Punk Rock Toilets 2: The Heatley

 The Heatley is by no means a punk club, but it has a pretty goddamn punk rock toilet! Art in top pics by Ola Volo.

Punk rock toilets: the Red Gate

 I love a good punk rock toilet. The Red Gate has two awesome ones. I made people wait while I took a few pictures (but I was fast about it, and, uh, some of these I was seated for!).

Rong was great tonight too! 

A Decade of Devours: a Jeff Cancade interview by guest blogger Ian JR McClelland

Allan's note: I met the author of the following, Ian JR McClelland, the first time I saw John Otway, at that wacky North Van open mic appearance of 2023. Ian is a true music lover and I've run into him at shows and concerts since. He knows Jeff of Devours and has a more varied palette than I do -- hell, he even went to see Madonna! -- so I thought he would be abundantly more qualified to tackle Devours and his singular, compelling, but very much out-of-my-wheelhouse music, which has elements of electronica, darkwave, techno, and other things I generally do not listen to (but can appreciate: I've seen Devours a couple of times and enjoyed him -- he is very compelling and charismatic). 

So here's Ian and Jeff (Devours) -- thanks, guys! -- apropos of the upcoming Rickshaw show. Also see here, for Devours' music! All further writing below is by Ian McClelland (IM), with answers to the questions by Devours (D) and a few tinkers here and there by me (mostly to punctuation and italics). Cheers - Allan out! 

A Decade of Devours: a Jeff Cancade interview by guest blogger Ian JR McClelland

10 years ago, Jeff Cancade created Devours as an instrumental project that blossomed into a serious vessel once his wistfully personal lyrics and vocals were added to his eclectic electronic soundscapes. Pulsing rhythms with heart and soul wash over the listener and you’re hooked and brought onto the Devours planet! 2016 brought out the first album Late Bloomer (self-released debut on cassette) and with his combined dedication to playing as many shows possible, it cemented the groundwork which lead to indie label interest with 2019’s Iconoclast on CD. Momentum was going well and big events were planned and then bang: COVID hit. Rather than let it get him down, Jeff used his angst and anxieties to stay prolific with delivering 2 brilliant releases: 2021’s Escape From Planet Devours and 2023’s Homecoming Queen both self-released on vinyl. During this same time he created his own label, “Surviving The Game.”

Celebrating a decade of Devours, I had the pleasure to interview Vancouver musical mastermind behind it all to discuss his career and the new exciting fifth self-release, Sports Car Era.

Ian M: Your fifth new album Sports Car Era will be out officially on March 14 but you have an album kick off show at the Rickshaw on March 8. Will you have vinyl copies of the new album Sports Car Era at the show?

Devours: Yeah, so I was hoping to get the show lined up with the actual album release date, but I couldn't get it, so I'm doing it a week earlier. Hopefully the records will be ready by then but I'll also have lots of other new merch. The record release show is the live premiere of the full album, and then a week later it'll be available digitally and on streaming. So people who come can hear it a week early!

IM: And you'll eventually be having three different variants of the vinyl?

D: Yes but not all at once. Just as they sell, kind of like what I did with the previous album Homecoming Queen.

IM: With every album you create, you always take your listener on a fresh new journey that's sort of unexpected but still feels like a Devours project.

D: Thanks! I want to make music that's artistic and interesting, but also somewhat commercial. I like making pop music and I don't want it to be too opaque. I am an album person. I grew up obsessed with albums. I think of albums similarly to how a fashion designer like Marc Jacobs comes up with an entire collection, like the "Spring 2025 Collection" or something. You don't necessarily just look at pieces individually, but look at the entire collection and how it works together, contrasts and compliments the other outfits within the collection. That's sort of how I write music. I'm album-minded and so I'll come up with a few upbeat songs and then I'll be like, oh, let's try a ballad to balance things. I'm more of an album person than a singles person.

IM: Turning 40 seems to be a big theme on Sports Car Era but I'm very impressed that you recognized that you might not have even reached your prime yet.

D: This entire album is just about turning 40. It's about grappling with public perception, because when you're a musician and you're 40 and you haven't made it huge, then you're typically seen as old and not marketable anymore. It's a youth-driven market, right? The industry didn't want me in my 30's, so I've been putting out albums by myself and trying to forge my own path without industry or label support. I'm trying to find self-empowerment in entering my forties and being like, you know what, maybe I was never actually meant for the music industry. Luckily, I think that there are still people who will support you if you're not within the industry machine. If you look at a band like Phish or even Insane Clown Posse for instance, they're not necessarily getting reviewed on Pitchfork but they're touring and have found a way to exist outside of the machine. Those are the kinds of bands who I'm looking at. They're kind of living outside of the mainstream and outside of the industry model. There is a way to exist outside of it and it's hard, but that's sort of where I'm at.

IM: That's interesting because with your last album Homecoming Queen, the song "37 Up (The Longing)" is where you specifically mention ageism and getting older. Was this a subliminal precursor to the new album?

D: Yeah, that's a really interesting question! "37 Up" is one of my favourite Devours songs. It's also one of the most depressing songs I've ever written in my life. So much of being an indie musician is fueled by the "fantasy." What would it feel like to get interviewed by a major publication? What would it feel like to tour and play big shows to people? It is like this fleeting ecstasy when it actually happens. It's like you're taking a shot of heroin or something and you want more of it and you can't get it. It can feel pretty destabilizing. Sometimes the happier people are the ones that are still striving for something but never quite get there. The song is basically saying 'be careful what you wish for'. Last summer, I got nominated for a Polaris, received some local recognition, and played a huge string of shows. That's the dream, right? It's the dream of every musician who's just trying to get anywhere in large cities in Canada where people don't usually care about them. And then when you actually get to that level and you realize that you can't even support yourself financially doing it, it's discouraging. You put so much of your heart and your soul and your bandwidth into doing it. When I think back to my 30's, I made major sacrifices relationship-wise, career-wise and I feel like my side career is sort of a mess right now because I always try to prioritize music and Devours. I don't regret anything, but the reality of being a DIY musician wears on me. The song suggests that it's almost a better head space to be in to be striving for something as opposed to actually getting it.

IM: How did you come up with the name Devours? Is there a meaning to it?

D: I chose Devours because I had a feeling it would look cool on a t-shirt! (laughs) It was more of an aesthetic choice but also as the music is dark and passionate the name reflects that a bit.

IM: How do the melodies and music pop up in your head?

 
D: Sometimes I sit down at my keyboard and jam. Sometimes I'm biking to the grocery store and a melody pops into my head. If the hook is good enough, then I'll remember it. I have a piano in my brain, so I sometimes just make full songs in my head when I'm out somewhere.

IM: What if a lyric comes to mind?

D: I keep track of funny one liners that pop up in my head in a Microsoft Word document on my computer. Sometimes I use them and sometimes I don't. I don't often sit down and say "let's write a song now", melodies and lyrics just pop into my head when I'm out and about.

IM: I've noticed that many of your songs often shift gears in regards to tempo changes and sometimes the songs take on a whole new structure or chapter which always keeps the listener engaged because it can be unpredictable and really interesting.

D: I love pop music so, so much. I love melodies and harmonies and hooks. I have a huge sweet tooth. I grew up on Britney Spears, Swedish pop producers, ABBA, etc. and I have pushed myself to learn from their work. I try to write the catchiest songs possible that also break apart the formula a little bit. Most people, even if they don't realize it, just want a song with three chords, like C to G to F repeat. I try to take the formula and toy with it a little bit. That's how I write music. It's still catchy, it's still musical, but it has three choruses and then no second verse or something like that. I see it kind of like a Rubik's cube. There are so many different combinations and permutations, but you still need to have the groundwork and how to write a pop hook. You need to understand the rules, but then know how to fuck with them.

IM: Your lyrics are very deep and relatable to many people even if they are sometimes self-loathing to a certain degree. How do you come up with your lyrics?

D: Yeah, thank you. I have always seen Devours as a 'lyrics first' project. I made a lot of music when I was a kid and I feel like it never really took off because I wasn't there lyrically yet and I hadn't experienced enough in my life. When I turned 30, I started Devours and made my first self released debut "Late Bloomer" and it was at a point in time where I had just been making instrumental music for a number of years...

IM: Like "21st & Main"?

D: Wow, good! That's a deep cut! But yeah, I had just reached a point where I was like, I'm out of the closet now and I've experienced a few relationships and I've experienced moving from big city to big city. And I think that sometimes for artists, it just takes a bit longer. Essentially, every album that I release is a bunch of journal entries, or time capsules of what's going on in my life at the time. Sports Car Era is about turning 40 and Late Bloomer was about making sense of my life at 30. My lyrics are sort of like a glimpse into my anxieties and depression, but also happiness and joy of being alive. Lyrics are important and sometimes you just have to live a bit, because if you haven't gone through anything hard in life, it's difficult to make an album that's deep and self reflective.

IM: In the 10th year of Devours you've also made a plethora of such visually well done and very artistic videos. How are they made? Does a director come to you and want to make a video?

D: (laughs) No, no! I have big ideas for videos but it's so hard without budgets because they are expensive to make. Even to just create a video in a room, if it's done properly, it can cost more than $10,000 to make. lf you don't have label budgets or grant funding it's really, really hard. That kind of limits certain things. I'm so grateful for the people who've worked with me. Over the years of being in Vancouver's arts scene, I've met a lot of people who are videographers or people in the arts. Some are also musicians and they have access to studio spaces and stuff. It's a matter of finding creative, resourceful people who are looking to collaborate and gain experience.

IM: I love the giant Devours head in the "Sports Car Era" video! Who made that?

 
D: His name is Patrick Macht. He is an amazing artist and director in Vancouver. He made the videos for "Gimp Mask" and "Sports Car Era". He also has his own fashion clothing line. He's one of Vancouver's most talented artists and he made my giant Devours head. He used a big yoga ball. He made a big paper mâché head that is crazy to wear! I can't hear in it. I can't see in it. It falls off my head constantly. I can't balance it! (laughs)

IM: I'm glad you didn't break it too badly when you were stomping your cowboy boot heel into it!

D: That was Patrick's idea. I was nervous. I was like "You put so much work into this! Let's not destroy it!" It took him a month painting and repainting and coating. It took a lot of work!

IM: Let's talk about the new album coming out. There are 10 new tracks in total but there are three songs that I've heard and seen so far on your Youtube site. The first single released, "Swordswallower (Zendaya's Fortress)" is an impressive 7 minute opus which has a very brooding second half. I'd love to know more behind the meaning of the song.

D: It's definitely the most ambitious song on the album and it's the longest song I've ever made. I was very adamant that I would put it out as a single, because it feels like a curveball after the soft synths from Homecoming Queen. At this point I'm playing the long game. Sometimes people just make one album and then call it a day, but this is album number five for Devours. You need to know how to deliver the goods but also keep people on their toes and not let them get bored. "Swordswallower" is about a really important friendship in my life falling apart during COVID, so it's a bit of a brutal one. The back half of the song lyrically makes references to death and so it's just about the death of a friendship. Musically, the back half is a bit inspired by metal, like black metal. It has a bit of a Nine Inch Nails vibe as well. The first half is a bit influenced by the band Suicide, so I think the new album Sports Car Era in general shows a bit more of my punk influences, whereas Homecoming Queen was a little bit more poppy.

IM: I really noticed that difference! It's almost like you took speed metal and electronic music and created a new genre "Speedtronica"!

D: (laughs) That's cool! Let's run with it! Yeah, I just tried to combine my influences in interesting ways. I grew up loving Hip Hop and so you can tell that there are those beats. I'm a drummer too and grew up drumming so there's always been a percussive focus on Devours. I really like 1980's balladry too so that's an influence as well. Toss emo in there as well. Devours has been really dramatic and emotional from the beginning. It's like my emotions being dialed up to 100.

IM: The second single from the album is the title track "Sports Car Era'. Now the video for that song shows that you're not shy in that video. It's very edgy, hot and hairy!

D: Yeah, I'm in a bodysuit!

IM: You're not shy in the video!.

D: Yeah, that's a good point. I think that this is me at my most aggressive. It's about taking pride in being 40 and rejecting the idea of being commercial. I'm just this bald hairy man who kids are going to think is lame or weird or something and that's awesome! It's such a weird thing when you're constantly performing for people and you want people to like you. You want to build popularity and get offers for shows and stuff. But also you have to realize that you're not going to be everyone's cup of tea. There's so much pressure to be hot or to look cool all the time on social media and in public. And so yeah, I think there was a bit of a punk stance even with the album cover being like, "Take me or leave me! This is me! This is what I look like in a women's bathing suit!" Also, the gay community is obsessed with masculinity and I don't care about that either. I'm just going to post a picture of myself in my true essence on the album cover. I'm proud of the video. The song is just about grappling with middle age and the complexities of being in an expensive city when you're an artist and struggling. (laughs) It's a slice of life!

IM: Well, you definitely wear it well!

D: Thanks! The aesthetic is very inspired by mid 2000's American Apparel, indie sleaze, electroclash, all that stuff. So that's kind of what I was going for aesthetically.

IM: "Sports Car Era" is also a pretty aggressive track to end the album with. I would have thought this would have been the first song out of the gate?

D: Yeah, it sounds like it should be and I think that I might use it as the first song in my live sets this year. I think it's a little bit of a reference to Iconoclast. Out of all of my albums, Sports Car Era is probably most similar to Iconoclast, and that album also ended with the title track. It was sort of the big defiant title track that summed up all the themes on the album, and "Sports Car Era" does the same. I'm really not into albums that just dump their boring songs at the end. I really try to ramp it up! This one has a few slower ones in the middle but then it just gets really wild near the end. I also really like putting singles near the end.

IM: This brings me to "Loudmouth," the third and newest single from the album. Now I wasn't really going to get into politics but is Devours into politics? I bring this up because of the American reference throughout the lyrics and the Statue of Liberty imagery in the video. How does Devours see the world right now?

D: I am trying to think positively. I do care about politics. It feels like everywhere in Western culture is becoming more conservative and right wing. It gets so easy to get lost in doom scrolling and in the news feeds and feel like the world is turning to shit. I've been trying to reflect on issues that are better now than they were 40 years ago, like mental health support, women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights. It's so easy to be negative and get trapped in the online echo chamber and think "The world is terrible now! I'm going to just disappear!" The world's always going to be kind of fucked up, but there may be good progress being made in areas that we might not realize.

 
"Loudmouth" isn't political. It's just about falling in lust with this person in the States who is completely wrong for me but I just want to make it work anyways because I'm infatuated. It's about our incompatibility and also just the fantasy of having distance between us. I've always had fantasies of being in LA or somewhere in the States. I think that it's just a classic case where most Canadian musicians fantasize about being in the US because that's where dreams can actually come true and you can tour properly. But also there are so many hot men in Washington! Every time I go to the bar and there is some insanely hot person, I'm like "Oh, they're probably from Seattle" and then they are. Washington is stacked!

IM: Well, but you want to get "fucked in a tree house"! ("Loudmouth" contains the most hookiest chorus with profanity since Radiohead's "Creep"!)

D: Yeah, those are my deepest desires for sure!

IM: Was that anything to do with getting fucked within the Statue of Liberty?

D: (laughs) No but that would be fun! I am an exhibitionist for sure. I love sex in random weird places but it just never happened in a tree house. It's sort of a reference to feeling young. I'm a 'daddy chaser' and I go for older guys so that's sort of what it's referencing. Of wanting to feel young, like a kid, in an innocent place with a hot older guy.

IM: How excited are you to be headlining and playing at the Rickshaw on March 8th?

D: I am nervous. I think that I get a little bit of stage fright if I go for months without performing. I think that it helps me to be the best performer I can be to perform often because there's no nerves and you're just used to doing it. It's been a quiet few months of not performing very much and so, yeah, it's a lot of pressure to just hop up on a huge stage. I am incorporating live drums! This is a little bit of a spoiler I haven't told people yet. But Dave Prowse, the drummer from Japandroids and I have been jamming and we're going to do it together live!

IM: This is amazing!

D: Yeah, so that'll be really neat! I'm going to have a light rig there and the other opening bands are Maneater and Piss. They're both incredible! I'm just hoping that there is a lot of love and support in the room. And that I remember my lyrics!

IM: This is so interesting that you're adding another musician to your live show because one of my questions I was going to ask was if you could ever see Devours as a band when performing live? Has that ever been a fantasy to do an expansion of your project?

 
D: I think so. I've played with people before. When I lived in Montreal, I was in a band and it was really fun. It's way more fun to play with people on stage. I'm kind of a control freak, so when I started Devours, I just thought this is my last chance of feeling like I can connect to this youth audience in Vancouver and I just need to do it my own way and not spend 10 years trying to find the right people to play with. I just had to do it my way. So yeah, it's been an interesting journey being alone on stage. I have thought of having a live drummer with me for years. This has been on my mind for a long time. I wasn't sure if I would like the sound of acoustic drums on top of the electronic recordings but Dave is an awesome drummer and it's sounding really cool! Another huge reason why I want to play with people is the logistics of touring. That's something that's held me back for so long because I've never had industry or label support saying, "Jeff, we're going to put you on the road and we'll link you up with some people." It's just me doing everything and I don't want to drive to Calgary alone. And so that's where I've tried to tour with other solo musicians where we're co-headlining a tour or something, but touring sucks alone. And so you just have to sort of turn it into a road trip and do it with a friend or with a band member. That's the other bonus of trying to do this. I'm hoping moving forward with a drummer or an extra person will make everything more fun.

IM: Even though you're a gay man, your live audience is extremely diverse. You don't just get gay people coming to your shows, it's equally 50/50 women and men. I see a generous mix of straight and gay, maybe even mostly straight! You have the whole gamut in your adoring and supportive audiences!

D: Yeah, that's one of the things I'm most proud of.

IM: You should be very proud of that. Any idea why you attract such a diverse crowd?

D: I just think that I'm able to connect with different types of people. I've always respected bands like Garbage or something where you go to their shows and it's like 50/50 guys and girls. When I was growing up I always thought that I didn't want to be one of those musicians who only brings out angry dudes.

IM: Where else will you be playing?

D: I'll be playing a few shows on Vancouver Island at the end of March and I'll take all of the gear over and tour around with my Mom's car.

IM: "Mom's Car Era!"

D: (laughs) Vroom! Vroom! Baby!

Devours will be playing live Saturday, March 8 at the Rickshaw with special guest David Prowse on drums. The show will begin at 7:00pm with the very exciting opening bands Maneater and Piss! Tickets are only $20 + s/c and available online through Rickshaw's website, Eventbrite, and hard tickets at Red Cat Records!

Jon Spencer rocks the Rickshaw, plus Bad Beats, Aging Youth Gang and Lou Reed

All pics by me

The last time I saw Jon Spencer, before last night, was around 2005 at Richards on Richards, when the Blues Explosion were playing that one album (Damage) where, for one reason or another, they left his name off the cover (which seems really, really weird, since he is so obviously the draw). Believe it or not, I left early -- very early, for two reasons: The person I was there with wasn't enjoying himself -- he found Spencer was trying too hard, didn't seem "authentic" or something: Spencer was leaping and flailing and pushing it, but where was he really in this whirlwind of activity? My friend didn't buy it, was getting judgy, might have used words like "fake" or "forced" or something (I forget!), and, y'know, I wasn't that invested: I'd bought Plastic Fang when it came out in Japan, where I was living all the time, drawn by the delightful cover, but it was really the only album of his I knew (I was more of a Pussy Galore guy). And, I mean, I could see what my friend meant; Spencer's flurry of activity was, like, excessive almost to the extent of being offputting, like. holy shit man, take your Ritalin. 

Or something. 

So I shrugged and headed for the exit with my friend. Besides, I wanted to chat up Beth Ditto (I mentioned there were two reasons), who was sitting over by the merch table; the Gossip -- the opening band! -- had completely floored me, and Ditto was ENORMOUSLY SEXUALLY APPEALING TO ME, and despite the fact that she was ALMOST CERTAINLY QUEER, I had stupid horny hopes that, like, maybe I would figure out a way to, y'know, hit on her or something? (My apartment was just down the street!). This was back when the Gossip were still a blues-punk band, hadn't started really adding other elements to their music (Standing in the Way of Control, where their sonic palette expanded and they began their process of transformation into what they do now, had yet to be released). But I couldn't figure out a way to actually flirt with Ditto -- you could tell she wasn't into chatting, just gave me kinda businesslike answers to my questions about wanting to see them again and so forth. I probably told her I wanted to write about them, but what I shoulda done was, I shoulda bought an album. I shoulda got it signed. Then at least I'd have had something to show besides my limp dick. 

Dumbass!

But I always felt kind of bad about missing out on Jon Spencer. What the hell had that guy been doing, anyhow, flailing and leaping and gesticulating so excessively? Then somehow I had never managed to see him again after that night (until, like, last night). I remember one time about five years ago that I was at the Rickshaw, watching Rotting Christ, who were doing these sorts of ritualized hair-swinging gestures in tandem while playing, which also wasn't doing it for me, when I realized that Spencer was playing at the Fox: "Shit, I shoulda gone to see Jon Spencer!"

Question: what does it mean that the best photos I got last night were from when Spencer (who had to try hard to get this to happen; it wasn't instantaneous) directed the Rickshaw crew to turn the lights down? Why did he do that, exactly? 

Well, as you see, last night I finally got to make good on things and do the man justice. And, y'know what, while he flailed and leaped a little less than he did at Richards, holy cow he put on a dynamo performance. I was ill-prepared: I knew three songs he did, one well ("1 Hour Later" off Dial M. for Motherfucker), one only a bit ("Bellbottoms," off Orange) and the night's cover tune, "The Power of Independent Trucking" by Big Black. I guess I vaguely recognized the song about "the sweat of the Blues Explosion" (I don't know Orange well, even though I realize it's considered one of his all-time classics), so make that three originals and one cover that I knew. The rest of it -- Pussy Galore songs (I think "Alright" might have been in there?), Blues Explosion songs, HITmakers songs--was high energy, skronky blues rock that shifted on a dime between fast parts and slow parts, that seemed to serve more as a trampoline for Spencer to bounce off, but was real hard to dance to consistently, because it was so varied and unpredictable and so high-energy. I got to thrash around a bit for "1 Hour Later." I'm glad Dial M was represented at all! 

Speaking of energy: holy Christ the man has it. It was kinda how one might imagine some alternate universe version of Nick Cave, where, instead of his actual touchpoints of the Bible, Americana, Tom Jones and heroin, Cave got really into bourbon, speed, and Exile on Main Street. Spencer gesticulated and danced and testified like he had a rattlesnake hidden in his pants, dripping with sweat, dropping to his knees, mic at times disappearing in his mouth like he was Lux Interior in URGH! (but it was a smaller mic and stayed on the stand; like, Lux practically deep-throats that thang, but that wasn't Spencer's style, even if his lips could be seen fully around the mic at times). He had a crack backup band with him, too, of Kendall Wind (bass) and Macky Spider Bowman (drums), who seemed like they were less than half his age, but who, with no setlist or notable guidance, effortlessly followed him from one song to the next, tunes often bleeding into each other, overlapping, and sometimes digressing into jammy rhythm explorations when, for instance, Spencer left the stage for a minute and they had to keep things going. Which they did effortlessly! I dunno who these two are but Spencer should keep'em! 

Nick Mitchum -- ARGH!!, or however you want to know him -- was there, and said it was maybe the best Jon Spencer concert of the maybe-ten that he's seen. I tried to take a selfie with him and he started rockin' his head back and forth to the music so this is what the result was:

Anyhow, so, like, sorry, Mr. Spencer, that I blew you off in 2005 to hang out with my fussy buddy and fail to mack on a lesbian. Took me 20 years to right things, and unless some massive familial obligation intervenes or something, I'm gonna be at the next show you do in town! Also sorry that I ended up kinda unintentionally criticizing you -- I could see you take it that way -- when I asked you after the show why "Ghetto Mom" got left off Plastic Fang (I have the Japanese edition of that album, which includes that song, and since it's my favourite song on it, I was really shocked to discover it wasn't included on the North American version). By the by, Spencer's answer was just that, "It's hard to sequence an album," but, y'know, his face kinda fell between thanking me for telling him how much I love that song and then asking him why he left it off the record. I shoulda thought of a different question!!! ("So Kurt of TAD was telling me about 'Dick Johnson'..."). 

Nice full(ish) house! 

Weirdly, Spencer seemed like a normal guy, soft-spoken, even, unassuming, pleasant, approachable, when he came out after the show to sign a few things and say hi to people. Fascinating man, hell of a performer, living legend really except he didn't seem like any rockstar I've ever met -- polite and sociable and just really kind of a normal dude!

That man is NOT a normal dude -- normal people would have SLOWED DOWN after having been in the business for so long (as Nick observed at one point). Were stimulants involved in his performance? I somehow suspect he does not need them.  

One funny thing from last night about openers the Bad Beats: I was totally shocked to chat with a few people who had never seen them before. I figure if you go to concerts in Vancouver, you've seen the Bad Beats, but Nick had not, nor had Sandy Beach (Spores, Aging Youth Gang) who was standing next to me up front, which led to some conversation (Barry of both of those bands was right behind him, too!). Sandy actually played trumpet in the Imperial, with Cam, the Bad Beats vocalist, but last night was his first Bad Beats show (he bought all three of their CDs; he was impressed, as was Nick -- just the sort of amped-up garage stuff he loves). At one point during their set, as I wrote on Facebook, I spied someone texting a friend and read over his shoulder: "I have no idea who these guys are but I'm pretty..." and I watched in great suspense to see how he would finish the sentence: He was pretty impressed? Pretty blown away? Or would it be negative? He seemed to be typing really slow, so I was getting quite tense, peering over his shoulder, wondering what this Bad Beats noob would make of them, but what the guy ended up writing was that he was "pretty fucked up," which he spelled wrong, leaving off the -ed, and illustrating his point perfectly.  

I hope he dug the Bad Beats. If you are reading this and you haven't seen them, why the hell not? 

Sandy Beach!

And about Aging Youth Gang -- they're apparently playing the Princeton on Saturday, for the Lou Reed tribute. I am still pretty pissed off about reports of bad behaviour from Princeton staff and management that surfaced online -- the band they stiffed has apparently forgiven them, but I haven't gotten over the part where it seemed like one server was just presuming to tip himself generously by rather aggressive means (he'd done that to me, taking my $20 and not bringing me change, which got a whole lot more offputting when I discovered that other people had the same experience!). Plus I did not enjoy that Lou show last year: I did not appreciate that the most packed I'd ever seen the Princeton was for a fuckin' cover show, and found I could not really enjoy the performances, because it seemed like EVERYONE had come out to socialize, not listen to the music -- all you could hear was people talking! But Sandy tells me that Aging Youth Gang will be doing "Run Run Run," "Vicious," and "Venus in Furs" -- and the prospect of seeing Aging Youth Gang cover "Venus in Furs" is pretty darn compelling. So, uh, maybe, since I'm not out of town! (But I'm gonna start that night elsewhere).  

One weird thing: Sandy was telling me that the new guy in Aging Youth Gang was "Rich" and I asked him if it was Rich from Daddy Issues and he said yes, so I thought he meant Richard Katynski, but then he said that I had seen Rich's first show with AYG last year, which I couldn't remember at all (remember seeing them, but Richard Katynski, not so much). Reviewing a clip I shot, I think I have figured out the problem, involving Orchard Pinkish's real name: there are actually TWO Richards in Daddy Issues! 

I suddenly want to get Orchard and Rich Katysnki to pose on Richards Street, in front of the condo where Richards on Richards used to be, and entitle the photo "Richards on Richards, 2025." But maybe it's already been done? 

Some other gigs this weekend: John Werner, one of the under-appreciated greats of Vancouver punk, will be doing his much rootsier Sudden Darts project at the Princeton tonight. Rong and the Fomites are at Red Gate Saturday. And for you bluespeople, Robert Connely Farr is at the Heatley on Sunday (previously written about here). I thought for a second I was going to miss all that -- pressing family stuff -- except the family has a cold, apparently, which Erika doesn't want to catch, so plans have changed!

Jon Spencer! Goddamn, what a show, and what a heroic performance. The clip I shot does NOT do it justice (if you know what these songs are, tell me.) 

Seven Reasons to Revisit Conan the Barbarian (1982, with Arnold Schwarzenegger).

I had not seen Conan the Barbarian - the Schwarzenegger breakthrough and his first major film role, released two years before The Terminator, and directed by John "Red Dawn" Milius – since I was 16, where I believe I watched it on VHS, in the wrong aspect ratio, on an average, crappy 1980s television. I don't remember watching it more than once -- unlike, say, The Thing or The Evil Dead or any other VHS favourites of yore, which my buddies and I watched again and again. Would seeing it in the proper aspect ratio on a vastly improved TV elevate the experience? I was eager to find out, especially since Erika had never seen it. 

Turns out that Conan the Barbarian is not a very good film, but there are some things in it that gave me great pleasure, nonetheless, enjoying it sometimes in spite of and sometimes because of its flaws. For instance:  

1. James Earl Jones turns into a snake. I am a mild aficionado of snake-to-human (or human-to-snake) transformation films, also including Sssssss, Hisss, The Reptile, and Dreamscape -- where David Patrick "Warriors Come Out to Play" Kelly turns into a cobra-monster:

Somehow I had forgotten about the James Earl Jones scene, but understand, when I first saw Conan, I was probably still CATCHING snakes recreationally, not musing about their representation in cinema. Realizing that, as Thulsa Doom, he leads a snake cult (and that he is a sorcerer), at the moment his facial features started to morph, I sat up and excitedly declaimed: "Is James Earl Jones turning into a snake?!"

He was! 

It is not the only snake scene in the film. It is interesting how they combine really great photography of live action snakes, in a few places, with scenes involving mechanical snakes on a par with the mechanical tarantulas in The Beyond. You get excited when you see how well-photographed the big snake in the film is, the first time you see it, and think, this snake is going to be awesome! And then the film cuts to the “action” shots with the mechanical one, and "awesome" is no longer the word you have in mind. Put it this way, it is on par with Ken Russell's The Lair of the White Worm:

But this marks a significant point in the film's development: When the snake scene arrives, you realize that up til that point, you had actually been kinda-sorta suspending your disbelief, which you only realize you'd been doing when it becomes totally impossible to continue thus: Oh, shit, THIS is what I'm watching? ...but the movie actually becomes MORE FUN from this point on, where suspending disbelief is replaced with guffaws and raised eyebrows. The mechanical snake will be your guide, leading you to these richer, weirder waters... 

And weirder yet, the snakes in this film become explicitly phallic when Jones stroke a snake and it stiffens!  There is a very striking closeup of his hands around the shaft, pulling it straight, whereby it turns into an arrow, a weapon, which – help me unpack this in terms of phallic symbolism? -- he then shoots into Valeria, Arnold's love interest, killing her. (Has their been any queer criticism of this film? Are there any Freudian interpretations? Was Milius reading Freud? …this actually seems possible).

We'll return to queer content presently, but suffice to say, for now, that that's a lot of snakes for one movie. And I like snakes. 

2. There is an element of unintentional camp. Even IF it is NOT an intentional, campy, tongue-in-cheek film like we will see soon thereafter as Schwarzenegger becomes a BRAND, post-Terminator… Even if Milius quite possibly took some of this seriously, or at least expected his audiences to, or thought they would in ways that seem, oh, I dunno, quaint? Naïve? Charming? Maybe a bit, uh, hubristic? Even despite all that, Conan develops an aspect of “unintentional camp” (contra the intentional camp injected into Total Recall or so forth). You feel a bit bad laughing at it, because you realize you weren’t actually intended to, but you can't help yourself!  

In contrast, Conan actually makes me feel greater appreciation for Red Dawn, which is ten times the film, if also absurd; that film is probably a must-watch, if you haven't seen it lately, as way of putting dogwhistle histrionics about "communism" in their place. Someone should remake it and give Jordan Peterson a cameo.

Oh, wait, they already remade it? Nevermind.

3. There is a gay pickup scene. Speaking of queering Conan, there is, also stretching things in implausibly entertaining ways, a bit of brief homoerotic content which never would occur in later Brand Schwarzenegger product, and which gets described on Youtube as the weirdest scene in the film. It ends in casual violence against the gay man that speaks of how banally homophobic the times were, or at least John Milius, but FOR A BRIEF MOMENT, a priest of the snake cult hits on Arnold, and Arnold smiles at him and gives him a bit of a come on, smiling and saying something like, "why don't we talk over there where it is more private," which, I dunno about you, put ALL SORTS OF IMAGES in my head, like suddenly I had flashbacks to Derek Jarman's Sebastiane.  

Once they are alone, Schwarzenegger seduces the priest further by saying he's "shy" and playing hard to get; as the priest does indeed -- with no references to oysters or snails to be had -- move in for a kiss, just as the more homophobic members of the audience are starting to clench their asses shut and sweat (and/or salivate a little, because these things are never simple), Arnold decks him, dashing hopes for a bit of man-on-man action, and steals the priest's robes. Not the payoff I wanted -- sexual tension climaxing in violence in lieu of sex -- but for a second there... 

Question: Is there a Milius autobiography? Was he raised Catholic? Did he have any bad experiences with priests? Does this have any bearing on this scene? 

4. Arnold Schwarzenegger punches a camel. Again, this is not necessarily meant to be a "good" thing about the film, but it is somewhat, um, exceptional, and I confess, in a singular, WTF way, when this happens -- especially if you have not been prepared for it -- it is pretty entertaining: Conan and his friend are wandering around town stoned on some sort of Cimmerian hallucinogen ("the Black Lotus"), so camel-punching seems like a good idea at the time. Who among us has not been there? And if you watch carefully, it's a pretty obvious stage punch, with sound effects added afterwards, including a laugh that Schwarzenegger can be seen not giving. Though the camel does fall down afterwards, that COULD still be a well-trained animal -- it is not a clear case of animal cruelty. But do a quick Google of "animal cruelty Conan" and it takes much of the fun from the film: I am sorry to report, the film was made in Spain, land of the bullfight, where there were no animal cruelty laws to be had, so horses are tripped, a dog gets kicked, and more. And rather than drawing heat for the filmmakers, the camel punch apparently was regarded as an entertaining moment, because there is a follow-up to this scene in Conan The Destroyer where Conan sees the same camel again, says, "I'm sorry for what happened last time," and gets spit on, whereupon he gets angry and hits the camel anew. 

This may in fact be the first instance of "Brand Schwarzenegger's" development, where someone was watching with a pencil in the back row during a screening, taking note of what audiences liked, with the intent to repeat the formula next time. If you are curious, both scenes are compiled here, and also a "bonus" of a horse getting punched; Tracy "Plate of Shrimp" Walter is Conan's companion in the second film, and remembers the camel punch to Conan, even though he wasn't in the first movie.

5. Valeria wrestles cartoon demons. Later in the film, demons attack Arnold when he is being resurrected and have to be fought off by his companion, Valeria, who is played by Sandahl Bergman -- y'know, from Hell Comes to Frogtown? She is the one on the chain: 

That ridiculous little film would make a fine follow up to Conan, as would the Den cartoon from Heavy Metal... but in 1982, Bergman did not realize she would soon be relegated to quasi-ironic b-movie roles, and does a fine job in the action scenes of Conan, which she, like Arnie, plays straight; though it's interesting to note, in terms of looks, she's nowhere near as conventionally beautiful as a female actor would have to be to net such a role nowadays -- she's no ScarJo; but then, Arnold's not exactly a standard leading man, either. It's an interesting thing, suggesting that 1982 may not have been as backward as one thinks...

Still,  as game as she is, the resurrection scene has her fighting CARTOONS. The demons are animated; the figure in the centre is one such example (it doesn't look that much better on blu-ray!):

This is absurd enough that Erika and I actually hit rewind and did the scene a second time (you can see the whole scene here). Or maybe Erika was falling asleep at this point, and I was, like, "Wake up, you gotta see this!" 

There were a few moments like that ("wake up, he's stroking his snake and it's stiffening!"). 

6. The sets look just like sets! Speaking of bad effects, consistently in this film, the set designs look like nothing so much as set designs. Cecil B. DeMille would have pshawed  The film tries for sweeping Hollywood spectacle and instead ends up looking more like Circle of Iron (y'know, where David Carradine, in one of a few roles, plays a kung-fu fighting monkey?). Not a good thing, per se, but again, this is somewhat entertaining to observe!

7. Max! Finally: not only had I forgotten that James Earl Jones turns into a snake, I had forgotten ENTIRELY that Max von Sydow was in this film, in maybe the film's most delightful role: the thieves are brought before Max, as King Osric, expecting to be punished for having stolen some jewels, only to discover that the person they stole from was Max's enemy and he is delighted (and wants to hire them to do another job!).

I had just played Erika a go-to Bergman of mine the other week, with von Sydow in it – Shame – and was delighted that in fact, that film worked for her; I did not know how she would take Bergman, but she enjoyed the film immensely. (It’s a weirdly feminist film -- Shame, that is, not Conan. Did people see the Ukrainian anti-war film Klondike? It is in many respects a descendent of Shame). 

As extreme a contrast as it is to go within a short span from Max in Bergman to Max in Conan, he's delightful, playing the role as if he were a benevolent Viking patriarch, laughing and jocular. Perhaps because it's the opposite of what you're expecting, his scene is hilarious. While it is quite possible James Earl Jones may have felt contempt for the material – you cannot tell from his workmanlike performance how he truly feels about it, though he is very entertaining to watch -- it is vibrantly clear, especially if you know a bit about von Sydow, that he is HAVING THE TIME OF HIS LIFE playing Osric, possibly having even more fun than he did as Ming the Merciless. He has complained in interviews about being asked to play the same sort of role again and again; Osric is about is as far from the "von Sydow stereotype" as you can possibly get. You feel happy for him, and find his enjoyment infectious. 

There are other fun things you notice when watching Conan, mind you, from horrific hairstyles, especially on Jones, to some decent swordfight choreography, but the "unintentional camp" factor ratchets up if you turn on the subtitles and try to imagine Milius actually WRITING some of the lines in the film as dialogue: there are some real doozies, a level of pretension that one does not normally encounter in a film like this. You may notice other odd quirks of language that way, too, like when James Earl Jones calls Conan and his band of thieves "infidel defilers": doesn't that imply that they go around defiling infidels? I don't think that's what he meant!