From PackageThf@aol.com Thu Aug 14 11:54:13 1997 Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 02:41:07 -0400 (EDT) From: PackageThf@aol.com Subject: superstars in your pants Long time, no see, eh? To conclude the celebration of the list's two year anniversary, here's part 2 of the interview with JON WURSTER. For those of you new to the list who missed part 1, it can be found on the HERE WITH SUPERCHUNK site (www.monkey.org/~chunk/superchunk) which also now has a special press release for the new album, new graphics, and nifty photos of the band recording the album that you won't see elsewhere - check it out. While the Chunk will be starting a full US tour in October, you can get taster previews: - SEPT. 4> SUPERCHUNK & FRIENDS> Merge Night @ CMJ, Irving Plaza - NYC: also featuring Ladybug Transistor, Pipe, and Butterglory (who have a new album, RAT TAT TAT, out soon!) - SEPT 26> unconfirmed/tenative show at Duke U. which may be limited to students only - more info to come! - SEPT 27> Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill So, with that done, let PART II commence! ------------------ DaveKrinsky: I know for the "Watery Hands" video, you had edited the song. Where did you make the edit? JonWurster: It's funny - and I'm not saying this so people will feel the need to buy each version of this - but there are three separate versions of the song. The version that's on the single and the version on the album are very similar, they're not edited at all. They're just mixed slightly differently. You might not even notice anything. The version that's going to be in the video and the version that's going to radio is about 45 seconds shorter. We didn't lose anything we didn't need to. Actually, I like the edited version a little better because it gets to the chorus quicker and it's a little more of a concise statement. DK: How did filming the video go? JW: Well. It was kind of unnerving in that, the day or so before we actually went to shoot it, there was a blurb about it on the MTV News. I'm not sure how they found out about this, but they said that Janeane Garafalo was going to be in New York this weekend to be in Superchunk's new video for "Watery Hands." [You may know Janeane from HBO's Larry Sanders Show, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, and Reality Bites.] DK: I bet I know how they found out. Janeane's hosting their new show, Indie Outing, which is supposed to be all indie rock videos. JW: That's right, that could be it. We filmed a little interview which will be on the Indie Outing show. She and David Cross (HBO's MR SHOW) were great. Really nice folks too. I'm just as into comedy as I am into music at this point in life. When it comes down to "Do I want to listen to an album or watch 'Mr Show' or 'Larry Sanders'", 90% of the time I'll choose "Mr Show' or "Larry Sanders'. So in a way working with them and just getting to watch them 'make with the funny stuff' was like being at one of those fantasy baseball camps... but for comedy. DK: Had you met them before or had you just "talked" through other people? JW: At the time Mr Show began I didn't get HBO so I was a latecomer to their (Cross and Bob Odenkirk)genius.Phil Morrison (director) and Joe Ventura (concept originator of the Hyper Enough and Watery Hands vids)brought me a bunch of tapes of the program and I was a disciple ever since. I knew that he and Bob were into bands of our ilk, so I got a box together of shirts of stuff and sent it to them. David called a few days later to thank me for all the stuff, but he said already had all the albums I had sent him - he was already a fan, which was a nice surprise. Janeane also liked the band and they had both come to see us in LA at the Palace. She may have also attended a couple of shows by other Merge bands over the years. The director was Phil Morrison, who is a great friend of ours. He did the "The First Part" and "Untied," which no one's ever seen. DK: But "Untied" was never a single - ? JW: It was going to be a second video, not a second single, so we just went ahead and filmed it. There was this scene where Laura and I had firecrackers in our mouths. They wouldn't play it because of that. It was right then, when they told us that they wouldn't play it, that this one Aerosmith video was really big, the one that shows the kids jumping off a bridge and then driving a car into a wall. DK: "Living on the Edge"? JW: That one. So we just thought "you won't let us do that, but you'll show a kid drive a car into a wall?" DK: I hate to say it, but I think Aerosmith has more financial clout... JW: You mean they'll give bands with a lot of money behind them preference? NO WAY!!! THAT WOULD BE WRONG!!! DK: In most Chunk videos, there's been a plot or a premise. What about this video? JW: I don't want to give away too much of it but Jeanene and David play a brother-sister directing duo. We butt heads on performance ideas and antics ensue. After Phil and Joe originated the main idea Mac and I came up with some things too. DK: Do you have any idea when we'll be seeing it on TV? JW: Hopefully late August or early September. DK: I know you have tentative touring plans for the US in October. Any more news on that or is it still being finalized? JW: I think, for the first time in years, we're hopefully going to get to some out of the way places in Canada. That's in the works right now. I'll let you know more when we finalize that. The plan is to do the first part of a US tour in October, maybe do Europe in December, and then the second part of the US tour in either January or February. Hopefully that'll be the plan we stick to, but who knows? DK: How many people do you take with you when you tour? JW: In the recent past, we've had the four of us in the band, a sound guy, a T-shirt person, and a crew guy who helps with the instruments. DK: And you only take one van? JW: Now, we have the van and we also rent a Ryder truck. DK: Good, because I was thinking, if you're all in one van... JW: When we did the Belly tour - it was everyone and everything in one van and it was sheer misery. DK: I know you weren't too happy on that tour anyway. That was just a bad experience. JW: And that just made it SO much worse, the seven of us in one van! DK: How big is the van? JW: It's about the longest van you can get, it's a stretch. DK: The Belly tour was across the nation, right? JW: Well, it was supposed to be. I think our last show was going to be in L.A. The bad part about that, which I'm sure you already know, was that we had sent a notice to the promoters telling them that we were off the tour and if they could please post something to that effect and they didn't. We got a lot of letters from kids saying that they had gone to the show and had no idea that we weren't playing. DK: I know you're not even done working on your US tour plans yet, but I was wondering if you're going head over to Europe to tour? JW: There was actually talk about doing Europe right after we did the states, which would be in Nov-Dec. But that's still up in the air. Europe has never been that good for us - we know at this point which countries we can do... I don't even want to say 'well,' but not terribly in. DK: Are you talking about attendance or popularity - obviously you have to deal with the financial realities of the situation. JW: We can't afford to go play in France to 100 people every night. We're sorry but that's the reality. I think the plan now is to go and hit the places where we know we'll do ok and break even. DK: So it would be a European tour, but possibly with fewer dates? JW: Exactly. Almost certainly fewer dates. DK: You must rack up quite a charge - first of all, isn't the dollar still weak in Europe? JW: I believe so. DK: So you have that, and then you rent your instruments... JW: Yes, and then hotels... It really adds up. We've never made money in Europe. I think, with the last trip we did, it might have been the first one where we ever broke even. We've always seen going over to Europe as more of a working vacation. It's a shame, because we don't want to disappoint people in a country where we don't do well. DK: But you have to be realistic. JW: You really do. DK: Speaking of overseas, do you know what the release schedule is for INDOOR LIVING [the new LP] abroad? JW: It's coming out on City Slang Records [in Europe], like our other ones. DK: You know, someone sent me something about that. This is probably wrong, but I was told that it was coming out in Europe on September 2nd [also the US release date], but it's got a different title. JW: That's the first I've heard of that. DK: According to what I was sent, the album's called "Superstars In Your Pants." JW: That's gotta be a joke. DK: I kind of figured, but I didn't know what you did with your overseas albums, so I thought I should ask. JW: You know, I went to the Merge web site and the guy that designed the site is Jack [McCook], the original guitar player [for Superchunk]. DK: I've been meaning to ask you if it was one and the same. JW: He's always been a computer whiz and he's really good at that graphics stuff, so that's what he's doing now. DK: Is that what he does for a living or is he just doing it for the Merge site? JW: I think that's what he does for a living. I went to the site and there was blurb about the "Watery Hands" single. DK: I noticed that - the fake tracks listed, like "Watery Hands (the nipple mix)," and other silly titles. JW: Exactly. So that's why I kinda think that he might be behind the European title. DK: But the album will be coming out at the same time in Europe? JW: It will probably come out the following week in Europe. DK: How about in Australia? JW: Australia is up in the air at the moment. We're not quite sure who's going to put it out. Same goes for Japan. DK: I remember I asked you last year if there were any interesting tour or studio stories. Do you have any new ones? JW: I forgot this one every time I did an interview for the last record - the day before we went up to Boston to record, we were loading out of our rehearsal space. I had my four-track and I dropped it - it landed right on my middle toe! It really swelled up . I couldn't even wear a shoe. The next day, we went up to do the record and I still couldn't wear a shoe. It was on my right foot,the bass drum foot. So I had to do the whole record with - I take a size 9 1/2 - I was wearing a size 10 1/2 unlaced Converse Chuck Taylor high top. I had it padded with a bunch of cotton. The pain was terrible. Everything worked out all right though. I was certain I was going to incurr some malady going into this record, just because - when we did FOOLISH, I had this painful tendonitis in my right wrist. So I figured that this was how my body reacts to the stress of recording! DK: Did you make it through injury-free this time around? JW: I got sick about three days into it, but I had already done most of the drums. DK: Well, maybe next time. JW: What else can go wrong? DK: I had read this thing about the Breeders - or maybe it was the Amps - when they were touring Europe. Jim, the drummer, was getting some kind of injury in almost every city. One night, he was doing this rock star thing and he had lifted part of his drum kit over his head and accidentally hit himself in the head with it. He kept having injuries like that. JW: That's such a bad place to be hurt or sick, too, because it makes it that much more unbearable. DK: Why - because it's harder to get medical care or -? JW: Because you're the most alone you could possibly be. I mean, you may have your whole band around you, but just being over in Europe just makes it that much harder, somehow. Not that Europe's a bad place, but considering where your mind is at that point when you're on tour and when you get sick or you hurt yourself somehow... it just kind of compounds the misery. You have to have toured over there with a band to fully understand it. I'm sure European bands that come over here go through the same thing. DK: Pretty soon, you're going to be seeing articles about the band and, more commonly, reviews of the new album. Do you read the press or would you rather not know? JW: I'll usually read them. I was thinking that maybe this time I wouldn't, that I'd wait until six months went by and then look at them, but I can't not read them. DK: But in some cases, such as in SPIN's Guide To Alternative Rock, they weren't particularly kind, especially to the earlier albums. It ticks me off to read that and I would think that it would be worse for you, considering that you've spent the time and energy to make the albums, essentially your babies, and then see SPIN take their liberties with it JW: Yeah, that can be annoying, but that real big, kind of straight press has never really been that into us, like SPIN or Rolling Stone,those publications. Well, Spin has given us some good reviews but RS has never even written about us. They'd only mention us when they were writing about either "this new DIY phenomenon" or "the return of vinyl" or to give one of our records a luke-warm review. DK: But, when FOOLISH came out, SPIN gave you two pages near the beginning of one issue. Well, a page and a half was a picture but... JW: That photo was actually taken a year a half before FOOLISH came out - around the time of ON THE MOUTH. They did this huge interview with us and a nine hour photo shoot with this woman that took that picture. Seriously, from eight o'clock in the morning to five in the afternoon - that long. Forever! Then there was talk - God knows why - of it even being a cover story. Who knows why they'd want to do a cover story of this band nobody's ever heard of! So we were thinking that wasn't going to happen, but we thought so mething would come out. And nothing came out! They totally ditched the article and didn't write anything about us until FOOLISH. So they just used that picture. DK: Any TV appearances? JW: Nothing in the works yet. DK: You've been on Conan before. How did that get set up? JW: I think it was Spott, who works at Merge, that lined that up. He sent them some stuff and maybe the booker had heard of us before and was interested. At that point, they were getting a lot of bands like us, like the Spinanes - I think they were the first band that we knew that were ever on Conan O'Brian. But I think that, as of now, the only thing that we have is the appearance on "Indie Outing". DK: You were on 120 Minutes last year - maybe again or is Indie Outing taking the place of that appearance? JW: I would assume we could probably get on that again- I could be wrong. Matt Pinfield has always been into the band - he's been a supporter of ours, so maybe we could twist his arm into getting us on. DK: It seems that, ever since they canceled Alternative Nation, 120 Minutes has been playing more major label stuff and leaving less and less room for indie bands. Maybe that's why they have Indie Outing now, but that's only three hours a week! JW: There are so many bands on major labels now that are what we now know as "alternative rock." It just seems that now, more than ever, MTV and radio are going to play something that's on a major. We have this great quote from when we were trying to get "Hyper Enough" played on the radio, from a program director : "If these guys are so great, why aren't they on a major label?" That's what we're up against and I think that's everywhere. We aren't on a label that says to a programmer 'Hey if you play the new Superchunk single I'll make sure you get the new Nine Inch Nails before your competitor does". That's wrong and it seems that nothing has changed since the days of payola in the 50's. Those radio festivals are the same thing: "We'll play your song if you promise to come play our radio fest for free in the summer". The radio stations think they made you a success and now you owe them. DK: While that may be a large hurdle to overcome, I would think that it still wouldn't be much of an obstacle for the band. JW: I think we've come to the realization that we'll never get anything resembling heavy radio or video play. And that doesn't really bother me because I don't like anything I hear on the radio. Maybe we're doing something right if they're not playing us! Radio and video play was completely out of the question when Superchunk formed so it's not like we're shocked that our records aren't on the radio. Things were completely different back then. Even when I joined in 1991 it was unthinkable for a "punk-rooted" band to get above ground radio play. Then grunge music was invented!! Yay! Things changed for a couple weeks and then more and more crummy bands formed and started stinking up the joint. Ok, enough negativity. I think we're in a good position in that we still basically do it ourselves. The real plus is that we're never in danger of being dropped by our label! We're able to draw a decent size crowd most places. This is the best record we've ever done, which means that we're not out of ideas yet! We're not in danger of breaking up. I'm really into the idea of us all being 30 too. Who'd have thought that this would last as long as it has? I'm very interested in seeing how we'll grow as a band and as people. I think not touring so much has benefited us enormously. We've been able to establish something resembling home lives and that really helps us keep our sanity. I know there are people out there that would like to see us play more but this is the way we've chosen to do it. We thank you all for supporting us all these years (yipes! I sound like Roger Daltrey or something), we do appreciate it. And as someone so eloquently put it some twenty-two years ago: "Alright! you deserve to give yourselves a round of applause, let's go!" --------THANKSAGAIN to Jon Wurster for taking the time for the interview and all of his help----------Look for another mailer in 2-3 weeks with the TOUR SCHEDULE for the 1st Leg of their US tour (just call it the "wet wurlitzer" leg for now...) + all info i've been sent in the last month or so - sorry for dragging that part out, folks... so, until then.... --------- CHUNKONTHEWEB Superchunk's EMAIL: superchunk@mindspring.com Here With Superchunk: www.monkey.org/~chunk/superchunk Merge Records: www.mrg2000.com/merge ChunkList FAQ: www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/2605/chunkfaq.html