All of us at Allston Pudding ask a lot of questions. It’s time to turn the tables. That’s why we’re starting this new feature series “Bands Ask, Bands Answer.” BUFU Fest is coming up at the end of the month and with such a stacked bill, we want to talk to as many artists as possible in the next few weeks.
We kicked things off with Ben Katzman (BUFU Records) and Chris Collins (Boston Hassle) and then let them ask whatever the hell they wanted (and repeat, and repeat, and repeat). Part 1 of this series features Boston bands Lovechild, The Channels, and Skinny Bones as well as Miami-based act The Jellyfish Brothers. Warning: things may get a little weird.
BUFU Fest 2014
April 25 & 26
at Cambridge Elks Lodge
$10-15 Sliding Scale For Each Day
Full lineup and Schedule TBA
Ben Katzman & Chris Collins (Boston, MA)
Allston Pudding: Alright guys, so I’ve got three questions for you and then you’ll kick it off for all the bands, are you ready?
Ben Katzman: It’s like a long game of telephone! Yeah! Ok. Let’s get rocking.
AP: How should we physically and mentally prepare for BUFU Fest?
BK: It’s very simple. There are two things you have to do mentally: you gotta play no games and chill mad hard. Physically, you have to crop your tops and then as far as your diet concerns, just oreos and vegan tacos. Yeah, that’s all. Doing those things for about 3 weeks should get you ready for BUFU Fest.
AP: Totally doable. Will there be any dogs at BUFU Fest?
BK: Updog will be there in a very heavy presence in a few different way. Updog will definitely be there. What do you think, Chris?
Chris Collins: You’ll see when you get there just how crazy it all is.
AP: Any other dogs? Just Updog? Can we bring our own dogs?
BK: No, no, but there will be a lot of dogs there. *snickers* You know what I mean?
CC: We’re all dogs.
BK: You know what I mean, dog?
CC: There’s an Updog in all of us. He represents our purest emotions.
AP: Beautiful. Now, do you have a favorite t-shirt to chill mad hard in?
BK: Oh! Man that is hard! I think about this almost every day! Collins, what’s yours?
CC: I have a couple. One of my favorites for the summer especially is my “Dream Team 1996” that’s got Penny Hardaway, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and a whole bunch of other people from the Olympic Dream Team on it.
BK: And mine is definitely my classic Metallica crop top. You’ll see us cropping hard.
lovechild (Boston, MA)
Ben & Chris posed questions for Zach Weeks from the first band up: lovechild
BK & CC: What’s your favorite spot in Boston to chill mad hard?
Zach Weeks: Ben just wrote this whole shit, didn’t he? My favorite spot in Boston to chill mad hard is probably Castle Island.
BK & CC: This or that: Van Halen or Van Hagar?
ZW: I’m gonna go with Van Halen.
BK & CC: If you were having a taco party, what would you put on your tacos and who would you invite?
ZW: First off, they would be vegan tacos. I’d make a barbeque textured vegetable protein and definitely some fake cheese in there. And corn tortillas because they’re way better than flour tortillas. I’d invite Ben because I know he loves tacos. And if I were to get a celebrity guest….I’d invite Zach Braff because I watched Garden State two nights ago.
The Jellyfish Brothers (Miami, FL)
Zach (lovechild) posed questions for Greg Alvarez from The Jellyfish Brothers
Zach Weeks: If you had 10,000 4”x4” stickers to put all over the world, what would you put on them?
Greg Alvarez: Oh my god….a giant jellyfish. It would be a drawing of a jellyfish with a little infinity symbol on top. Infinite life. And it would have a bunch of color.
ZW: Would you rather own a food processor or a juicer? What would you do with it?
GA: A juicer. I’ll make all of my meals into juice. Nah, I’m joking. I’ll turn my friends into juices. I already make juices, so you know.
Allston Pudding: Wait – would you turn your bandmates into juice?
GA: Oh yeah. Wait, wait, no! Not turn them INTO juice, that’s gross! I’ll get them into juicing, so they could make juice with me! Turn them into juice, ha ha, no!
ZW: If you were paid $2 to eat roasted garlic for breakfast every day for the rest of your life, would you do it?
GA: $2 for eating roasted garlic? Yeah man, I’d do it. I like garlic and it’s good for you. I’d do it, I’d probably waste those two bucks on toothpaste later.
Skinny Bones (Jamaica Plain, MA)
Greg (The Jellyfish Brothers) posed questions for Skinny Bones
Greg Alvarez: Would you put your sub-consciousness into a robot rather than let yourself die, why or why not?
Chris Stoppiello: This is great, this is exactly the kind of question I was hoping to get. I am the kind of person who would love that idea and sign on for it and do it…and then regret it immediately.
Jacob Rosati: I would do it if there were babe robots. Babe bots.
CS: I would do it because it seems like a good idea to live forever but then I would regret it because there wouldn’t end up being any babe bots because we’d probably be asexual.
GA: Would you rather fly forever or swim forever?
JR: I think I would fly forever because I can breathe air and I can’t breathe water.
Allston Pudding: Oh no, no, I’m pretty sure you’d be able to breathe underwater if you chose the swimming option.
JR: I mean, yeah, okay, that makes sense. Can I also breathe air if I choose swimming? Would I never be able to surface?
AP: Sorry dude…that’s a follow-up question for The Jellyfish Brothers.
CS: I’m leaning towards swimming forever, mostly because flying forever implies that I would need to maintain a constant velocity and direction in order to maintain lift. Whereas with swimming, I feel like I could slow down. I could change direction easily, maybe explore a sunken ship. I think there’s a lot more room for exploration in the ocean.
GA: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
CS: I hate that question, I get asked a lot, you know?
The Channels (Boston, MA)
Jacob (Skinny Bones) posed questions for Wes Kaplan (The Channels)
Jacob Rosati: How do you cope with the "brain in a vat" argument?
Wes Kaplan: I recently heard about a language theory of Wittgenstein saying that you can’t have language without social patterns. So that kind of puts us in a shared interpretation of reality if you take it verbatim. Doesn’t that just put a lot of stock in human imagination to be able to construct such a detailed world? If it’s a matter of faith that there’s a reality outside of my subjective experience, then I have no problem putting my faith in that assumption.
I just read Lila, which is the sequel to Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which deals with this question pretty well. It says there’s a third thing called “quality” comes before subjects and objects and so there’s this huge problem which is at odds with laws that we associate with things like gravity…or thermodynamics. You know what I mean? Like social patterns are at odds with biological patterns. Like we think shit and fucking is gross, so we don’t talk about it. And then intellectual patterns are at odds with social patterns.
Sometimes radical thinkers look a lot like crazy people and it’s hard to tell the difference until they all get pushed aside. Each state is fighting for the next level, the ultimate is what is called “dynamic quality,” which you’re not actually supposed to define. When you think about that stuff, why be afraid of the [the brain in a vat idea]?
As a musician, it’s important to be to consider that. There are all of these things that you can objectify about music. I think there’s this tendency in rock music to be anti-intellectual. You look at the defining punk rock bands like The Velvet Underground. You had this conservatory dude, John Cale, who brought his 20th century intellectual ideas and then you had Lou Reed, who had more of what people associate with “punk.” It all really comes down to whether or not it sounds good. Which I know is subjective, but I don’t think those two people or those two ideas have to be at odds with each other.
JR: Do you believe in the existence of councles (cousin-uncle)?
WK: You know, it’s really funny that you asked me that question. Because in my family…I have step parents and my youngest brother is 15 and we have a nephew that is ten. Technically Jake (15) is the uncle even though they don’t have what we socially regard as an uncle-nephew relationship. They’re more like brothers. It’s like twins, nobody really knows what it’s like to be twins. I think that even when you call someone your brother or your sister, it’s not the same as when you have that biological relationship. I think they’re really just super close cousins.
Allston Pudding: So you do believe in councles?
WK: I mean, I don’t say that word but *laughs* I speak from experience.
JR: What do you think BUFU should stand for? *BUFU stands for “By Us, For Us”
WK: Boston's Unlisted, Filthy and Underpaid.