NO-FI "MAGAZINE"
interview with
ANGELO MOORE
of
continued...
Interview by Chris Beyond
in Angelo's mom's car,
Hollywood/North Hollywood, April, 1997
The Interview continues here. You can use this intermission time to re-stock up on milk and cookies. Oh, and get that old warm fuzzy blanket you had forever (Sure it's crusty, but there's nothing crusty about a person's love for a blanket).
C = Chris Beyond (No-Fi Hack)
A = Angelo Moore (Busy Guy)
C: Is it tough being recognized all the time?
A: Only when I'm in a hurry, dude. It's like man, I'll give you an example...The other day at Venice Beach, man...
C: You'd probably be mobbed there.
A: I was trying to find the guy with the fire sticks.
C: The guy who juggles them?
A: Yeah, cuz I wanted to buy them. He wasn't there. I was talking to this dude who kept saying, "oh, yeah, he's gonna be back." The mother-fucker never came back. I was waiting out there and my wife was paging me saying I gotta come home...the baby...I'm just like, "oh, my fuckin god, man." Then as soon as I try to leave the beach, these people just start coming up to me one after the other, "Hey aren't you the guy from FISHBONE? Ah, man I remember you were at Lolapalooza, this and that and blah-blah-blah." I was like "Oh yeah that was good, but shit, I got to go..." "But hey man, don't you remember...you were smoking that joint in the back alley by the garbage can over there in Kentucky...don't you remember that one?" I'm just there going, "uh, uh, uh, uh." Fuck. As soon as I'm finished with him, then somebody else came up. (funny voice) "Hey man...yer the guy from FISHBONE huh! Ar-yar-ye-yar-ar-ar-ar -you're fuggin great man!"
C: He had no teeth?
A: Yeah! (laughing) I'm like holy shit, what is this, man?
C: Have you ever had the stalker problem yet?
A: I don't know...maybe.
(he eyes me suspiciously)
C: Every celebrity is supposed to have two or three.
A: There's been a couple people in my life...they've been around...they've made their presence known...a lot. It's a good presence. But yet still...it's their presence. A lot of presence. I don't know...stalkers. I guess it's all in how you deal with stalkers. You meet a stalker and you deal with a stalker...you get real fanatical with them. You got to get fanatical with a stalker...then you can enter into the stalker's world. the stalker is a fanatic, man.
C: Is there any gossip that you'd like to spread to the NO-FI readers about anything or anyone?
A: My gossip...I try not to have any gossip, cuz there's gossip all around here. There's so much gossip, man. I don't know...I got a whole shitload of gossip, but I don't know. Gossip is like bad karma.
C: It gets back to you. I've had my share of gossip problems.
A: Ok, I'll tell you some gossip. The guy across the street from me...dope-man...all the crackheads, weedheads, probably even heroin junkies...come around there. man, he's got that shit sewed up, man...it's like a beehive.
C: Is there any honey on the walls?
A: Hell no. they don't make honey. They make graffiti. They paint graffiti on the walls and they stole the radio out of my mom's car here. there's a lot of them around there and they're probably getting it from his house and his house is across the street from mine. they had a shoot-out over there a couple months ago. Fuckin' guy got stabbed in the neck. he had a big bandage on his neck. See I gotta move my baby, man, I can't afford to living around that shit. What if a stray bullet comes through the window and hits the baby?
C: Not cool. Do one of those neighborhood watch things.
A: Yeah, the neighborhood...the fuckin' neighborhood.
C: Start a neighborhood watch...as long as they don't go too far and say, "Ok, now we gotta rid of people with mohawks."
A: "Yeah, let's get rid of THAT one!" You don't know about it, let's get rid of it.
C: What do you think of the resurgence of new wave and eighties music? Like now all the radio stations have eighties nights now and stuff. Not that Star and other stations haven't been playing eighties music forever, but now they actually call it "eighties night."
A: I don't know. I don't go out that much anymore. I don't listen to the radio hardly anymore.
C: All I can listen to is KXLU.
A: I watch a lot of TV. I see it all. I see all the new bands. I see all the new mother-fuckers. It's all right. My band hasn't been paid yet. As far as I'm concerned, I don't give a fuck about none of these fuckin' bands. To tell you the truth, you know. I'm still in the process of being dicked by the record company. I went through all of that shit, trying to get out of that contract with Dallas Austin, so I can release all the other shit that we have recorded already. Finish it and release it. There's only a certain time during the year that you can release...uh, product, man, and have it do any good. The market place is open for music. Spring break is one of them.
C: I guess Christmas too.
A: Christmas...that's when all the colleges get out.
C: I never understood how people release stuff and the whole one record every two years rule. I guess I do, to get the maximum selling potential, but it's nicer to have more albums out.
(Chris had too many marketing classes.)
A: If we don't release nothing by the fall, we're fucked. It's like when you go on tour, you gotta have an album to support your tour. You donžt have an album to support your tour, then you're not going to get a lot of people coming to your shows. "We saw that last show...we saw them play that album...why see it again...I want to see the new album." Thatžs what a lot of people say.
C: And I guess the tour supports the album too.
A: Yeah. We're in the process of getting a one track contract. Trying to make it all our own...release this shit on our own.
(We go to a Sax-Shop where Angelo picks up a couple of his famous saxes. Even the itty-bitty one!)
C: I should take some pictures. If I don't get them developed on time, I'll have to go on the internet and steal some.
A: You on the internet?
C: Yeah, I joined for a month. My girlfriend hates it.
(In the store)
A: You should set up an interview with Rubin here, man. He can tell you all about the sax business and all the musicians that come in here....in your magazine. (whispers) Inside gossip! I've been going to him since I was in Jr. High, man. That's some inside gossip there, man.
(Back in the car)
A: (Into the recorder) Now we're leaving the Sax shop...and we are on our way back to Aron's Records. Now right now we're at the corner of Lankershim and Magnolia...getting ready to go westbound, I say westbound, on Lankershim. And I've got my navigator Chris here from NO-FI "MAGAZINE"...and now I'm I'm getting in the mood see.
C: I'm the best navigator in the world, by the way.
A: See it's hard for me to talk and drive, man, but if I can have a theme...a theme to go by...it'll be all good. Right now it's 1:07 and I ain't got no pages on my pager thank god. The kangaroo papoose was never ready. Now I gotta go to Walkabout Theramin. I'm getting a cordless theramin. A remote control theramin. I got a real big black one.
C: Have you used it yet?
A: Oh, yeah, but you see this is a cordless one I'm gonna use.
C: If you were trapped in a cave with Jimmy Carter, Marilyn Manson, Byron Allen and the cast of That's Incredible, would you be able to work together to find a way out?
A: Hell yeah!
C: Do you think that everyone would have their own special talents...like Marilyn Manson could eat the rocks...
A: To get out of the cave? Yeah, because see, I'm sure everybody in there would want to get out of the cave eventually. Now Marilyn Manson is a bat cave kind of dude...and I know he's diggin' on all that cave-death shit...but he's gonna come to the reality of "I got to get the fuck out of this cave!"
C: Well cuz he's in there with Byron Allen.
A: Who's Byron Allen?
C: He was in REAL PEOPLE back in the seventies. He pops up on TV from time to time.
(Angelo has no recollection of Byron Allen)
A: I watch TV, and all the shows going by, but I donžt know whats going on.
C: I always have the TV on, but I don't watch it unless it's THE SIMPSONS. Conan...Tell us about your wacky outfit on Conan O'Brien.
A: Conan O'Brien...It was a hemp zoot suit. And was gonna match the interior of my car, man.
C: I liked the beenie.
A: Someone stole it...someone stole that outfit, man...from the dry cleaners. It wasn't there when we got off tour.
C: Where do you see FISHBONE in the future? Do you think it'll reach GREATFUL DEAD status with people following you around...or do you already get that?
A: We're already getting that, man. The status...the GREATFUL DEAD vibe. It's like a fossil...FISHBONE fossils. They stay around. We got fossils somewhere. Deep in the dirt. Always existing. Giving new knowledge.
C: A lot of people are wondering if you're gonna put out an all ska album like your all ska shows?
A: I don't know...I guess if they didnžt bootleg it, then...they probably ain't gonna get to hear it. Unless they make a compilation off all the FISHBONE albums...just of all the ska tunes.
(We drive a little bit. I think I see Morrissey and then Angelo notices the blond guy from 311 driving next to us)
A: (To the blond guy from 311) Yo, what's up?!?
BLONDE GUY FROM 311: (Sez something garbled)
A: What's happening, man? Where you goin'? Hey, man I'm going on TRULIO DISGRACIOUS tomorrow.
BLONDE GUY FROM 311: Tomorrow?
A: Hell, yeah!
BLONDE GUY FROM 311: How long?
A: Like uh...like, uh, a couple months. Till June 8th...when we play at the House Of Blues, man.
(convenient plug)
BLONDE GUY FROM 311: Ok, I'll be there!
(he and we drive off)
A: Alright! (pause) That was the guy from 311. That mother-fucker's drivinž a BRAND NEW CARRRRR!
C: Hook me up. I sorta liked their first album, but then they got overly-hyped...
A: That's what I wanna be...I wanna be overly-hyped, man!
C: ANGELO! ANGELO!! ANGELO!!!
A: You know what I'm saying? I want my band to be overly-fuckin-hyped! All these other bands that be doing their music, they be doing it half-assed anyway! Ok...they get overly-hyped! Is it music only for the overly watered down people?
C: BUSH!
A: It's majorally overly-fuckin' watered down mother-fuckers running everything...and they give it the overly-hype.
C: What you do these days to get really big is to sing like PEARL JAM.
A: What does he sing like again?
(I do my best Eddie Vedder impersonation)
C: Well, ahhhh....Ahhh-IIIIIII I'm still aliiive! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! (laughing ensues) Too many bands have the same sound these days...STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, BUSH...
A: Generic...that generic sound. It's like there's a funk generic sound...therežs a fuckin' grunge-generic...Kurt Cobain and them came out with that one.
C: It was around a long time too, before it hit it.
A: What was the name of Kurtžs band again?
C: NIRVANA.
A: Yeah, fuckin' NIRVANA! DAMN, man! Yeah, they were the first ones who brought it to the over-ground, you know...but, uh, SONIC YOUTH...before that... (some guy passes us...Angelo takes note) that guy kinda looked like Ad-Rock. You know those maps for celebrity's homes?
C: We should start one of where celebrities drive...like Angelo, Morrissey, the 311 guy and Ad-Rock all found on this street.
(More laughing. We are stopped at a red light where some girl stares at us from her own car. We try to talk to her, but she just smiles.)
A: (to the girl) Hoo-ee! Hoowee-hoowee!
(He makes an odd sound)
C: Ok, now we're frightening her.
(more yuks and laffs)
A: Ah, she's smiling at us again, yo! We like your smile!
(Again he makes that bizzare noise with his lips)
C: That's the creepiest noise in the world you're making! (I try to make the noise, but fail) I can't do that!
A: Aw, c'mon' gramps!
C: It's all part of the poetry that is Angelo. Next question...actually I don't need to ask a question...Courtney Love.
A: Are you talking about the girl in HOLE? I'd fuck her. I'd fuck Courtney Hole right in her love. I'd fuck her in her hole.
C: Me too, but we're both taken, right?
C & A: Uh, yeah, right, yeah, yah, yeah, uh-huh, yep.
A: It's so easy to just talk shit.
C: We're probably the only people who would admit that anyways, so nobody would ever believe us. Uh, What's your favorite porno?
A: Holly Body, man!
C: Holly Body? Wasn't that from BODY DOUBLE?
(Good flick. Directed by Brian DePalma. Not a porno. You should all see it.)
A: I don't know...I didn't see it, but I saw her. haven't even seen her fuckin anybody, but...she had a body, man. There was this girl yesterday...I think it was Ricki Lake or Maury Povich, man...No, it was Ricki Lake...and they had girls with big titties, man. One lady stepped up, man, her titties were just BIIIIG and they were real! I was like "Fuckin' Craaaaazy!" She couldn't even see her feet because of her titties, man.
C: Ugh, those big fake plastic ones...
A: I hate that plastic too, man.
C: They can go out, but they're just stuck there.
A: That's right and see, they may look good, but later on...they're gonna turn into rocks, man.
C: Literally...the cancer thing.
A: Literally...or LITTLE rocks. Their titties is gonna be painin'. They'll be in pain...all because they want to be something they aren't.
C: They make good money though.
A: Hey, man, Michelle Watley's got some titties...she's a porno star. I knew her from way back. Jody Watleyžs sister!
(I tell him about an old friend of mine who had fake breasts that hurt all the time.)
C: What's your most embarrassing moment?
A: Um, when I was naked on stage.
C: Which time?
A: San Francisco. I realized that I was naked and I freaked out and went off.
C: Last question...what are some words of wisdom for our NO-FI readers?
A: