vampire killers…if you got that joke, give yourself five bonus points and then stagedive off your desk.

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Pat Healy talks The Innkeepers, ghosts, and questioning authority [INTERVIEW]

February 7, 2012 4 Comments

Considering my fandom for the work of Ti West, when I saw who he had cast in his latest film, The Innkeepers, I had complete trust over who he had picked. I had seen Sara Paxton in a few other horror movies, but the name “Pat Healy” didn’t trigger anything for me. I looked at what else he had been in, and even though he was in a few movies I really love, like Magnolia and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, I was still having difficulty placing him. I started to follow him on Twitter, and then saw all of these tweets about a movie he was in that had just debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. Specifically, Mr. Healy was retweeting lots of responses about the crowd during the Q & A after it, and lots of those messages were from people who were cranky. Why were there so many angry people during a Q & A? What could this movie be about that made people so angry? That film, which is called “Compliance”, involves Healy making a prank call to a fast food restaurant (can those be called restaurants?) where he pretends to be a police officer. His character is then able to convince other employees to interrogate someone accused of “stealing”, all over the phone. Thanks to twitter, I went from knowing little about this guy to knowing quite a bit about the movies he was involved in, as well as his sense of humor. When I found out he was going to be at a screening of The Innkeepers, I sent him a tweet to ask him if he could chat for a few minutes. I was surprised to see him respond, but figured that was just his way of being polite. After all, he’s a busy guy who I’m sure has a lot going on. When I introduced myself, I was taken aback by the fact that he stepped away from a group of friends just to speak with me, a stranger, about his work. Despite his, I’ll say “eccentric”, sense of humor, he was very welcoming and quite humble, which made speaking with him all that much easier.

WolfMan: During the movie, before the movie, did you believe in ghosts? Do you believe in ghosts? You kind of said up on stage (during a Q & A after The Innkeepers) that you didn’t feel like you were making a “ghost movie”, but considering everything I’ve been hearing about this hotel for so long, did anything weird happen to you that kind of helped you feel the character out a little bit more?

Pat Healy: I feel very much like the character in the movie (Luke) … I think of it as an Agnostic … in terms of God and ghosts and spirits and extraterrestrials and things. I always feel like there’s a psychological or emotional explanation for all of those things that can be figured out if you just stop and think about them. I’m like Ti (West), I don’t immediately jump to ghosts, sort of like the character in the movie. Without spoiling things too much, we have the feeling that he believes in that but in actuality he most likely believes in it because he has sort of an unrequited love for the other character that Sara (Paxton) plays. That could be like me too. I believe in certain things because I believe in people and I want to believe what they believe. I don’t have those kinds of experiences. I know plenty of my friends, who have, and I have no reason to doubt the veracity of their claims. I was told when I came there, for example, that I would have really strange dreams, and then of course the first night I was there, I had really strange dreams, but I think it was because everyone told me I was going to have strange dreams, and I was tired. I had flown from L.A. to Connecticut, but after that, really not anything. The place is strange, it’s constructed strange. After long days of shooting, especially if you’ve had a few beers or something, the walls start to feel a little weird, along with the carpet on the floor.

WM: I enjoyed how right from the beginning, your character really just exuded this affection for Claire. There weren’t any stereotypical longing glances or any awkward physical contact, you just knew it. You said it was heartbreaking to film a scene where you confess your love, and it was heartbreaking as a viewer knowing you were gonna say all this stuff, she’s not going to feel the same. How challenging did you find it to get in that mindset and know that there wasn’t going to be an easy way out by using those more conventional devices?

PH: I’m kind of like Ti in that way, in that I don’t want to do things the way that they’ve been done. There’s so many conventions in filmmaking, and in acting as well. You see a lot of actors now that are sort of carbon copies of imitations of other things that you’ve seen. Things are written that way too. I’m not interested in that. I studied acting most of my life and, without sounding pretentious, I’m interested in the truth,  so I think more about how I might have felt or how I have felt being in situations like that, or how I have felt being on the other side of situations like that where I’ve been the one who’s been breaking somebody’s heart. I’ve been crushed many times, too. I looked for those things and I looked for those behaviors to make that manifest. I don’t want to indicate to the audience, “This is that”. It’s already in the writing, I just play it as it is and it comes out naturally and funny and interesting because it feels true. That’s what interests me and interests Ti, too.

WM: With this movie, it’s based on “real” events and real people and this real hotel and these actual weird experiences. Your character was even based on an actual employee who had his own amateur ghost hunting website. Did you try to contact that employee? What kind of research did you do to figure out what an amateur ghost hunter would do in these situations?

PH: He’s there, he works there. His name is Luke, he works the night shift at the desk. They knew him from shooting House of the Devil, which I didn’t work on, so I didn’t know him. I didn’t actually meet him until I went to go shoot the film. I did see his website and those kinds of things and I’ve seen a lot of those ghost hunters shows where, as Ti will tell you, they’ve been on for 10 years and no one’s found a thing.

WM: I caught this time where you bump into the light chain and it startles you and you say “Ugh, spiderwebs,” which is something that happens all the time, that they just get startled by spiderwebs.

PH: Yeah, and that’s actually something that really happened, it was dark in there and I bumped into the light chain and thought it was a spiderweb.

 

 

WM: And going along with the “based on true events”, you were just at Sundance with your new film Compliance. While you were making that movie, which was based on true events, did you have any idea the kind of reaction you would get? The polarizing of people commending it, others condemning it, did you know that’s what the reaction was going to be while making the movie?

PH: I certainly knew that it was, first reading the script, that it was going to be a very challenging and difficult movie for people. The reaction was so strong, both positively and negatively, but mostly positive. Really the super-outraged people were few and they just happened to be louder than everyone else. It’s a difficult, challenging film. I knew we were making something really great. I was a little bit shell-shocked by the reaction, it’s strange to be in the middle of it. I almost brought it up in there (the Q & A for The Innkeepers) because it’s the polar opposite of this movie, where you sit in the audience and everyone has this great release of screaming and laughing. That’s a movie that tightens a knot in your stomach and you want to get out of your seat and leave but you can’t turn away from it. I like both kinds of experiences, I like doing both, but I’m both surprised and kind of elated that it’s gotten that kind of reaction. I think it’s an important movie about an important thing and I think that when the dust settles, people will realize that their reaction to the film, whether they liked it or not, was provoked by something that the film brings up either emotionally or intellectually. It’s something that we all should think about and it’s bothersome because we have to address it within ourselves so I think that’s what’s going on. I don’t want to speak for everyone but I think that as we see it play more and it comes out and is released, I hope, and this is probably (director/writer) Craig Zobel’s hope too, that it ignites some sort of debate. Not just about the movie but about the subject itself.

WM: That you don’t necessarily leave thinking “I liked it” or “I didn’t like it” or “I liked this” or “I didn’t like that”, but the concepts that are brought about in the movie, people just have a discussion about them.

PH: We’re in a place right now in America where we’re very much just bowing to authority and being told that we’re in a certain place financially and we’re in  a certain place politically, and we find that not to be true a lot and there’s a lot of people in power keeping us in positions. Why do we believe them and why do we go along with it, I think it’s really the right movie at the right time; I don’t like to be a politician or get up on my soapbox about it. It wasn’t that I felt that so much in making it, I just thought we were making a great story, but in seeing it with an audience, you really see it’s going to be a very hot button movie and bring up a lot of those issues.

 

Pat Healy spoke on stage about how many movies he had seen at the Music Box Theatre (where the screening was held) and how he had a job in a theater growing up. Not just any theater, mind you, but a theater that was just a short commute into the suburbs from the theater we were in. Even if he didn’t say much while up on stage, he made mention of how he had grown up seeing movies there and seeing people speak, and how thrilled he was to now be up on stage in that capacity. Not only was the movie enjoyable, but to see that delight on his face was an enjoyable experience as well. I could only hope to one day go to my hometown and stand in front of a full theater and talk about a movie I was in. Wait…the theater in my hometown is only 130 people. THAT’S NOTHING! I speak to thousands of people every single day at work. I take back that whole “I could only hope…” thing, because I think that would be a step in the wrong direction.

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Mr. M of Last Night I Dreamt of Monsters [SHITTY INTERVIEW]

January 23, 2012 Leave a comment

When I thought of starting up this segment of the blog, I knew the best way to call attention to it. I posted it on Twitter, asking for submissions, offering people the exciting opportunity to get involved in this endeavor. After that call, someone immediately answered that call with joyful exuberance. That man was Mr. M. Despite me not knowing who he was, and presumably him not really knowing who I was, we both embarked on a magical journey. The following interview is the result of that journey. I feel it exemplifies the spirit of what my Shitty Interviews really aim to be: an entertaining interview with someone who I don’t have good questions for. I hope you all enjoy it.

 

 

The Wolfman: Mr. M, do you mind if I call you Mr. M? You make up half of the musical dynamo known as “Last Night I Dreamt Of Monsters”. Are you named after that movie “Monster” starring Charlize Theron? Is Charlize Theron the other half of your group?

Mr.M: Charlize Theron? It isn’t safe to be seen with someone known to work with the Monicans! Besides, what’s up with that friend of hers with hands where her feet should be? That’s just too damn much. Slade Templeton of Fidget House act Defunct! makes up the other half of ‘Monsters. I prefer to work with people who still have feet for feet and aren’t convicted serial killers. Besides, Slade is a top notch, professional DJ. Quite literally “World Class.”

 

WM: Okay, you caught me, I was just being silly. I know you got your name from the movie, dare I say film, “Little Monsters” starring Howie Mandel. Would you say your sound is more “Deal or No Deal” Howie or more “Walk Like A Man” Howie?

M: I’d say it’s more “Bobby’s World” Howie. Very animated, brightly colored and wishes to hell it could be more like “Rugrats.” “Deal or No Deal” Howie looks ready to be shot out of a cannon. Wonder if we could book that as a side act. Hmm…

 

 

WM: Last Night I Dreamt Of Monsters consists of two members, thus making you guys a “duo”. Did you know that “duo” means “two” in a variety of languages, including English? This begs the question: have you ever seen “Hot Shots: Part Deux”? Deux means “two” in one of those Europe languages.

M: I have. The best part’s the one with Charlie Sheen in it.

 

WM: While checking out your page on Soundcloud (www.soundcloud.com/lastnightsmonsters), I couldn’t help but notice your biography contained words like “horror”, “terror”, and “nightmares”. However, I listened to your music and didn’t experience horror, terror, nor nightmares! Just dancing sensations! Am I doing something incorrectly?

M: Absolutely not. Horror, terror and nightmares are withdraw symptoms of our incredible dancing sensations. I’m sure you’ll experience them soon enough. Buy our EPs (and the album later this year) and you’ll be just fine.

 

 

WM: When I had asked you for some more information on your music, I got a shit ton of links, including one that took me to your YouTube page (www.youtube.com/mrmonstersmonster). Do you have a favorite funny internet video? If not, I recommend checking out that one where a kid opens up a Nintendo 64 and freaks the fuck out. It’s funny because no one gives a shit about Nintendo 64 anymore.

M: Nin-ten-do? How do you even pronounce that? I think you’re making that up. I’m a big “David After Dentist” fan. That and people falling down stripper poles.

 

WM: Okay, so I just clicked on your YouTube page and noticed two things with your video for “Discobot”. First thing: the first ten seconds hurt my eyes and made me take a nap. Second thing: you’re on a Canadian record label (Audio Planet Recordings)…WHAT THE FUCK?! Have I been conversing with a covert Canuck this whole time? If not, how did you get involved with a Canadian label if you’re from the good ole U S of A?

M: Nope. Not Canadian at all. Unless the people reading this are European, then yes. Yes we ARE Canadian. PLEASE don’t hurt us! The Canadian label (Audio Planet Recordings) is actually one of many that we’ve had the pleasure of working with (I almost said “releasing on” but that would’ve just GIVEN it to you.(haha… give it to you)) We’ve also worked with labels from the UK, Denmark and America. We had a brief fling with an Italian label once, but we’ve apologized for that enough already.

 

 

WM: You claim to be the vocalist of the duo, yet I heard not one single lyric that sounds ANYTHING like Nickelback. how can you claim to be a vocalist without any Nickelback-esque sounds? Are you guys robots? Wait, were you the robots from the video?! WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!

M: Yes. We are robots. Sent here to cleanse humanity of the scourge that is Nickelback… and to dominate and enslave you of course.

 

 

WM: Other than robots, slightly smaller robots, and Howie Mandel, who are some of your influences? This can be answered as either creative influences, lifestyle influences, religious influences, or even influenza influences.

M: Horror movies. Bloody, gory, grit your teeth, mother-in-law in the shower kinda scary stuff. We also like long walks on the beach, pleasant conversations on a rainy day and disco music. We have too many incredibly talented friends to be able to break down our influences enough to fit here. Hint to readers: take a look at who we follow on SoundCloud to get a good idea of what influences us.(www.soundcloud.com/lastnightsmonsters)

 

WM: Other than robots, slightly smaller robots, and Howie Mandel, what kind of fans are you looking to attract? I was originally planning on asking what kind of fans make up your fanbase, but you haven’t even released a full-length album yet! Not that I’m doubting you, potential future robot overlords, but I’m certainly hopeful that this year will be the year of Last Night I Dreamt Of Robots and you’ll be huge (and you’ll spare me from the slavery that all my homo sapien brothers are doomed to carry out.)

M: We want EVERYONE! We dish the disco with a heavy helping of zombies, a side of serial killers and a furry-booted, hula hoop girl to wash it all down with. We’re the Disco a guy doesn’t have to feel guilty about. And we’re writing our first full length album now to prove just that.

As for you, Wolfman, I suppose we can consider putting you on the “No Slavery” list. So far we only plan to spare, Bill Murray, Denzel Washington (oh, Denzel!) and that David After Dentist kid – to be kept heavily sedated for everyone’s amusement, of course. Although… that might actually make the David kid a bit of a slave. Hmm… whatever.

 

 

WM: Lastly, is there any shit you’d like to talk on me for a second? Feel free to do so now! Also feel free to plug any tour dates, album release dates, date dates, those kinds of things.

M: Shit talk you? You’ve been a very pleasant wolf-faced man of a beast! We really appreciate your interest. Besides, I couldn’t think of anything bad to say of you. Especially not the fact that you often have incredibly funny tweets that I’m not allowed to re-tweet due to the lock on your account. It isn’t even slightly frustrating.

We have a number of EPs and incredibly well made remixes for sale right now. Just search for “Last Night I Dreamt of Monsters” on your favorite digital music download site (try beatport.com for highest quality.) The aforementioned song “Discobot,” on the EP “Discobot” will hit your favorite online music store March 15th. And, as I previously mentioned, we’re currently working on our first full length album to tentatively be released in late Spring/ early Summer of this year, with some serious touring to support it. So… we can crash at your place, right?

 

 

I’d like to thank Mr. M once again for taking part in this spiritual quest, especially because he even formatted all of the response correctly! All I had to do was copy and paste! The pictures were my idea. All mine! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

 

Check out Last Night I Dreamt of Monsters on:

Facebook

Soundcloud

YouTube

Twitter

Official Site

Filed under Inane Bullshit, Interviews Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Jonny B0n0rz of Galambis Records [SHITTY INTERVIEW]

January 18, 2012 6 Comments

For the first installment of my Shitty Interviews, I thought it would be fun to interview someone I’ve been friends with for a long time. Since my friends weren’t available, I talked to this guy instead. Hahahaha, JUST KIDDING, BUDDY! Anyways, he’s been a friend of mine for quite a few years and runs his own record label so I thought it’d be fun to see what he has to say. As for the name “Jonny B0n0rz”, it ties back into some story I can’t really remember involving someone attempting to say “sweet boners” on the internet, but accidentally saying “sweet bonorz”. A few people thought this was hilarious, and I even made him a shirt with the statement “SWEET B0N0RZ” on it. I replaced the O’s with 0′s because of something internet related and–goddammit, I’m an idiot. Just read the interview. I’d also like to say that all images featured in the “Shitty Interviews” segment will just consist of me taking phrases from the response and plugging them into Google search. Very helpful!

The Wolfman: Jonny B0n0rz, can I call you Jonny B0n0rz? Jonny B0n0rz, before we go ANY further into this interview, could you please inform our wonderful readers of your memory of the first time we met? Well, technically, it’s the ONLY time we met, but you know what I mean!

Jonny B0n0rz: So… back in the day… in the early 2000s (feel OLD, people older than me), the Wolfman and I attended college together at a little place called the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Massachusetts. I came to school from eastern Mass, away from my family, friends, and everything that I knew and was comfortable with. The Wolfman, on the other hand, was mere minutes from his childhood home and his friends from high school and even before that. As a straight edge freshmen at a party school who was obsessed with basketball and hardcore, I found it a bit hard to fit in. I made friends, but not many of them had much in common with me and I found myself going home a lot. Eventually, I mustered up the courage to try and talk to some people who looked like they might be my friends (i.e. people wearing hardcore/punk band t-shirts/patches/buttons/etc.). Over the span of 24 hours I had two such brave encounters. The first one was a hefty dude with mutton chops and a messenger bag with BANE and STRAIGHT EDGE patches on it. I approached him to inquire about an upcoming BANE show and he was kind of a dick and I was bummed. The next day, a friend of mine and I ate lunch, and I found myself sitting across the table from one of the hardcore-band-t-shirt-guys I had seen around campus pretty frequently. He was the palest motherfucker I’d ever seen and had dyed black hair. He was wearing some kind of army hat I think (so cool at that point) and an American Nightmare windbreaker. A little nervous, but also excited, I tried to start a conversation by attempting to reference a recent story in hardcore – that being the changing of the name of American Nightmare to American Nothing and then to Give Up the Ghost… I asked him “Oh, so you like Give Up the Ghost?” I had thought it was a great first impression – he would know that I followed what was going on in the scene – as the band had literally JUST changed their name within the previous day or two. This skinny bastard looked at me, and in a snotty shit-head voice said “IF BY THAT YOU MEAN AMERICAN NIGHTMARE THAN YES.” I decided that this kid was a total douchebag and that I would never find friends at UMass. As months progressed, we began chatting on AOL Instant Messenger (my screen name was xPutSomeMusicOnx) and eventually became friends. He opened a doorway for me to a vast network of friends, many of whom I am still close with to this day. But my first impression – trendy douche asshole.

WM: Hahaha, that was classic (editorial note, I wrote down “hahaha” before actually reading his response, so I apologize if it wasn’t told in a funny way). This means we’ve known each other close to ten years, and the thing that brought us together was music. Mostly it was shitty metalcore, but it was still technically music. What are some bands that you still listen to from that simpler time, no matter how embarrassing it is to admit? What are some newer bands that are cool that you want to brag about listening to because I have probably never heard of?

JB: Over the past couple of months I’ve been trying to listen to every CD I own – which is difficult since I ride my bike to work a good percentage of the time, and that’s usually the only time I listen to CDs. I cleared out my CD collection maybe 5 years ago and the following (embarrassing - but not all 100%) metalcore CDs made the cut: Embrace Today – Soldiers, Embrace Today – FxYxIxE, Eighteen Visions – Until the Ink Dries, Folly – Insanity Later, Half of my Zao CDs (there were a lot), Comeback Kid – Turn It Around (still awesome), With Honor – EP & Heart Means Everything. I’m sure there are more – I’m not actually looking at my CDs right now.

Top things I’ve been listening to lately: The Pist, Soul Control, The Weatherthans, The Stoned Ambassadors, No Trigger, Armalite

WM: Since we’ve met, we’ve both gotten involved in slightly different musical “scenes”. You took your love of music to the point of starting your own label, Galambis Records, and I just started listening to a lot of stoner metal. I was going to ask what caused you to start the label, but then I saw that your first release was your own band and realized you had to release it because no one else wanted to. This takes us to my next question: What release are you most proud of, and why the fuck is it called “Galambis Records”?

JB: Rory named it – it’s a combination of my last name and former Lakers forward Kurt Rambis’ last name. Kevin McHale from the Celtics was always my favorite player, and Rambis was his basketball nemesis. I don’t really know why Rory combined the names, I think he just wanted to draw the goofy glasses and moustache.

I feel proud of different releases in different ways. I’m proud to have released the Relics LP because I think it’s really good and I was able to join them on tour which was a real life highlight for me. I’m proud to have released the Wild Wild West Compilation cassette because it took the most organizing and work of anything I’ve done. Coordinating over a dozen bands to get songs, lyrics, artwork, etc. can be a real hassle, but I made it happen and went through a run of 500 cassettes, sending them all over the world.

Being able to put things together by hand, gluing, labeling, stamping, screen-printing, is a really rewarding process when you get the final product. I feel like my own bands have a special place for me because I feel like I put so much of myself into them between writing, recording, designing, producing, and distributing the music in collaboration with my friends.

WM: Again, without having read your response I’d like to point out that at one point in my life I thought it was funny to insert the word “gay” into your last name. I then learned that people were doing this to you as far back as high school, which was when you were friends with Rory. How’s Rory doing? That guy’s awesome!

JB: Working at a middle school, I’m pretty familiar with using gay as a heterosexist slur, for sure, and became more aware of it and involved in being an active ally to the LGBT community later on in high school.

Rory is totally awesome. I saw him on his birthday in September and on Christmas Eve. He likes to sing, play guitar, be funny, animate, watch basketball, and ride his bike. What a dude.

WM: Just wanted to remind our readers that Rory was in a band with Jonny B0n0rz so it wasn’t completely off-topic. And speaking of bands, are there any projects you’re currently working on? Specifically, are there any bands that will last long enough for one demo tape, three shirts, two live shows, and ultimately breaking up because no one has the time but you?

JB: No one has time including me.  :(   My friend Kevin and I have talked about doing something – and there have been conversations about recording a rap album with me on the mic. Wouldn’t that be awesome? ha ha

 

WM: In addition to be a record label mogul, much like Sean “P. Diddy Puff Daddy” Combs, you have a blog about bikes (www.bikefromthefalls.blogspot.com). I was led to believe that only trendy douchebag idiots rode bikes, is there any truth to this rumor? I contacted the guys at Mythbusters about that myth but they haven’t gotten back to me.

JB: I mean, I’d say I am all for anyone riding bikes, even if they are trendy douchebags. I think that bikes are really important and one of the greatest human inventions. I can get myself from one place to another fairly quickly, without wasting resources, without producing pollution (other than tons of farts – but they help me go faster), and also help myself stay healthy and physically fit without having to pay for a gym membership. Considering how ridiculous the obesity rates in America are and the number of preventable illnesses that are running rampant, any activity that helps keep your weight down is CRUCIAL.

WM: The last email you sent to me, which contained links to your various projects, told me it was sent from your iPad. Is it true that this iPad was given to you by your place of employment? And you mostly spend your time on it looking up videos from hardcore shows? Oh! And did you ever find the point in that HOAX video when the fan broke?

JB: Yes, I do have an iPad for work. I have been known to use it to watch hardcore videos and play NBA Jam. No, I never re-watched the Hoax video, did you?

WM: Speaking of crucial mosh moves, is it possible that you could type up some sort of instructions of one of your famous mosh moves? Or even just list what you named some of these moves? For the record, Jonny B0n0rz and I used to practice these moves while listening to a boom box in the lobby of his dorm while everyone mocked us.

JB: We did used to practice mosh moves in case we went to a Bury Your Dead or Love is Red show in the Webster dorm 5th floor student lounge, ha ha. Well, that’s where we would practice, not where the shows were. Bury Your Dead did play Van Meter and ruin having shows at UMass for like 5 years though. One move was a cartwheel, direction reversal, followed by a spin kick. I have some photos of you, me, and Nate Fernald moshing in that room somewhere. Also, there was some sort of tandem over the back / back to back move, that may or may not have been executed at a Taking Back Sunday show at the Worcester Palladium circa 2001. That paragraph is really painful to read.

 

WM: Lastly, is there any shit you’d like to talk on me? Any projects you’d like to promote or messages you’d like to pass along? It’s time to “step up to get your rep up”, in the words of Scott Vogel.

JB: I’d say that if you’re interested in bike commuting, my blog might interest you, follow it! If you like music, download most of the releases of the Galambis Records website for free.99. (that’s free, not 99 cents). Also, there are some things you can still buy up there too, so if you like something, you can buy it and support a d.I.y. Massachusetts punk/hardcore label.

Enough shit has been talked. Live life, stay positive, be nice. xxx

 

Thanks again, Jon! Make sure you guys check out his record label, his bike about blogging, and that third link will open up a song from one of his current projects.

Galambis Records
Bike from the Falls
MP3!

Filed under Inane Bullshit, Interviews Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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