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Every year Cosmik Debris celebrates its birthday by looking back at the interviews of the most recent year. We call these montages "Cosmik Conversations" and we've been very pleased by the response they get every year. Thank you for being here again this year, and we hope you enjoy this look back at our fifth year of Cosmik Conversations.
BOB KEANE of DEL-FI RECORDS
Interview by DJ Johnson
Love him or hate him, Bob Keane is part of the rich history of rock and roll. Music in general, in fact, because he had a long career in the big band scene in the Los Angeles of the 1940s and 50s. As owner of Del-Fi Records, Keane was an integral part of the stories of Sam Cooke, Frank Zappa, The Bobby Fuller Four, and Ritchie Valens. Hollywood has its version of the story, which you can rent at Blockbuster. It's called La Bamba. It's mostly fiction. Here's Keane's recollection of his discovery of Valens.
Cosmik: There are so many stories from so many sources covering the whole career of Ritchie Valens. What was the true story?
Keane: Well there are so many stories. They've got everybody writing "Donna," for instance. I don't know how many people claim they wrote "Donna" for him. You know how it is when somebody dies. Look at all the Bobby Fuller stories that are still running around. The TRUE story about Ritchie Valens was that I had to make some business cards, and my partner... remember the guy with the twenty-five hundred bucks?
Cosmik: Foss?
Keane: Okay, he was also a very wealthy guy because he was married to the daughter of Franklin C. Wolfe, who sold out to Parker Aircraft and tripled or quadrupled their stock. This guy became a multi-millionaire overnight. And he was a piano tuner when he met her. (Laughs) Isn't that a great story?
Cosmik: Talk about dumb luck!
Keane: Yeah! So we got a really nice, new office in the middle of Studio City, and I had to get the business cards made. This kid who represented the printer came in, and he was from Pacoima. He said "would you be interested in hearing a kid that they're calling the Little Richard of San Fernando?" I said yeah, I sure would. That's when I went out, I think the following Saturday, and watched Ritchie play a kid's matinee. Just bang, bang, bang, doing a bunch of little riffs and licks and stuff... Bo Diddley and so on. That was the first time I heard him.
Cosmik: Could you see it right away?
Keane: Well, I wasn't looking for anything. Again, I gotta remind you, there was nothing to look for. Today, in the record business, you can look for this kind of singer or that kind, or a great rapper, or whatever. But there was no business. There were no rock and roll record companies, at least not in Los Angeles. They had R&B, but no rock and roll. But something told me, by the way he handled himself on stage and the way the kids reacted to him, and the fire that he had in his presentation, that I could maybe work with the guy and get a record out of him. Like I was going to build something brand new, and I had no idea what I was going for, except that I was going to try to find some way to expose his talent. I didn't even have any distributors at that point. That's when I brought him home and put him down on my little Ampex 601-2 and let him just cook for a while and play anything he felt like playing. I got a couple hours of stuff on him.
THE MEAT PUPPETS
Interview by John Sekerka
Chris and Curt Kirkwood of The Meat Puppets had a convo with John Sekerka about that issue which means the most to all punk rockers: Art.
John: Let's uncover this great art scam you have going. Are your records just decoys to sell your paintings in the guise of album covers? 30,000 albums sold means 30,000 prints sold, and a viewing far exceeding that which any gallery can provide.
Curt: Very true, but that's only gravy. Art is just a hobby. Music is our advocation. It's our calling. It comes naturally. We were amazed when we first tried to put bands together and they sounded like shit. Then we got together with Derrick Bostrom and immediately we had cohesive magic. We realized that it wasn't in our hands. Punk rock made it easy for us. It was acceptable to hate idiots that were popular at the time. It was this illogical hatred of anything. Fun hatred.
Cris:: Giving a shit about something means responsibility. Responsibility means stagnation. You put a fucking stake down in the moving earth, and I'm not saying that I don't do that in my own life, but artistically it doesn't make any sense. Although the stake in the ground is very beautiful. There are a lot of contradictions in art.
PETE PHILLIPS of THE CHICKEN HAWKS
Interview by DJ Johnson
Sioux City, Iowa, is home to The Chicken Hawks, one of the nastiest, loudest, hardest hitting rawk and roll bands on the planet. Pete Phillips is the guitarist. He has a damned sexy woman standing in front of him, wearing fishnets and snarling such timeless lyrics as "Stick it in, stick it in, stick it in, stick it... IN!" into the microphone as several hundred slightly plowed guys crowd before her and pump their fists... and whatever. This is a band that says what they think, and sometimes their song titles say it all. Sometimes they can cause a few hassles. Such might be the case with "Fuck Minneapolis," depending on where the tour van is being unloaded tonight.
Cosmik: Looking through these song titles I have to ask... y'all a little ticked at the people of Minneapolis for some reason?
Pete: Yeah, that song is funny because it's over three years old now, and I wrote it because there were a lot of bands from Minneapolis that I was booking in my club at that time that had attitudes that were really fucked. Rock star attitudes. It was horrible. The mid-west, to a large degree, is still ruled by Amphetamine Reptile and Touch And Go and labels like that. At that time, three years ago, those labels were not interested in rock. They were interested in noise-rock, indie pop and all that stuff. A lot of the bands from around the mid-west area were real snob assholes, so I just wrote "Fuck Minneapolis" in response to all that.
Cosmik: So Minneapolis wasn't necessarily the place, it just represented the whole mid-west in the song.
Pete: Oh... (laughs) ... it was at the time. It's funny, we only started playing there a year ago, even though it's only four hours away. We'd already played LA and New York several times, and we'd never been to Minneapolis. We finally found a couple cool clubs that were alright to play, but First Avenue is the big club there, and I just fuckin' hate it. Put it this way: The Humpers played there only one time, on their fourth US tour. They were on Epitaph and they had plenty of PR behind them but nobody there had a clue who they were. It's just not a rock and roll town at all. It's totally The Cows or Unsane or any band on Dischord Records or Touch And Go. The Cows sell out a 2,000 seat ballroom, or June Of 44 or some bullshit like that, but rock music is not happening there. So anyway, that's what "Fuck Minneapolis" was about.
Cosmik: Bet you're not too popular with those people.
Pete: The bands that would come down just hated my guts because I didn't relate to them at all, or care about any of the bands they listened to. I tried to be cool to them. Believe it or not, I'm really easy to get along with, but in this particular interview I've had to talk about some pretty ugly things.
JERRY GRANELLI
Interview by John Sekerka
Jerry Granelli has played on more albums than you can carry without developing a miserable hernia. The jazz drummer is best know, however, for his work with The Vince Guaraldi Trio. For those that don't read the credits at the end of cartoons, that's the trio responsible for all that wonderful, whimsical Charlie Brown music that makes you want to do a happy dance with Snoopy. But unlike a great many of his fellow jazzmen, Granelli doesn't only have ears for jazz.
John: What is the impetus behind your work. Is there a driving force or is it just something you do every day?
Jerry: I think it's both. I try and work everyday: write or play. The rest is like serendipity: you meet somebody and form a relationship, and that happens very quick. A musical relationship just grows: maybe two or three or four projects with that person and your paths separate. I think it's a matter of being open to whatever's happening in your life. If I meet an interesting person like Richie, I'm curious and I'm challenged, and I'm gonna try and get into it.
John: A lot of people think hiphop to be a-musical.
Jerry: I can't accept that. If I do that then how can I call myself a musician or a sound artist? If I turn myself off. Frank West, the great saxophone player with Count Basie: we were playing once and he said, "you know man, there are only two kinds of music - good and bad. I don't wanna hear no bad music." I don't care if it's Bonnie Raitt or Public Enemy. If it rings a bell and I go, "how'd they do that? How does Squarepusher make that sound with those machines? Man, can I play as fast as that machine?"
MYSTERY ACTION
Interview by DJ Johnson
Some people think it's a cliche to ask a musician who his or her influences were, and yet we continue to ask the question. Why? Because they all have influences, and the melted product of those influences has a lot to do with what they sound like now. The answers they give can be interesting or they can be useless. And in fact, some are just irritated that you would think to ask, and even more just blow off the question. That's why an honest answer like the following, from Evan Foster and Nick Contento of Mystery Action, is such a pleasant surprise.
Cosmik: Here comes that old standby question, because it's actually interesting to learn this stuff... What are your influences that impact Mystery Action music?
Evan: Well, everything really.
Cosmik: Everything as in... everything?
Evan: No shit. I can dig anything about most records. Some influences on us at this moment might be Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Husker Du, Big Star/Alex Chilton, YOU AM I in the biggest fucking way, Stooges up to '74, Humble Pie, Small Faces, The Faces, CAN, Fountains Of Wayne, Graham Bond Org, Townes Van Zandt, the Move (wood!), Dylan, the Band, AC/DC, Queen, David Bowie, Brian Wilson, The Jam/Style Council/Paul Weller, The Sweet, Gary Newman, Devo, The Posies, Supergrass, way early Cannet Heat, Ike and Tina, Barry White, The Who, The Creation, Loretta Lynn, Sir Douglas, X, Les Baxter, The Wedding Present, Merle Travis, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, the Pogues, Paul Westerberg, Replacements... it keeps going, I guess.
Nick: Evan's not foolin' when he says everything. We don't like to be narrow minded about anybody's work.
STAN FREBERG
Interview by Rusty Pipes
Stan Freberg has one of the sharpest comedy minds the world has ever known. Among his many talents is an incredible knack for writing unforgettable commercials. In his outstanding interview with Rusty Pipes, he discussed this facet of his talent and, as usual, had some funny stories to illustrate his points.
Cosmik: Have you ever written a commercial that just tanked, that didn't do what you thought it would do?
Freberg: No, no, I haven't. The worst that could happen was a commercial that did not make the sales shoot up, and in almost all cases sales went up. In varying degrees, at least in a small amount the sales did go up. But sales aside I made people now think of that company in a different way. That's what I did for giant Goliath clients like the Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh and General Motors. I did some stuff for Dupont and they said, "Well, we know about the prunes and pizza rolls, have you ever taken on a really serious client?" and I said, "Other than God?"
Cosmik: You mean your Presbyterian commercials?
Freberg: Yeah, That sort of stopped them. Yes, God was my client at one point, they never asked that question again. But I couldn't get their commercial through their red tape. But no I never had a campaign that really tanked, no. I had a couple campaigns turned down by the client which had nothing to do with the creative quality of the work. One was the Renault automobile company in which I wanted them to take on Detroit. They said (switches to stuffy French accent) "Monsieur Freberg, these are the most brilliant commercials we have ever heard, but unfortunately we do not, uh, how you say, have the guts, to take on General Moteurs, and ze Chryslers." Anyway I didn't have to give the money back, that's part of the deal. I make them give me the money in front and then I write the thing. And whether they like it, they can put it on the CBS network or they can throw it in the trash. They can do what they want with it, but I can retain the rights to the material and I don't have to give any money back. In other words I don't work on spec.
JERRY ONLY of THE MISFITS
Interview by DJ Johnson
The band that unleashed Glenn Danzig on the world is still out there, and they still rock hard, and they still put on a show that includes pyrotechnics, fantasy art and horror show theatrics. Their painted faces could scare hell out of Satan himself. Unlike most shock rockers, however, bassist Jerry Only doesn't mind breaking the illusion with a big dose of reality once the house lights come up. The conversation, at this point, was about Metallica's performance of Misfits songs and the crossover fans it generated.
Cosmik: And then some of those same kids, metal kids, discovered punk through The Misfits.
Only: Yeah, well, then the other thing that was a problem for us was that by the time that was happening, Glenn [Danzig] was out there in the top 40 with "Mother." The whole meaning behind the band Christ The Conqueror was that Glen was out there doing all this dark, Satanic vibe music, and kids were hearing Metallica, looking for Misfits and finding Glen. It was bad enough they thought we were Metallica, but then they thought Glen was the band. But I think we've put most of that to rest. I think the toys'll do that. For example, we're working with the people that do The Mad Monster Party movie, and if you watch the end of that you'll see they're selling videos that have The Misfits doing "The Monster Mash." I also have a song called "Island Of Misfits Toys" that kind of goes along with Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, and if I can get to kids at THAT age... (laughs). That's a really scary prospect, having The Misfits infiltrating the ranks of five year old kids, ain't it? Way before they even know what music is they'll know who we are. (Laughs.) That's a scary situation, but that's really the way I view our band. I think we're an American legend at this point, like the '57 Chevy, something that you look at and it has "American" written all over it.
Cosmik: Ah yes, the faces of the all-American boys. Who'd buy you guys as "normal" and apple-pie?
Only: We work at a machine shop with our dad, I got two kids, I coach a basketball team and a football team when I'm not on the road, I help my daughter with her cheerleading and her schoolwork... We're just a middle class family that just happens to have a great band that's out there kicking everyone's butts. It's something that other people can look at and say "yeah, I see where that's coming from." It doesn't always have to be some crazed kid who doesn't fit in with the rest of the world and winds up blowing his head off three years into it. We're not just a bunch of schizoids being handled by people who are just worried about making cash... which really sums the business up, in a way. You get all these very creative people who get manipulated by other people who have the money and the means to get the job done. We've managed to hold the manipulation off, for the most part. And obviously we're not the biggest thing out there, but I think we're one of the best. The rest will come sometime.
MATTHEW KELLY
Interview by Shaun Dale
Matthew Kelly cut a lot of his early musical chops on the fabled chitlin' circuit, playing blues harmonica for the likes of Mel Brown, John Lee Hooker and Champion Jack Dupree, culminating in a long association with T-Bone Walker. Returning to his home in San Francisco he forged new musical relatinships with childhood friends Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and David Torbert of the New Riders Of The Purple Sage. In 1973, Kelly and Torbert formed Kingfish. Cosmik caught up with Kelly on the occassion of the release of the band's first studio release in 21 years.
Cosmik: For at least one track ("Ridin' High," which features a Jerry Garcia solo recorded in 1973) you reached back 25 years...
Kelly: That was the exception, of course. Jerry obviously being no longer with us, at least in the physical sense, and because I had written that song "Every Little Light," which is a dedication to Jerry. I wrote that song while Ratdog was on the road and Jerry passed away. Ratdog was on our very first tour ever, and we just our second date ever. We got a phone call that Jerry had passed away and we had to perform that night, so I locked myself in the bathroom at my motel and wrote, actually re- wrote, because it was already started, "Every Little Light" and dedicated the song to Jerry that night. So I had that song for the album, and I thought if that song was going to be on there, it would be nice to have Jerry himself on there. I had an outake from years ago with Jerry on it, but none of it was usable but Jerry's guitar part. So I pieced it together, took just his guitar part, and the lead vocal, we used that too, erased everything else and rebuilt the song around Jerry's guitar part. It was not an easy task, believe me.
Cosmik: ...Knowing that you were a school mate of Bob Weir and would be around his age, and looking at your resume, I figure you must have been 8 years old when you hit the chitlin' circuit...
Kelly: (Laughs) No, not quite 8, but I was very young. When I did my first adventure with that type of thing I was about 20. I started playing earlier than that, but my first break with blues, I wasn't even 21 yet. I had taught myself to play the harmonica, and nobody else played the harmonica at that time. There was nobody to go and learn from, because really, nobody played. This was before Paul Butterfield had his record out and I didn't know anybody that played the harmonica, so I just bought some old records and started listening and fumbling my way through until I finally got a handle on some of it by spending hundreds of hours in front of my stereo trying to analyze what these guys were doing. Anyway, I went with a buddy of mine to an after hours club in East Palo Alto where all the black artists would convene after their shows. If somebody was coming through town like Ray Charles or Bobby "Blue" Bland or somebody, after they finished their show they'd all convene at this after hours place for their own enjoyment. It didn't even start till 2:00 am and it went until sun up. My buddy and I went in there and we were the only white guys in there, which alone was pretty intimidating for us. Then, I don't know what came over me, because I was basically a pretty shy kid, and I hadn't even been playing that long. They were playing a slow blues in G, and I had had a few drinks, and all of a sudden I found myself up on my feet walking toward the stage. I just jumped up on stage, uninvited, grabbed a microphone and started playing along with them. Now, this is not a very smart move for someone to do in that kind of a situation. You can get yourself killed, or at the very least...
Cosmik: There were definitely guns and knives in the room...
Kelly: Exactly! (laughs) So, as it turned out, Mel Brown, who was the leader of the band, and Bobby "Blue" Bland's guitar player, loved my playing. After the show, Mel took me aside and said "Hey, I'm making a record down in L.A.. How would you like to come down with me and spend some time down in L.A. and do this record?" I couldn't believe my luck, because Mel Brown, while a lot of white people haven't heard of him, amongst the black community he was like a god. He was like the Jerry Garcia of the blues circuit in the black community. It was more than just his guitar playing, it was his persona, everything. He was a very regal, large man. He didn't do drugs, which was an exception for a blues player. There was just a presence about him. So I went down, I lived in Mel's house in Watts and he would take me to all the blues clubs in L.A.. He introduced me to Jimmy Witherspoon, and Walker, and Jimmy McGriff and all these great players. That's how I kinda got my foot in the door with those guys. It all started with my rather impulsive move in that after hours club. And that opened a lot of doors for me and from there I ended up touring with T-Bone and a lot of other people. So that was my first introduction to music, and at a very early age I was playing with my heroes. For me, because that was what I was listening to, it was like, well, suppose you were a rock and roll fan, that was your main thing, and the Rolling Stones called you up and said "Hey, how would you like a gig playing with our band?" That's what it was like for me to be playing with people like T-Bone Walker. It was like a dream.
WAYNE "THE TRAIN" HANCOCK
Interview by DJ Johnson
Alt.Country artist Wayne "The Train" Hancock's music has often been about loneliness and pain, but there was a noticeable change on his latest album, Wild, Free and Wreckless.
Cosmik: There's an interesting thing about "Tonight The Rain Is Coming Down" that I'd like to ask about. The lyric is about that time just after someone finds love, when they realize it's real and they can settle down to enjoy it. A happy time. A lot of people, including yourself, write about loneliness, but in this song the loneliness is just as strongly felt as the joy, even though it's past-tense. It's never all one way or all another way in your songs.
Wayne: Yeah, that's sort of the idea. Seems like a lot of people don't take a realistic approach to writing songs. They write "when you're away from me the sun don't shine, the moon don't glow," and all this stuff. Well.. maybe to you it doesn't glow, but it does for the rest of us. Then you've got people like me, I guess. My good times are more often now than they used to be, but it used to be I'd have a really good day and then I'd try real hard to remember that day, so when I was having a bad one I could remember it and make everything all right. Take a picture of it or write a song about it.
Cosmik: There's a kind of melancholy to it, though, almost a quiet fatalism.
Wayne: Everybody knows that love is not a forever thing. It's like catching the light from stars above us. You catch one here and you catch one there, and you feel like it's a special thing you get to experience. Then, for a while, you're happy. Then it's gone and you're right back to where you were, hopeless and can't get your head out of your butt. Then one day, when you least expect it, you find happiness in the fact that you're over it. Then BOOM, you fall back in love and it starts all over again. It's a never ending cycle. But in order to be really, really happy, you've got to have been really, really sad or how will you know what it means to be happy?
THE DONNAS
Interview by John Sekerka
The thing about phone interviews is that while you're nice and warm in the safety of your cell, the other person is God knows where. Sometimes we ask the people we interview about their current surroundings, but this is the only time we ever had a response quite like this.
John: Okay Donna A - the singer: I hear a lot of commotion, set the scene will ya?
Donna A: Well, I'm standing at this corner, staking out the grounds for Bon Jovi - a limo just pulled up and a hooker stepped out with the biggest boobs I've ever seen in real life - not counting Jerry Springer. You know, cuz that's TV. I think they musta been like a G or an F. And I'm standing next to this metal box and there are some thumping noises inside, but it's locked. I think someone might have put a dog inside.
STEPHEN BUTLER of SMASH PALACE
Interview by DJ Johnson
Smash Palace has had two careers, one in the mid 1980s and one that started last year and continues on. The 80s incarnation played music that sounded very much like the MTV fare of the time, with synths and new wave trappings, while the current Smash Palace is most definitely a power pop band. Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Stephen Butler actually had an earlier shot at the big time, as well, and this clip covers what happened when his band, Quincy, had just signed a huge record deal and was just about to make the grade. We decided on this clip from the Smash Palace interview because it still amazes us.
Stephen: The Quincy record comes out, it's doing really well. We go on tour. We're touring with The Vapors. We get to LA and play the Whiskey. We get this phone call from the record company. Quincy Jones has driven by the Whiskey, saw our name on the marquee, went nuts, slapped us with a Cease & Desist court injunction saying we could not use his name. HIS NAME!
Cosmik: Him, being the only Quincy in the world.
Stephen: Him being the only Quincy in the world, we cannot use his name. So the size of the law suit and the fact that he was also with Columbia Records at the time meant that we were strong-armed into accepting it. We couldn't fight a fifty million dollar law suit. There was just no way. The way it was laid out was that we could finish the tour under the moniker of A Band Called Quincy, and that had to be in all the press and on all the marquees, and we could not record a second record, even under that new name.
Cosmik: What kind of effect did that have on the band?
Stephen: Oh, it totally took the wind out of our sails. We'd had airplay and sold records and had momentum going for us, and that just completely took it out of us. We made a second record, but Brian and I were so disillusion that we just quit in the middle of making it. The band carried on without us, but the record stiffed and that was it.
ROBYN HITCHCOCK
Interview by John Sekerka
Robyn Hitchcock is a perfect example of a Cosmik Debris artist. He embodies so many of the qualities that we love in an artist, from unique talent to a refusal to sell out despite the financial rewards. This year, the former Soft Boy gave us one of the best and most entertaining CDs we had the pleasure to hear, Jewels For Sophia. The title song closes the album, or so it seems, but hidden after it was the first studio recording of a concert favorite, "Gene Hackman."
Cosmik: Why slip in the now standard rock cliché: hidden tracks?
Robyn: I wanted the record to go somewhere else before it stopped. Rather than saying, "well, here's 14 songs and that's it - nice job Robyn, see you next time." It's as if the listener has wandered upstairs into the dressing room and I was playing through a couple of tunes just for the hell of it whilst having a drink. Like an after show party, really. That would scour the palette. A record's gotta go somewhere. Does a record amount to some kind of narrative? Some kind of emotional ride? That's the question. Those two songs had after show stamped all over them, so I've put them there, and I've started it all off with one of my answer phone messages.
Cosmik: A lot of fans who've heard it live will be pleased to finally have "Gene Hackman" on record.
Robyn: Yeah, but they'll have to get through "Jewels For Sophia" to get to it, but they can always tape it. It'll make them concentrate - as the title track they should hear that more.
KEN STRINGFELLOW of THE POSIES
Interview by Bill Holmes
The Posies certainly have had plenty of success in America, but like many of the best bands, they're success overseas is even greater. This puzzling little phenomenon has been pondered in our pages before, but Ken Stringfellow's response to Bill Holmes' question seemed to be right on target.
Cosmik: I know that you've had a lot of success overseas in places like Japan and Spain, and a lot of bands do, frankly. Cotton Mather, a great band that can't get arrested in their own country, is over there (U.K.) right now playing sellout shows and getting ready to open up for Oasis on tour. Why is it that people outside the United States seem to "get it" more than we do here?
Stringfellow: You know, (laughs) that's something I've often wondered myself! I guess people in Europe, especially, are just a lot more broadminded, that just seems to be the case. There is so much culture that is so readily available, so many kinds of art forms. The average person is brought up in an atmosphere where things are different. I mean, Europe is like a lot of little cultures smashed together in a really small amount of terrain, so if you're in Germany, you can go to Paris in about an hour, and from Paris to Madrid, where there are all sorts of things there, people coming in from Africa. I mean, you're very aware that there are all sorts of cultures around you, where in America, there's a lot of cultural isolation. The societies that comprise the American society are more into being assimilated, where if there is some diversity, it can almost be invisible. Like, if you're the average white dude like me, living in Seattle, there's a huge Asian culture here, a huge Latino culture, but if you want to involve yourself in that diversity you have to go find it, it's not out there wide open. Americans in general, I feel, do not do well at assimilating things that are...they want to find the common denominator, something we can all agree on. Hence we get the bland.
Cosmik: It certainly seems to be the approach of radio.
Stringfellow: Oh, radio and everything; the film world...there are great independent films being made in America, and even innovative mainstream films, but in general the average person is going to try to find the comfort mood every time, y'know?
JOHN DRYDEN OF THE DAILY FEED
Interview by DJ Johnson
The Daily Feed dispenses satirical wisdom in 90-second doses over the Internet and also commercial radio. Here's Feed creator John Dryden's take on one of his ongoing characters.
Cosmik: I think it's interesting that the voice was out of necessity, because it always struck me that the ridiculous quality of Max's voice makes what he says seem so poetic. Because Max makes the silly statements as if they're gospel.
Dryden: Once in a while I realize that the more ridiculous viewpoint in a piece is Frank's, because I've written it that way, so I just switch them and then tweak a little to make it the kind of thing Max would say. After people learn a character, they expect certain things from him. You have to surprise people, but you also have to keep it within their belief paradigm so they'll realize the characters aren't out of character. You only go out of character for a brief second to make a joke, then you drop back in.
Cosmik: I love the convenient logic of Max. It seems like he's usually stating somebody's party line with convenient logic as if it's the only logical opinion at all.
Dryden: That's really the best way to get nasty things out. To say "well the Republicans wouldn't do THAT! They would put the grandmother ON the railroad tracks and let the train run her over and then they'd have TWO grandmothers." In other words, don't act like you thought of it yourself: report that it came from someone else, and then you can say just about anything. You know, the show used to be a lot worse. I say "worse"... It used to be much less politically correct fifteen years ago. I wasn't very sensitive back then to some things. People would laugh at things that they shouldn't be laughing at, and so therefore I was providing that for them.
Cibo Matto's Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori are two expatriate Japanese women living in New York. Recently, they've begun to gather the audience they deserve for their ethereal, catchy music, through airplay both traditional and not-so traditional. A guest spot on Buffy The Vampire Slayer signaled the world that they'd arrived. In this segment of their Cosmik Debris interview, Miho discusses the personal side of songwriting. CIBO MATTO
Interview by Rusty Pipes
Cosmik: I know you've written most of the lyrics. Especially in the song "Sunday," it sounds like you've had a very painful breakup. Is there a story behind that? It just sounds very painful to me.
Miho: Yeah, I mean like, I feel it's not just my experience. Like every information I have about life is like it's there. Like stories I have heard from other friends or some movie ... it's kind of a mixture. I feel every girl has less feeling on Sunday somehow. Because Sundays have got to be a holiday and enjoy, with family or boyfriend or whatever. When I lived here and my family is in Japan and even though I have friends, sometimes I feel like I don't have anything to do. Yuka feels the same too and a lot of girls says that "Oh, you know what? I really don't like Sundays." I heard a lot of things from girls and it make me write the song.
VICTOR DELORENZO
Interview by DJ Johnson
One of the very best albums of the year will receive almost no notice whatsoever. Actually, come to think of it, most of the best albums of any year will receive very little notice. Former Violent Femmes drummer Victor DeLorenzo isn't worried about it. His album, The Blessed Faustina, is a masterpiece no matter how many people figure that out. A true artist, his understanding of (and attention to) the needs of a song was the topic of part of his February interview.
Cosmik: .. there's a mix of lushly recorded and produced songs and songs with a minimalist approach. What indicates to you what a song needs in that way?
Victor: If you try to remain true to the world of a particular song that you're hoping to build, I think the song will eventually speak to you in ways that maybe aren't readily apparent when you're starting to work with it. Some of those songs would sit up on the recording deck for a good month or so, and I would change things here and there, whether it had to do with a lyric or a bass part, or if I wanted to develop the percussion parts more. Some of those songs have three or more drum sets on it at the same time. So I'd be thinking "well, maybe another polyrhythm would work here and it would emphasize what I'm trying to do with the lyric," or "maybe it needs less here because it's becoming too important." Sometimes things speak to me in ways that it's almost like you're working on a short story and thinking do you need the main protagonist to say this there, or should they kind of shut up and work the angle of mystery into the story a little more?
Cosmik: And let the listener fill in the blanks?
Victor: Yeah, sometimes you want to be crystal clear, and hopefully give the listener the experience that you feel as though you've transferred something that was in your mind to their mind, and other times you want to leave it more wide open. You may feel like "how could I be so presumptuous as to think that someone sitting in Oslo, Norway would have the same kind of feeling that I would toward this thing, given their upbringing. I think I'm cursed in that I come from that theater background. So many times I'm fighting myself of thinking too much. I have to almost do like Mr. Lennon said in interpreting the book of the dead, "turn off your mind, relax and float downstream."
DR. DEMENTO
Interview by Rusty Pipes
Every now and then we land an interview with someone who has meant a lot to more than one Cosmik Debris staffer. The late Curtis Mayfield was one. Firesign Theatre was certainly one of these. But you should've heard the whoops of joy when we found out we'd have an audience with Dr. Demento! Barry Hanson had been a part of life for so many of us, and, I'm sure, for many of you. He turned out to not only be a fun interview subject, but also one of the most knowledgeable we've ever had the pleasure to talk to. On the subject of the music that he has made famous (and vice-versa), the natural question is:
Cosmik: Have you got a personal Funny Five?
Dr. Demento: Well, that changes all the time. I always get excited about new things that come in. I always enjoy putting something that's new and funny on the air and seeing if the audience likes it too. That's what keeps me going the most these days. My personal Funny Five would change all the time as far as the kind of stuff that I play on the show. The all time most requested song is Fish Heads by Barnes and Barnes. It's something that I'm fond of, it still gets played a few times a year. (But when I) finish a show and can relax for the evening I don't immediately put Fish Heads in the player. It's the audience's all time favorite and I respect that. I love it like the way Mick Jagger probably still has a warm spot for Satisfaction, though he might not... sing that for his own pleasure when he's not working. Number two would be Dead Puppies, by Ogden Edsel. Those two are way out in front of all the others. Both of those interestingly came out in the late 70's.
Cosmik: I'm sure they came to note exclusively through your show too. I don't know of anybody else that would play them.
Dr. Demento: Those two were certainly mostly through my show. Fish Heads, after they made the video, it got a little bit of exposure on TV. My all time most requested artist of course is Weird Al Yankovic.
Cosmik: He's had a lot of new success this year.
Dr. Demento: Oh yes! The Saga Begins is a big hit this year. I'm sure I'm best known to the public as the guy who discovered Weird Al.
QUINCY MCCOY
Interview by DJ Johnson
DJ Johnson's passion for the old days of radio led him to do this interview with Quincy McCoy, former radio personality, editor at Gavin [the radio industry's bible] and author of the book No Static. We at Cosmik Debris often do interviews that we don't expect many people to read, but we do them because we care about the subject. Boy, were we ever surprised at the response to this one! It seems we're not the only ones who miss the way radio used to be.
Cosmik: I remember back in my high school years, when our radio stations were a mix of personalities, people actually had a feeling of loyalty to their favorite station.
McCoy: Fierce loyalty. When was the last time you couldn't wait to turn the radio on to hear a radio station?
Cosmik: 1979.
McCoy: Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm talking about. That's what happened. We used to have great lineups of personalities, one day part after another. Now, most of the money is spent on having someone on morning drive - usually a lot of that's syndicated now - and so you don't have your local personalities sprouting and growing and becoming names in the community. That's the downside of it. I can remember tremendous lineups of personalities like WABC in New York where you'd have Harry Harrison in the morning followed by Ron Lundy followed by Dan Ingram followed by Cousin Brucie followed by Chuck Leonard followed by whoever the all-night guy was. But it was one after another after another after another of great personalities, and every radio station was doing that. Every one of those guys had their own unique act and following, and still, at the same time, the personality of the radio station itself was consistent, because they had great program directors to work with those personalities. These guys could be themselves, be the personalities, but at the same time they carried along the basic brand of what the radio station was all about. That's when radio stations were great.
LES MCCANN
Interview by Shaun Dale
One of the leading lights on the soul jazz scene of the 1960's, Les McCann became an international jazz superstar with the release of Swiss Movement, recorded at the 1968 Montreux Jazz Festival with the late Eddie Harris. The album generated that rarest of all jazz events, a multi-million selling hit single, "Compared To What," and guaranteed both McCann and Harris permanent pillars in the jazz pantheon.When his ability to play was devastated in recent years by a crippling stroke and carpal tunnel syndrome, McCann's creative drive went on. He returned to the stage as a leader while still limited to the use of a single finger, moved by his ever present desire to communicate the love that inspires his music. Subsequent and ongoing therapy has restored much of his ability to play, and he continues an active tour schedule when not at home in Van Nuys, California, where he composes and records in his home studio, which is where we found him
Cosmik: So is there a common denominator? A thread that runs through all the music that is Les McCann, that makes it all make sense.
McCann: Of course. Love. Of the music, of the audience, of my life. Of all that is my life.
Cosmik: And you've expressed that both through the music you've made and through other music you've brought to us. Through the years, you've been one of the major talent scouts in popular music, introducing artists like Lou Rawls, Groove Holmes, Roberta Flack. LM: Well, that's part of the whole evolution of my life, being open, learning things, having experiences, meeting people, getting feelings about certain things. The whole thing, life, is the event. I don't plan anything, but I trust this love, that what am recieving is guidance within that's right on.
Cosmik: There was an interruption about three years ago when you had the stroke.
McCann: Yes, but it was a truly great experience, being in the hospital, and having the people of Germany, in the little town I was in, the way that treated me and showed me human love as I had never seen before. It showed me that what I believe in is true, what I know about is true, which is my own lessons as I meet people around the world, have conversations with people, and find the people of the world seeking the very same thing, which is to be loved, period. So I'm just glad I'm able to spread this music that I love with these young musicians that I have.
JULIAN LENNON
Interview by DJ Johnson
After eight and a half years out of the public eye, Julian Lennon returned late last year with a great album called Photograph Smile that is easily his best to date. In his Cosmik Debris interview, he described making the album, starting his own record company, small town life in Italy, some of the less than pleasant things Yoko Ono has pulled on his family, and other juicy topics that make for great reading. But we chose this clip because it reveals a side of Julian that he never tries to publicize. We decided to do it for him.
Cosmik: Could you explain the basic idea behind the charity shows on this tour?
Lennon: The idea was to find out what the worst problems were in the locations we were playing, and to try to help that cause. You see, we're trying to help locally instead of globally. For instance, if it was about homeless children, abused children, or children with aids, all we'd ask at the door is a blanket, or cuddly toys, or however much your conscience will allow you to take out of your pocket and give.
Cosmik: This is the first show of each pair, meaning there are two shows in each city and one is a charity show, and this is INSTEAD of a ticket purchase.
Lennon: Yes, and to have whatever association we're working with take the bucket then and there and put it to good use.
Cosmik: As opposed to having to turn it over through government channels and have it get lost in the red tape?
Lennon: Exactly! Exactly! Half the time a lot of these people don't see anything from charity events. It's very sad. Or it goes mostly to the expense of the charity show itself.
Cosmik: So instead of having a pet foundation, you're giving direct help to whatever charity needs you most in each area.
Lennon: Exactly. That's the idea. Obviously I'd like to take it to the next level with the WORLD charity tour next year, when we take it on a global level, but still each case scenario will be localized.
Cosmik: Speaking as a parent in a time when negative role models are given all the media attention, I'm just so happy to find a role model like you to hold up to them, and I know a lot of people feel the same way.
Lennon: No, no... I just figure I live a happy, comfortable, financially secure life. How much money do I want? How much money do I want to rape and pillage the fans for? The only reason I want to get up and play is to get up and play. Of course, it's nice to help promote your album, but I've been on those tours where you've just done 150 shows and you look at your itinerary and say "I just want to go HOME now!" The motivation is lost, and there's no drive there except for you, the management and the label to make some money off these fans of yours. I don't think that's fair. There are a lot of people out there who are a lot more financially secure than I'll ever be that could be doing a lot more, but I feel that at least this is my attempt to help people along the way.
That about wraps it up for another year of Cosmik Conversations. As always, we all had a great time this year bringing these artists to you, and we appreciate you coming back every month to see what's happening in the electronic pages of Cosmik Debris. We hope you'll join us as we begin our sixth year. We've got some great interviews planned, and you won't want to miss them.