Rollins is a funny guy, but it’ll be hard to top Allison Anders calling J and Lou’s kids “Dinosaur Jr. juniors!”

-Dan Collins

First came post-punk cult hit Border Radio and then came Sugar Town, a film about the music industry, aging rock stars, and the women in their lives.  Now Strutter, the final chapter in Allison Anders and Kurt Voss’ unexpected trilogy, is well underway.  Allison and Kurt have been friends since UCLA film school and even share matching tattoos of the girl in chains on the back of Leonard Cohen’s first album. This interview by Lainna Fader.

Congrats on the successful Kickstarter campaign for your new film!
Allison Anders: It’s pretty amazing!
What do you think about the fact that Strutter is entirely funded by the community? Why aren’t more artists doing that?
AA: I don’t know. They’re missing out. It’s a fantastic thing. We really enjoyed the whole process. Not only do you get to take creative control over your entire project, but the process of raising money this way is also creative. It keeps you in this creative space instead of—
Kurt Voss: That’s absolutely right. Absolutely true. I was just watching Abel Ferrera’s commentary track to Bad Lieutenant and he started musing on a scene and talking about how working in Hollywood system—everything about it made him feel uncreative. It took him away from—destroyed—well not to be too hyperbolic about it, but I feel the same way. What Allison said resonated with me. That approach to raising the money flows naturally into the next step of the project almost. It’s very liberating—it’s like getting a second first film.
Why aren’t artists good at funding their own projects? Are they any worse than any other group of people trying to raise money?
AA: Exactly. Most musicians and filmmakers and artists, they’re at their worst trying to raise money. And affix a value to their project. ‘Why should I invest in your record?’ or ‘Why should I invest in your movie?’ Well, that’s the one thing that artists are particularly bad at. That’s the way that the system works in Hollywood. Inevitably you go ‘Oh, my project has no value.’ Then, ‘If I have Brad Pitt attached, then I’d have value.’ Well that’s bullshit! Absolute bullshit. The thing is it’s just not true, as we see repeatedly from the box office. It should not have to be that you have all these other attachments to get to your project to make it valuable. Maybe the value for our project is $20,000. I don’t know!
I was going to ask you about that—your target was $17,500, which seems awfully low for a feature, even when you’re shooting digital. How’d you settle on that? Just because you had to affix some kind of specific value to the project to list it on Kickstarter?
KV: We just picked the lowest number we could think of to finish a ninety-minute piece.
How far into Strutter are you?
KV: We start shooting in Feburary. The trailer online on the Kickstarter site—we made it special for the page, without having shot anything else for the film. We made it just for the fundraising process. But it also was a laboratory for working out ideas for the picture.
AA: Helped us bring in ideas for the film.
KV: But in terms of the low number for the budget as we were discussing earlier—to add onto Allison’s thoughts about needing a cast member to make a movie valuable—I always liked artists or filmmakers who abandoned the idea that you need money to make money in film. Those are some of my heroes.
AA: Like Herzog.
KV: Yeah, those who dare to plow ahead, like Herzog. The talent and will is more important than money. Famous Herzog story is when they asked him to write the script for Nosferatu, he said all he needed was two boxes of paper. So that’s how we arrived at our $17,500—that’s how much we need for the paper!
I was kind of shocked when I watched the trailer because I recognized Flannery Lunsford. I didn’t know he even acted. I went to elementary school with him, and haven’t seen him since.
AA: How amazing!
KV: What’s that high school, Al? Where all our kids came out of? Is it Marshall?
AA: Oh yeah. Marshall.
KV: I think most of our cast came from there. He and his bandmates went there. They all came out of Marshall. Flannery’s an amazing guy.
AA: Didn’t I meet you over at the Silent Movie Theatre?
Yeah, I worked there for a few years.
AA: Not only did they contribute to our Kickstarter drive with memberships, but they’re letting us shoot there.
You’re shooting there? When I worked there there’d always be people coming in and shooting things but I never saw anything of it.
AA: One of our characters will be working at the Silent Movie Theatre!
And you’ve got Dante from Dante vs. Zombies in the film too right? I met him at a bar in Echo Park a few months ago through a friend who I think used to be in a band with him.
AA: ‘I met Dante at a bar’—that’s really good. That’s a good quote.
Why is he in your film?
AA: Well Dante, I met through my daughter Tiffany, who met him through Jessica Espeleta. His band Starlite Desperation played our festival, Don’t Knock The Rock, about four or five years ago and we invited him to participate in a Gun Club reunion, which was a concert coinciding with the premiere of Ghost on The Highway: A Portrait of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club. They opened the festival with the premiere of Kurt’s movie and then Dante sang with the original band members.
KV: Yeah, it was kind of a pass-the-mic kind of format. Everyone was great but Dante really smoked. He gave an especially memorable performance. He was really very hot. Talented guy. We’re excited about him as an actor.
How’d you know he could act though?
AA: He has a little bit of experience. Same with Flannery. They’ve both done a little bit. They’re fairly new, but not totally inexperienced.
Do you look for musicians who are also actors, actors who play music or are just passionate about music, or someone with a little experience in both acting and music?
KV: That’s a stack of questions! But casting can go a number of ways.
AA: It helps if they all have bands.
KV: But in general, you introduce musicians into their first role.
Had John Taylor [Duran Duran] done anything before?
AA: He had never acted before.
KV: We put him in Sugar Town with no acting experience. He’s a musician who just fit the bill.
Have you ever made a movie without a musician?
AA: I don’t think I’ve ever—and I don’t think you have either, Kurt—made a movie without a musician. He’s even had Ice-T in one of his movies! We’re never without musicians as actors. It just gives us a little extra—an immediacy that musicians can bring to a role, and if you put them with professional actors like we did in Sugar Town, it can be really amazing. Like Rosanna Arquette working with John Taylor was really amazing. She was brand new and guided him every step of the way and yet he made her more immediate. She gave him the chops and he gave her the ability.
KV: Their scenes together are 85% exquisite in that movie. They’re very good. And you’re right, it was that mix and her generosity that made it. That was a great pleasure. And I always thought he should be the next James Bond.
That would’ve been amazing.
AA: Oh yeah, for sure! They really went down the wrong path with Daniel Craig. I think it should have been our Mr. Handsome, John Taylor from Duran Duran.
Yeah, he’s pretty handsome…
KV: If you go all the way back to Border Radio, we didn’t know what we were doing when we started that movie and neither did any of our musician actors. We chased them all down because they were the most attainable marquee value you could imagine. These people who had their name in the paper but were still approachable in nightclubs.
AA: And they were our idols too.
KV: So it all came together on that project.
Kurt, I read an interview about Border Radio where you were saying that you and Allison have really learned your trade since you made that film but you’ve also lost something in the process. What did you lose?
KV: I think one thing specifically that Allison and I continue to marvel at when we look at Border Radio is some of the exquisite landscapes and post card shots. A lot of horses on the beach. A lot of things that are largely a function of the time we had making the movie. You know, like hanging out in Mexico for a week or two and being there when stuff happened rather than squeeze a whole production into 17 days and having to shoot X number of pages per day. Then it becomes like cutting sausages. That’s what I think we’ve lost.
AA: And in that particular scene too—I’ve got to say, that scene with the horses—I don’t think I’ve ever really had anything but there’s just a couple of things like the guitar burning in the sand on the beach—moments that we had that were magical and unfortunately you just don’t get in a regular production because there you run into things like, ‘Oh, you need to get a permit for that’ and ‘Oh no, we can’t just run and grab that.’ It’s really infuriating. It takes so much out of the creative process.
KV: We’d wait around for four hours on the beach waiting for the right lighting. Can’t do that when you’re on a proper schedule. With this film, we’re going to go back to that. More cinema, really. And that’s part of the irony too—you do that with next to no money.
Will you borrow locations again too?
AA: Yeah, with some stuff in Echo Park, some in the Valley, some in the desert. Basically the same Border Radio haunts.
Are you going back to the Hong Kong Café?
AA: Oh! Wouldn’t that be something?
KV: Yeah, sure would! It’s still there, wonder if the doors are still open.
I heard you told some stories to get out of paying to shoot. How’d you convince them to shut down to shoot your film?
AA: Oh God, what did we tell them Kurt?
KV: That’s totally fallen off my hard drive. I have no idea.
AA: It’s really amazing, we really paid for nothing on that film.
KV: Someone must’ve hooked us up somehow. It’s not like we snuck in—they opened up their doors to us in the afternoon and we brought a band in. Maybe Chris D. or Dave Alvin called in a favor.
AA: At that point I don’t think they still had bands playing anymore. Are they even open anymore?
KV: No you’re right, I think they did close. That would’ve been cool to revisit though.
AA: It was a pretty incredible place back in the day. You could turn around and see David Bowie watching a band on stage. I remember seeing Danny DeVito of all people there watching X or something.
Did you see X when they came to the House of Blues a couple weeks ago? They played Los Angeles in full and screened The Unheard Music.
AA: Oh, fantastic! Wow. Wonderful. John Doe was—they were making that movie when we were making Border Radio.
What was your first encounter with John Doe like?
AA: I’ll never forget it actually—
KV: Oh I bet you won’t!
What does that mean?!
KV: She had such a crush on him back in the day.
That’s so cute!
KV: He was so cute! Now that I look back on pictures of him. He was such a dreamboat.
AA: I bet Kurt had a crush on him too.
KV: Fine, I had a man crush on him.
AA: He came to Malmuth Hall at UCLA to see some of the footage we had shot. Right Kurt?
KV: Sounds plausible.
AA: We had already shot something with Chris D., I think, and John Doe wanted to be in the movie. That was what I was hoping for, actually. Cause John Doe and Dave Alvin were in the Flesheaters at that point. That was their side band, with Chris D. So we met through Chris D. After seeing them a zillion times, at the Hong Kong Café—I think I was there that night that John Doe first saw the Blasters. It was quite an amazing show.
KV: And the way we met Chris D. was just by walking up to him and giving him a script.
How did the Gun Club steer your life in the right direction?
AA: It’s funny, I was just talking to someone through eBay today about the Gun Club today. I have a present for Kurt. I actually saw them for the first time before Terry was in the band. So I actually saw that first show, before Terry Gram and Rob Ritter joined the band. Then after that, it was just completely amazing. For me, it was that they had a quality different from other bands in L.A. They had the punk with the more rootsy Americana music to it. That’s why it holds up so well now. You can play any of the songs off Fire of Love, which is on so many people’s ‘Best Records of All Time’ lists. It’s timeless, really. Kurt and I used to go see the Gun Club together. They were his favorite band as well.
I was reading an interview you did, Allison, where you said, ‘Digital is the freeing device for women.’ How is digital more freeing than film and why is it more freeing for women than men?
AA: I felt like when I started working with digital—and I shot Things Behind the Sun on digital—that the language of working with digital, as opposed to working in film, is so much more accessible. In film school I’d always hear these guys walking around talking about film in a very nerdy way, a film nerdy way, and it seems so completely male-dominated. A ‘no girls allowed’ kind of thing. It’s not that we couldn’t learn that language but it seemed inherently exclusive. When digital came along, everything was open. The language of it is warmer and friendlier and anyone can access it. It felt like there was no more ‘boy’s club’ anymore. Open to anybody.
You’ve also said a female director mythology is starting to develop. What’s the mythology? Why is it developing now?
AA: I think that for a long time there was—well, after the silent movie period, because in the silent movie period there are annuals where you can see women directors, but women disappeared from the movie industry as directors with the talkies. You’d hear a lot about about ‘The Boy Wonder’ but not ‘The Girl Wonder.’ Things are so much better now. It’ll be interesting to see what happens now that Kathryn Bigelow broke the barrier. She really fought her entire career to not be trapped in some girl filmmaker ghetto. It’s so wonderful that she got the Academy Award. I feel like there’s so much more access now for women filmmakers. And I don’t even know if there needs to be a girl filmmaker mythology though, but there’s an open area now where you can be a wonder in yourself.
What does it mean to be a wonder in yourself?
AA: You can go with your own voice. I think there’s plenty of young women filmmakers who stand on their own. They don’t have to dabble quite the same way like I worried we were going to have to. For a while there were a lot of riot girl filmmakers—Sarah Jacobson—well not a lot, but a few that I thought were going to make a kind of new movement. Really audacious young women. And I think there’s a certain level of that still out there, and I think that helped save us. It’s been a long time coming, culminating in Kathryn [Bigelow] getting that Oscar. I don’t think there’s anyone who says ‘women can’t make films’ anymore, but things are still not great yet.
Yes there are. The person who introduced us is one of those people—one of my first interactions with him was him telling me that there are no good female directors. It was infuriating and insulting.
AA: Oh my God! Oh my God. I’m going to bitch at him all over the place. Unbelievable. Well, there’s definitely a male…fanboy part there still that doesn’t think women directors have much to offer. Or female guitarists. I remember Chrissie Hynde [singer/guitarist of The Pretenders] reading her thing ‘We have yet to have a female Jimi Hendrix—Why not?’ I mean, she had a really interesting argument for that. Not an argument, but a hypothesis. My daughter thought it was partly true as well. A lot of great male guitarists start playing at adolescense and play sports and channel that athleticism and put it into learning guitar. And that girls often are able to talk out all their stuff with each other, and are on the phone a lot, communicating together a lot, and using language more during adolesence than doing physical things like playing guitar.
KV: And the guys are going to all that trouble just to get girls. Why can’t we all just get along?
AA: And girls are wondering why the guys won’t put down the guitar! And instead the girls should be picking up the guitar.
KV: It’ll happen. It just takes that one girl and then the archetype will enter popular discourse.
AA: That’s the key. It just takes the one and the archetype enters. And that’s what will create ‘The Girl Wonder.’

ALLISON ANDERS’ GAS FOOD LODGING AND MI VIDA LOCA ON TUES, FEB. 15, AT CINEFAMILY, 611 N. FAIRFAX AVE., LOS ANGELES. 7:30PM / ALL AGES / $10. CINEFAMILY.ORG.

DISTRO HAS BEGUN!

SIDE A

LACO$TE by Daiana Feuer
HANNI EL KHATIB by Lainna Fader
DEATH by Kristina Benson
GANG OF FOUR by Lainna Fader
TEEBS by Kristina Benson
OFF! by Chris Ziegler
TOM TOM CLUB by Daiana Feuer
FORT KING by Dan Collins
LUIS & THE WILDFIRES by Lainna Fader
MY DRY WET MESS by Lainna Fader
BEST COAST by Dan Collins
WANDA JACKSON by Daiana Feuer
WHITE FENCE by Daniel Clodfelter
THE MELVINS by Chris Ziegler
WINO by Chris Ziegler
NOBUNNY by Drew Denny
HANDSOME FAMILY by Daiana Feuer
THE TRASHMEN by Dan Collins

SIDE B

ALBUM REVIEWS  edited by Dan Collins
THE INTERPRETER: CHAD BROWN by Lainna Fader
THE INTERPRETER: JULIA HOLTER by Drew Denny

COMICS edited by Tom Child

ART edited by Drew Denny
ALL THIS AND NOTHING by Drew Denny

BOOKS edited by Nikki Bazar
JON SAVAGE by Ron Garmon
BOOK AND ZINE REVIEWS

FILM edited by Lainna Fader
THE INTERPRETER: STRANGELOOP by Lainna Fader
ALLISON ANDERS + KURT VOSS by Lainna Fader

L.A. WISDOM w/ Kim Fowley and Ruthann Friedman edited by Daiana Feuer

POSTER:
Photography by Ramon Felix
Design by Jun Ohnuki
Letting by Champoyhate

SPECIAL THANKS to Annette Badalian and Shane Carpenter for helping us so much!

Download: Dinosaur Jr. “I Want You To Know”

(from Farm out now on Jagjaguwar)

Rather than interview J Mascis ourselves, we thought it would be more fun to continue our tradition of getting famous people to interview famous people for nothing more than the thrill of schmoozing with each other and taking work off our hands. This interview was conducted by director Allison Anders, who cast Mascis in films such as Grace of My Heart, and Tiffany Anders, the musician/singer/co-curator of Don’t Knock the Rock and also Allison’s daughter. Though the transcript below may make Mascis seem like a lively, free-spirited music buff, rest assured that on tape he sounded like Benicio Del Toro in The Usual Suspects as interpreted by Cookie Monster on lithium. This interview was curated and painfully transcribed by Dan Collins, with much-needed help by the Anders.

Allison Anders: We want to talk about the fact that you were never in Mi Vida Loca when you were supposed to be, so you’ll have to be in it this time!
Tiffany Anders: He does need you to make another movie. His acting career is starting to slip.
Allison Anders: Well, I’m going to do Mi Vida Loca II. Tiffany, remember? You, Jason and Spike ended up buying drugs, but it was supposed to be you, J and Mike.
J Mascis (guitar/vocals): What happened?
Tiffany Anders: I think it was your schedule. You guys were recording, and they showed up to the set the day that the other girl shoots Ernesto, so you didn’t have time to shoot the scene.
J Mascis: I don’t want to buy drugs.
Allison Anders: It would have been really interesting twenty years ago, but it would be a little inappropriate now that you’re a father.
Tiffany Anders: What’s up with the Dino movie?
J Mascis: He’s just filmed a lot of interviews with different people, a lot of shows and … I dunno. I don’t know if he’ll ever finish it. Give him a date that he has to finish it by and maybe he’ll finish it.
Allison Anders: Actually, you know what? Krakow!
J Mascis: Krakow? Auschwitz!
Allison Anders: How did you know? Have you been there? To Krakow? It was kind of surprising when we were over [in Europe]. There are so many young people with babies! And they were not stressed out! Young people who didn’t look totally broke and that were really in love with their babies. And then Tiffany’s friend said that they get quite a nice subsidy from the government.
Tiffany Anders: For babies. And dogs.
J Mascis: I think that’s why the punk rockers have dogs. I don’t know if they do that anymore, though.
Allison Anders: Has fatherhood changed your records? Do you think you would have made the same record if you hadn’t become a father?
J Mascis: Possibly no.
Allison Anders: I think sometimes I know if I hadn’t had a big experience, the work may have gone in a different direction.
J Mascis: I have no idea. But there seems to be a lot less time. So we did it in less time. Three or four months. The last album was probably over nine months.
Tiffany Anders: Lou’s a dad too?
J Mascis: And another one on the way.
Allison Anders: Dinosaur Jr. juniors!
Tiffany Anders: So I am supposed to ask about Witch? What’s up with Witch? What are the plans? I saw they were playing All Tomorrow’s Parties.
J Mascis: Yeah, we had one gig! Woo hoo!
Allison Anders: I love that song ‘Isadora.’ That’s my favorite. I’m a big Isadora Duncan fan. It reminds me of—I don’t even know what. I would say Quicksilver Messenger Service, but that wouldn’t be right. But it reminds me of a San Francisco band.
J Mascis: Flipper? Are there any good bands from San Francisco? We were having a discussion the other day in the van.
Allison Anders: I don’t like things that people are jumping around with their fists to. You know, just kind of doing a little hoedown. I’m not into hoedown kind of things.
J Mascis: What’s a hoedown band?
Allison Anders: The Grateful Dead! I don’t mind the psychedelic kind of dancing that’s like, ‘Ooh, I’m on acid, and I’m floating through air!’ But I don’t like the jug band-y kind of thing.
J Mascis: Thigh slappin’?
Allison Anders: I’m not into that! It bothers me a little bit. And somehow—I may be wrong—but it seems like the Flying Burrito Brothers never inspired that kind of hoedown dancin’. But who knows?
J Mascis: Well, it’s because they didn’t have any fans.
Allison Anders: Ha! There were just people standing around going, ‘I want to party with these guys when the set is over.’
J Mascis: They were all backstage, maybe.
Allison Anders: Who are some people that you are listening to now that we should know about? Because you are the first person who alerted us to Scott Walker. All those many years ago—in the ’90s.
Tiffany Anders: He was the first person who alerted me to Sandy Denny!
Tiffany Anders: But I have a feeling that you turned him on to Nick Drake!
J Mascis: I’m sick of Nick Drake since he’s on the cover of MOJO every week.
Allison Anders: Well, that’s kind of the problem. We have to wait a while before we can get close to him again. It’s hard when the whole world finally discovers somebody. But back then, nobody knew! I tried to tell her about Rodriguez and she already has his records! I can’t tell her anything anymore. I thought I was really going to be onto something! I buy a lot of tunes. If I go into a record store, I get too overwhelmed. You should be doing ‘What’s in your bag?’ at Amoeba. You shop, and then you open your bag. They just videotape you saying what you bought. They want me to do one, and I haven’t gone and done it yet. Maybe I’ll do it this weekend.
J Mascis: It’ll be like one single. For a hundred dollars!
Allison Anders: For a while, the only Bags single was there for a hundred bucks, for the longest time. But it’s not there anymore! Somebody bought it.
J Mascis: What do they have back there, behind those doors?
Tiffany Anders: Oh, tons! And apparently there’s another warehouse off-site.
J Mascis: I found a record there I’d been looking for since I was 15. And it was there on the wall for 30 bucks. I know a lot of record nerds and none of them knew about it. This band called the Mirrors. ‘Cure for Cancer.’ I guess they’re English, but there’s some Detroit band same name. I had to have it.
Allison Anders: I love that there are still some records that people don’t know anything about. Except Tiffany!
J Mascis: It’s weird what people know about, like kids. They know really obscure things about certain things, but there are these big holes where they don’t know things. It’s really odd.
Allison Anders: I found out with my students because often I make them do a mix CD as part of their assignment. It’s supposed to be like the songs of their life—it’s supposed to have a kind of narrative. I’m always amazed at the vast knowledge they have, but yet if you mention a certain band in the class, somebody really obvious, they don’t know anything about that band. But they’ll know something super-obscure. Needless to say, they know that funk stuff so well. I’ll never catch up to their knowledge of that. I didn’t grow up with anybody aspiring to be a DJ, you know? They’ve actually grown up thinking, when they were 14 years old, I want to be a DJ some day!
J Mascis: I need to go to Amoeba to get out of some crappy interviews. They’re filling up my schedule with crap. It’s so weird, because Al Gore’s TV channel—
Allison Anders: Current TV?
J Mascis: Yeah. They wanted to go with me where I would go in L.A., but then they wouldn’t let me go where I would go! ‘No Amoeba. Too many bands have gone there.’ I wanted to go to Erewhon. They’re like ‘That’s a grocery store.’ So what if it’s a grocery store? That’s so weird.
Allison Anders: Like, ‘Where do you want to go? Go here!’ After you’ve been coming here for like twenty years.
J Mascis: Black Market Music is closed. I used to go there.
Allison Anders: I do have a record store for you out in the valley. Freakbeat!
J Mascis: That already sounds like somewhere I’ll never go!
Tiffany Anders: Apparently Jimmy Page was in Freakbeat. He likes to go to record stores.
J Mascis: He used to go to Black Market.
Allison Anders: In fact, this Sunday, I just got a coupon for Freakbeat! Ten percent off! Because it’s a vinyl record day. So I’m gonna buy some vinyl.
J Mascis: Ten percent isn’t much of an incentive. How about like 87 percent off?
Allison Anders: They have a documentary this year about the death of the independent record store, which is a sad thing. Thurston’s in it. Which is a sad thing. I don’t like that—I need a place to go and listen.
J Mascis: And some nerd to talk to you to tell you what records to buy.
Tiffany Anders: If those nerds are nice and not jerks!
Allison Anders: You really need that! That’s in the documentary. This guy is saying, ‘When I was a kid in the ’70s, everything on the radio was just this crap, classic rock shit! And then I went to a record store and learned about Gun Club. That record saved my life!’ It’s like countless people saying how they were steered in the right direction by somebody in the record store. Because you can’t rely on radio to do that.
J Mascis: And guitar stores are similarly closing.
Tiffany Anders: Why is that, do you think?
J Mascis: The Internet! The people who make it still have stores, just somewhere where people can come in. But if they don’t also sell stuff on the Internet, they can’t make it.
Allison Anders: Seems to be like that guitar we sold, that we sold on eBay with you playing it! It was like a bright yellow guitar, a really terrible color. But you were playing it—I used that picture on eBay, ha ha! Played only once by this guy! But there are a lot of people who collect these guitars. Guys who were in bands when they were teenagers, and now they have made a fortune in real estate or something, and then they collect guitars and just buy them.
J Mascis: As an investment it’s kind of weird. But it seems to have done better than the stock market. It’s hard. I can’t really think in that way. ‘Investment-grade guitars.’
Allison Anders: I just think about which ones are pretty. Jesse Ed Davis’ guitar was really pretty, and had all the flowers painted on it and stuff. Where do these guitars go? When somebody like that is dead, where’s the guitar? Or do you think maybe they get rid of it beforehand?
J Mascis: Probably.
Tiffany Anders: Or it goes in a museum, like J’s guitar.
J Mascis: A Jazzmaster. I don’t know if it’s in a warehouse somewhere that the museum has. What’s it called? The one in Seattle? The Paul Allen Experience Music Project. But they always rotate stuff and store it.
Allison Anders: So you just donated it.
J Mascis: No, they paid me. They paid a lot of money. I wonder how much he’s got left. Still, if you have 40 billion and now you only have 20 billion, I wonder if you feel it. I saw somewhere how Bill Gates went from 58 billion to 40 billion, but somehow he had gone up in Richest Guys, because all the other guys had all gone down and he was still the richest guy. He’d only lost like a third.
Tiffany Anders: I’m also supposed to ask about the Witch album cover of [Dave] Sweetapple’s dog and your dog. But I haven’t seen it!
Allison Anders: I like how she keeps saying, ‘I’m supposed to ask you …’
J Mascis: I dunno. I’m just the drummer.
Allison Anders: Is playing drums like a break for you? Do you have as much pressure? Is it a little more fun?
J Mascis: Yeah, I’m really tired of electricity. I need a break from having to rely on electricity, of things breaking all the time. I like that. I really don’t do much! I’m waiting for it to become bigger. I’m waiting for our legend to build.
Allison Anders: Maybe it will happen at ATP.
Tiffany Anders: Maybe! Maybe you should get up to some shenanigans. Fistfight with Kevin!
Allison Anders: That would definitely make NME. That’s all you gotta do over there. Get some scandal in NME and then Witch is like, everybody knows.
Tiffany Anders: ‘Didya hear about the fight between Kevin Shields and Witch?’
J Mascis: The kung fu master.
Allison Anders: I’m tellin’ ya, that’s some good advice there! Look at these punch-ups. Look at what that did for Oasis!
J Mascis: I know! I like when that guy pushed the guitar player over. That was funny. Some guy knocked over Noel … I mean, you’re just standing there and he just pushes you over—you’re not really ready. And then the brother, you know—I read somewhere he was like, ‘Yeah, it was just like a pub fight.’ He waits for all these other people to go run after the guy and then he takes a little fake swing like, ‘Noel’s gotta get in there.’ We have an open guitar spot. Maybe we need a wild man.
Allison Anders: Not hard to find in Britain. Harder to find in American rock ‘n’ roll.
Tiffany Anders: Like the Primal Scream guitar player worked in a guitar shop. J was saying that the Primal Scream guitar player was working at a guitar shop.
J Mascis: He was like the nice guy. Everybody liked him.
Allison Anders: What happens when Dinosaur Jr. plays in Japan? You played that crazy festival a couple years ago, right? It was on a mountaintop.
J Mascis: Kind of on a lame ski area. That’s weird—that festival—because everyone there is there for the show, and they’re all music fans. So it’s hard to like go anywhere. We played at another one, Summer Sonic, which is a bit more commercial. I saw Fergie at catering!
Allison Anders: Nice! What was she eating? She’s got quite a body.
J Mascis: It seems like a lot of girls hate Fergie.
Tiffany Anders: She’s kind of repulsive.
J Mascis: See?
Allison Anders: How does it work technically playing in a place that big? How do you hear everything?
J Mascis: They have in-ear monitors, and maybe they have little amps next to their guitar tech. So if you’re on the side of the stage, all you hear is like wimpy drums, that’s about all you can hear. Because they all have monitors in their ear, and it’s eerily quiet!
Allison Anders: That’s really weird. I’d probably want to keep everything a bit more organic and not get in that direction.
J Mascis: Yeah, I’ve always been more in a Woodstock frame of mind. ‘Oh, it worked at Woodstock, having all these amps and just playing loud!’
Tiffany Anders: I interviewed Nancy Nevins from Sweetwater and she was talking about how there were no monitors onstage at Woodstock. They were the first band. She was like, ‘You couldn’t hear anything at all!’ She thought it probably sounded horrible, being up there.
J Mascis: But monitors are the downfall of society! All these bands who rely on them now, especially English bands or something … ‘Where’s my monitor?’ If you have them, that’s fine, but you should be able to play without a monitor.
Allison Anders: All this second-guessing technology! We have the same thing in film. We have the video feed and people can’t seem to make movies without it now. It used to be that you looked into the camera. You could see the light! You can’t even see the light through a monitor. It’s a nightmare! Everybody’s crowding around. As a director, you’ll be sitting there and some makeup person is looking over your shoulder to make sure the makeup’s okay. Everybody’s hyper-reacting. I’m going to do this show ‘Southland,’ and he doesn’t allow any monitors, which I love. You have to rely on your own instincts and your own abilities to know what’s going on in the scene.
Tiffany Anders: Nancy said the sound system was just completely inadequate! She said that basically they were the soundcheck band because they were the first real band.
J Mascis: Did someone play before them?
Tiffany Anders: Richie Havens. They were supposed to be first, but it was so disorganized that they got to the Holiday Inn, and of course they didn’t know it was going to be as huge as it was. Traffic was a nightmare and they had to take a helicopter, so they were late. And Richie Havens was basically playing forever until they got there.
J Mascis: He comes off pretty good in that movie. It only got three stars in MOJO.
Allison Anders: I heard that the Grateful Dead started quite a set-up with their amps onstage, right? I always thought it was Blue Cheer that started the tower of amps.
J Mascis: All the Dead had was a PA, so they had the whole PA behind them so they could mix it themselves, and it was spilling out into the audience. It’s interesting. I had some Jerry Garcia skis! Somehow they were painted with some Jerry artwork or something. Like he had ties. He had glasses made.
Allison Anders: I can’t imagine Jerry Garcia on skis! I can’t imagine him wearing a tie either! J’s seen it though, I can tell!
J Mascis: I can see him skiing off into the woods and smoking a bowl with some other hippies.
Allison Anders: When is your son learning to ski?
Tiffany Anders: You put him on a snowboard, then you put him on a skateboard. There are Dinosaur Jr. skateboards.
Allison Anders: I’m sure you’ve seen the YouTube videos of the skating bulldogs, right?
J Mascis: In the video they say, ‘He just did it!’ Like they didn’t teach him. They’re lazy-ass fucking dogs! But he’s amazing. He can push and turn …
Allison Anders: It’s not you putting him on the board? He gets on the board himself!
Tiffany Anders: If I could teach my kitty to do that, it would be great.
J Mascis: Tell us about the knee?
Allison Anders: I fell down in Elysian Park! I went running to take a picture of these people in their low rider, and I tripped over a log and just went flying! If I keep it straight, it helps. It’s not feeling very well.
J Mascis: I had poison ivy and someone was like, ‘Why don’t you put bleach on it?’ And I did and it really helped. It dried out the oil.
Allison Anders: I don’t like the direction this conversation is going! L.A. RECORD doesn’t need to put that in there. Any last words?
J Mascis: Message to Japanese fans? They always ask me in Japan, ‘Can we have a message for the Japanese fans?’

DINOSAUR JR. WITH LOU BARLOW ON THUR., NOV. 5, AT THE HOUSE OF BLUES, 8430 SUNSET BLVD., WEST HOLLYWOOD. 8 PM / $25.50-$27.50 / ALL AGES. HOB.COM. DINOSAUR JR.’S FARM IS OUT NOW ON JAGJAGUWAR. VISIT DINOSAUR JR. AT DINOSAURJR.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/DINOSAURJR.

—Nolan Knight

THUR., JULY 2 at 8 PM: Chicano Rock!: The Sounds of East Los Angeles

“Let’s take a trip down Whittier Boulevard!” chant Thee Midniters, in Jon Wilkman’s beautiful love letter to the soulful sounds of So Cal. Narrated by Edward James Olmos, this lively and inspiring film explores more than fifty years in the musical history of East Los Angeles, America’s largest Mexican-American community. For decades, generations of East L.A. artists created a unique musical voice, and in the process, proudly expressed their cultural identity, from ’40s pachuco swing to ’50s teen idol Ritchie Valens, ’60s garage rock and soul, to punk and beyond. Chicano Rock! features the timeless music of these eras, including Lalo Guerrero, Ritchie Valens, Cannibal and the Headhunters, Thee Midniters, El Chicano, Tierra, Los Lobos, Ozomatli, and Alice Velasquez (The Bags, Cholita, Las Tres). Jam-packed with rare footage, photos, artifacts, Chicano Rock! treats you to an exhilarating lowrider cruise that could only happen on the streets of Los Angeles. Author Gene Aguilera (“The Golden Age of Chicano Rock ‘n Roll”) will be on-hand to spin classic 45s, and we’ve also got a post-screening live set by a very special seminal L.A. punk band!

Dir. Jon Wilkman, 2008, digital presentation, 60 min.

Tickets – $12

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THUR., JULY 9 at 8 PM: B-MUSIC & DJ ANDY VOTEL PRESENT: Hungarian Rock Night

British DJ extraordinaire Andy Votel will be in person at the Cinefamily to spin tunes and to present what is both a remarkable achievement in Hungarian pop culture and Eastern European film, starring some of the leading lights of both Communist era New Wave cinema and the forward-thinking Hungarian rock scene. Szép lányok, ne sírjatok! (aka Don’t Cry, Pretty Girls) stars Jaroslava Schallerova (fresh from her leading role in Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders) alongside Hungarian rock goddess Sarolta Zalatnay and a cast of freak-rock non-actors plucked from the disgruntled state-governed Qualiton and Pepita record label rosters to make this underhanded tribute to the ‘silenced’ pop group Illes, in disguise as a working-class drama/rock festival liberation expose. Directed by Marta Mészáros (wife of Hungarian New Wave luminary Miklós Jancsó) and featuring heavy footage of bands like Metro, Syrius and Omega (who can be heard on the recently released “Well Hung” compilation on Finders Keepers records), this buried and previously untranslated film holds serious appeal to fans of both Polish and Czech Cinema, Mod culture, Youth culture and obscure 70′s rock music.

Dir. Marta Mészáros 1970, digital presentation, 90 min

Tickets – $10

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THUR., JULY 16 at 8 PM: America’s Lost Band: The Remains

“Had these Boston bad boys stuck it out beyond their 1966 debut, we might today be calling them–and not the Stones–the World’s Greatest Rock N’ Roll band.” -Mark Kemp, Paste Magazine

They played The Ed Sullivan Show, were hand-picked by Paul McCartney to open for the Beatles, and then…gone. America’s Lost Band captures the essence of The Remains, one of the best of American rock bands you’ve never heard. The story follows guitarist Barry Tashian, keyboardist Billy Briggs, bassist Vern Miller and drummer Chip Damiani, the four young original members of The Remains, from their earliest beginnings to their all-too-early end, when they broke up on the brink of fame, right after opening for the Beatles’ last-ever tour in 1966. America’s Lost Band finds the heart of music that refuses to die, culminating in the band’s recent well-deserved rediscovery and reunion. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Michael Stich, producer Fred Cantor, Remains keyboardist Bill Briggs and Remains frontman Barry Tashian (who will also be on hand to sign copies of his book “Ticket To Ride”, as well as your Remains albums!), in addition to a live set by psych garage rockers The Living Sickness!

Dir. Michael Stich, 2008, HDCAM, 66 min.

Tickets – $12

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THUR., JULY 23 at 8 PM: It Came From Detroit

In a smashing, energetic presentation, It Came From Detroit lovingly puts on display the “Motor City”, home to an internationally renowned and influential garage rock scene. Starting with The Gories in the 1980s, the bands of the Detroit garage scene have been known for two things: an impeccable knowledge of rock history, and a raucous live show. As bands such as the White Stripes, The Von Bondies, and the Electric Six started to develop a following overseas, journalists everywhere started to hype Detroit as “the next Seattle”, and It Came From Detroit documents the evolution of this scene, from its humble underground beginnings to its ascension as a trend known the world over. And, perhaps most touchingly, the film deals as well with how the unexpected popularity of certain key bands impacts the scene’s small group of friends, as some are catapulted to global recognition, while others are barely known outside of Detroit’s crumbling confines. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director James R. Petix, plus a live set by special musical guests!

Dir. James R. Petix, 2008, digital presentation, 102 min.

Tickets – $12

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THUR., JULY 30 at 8 PM: Pardon Us For Living But The Graveyard Is Full

30+ years. 2000+ shows. No hits. No sleep. In 1976, a gang of kids from Queens stumbled upon some abandoned instruments in the basement of the house they were renting and ended up forming a band. Little did they realize that thirty years later, they’d still be struggling to play their music and pay the bills. The Fleshtones were an integral part of the ’70s NYC underground scene and, amazingly, having soldiered on as a paradox, simultaneously legendary and obscure: boasting a rabid worldwide fan base and a reputation as a white-hot live act, but barely able to keep a record label for two albums in a row and ignored in all histories of the scene they helped create. Stunning vintage footage, insight from Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Clem Burke (Blondie) and Handsome Dick Manitoba (The Dictators), and candid self-deprecating interviews with band members Peter Zaremba, Keith Streng, Bill Milhizer and Ken Fox add up to a thoroughly entertaining portrait of the real hardest-working garage band in show biz. The evening’s screening will be followed by a live set by special musical guests!

Dir. Geoffray Barbier, 2009, digital presentation, 65 min.

Tickets – $12

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SAT., AUG. 1: BMI Roundtable Panel: Music, in Film, TV and New Media ’09

Join us for an intimate discussion of the changing landscape for music rights and new media. Musicians can find out how to get their music into films, TV and new media, and filmmakers can learn how to clear the rights for music for their work. The afternoon’s event will be moderated by Michael Des Barres, and guests include Doreen Ringer-Ross (BMI), music supervisors Tracy McKnight (Julien Donkey-Boy, Human Nature, Murderball) and Howard Paar (The L-Word, Dogtown and Z-Boys, Ken Park), composer Jay Ferguson (“The Office”), DKTR founder/film director Allison Anders (Border Radio, Grace Of My Heart, Things Behind The Sun), and more!

Tickets – $7

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THUR., AUG. 6: Wesley Willis’s Joyrides and Haack…The King Of Techno

Despite impossible odds, self-proclaimed rock ‘n roll star and “Chicago City Artist” Wesley Willis became an underground rock icon, revered artist and hero to many before his untimely death in 2003. Through his force of personality, his drawing talents, his unique vocabulary and an incredibly focused and singular songwriting style, Wesley’s creativity attracted people from all walks of life, and helped him to overcome the daily torment of schizophrenia, a haunting condition which plagued him throughout his adult life. Directors Chris Bagley and Kim Shively spent five years on the road and at home with Willis (along withn his many family members, friends and collaborators) to create the definitive portrait of Wesley as prolific artist and musician, on his path from obscurity to fame–a journey which will leave you uplifted, tickled and adrenalized.

Bruce Haack was one of the most musically and lyrically inventive artists of the early electronic age, combining homemade analog synths, classical, country, pop and acid rock elements into one massive, heady stew. His craft evolved from his passion and creation of numerous kids’ records, and today his work has inspired the likes of world-renowned musicians such as Beck, the Beastie Boys and Mouse On Mars, proving he’s an almost-lost treasure ripe for rediscovery. Packed with warped visuals, wild music and far out stories, Haack follows the King of Techno as he drops in on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and golden-oldie game show host Garry Moore, playing his bizarre instruments such as the Peopleodian, a device played by touching peoples’ skin! Directed in true Haack spirit, for kids, adults and music fans alike, Philip Anagnos’ directorial debut will send you out humming “School For Robots” and scrambling for Haack’s records! Director Philip Anagnos will appear in person for a post-screening Q&A session!

Wesley Willis’s Joyrides  Dirs. Chris Bagley & Kim Shivley, 2008, DigiBeta, 78 min.

Haack: The King of Techno  Dir. Philip Anagnos, 2004, DigiBeta, 57 min.

I Need That Record! asks the simple question: why have over 3,000 independent record stores in the U.S. closed in the past decade? As much a cool history lesson on vinyl as a portrait of greedy record labels, media consolidation, homogenized radio, big box stores, e-commerce, shoddy “stars” pushed by big money and even the digital revolution, the film is, at its core, a loving tribute to the cherished nerdy record stores which for decades have nurtured our access to the music we all love. In addition to the exploration of its juicy premise, the film contains interviews with Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Ian MacKaye (Fugazi), Mike Watt (Minutemen), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Chris Frantz (Talking Heads), Pat Carney (The Black Keys), composer Glenn Branca, authors Noam Chomsky and Legs McNeil, rock photographer Bob Gruen–and dozens of indie record stores across the U.S. of A.! The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Brendan Toller, a panel discussion (moderated by Michael Des Barres, featuring special guests) on the fate of the indie record store today, a Danny Benair Record Club listening party (bring a record to share if you want!), and a record swap on the Cinefamily outdoor patio!

Dir. Brendan Toller, 2008, digital presentation, 77 min.

Tickets – $10

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THUR., AUG. 20 at 8 PM: ON/OFF: Mark Stewart from The Pop Group to The Maffia

This one’s a must for all post-punk junkies! The name of singer/industrial hip-hop pioneer Mark Stewart may not be instantly familiar, but his influence is felt the world over. From his early days with confrontational post-punk pioneers The Pop Group to his myriad collaborations with the likes of Trent Reznor, Massive Attack and Primal Scream, Stewart has provided ghostly beats and haunting vocals for over thirty years, and shows no signs of stopping. German filmmaker Tøni Schifer, who followed Stewart around for three years, has crafted a detailed, intimate portrait of the artist, supplemented by interviews with Stewart himself, his Pop Group co-horts Dan Catsis, Gareth Sager and John Waddington, Keith Levine (P.I.L.), Janine Rainforth (Maximum Joy), Douglas Hart (The Jesus & Mary Chain), Fritz Catlin (23 Skidoo), Daniel Miller (Mute Records), Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Massive Attack and many others, plus some terrific never-before-seen vintage performance footage. Plus, scenes of the wildly eccentric Stewart interacting with his mother are not to be missed! Straight from Berlin, director Tøni Schifer will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A!

Dir: Tøni Schifer, 2009, DigiBeta, 90 min.

Tickets – $12

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SPECIAL SATURDAY SCREENING

SAT., AUG. 22 at 5 PM: Of All The Things

The most unique comeback story of the year. Dennis Lambert was one of the most successful and diverse songwriter/producers of the ’70s and ’80s, with hits like “Ain’t No Woman (Like The One I’ve Got)”, “Rhinestone Cowboy”, “Don’t Pull Your Love”, “Baby Come Back” and “Night Shift”. He had chart-toppers in almost every genre of music–at one point, four of his songs were simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a feat previously accomplished only by The Beatles. That was then. Today, he’s a 60-year-old family man selling real estate in Florida. But it turns out his obscure 1972 solo album is huge–in the Philippines. A Filipino concert promoter has been begging Dennis to tour for decades, and in 2007 he finally agreed. Of All The Things is a hilarious and touching pop/rock/country/R&B documentary that follows Dennis on his whirlwind tour, as he rediscovers his passion for music and thousands of fans he never knew he had. Some lives deserve an encore. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Dennis Lambert, his documentarian/son Jody Lambert, and some very special guests!

Dir. Jody Lambert, 2008, HDCAM, 83 min.

Tickets – $10

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THUR., AUG. 27 at 8 PM: Night Flight tribute night

Before infomercials took over the late-night airwaves, overnight programming was a staid line-up of reruns, talk shows, and old movies. Throughout most of the ’80s however, there was one anarchic alternative—-Night Flight. Premiering on the fledgling USA Network on June 5, 1981–two months before MTV’s arrival—-Night Flight was a glorious amalgamation of music videos, short films, cartoons, interviews, concerts, and cult movies. For many viewers, it was a video primer to the counterculture of the Reagan era, featuring artists and films that at the time could not be seen anywhere else and for seven years, Night Flight was required viewing for stoners, punkers, headbangers, and insomniacs. Now, twenty years after the final episode was aired, the show’s producers have gone back into their video vaults and emerged with this best-of program that will bring tears of joy to fans’ sleep-deprived eyes, as well as a musical feature film picked from the Night Flight programming schedule archives! Night Flight creator Stuart Shapiro will appear in-person for a Q&A after the program!

Tickets – $10