aaron farley

Entrance is Guy Blakeslee and his upside-down guitar but the Entrance band is Blue Cheer/Cream blues at a volume that pops lightbulbs. Their last album is Tee Pee’s excellent Prayer Of Death. They meet for pickles at Canter’s.

Was the spiritualist movement of the nineteenth century the birth of American psychedelia?
Guy Blakeslee (guitar): I think that’s true. My friends tell me some of the history of spiritualism and how it was super popular—on par with the Baptists!—and it was based on the idea of the connectedness of the all the universe and how you shouldn’t think any people aren’t as good as you because you’re all the same spirit. That’s totally psychedelic. The manifestation of eastern ideas into western culture. A lot of them were exposed as frauds, but the message they were trying to get through was valid. They were abolitionists and they were for getting women the vote, and they basically used fake magical powers to make everyone believe the voice saying that was from beyond. Two girls that used their feet—their toes to make a knocking from behind the veil—fooled everybody. Everyone thought it was people from the other world: ‘All people are equal! Don’t enslave others!’
What do you think of that review that said Entrance is American music to its very core?
G: One thing I can say I’m proud of being from America for is the music—so that’s a major compliment. I wouldn’t say I’m proud of being American, but if there’s anything to be proud of, it’s the music. That’s one thing America has given the world. I lived in England for a few months and I’d get in fights with drunk British dudes—they’d say shit about America and they didn’t know what they were talking about. ‘You fucking American with your McDonald’s and your SUV—fuck you, man!’ But Bob Dylan played Paris and unrolled the biggest American flag behind him. I’m really into that image. It was at a time when America was hated by everyone, and he was like, ‘This is America. This music is America. America isn’t what you think it is—this is our flag, too!’ I don’t want to necessarily wave the flag again, but it was powerful of him to do it. That represents what I think America should be about. We’ve been talking all day about crazy shit—conspiracies and whether there’s hope for our country, and we all agree and want to say there is… but it’s a question. The most important thing is that the people of America aren’t the same thing as the government. Same as the people of Iraq. Everyone in the world should look at their fellow citizens—it’s not the same thing as the governments that are fighting.
What conspiracies?
G: Without getting into it, I’ll mention the Illuminati. But I do wanna say—the official story of a really important event that involved violence between countries is never true. You go back and the official story is always a big lie. That doesn’t mean I know what happened. But I can’t accept their reason.
Paz, how do you know your violin is from 1786?
Paz Lenchantin (bass/strings): It says ‘1786’ right inside of it—it’s pretty dusty in there, but it’s still there. That violin has such a beautiful sound—violins age really well.
Derek James (drums): I actually live in a house from 1879. The original owner was murdered in his saloon by his accountant. I ran into a crazy old guy outside my house when I was taking out the garbage, and he was like, ‘Oh my God! I was in that house and you’ll never believe the story if I told you!’ He said when he was a kid, his dad ran a bootlegging service in Chicago and they’d done a delivery there—a crazy private party with bodyguards at the front door—and he sat down and played cards with Al Capone. At like age eight! He was really crazy but I believed him—Capone definitely ran shit in that neighborhood.
What is the most meaningful thing T-Model Ford ever told you?
G: I believe his exact words were, ‘Don’t smoke so much reefer! Drink some whiskey like I do and be a man with your guitar! What are you afraid of? Next time I see you, you better not be afraid!’ The first time we’d played together I’d run out of the club because guys were about to beat me up. He was watching and got really mad, basically saying that if you’re a guitar player, when you hold that guitar, you have to hold it like a gun, and say to yourself that no one can hurt you because you have the power. You have the weapon—the guitar! He said it in his own way—pretty profound! And he said, ‘Be like a tree—grow until you die!’ And he also said, ‘You like to roll with a lot of ladies, don’t you?’ He likes the ladies.
Why did you run out?
G: I was like, ‘Who here voted?’ And everyone was like, ‘Yeah!’ ‘Who here voted Bush?’ It was like five days after the election and a lot of people were like, ‘Yeah!’ And I said, ‘Fuck him and fuck you!’ I started singing my song, and halfway through, I felt people coming toward me, so I ran for my life. There’s a dark side to the story, but the uplifting part is T-Model Ford. He said my life’s purpose is to play guitar—I should be tougher! I don’t think I’m gonna run away if it happens again.
What’s scarier on a dark street—two guys or two guys and a girl?
D: The dudes want to impress the girl—they wanna fuck with somebody.
P: When I got mugged, a girl was there.
G: In Baltimore, two dudes and a girl walk along and the girl makes a face at you, and when you’re like, ‘Hey,’ they kick your ass! They use her as bait! I haven’t felt any fear walking in L.A. at all—maybe because I’m in Laurel Canyon. In Laurel Canyon, it’s car fear or ghost fear or animal fear—not crime fear. Mountain lions and drunk drivers and supposedly a ghost carriage that causes accidents at my corner—a white car people see right before they crash.
Is Prayer Of Death a death-trip record?
G: Totally not. I thought I knew what I was saying—I thought the message was very clear. But it’s actually very murky. ‘Prayer of Death’ is a Charley Patton song in two parts. It doesn’t sound like it, but that’s where I got the title. He says, ‘It’s the prayer of death!’ and then tells how his mother died and he wants to see her again, and his sister died and he wants to see her again. The spirit is ‘I know we’ll meet again,’ and you can interpret that—it’s basically about not wasting your life fearing your death. Affirmation of life instead of celebration of death—death is the only reality we can be sure of, so using that to live life to the fullest. It’s not dying before your time—it’s getting the most out of life. The point is not ‘fuck it!’ It’s ‘let’s do it!’ The last song—when we played at ArthurBall, someone said it sounded like fascism! When I say, ‘When you think of death every morning, don’t be afraid!’ The fascist motto was fearlessness in the face of death—but that was John Brown’s motto, too. Literally the same motto, and he sacrificed his life to free the slaves. You could use that motto to get someone to kill someone, and you could use it to say ‘don’t hurt any living thing.’ That’s why it’s super-grey—I’ve learned to be a little more careful with it. It’s hard to be taken seriously when you’re just like, ‘Here’s what I think about life and death and reality.’ But it’s a really serious thing—I’m not pro-death or anti-life at all.
P: The sad part, I think, is that so many people are in a mentality of every-man-for-himself to the point where I think no one is really thinking for the better good or the bigger picture. Everyone thinks everyone else is just out for themselves.
G: People are quick to assume the worst.
What mystic truth would you most like revealed?
G: Was there Atlantis and what are the pyramids?
P: Are there aliens?
G: And did they make the pyramids?

THE ENTRANCE BAND PLAYS TUE., MAY 22, WITH GOLDEN ANIMALS, TOD ADRIAN WISENBAKER AND THISISATRAINWRECK AT THE SIXTH STREET GALLERY, 1269 SIXTH ST., LOS ANGELES. 9 PM / FREE / ALL AGES. MYSPACE/ENTRANCERECORDS.