[transmission from...Tyler Sonnichsen]

The Official TDC/20Watts Interview

An abbreviated version of this interview I conducted in April of 2005 was featured in the premiere print edition of 20Watts magazine in Syracuse. I was the editor-in-chief of the publication during my senior year there, and the complete interview, which I conducted in tandem with my ever-so-chipper friend Alex Coon (note the sarcasm in my tone while I type). Since Mr. Leo and his Pharmacists will be paying various east coast venues a visit, I thought I'd put this up here, since the unabridged interview was never actually published. Enjoy.

TYLER SONNICHSEN: Considering how The Pharmacists started out as a concept, and you’ve stuck with the tag “Ted Leo and the Pharmacists,” would you say you’ve been working since The Tyranny of Distance to make the band more of a band in the democratic sense?
TED LEO: Yeah, for the most part. Actually, I’ll say this: I don’t think there’s been any conscious effort in any direction. It’s just evolving as it evolves, you know what I mean? When I write songs, I certainly write them knowing that we’re going to be playing them, all three of us. That is very important in the process. But then again, it’s all been one gradual evolution from me playing alone, to me playing with tapes, to me playing with other people, to us really solidifying as a unit.
TS: You can’t say there was a definitive date when the Pharmacists formed, but the whole thing came about right around the time of the whole Napster thing. And I’d imagine the crowds you have now are a lot different than the ones you had for Chisel, in certain respects.
TL: Hmm. I don’t know, why do you say that?
TS: The question’s basically about internet file-sharing and downloading, this decade so far, in how it’s affected you as a band and in how you’re able to publicize yourself back in the day.
TL: Well, I mean… I have to say, I don’t think it’s very different. I think that [pauses] I definitely think that there are more people, generally.
ALEX COON: It’s a good direction to move towards.
TL: Yeah. [Laughs]. But I actually feel like there’s been an amazing continuity in-
AC: Skinny white people?
TL: [Laughs] Yeah, well, that. This is the burden of anyone that plays guitar-bass music, you know? But, I have to say that one of the most gratifying aspects about the grown that we have experienced, is just how little the audience has changed. That might not sound like a good thing, initially, but I think it is a really positive thing, when I can go from filling say… By the end of Chisel, in New York, around ’97, right before we broke up, we would play Brownie’s. 250 capacity. Totally sell it out, totally jam-packed. Felt amazing. But it’s only 250. It was amazing for us back then, it was a real achievement. But now, to go to overselling something like two nights at the Bowery is, in numbers a really massive difference. But in vibe, I swear to God it feels exactly the same to me. I really see that as a positive thing because there’s so much that can be lost in that transition to a bigger room and to a bigger crowd. It’s almost like it’s really hard to not lose something in that transition. And one of the greatest things about our growth, to me, has been not losing those things that made it so exciting to be playing to a full, small room. I mean, we just do what we always do, so I have to chalk that up to the nature of the crowd.
TS: It seems like you guys have a really good relationship with Lookout! Records, especially being, from what I can imagine, the biggest band on it right now.
TL: The biggest-selling active band, yeah. Their biggest seller is still Op Ivy. In terms of active bands, I don’t see the other bands’ numbers and stuff so I don’t really know, but I imagine.
TS: Have you had to deal with people asking you about being courted by major labels?
TL: The funny thing is, I deal with people asking me that question more than I actually do with the labels approaching me. [Laughs]
TS: Sorry.
TL: No, no, I don’t mean to be like “why are you asking me that?” but it’s just a really interesting dynamic. People assume that that’s the case. I don’t necessarily know why. I mean, I have some ideas about why we aren’t often approached by majors. Some are wrapped up in egotistical reasons, like the fact that I’ve gone on record so many times saying “fuck major labels,” you know? [Laughs] But then, you have to step back and think, you know, I’m sure they just don’t read those publications, so maybe they just don’t care. We actually don’t get approached very often at all.
AC: Would you sign to Dischord?
TL: At this point, no. If you’d asked me that about ten years ago, I’d say yeah. But nothing against Dischord, but at this point, that would really be just a weird lateral move for me to make. I have friendship relationships with everybody at Dischord, but it would be forging a whole new business and friendship thing that wouldn’t really make sense. They would also have to want to do a record with me, so…[laughs].
TS: Were you into a lot of indie labels like Dischord in the 80’s when they weren’t being constantly asked “what’s it like being courted by major labels?” because they weren’t looked at as minor leagues for the majors back then?
TL: Oh, yeah. Dischord was a big example, although, it really wasn’t until the 90’s that Fugazi became the paradigm for the successful indie band. Lookout! was actually a great example. With Op Ivy back then, with Green Day. There was the whole punk side of it. But then there was the whole beginning of what was actually known as “indie.” Galaxie 500, Dinosaur Jr right before they signed..
AC: [waving fist in the air] Mission of Burma.
TL: Mission of Burma, exactly. The stuff with Taang! It was just a really vibrant scene.
AC: What do you think about the state of indie rock today? It’s really refreshing to see you guys play something that’s just so straightforward, not claiming to be directly derivative of anything. Do I sound bitter at all?
TL: Oh yeah, you do, actually. But that’s okay, because we’re all bitter. As for indie rock [long pause] I don’t know. I don’t know how to answer that. We’re really not trying to reinvent the wheel, or reinterpret something. Not even really educate, we just kind of play our songs.
AC: Well, whatever you’re doing, it works really well. It’s a refreshing attitude to see. You seem like you’re about as concerned about the tightness of your pants.
TL: I am, actually. [Laughs]

[transmission from... Tyler Sonnichsen]

I Love Lucy
Episode 138:
“The Passports”
Airdate: 12/19/55

I got back into ‘I Love Lucy’ during the summer of 2004, the first time I ever had TV Land. I don’t know if I’d ever really lost interest in the show, since I watched it pretty constantly through most of my adolescence. I just wasn’t able to watch it as often during that limbo period after the morons at Nick at Nite phased it out of their programming in favor of ‘Full House’ and ‘Who’s the Boss?’ but before DVD box sets became all the rage. Nick at Nite’s selling out notwithstanding (I’m still bitter about the lack of ‘Get Smart’ and ‘Dick van Dyke’ in the past decade), my rediscovery of how incredible this show was made me think a lot about Television in general.

TV sucks, in general. Most of it does. A vast majority. Since The Simpsons hit its peak ca. 1995, we’ve been blessed with the occasional 'Mr. Show' or 'The West Wing' or 'Arrested Development' or 'King of the Hill' that gives you a hint of faith in the medium’s capacity for entertainment. Needless to point out, though, is the endless barrage of horseshit we’ve had to countenance in this period. I’m referring ‘According to Jim’-type horseshit that just about any of my friends I studied with in Syracuse could out-write after a long night at Darwin’s (inside joke...it’s a bar…in Syracuse).

What is it about the American sit-com that creates such a cultural buzzbomb of mediocrity? I could rant about it for hours and spell out my theories, but I highly doubt that that would win over that stupid ‘Friends’ theme song coming on in the other room in a battle for your attention. So I’ll cut to the chase: ‘I Love Lucy’ was, and will always be the standard for the great American sitcom. It explored plenty of controversial issues at the time (women’s rights, pregnancy onscreen, interracial marriages, etc.), and did it with archetypically great television writing from the pen of Jess Oppenheimer and his cronies.

Very few of the episodes within the first five seasons fell limp under these pretenses, but a few episodes, notably their climaxes, stick out as brilliant comedic moments that may never be precisely equaled. Take, for example, this great episode during the sequence leading up to the Ricardos’ and Mertz’s European trip. Lucy is contacting the Jamestown, NY (her place of birth) hall of records to find her birth certificate, but they can’t find it. Her mother’s on a road trip and out of reach. Her only option is to find two people who’ve known her since she was born to sign affidavits so she can obtain her passport. The first one is an old friend who, being a chronic liar about her age, ultimately refuses to sign it. The second is Lucy’s childhood doctor, who happens to be visiting New York.

Lucy, thinking that she may have to stow away, gets into an old Vaudeville trunk that Fred brought upstairs, just to see how it feels. Of course, the key gets trapped in there with her, so Ethel tries to find Fred to break it open. At that moment, Doc shows up, older but still pretty neurotic. He doesn’t know if the woman yelling from the trunk is actually Lucy, so she has to prove it by singing “Skip to m’Lou” the song she and Doc used to sing together when she was a little girl. Doc gets into it, and begins to dance a jig, singing his part. At this moment, Ricky walks in, unaware that Lucy’s in the trunk, that Ethel’s trying to find Fred, or who the hell this cooky old guy dancing around in his apartment is. Amazing.

That ranks among the most substantive laughs of anything I’ve ever seen. My favorite things in the world of entertainment (TV, music, and film) and comedy all boil down to moments like this, so I’ll be back with some more of these moments. Make sure to email TDC with any of your own.