ISSUE 101 | NOV 2019
ELEVEN PDX ISSUE 6 ELEVEN PDXMAGAZINE MAGAZINE--VOLUME VOLUME 9, 8, ISSUE 5
COMPLIMENTARY COMPLIMENTARY
INSIDE: FEDERALE | SIR BABYGIRL | MADEINTYO | FEA NOTS | CATE LEBON & BRADFORD COX | GIRL RAY
ELEVEN PDX MAGAZINE ISSUE No. 101
November 2019 THE USUAL 4 Letter from the Editor 4 Staff Credits
FEATURES Local Feature 12
Federale
COLUMNS 5 Aural Fix
Nots Madison McFerrin Sir Babygirl MadeinTYO
Cover Feature 20
John Waters
NEW MUSIC 8 Short List 8 Album Reviews Juliana Hatfield Fea Cate LeBon & Bradford Cox Girl Ray
MORE ONLINE AT ELEVENPDX.COM SOCIALS @ELEVENPDX
HELLO PORTLAND! I don’t know about y’all, but it’s been a wild ride this month. We’ve officially switched platforms over here at ELEVEN and have gone full digital! Big thanks to Doug Fir for hosting our Print Funeral/Digital Launch party on October 11th, and thanks also to our longtime supporters and friends over at Misplaced Screen Printing and Tender Loving Empire, and to all the artists who donated work for our art raffle! It’s always so nice to see the music community coming together, and we hope to be able to host more events like this in the near future. As some of your may (or may not) know, I’m currently a graduate student over at PNCA. And as any students out there know, heading into thesis work is busy and intense! This month has been particularly insane on my end, trying to hold together everything I do alongside my own art practices, but is ultimately so incredibly rewarding and I wouldn’t want to do this in any other city but Portland. I just want to thank you all for bearing with me and for your unlimited support. The Portland arts community is so unique and kind, and I wanted to express how much I appreciate you all. I also can’t even fully express my gratitude to both of the bands that I’m in, Death Parade and Basil Strawberry, for being so patient and kicking so much ass! Also, Basil Strawberry will be playing the upcoming Girl Fest on January 12 at Holocene, also featuring Chong the Nomad, Guayaba, Pool Boys, Dan Dan, and DJ No Manches! Be sure to support femme and non-binary artists at this amazing event! Alright y’all, as we head into this winter abyss, don’t forget to hug your friends and tell them how cool they are!
Sappily yours,
- Eirinn Gragson
Managing Editor
EXECUTIVE STAFF EDITOR IN CHIEF Ryan Dornfeld (ryan@elevenpdx.com)
ONLINE Michael Reiersgaard Kim Lawson
MANAGING EDITOR Eirinn Gragson (eirinn@elevenpdx.com)
FIND US ONLINE www.elevenpdx.com social channels: @elevenpdx
COPY EDITOR Chance Solem-Pfeifer Richard Houston SECTION EDITORS LITERARY ARTS: Scott McHale CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Liz Garcia, Mandi Dudek, Anthony King, Kelly Kovl, Nebraska Lucas, Nathan Royster, Charles Trowbridge, Eric Swanson, Henry Whittier-Ferguson. PHOTOGRAPHERS Mathieu Lewis-Rolland, Todd Walberg, Michael Reiersgaard COVER DESIGN Katie Silver COVER PHOTO Greg Gorman
GENERAL INQUIRIES getinvolved@elevenpdx.com ADVERTISING ryan@elevenpdx.com ELEVEN WEST MEDIA GROUP, LLC SPECIAL THANKS We are forever thankful to all of the contributors and supporters that make this project possible.
AURAL FIX
Photo by Adele Winn
up and coming music from the national scene
1 NOTS NOVEMBER 15 | POLARIS HALL You don’t need to be a 19th century sociologist in order to enjoy Tennessee noise punks Nots. That being said, few bands have managed to capture the suffocating sense of societal anomie that has metastasized over the past many years quite as well. For Nots, ignorance isn’t bliss. The truth might not be pretty, but the untruth is simply unacceptable. Armed with their instruments and the moral compasses they were born with, Nots’ music is neither condemning nor optimistic. They call things as they see it, which is equal parts refreshing and unsettling since no solutions are offered for our 21st century ailments. Much more than a “worst of the worst” list set to music—the age of patriarchy, smartphone addiction, taboos of thinking or feeling too much, etc.—the trio’s songs sound like an observable personification of our incessant inner monologues and worries. And in that regard, there’s a shared comfort to be found in their bleak assessment of the world we’ve inherited and created. Sonically, it’s tricky to separate Nots’ music from their onstage performances, and not just because their various releases have been tracked live. Rather, it’s the Paul Revere-paced urgency
Photo by Kylah Benes-Trapp
2 MADISON McFERRIN NOVEMBER 24 | DOUG FIR LOUNGE In a time where anyone can self-release whatever they want, whenever they want, it can be difficult for independent artists to cut through the clutter and make their mark. Not content in piggybacking on the star power of her father, Bobby McFerrin,
4 | ELEVEN PDX
of their music that demands a certain commitment to be present (or get lost) in the moment. The rhythms provided by drummer Charlotte Watson and bassist Meredith Lones switch between teeth-chattering-ly fast and two-drink-danceable, serving as the rational foil to Natalie Hoffman’s manic guitar, synth and vocals. The push and pull between ethereal synth wanderings over rigid time kept signatures (“Half Painted House”, “Rational Actor”) are one of the distinguishing features of the band’s evolving sound following the departure of keyboardist Alexandra Eastburn in 2018. This forced change from four-piece to three-piece is notso-subtly called to attention in the title of the band’s third LP ‘3’. Written and recorded as a trio and containing some of their best material, it’s clear that there isn’t a mourning for their old selves in the works. » – Eric Swanson Brooklynite Madison McFerrin’s approach is to strip everything back to the bare essentials. I mean this literally–McFerrin’s EP pair, Finding Foundations Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, simply feature her strong-as-hell voice and a loop pedal, used to give herself a backup beat, much like Björk’s Medúlla, though easy to forget it’s a single person. Acapella compositions are hard to pull off in an interesting way, but McFerrin’s honey-sweet voice is able to carry each song on Finding Foundations with ease. McFerrin’s sparse vocal compositions lend themselves magnificently to remixes. Finding Foundations: The Remixes hands the already strong compositions presented on her EPs to producers like Canteen Killa and Zenizen to beef up her sound without losing the strength of her voice. With each song, the producer in charge manages to keep McFerrin as the focal point, rather than their own beats. ARKTKT’s skittering beats on “Insane” is the standout of the collection, succeeding to not lose the magic of the original version. McFerrin is set to release You + I this month, showing that the sound of her vocal prowess combined with lush beats can leave a mark, as is clear on singles “No Room” and “Try.” The EP tracks, mixed by her brother, Taylor McFerrin, blend her knack for creating memorable performances with a gorgeous production quality. While the Finding Foundations series is a great proof of concept, You + I feels like the next great leap forward for McFerrin, proving to be a treat, considering how satisfying it is to listen only to the sound of her vocal trickery. With that in mind, it’s hard to not be excited to see where her voice carries her. » – Holly Hazelwood
columns aural fix Photo by Shan Khan
Photo by Molly O'Brien
4 MADEINTYO NOVEMBER 2 | HAWTHORNE THEATRE There’s something to be said for a rolling 808 shaking your
3 SIR BABYGIRL NOVEMBER 5 | DOUG FIR LOUNGE Kelsie Hogue, who playfully goes by the pseudonym Sir Babygirl, is the radically neon gender bending pop icon the world didn’t know it needed. Raised in Hanover, New Hampshire, Sir Babygirl grew up studying voice and cultivating teenage culture in the form of ‘90s pop, Broadway Musicals, and learning a plethora of instruments, including piano, guitar, bass and alto saxophone. An avid fan of musicals and ‘90s inspired pop (think Briney Spears meets classic pop boy band meets Nickelodeon cartoon slime) Sir Babygirl has cultivated a nuanced alter-ego that both embraces nostalgia and revists ideas of childhood, gender and self expression Her premiere album, Crush on Me, released earlier this year, received nationwide acclaim from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and NPR, and her fan base seems to scream loud and proud in support of her vision. Her music videos depict an array of candy-colored characters of all genders. In “Crush on Me”, Sir Babygirl is seen as a femme cheerleader with bright green hair, sporting an outfit that reads “Lazy”, also playing a skater boy who tosses the cheerleader a beanie. She plays supporting characters as scared cheerleaders not wanting to cross boundaries, meanwhile Sir Babygirl’s “Lazy” character falls in love with a new version of themselves, beanie and all. The music itself is tantemount to musicals like Wicked, embracing traditionally skilled vocals, anthemic pop tracks, all mixed with playful characters—including a bisexual Cinderella who skips out on the ball, and cute gay romance renditions of outdated old teen movie tropes. Sir Babygirl uses both she and he pronouns, embracing “nonbinary pop drag” and loudly proclaiming that queerness should be at the forefront of the pop music scene, rather than hidden in small sub-cultures. » – Eirinn Gragson
guts and a snare snap that hits just enough to keep the beat bouncing. In fact, MadeinTYO counts on that simple formula to keep you coming back. MadeinTYO originally popped up with his “Uber Everywhere” Travis Scott collab, subsequently kicking out a few mixtapes following the popularity of the track. Before you chastise the man for the corporate name-dropping, it’s worth noting that he later changed the name of the track to “Lyft Everywhere” in protest of Uber’s actions during the Trump Administration’s ban on Muslim immigrants from select countries. That should give you a sense of where his music comes from: he’s comfortable diving into the ongoing commercialization of the genre while also recognizing the power of the platform. Thank You, Mr. Tokyo, the first full-length following his hit single, revealed a rapper finding his voice over similar simple beats. Anchored by that Southern-style 808, Thank You is notable for the unobscured vocals. There is relatively little production changing the sound of MadeinTYO’s voice, and he comes off sounding somewhat earnest. Sincerely, Tokyo (2018), by comparison, features more robust production across the board – the beats have a few more flourishes, the vocals rise and fall, fade and pop – and the guest list gets some strong features. Although none of the collaborative tracks really feel like matches made in heaven, there is a clear chemistry with A$AP Ferg and Blood Orange. MadeinTYO is for the curious listener, and if you’re looking to make your next party playlist get the heads nodding, you can’t miss with his brand of the deep drop. » – Charles Trowbridge
A
QUICK TRACKS
B
“Stop Calling" feat.
“Margiela Problems” feat. Blood Orange
Key Glock & Tay Money
Given the kind of tracks Blood Orange normally shows up on, this one feels a little random, but it oozes as the two rappers feel equally at home taking up the blossoming spaces between the beat.
A bizarre beat pushed forward by the sound of a phone ringing, it feels like it shouldn’t work, but by the time Tay Money drops in with her verse, your body is moving and your ears love the added reverb.
new music album reviews
ALBUM REVIEWS THIS MONTH’S BEST
R REISSUE
L LOCAL RELEASE
Short List
DJ Shadow Our Pathetic Age FKA Twigs Magdalene Lucy Dacus 2019 Mount Eerie and Julie Doiron Lost Wisdom Pt. 2 POND Sessions Jaakko Eino Kalevi Dissolution Tei Shi La Linda Coldplay Everyday Life Lady Antebellum Ocean Fall Out Boy Greatest Hits: Volume Two Failed Flowers Faces The National Juicy Sonic Magic Anyway Gang Anyway Gang
Buy it
Stream it
Disagree? Scold us: @ELEVENPDX
6 | ELEVEN PDX
Toss it
Juliana Hatfield Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police Alliance Entertainment
If you lilke Juliana Hatfield, and you like The Police, chances are you will enjoy this album... (Otherwise, it's just like listening to a friend karaoke Sting twelve times in a row.) » – Richard Lime
Fea No Novelties Blackheart Records Following their critically lauded— and Iggy Pop praised—self-titled 2016 debut, the San Antonio-based feminist queer Chicana punk band, Fea, return with No Novelties. Featuring blistering guitar riffs, Riot Grrrl pathos, good ol’ fashioned punk rock ferocity, and wry, biting humor, the 10 songs that compose No Novelties is (much like Control Top’s Covert Contracts and Mannequin Pussy’s Patience) a rowdy and rambunctious truth-to-power clarion call these topsyturvy times have been starved for. Produced by punk legend Alice
Bag at Sonic Ranch in the Texas border town of Tornillo, No Novelties packs one helluva sonic wallop. Featuring bassist Jenn Alva, drummer Phanie Diaz (both formerly of Girl in a Coma), guitarist Sofi, and the commanding Corin-Tuckermeets-Kathleen-Hanna-inflected bilingual vox of Letty Martinez, Fea’s second outing finds the band mining the same emotionally and politically charged terrain as its predecessor, but with more intricately layered arrangements. “This is the generation of narcissists and self-absorption,” Martinez sings as she blasts social media-ocrities on “Let Me Down”, quickly noting the entitled superciliousness of, “insecurities disguised as confidence and egotism.” The cathartic Spanish sung “Ya Se” is an anthemic ode to a generation stuck in an economic rut of a previous generation’s making, while the confessional “ICU” paints a darkly charged portrait of a toxic relationship. “What’s it like being in a girl band?” Martinez deadpans on the album closer “Girl Band”. “Is it anything like being in a regular band?” “Close!” her cohorts snap back. Fea are nothing like a “regular band,” and thank gawd for that! » – Anthony King
new music album reviews
Cate Le Bon & Bradford Cox Myths 004 Mexican Summer Many well-matched artistic collaborations take place between unlikely pairs, born out of chance. In the case of indie music legend, Bradford Cox, and Welsh songwriter, Cate Le Bon, it was a meeting in Marfa, Texas and one week of recording to craft Myths 004, one of the most interesting and fun albums 2019 has to offer. Myths 004 is being
Girl Ray Girl Moshi Moshi Records
Two years after their debut album, Earl Grey, North London-based trio Girl Ray is back with their sophomore LP, Girl—it sounds like they’ve delved into a realm of vivid synth experimentation. It’s an exciting tribute to the trio’s undeniable love for pure modern pop and R&B. Girl Ray is experimenting with new creativity and
put out by Brooklyn’s always excellent label, Mexican Summer, and is the latest in a series of collaboration albums from artists affiliated with the label and the annual Marfa Myths festival. One of the first things to note about this collaboration is how it unites two artists with a unique and playful sense of language. Cox has an unusual approach to song-craft, in that he does not write lyrics out beforehand. Since this approach produced songs like “Fountain Stairs,” off of Deerhunter’s classic 2010 album Halcyon Digest, it’s safe to say that something is being done right! Cate Le Bon usually goes for economy of expression, but also finds a surreal angle
all the madness he’s seen. What’s a song like this trying to say? Well, maybe it can mean whatever you want it to mean. What matters is its beauty in the moment, a window into reality that won’t be captured again. That’s how a lot of the songs here feel. At times, the band (comprised of Stephen Black, Samur Khouja, Stella Mozgawa and Tim Presley, along with Cox and Le Bon) sound like some kind of crazy, obscure prog-rock/RIO you’ve never heard before: scratchy guitars and crashing percussion running roughshod and making startlingly abrupt transitions. The relaxed electronica vibes of the instrumental “Constance”
at which to look at the world. These two sensibilities leaning toward storytelling culminate in a wonderfully weird and provocative track, “Fireman.” A lurching, clanging beat, insistent keys and Le Bon’s sing-songy chant “I am a fireman/Putting out fires, man” serve as the backdrop for Cox’s stream of conscious rant from the perspective of a firefighter recalling
evoke Cox’s eclectic work as Atlas Sound, as well. The collection wraps up with “What Is She Wearing,” in which the band and Le Bon on lead vocal serve up some dirty rock and roll à la classic Velvet Underground. Anything this pair wants to cook up is worth a listen! » – Matthew Sweeney
honestly, bringing some bright and sunny sounds to the start of our colder months ahead. Poppy Hankin, Iris McConnell and Sophie Moss came together through a mutual love of pop music and a unique sense of humor while in their teens. The band pulled inspiration from personal playlists and a mutual love for dark humor and thus—Girl Ray was created!— bringing forth a premiere first album that made everyone want to cuddle up next to a fire. However, Girl is a sound that hasn’t really been heard before. Each song stands alone in its own unique way, making it impossible to label this album as just one genre. The band took their demos to Ash Workman, who has worked with Christine and The Queens and Metronomy. Workman was more than eager to start producing the record full of twinkly pop tracks creatively weaved with the Girl Ray flare. The title track is about one of those crushes where someone becomes a bit delusional and expects everything to
work out perfectly, like it might in the dreamy rom-com. “Show Me More” is a mid-tempo track fueled by funk-induced bass and a disco thump, while “Just Down The Hall” is a foot-tapping R&B ballad that slows things down to the perfect speed. “Beautiful” leans toward a reggae feel that is undeniably charming. The entire album gives out all the feels of sparkly mid-’80s pop, and “Because” is especially reminiscent and beautifully haunting. “Go To The Top” might inspire a drive along the coast on a sunny day with all the windows down. It was an extremely risky move to completely change the Girl Ray sound from the debut album, Earl Grey. But when there’s confidence to do so, the results are undeniable. With Girl, the trio chose to stray from the safe route and opted for a new sound that’s timeless and universal. Girl is out November 8th so keep an eye out for Girl Ray to hit a city near you soon! » – Mandi Dudek
elevenpdx.com | 7
features
LOCAL FEATURE by Henry Whittier-Ferguson
T
Federale
he industrial area just south of Mississippi is still a ghost town; walking down the center of the empty street, the air hangs heavy with a sense of anticipation. The scene seems a single lonely whistle away from a showdown. As I wait by what I think is the correct door, a man emerges from around the corner and waves. It’s almost a surprise that he’s not wearing a ten gallon hat. The man is Collin Hegna, founder and frontman of Federale, the Portland ensemble whose Spaghetti Western aesthetic has made them a singular group on the scene. Hegna, who also happens to be an owner of the recently relocated Revolver Studios and longtime bassist for the Brian Jonestown Massacre, invites me to follow him around the corner and upstairs into a warehouse that looks part studio space, part warehouse, part saloon. We sit down in the control room and talk music, movies, the upcoming Federale album, No Justice and more:
8 | ELEVEN PDX
ELEVEN : So Collin, as the founding
member of Federale, can you talk about what sparked the idea for the project?
Collin Hegna: Yeah, so me and a bunch of friends had a band—this was in the early to mid aughts— called Cocaine Unicorn. It was sort of a Velvet Underground inspired rock and roll band, and that band did pretty well. We played Musicfest NW and had some pretty good press and a bit of a buzz going. Cocaine Unicorn broke up basically due to some inner strife and drug usage in the band (laughs). Who saw that coming? But from the ashes of that band, me and some of the guys were watching some Spaghetti Western movies, and since our band had just broken up, we thought it would be fun to start playing a different kind of music. We really liked the soundtracks to those movies, so we started playing stuff that sounded like that instead. 11: So out of that fascination came La Rayar, your first album, which is kind of a concept album where it’s the soundtrack to a movie that’s not actually a real movie. CH: Yeah, that came out of watching all those movies and figuring out how to make a project out of it. I thought it would be useful to have a story arc and some characters, so we wrote a basic synopsis with a plot, a few characters and we would create a theme for each character. Then, we attempted to write a soundtrack to this story, which in our mind was a movie, but of course the movie didn’t actually exist. The concept helped us have something extramusical to grab onto and to use as direction, because we’d never done anything like that before. 11: You re-released that album last year, which involved re-
mixing and re-mastering, and even partially re-recording. I know people have different relationships with their old work, but how did you approach the return to that album, figuring out what to re-work and what to leave? CH: Well, you don’t wanna ruin what’s good about it, but I thought there were a lot of things that could be improved. I had all the raw files, so I tried to keep everything that I thought was good, and I only replaced things that I thought really stuck out as needing it. Then, I gave the mix a bit of a face-lift. I always thought the songs on that record were good, but I thought the production could have been better, so I wanted to do it justice. 11: Speaking of Justice, you’ve got the new album, No Justice, coming out on November 8th, which has some really impressive production. You described it in another interview as your “least Western” album yet. To me it sounds the most like a band making an album, as opposed to your earlier soundtrack style. Would you say that’s right? CH: Yeah. On our third record, we started having songs in a more traditional sense, with lyrics and stuff. There would be a couple mixed in with the instrumental music. On our fourth record, that shifted even further into having more lyrical songs—I think there’s only three or four instrumental songs on that record—and then on No Justice there’s only two instrumentals. But I feel like having been an instrumental band for so long, I can still bring that arrangement into these more lyrical vocal driven songs, and can really enhance that kind of music in a way that I don’t think a lot of rock bands do. 11: Pivoting a little bit, I wanted
elevenpdx.com | 9
10 | ELEVEN PDX
elevenpdx.com | 11
to talk about visuals as well. The relationship between film and music is obviously something this project is very concerned with, and since your debut, where you did the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, you’ve gotten a lot of your songs put in actual movies. Can you talk a bit about your relationship with Ana Lily Amirpour, how you guys met and started working together? CH: Yeah! I met her randomly backstage at a show with my other band, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and I knew she was a director, I knew she was a writer and I knew she had a movie that she was working on. She and I talked and really hit it off, we have a lot of common interests in film and film music, so she sent me the script of her first feature film, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, before anything had been shot. I started sending her music, stuff that I was inspired to write by the script, and we’ve continued to collaborate since then. We had a song off our last record in her movie The Bad Batch, and we also worked on a National Geographic special. I did the music for it and she directed it. She actually has a new film coming out, and we’ve been working on some things for that as well. 11: And some of your music videos are cut together shots from those films? CH: Yeah! The title track from our last record, “All The Colors Of The Dark,” is featured in The Bad Batch in its entirety, it’s a montage sequence in the middle of the movie, and when I saw that, I thought, “All we have to do is add a title card and it’s a music video!” (laughs) She said, “Yeah, totally, let’s just do that!” So now, I’ve got this music video that has Jim Carey in it, and super high Hollywood production value. That’s great, because it’s something I could have never done! (laughs) 11: I also wanted to talk about the Portland Film Fest. Last Wednesday you were playing the afterparty of the PFF, and you had
12 | ELEVEN PDX
music in Fire On The Hill, the film about the cowboys from Compton that ended up winning for best documentary. Can you talk about that project?
but I don’t want to get hung up on every bell and whistle that’s in the recording. I want to play the songs in a way that brings the emotion to life.
CH: I think we have seven songs in that movie. I wrote a song called “Fire On The Hill,” which is on the new record, and plays over the closing credits of the film. The director, Brett, contacted me because he had used a bunch of Ennio Morricone temp tracks when he was editing the film, and he was looking for something to replace those. Obviously, we have a lot of inspiration from Ennio, so he started using our music instead. The story is amazing, he sent me some clips and it’s super well shot. It’s really compelling and interesting, so I was really happy to be involved. I wrote some things specifically for him, and there were some old songs that we did, some edits to make them fit better in the film. What’s been great about that movie is that the folks who are in that movie, who used to have this stable, which has now since gone, they’ve gone on to create a nonprofit. They’re building an equestrian area in South Central Los Angeles, where community members can come and work with horses and learn how to ride, it’s been a really positive thing.
11: And the album release show for the album is as Mississippi Studios?
11: Definitely a film to check out! So for that afterparty, you were doing a solo set, which I was going to use as a segue into asking about your live performances. You’re clearly a studio guy, but how do you go about translating these recordings, taking this stuff you’re doing in the studio and bringing it to a live audience? CH: That’s a good question. I try to bring along as many of the things that make sense. All of us in the band are really experienced as live performers, in the rock world, classical world and the jazz world, so I don’t want to lose the spontaneity of the live performance by trying to hang onto the things that the seven of us can’t do. We do have some strings, and we do some stuff with the keyboard,
CH: Yeah! November 23rd, with Roselit Bone at Mississippi Studios! Get tickets to the album release show for No Justice here. »
features
especially on “Trouble” and “Unchained Malady”–which borders on addicting. His vocals on every song are doused with reverb, giving the storytelling a slightly more ethereal quality. It’s
Federale No Justice Jealous Butcher Portland’s own Federale are a difficult band to pin down, stylistically. Their work is persistently Western-infused, but they gleefully avoid the “yeehaw” trappings of their genre constantly in the same way that Calexico do, seemingly just as indebted to psych rock as anything else. This formula could result in incoherence for even the best band, but on No Justice, the band’s fifth album, their particular blend feels not just refreshing, but warm and inviting. At the center is front-person (and former Brian Jonestown Massacre bassist) Collin Hegna, who elevates Federale’s music with his Nick Cave-like baritone–
that quality that sells tantalizing lyrics like, “We met in the back of a rundown bar at the end of the line/ She just rolled into town for tequila and lime” or “Every day is a sentence, every word is a jail.” He’s also able to inject a healthy dose of theatricality into these songs, which strip out any of the potential hokeyness of songs like the catchy revenge tale “Aim for the Heart.” While No Justice doesn’t exactly invent the wheel (other locals, Blitzen Trapper have been doing something stylistically similar for a long time) that doesn’t make No Justice any less satisfying. It should also be no surprise that No Justice just sounds great and full of gorgeous instrumentation. From the soaring strings of “No Justice” or the horns of “She's Headed For The Highway, I'm Bound For The Train,” each song has at least something on it that anyone can easily get hooked on. » - Holly Hazelwood
14 | ELEVEN PDX
John Waters bY
Eirinn Gragson photos by
Greg GORMAN So yes, not everyone celebrates Christmas, but there is something to be said about the gaudy white-flocked fake trees, excessive Yuletide decoration and eerie-eyed nutcrackers that can make the holidays rife with camp and freakiness. Yes, it’s a time of cheer and joy and all that other junk, but it’s also comically and charmingly full of trash, delightful family hijinks and a coming together of people who maybe don’t ever really want to see each other. It’s really no wonder, then, that John Waters— divine power of filthy dark comedy—has taken his one-man Christmas show, “A John Water Christmas – Filthier & Merrier”, on the road for another year. Proudly from Baltimore, Maryland, he’s known for being the prince of profanity and is an absolute gay and queer icon—having worked with actor and drag queen Divine for many years and being out as gay and an advocate for gay rights, himself. All of his movies, from 1972’s “Pink Flamingos” (a story about the “filthiest people alive”) to acclaimed hit Hairspray (turned Broadway musical, turned movie musical) include some level of nuanced raunch—from eating literal dog shit, to more subtle dialogue on interracial relationships or serial killer suburban moms— that have paved the way for future artists and freaks to relish in a carefree “fuck it all” freedom.
John Waters has always felt like a breath of fresh air in a world bogged down by a dense smog of “normalcy”. Amid the tedium of the everyday, Waters is able to successfully throw a wrench in everyone’s plans and make them laugh it off with a shrug. With his precocious wit and utter likability, even the most harrowing moments can feel lighthearted or so bizarre as to stir up an off kilter giggle. It was our pleasure at ELEVEN to have the chance to talk with the Pope of Trash himself as we roll into this holiday season: ELEVEN: I’m a big fan of your work, but I have not yet seen your Christmas show! Can you just say a little bit about it, and how it got started? John Waters: Well, it started probably from an original essay I did called “Why I Love Christmas”. And I change it every year, if you’d seen it last year it would be very, very different
elevenpdx.com | 15
FEATURES
this year. But I’m always adding things, keeping it up to date. I mean I add things the day I get there because politics is changing so much, and the current events has always been part of my show. But it’s all tied to Chritsmas, which I believe everybody can survive even if you hate it. Even this year, when it’s going to be a tense Christmas at home, if you have family that doesn’t agree on politics. It’s like a Civil War Christmas really, it doesn’t matter where you live in the country. 11: This is not the first time that you’ve used Christmas in your work. Do any of the stories in your Christmas tales hold any biographical truth? JW: Well, in “Female Trouble”, when the Chritsmas tree fell over—Divine knocks the Chritsmas tree over on her mother in “Female Trouble”—when I was young, the Christmas Tree did fall over on my grandmother but she wasn’t hurt that badly or anything. She thought it was funny later, that I put it in the movie and was so obsessed by it. I had heard, from doing this Christmas show for many years that Christmas trees do fall over on people a lot. People have told me their personal stories, often it is the dog or cat and also liquor is involved a lot. I also wrote a movie called “Fruit Cake” which was about meat thieves in Baltimore and how they come and knock on the door and say “meat man” and you go downstairs and say, “I want a turkey and two pounds of veal,” and they go shoplift it and bring it back and you pay half of the label. I guess that was a Chritsmas movie too. I think those are the only Christmas themes I’ve actually done. I do know someone that was arrested on Christmas Eve at their parent’s house and he tried to run and the police tackled him and the tree got knocked over. We had pretty peaceful Christmases. 11: This is a one man show, correct? JW: Completely it’s me, a 70 minute monologue and 20 mins of questions. 11: So what it that like, running a one man show? How is that different from directing a full movie with a cast?
16 | ELEVEN PDX
JW: It’s completely different because I don’t use notes, it’s all memorized. It’s like working without a net because I don’t have any actors that [deliver a] que, like you do if you’re in a play. But it’s my alzheimer's exercise! It’s hard for me. When I’m in other people’s movies and I have to remember dialogue, I’m not that good at it, but if you write it, it’s much easier to memorize it. 11: That makes sense. Has anything ever gone wrong? JW: Oh sure! You go up and you just suddenly don’t remember where you are. And then I start up again and have to think, “Where do I cut back in?” That’s the hard part, you have it all visualized in your mind. I don’t even take my glasses onstage, I couldn’t read anything even if i had it with me! It seems to work, I’ve been doing it forever. The first night is the scariest, because you don’t know if you’ll remember it all. And also, the length is important—it’s supposed to be 70 minutes, and generally I come in pretty close, but I do take a timer onstage which I look at in the last 10 minutes to see where I am. 11: What year did you start giving these performances? JW: Well I have another show, “Filthy World”, I do all year, and I have one called “Make Trouble”. I do that all year—I’ve been doing this for 50 years really. It started when I used to go to the colleges with my movies really early in the ‘70s and I would bring Divine and we would introduce the movie and it sort of grew from that into what I do today. It’s a vaudeville act basically. 11: I assume you have been through Portland? JW: Oh many times! I’ve done my Chrtismas show many times. I’ve done book signings there, with my movies—it’s always been a really welcoming town.
elevenpdx.com | 17
FEATURES
11: How do you like it here as compared to Baltimore? JW: I like it! It reminds me of Baltimore. In some ways, it is like Baltimore. It’s gotten even hipper—it always was hip! And like everywhere else, it’s gotten a little more expensive. But there’s still, I think, room for Bohemia, as there is in Baltimore and there isn’t in many cities in America. 11: What is your ideal Chritsmas gift? JW: I book that I’ve never heard of that I really like that I didn’t know existed. 11: How do you feel about gift giving around Christmas? JW: Well, I have to buy about 100 presents or more. Sometimes it’s a burden, but it’s something I’ve always done—I can’t not do it. I get into it, I try giving presents that are personal, I don’t just give someone money or a gift card. That’s the biggest insult ever, if you give a gift card I mean, “Hi, stupid!” 11: I’m curious about the soundtrack alongside the show, is it part of this play as well? JW: A John Waters Christmas is a CD compilation I put out, oh God, 10 or 15 years ago. They play it a lot when people are coming into my show, and when I have book signings they usually play it as a soundtrack, but I’m not going to come out and sing the songs on it. If I could sing, I would have exploited that a long time ago! 11: Did you write those songs? JW: No, no, they’re songs I very much like and they’re pretty obscure Christmas songs I wanted to bring to people’s attention. 11: There’s something about Christmas that when it’s really extravagant, it already has the
18 | ELEVEN PDX
potential to enter this sort of campy, gaudy realm. JW: My parents always told me that giving expensive Chrtismtas presents was in poor taste, even if you were rich. More so if you were rich! It was vulgar to give presents that would only cost money that were obvious—then it puts pressure on the other person. 11: As a status symbol? JW: Yes. 11: You prefer things that are more personal. JW: Yes, because even if I want somebody to spend a lot of money on me, I’d want them to buy me a rare book or something. I wouldn’t ask for a rolodex. Or a Rolex! Not a rolodex, maybe they’d be collectable though at this point. 11: What is the craziest Chritsmas toy that you’ve ever seen? JW: Well, I got things that people made for me that are not exactly toys, but I have one where Divine is knocking over the Chrtismas tree, which was a scene in one of my movies, and it blinks—the Christmas lights blink on that and everything. So it’s not a toy, but it’s a Christmas decoration. I do a thing every year in my show about the world’s most unsafe toys, this list is put out every year and I collect them. I eagerly look forward to that list every year, I’m waiting to put it in my show this year. I think that would be it. Gobbles the Garbage Eating Goat, they said it was unsafe because children would eat the pretend garbage that you gave Gobbles to eat. I thought, “What parents would feed the pretend plastic garbage to their children?” I guess it meant that they would eat it themselves, I don’t know, I think there’s bigger problems in society that Gobbles the Garbage Eating Goat, so I embraced it! »
elevenpdx.com | 19
20 | ELEVEN PDX
