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Attack of Jon Spencer! · Movie Meltdown

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Speaker 1: Guess who? It's 10 o'clock. Do you care where your
0:03
Speaker 1: parents are?
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Speaker 2: The following feature has been rated R by the Motion
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Speaker 2: Picture Association of America.
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Speaker 3: It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised.
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Speaker 3: This is an emergency alert. Defense Corps forces reported just
0:24
Speaker 3: moments ago.
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Speaker 1: This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not the drill.
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Speaker 3: At this time, we are requesting the immediate and orderly
0:33
Speaker 3: evacuation of the vicinity.
0:36
Speaker 4: The Coast Guard and the Navy have been alerted and
0:38
Speaker 4: are standing by on Eastern Sea.
0:40
Speaker 5: And it continues to burn out of control.
0:43
Speaker 6: It has been regular.
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Speaker 1: Every five to ten minutes, there has been another convoy
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Speaker 1: of units, fire companies, paramedics.
0:50
Speaker 6: A citywide emergency has been declared.
0:52
Speaker 1: Police officers are still on tactical full alert. 2,000 National
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Speaker 1: Guardsmen are standing by.
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Speaker 7: Air defense warning read. It's time for Movie Meltdown's Attack
1:06
Speaker 7: of the Killers soundtrack.
1:08
Speaker 1: The live transmission has begun, and we're into the final
1:12
Speaker 1: hour of hell.
1:33
Speaker 8: What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown's Attack of the
1:35
Speaker 8: Killers soundtrack. I'm Brian and this week I'll be joined
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Speaker 8: by a very special guest, the innovative and always impressive Mr.
1:42
Speaker 8: John Spencer. John's not only going to give us his
1:44
Speaker 8: killer five this week, but along the way he's pretty
1:47
Speaker 8: much going to help us pick all of the songs
1:49
Speaker 8: for this week's episodes. But first, I thought if you
1:51
Speaker 8: aren't familiar with John and the Blues Explosion, then we'd
1:54
Speaker 8: introduce you and kick things off with a song from
1:57
Speaker 8: his new album entitled Freedom Tower, No Wave Dance Party 2015.
2:01
Speaker 1: So you're not going to go to law school? What
2:03
Speaker 1: do you want to do then?
2:06
Speaker 7: I want to dance.
2:07
Speaker 8: And this is one of my favorite songs on that album,
2:09
Speaker 8: and it's actually the song that starts things off. So
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Speaker 8: I thought it would be a good way to intro
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Speaker 8: the band and this episode. This is Funeral from the
2:16
Speaker 8: John Spencer Blues Explosion.
2:47
Speaker 4: Here we go.
2:48
Speaker 3: Here we go.
3:21
Speaker 1: You want a chicken?
3:23
Speaker 3: I do still.
3:27
Speaker 6: Oh, come on. Summer, spring, winter, fall.
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Speaker 9: I'm going to dunk your head just like a basketball.
3:36
Speaker 3: Chicken, I'm going.
3:39
Speaker 10: To make it.
3:41
Speaker 3: I take it to the lake.
3:53
Speaker 1: Let's do.
3:56
Speaker 11: It.
3:57
Speaker 3: All right, get together. Fight to the back.
4:05
Speaker 6: I want to see everybody.
4:09
Speaker 11: Yeah!
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Speaker 3: I want to know right now. Who's ready to do it?
4:13
Speaker 3: Come on, man.
4:14
Speaker 11: That's right, ladies and gentlemen.
4:20
Speaker 3: Got it All of them are.
4:22
Speaker 1: Stronger Fellas Are you ready to hit it And.
4:26
Speaker 9: Quit it Countdown Here we go 5, 4, 3, 2,
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Speaker 9: 1 Go Come on I'm.
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Speaker 6: On a date now And I just Respect.
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Speaker 8: Now, I've known of John Spencer and the Blues Explosion
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Speaker 8: for quite a few years now. But in looking back,
4:56
Speaker 8: I also forgot how many other bands he's been in
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Speaker 8: over the years, and still a few that he's currently in.
5:01
Speaker 8: Aside from the Blues Explosion, John's also been involved in
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Speaker 8: Heavy Trash, Pussy Galore, The Honeymoon Killers, and Boss Hogg.
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Speaker 8: So as we continue on here, I thought we would
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Speaker 8: tap into an older track from one of John's other bands.
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Speaker 8: This is When Coma from Boss Hogg, originally on the
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Speaker 8: Joe's Apartment soundtrack. And actually, if you go back and
5:19
Speaker 8: re-watch Joe's Apartment, you may just see a slightly younger
5:22
Speaker 8: John hanging out in the band, which also happens to
5:25
Speaker 8: be Boss Hog, playing in the club scene.
5:39
Speaker 6: Stand back, hold me, suck your belly dry. Clever girl,
5:45
Speaker 6: you're diving things away Never lie to those you don't.
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Speaker 3: Love Cross my heart, I hope you die Nothing to
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Speaker 3: lose I got nothing to lose Nothing to lose I
5:55
Speaker 3: got nothing to lose.
6:19
Speaker 6: As I swallow pieces of my pride Try so hard
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Speaker 6: to feel.
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Speaker 3: Like you Try to make you understand Nothing to lose
6:23
Speaker 3: I got nothing to lose Nothing to lose I got
6:26
Speaker 3: nothing to.
6:26
Speaker 6: Lose We'll be right back.
7:42
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8:05
Speaker 7: Doo-Wop Shop. We're serious about music.
8:09
Speaker 8: Alright, so we've got a handle on John's music, so
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Speaker 8: let's just talk to the man himself, as we welcome
8:14
Speaker 8: this week's special guest, John Spitzer.
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Speaker 4: Hey!
8:37
Speaker 8: Were you pretty early on influenced by music?
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Speaker 1: I guess so. But music that was on television or
8:49
Speaker 1: was in films, things like The Banana Splits or The Monkees,
8:57
Speaker 1: there was a time when it seemed like every Hanna-Barbera
9:00
Speaker 1: or other Saturday morning cartoon show They would have a band,
9:06
Speaker 1: people like Josie and the Pussycats, and it was a
9:09
Speaker 1: real part of the counterculture, I guess, that's filtered through
9:15
Speaker 1: capitalism and everything. And that's what we ended up with.
9:23
Speaker 1: The Stanley Kubrick film 2001 made a big impression on
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Speaker 1: me as a young person, and I was really obsessed
9:28
Speaker 1: with that. soundtrack and the way in which the music
9:32
Speaker 1: was used in that film. So I didn't listen to
9:35
Speaker 1: a lot of records too much when I was a kid.
9:38
Speaker 1: It wasn't until I was a teenager or adolescent that
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Speaker 1: I began to get really interested in rock and roll.
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Speaker 8: Were you drawn towards classical stuff once you got to 2001?
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Speaker 5: Well, no.
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Speaker 1: I didn't mind classical. My mother's a big fan of
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Speaker 1: classical music and opera. So that was in the house
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Speaker 1: when I was growing up. So it's not I don't think.
10:00
Speaker 1: say I was drawn to classical music. I think it
10:02
Speaker 1: was just the way in which certain films or TV
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Speaker 1: programs used music, and it could be classical.
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Speaker 8: Well, then I guess what... did you start listening to
10:14
Speaker 8: once you got to teenage years?
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Speaker 1: They called it new wave music. I was really into
10:25
Speaker 1: bands that used synthesizers, Devo, Kraftwerk, The Residents. And these
10:31
Speaker 1: are also bands which had a very strong visual presence.
10:34
Speaker 1: And also it's kind of a mythology or something. It
10:39
Speaker 1: wasn't just that this was These were rock bands playing songs.
10:48
Speaker 1: It was a whole concept and package. So that's what
10:53
Speaker 1: I first started listening to. And then a little bit later,
10:56
Speaker 1: I got into some kinds of punk rock and then
11:01
Speaker 1: really got into 60s garage punk. And I was also
11:04
Speaker 1: really into noise, industrial music. bands like Thriving Gristle and
11:09
Speaker 1: Cabaret Voltaire, Einsturz and Neubauten, and rap, a lot of
11:16
Speaker 1: rap music.
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Speaker 8: When you started playing, did you do it traditionally, go
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Speaker 8: take lessons, or did you just start banging things?
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Speaker 1: No, when I was little, I played trombone in the
11:30
Speaker 1: school band, and Me and all my brothers and sisters,
11:34
Speaker 1: we all played instruments as kids. But as far as
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Speaker 1: the popular music or the rock and roll, no, I
11:44
Speaker 1: never took a lesson. Yeah, it just, I guess, started
11:50
Speaker 1: banging on things.
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Speaker 8: Again, we're kind of hitting at that point when music
11:57
Speaker 8: video took off. How much of that do you feel
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Speaker 8: like influenced you as well?
12:01
Speaker 1: A little bit. I mean, yeah, I graduated high school
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Speaker 1: in 83. Um, I grew up in a small town
12:07
Speaker 1: in new England. Uh, we didn't get cable television until
12:10
Speaker 1: 81 or 82, you know? So, um, I was excited cause, um, yeah,
12:18
Speaker 1: MTV had just started. And at that time MTV showed
12:21
Speaker 1: my videos and they also, they used to show some
12:23
Speaker 1: interesting things and bands like the residents and Devo, uh,
12:28
Speaker 1: were shown because they were one of the few bands
12:31
Speaker 1: that made videos. In addition to early MTV, there was
12:35
Speaker 1: a program on the USA network called Night Flight, which
12:40
Speaker 1: ran through late night, Friday night, or maybe Saturday night
12:44
Speaker 1: as well. And it didn't go all night. It went
12:46
Speaker 1: for a few hours. And they would show music videos.
12:49
Speaker 1: They would sometimes have interviews with bands. They would have
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Speaker 1: some live footage. They would also show cult films and,
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Speaker 1: you know, it was a smorgasbord of sort of, you know, this,
13:01
Speaker 1: I don't know what you'd call it. It just seemed,
13:03
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't really punk, you know.
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Speaker 10: It was just the pop culture at that time.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't really pop, but it wasn't popular. We didn't
13:09
Speaker 1: know it at that point. Yeah, it was, you know,
13:11
Speaker 1: it was supposed to be underground or alternative, but they
13:15
Speaker 1: weren't using words like that, you know, and I think
13:17
Speaker 1: it was, this is again, 81, 82, 83, you know,
13:19
Speaker 1: the 50s, and the sixties still loom very large, you know,
13:26
Speaker 1: and they would show things like, uh, safety films or things,
13:30
Speaker 1: you know, duck and cover. I mean, it was still, um,
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Speaker 1: there was such a kind of shadow or weight of
13:36
Speaker 1: all this, you know, kind of America, the golden American,
13:39
Speaker 1: you know, uh, uh, boom that was sort of hanging
13:42
Speaker 1: over everything. And it was, you know, it was the eighties.
13:44
Speaker 1: We had Reagan, it was fucked up time. And, uh, so, uh, yeah,
13:49
Speaker 1: night flight was a huge influence. Um, uh, Lisa Robinson, the, the,
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Speaker 1: the famous, uh, or celebrated rock journalist. She was involved
13:56
Speaker 1: in that program. She did, I don't know if she
13:58
Speaker 1: was ever on camera, but she did the voiceovers. I
14:01
Speaker 1: think maybe she was on camera. I don't know, but
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Speaker 1: that was, um, that was a big thing for me.
14:06
Speaker 1: And also, um, heavy metal, there was a heavy metal
14:10
Speaker 1: magazine had a, um, this is a comics magazine, you know,
14:13
Speaker 1: kind of adult fantasy comics. And I, I won a
14:18
Speaker 1: subscription and an art prize. And, uh, They had a
14:21
Speaker 1: music column, and I heard, found out about a lot
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Speaker 1: of bands through this, through heavy metal, through that comic book.
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Speaker 8: And then did you get into the movie? And I've
14:33
Speaker 8: had a few people that cited that was such.
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Speaker 10: A touchstone thing for them, the movie heavy metal.
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Speaker 1: I never saw it. Really? Yeah. I don't know when
14:39
Speaker 1: that came out. 81?
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Speaker 10: Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen it.
14:45
Speaker 1: Mid-80s? I don't know. I can't remember if that was
14:48
Speaker 1: after I'd already... going to college and then it moved
14:51
Speaker 1: on to like much much harder more you know really
14:55
Speaker 1: true punk underground you know serious shit um i don't
15:00
Speaker 1: know it was it was really just the um it
15:03
Speaker 1: was the magazine and you know this is again it's
15:06
Speaker 1: a long time ago there were no there was no
15:09
Speaker 1: internet there was no uh compact discs it was very
15:13
Speaker 1: hard to you know and i was growing up in
15:15
Speaker 1: a small town it was hard to find out about stuff,
15:17
Speaker 1: you know, and you'd kind of hear people talk about
15:20
Speaker 1: things and yeah, occasionally someone would turn you on to something, something, uh,
15:24
Speaker 1: you know, I was in high school when, uh, a classmate, uh,
15:27
Speaker 1: played me the gun club record, you know, but it
15:30
Speaker 1: had to be, it was usually that somebody's older brother
15:32
Speaker 1: or some, a relative from somewhere else, like, like they
15:35
Speaker 1: brought home this record or something. And, you know, but
15:40
Speaker 1: it was hard to, you know, you have to mail
15:41
Speaker 1: away for records.
15:42
Speaker 8: And, um, A few years later, I guess you get
15:44
Speaker 8: cassette tapes and then people start trading and you start
15:48
Speaker 8: getting a little more of that kind of stuff.
15:49
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I definitely had a cassette deck and I
15:52
Speaker 1: would make tapes. And, yeah, I didn't, you know, it wasn't,
15:58
Speaker 1: there weren't a lot of people that I, you know,
16:01
Speaker 1: I went to a small high school. There weren't a
16:04
Speaker 1: lot of people that was into this stuff. And, you know,
16:06
Speaker 1: so it was sort of hard. hard fought, uh, information. Um,
16:12
Speaker 1: you know, but as far as like heavy metal, the
16:14
Speaker 1: movie versus heavy metal, the magazine, I'd just like to
16:16
Speaker 1: say that for me, this reading about music, you know,
16:20
Speaker 1: has always been a big thing for me because you
16:23
Speaker 1: can read about something and it's a very different from
16:27
Speaker 1: listening to it, you know? Um, and I think sometimes
16:31
Speaker 1: that's even almost as big an influence for me as,
16:33
Speaker 1: as watching a band or, or, or listening to a record,
16:37
Speaker 1: sometimes reading about some new wave act in Heavy Metal
16:43
Speaker 1: Magazine or reading about a Howlin' Wolf live in concert.
16:47
Speaker 1: I never saw Howlin' Wolf, but to read these stories
16:50
Speaker 1: or read about these performers or these musicians, you kind
16:57
Speaker 1: of fill in the spaces in your own head.
16:59
Speaker 8: I mean, it allows you to kind of create what
17:02
Speaker 8: you think it was.
17:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that's really at the heart of
17:06
Speaker 1: rock and roll. Rock and roll is an opportunity to
17:11
Speaker 1: recreate yourself. And so, yeah, it's definitely been that way
17:16
Speaker 1: for me.
17:17
Speaker 8: Do you think that was a key to your sound,
17:20
Speaker 8: like finding your sound as sort of all those things
17:23
Speaker 8: you imagined over the years and then trying to create
17:26
Speaker 8: it yourself?
17:27
Speaker 1: I guess so, yeah, yeah.
17:30
Speaker 8: Well, then we try to do a lot of crossover with,
17:32
Speaker 8: you know, how music works its way into film. I
17:36
Speaker 8: guess at that time when you started getting into stuff,
17:39
Speaker 8: did you start getting into film as well?
17:41
Speaker 1: I think I was always into, you know, we grew
17:45
Speaker 1: up with the TV. I always watched TV. And, you know,
17:49
Speaker 1: I don't know if this happens anymore, but, you know,
17:53
Speaker 1: when I grew up in watching TV in the 70s,
17:56
Speaker 1: you know, the There was, you know, this was pre-cable.
18:02
Speaker 1: There were only so many shows. And I probably watched
18:05
Speaker 1: the same things that anyone else in my generation. You'd
18:07
Speaker 1: have Star Trek and reruns. You had Gilligan's Island, The Munsters.
18:11
Speaker 1: There were programs that were in syndication that were on
18:15
Speaker 1: every day after school. And then you had a Saturday
18:18
Speaker 1: morning lineup. And, you know, we had a subscription TV
18:21
Speaker 1: guide and podcasts. I would look at the TV guide
18:24
Speaker 1: and read it and, uh, and, uh, you know, what the,
18:28
Speaker 1: the ABC movie of the week or the, whatever the
18:30
Speaker 1: fuck it was, that seemed terribly important, even though there
18:33
Speaker 1: were films were, you know, heavily edited and, and, and filled,
18:37
Speaker 1: you know, chock full of commercials. I used to watch
18:39
Speaker 1: those every week. you know, you'd, when, when there was,
18:41
Speaker 1: when they'd show a James Bond movie or they'd have
18:44
Speaker 1: Planet of the Apes or whatever, you know, you'd, the
18:46
Speaker 1: next day or a couple of days, you'd be, when
18:49
Speaker 1: you're playing with your friends, you'd talk about it.
18:50
Speaker 4: Yeah.
18:51
Speaker 1: And, You wouldn't always get to see the whole movie. But, yeah,
18:55
Speaker 1: so I think that film and television from an early age,
18:59
Speaker 1: you know, definitely had a strong grip on me. And
19:01
Speaker 1: I've always been a fan of horror and fantasy and
19:05
Speaker 1: science fiction. And that has always and continues to hold
19:09
Speaker 1: sway over me.
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20:20
Speaker 7: time for the Killer Five.
20:30
Speaker 8: We usually do our top five picks as far as film,
20:35
Speaker 8: like music that's used in film that you found really.
20:38
Speaker 1: Well, I think if you want to talk, we've mentioned
20:40
Speaker 1: Q Kubrick. And 2001 really blew my mind as a
20:45
Speaker 1: young man. And I saw it when I was a kid.
20:47
Speaker 1: I don't remember where I saw it the first time. But, yeah,
20:50
Speaker 1: I was obsessed with that record and that soundtrack. Yeah.
22:19
Speaker 1: Clockwork Orange when I got a little bit older, still
22:22
Speaker 1: quite young, but I saw that and that's the amazing,
22:26
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was Walter or Wendy Carlos,
22:28
Speaker 1: I don't know where he or she was at at
22:30
Speaker 1: that time, but the kind of synthesized classical pieces.....
22:55
Speaker 3: Thank you.
23:20
Speaker 7: So so.
23:40
Speaker 3: Thank you.
24:04
Speaker 6: So so.
24:29
Speaker 1: So so But Kubrick was a real genius, I thought,
25:06
Speaker 1: for lots of different things, but the way in which
25:08
Speaker 1: he used music in some of those films.
25:10
Speaker 8: Those two mirrored against each other. They're pretty close together,
25:14
Speaker 8: but the way that he's using classical is almost complete
25:18
Speaker 8: opposite of.
25:19
Speaker 10: It's sort of the subverted version of it in Clockwork.
25:22
Speaker 8: Orange versus the true glorious version that he's trying to
25:26
Speaker 8: use in 2000.
25:26
Speaker 7: Yeah.
25:28
Speaker 1: You know, another person, another great director who used music
25:34
Speaker 1: in a great way, or I mean, made some great music,
25:36
Speaker 1: John Carpenter.
25:36
Speaker 10: Oh, yeah.
25:38
Speaker 1: And I don't know what to say.
25:42
Speaker 8: Is there a specific one of his that you remember?
25:44
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, They Live is a favorite. The Thing
25:46
Speaker 1: is a favorite. Escape from New York. But he didn't
25:49
Speaker 1: do the music to The Thing.
25:51
Speaker 8: Yeah, which I've always said it sounds the most like
25:53
Speaker 8: his style.
25:54
Speaker 1: Well, I saw an interview with him and he talked
25:58
Speaker 1: about how he went to Italy and talked with or
26:01
Speaker 1: sat with Ennio Morricone. And Morricone had written, the thing
26:06
Speaker 1: I think was Carpenter's first big studio feature. He had
26:09
Speaker 1: kind of made enough money. He had a reputation. This
26:13
Speaker 1: was a guy who was, and it was interesting also
26:15
Speaker 1: in the interview where Carpenter talked about the kind of
26:17
Speaker 1: font he would use for his titles and how he
26:20
Speaker 1: would have his name above the title. And this was
26:22
Speaker 1: a smart guy. And this was a guy working in
26:24
Speaker 1: a kind of independent, you could almost say punk rock way.
26:27
Speaker 1: You know, it still was, he was making movies, but
26:30
Speaker 1: he was, he was doing his own thing. So the
26:32
Speaker 1: thing was, was, I think it may have been his
26:35
Speaker 1: first major studio picture. And so they got Morricone. I
26:39
Speaker 1: don't know if that was Carpenter's idea, but anyway, so
26:41
Speaker 1: it's a big movie for Carpenter. And so he goes
26:43
Speaker 1: to Italy and he's talking to Morricone and John Carpenter
26:47
Speaker 1: says in this interview, he didn't speak Italian. So Morricone
26:50
Speaker 1: had written something quite, I can't remember how he described it,
26:54
Speaker 1: was busier.
26:55
Speaker 5: His usual style.
26:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, and John Carpenter was able to, just said very simply,
27:00
Speaker 1: less notes or something like that. And then Morricone came
27:05
Speaker 1: up with what he did, which is a really great score,
27:07
Speaker 1: I think.
27:08
Speaker 6: Yeah.
28:10
Speaker 4: You Thank you.
31:07
Speaker 6: Thank you.
31:33
Speaker 11: Reach anybody we're a thousand miles from nowhere man and
31:36
Speaker 11: it's going to get a hell of a lot worse
31:38
Speaker 11: before it gets any better.
31:39
Speaker 1: Whatever but john carpenter's no slouch as a as a
31:42
Speaker 1: film composer certainly no yeah yeah.
31:45
Speaker 8: That that thing piece especially the main title is like
31:48
Speaker 8: so impressive even now just the film as a whole
31:52
Speaker 8: holds which one what's amazing that the main title theme
31:54
Speaker 8: for the thing oh like yeah anyway but yeah the
31:57
Speaker 8: whole thing kind of It's amazing how well it holds
32:00
Speaker 8: up as far as special effects that were cutting edge
32:02
Speaker 8: and everything about it.
32:03
Speaker 1: Oh, it's great, yeah. I can't stand the CGI stuff,
32:10
Speaker 1: but The Thing is a great movie. They Live is
32:15
Speaker 1: such a great movie, too.
32:19
Speaker 8: It's interesting because it so feels like he probably had
32:22
Speaker 8: Kurt Russell in mind. Because he'd done several in a
32:26
Speaker 8: row with Kurt Russell. You get to Roddy Piper's, he
32:29
Speaker 8: even kind of got the hair and the shirt. He's
32:31
Speaker 8: almost got that same look.
32:32
Speaker 5: I don't know.
32:33
Speaker 1: I've never heard about that.
32:34
Speaker 8: I haven't heard his official story, but to me it's
32:36
Speaker 8: like it was right after he was doing that string
32:39
Speaker 8: with Kurt Russell.
32:40
Speaker 7: But yeah, I don't know.
32:41
Speaker 8: Were there any other big songs that you can think of?
32:43
Speaker 8: Like moments in film that really kind of.
32:46
Speaker 1: The shower scene in Psycho.
32:48
Speaker 7: We all go a little mad sometimes.
33:47
Speaker 1: The town I grew up in was Hanover, New Hampshire
33:49
Speaker 1: and that's where Dartmouth College is and they had a
33:52
Speaker 1: film society and so I got to see I would
33:55
Speaker 1: go to the film society at their art center and
33:58
Speaker 1: It wasn't just for students. You could, you know, non-students,
34:01
Speaker 1: non-college students could go. So I saw a lot of
34:04
Speaker 1: movies that way. And Psycho really, yeah, scared me. And
34:11
Speaker 1: Eraserhead totally fucking blew my mind. And that, I think,
34:16
Speaker 1: is a really great, there's a lot of, you know,
34:19
Speaker 1: clever use of, it's music, but it's also, you know, soundscape. And,
34:25
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, it's a great movie.
35:33
Speaker 4: Thank you.
36:29
Speaker 8: You've seen his early short films, David Lynch.
36:39
Speaker 1: I have, yeah.
36:39
Speaker 8: They're equally as disturbing and weird and sort of music-oriented.
36:44
Speaker 10: Yeah, his stuff is always kind of great.
36:48
Speaker 1: Another one, what about Beyond the Valley of the Dolls? Oh, yeah.
36:51
Speaker 5: Yeah.
36:52
Speaker 8: Is there a specific song?
36:55
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, Look on Up from the Bottles.
37:07
Speaker 2: Lately you feel so insecure It seems you had a
37:16
Speaker 2: bad affair.
37:19
Speaker 4: And now you're out to give a chore.
37:24
Speaker 3: To hide the hurt you.
37:27
Speaker 6: Bear You've gone now.
38:00
Speaker 3: I'll get your love Caught up in a rut.
38:24
Speaker 4: You warm your hands, an empty pocket. Where's the good
38:32
Speaker 4: lover that you knew?
38:35
Speaker 9: You took a backseat, now don't knock it.
38:38
Speaker 6: When no one remembers.
38:42
Speaker 3: You, you're gone. Look on up, look on up at
39:00
Speaker 3: the bottom Look on down, look on down at your
39:06
Speaker 3: luck Oh, look on up, look on up at the
39:12
Speaker 3: bottom Look on down, look on down at your luck
39:18
Speaker 3: You know But even though it's incredibly schmaltzy stuff, uh, um,
39:26
Speaker 3: you know.
39:31
Speaker 5: Uh, In the mid-' 80s.
39:52
Speaker 1: When Pussy Lord started, the VHS, the VCR was commonplace
39:59
Speaker 1: and affordable, and there was so much stuff on cassette,
40:04
Speaker 1: video VHS cassette, and we spent so much time watching
40:07
Speaker 1: movies and movies. and watching a lot of really bad movies. And,
40:12
Speaker 1: you know, there were things like the Psychotronic Film Encyclopedia,
40:16
Speaker 1: even books like cult movies. I had several. Yeah. Do
40:22
Speaker 1: you know the books I'm talking about? Oh, yeah. There
40:24
Speaker 1: were three volumes or something. There were the research, like
40:26
Speaker 1: Incredibly Strange. So, you know, we would watch all these.
40:31
Speaker 1: We spent so much time just watching movies and a
40:34
Speaker 1: lot of bad movies. So you kind of go through
40:37
Speaker 1: these At that time, there were these directors, people like
40:40
Speaker 1: Russ Meyer, and they'd talk about.
40:42
Speaker 10: I was going to ask if you were into him.
40:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Herschel Gordon-Lewis and John Waters and everybody.
40:46
Speaker 8: Meyer's had such good music, especially in that mid-run, when
40:49
Speaker 8: he kind of got in his stride, like the boss
40:51
Speaker 8: tweed that he works in, and his use of music
40:54
Speaker 8: when he got where he started. In the beginning, it
40:57
Speaker 8: was kind of awkward what he was doing, but when
40:59
Speaker 8: he hit his stride in that middle, late 60s era.
41:02
Speaker 10: He put some really good stuff in there.
41:04
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
41:05
Speaker 10: He had good musical taste, too.
41:06
Speaker 6: Yeah.
41:07
Speaker 8: Again, yeah, those psychotronic ones. And I think from what
41:10
Speaker 8: you said, that was kind of that same thing, being pre-internet,
41:13
Speaker 8: just sort of poring over those and like the little
41:16
Speaker 8: picture every once in a while that would come up
41:17
Speaker 8: and you're like.
41:18
Speaker 10: What is this?
41:19
Speaker 6: Yeah.
41:19
Speaker 10: Why have I not seen it yet?
41:20
Speaker 7: Yeah.
41:20
Speaker 8: And you're like trying to find them then because then
41:22
Speaker 8: you couldn't just go.
41:23
Speaker 10: Find it on the internet. You had to track it
41:25
Speaker 10: down physically.
41:26
Speaker 4: Yeah.
41:27
Speaker 8: Did you guys have a good video store, I guess?
41:29
Speaker 10: We just recently closed one here.
41:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean– Sure, it was always great to find
41:35
Speaker 1: a good video store, but you'd also trade things with
41:38
Speaker 1: friends and mail things around.
41:43
Speaker 8: Well, then I was going to ask, as far as
41:45
Speaker 8: getting into almost many movies in itself, the music videos
41:49
Speaker 8: that you've done. You've put together some pretty epic music videos.
41:53
Speaker 8: Is that part of it that you like? Is that
41:56
Speaker 8: part of the process?
41:57
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I like it, but I don't really... I
42:00
Speaker 1: don't do it myself. I've been very lucky to work
42:04
Speaker 1: with some very clever people. I'm involved. I'll put my
42:08
Speaker 1: two cents in. It's not just that it happens.
42:14
Speaker 8: Some people seem like they really don't like doing them.
42:18
Speaker 5: Oh, I don't mind.
42:18
Speaker 8: You've put together such good ones over the years.
42:21
Speaker 1: Oh, thanks. No, I don't mind. I used to make film.
42:24
Speaker 1: Before I started playing music, I studied filmmaking, and that's
42:27
Speaker 1: what I wanted to do. And I ultimately chose... playing
42:31
Speaker 1: in a in a rock band because it was it
42:34
Speaker 1: felt better it was satisfying there was a there's an
42:36
Speaker 1: immediate satisfaction.
42:37
Speaker 8: Yeah definitely what little filmmaking i've messed with is such
42:41
Speaker 8: a long drawn-out process.
42:43
Speaker 1: I don't think it's as long and drawn out anymore
42:45
Speaker 1: i mean with.
42:46
Speaker 8: The yeah it's a little better but still compared to
42:48
Speaker 8: like the immediacy of being on stage and doing something
42:51
Speaker 8: live and yeah it's it's a totally different process but
42:55
Speaker 8: is it something you've considered doing more as far as
42:58
Speaker 8: directing and that type of thing no no i'm not
43:00
Speaker 8: really interested in it's a lot of trouble i have
43:02
Speaker 8: to say just what i know of seeing people deal
43:06
Speaker 8: with it it's so much orchestrating and planning and prepping
43:09
Speaker 8: yeah it's a lot to deal with but oh just
43:13
Speaker 8: this one i'm sure you've talked to death over the
43:15
Speaker 8: years but i this is almost more for me because
43:17
Speaker 8: i've been fascinated with theremin since i was a kid
43:21
Speaker 8: I guess you.
43:21
Speaker 7: Were, too.
43:22
Speaker 5: When did you first.
43:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean, you didn't know what it was.
43:24
Speaker 10: No, not at all, for years.
43:26
Speaker 1: It was just sort of the spooky noise. Yeah. Or
43:29
Speaker 1: the eerie, otherworldly noise. And then at some point, I
43:34
Speaker 1: learned what it was. And when the blues club started,
43:39
Speaker 1: I had the idea of like, what? To have a
43:42
Speaker 1: theremin to really... You know, push the music way out there.
43:48
Speaker 1: And a friend of mine worked at a big company
43:52
Speaker 1: that rented musical equipment in Manhattan. And I called him
43:55
Speaker 1: up and said, asked if they had it there. And
43:57
Speaker 1: he said, yeah, we got three. Nobody ever rents them.
43:59
Speaker 1: And so he dropped one off. And that was like
44:05
Speaker 1: within the first few months of the band starting.
44:07
Speaker 10: How much?
44:09
Speaker 8: I mean, it seems what little I've messed with them,
44:11
Speaker 8: they're so hard to get the hang of.
44:13
Speaker 1: They're incredibly hard to play. And they're meant to be,
44:16
Speaker 1: my understanding is Leon Theremin meant to be like a violin.
44:19
Speaker 1: It was meant to be a serious instrument. He always
44:23
Speaker 1: used it, yeah. The way I play it is, you know, again,
44:27
Speaker 1: this is not just banging things around. So it's a very,
44:32
Speaker 1: very hard instrument to play.
44:41
Speaker 8: So since this is John's episode, and he's one of
44:44
Speaker 8: the few musicians out there brave enough and inventive enough
44:48
Speaker 8: to work a theremin into his music, I thought we'd
44:50
Speaker 8: have to add something to this week's lineup. And of course,
44:53
Speaker 8: me being the sci-fi geek that I am, I immediately
44:56
Speaker 8: thought of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Now that
44:59
Speaker 8: film was released in 1951, and though the film was
45:02
Speaker 8: looking to the future, at the reality of a world
45:04
Speaker 8: having to deal with the actuality of space travel and
45:07
Speaker 8: the possibility of life outside our own little planet, The
45:10
Speaker 8: theremin was not a piece of futuristic technology. In fact,
45:13
Speaker 8: the instrument had actually been around for decades at that point.
45:16
Speaker 8: And truthfully, this isn't even the first soundtrack it was
45:19
Speaker 8: used in. But this is probably the moment when America
45:21
Speaker 8: took notice of this instrument. Now, I'm sure they had
45:25
Speaker 8: no idea what was actually making that noise. And there's
45:28
Speaker 8: still plenty of people out there who couldn't idea theremin
45:31
Speaker 8: if it were sitting in front of them. But it's
45:32
Speaker 8: in this soundtrack that we familiarized ourselves with that strange noise,
45:37
Speaker 8: and it immediately attached its weird and otherworldly sound to
45:40
Speaker 8: the science fiction stories it would become synonymous with. With
45:43
Speaker 8: this song, we return to Bernard Herrmann, who you heard
45:46
Speaker 8: earlier with the epic Psycho soundtrack. But this was Bernard's
45:49
Speaker 8: first soundtrack after he moved from New York to Hollywood.
45:52
Speaker 8: For The Day the Earth Stood Still, Herrmann chose an
45:54
Speaker 8: unusual list of instruments, which included three vibraphones, two glockenspiels,
45:59
Speaker 8: Two pianos, two harps, three trumpets, three trombones, four tubas,
46:03
Speaker 8: and two theremins. The soundtrack also used some unusual overdubbing
46:07
Speaker 8: and tape reversal techniques, which also seemed like the sort
46:10
Speaker 8: of thing that John's more experimental side would appreciate. So
46:14
Speaker 8: in honor of John's commitment to the theremin over the years,
46:17
Speaker 8: this is The Day the Earth Stood Still's main title theme.
48:34
Speaker 1: Thank you.
49:02
Speaker 10: Thank you.
49:10
Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you.
49:58
Speaker 9: Hi, I'm Malcolm McDowell.
49:59
Speaker 3: You're listening to Movie Meltdown.
50:27
Speaker 1: So just keep listening.
50:29
Speaker 5: I'm with the rain.
50:33
Speaker 3: I have a smile.
50:35
Speaker 1: On my face.
50:36
Speaker 6: I walk down the lane.
50:40
Speaker 5: With a hand here in the rain.
50:43
Speaker 4: And I'm singing, just singing.
50:49
Speaker 6: In the rain, doop-a-doo, doop-a-doo, doop-a-doo.
50:54
Speaker 8: Well, then I guess you've got the new album out now.
50:57
Speaker 8: I guess what do you want to tell people as
50:58
Speaker 8: far as what you're doing? Because I was thinking back
51:02
Speaker 8: of the first time, almost when it started, when a
51:05
Speaker 8: friend of mine was like, hey, you need to check
51:07
Speaker 8: out this album. And it was one of your early ones.
51:09
Speaker 8: And I was thinking how many years it had been
51:11
Speaker 8: for me. But I'm like, also from your end, you
51:14
Speaker 8: keep coming back every few years. And what is it
51:17
Speaker 8: that you're still bringing to the blues explosion that's sort
51:21
Speaker 8: of different as the years.
51:22
Speaker 10: Have gone on?
51:23
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's what I'm bringing to the
51:24
Speaker 1: Blues Explosion because it really is a collaboration. I think
51:34
Speaker 1: that the partnership or the collaboration still seems to be
51:38
Speaker 1: very fruitful. There's still a lot of juice left in
51:42
Speaker 1: the rind or whatever. And it feels very good to
51:48
Speaker 1: play together.
51:49
Speaker 11: Yeah.
51:52
Speaker 1: We never really had any big plans. It was always
51:55
Speaker 1: very much like a garage band. We were really into
51:58
Speaker 1: rock and roll and all sorts of crazy music, and
52:02
Speaker 1: we wanted to do that for ourselves. And I think
52:04
Speaker 1: that still sort of holds true.
52:07
Speaker 5: It feels good.
52:07
Speaker 1: We enjoy it, so we keep doing it. We take
52:10
Speaker 1: it very seriously. I take it very seriously, and I
52:12
Speaker 1: work very hard at it. So it's kind of like
52:15
Speaker 1: an obsession, a passion. But it has been a long time,
52:20
Speaker 1: about 24 years.
52:22
Speaker 8: Yeah, because I've seen different incarnations, and Heavy Trash was
52:26
Speaker 8: another one I'd seen recently in the last few years
52:28
Speaker 8: that you've done some great stuff.
52:30
Speaker 5: Thanks.
52:30
Speaker 10: Where did you see it?
52:32
Speaker 1: Was that at the Lebowski Fest?
52:35
Speaker 8: You were here several years ago. I think then, too,
52:39
Speaker 8: but I think after that you came back for the
52:41
Speaker 8: second album, maybe. But yeah, so it's one of those, yeah,
52:45
Speaker 8: just watching you sort of, Do different things and then
52:49
Speaker 8: come back to.
52:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Heavy Trash compared to the Blues Explosion,
52:53
Speaker 1: there are things different. Heavy Trash allows for a different
52:57
Speaker 1: sort of vocalizing. It sort of gives you a different space,
53:02
Speaker 1: me a different space, to sing different kinds of songs
53:06
Speaker 1: and to do different things as a singer, as a vocalist. So,
53:14
Speaker 1: you know, it's nice to... to do different things and to,
53:17
Speaker 1: and to play with different people.
53:19
Speaker 8: I was just going to tell people what on this tour,
53:21
Speaker 8: where's the best place to find out as far as,
53:23
Speaker 8: you know, where you're coming up next.
53:25
Speaker 1: Or, Oh, if anybody, if anybody's curious about the blues explosion,
53:28
Speaker 1: a good place to start is going to the John
53:30
Speaker 1: Spencer blues explosion.com. Uh, the band's website has information about
53:36
Speaker 1: our new album, freedom tower, and also about our, all
53:39
Speaker 1: our concert dates. Cool. All right.
53:41
Speaker 10: Thank you for sitting in.
53:42
Speaker 8: This is, Now, you heard John talk about branching out
53:45
Speaker 8: with his other band, Heavy Trash. So I thought we'd
53:48
Speaker 8: work in one from he and Matt, and I think
53:50
Speaker 8: this song is a good example of just those different
53:52
Speaker 8: vocalizations and how they come into play in this other band.
53:57
Speaker 8: This is Heavy Trash with Fix These Blues from the
54:00
Speaker 8: 2011 film Girl Walks Into a Box.
54:03
Speaker 3: ¶ ¶.
54:14
Speaker 4: There must be something wrong Something in my mind No
54:25
Speaker 4: matter how blue I turn You still act blind You
54:33
Speaker 4: act blind guitar solo I play the dancing fool.
54:54
Speaker 6: Singing skip every night Fall.
54:56
Speaker 4: On my knees and tear my hair But you're still
55:06
Speaker 4: acting so more alive guitar.
55:09
Speaker 11: Solo Well, can't you people see There's something.
55:21
Speaker 3: Wrong with me I don't want to.
55:26
Speaker 11: Sound like a crybaby on.
55:29
Speaker 4: The TV But there's something wrong with me I don't
55:39
Speaker 4: mind feeling sad.
55:43
Speaker 6: But one thing's for sure.
55:46
Speaker 4: I've had all that I can take and I.
55:54
Speaker 6: I can't stand.
55:56
Speaker 3: No more, no more. If you can't fix these blues,
56:04
Speaker 3: am I crazy too? Can't you see.
56:59
Speaker 8: Now these next couple of songs were picked by John
57:01
Speaker 8: and myself, because as we wrapped up our segment there
57:03
Speaker 8: and headed back over to the venue that he was
57:05
Speaker 8: going to play that night, we hung out a little
57:07
Speaker 8: bit and kept talking about movies, as I'm known to do.
57:10
Speaker 8: And we were just discussing some movies that we've seen
57:13
Speaker 8: lately and some stuff that we've liked and... kind of
57:15
Speaker 8: came to two different ones that not only were movies
57:19
Speaker 8: that we both liked, but also the soundtracks were really impressive.
57:23
Speaker 8: First off, John mentioned that he'd recently seen It Follows,
57:26
Speaker 8: which itself is an interesting movie, but more than that,
57:28
Speaker 8: the soundtrack is quite impressive and does such a great
57:31
Speaker 8: job at capturing the mood for that film. So now
57:35
Speaker 8: I thought we would work in the theme for It
57:36
Speaker 8: Follows by Disasterpiece.
57:45
Speaker 6: I'm sorry.
58:44
Speaker 4: Mm.
58:44
Speaker 1: Mm.
59:42
Speaker 8: So the other main movie we discussed as we were
59:44
Speaker 8: standing there before John was about to go on was
59:46
Speaker 8: Under the Skin. I've gone on record many times before,
59:49
Speaker 8: both on this show and in a gushing written review
59:52
Speaker 8: on our website, just how much I like Under the Skin.
59:56
Speaker 8: I think it's an amazing movie. It's definitely a polarizing movie.
59:59
Speaker 8: There's no gray area. You either love it or you
1:00:02
Speaker 8: hate it. But I'm one of those that loves it.
1:00:05
Speaker 8: And I think it's so well put together and so
1:00:08
Speaker 8: imaginative and so impressive in the visual sense. But even
1:00:13
Speaker 8: more impressive is I don't know how well those visuals
1:00:16
Speaker 8: would work without the score itself. This unnerving, weird score
1:00:23
Speaker 8: that so perfectly fits this movie and perfectly captures each
1:00:28
Speaker 8: of these weird scenes that we're thrown into that it's
1:00:31
Speaker 8: nothing short of amazing. So since John is also a
1:00:34
Speaker 8: big fan of Under the Skin, I thought we would
1:00:36
Speaker 8: play what is probably the most memorable song on the soundtrack.
1:00:40
Speaker 8: This is Death, composed by Mika Levy.
1:04:48
Speaker 7: That was fucking trippy.
1:04:52
Speaker 4: All right.
1:04:52
Speaker 8: Once again, I'd like to say a big thank you
1:04:54
Speaker 8: to John Spencer for joining us this week. He was
1:04:56
Speaker 8: great to talk with, and I loved hearing his picks
1:04:58
Speaker 8: of different songs that have inspired him over the years
1:05:01
Speaker 8: and just the type of music that he enjoys. Again,
1:05:03
Speaker 8: you should go to thejohnspencerbluesexplosion.com, and there you can check
1:05:07
Speaker 8: out the new album and see if he'll be coming
1:05:09
Speaker 8: to play live somewhere near you. So now we're going
1:05:11
Speaker 8: to round things out with another song from John's new album.
1:05:15
Speaker 8: So this is a track that he really seemed to
1:05:17
Speaker 8: like on the album, and he also mentioned that they
1:05:19
Speaker 8: had done a very cool video for it. So go
1:05:22
Speaker 8: online and look for that as well. But otherwise, we'll
1:05:24
Speaker 8: send you off with Tales of Old New York, The
1:05:27
Speaker 8: Rock Box, from the John Spencer Blues Explosion. Thank you
1:05:30
Speaker 8: once again for listening, and with that I will remind you,
1:05:32
Speaker 8: Get a Life will provide the soundtrack.
1:05:39
Speaker 6: When we were, you.
1:05:40
Speaker 5: Know, a lot of people from the scene and all
1:05:42
Speaker 5: their friends got.
1:05:43
Speaker 6: I don't know, we went through this explosion.
1:05:45
Speaker 1: We're live. We really wanted to push the music there.
1:05:47
Speaker 1: You know, we wanted to get way out there.
1:05:50
Speaker 7: Yeah, nothing matters except.
1:05:52
Speaker 9: I got a rock box, baby.
1:05:56
Speaker 11: Down in New York City.
1:05:59
Speaker 6: You know the place is so pretty. I got a
1:06:04
Speaker 6: rock box, baby. I said CBG, but that's the place
1:06:08
Speaker 6: to be.
1:06:09
Speaker 3: But they got to make.
1:06:10
Speaker 6: A left on the boundary. Got a lot of dudes asking.
1:06:12
Speaker 1: For a quarter-patch room.
1:06:14
Speaker 7: Oh, we've been out of order.
1:06:16
Speaker 6: Rock box, baby. Down in New York City.
1:06:22
Speaker 3: Everything is so pretty. I got a rock box, baby.
1:06:36
Speaker 3: Everybody wants just.
1:06:37
Speaker 4: A little bit more But you gotta get money.
1:06:39
Speaker 3: Just to get to know Don't.
1:06:41
Speaker 9: You fret now, follow me Cause we're gonna sneak in through.
1:06:54
Speaker 6: The back alley Hey!
1:07:06
Speaker 4: Go!
1:07:07
Speaker 3: Rockbox, baby!
1:07:16
Speaker 9: California had the ride going on with the Neocon core
1:07:21
Speaker 9: from dust to bone. Give me squad car number one
1:07:25
Speaker 9: and two.
1:07:26
Speaker 11: Come on, punk, do it!
1:07:27
Speaker 5: Rockbox, baby!
1:07:45
Speaker 1: Can you say shit on your.
1:07:46
Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
1:07:47
Speaker 7: This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and
1:07:50
Speaker 7: edited by The Oddity Studios. For more on how to
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Speaker 7: sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com.
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Speaker 11: Aloha! Aloha!
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Speaker 4: Talk hard!