Music Monday: Talking with Tobacco
07/12/2010
A few years ago, a mysterious group called Black Moth Super Rainbow came down the hills. Together, they played an off kilter brand of fuzz drenched, claustrophobic pop. They became critically acclaimed and soon found themselves opening for the likes of The Flaming Lips and rapper Aesop Rock. In 2008 the front man of the group Tobacco, released his first solo effort Fucked Up Friends. The release found him more fuzzed out, more claustrophobic, and well more fucked up. Along side his solo records, he released two DVD volumes of his equally unnerving music videos, Fucked Up Friend 1 & 2. These DVDs feature some of the oddest footage culled from fetish videos, infomercials, and the vast VHS wasteland. He just released his second solo effort Maniac Meat. We were lucky enough to get Tobacco on the phone to learn about strip mall video stores, disappearing into the abyss, and buckets of porn.
Street Trash from Fucked Up Friends
Who are your favorite porn stars? To be honest, I don’t know any of their names. The last time I was active with porn stuff was in middle school. We had “the bucket”. All the kids in the neighborhood would take their parents porn magazines and put them in the bucket. But, now I don’t know names of anybody.
What would be your porn star name? I like Tobacco. I would keep that as a name. I don’t think anybody else in porn has it.
Why did you take the name “Tobacco”? It comes from a movie that freaked me out as a kid. It was called Redneck Zombies. There was this tobacco man, he was kind of like an ice cream man. He would drive into these open fields ringing a bell and selling tobacco. His face was all fucked up, he had a burlap bag, his voice was messed up, he was a sort of weird prophet warning the rednecks of the apocalypse. Something about that character was really scary, but really cool.
What country do you think makes the strangest porn? I can honestly say the strangest porn I’ve ever seen is the one that I made the Super Gum video from. The E.T. porn, I think it’s German.
I actually think it’s Spanish. But, it’s one of those things where nobody really knows where it came from. We were playing a show in Cleveland, and there was this place close to the venue that sold a bunch of bootlegs. That’s where I got it. It was between the E.T. thing and another video called "Edward Penis Hands”.
Super Gum from Fucked Up Friends 2
Where did you find the source material for Fucked up Friends 1 & 2? A lot of that came from one video store in Canfield, Ohio. This guy lives in his video shop throughout the year. During the summer, he will open the store for two months. It’s in a strip mall. There has to be a million video tapes in there. It’s mostly all garbage from the 80s and 90s. There is a dirty mattress in the back. He will actually watch porn while you are in there shopping. It’s a pretty awesome store.
What was the strangest thing you found on these tapes? A retirement village tape. Like a corporate type tape. I was dumping everything I bought there into the computer to make the DVD and dubbed over it was a bunch of Ron Jeremy scenes where he’s only fucking black girls.
Why did you decide to properly release these DVDs? The first one was kind of a joke. When Black Moth Super Rainbow went on tour with The Flaming Lips, I knew we would be playing to 5,000 people every night. I wanted to make this thing that didn’t have Black Moth on it and was just these fucked up videos. Just to see if anybody would buy it and see if anybody talks about it later. It actually sold well, and it sort of became a thing, you know?
Truck Sweat from Fucked Up Friends
What is your best story about touring with The Flaming Lips? In Kansas City, they asked us to inflate these giant balloons with leaf blowers. We were up on the balcony. I was waiting for the song to release the balloons so, I was just watching. The Flaming lips would bring guys and girls up to dance on the edge of the stage. I could tell this one guys was pretty fucked up. He just stumbled off the stage. Now, we’re 20 feet up and I remember hearing the thud of this guy falling over the noise of The Flaming Lips playing.
Was that guy all right? I never found out. A lot of people at those shows just disappeared into the abyss.
Maniac Meat is out now on Anticon records. If you happen to find yourself in Canfield, Ohio this summer stop by George's Video. Tell him Tobacco sent you.
