1 - Tell us how your project(s) were started.
The band is called
BLATZ, and we were 6 individuals crammed into a 2 year band of chaos fun and
subversion from 1989 to early 1992.
I've been in other bands like THE GR'UPS and THE CRIMINALS, and my current band
is THE FRISK (we're on another local label called Adeline Records). BLATZ started
as a weird one-off project for a 924 Gilman Street Holiday show, and the 2 main
people, Eggplant and Joey, started the band for real the following summer in
1989. Since both of them were constant patrons/volunteers at Gilman Street here
in Berkeley, they convinced Gilman soundman Marshal Stax to join as their bassist.
That's where I came in, a recent transplant from the East Coast and fresh-faced
Gilman regular and muck-stirrer. Immediately upon arriving in Berkeley, I started
an off-beat misanthropic fanzine called "Berkeley Sucks." The 3 instruments
were practicing one night in the Gilman office and I walked in, they asked me
if I wanted to sing for BLATZ, we played some songs with lyrics I'd written
for another band, and we were ready to create chaos and punk music (usually
in that order, much to the chagrin of audience members!). After a few insane
shows, we decided we wanted a woman in our band since we were all guys and it
seemed like it would add a new dimension to the band. Through basically a miscommunication
we asked 2 different women, Anna and Annie, to join. Both took to BLATZ like
ducks to water. Since all six of us were so different, we were more like 6 roomates
in a 6-way relationship, rather than 6 like-minded bandmates in a 6-way relationship.
That really added to the diversity and the various views and actions of all
of us on-stage and in the studio.
2 - What does music, in it's entirety, mean to you?
I know you want
long-winded responses, but that's a 50 page answer you'd get, and that'd be
too boring for anyone (even me) to slog through. Here's a short and incomplete
answer instead.
I love music, I live and breathe music, as do all of my close friends. I find
it difficult to personally relate to people who don't at least really like music.
Frankly, the only people I relate to who don't necessarily really like music
are blood relatives who I don't have a choice about accepting and loving.
Seeing bands is like being an addict trying to relive that first shot of heroin.
The hope and expectation of musical power and bliss, that's why I see bands
live and avidly follow them on record.
Great music and great lyrics (unfortunately not always in the same song) give
me internal power, confidence, happiness, and satisfaction. Such greatness can
also piss me off, rile me up (against the enemy, whomever s/he may be), and
otherwise energize me. At the other side of the spectrum, it can comfort and
subdue me, bring me down from screwed up situations and restore me to an even
keel. It also serves as a mental bookmark for specific memories and specific
eras in my life; an aural tattoo.
3 - What does art, in it's entirety, mean to you?
Again, a 50 page
answer subsumed in the interest of readability. I'm a lapsed art student.
In my short college career my political utopianism and the wonders of hallucinogenics
gave me an art movement my friends and I called "Liber-8". Liber-8
basically states that everything is art, and that no piece of "art"
is finite- it can be re-worked and altered into another piece of art, forever
and ever. It also re-states my current belief that if something is designed,
it is art. Sure a table design may be utilitarian and boring and mass-produced,
but it is still designed by someone and is therefore a product of creativity
and therefore "art" at some level.
Liber-8 also dovetails into some of my core personal beliefs ("Change is
the only constant" "Nothing is just black or white, including this
belief" [which indicates that sometimes things ARE just black or white])
and resulted at the time in some fractured alterations of other people's paintings
as well as a number of original paintings and found assemblages.
Oh yeah, and the whole theory also held that there's no way to put a price on
creativity from the heart, so art for cash is more or less an invalid method
for artists to interact with their patrons.
A lot of my current thinking about capital-"A" Art is contained in
the 2 paragraphs above. Since then (which was 15 years ago and pre-dated BLATZ)
my ideas and impressions of art have changed only slightly.
One thing that has changed dramatically is my feelings about cash and creativity.
To me, it's clearly better for an artist (that includes bands, painters, photographers,
designers, writers, any specifically creative endeavor) to survive in our wacked-out
capitalist society from his or her art, rather than have to toil for McDonalds
or a major corporation and squeeze his/her art into rare spare time. It took
a dose of real life to realize that if any one can survive off of their creative
output in an ethical manner, then they've acheived a great thing and should
be encouraged. Note the "ethical manner" caveat!
To me, the very existance of a piece of art is a political and social statement,
so I disagree with a lot of people who say that only overtly political art has
value. Creativity, in any form, should be encouraged and patronized in the free
market capitalist hell we exist in.
As I mentioned, Liber-8 has a lot of utopian urges that really originated from
my involvement in the Philadelphia anarcho-squatting scene in the late 1980's.
Specifically, we were all enamored of the best lil' utopian vision I've ever
read, "bolo'bolo"- a Semiotexte book that I believe is still in print.
Wonderful stuff, and the author nailed a ton of details simply and fairly.
I love a lot of modern art, whether or not I "get" it. I can appreciate
a Jeff Koons stainless steel inflatable bunny rabbit for its looks and its lines
and not give a hoot about its statement about consumer society and situationism.
At the same time, I can appreciate a piece of art that makes a clear theoretical,
political, or social statement.
I grew up devouring comic books as well- especially Batman and war comics
like Our Fighting Forces and Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos
- and stopped collecting them when I moved out of my mom's house and had to
do things like pay rent!
Some of my favorite "representational artists" are Salvador Dali,
Roy Lichenstein, Pieter Brueghel, Vaughn Bode, Brian Bolland (2000 A.D.,
Judge Dredd), John Severin (EC Comics and DC Comic artist), George Seurat.
I always appreciate stark realism as opposed to the more impressionisticpaiters,
though there's exceptions, especially when there's interesting techniques or
broad, bold swaths of paint involved.
4 - Who is your favorite author, and why?
There's a lot of authors I absolutely love, like George Orwell, Gerry Reith, Clive Barker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Homer, the myriad anonymous writers behind Greek mythology, Charles Bukowski, Elmore Leonard, Bob Black, and Tom Clancy, but my absolute favorite is Edgar Allen Poe. Poe's innovation, imagery, and dark outlook on life always refreshes me, and his life story is fascinating. I've read every short story he's written at least half-a-dozen times, even the ones I'm not completely astounded by. I think my all time favorites are Hop-Frog and The Cask of Amontillado. I've been trying to write a song version of the latter for years!
5 - As your best friend, describe yourself.
What is this, a
job interview?
Honest, diplomatic, hard-working, leftist, political, funny, storyteller, analytical,
loyal, thoughtful, willing to go great lengths to support his friends and family,
and a great lay!
6 - As your worst enemy, describe yourself.
Rantin shit-talker, too careful, insulting, blunt, leftist, able to manipulate situations politically and diplomatically, and a great lay!
7 - If your persona were immortalized as a cartoon character, who would it be?
Well, like everyone, I'd like to be Bugs Bunny since he always has the most wascally fun, going through hard times but always coming out on top. I'm not sure I look as good in a dress, but I'll stick with him.
8 - Do you think
there are conspiracies against the "everyday person"?
In terms of the
current capitalist system, certainly. It's a systemic conspiracy, in that there's
probably no secret cabal of international puppetmasters controlling the world.
Instead, the incredibly negative effects of the free market capitalist system,
or neo-liberalism, are built right into the gears and levers of the Machine.
"bolo'bolo" calls it The Planetary Work Machine, and has a very good
explanation of the Machine in its first couple of chapters. There's no need
for overseers since it's a self perpetuating system that has very few cracks
in it so far.
One of the major cracks in the machine, however, and one that should give anyone
interested in being more than just a target consumer in life hope, is the increasing
global protest, both on the streets and in various media, against the free-market
globalization envisioned and practiced by organizations like the WTO and the
IMF. More and more "normal" people are realizing just what economic,
social, and environmental costs free trade agreements inflict on their countries.
In the US, the NAFTA fight in the mid-90s prompted the left as a whole (as well
as a lot of the right) to start examining and agitating about free trade, and
that climaxed with the surprising Seattle anti-WTO protests that ushered in
a new era of broad coalitions joining together to fight nasty anti-democratic
institutions like the WTO. It also has forced examination of our governing class
and their addiction to campaign contributions and inherent shadiness.
Overseas, the utter economic collapse of first Asia in 1997 and now South America
is clearly the end result of unfettered free market globalization. The insane
demands of the IMF for its blessing for investors to invest and bankers to extend
loans have almost destroyed the economies it meant to "save"- a.k.a.
change into a free-markey playground. Who cares if dirt-poor peasants have to
pay exorbiant prices for privatised water? It's theoretically sound, so stop
whining and pay the price!
Okay, I got off track pretty quickly there, from the systemic forces that try
to keep us on the hamster wheel of consumerism, so I'll stop here.
9 - What do you do with your spare or free time?
I've heard of this thing called... spare time. Don't have it but a few times a year, J-dawg and I split town for a motel in a weird Northern California town and get off the grid for a few days. Bolinas, Rio Vista, Bodie, holiday excursions all! I read a lot when I'm not entranced by the Daily Show and the Anna Nicole Show - she's so outrageous!
10 - Please give us your interpretation of "the meaning of life".
Holy Grail
was much more cohesive, though Meaning of Life had better tunes. Oh!
Seriously, I'd go with a cliche about living life to its fullest. Heck, we're
all here for a limited time, why sit around and bitch about how there's nothing
to do? You're lying to yourself when you say that, get the fuck out of your
room and start wandering. That kind of crap bores me to tears and usually alerts
me to a human lump that probably won't be worth investing time in being friendly
with. Like I said, live life for today, don't waste too much time with drones.
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