Trapped in This World: Culture on the Edge—The Omnibus of Pop Culture Writing by A. J. Payler (writing as Aaron Poehler)

By A. J. Payler and Aaron Poehler

ABOUT THE BOOK

From the murder of Bobby Fuller to the ascent of Soul Asylum, A. J. Payler covered the most interesting corners of the music world during a time of unprecedented upheaval and change in the music industry. Ferreting out little-exposed corners of pop culture with the tenacity of a devotee, Trapped in This World: Pop Culture on the Edge—The Omnibus of Pop Culture Writing by A. J. Payler (writing as Aaron Poehler) is the most expansive collection available, including pieces that originally appeared in Flipside, Tail Spins, Eye Magazine, Razorcake, BC Magazine and many other publications, including interviews, profiles, and over five hundred music reviews found nowhere else.

Now expanded by over 350 pages—over a hundred thousand words of articles and reviews previously unseen for decades!

 

Featuring:

Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum

The Strange Case of Bobby Fuller

Back to Monk Time with The Monks

Making Time for the Creation

In the Eyes of St. Nic of Detroit

Behind the Curtain of the Record Industry with Moses Avalon

The Saga of Iggy Pop and the Stooges

Bill Hicks: Preaching Comedy's Dark Side

Del Close and Wasteland—Interview with John Ostrander

"I Want to Last"—Interview with Kevin Shima of Homunculus

Ativin

Jimi Hendrix

Joy Division

Slim Moon (KIll Rock Stars)

Spacemen 3

Les Sexareenos

Electric Frankenstein

My Dad is Dead

Sunset Sessions

Columns for Razorcake

 

Plus over five hundred reviews, including:

The Leaving Trains

Slingshot Episode

Iggy Pop and the Stooges

Captain Beefheart

David Bowie

The Avengers

Joy Division

The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Swans

Three Mile Pilot

The Black Heart Procession

Spiritualized

The Wedding Present

Can

The Panics

The Walking Ruins

The Cramps

The Dead Kennedys

Richard Buckner

Eddi Reader

The Flaming Lips

Boy Genius

Dinosaur Jr.

The Replacements/Paul Westerberg

Tugboat Annie

Transfer

Melvins

Scrawl

Unwritten Law

Greg Ginn

The Jesus and Mary Chain

Guided by Voices

Four Letter Word

AWOLNATION

Hawkwind

The Church

DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid

Massive Attack

Manu Chao

Flight of the Conchords

Mojo Nixon

Rocket From the Tombs

Roger Miller

Bob Mould

GIVERS

Ramones

The Residents

Peter Perrett

MC5

Warren Zevon

Faith No More

Pulp

Guns 'N' Roses

...and hundreds more!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Jet Press
• Release date: Feb 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224013159

Book preview

Trapped in This World: Culture on the Edge

About the Book

From the murder of Bobby Fuller to the ascent of Soul Asylum, Aaron Poehler covered the most interesting corners of the music world during a time of unprecedented upheaval and change in the music industry. Ferreting out little-exposed corners of pop culture with the tenacity of a devotee, Trapped in This World: Pop Culture on the Edge—The Omnibus of Pop Culture Writing by A. J. Payler (writing as Aaron Poehler) is the most expansive collection available, including pieces that originally appeared in Flipside, Tail Spins, Eye Magazine, Razorcake, BC Magazine, and many other publications, including interviews, profiles, and hundreds of music reviews found nowhere else.

Now expanded by over 350 pages—over a hundred thousand words of articles and reviews previously unseen for decades!

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Also by by A. J. Payler

Novels:

The Killing Song

World of Heroes: The Untold Secret Origin of the New Fighters

Lost In the Red

Terror Next Door

Bank Error In Your Favor

Albums (as Aaron Poehler):

20th Century Gold - Juvenilia

This Is My Revenge

You Had To Leave Your Mark

Dietrich

That Says It All

Nonfiction:

Encore: The Anthology of Music Writing

Trapped in This World: Culture on the Edge—The Omnibus of Pop Culture Writing

Trapped in This World: Culture on the Edge

The Omnibus of Pop Culture Writing

by A. J. Payler

(writing as Aaron Poehler)

Author Jet Press

Copyright © 2024 by A. J. Payler

All rights reserved. The moral right of the author has been asserted. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover design: A. J. Payler

Cover image elements: Daniel Schludi, PicsFive

Contents

List of Reviews

Trapped in This World

Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum

The Strange Case of Bobby Fuller

Back to Monk Time

Making Time for The Creation

In The Eyes of St. Nic of Detroit

Behind the Curtain of the Record Industry with Moses Avalon

The Saga of Iggy and The Stooges

Bill Hicks: Preaching Comedy’s Dark Side

Del Close and Wasteland—Interview with John Ostrander

Ativin

I Want to Last—An Interview with Kevin Shima of Homunculus

The Spacemen 3 Catalog in Review

The Jimi Hendrix Catalog in Review

Joy Division

Columns for Razorcake

Les Sexareenos with Hellbound Hounds and Maggotmouth, Friday November 16, 2001, Pink Cadillac Honolulu, Hawaii

Insider Report: Slim Moon (Kill Rock Stars)

Insider Report: Mr. Jimmi (Ariana Records)

Insider Report: Patrick Arn (Gotham Records)

Sunset Sessions Rock 2011

Reviews

About A. J. Payler

Music by Aaron Poehler

List of Reviews

A3 - Exile On Coldharbour Lane

Adam West - Right On!

A Day For Honey - self-titled

Hasil Adkins - What The Hell Was I Thinking

The Aesthetics - Incunabula

AFI - Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes

Aging Process - For All Those Left Behind

Alison’s Halo - Eyedazzler 1992-1996

All That - The Whop Boom Bam

Alternative TV - Apollo

another sevenfold - self-titled

The Anti-Nowhere League - Scum

Armchair Martian - Hang On, Ted

The Assmen - Enema Nation

Assorted Jelly Beans - What’s Really Going On?!?

Aura Anthropica - American Blindfold

The Autumns - The Angel Pool

The Avengers - Died For Your Sins

Backstreet Law - Hockey Helmet

Bad Brains - Omega Sessions

BadTown Boys - Another Fine Day

Erykah Badu - Live

Bane - Holding This Moment

Bassholes - Blue Roots

Beat Angels - Red Badge of Discourage

Beatnik Termites - Ode To Susie And Joey/Termite Hop 7-inch

The Beekeepers - Killer Cure

Bell - Viral Love/Unshockable

The Bells - The Ultimate Seaside Companion

Be/Non - Meet The Person Most Responsible For Your Safety

Bent Leg Fatima - Bent Leg Fatima

Big Drill Car - Small Block EP

The Billy Nayer Show - The American Astronaut

The Birthday Party - Live 1981-82

Barry Black - Tragic Animal Stories

Black Dawn - self-titled demo

The Black Heart Procession - 2

Blindspot - Acceleration Zero

Blink 182 - Enema of the State

Blur - 13

The Body Lovers - Number One Of Three

David Bowie - Heathen

David Bowie - Hours...

Boxcar Satan - Crooked Mile March

Boxer - The Hurt Process

Boy Genius - Last Grand Experiment

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Braveryrepetitionandnoise

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Bringing It All Back Home, Again

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Give It Back!

Mark Bruback/Whorehouse of Representatives - Burn Down Nike Town split 7-inch

Buckethead - Colma

Richard Buckner - Bloomed

Richard Buckner - Since

Burnt Taters - Vox Box

Buzzcrusher - self-titled 7-inch

Jean Caffeine - Knocked Down 7 Times Got Up 8

John Cale - Eat/Kiss - Music for the Films by Andy Warhol

Callaghan - Paddy Polski 7-inch

Can - Sacrilege

The Candy Snatchers - Human Zoo!

Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Safe As Milk/The Mirror Man Sessions

Car Bomb Driver - self-titled 7-inch

Wendy Carlos - Tales Of Heaven and Hell

Cease/Clairmel - split 7-inch

Cellophane - self-titled

Manu Chao - Clandestino

Manu Chao - …Proxima Estacion…Esperanza

Craig Chaquico - Once In A Blue Universe

Chemical People - Arpeggio Motorcade

Chocolate Kiss - set yourself on fire

Chrome Locust - Chrome Locust

The Chubbies - Tres Flores

The Church - After Everything Now This

Ciao Bella - 1

Cloud Eleven - Cloud Eleven

CO2 - 21st Century S.O.S.

Commander Venus - The Uneventful Vacation

Common Rider - Last Wave Rockers

Concrete - Equation of the Blue Horse

The Cowslingers - Americana-A-Go-Go

The Cramps - Big Beat From Badsville

The Cramps - RockinNReelinInAucklandNewZealand, Smell Of Female, A Date With Elvis, Stay Sick!, Look Mom No Head!, Big Beat From Badsville; Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters/In God We Trust Inc., Frankenchrist, Bedtime For Democracy, Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death, Mutiny On the Bay (Dead Kennedys Live! From the San Francisco Bay Area)

Cranes - EP Collection Volumes 1 and 2

Crazy Mary - Passion Pit

Cub - Mauler! A Collection Of Oddities

The Cure - Festival 2005 DVD

Curlew - Fabulous Drop

Cut - Will You Die 4 Me?

Kamau Daáood - Leimert Park

Daisy Grace - self-titled

dälek - Negro Necro Nekros

Daver - Popart

Dawnbreed - Luxus 7-inch

dayinthelife... - self-titled

The Dayspring Collective - Spark

The Dead Boys - All This and More

Dead End Kids - Something For The Sickness 7-inch

Def Leppard - Songs From The Sparkle Lounge

Delirious? - Mezzamorphis

The Delusions - I Hope It Dies On A Sunny Day

Gitane DeMone - Am I Wrong?

Ani DiFranco - Little Plastic Castle

Dinosaur Jr.- Green Mind/Dinosaur Jr. with the Jesus Lizard and the Ass Ponies May 24 1991 at Bogarts, Cincinnati Ohio

Dirtball - The Well

Dirty Poodle - Dirty Poodle

Discount - Love, Billy

Disgusteens - Nothing Personal

DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid - Optometry

DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid - Riddim Warfare

Doctor Explosion - The Subnormal Revolution Of Doctor Explosion

Dr. John - Anutha Zone

Dolph Sweet - Puttin’ The Kids In The Pool

The Dooms U.K. - Art Rock Explosion!

Ducky Boys - Live: From The Banks Of The River Charles

Ed Temple - The Act of Gabriel

El Bad - Trick Or Treat/Hor - A Faster, More Aggressive Hor/Bias - Model Citizen/Screw Radio - Best Of Screw Radio

El Caminos - Reverb Explosion

Electrane - Rock It To The Moon

Electric Summer - Love Me Destroyer

Enclave - Sonatas and Interludes

Error Type: 11 - self-titled

Alejandro Escovedo - More Miles Than Money: Live 1994-96

Fabric - Woolly Mammoth

Face - A Picture of End

Face To Face - Live

Faithless - Sunday 8PM

Faith No More - The Works

The Fantasy Four/Julia Sets - The Bert Dax Cavalcade of Stars Travelling Road Show split EP

Fatso Jetson - Toasted

Mike Felumlee - 64 Hours

Fiji Mariners Featuring Col. Bruce Hampton - Live

Fireball Ministry - Ou est la Rock?

Fireballs of Freedom - The New Professionals

Five By Nine - self-titled 7-inch

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

Flight of the Conchords - self-titled

The Flip Squad Allstar DJs - The Flip Squad Allstar DJs

Flu Thirteen - In the Foul Key of V

T-Model Ford - You Better Keep Still

Forest For The Trees - self-titled

Four/The 8 Bucks Experiment - Blood, Sweat and Beers 7-inch

The 440s and the Chickenhawks - Sumthin’ Sleazy

Four Letter Word - A Nasty Piece of Work

Four Letter Word - Zero Visibility (Experiments With Truth)

Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop and Roll!!!

Josh Freese - The Notorious One Man Orgy

Frigg A-Go-Go - The Penetrating Sounds Of… Frigg A-Go-Go/Frigg-A-Licious!!! 7-inch

F.T. - Here’s Ten Reasons Why

Fuck On The Beach - Power Violence Forever

Bobby Fuller - Shakedown! The Texas Tapes Revisited

The Bobby Fuller Four - Never To Be Forgotten

Fun Lovin’ Criminals - 100% Colombian

Future Bible Heroes - Lonely Days EP

The Geraldine Fibbers – Butch

Ghoti Hook - Songs We Didn’t Write

Gladys - A Small Season

The Glory Stompers - Ninesixnineseven

godheadSilo - Share The Fantasy

Godot - self-titled

The Gods Hate Kansas - Mischief Is Its Own Reward

Gomez - Liquid Skin

Good Clean Fun - Shopping For A Crew

Gravity Wax - self-titled 7-inch

Grinspoon - Guide To Better Living

The Grisly Ghosts of Guy - I Am the Haunted

Groovie Ghoulies - Fun in the Dark

Guided By Voices - Do the Collapse

Guns ‘N Roses - Chinese Democracy

Guttermouth - Gorgeous

Pete Ham - 7 Park Avenue

HammerFall - Glory to the Brave CD single

Harkonen - Hung To Dry 7-inch

Ben Harper - The Will To Live

Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals - Burn To Shine

Hawkwind - Atomhenge 76

Hawkwind - Family Tree

Hawkwind - Spacebrock

Hawkwind - Weird Tapes 1: Sonic Assassins, Dave Brock

Hawkwind - Weird Tapes 2: Hawkwind Live/Hawklords Studio

Hawkwind - Weird Tapes 3: Free Festivals

Hawkwind - Weird Tapes 4: Live ‘78

Hawkwind - Weird Tapes 5: Live ‘76 and ‘77

Lili Haydn - Lili

The Heartworms/California Stadium - split 7-inch

Help Wanted - The Return of Monkey Face

Hero Of A Hundred Fights - Hero Of A Hundred Fights

Kristin Hersh - Sky Motel

He Said - Omala/Catch Supposes plus selections from H.A.L.O.-Immanent

Bill Hicks - Sane Man videotape/Austin Public Access videotape/Ninja Bachelor Party videotape

Holdstrong - Pursuit In the Face of Misfortune 7-inch

The Hollowbodies - Viva La Dregs

Honkeyball - Down By Three

Huntingtons - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Hypnotic Clambake - Frozen Live Vol. 1

Ice - Bad Blood

The Iceburn Collective - Power Of The Lion

Iggy and the Stooges - California Bleeding

Iggy and the Stooges - The Iguana Chronicles: Open Up and Bleed, California Bleeding, Rough Power, Kill City, Year of the Iguana, I Got A Right, I’m Sick Of You, Jesus Loves The Stooges

Iggy and the Stooges - Wild Love (The Detroit Rehearsals and More)

James Iha - Let It Come Down

Inch - This Will Fall on Dead Ears

The Insects - Return To the Foreign Legion

Mike Ireland and Holler - Learning How To Live

Iron Maiden - Somewhere Back in Time: The Best of 1980-1989

Jakkpot - Always Bet On Black

Jakkpot - Hit Or Miss/Stepping (Stone)-(Inside) Out 7-inch

Jargon - self-titled

Jason and the Scorchers - Midnight Roads and Stages Seen

The Jazz June - The Boom, The Motion and The Music

Jenifer Convertible - Wanna Drag?

The Jennys - Dandelion

Jersey - No Turning Back

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Munki

Jethro Tull - The Very Best Of

JFA - Only Live Once

John Q Public - The Neverending Why

Joy Division - Joy Division (2008 Grant Gee documentary)/The Best of Joy Division (2CD edition)

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Joy Electric - Robot Rock

Jumpin’ Jimes - They Rock! They Roll! They Swing!

June of 44 - Anahata

Tonio K. - Olé

Chris Kelsey Trio - The Ingenious Gentleman of the Lower East Side

Kent - Isola

The Kill Van Kull - Human Bomb

The King - Gravelands

Kissing Judas - Eternity

Kiss The Girl - self-titled

The Knit Seperates - The Memory Relaxer E.P. 7-inch

Knowledge - A Gift Before I Go

KMFDM- (Symbols)/Pig - Wrecked

KMFDM -MDFMK

Krakatoa - Clouds Burned By Sunshine 7-inch

Lenny Kravitz - 5

Ulrich Krieger - Walls of Sound

Krupted Peasant Farmerz - Peasants by Birth, Farmers by Trade, Krupted by the Dollar

Lancaster County Prison - What I Love About America/Live! At The Village Idiot New York City

The Leaving Trains - Favorite Mood Swings (Greatest Hits 1986-1995)

The Leaving Trains- Sleeping Underwater Survivors

The Leaving Trains- Smoke Follows Beauty

Lefty’s Deceiver - 45:00

Libido - It’s Not What You Think!

Libido - Killing Some Dead Time

Lil Ronnie and The Grand Dukes - Too Fast For Conditions

Limp - Fine Girl

Limp - self-titled

Liquid Liquid - self-titled

Little Monstrosity - Indifference/Whisper 7-inch

Lizard Music - Routine/Mail Freud and Sun Unaware 7-inch

Log - Dodge and Burn

Lombego Surfers - self-titled

Long Fin Killie -Amelia

Lord Runningclam - Fun for the Whole Family

Lughead - Hold My Life

John Lydon– Psycho’s Path

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Skynyrd’s First—The Complete Muscle Shoals Album

Steve MacDonald - Ramblin Worker 7-inch

Mad Drama - self-titled

Magic 12 - Magic 12

Magnet - Don’t Be a Penguin

Magnet - Which Way EP

Michelle Malone - Beneath the Devil Moon

Mandingo - Rock Like A Phoenician!

Manic Street Preachers - This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours

Massive Attack - Blue Lines

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

The Mayflies USA - The Pity List

MC5 - Human Being Lawnmower: The Baddest and Maddest of the MC5

Me First and The Gimme Gimmes - Are A Drag

The Melvins - The Bootlicker

The Metalunas - X-Minus-One

Method 51 - self-titled

Metallica - Death Magnetic

Mid Carson July - Ten Years On Autopilot

Midway - Poole Hall Sessions

The Steve Miller Band - King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents The Steve Miller Band

The Milwaukees - Sunset and Sunrise

Mirrors/Electric Eels/Styrenes - Those Were Different Times

The Mist - Gottverlassen

Mr. Pink - Frontierman

Monkey Paw - demo CD

Monks - Five Upstart Americans

Valarie Morris - TransFormations cassette

Mötley Crüe - Saints of Los Angeles

Bob Mould - The Last Dog And Pony Show

The Muffs - Alert Today Alive Tomorrow

Mulberry Lane - Run Your Own Race

Mushroomhead - XX

MxPx - Let It Happen

The Necessary Evils - The Sicko Inside Me

Needle - Counterculture Wholesale/Work In Progress 7-inch

NegativeHate - Earth Spirit Down

New End Original -Thriller

The New Morty Show - Mortyfied!

New Radicals - Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too

New States - New States

Nine Dollar Melon Baller - Riding The Ephidrine Horse

Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

Nine Lives - Reignition

Nine Pound Hammer - Live At The Vera

Ninety Pound Wuss - Short Hand Operation

9 Volt - self-titled

Ninewood/Rube Waddell - split

The Nitwitz - It Shows In Your Face 7-inch

Mojo Nixon - Gadzooks!!! The Homemade Bootleg

Mojo Nixon and the Toadliquors - Sock Ray Blue!

Nobodys - Generation XXX

NOFX - So Long And Thanks For All The Shoes

No Man - Whamon Express /Roger Miller Presents Xyxyl And A Woman In Half (Soundtrack)/Sproton Layer - 7-inch single

No Redeeming Social Value - THC

North - self-titled 7-inch

Not Breathing - The Starry Wisdom

Nothing Painted Blue - Emotional Discipline

Novocaine NP9 - Frustration No. 10

NRG Ensemble - Bejazzo Gets A Facelift/The Vandermark Five - Target Or Flag

Off By One - self-titled

Orange Goblin - Time Travelling Blues

Orchid/Pig Destroyer - split 7-inch

Beth Orton - Central Reservation

Outrageous Cherry - Out There in the Dark

Overdose - Circle Of Death

Panacea - Twisted Designz

The Panics - 1980-1981: I Wanna Kill My Mom!!!

Park - Scene 14

The Pastels - Up For A Bit With The Pastels

People Can’t Drive #5 (zine)

Pep Squad - Yreka Bakery

Peter Perrett in the One - Woke Up Sticky (album and single)

Peter Perrett - Live with the One

Brendan Perry - Eye Of The Hunter

Pfilbryte - Imperfection

Jackson Phibes - Old Devil Moon 7-inch

Phylr - Contra La Puerta

Pinetop Seven - No Breath In The Bellows EP

Pinhead Circus - Detailed Instructions For the Self-Involved

Plastic Cheeses - Lactose Intolerance

Plastiscene - Seeing Stars

Poem Rocket - Infinite Retry on Parallel Time-out

Johnny Polanco y Su Conjunto Amistad - L.A. Amistad

Poolside - Indyglow

Poopshovel – Outta My Hair/Dragon Attack 7-inch

Iggy Pop - Avenue B

Iggy Pop - Beat Em Up

The Pork Guys - self-titled 7-inch

Pressure - Hardcore Roots

The Proletariat - Voodoo Economics and Other American Tragedies

Chuck Prophet - Brother Aldo

Public Enemy - There’s A Poison Goin’ On

Pulp - ‘It’/Masters Of The Universe/’Freaks’ reissues

Purplefly - Moonbow

Quasi - R&B Transmogrification

Queens of the Stone Age - self-titled

Question Mark and the Mysterians - More Action

Radio Hour 491 - World’s Worst Antenna

Joey Ramone - Don’t Worry About Me

Ramones - We’re Outta Here

Dave Ray - Snake Eyes

RC5 - In the Bottle 7-inch

Eddi Reader - Angels and Electricity

Eddi Reader - Candyfloss And Medicine

The Readymen - Factory 7-inch

Regicide Bureau - The Loosestrife Solo cassette

The Reluctant Toby - The Ultimate Hobby

R.E.M. - Accelerate

Rent Boys - Long Time

The Replacements - All For Nothing/Nothing For All

The Residents - Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses

The Revelers - Day In, Day Out

Rialto - Rialto

Ribbon Fix - Some Saturday This Has Been

Ringo and His New All-Starr Band - self-titled

Riverboat Gamblers - self-titled

Riverdales - Storm the Streets

Riverfenix – self-titled

Roadsaw - Nationwide

The Rock*A*Teens - Golden Time

Rocket From The Tombs - The Day The Earth Met the Rocket From the Tombs

Rod/Don’t Call Me Brian - split 7-inch

Paul Rodgers – Now

Rodriguez - Swing Like A Metronome

Rx Bandits - Halfway Between Here and There

The Roswells - self-titled 7-inch

Rush - Snakes and Arrows Live

Satan’s Camaro - self-titled

Scorn - Whine

Scott Russo’s Jizz #4 (comic book)

Scrawl - Nature Film

Scritti Politti - Anomie and Bonhomie

Sea Monkeys - Wide Awake! With Sea Monkeys 7-inch

Second Coming - self-titled

The Sentinals - Sunset Beach: The Best Of The Sentinals

7 Goats - The Best Of Jackie Gleason

7 Seconds - Good To Go

764-Hero - Get Here and Stay

Sex Pistols - Raw

Shaft - El Grüpo de Röck

Duncan Sheik - Humming

Shuggie - Shuggie

Shyster - February

Sidekick Kato - i think im in love

Silkenseed - Hurry Home

The Silos - Heater

Sister 7 - This The Trip

Slak - Another Disaster 7-inch

Sleepers - The Less An Object

Slick Shoes - Burn Out

Slingshot Episode - Dead Air To Deaf Ear 7-inch

Slingshot Episode - Fault Lines Sleep For Now

Sloppy Seconds/the Vindictives - Why Don’t Lesbians Love Me/Pervert At Large split 7-inch

Slow Roosevelt - Throwawayyourstereo

Smack - On You

The Smashing Pumpkins - Adore

The Smizokes - The Smizokes

Smoking Popes - Before I’m Gone/Pasted 7-inch

The Smooths - No Brakes

Snack Crapple Pox - Jimbo EP

Snowpony - The Slow-Motion World of Snowpony

Soil - Throttle Junkies

Solar Coaster - Zero Sum/Karmageddon 7-inch

Songs For Emma - 11.12.98

Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves

South – self-titled

The Space Cowboys - Rock ‘N’ Roll Injection!

Ronnie Spector - She Talks to Rainbows EP

Alexander Skip Spence – Oar

Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space/The Verve - Urban Hymns

Spiritualized - Songs in A&E

Spite - Bastard Complex

Spleen - Little Scratches

Squidboy - Iliteratti

Starflyer 59 - The Fashion Focus

Staring Back - The Mean Streets of Goleta EP

Stereohools - Back From Japan

The Stone Coyotes - Born To Howl

Stone Gods - Burn the Witch EP

Stranded - Longwaydown

Striking Irwin - The Twelve Step Program 7-inch

Studbull’s Disco Biscuit - Hairy Potato

Styrenes - We Care, So You Don’t Have To

Subincision - self-titled

Suckdog - Onward Suckdog Soldiers

Nikki Sudden - The Last Bandit

Suncatcher - The Girl That God Forgot

Supporting Actress - Playing The Part

Swans - Soundtracks For the Blind/Children of God/World of Skin

Sweet Diesel - Wrongville

Talas - If We Only Knew Then What We Know Now...

Deniz Tek - Equinox

Terminus City/Bloody Sods – split

Test Dept. - Tactics For Evolution

Television Personalities - They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles

Texas - The Hush

Thee Impossibles - Who Invited These Guys Anyway?

ThirdFall/Subb - Two Ban’ an’ a split

Three Mile Pilot - Another Desert Another Sea

Three Mile Pilot - Songs From An Old Town We Once Knew

Throwaway Generation/The Zillionaires - split 7-inch

The Thumbs - Sweet Merciful Crap! It’s... 7-inch

tiltWheel - Battle Hymns for the Recluse Youth

Toenut - Two In The Piñata

The Ton Ups - Tune Down

Toothpick Elbow – self-titled

transister - self-titled

Transport League - Superevil

The Abby Travis Foundation - self-titled

Tree - Our Day Will Come

Treiops Treyfid - Reach The Explosion!

Trik Turner - self-titled

Tristeza - Foreshadow b/w Smoke Through Glass 7-inch

The Derek Trucks Band - self-titled

TSOL - Disappear

Tugboat Annie - Separation Songs EP

Turning Of The Gears - Sensory Obliteration EP

25 Suaves - self-titled

Twisted Nixon - In Punk We Trust

The Twits - The Twits

UB40 - Guns In the Ghetto

UB40 - Labour Of Love III

Unabomers - Stand For Something Fall For Nothing 7-inch

Undercover S.K.A. - The Things Men Do

Underdog - The Vanishing Point

The Uniform - Black And Vain

The Users - Friendly

Ritchie Valens - Come On, Let’s Go! (box set)

Varnaline - Dance Like We Used To/Sneer Society 7-inch

Verbena - Into the Pink

‘Voodoo Glow Skulls’ and Hickey - Me And My Homies/Food Stamps And Drink Tickets 7-inch

Tom Waits - Mule Variations/Paul Westerberg - Suicaine Gratifaction

The Waking Eyes - Combing The Clouds

The Waking Hours - The Waking Hours

The Walking Ruins - Fall Of The House Of Ruin

Walk On Water - Solvent Based Melodies

John Washburn - Stumbling Still Warm

Webster - Static/Sitzkrieg 7-inch

The Wedding Present - Singles 1995-97

The Wedding Present - El Rey

Weed Inc. - Trampled, Beaten and Obeyed

The Wellwater Conspiracy - Declaration Of Conformity

Paul Westerberg - 49:00

Weston/Doc Hopper - The Stepchildren Of Rock

What Goes On #4 (magazine)

Barry White - Boss Soul: The Genius of Barry White

The Wicked Farleys - Ken Theory 7-inch

Robert Williams - Date With The Devil’s Daughter

Jen Wood - Getting Past The Static

Wound - Out 4 Blood

Kari Wuhrer - Shiny

Bill Wyman and The Rhythm Kings - Struttin’ Our Stuff

Xevious (arcade videogame)

Your Adversary - self-titled 7-inch

Frank Zappa - Cucamonga

Warren Zevon - My Ride’s Here

various artists - Around The World in 60 Minutes Volumes 2, 3 , and 4

various artists - Bay Area Ska

various artists - Beer City Underground Invasion Vol. 1

various artists - The Center Of The Universe

various artists - Concrete and Cornfields: A Collection of Central Illinois Musik!!

various artists - Delphonic Sounds Today!

various artists - Denver Vs. Phoenix

various artists - Drinking From Puddles: A Radio History

various artists - Fuzzy Bunny cassette

various artists - Grita! Check Eet Out

various artists - Guillotined At The Hangar: Shielded By Death Vol. 2

various artists - Happy Christmas—A BEC Holiday Collection

various artists - It’s On Fire – The Velvel/Fire Records Compilation

various artists - Live At WREK—WREK 91.1 FM

various artists - Los Punkeros: Raza Punk Y Hardcore

various artists - Lucky #13 Sampler

various artists - Noise Reduction II

various artists - No More Heroes, A Tribute To The Stranglers

various artists - Object Lessons: Songs About Products

various artists - Oldies But Goodies!

various artists - Possible - Sonics Everywhere

various artists - Punkin’

various artists - Short Music For Short People

various artists - Skaliente

various artists - Sounds From The Electronic Lounge

various artists - Surf Monsters

various artists - Taking A Chance On Chances

various artists - United Kingdom of Punk

various artists - Unsealed: A Tribute to the Go-Go’s

Trapped in This World

Introduction by A. J. Payler

This new, wildly expanded omnibus collecting my nonfiction writing originated humbly, with my desire to update and unify the design of my books—updating the front and back matter, tweaking cover elements, and reformatting all paperbacks to the more economical 5-inch by 8-inch dimensions—a common technique in publishing to help refresh inventory titles, which is why you see classic books with twenty or more different covers over the years.

Looking at my back catalog, I realized that I’d long felt that Encore, the previous collection covering my music journalistic pursuits, had always sat apart from the rest of my catalog. Fenced off by a different pseudonym and categorization—not even listed in the ‘Also by this author’ sections of my fiction, or on my website!—I think it’s likely my treatment of the material may have reflected my subconscious (or, hell, conscious) desire to close the door on that period of my life for good. As a result, anyone reading my novels and short stories was probably not even aware of my pop culture writing, and vice versa.

Clearly a situation in need of correction, thought I. It was time to bring this orphaned material back into the fold, as it were. And if I was going to update the book anyway, maybe I should take the time to dig through my archive of tearsheets, magazines, photocopies and Word files to see if I might possibly unearth a few pieces to bolster this new edition. Perhaps I’d missed a few music reviews from obscure small-press publications, say, or a profile of some long-forgotten local Midwestern musician.

Well.

In the end, I found I’d managed to assemble over a hundred thousand words of long-unseen articles, interviews, columns, and reviews—and not castoffs and outtakes, either. Complete profiles of legendary bands like Iggy and the Stooges and Joy Division; interviews with close associates of counterculture heroes Bill Hicks and Del Close; exchanges with renegade music producer Moses Avalon, and record reviews—oh boy, did I find record reviews; dozens upon dozens of them, all of which somehow went overlooked during assembly of the previous (now obviously woefully inadequate) volume.

In the end all told, the total word count went from a still-healthy just under 118,000 words to a mammoth 225,000 words—tipping the scales at over 750 pages in paperback! And moreover, I realized, this wasn’t even the same book. Not with the expanded scope of the additional articles, and the unseen material freshly culled from my journals on top of the mountain of newly added reviews.

So: now we have Trapped in This World: Culture on the Edge—The Omnibus of Pop Culture Writing by A. J. Payler (writing as Aaron Poehler). A lengthy title perhaps, but one descriptive of its contents, more than doubling the length of Encore. And while I will confess to some lingering embarrassment at having missed so much out of the prior book (more evidence of my likely then-reluctance to re-embrace this material fully—and, I suspect, of the less-developed state of both optical character recognition scanning and speech-to-text software, as my wrists are already aching at the mere notion of having to have manually typed in those added hundred thousand words-plus), I am pleased to be able to correct its flaws and omissions, both creating a much fuller and more satisfying picture of a period in my writing and a time in my life, altogether representing a fleeting moment in our shared culture that feels further distant every day.

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I started writing music journalism as a teenager, compelled by an all-consuming passion for music, a head full of words gleaned from a bookworm’s childhood, and the bullheaded adolescent conviction that Everyone Else Was Getting It Wrong. At the time, few people used the Internet, the computer’s role in publishing was as an advanced layout facilitator for print publication, music was primarily sold on compact discs and cassettes, and it always cost money unless you physically went into a record store (of which every town had several), put it in your pocket, and walked out. There was no way to hear anything that wasn’t played on the radio or MTV, neither of which was particularly adventurous in their programming, and being stuck in the middle of Indiana didn’t allow me many opportunities to hear anything that wasn’t classic rock or country.

But I could write. And record companies would send you music for free, if you reviewed and published regularly—even if it wasn’t a big, nationally-distributed publication. So it seemed a pretty direct proposition: the more I wrote, the more music I would get.

First I self-published, pouring my efforts into a series of free zines with names like WHAT!? Magazine and Daisy Glaze Nation that I’d mail off to other zine-makers and deposit in various stores with tolerant management. A then-close friend of mine worked in a newspaper office with access to desktop publishing capabilities well beyond those of the home computers of the time, so we were able to make a product professional enough for me to send off as samples. (A few of those pieces appear here for the first time since their original print publication, freshly salvaged from the few surviving smudgy newsprint copies.)

Over time I built my fledgling writing career up to the point where I was able to successfully place pieces in a few of the hundreds of print music and pop culture magazines then being published. Nothing as large as Rolling Stone or Spin, but I wrote for many well-respected publications ranging in scope from local Bloomington, Indiana weeklies (BC, Out ‘N About) to gritty underground punk zines (Flipside, Tail Spins, Razorcake) to glossy, nationally-distributed arts publications (EYE Magazine).

I enjoyed the writing then, and I definitely enjoyed getting free music sent to me. Every week—every day—would bring me stacks of free CDs, and even if most were forgettable at best there were always a few gems if you were willing to put in the work to find them. I first heard many of my favorite artists this way, including several whose work still demands my attention decades later even if the vast majority have long since packed it in.

The castoff discs got stacked in a pile, then hauled off to be marched around the circuit of record stores where they would be exchanged for whatever few dollars (rarely) or other discs (far more often) they would give me in trade, helping bolster my slim bottom line. Besides my creative efforts, I was laboring variously in audiovisual production, press clipping agencies, even working in pizza and fast-food restaurants, basically doing whatever I could to stay afloat. But I was also playing and recording my own music regularly and writing about music almost constantly, indulging my musical passions as close to twenty-four hours a day as I could manage—living the dream of the nineties, as Portlandia would later put it.

As a writer, I liked getting free passes to concerts and getting to meet and talk to musicians both famous and obscure: Lemmy from Motörhead, David Thomas from Pere Ubu, Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum, all five members of the Monks, the guys from Ativin. I could chat with one of my former classmates who happened to be in a local band, write it up and get paid for it! Even the experience of calling legendary guitarist John Fahey’s flophouse hotel, repeatedly trying to get him on the phone for a promised interview, always to be told by the frustrated front desk operator that he was once again unable to come to the phone (i.e., passed out), but sure, it was possible maybe he’d be able tomorrow. It was something outside the ordinary—and to me, there was nothing more ordinary than merely enduring life in the middle of Midwestern Indiana, so anything that broke the staggering monotony of everyday existence as well as allowed me to keep indulging my musicmusicmusic-fixation was welcome.

However, while the work was fun, it was still work. And even when times were good, the music-centered life never paid enough that I was able to make my sole living from it: limited in networking possibilities and publishing opportunities in Indiana but stuck there due to my unwavering commitment to a personal relationship without a future, the writing would likely have been on the wall even if the publishing industry hadn’t been heading for a collapse of unprecedented proportions, primarily due to its collective utter failure to anticipate, prepare for, or adapt to the massive changes the rise of the internet would wreak on society over the course of the 1990s.

As the decade began winding to a close paid publishing opportunities began vanishing, and new ones didn’t pop up to replace them. I was briefly involved with a few different nascent electronic publishing ventures, including one created by the then-famous creator of Hotmail (the once-ubiquitous email platform purchased by Microsoft) but all too quickly it became obvious that none of those ambitious ventures would ever amount to anything of any substance.

Gradually, as my personal life collapsed in upon itself so too did my inclination to continue beating my head against the wall. At that point, I had to face the fact: all three tentpoles of what I then thought of as my life—my relationship, my band, and my writing—had eroded so badly that I was forced to admit what I was doing was unsustainable. The allure of free stuff had long since worn off, what money there was had dried up, the CDs themselves weren’t worth anything now that anyone could download whatever music they wanted online, and I certainly wasn’t going to martyr myself in service of promoting other people’s creative output without some recompense.

The relationship wasn’t working, not anymore. And as far as the band went, at that point I was writing all the music and recording most of it myself anyway, to what seemed steadily diminishing returns. It was already effectively a solo project, and had been for a long time.

So, it was time to stop.

I broke up the relationship and dissolved the band. For a very brief time—days, not even a week—I planned to remain in Bloomington, maybe take classes at IU while I continued writing about the local scene, trying to bring prominence to the bright spots I saw—like the tremendously exciting new band Slingshot Episode, whose records I wrote up, or Ativin, whose interview here gives an indication of the direction I hoped to follow, or Unwound, who I saw play an amazing basement show there just off campus. And the whole band thing was getting old, sure, but that wouldn’t stop me from going out solo with my acoustic guitar to hit the local open mic nights and such. I already had the songs, after all, a couple dozen of them at least that I’d written over time. Maybe I’d even find new musical partners gradually, rebuild some new version of a new band over time? I’d lived in Bloomington then for over seven years straight, of course—longer than anywhere in my life, then—and built up what I thought were some sort of roots, anyway. So I was in no rush to leave, not initially.

Swiftly, however, a series of events made clear that regardless of my intentions, hopes, or ambitions, I was in fact in a this-town-ain’t-big-enough-for-the-both-of-us type of situation, one in which it was exceedingly apparent that my former partner was not going to move, and probably never would. (Even removed from any of the other personal specifics of the situation, seven years of roots versus nearly thirty—well, it’s simply not an argument worth having.)

So, I removed myself from the situation. I packed up, got the hell out of Indiana, moved thousands of miles away and started over. I stopped playing music, went back to school, and began slowly rebuilding my life. And over time I found that, for the most part, that new life didn’t have room for this kind of writing, not anymore.

Oh, I’d try to start it up again, make it a regular practice and part of my life the way it had been before the turn of the millennium. I’d start a blog for awhile, or submit pieces to a local publication, or even get passes to a multiple-day music festival and write up all the acts I heard. But the vast majority of the writing here originates from that period between 1995 and 2000, correlating neatly with the latter half of the nineties—the darker half, as many have previously pointed out. Yes, a few pieces from the 2001 to 2011 timeframe are here to represent my occasional fleeting relapses into putting my opinions into print, including material from an online blog I maintained for a while. But my heart was never in it the way it had been earlier—when it not only felt worthwhile, it felt necessary.

I still write, of course—fiction, overwhelmingly, having published five novels to date including Bank Error in Your Favor and The Killing Song along with dozens of short stories in a range of genres such as Sometimes, People Just Have Things They Have to Do and Spoilers on Page Thirteen for publications like SUSPECT and Twenty-Two Twenty-Eight.

But I don’t write stuff like this anymore. Now, for the most part my thoughts on music are confined to my head and my occasional comment those around me. I don’t write about it, I don’t feel the pressing need to analyze and verbalize what I enjoy or don’t. I don’t even post on social media about it.

I got back to making music regularly after graduating from school and moving to California. I do a lot more of it now that I’m no longer writing about it, and I wonder if the analytical, critical front-brain mindset necessary to be a good music journalist might be antithetical to the subconscious-driven creative state.

Like anyone else, I occasionally succumb to the temptation to wonder what my life might be like if things had gone differently. But in objective reality, I can see no potential change of path I might have taken that might have led me to a lifelong career as a rock scribe, whether I’d stayed in Bloomington or not. Essentially, as the millennium ended and the twenty-first century really got underway the entire alternative culture publishing sphere within which I was operating collapsed in upon itself, with only Razorcake and The Big Takeover still remaining as I write this in 2024.

Would I still have lost heart if that hadn’t happened? I think so. Even then, an examination of my published correspondence with Todd from Flipside/later of Razorcake finds me inquiring after whether they’d ever done serialized fiction in Flipside’s pages, showing me yearning to get away from the music review grind and into something—well, probably more like what I’m doing now, and what I’ve been doing in my fiction for the past decade-and-a-half or so.

In retrospect, even had it been an option to continue with music journalism, I frankly doubt it would have made me happy to have ended up as one of those whose work I admired, whether Richard Meltzer, Lester Bangs, or David Fricke—one of those talking heads that shows up in music documentaries, I guess, in this case any that might be made about ‘90s Indiana bands (none spring to mind, but I’m sure there are a few by now). But ultimately, I found pop culture writing—writing about other people’s creations—far less satisfying than creating my own work, whether musical or fictional. And conversely, though I stayed away from making music as well as writing about it for some time while I focused on other things, when I did eventually come back to music it was with a vengeance, going on to release albums such as That Says It All, Dietrich and You Had Leave Your Mark that far outstripped my nineties output; I continue to enjoy writing, playing, and recording new music to this day.

I still love music, and I still love making music, both solo and with others. But the notion of writing about music—or comics, or movies, or even reviewing other people’s writing—nothing about that interests me at all anymore.

Whatever function music and pop culture writing serves today, it’s vastly different from that with which I grew up. And in a world where any vague interest in any band’s music can be instantly sated by pulling one’s phone from one’s pocket and opening YouTube, Bandcamp, or whatever the hosting service of the moment happens to be, I don’t see the point of spending hours crystallizing my thoughts regarding music or culture anymore.

I served my time; the evidence of that is in your hands, between these covers. And now that time rightfully belongs to others.

So it goes. Sometimes in life you have to leave things behind in order to move forward. This is some of what I left behind.

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-A. J. Payler, 2024

Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum

An extensive interview with Dave Pirner, leader of Soul Asylum, vintage 1991, originally self-published in the inaugural issue of WHAT!? Magazine. I was still living at home trying anything I could think of to break into music writing, and I was just shocked I was even able to get a real musician on the phone—in retrospect, the fact that I did probably had more to do with Soul Asylum being in between contracts than anything else.

In 2024, Pirner still tours and records under the Soul Asylum name, though the lineup doesn’t include any other members from the original lineup of the group; bassist Karl Mueller died in 2005.

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This interview was conducted circa 1991, long before Soul Asylum hit the big time; in fact, they didn’t even have a record contract, having just left A&M Records, and were in severe debt. I spoke with singer/songwriter/guitarist Dave Pirner at that time about where the band was and where it was going—neither of us with any idea that within a couple of years Soul Asylum would be very nearly a household word.

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Aaron: Well, the first thing I wanted to ask you about is why you’re no longer on A&M Records.

Dave: Well, basically we kind of got tired of dealing with the label. The main reason is that the people who signed us to A&M and the majority of the people we had been working with at the label had left. So we were just like What are we doing here? We don’t even know anyone at this label anymore. The people who thought they could work with the band in the first place are no longer there, so that was a little annoying.

Aaron: It didn’t really seem like A&M knew how to handle Soul Asylum.

Dave: No, they didn’t have a clue. We tried it for two records, and they wanted us to do a third one, which was kind of... y’know, at least they didn’t dump us, but we had to get out of there and try something else, or we’d feel like we had somebody besides ourselves to blame for totally fucking everything up.

Aaron: Did you have to break your contract to quit the label?

Dave: Yeah, we had to buy our way out of our own contract.

Aaron: Did that cost you quite a bit?

Dave: Heh-heh-heh, well, let’s just put it this way: we’re hoping that we’re going to able to find a label that’s willing to pay that debt off for us. So they’ll get the extra bonus of having to pay A&M a bunch of money to get the band, which does not make us look so great, but we had to get out of there. We were ready to do it at any cost, because we just needed something new.

Aaron: That obviously says something about how important maintaining the integrity of the band is to you.

Dave: Well, yeah, it’s not exactly the most secure thing in the world to do. For me, it took a big vote of confidence from the band, because I wouldn’t have done it personally, but the rest of the guys were just like We’re out of here, Dave, and we think that the new stuff is good enough that we won’t have any problem finding a new place to put it. I probably wouldn’t have had the guts to do it, but it was sort of a band decision, and we were definitely feeling like there might be something better.

Aaron: So you have material all written for a new album?

Dave: Yeah, we’ve got about seventeen songs. We’ve been playing quite a few of them on the road, which might turn into a problem, because there are plenty of people that tape our shows, and when we play a new song people are singing the words to the song, and I’m going, wait a minute, what’s happening here? The record’s probably going to be out before we even get a label. We recorded demos for these seventeen new songs, and we pretty much learned them as we recorded them. There’s something really great about the way that they came out, because for the first time we did it all live and we did it with a lot of acoustic guitars and whatnot. I just hope we don’t beat the shit into the ground before we record the album. Everyone was pretty surprised by the demos, because they’re really spontaneous-sounding.

Aaron: Have you thought about producing the record yourselves, rather than bringing in an outside producer?

Dave: Well, we sort of did that on our demo tapes, and I think we set a pretty high standard for the potential of the material.

Aaron: I mention it because Hang Time and And the Horse They Rode In On sound very different from each other.

Dave: To me that’s what makes the whole process exciting, and that’s why we work with a different engineer and a different producer every time. I think producers are generally overpaid and underworked, but you can learn so much. I have the rest of my life to produce my own records, and if I can get some record label to pay someone like Steve Jordan or Lenny Kaye a bunch of money to work with us and hang out and have fun making a record, then we can draw from their experience. Steve Jordan’s been in the studio with everyone. He’s been in there with every producer and every artist, and he knows how everyone else works, so he’s got a lot to offer as far as experience goes. That’s what it comes down to in the studio, you just have to try everything, and he can help make that process more efficient with a little bit more experience. Every time I go into the studio I have a completely different attitude, and that’s because of everything I’ve tried in the past. If it’s not experimental, and it’s not spontaneous, and I’m not working with someone new, and I’m not learning anything, then it lacks a really important element. There’s got to be some sort of a wack creative process going on that combines a lot of strange chemistry. It’s got to be fun, and you can’t be thinking that you know everything when you go in the studio because you just don’t. You walk in there with your own ears, and you’re listening to everything that you’ve heard before. You’ve got to keep some sort of excitement going on, and some sort of assurance that you’re not flaking out and being so self-indulgent that you lose track of what you’re doing. There’s no right or wrong way to record in the studio, I just think that the more you can experiment and the more fun you can have, the more that’s going to come out on the record. Sometimes I don’t even really expect people to notice what’s special about any certain aspect of the record. This last record we made is all played live, and it’s just the band and it all sounds pretty loose to me, and it all sounds like we were having a good time when we recorded it, and we were, and I can hear that. It’s significant, it’s a lot different than the previous record, which was a lot more articulate and went through a more perfectionist process. The next one will be something completely different.

Aaron: What about Clam Dip and Other Delights?

Dave: That was kind of a hodgepodge of events.

Aaron: Is there some kind of a story behind it? Because from my perspective, I saw the video from the EP first...

Dave: The black and white thing?

Aaron: Yeah, the P-9 video.

Dave: You should see the other video from that record. It’s for Artificial Heart, it looks like a hacker movie. It’s like a war film. I made it with a couple of friends of mine.

Aaron: Anyway, I saw the video and then I had a really hard time finding the EP.

Dave: Yeah, that’s the miracle of Twin/Tone Records, heh-heh-heh. What happened with this record was...if I can remember, and I’m not sure I can...it was stuff that was demos for Hang Time. We had a bunch of extra songs that we weren’t putting on the record, and we tried to record a few covers, which is something that is always interesting to try but is never quite as gratifying. It’s kind of not worth trying to ruin somebody else’s song, somebody else has already spent a lot of money trying to record it. We wanted to go into the studio and make our own record just for the fun of it, and we had the whole concept of the record cover and everything, and we were just sort of poking fun at the major label. We released it in Europe before Hang Time came out, and it had two different songs on it: a Janis Joplin song and a Foreigner song, if you can believe that. Then Hang Time came out, and we then took Clam Dip back into the studio and remixed it and remixed it, and put two new songs on it. I’d been working on this thing, Artificial Heart, which was probably one of the most gratifying studio experiences I’ve ever had. It’s sort of my monster, my Frankenstein song. I was kind of hell-bent on executing this song, I was sort of obsessed with it. I felt really good about being able to go into the studio and execute that sort of a thing and have it work. And that was it for Clam Dip. The rest of it’s kind of funny and kind of not, I don’t know what that record is exactly, I don’t know how people perceive that record.

Aaron: So what record labels are you talking with now?

Dave: Any old label. We’re pretty much just throwing demos around and seeing what comes back. We seem to be getting a pretty good response, and we’re sort of trying to incite some competitive interests, but I don’t know if that’s going to work or not.

Aaron: You mean like a Soul Asylum bidding war?

Dave: Well, more or less. I hate to say that, it sounds really sleazy or something. It’s kind of interesting. For me, everything that happens outside of the music is kind of, uh...

Aaron: Incidental?

Dave: Yeah, I guess that’s the word I was looking for, something like that. I don’t really care about it, but I sorta get a kick out of it, and it sort of amuses me.

Aaron: So you don’t take the business end of things very seriously?

Dave: Well, no. I don’t take it seriously because then I’d just get too wrapped up in it, and I just don’t have that sort of a brain. I don’t think that way. I get a kick out of it when I see these people trying to get all fuckin’ serious about a song. If it’s yourself that’s the subject of these bizarre exploitation tactics or whatever it is, you can’t help but learn a lot about it. And if you can’t laugh at it, you’re fucked. I think if you don’t have a sense of humor about all that stuff and how completely irrelevant it is to the music you’re making, you’re really going to get mixed up. You’re going to get your business mixed up with your pleasure, and you’re going to be in bad shape. I take it all with a grain of salt. My biggest problem right now is that I want to get a record out as soon as possible, and that is going to be a problem because we’re trying to make smart decisions and we’re not really smart business-wise, I don’t think. So you end up having to trust somebody else, which is always the wrong thing to do in the music business—which is too bad, because you would think that people would have their hearts in it a little bit more, to the point where they were really looking out for the band, but it just doesn’t work that way. People are always looking out for themselves, and they’re more worried about how it’s going to make them look rather than how it’s going to reflect on the band’s ability to function as a musical entity.

Aaron: Well, you know that Bob Mould’s just quit Virgin Records, and he says what fucked up his relationship with the label was his manager lying to both sides, both Bob and the label people, about what the other side said and wanted.

Dave: Yeah, she traded away some part of his publishing or some shit like that. It’s really a bad scene, y’know, you’re fucked. You’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t. Now he’s going to try to manage himself, and that’s a job that Bob can do, and that’s not a job I can do, because Bob has a business mind, and Bob can be on top of it. He ran Hüsker Dü for years, but I don’t want to think about that shit all the time, because it bores me to death, and it distracts me. I want to think about music, and I want to be a musician, and play. But, I think Bob can do it, and I think it’ll probably be better for him.

Aaron: Did the people at A&M ever try to fuck around with your music at all?

Dave: No, they didn’t. That’s one thing that I can’t hold against them. I can say that they had a lot of respect for us in terms of a hands-off sort of policy. I think they signed us because they thought that we knew something that they didn’t, and that’s true to the point where they still don’t know anything, but they were really good about working with whoever we chose as our producer, and they were good about giving us more money to do something if we felt that we needed it. There’s a point where you want your record label to be involved with the band, enough so they feel like they’re involved and they’re going to feel like they have something to push for, to fight for, because they had something to do with it. And that didn’t really even happen, we didn’t even have anyone that felt like they had…I don’t know, I think, much to their credit, they were very good about not trying to make us do anything we didn’t want to do.

Aaron: The publicity they put out for you was kind of strange...

Dave: Well, publicity is a whole other bag of bullshit.

Aaron: Well, it was strange in that the publicity for Hang Time was like some Soul Asylum was some neo-metal band, and for And the Horse They Rode In On it was like Hey! It’s those wacky guys, Soul Asylum!

Dave: Yeah, there’s probably a name for that. It’s probably something really crass that you’d never want to hear said about yourself, like product continuity or something. But, y’know, I’m kind of irritated when people try to describe the band in a way that is silly, but I can’t describe it. If we were projecting a really strong image that the record label could pick up on and run with, and we had a master plan, an ulterior motive, and a look, and, y’know, outfits or whatever, we’d be giving them something to work with. I think what you see there is the fact that we don’t have that sort of thing, and I think that’s probably as much the band’s responsibility as it is the record label’s. That’s why you have bands like Jane’s Addiction and the Black Crowes doing so well, because they’ve got that all worked out. They’ve got their image, and they’ve got their look, and they’ve got their credo, or they’ve got their whatever the hell they have. I’m not going to fucking develop an image just so I can sell records, but it’s hard to get down on the record label for doing what they do. They could be a little more creative, I’m sure. Maybe they could turn that into something, because I always thought it was kind of righteous to not be trying to push some sort of an image on people. I’d rather put the way it sounds in front of the way it looks. It’s tough for record-label geeks to deal with something that’s not spelled out