So Night Court plays again tonight at the Rickshaw. They've only just returned from a German tour. Prior to that tour, I had interviewed them (and augmented that interview with the odd quote from other places I'd written about them) to run in a German magazine. But the piece I prepared was too long! I prepared a separate piece of outtakes, but then couldn't find a home for it.
These are outtakes from these outtakes.
In fact, the whole thing is kind of synthetic, a Frankenstein interview if you will, stitched together from parts from various places, since Jiffy wasn't part of the Zoom call that took place between myself and Dave-O and Emilor, but I sent him some questions afterwards. Just treat it all as a coherent thing, and note that if you wonder at some point, "Why are Dave-O and Emilor talking about Jiffy like he wasn't there?", it's because... he wasn't there!
See you all at the Rickshaw!
Allan (in boldface, below): “Bride of Frankenstein,” the song that kicks off the new vinyl version of Nervous Birds, first came out as a single after HUMANS! on the Frater Set 7” EP. So, was it an outtake from the HUMANS! sessions?
Jiffy: No, but you’re not entirely wrong: we recorded "Bride of Frankenstein" during the same sessions as [the 2021 cassette releases for] Nervous Birds One and Nervous Birds Too. It was a song we thought deserved its own thing so after releasing those recordings, and then the HUMANS! LP, we figured it was past due!
Good to have it reinstated. It blends nicely into “Circus of Wolves.” What’s that song about?
Dave-O: That song is essentially a love letter to the band Circus Lupus from Washington DC. They’re, like, an old '90s Dischord band, and the name is already kind of meta-, because Circus Lupus is a riff on an old SCTV sketch about a circus of wolves. So they took their name from that, and we stole the name for the song back from them. But essentially, it’s a song about how much we love the band!
Emilor: I’ve never heard that band before. Similarly to how I’ve never seen an episode of Night Court in my life!
I’m really grateful that Nervous Birds is out on vinyl.
Dave-O: We were kind of always hoping that these would become an LP, because we kind of did them all at the same time, so we did think having them on one vinyl record would be ideal. The fact that that happened this year is kind of a dream come true.
I wanted to ask about a couple of your lyrics--including one not on Nervous Birds, “Not a Unicorn.” Jiffy, you wrote that based on a children’s book, right? Something you were reading to your daughter?
Jiffy: It’s based on the book series Phoebe and her Unicorn by Dana Simpson. It’s maybe not as philosophical but reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes in its cute/clever observations on life. I believe “you’re the one with the opposable thumbs” is a direct quote. Basically a comment on humans not being the magical beings that some of us think we are, which is also sort of an overarching theme of the HUMANS! album.
Is there anything else written based on fantastic sources, or, say, science fiction?
Dave-O: I mean, on HUMANS!, there’s “Robot Brain.”
That song always makes me think of Philip K. Dick and his concern about people becoming androids. So I guess I think of robot brains as a bad thing, something to resist?
Dave-O: I don’t know that I’m judging it one way or the other, just the idea that these things are seamlessly finding their way into our lives; we’re using robots all the time, in our computers. And every time we use glasses, we’re a cyborg, in a way. But it’s not a judgement, necessarily; just noticing as these things enter our lives and take up more and more of our inner and outer environment without us even really noticing it. And then one day we’re going to wake up and have a robot brain, and it’s going to feel the same. It’s just happening, whether we resist it or not.
Emilor, I know you’ve described yourself as a Luddite. How do you feel about these issues?
Emilor: I hate them. I hate it! They just do this stuff and don’t think about the repercussions of it, of people not being able to be able to work because they’ve been replaced by a machine or an AI… Anybody who has ever had to communicate with an AI chatbot knows, it’s never been helpful. The AI is like, “Has this been helpful?” Never! I’ve never received good assistance or help or information. I would rather we went back to paying human beings to communicate with other human beings. I think there are things that AI is very very good for, like, if you have to analyze an incredible amount of data, or do things that no human being could do in our lifetime, for medical purposes and stuff like that, it’s great; use it for that. But why are we using AI to replace human-to-human communication, or for art, or music? It’s gross and unnecessary. Not to mention the fact that every time you do an AI--“I want to make a cow with three udders!”--the amount of power that it’s using and the environmental repercussions of the way that it’s been rolled out and trivialized and normalized without any idea of the human or environmental consequences… it’s not surprising; capitalism is always going to do the worst that it can do. But it’s such a multifaceted problem that we haven’t even begun to see the consequences of… what a time to be alive. I have opinions!
I assume this relates to the song “CaptainCaveperson” a bit?
Dave-O: Yeah, for sure. Jiffy wrote those lyrics, but yeah. I interpret the song as, “The world is fucked, so what are you gonna fuckin’ do? You’ve got to do something.”
Emilor: You tidy up the cave.
Dave-O: It’s almost Buddhist in a way.
Another really entertaining video you did was for “Surfin’ Iona.” I think of that as Emilor’s song, because she’s all over the video, but I have no idea who wrote it.
Emilor: I didn’t write that song, but I enjoy singing that song. To my knowledge, it’s just a love letter to Iona Beach, where you can enjoy a lovely afternoon of looking at the airplanes [the beach is near Vancouver International Airport] and stroll along the sewage pipe. It’s a wonderful tourist destination that most tourists never make it to. They’re too busy looking at the Steam Clock in Gastown.They should be lookin’ at the shit pipe. If you want to have the full Vancouver experience, you have to learn how we don’t treat our sewage, we just pump it into the ocean. That’s the meat and potatoes of what we’re proud of in Vancouver. There’s something for everyone at Iona Beach.
How did that song get written?
Dave-O: I think Jiffy just said, “Do you have anything surfy?” I sent him some music, and he sent that back. The video was fun.
Emilor: It feels like it was ten years ago!
Dave-O: It wasn’t particularly warm that day, but we danced around on the sewage pipe in the mud. Jiffy’s wife was the director of photography.
I haven’t been. Not sure I want to go.
Emilor: What, I didn’t sell you on it just now?
Dave-O: It is actually pretty cool around there. It’s just hilarious that it happens to be on a shit pipe. Bu it’s not too far from the Reifel bird sanctuary, which is a nice place to go. You’re guaranteed to see some birds you don’t regularly see.
Not rifle like “rifle.”
Dave-O: No, it’s pronounced like “rifle,” but…
Emilor: I think they could do with a re-brand.
Dave-O: It’s true, although you don’t generally shoot birds with rifles, anyways.
Emilor: Unless you’re trying to just create confetti.
Dave-O: That’s why the birds are so nervous! The nervous birds at the “rifle” bird sanctuary.
Night Court's bandcamp is here. I would post a link to the show but it's way sold out and all my friends already have tickets (except Betty. Someone help her? Yes, that Betty, who did you think I meant?).
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