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Hugo Mudie (Powernap)
SPB: What is an oreosmith?
Hugo: When I was a kid I had an uncle who worked for Christie (the company that makes the Oreos). His name was Danny Mudie. When Areosmith released the Pump album, the Oreo brand was going to make Steve Tyler shaped cookies. One cookie in every 100 boxes or so. When you find the magic cookie, you get a pair of tickets for a special Areosmith show. The band was getting clean and wanted to be popular for a younger demographic like Guns N Roses and Bon Jovi. Everything was going to happen. The cookies were ready to be put in the production and all. Steve Tyler, who was oblivious to the promo was sent a prototype and didn’t like the cookie at all. He thought that his cookie-self looked like a monkey (which is not crazy.. « crazy » get it?…wow, I’m amazing… « amazing » get it? ). So he told his agent to stop everything. The guys at the shop on Viau in Montreal were pretty pissed ‘cause they had worked hard on the promo. They decided to use the cookies they had at the shop then (about 200 pieces ) and put them in random boxes. One of the box was all Steve Tyler shaped cookies. They never heard back, ‘til years later when a man in India opened a box filled with monkey-Tyler shaped Oreos. He sold them for 100K each and became a millionaire. For the rest of his life he bought Oreo boxes for the poor kids in the small village of Bodhgaya, India. It made everyone happy. They call the man: BADDHI OREOSMITH.
Austin (Grand Vapids)
SPB: Which of the Athens bands have had the most impact on the music industry as a whole and/or which have inspired you the most?
Austin: There are too many bands from Athens to reference who have had major impacts on the industry without stating the obvious round of usual suspects. I suppose if I had to choose an Athens band who has inspired me the most it would be The Glands. They made one of the best pop-rock albums of all time and were able to be content with the result. They never got huge or felt any pressure to follow it up in any kind of way (or maybe they felt too much pressure). But it is what I would consider to be a “perfect” album. It’s drenched in that lazy southern humidity where your mind begins to wonder and melts and the day just disappears. How do you follow up something like that?
On the other side of the coin there are the Drive-By Truckers who continue to be the hardest working band in the business and consistently put out great albums that just keep getting better and better.
As for inspiration, I think there is probably an ideal balance to be found between these two Athens bands.
Hannahband
SPB: Besides music, what other arts are you interested in?
Nathan: Besides music my favourite type of art would have to be a tie between visual art and performance art. Both these mediums have the ability to be immediate, engaging, and can be executed on next to no money. Visual/performance art can create context on no budget, but is able to trigger reaction and convey emotion with just one movement.
Be it a stroke on a page, or a smirk on a face, this is the type of art that I can connect with.
Marnie: Besides music my favourite type of art is contemporary art. In particular instillation and performance art. I like the way that is pushes boundaries, it is given space in the public domain where it is acceptable to shock the audience.
I saw a lot of great things when I was at art school, I like that you don't necessarily need training to be creative and making art can be free. I like to think that there are no limits in contemporary art. A friend of mine waived dead meat around for his major work singing "Fish to the left, Ham to the right." He was having a fabulous time, I thought it was great. It’s amazing what you can get away with when you call it art, and I like that :)
One of my favourite instillations was something I saw at Carriageworks a few years ago, Ryoji Ikeda's “Test Patterns.” The blackened theatre had strobing lights and sounds coming from ever unseen edge of the room. It made me feel like I was a miniscule part of a giant barcode. I lost track of time in that piece. I like to be able to connect with the piece: that is the appeal for me.
Levi Hanna (SubRosa-bassist)
SPB: What do your parents think of your music?
Levi: To be completely honest, I have no idea what my parents think of the music that I play outside of the fact that it isn't their style of music. My dad tells me that he occasionally looks my bands up on Youtube when he is bored at work and he'll occasionally air guitar around me, but I'm pretty sure my mom never listens to my music. It really doesn't matter to me what they think of it though because they are incredibly supportive of me. They always ask how my bands are doing and are excited when I tell them about my upcoming shows and tours and that's good enough for me.
