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F:

.
F: She wasn't old enough yet.
D: Right. It was too lo-fi.
F: I have a large amount of Prince records.

Fred does decide to answer one more question though:
ON AIR:
M: So, Fred, what's the meanest or worst thing you've ever done in your life?
F: Well, I've done some mean things, but I'll tell you about the meanest thing I did on Demolisten. And I only did it once and I felt, you know, you think it's gonna feel good, but it doesn't...it feels bad. This guy sent us this horrible tape, his name was Rick Comet and he was from the Valley, of course...
(Ooo... this comment gets much disapproval from Doug and Quazar, who are from the Valley! But then we do manage to move on.)
F: So, anyway, Rick Comet from the valley. He had, uh, died black hair, very long, pale, you know- wore make-up...
M: In a heavy Metal or Goth sort of way?
F: Sort of, sorta' Gothic Metal...
M: Early Marilyn Manson?
F: Yah! But it was more noodley... ya know, "look at me, look at me, look at me!"
M: Noodley?
F: Guitar solo.
M: Oh, okay.
F: Yah. And it was the worst thing I had ever heard. It was just the worst. And so I decided since it was the worst thing that we were gonna call him live on the air and tell him how horrible it was.
M: Oh Fred!
F: I know, it was horrible.
M: Oh Fred! What did the guy say?
F: Well, luckily we just got his answering machine. But we still left a message.
M: Did you? Did he call you back?
F: I say "we".. yeah, me and my other self! It was me! If it was we, then all the blame wouldn't be on me, but it was me! And immediately afterwards I felt horrible and you know I've been paying for it ever since.
M: Mmm, karma?
F: I don't know, I've been doing okay.
M: Maybe you've paid your karma and now you're all set..
F: Yah, I'm on an installment plan! (I laugh) But the meanest thing I've ever done, ya know, I mean, I beat up a lot of kids when I was a kid...
M: Beat up a lot of kids?
F: Yeah
M: You were a bully?
F: Yeah.
M: Were you really?
F: Yah, it's embarrassing. But it's true though.
M: I would never have believed, cuz you're so easy going and so friendly...who doesn't like Fred? Who does not like Fred?
F: Oh, there's some people out there, I am sure!
Q: Yah.
M: Quazar says yeah?
F: Why don't you ask him.
Q: Nah, I think it's more who Fred doesn't like...most people (Fred laughs) and so I think that's how I was shading it. It's not like who doesn't like Fred, but who does Fred like? (we laugh) And he's not a mean guy, ya know, it's just- people let Fred down! (Fred laughs) And so, I'll leave it at that.
F: I had no idea that this was gonna turn into this!
M: Are you gonna jump into some more music?
F: I, no, I...you learn lessons everyday. The lesson of the day is: Don't do interviews on the radio.
M: Hey!
F: No, it's not your fault, it's my fault. It's not you, it's me.
(brief silence.)
M: Uh, okay (we laugh). And what's the other lesson?
F: I don't know. I think I'm learning some stuff from Quazar though.
Q: Man, I...I met you awhile ago and it was at a time shortly there afterwards when a lot of people were letting you down and so my lesson is "Don't let Fred down," So, that would be my, my thing- "Don't let Fred down." Put in the extra effort for Fred cuz he puts in a lot of extra effort.
F: Wow.
M: Well, that's very nice.
F: Well, look at that. I feel good...
M: Aww, warm fuzzies!
F: Thanks man.
OFF AIR:
(Now Chad finally shows up. But I'm afraid he's too late for my questions. He's fun to watch though. He has a lot of nervous energy to burn, and sort of bops around, looking a bit like Kurt Cobain on a whole bunch of coffee. Sort of. He does have a certain mellowness about him too though- at the same time. I told him he reminded me of a muppet. He described himself as a cross between Kermit and Gonzo. Yah- that's pretty accurate. Anyway, an interesting cat. And he answers a phone call and we hear him saying "thank you, thanks a lot man" and when Chad gets off the phone, he tells us:)

C: That guy loves our show. He said, um, "I remember the show where Fred called up the guy and left a message on his machine cuz he was gonna tell him that his song sucked" and uh, he goes I've been listening to this show for longer than I can tell ya'" and he's like "I love this show, I think it's one of the better shows on the air. I enjoy listening to your show and I've always wondered what the behind the scenes were like and whether or not you listen to this shit or not" and he goes "and it's just good to hear that you do."
M: Hey, yeah! Cool!
Then one of Demolisten's most loyal listeners calls...Ty. Ty calls up every show and just says hi and chat a bit. He is really into Punk Rock. What would Demolisten be without a call from Ty? He had been calling way back since before Chad and Fred were even a part of Demolisten.

So the show goes on for about another hour or so. The boys are really on- very funny. But I will now cut to after the show, Chad and I and Fred all go to Fred's house. We spend nearly three hours listening to the past two weeks worth of music that has piled up at Demolisten. And, I must say, like 80% of it was really good. Fred and Chad even agreed and they said it was quite the unusual experience, to find so much good music in one sitting- we even listened to a couple of whole cds (well, these are demos- so most of them are not all that long. Most of them, that is!)
The first manila envelope had a twix bar in it with a CD. He's a guy from San Francisco named Greg Camellari. He is really good - very Beatles, 'Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club' era. He also enclosed a letter and promised to send more candy. Chad says he is going to write to him and say: "Listen, we love your candy." I crack up! I find we are listening to the whole song and I ask them,...

M: Hey, do you usually listen to a song for this long?
C: No. Well, it depends. I mean this has got some...
F: It's kinda cool, so then we'll listen to it.
When the song is almost over, they forward to the next song. Another good one. We chat about some of the great photos around Fred's house- he is also an awesome photographer. Chad is a film editor. And he also does film projection for the super groovy band Dntel.
(We chat as we listen to a third song by Greg, and then Fred says:)
F: So, I don't know about you, but normally, at this point- like okay, we like it. It's going to get played. So, I'm going to put it in the same file, cuz we gotta get through all of this.
C: We've heard a couple of tracks that we'd already play, and then later on, we'll pop the cd in again and find out if there are anymore gems on it.
F: Yeah, put it in the car and drive around with it.
C: The thing I find is that you can't give up on a band- there are certain bands that you can give up on immediately-but you can't give up on a band cuz sometimes I have had the worst, not the worst, but a bad album and then there's a track on there somewhere that's fucking incredible. Cuz they went into some loopy mode, or they just hit a chord- now this whole cd, as far as Demolisten is concerned, now don't get me wrong- some of the stuff would be great for other shows- but as far as Demolisten's concerned, it's like-okay, this whole cd is junk, but track three is fucking great! I've had that and it's like, I'll like put a big note, "don't play anything, but track three remember the rest of this cd sucks" It's because it's Demolisten too, I mean there is stuff that you hear and you're like KROQ would play that.
F: Now, with this cd (the current one we are listening to) - I would stop it, I don't like it.
M: I love it.
F: And I would give it to Devin.
M: Devin likes this stuff? I think Devin and I have more in common musically.
C: Yah- and that's true, cuz Fred will do that a lot with me and I will do the same thing sometimes.
F: Even if I think that he just might like it, I'll give it to him, ya know.
C: It's a better way to go.
M: This is pretty. It's kind of Dinosaur Jr. I like it.
F: It's good, but it's not...
M: It bores you.
F: Yah, I don't want to sit through the whole thing and find a good song. Devin would probably love this.
M: Do you ever read the letters or no?
F: If the band is good, but usually I just wait to see if the music is good.
C: I agree with what Fred said. I mean., I have some cds I've still been trying to get to Devin, and sometimes to Fred and it's just, you have different tastes and sometimes you even have a question- is this really for the show or not? And it's like, you gotta hand it off to somebody who also says yeah or says nah, I think it's sort of stinky- it's like, and with Devin it's like, he'll find something. Like with this cd, he'll find something cuz he is into this sort of thing, or may find something. See, like Fred may hear this whole cd and he'll be like "I can't even decide what track to play because I'm not into this stuff." But I know it might should be played, maybe. That's the nice thing about having three people.
F: It's why it's important to have three people.
C: It's totally important to have three people. Like, Fred sent me a whole box of noise- nobody was going to listen to it. I'm the only one who will listen to it.
M: Noise like what? Like experimental? Like Nurse With Wound... do you like them?
C: Yes.
M: I love Nurse With Wound.

They now state that they really like cool covers and good art work. And they discuss how it is really bad to send Demolisten the same cd over and over. They also mention how a lot of instrumental stuff will get played in the background while they are talking- the band does get a mention that way too.

C: When you're doing a whole show, that's not a bad thing to have. Like a little bit of something- it's interesting. It breaks it up. So, you got a whole show and maybe Freds been doing like "daa naa naa naa daa" (imitating a guitar) ya know, and then like one little like "derrr whrrrrooooo" (imitating keyboard loops, I think) weird thing going on and then all of a sudden you have this and it just sort of brings it into some mellowness- you bring it down half way through, and you're like "hey, you're listening to Demolisten." (we laugh) And sometimes I get people and they're like "oh, I'm gonna listen to your show" and I go, "I just wanna let you know, it's like you're listening to a show with guys listening to stuff in their room (Fred laughs) cuz you know, and it's not always like that, but there's a lot of times where it's like you're hanging out in your bedroom and it's like "hey, what did we just do?" (we laugh) and you just roll with that and I've had people call in and say "hey, I really enjoy that." So, I mean, that's exactly how it is though I think and so when it falls apart, it's actually a good thing.
F: (now referring to another cd package he has just opened up) Now, this happens sometimes- this is a package from a record company, from Massachusetts and they wanted to actually get in touch with Bongload Records, but Bongload doesn't really accept things, so they tell everybody to send their stuff to us. But the person who sent it, isn't really like a record company- he's like a Dude who put out maybe a hundred of these that he made, ya know- so is it a demo? Is it a record?
M: I would say it's a demo.
F: Right.

(Fred also says that he often looks for the "crappiest" packaged one, cuz "that means it's going to be good". Ya know what I'm saying? Like, the slicker the packaging, the more beautiful the people are in the picture, that's usually a bad sign.)

C: That's interesting isn't it? Most of the time bands that have sent us just like scribbling on a cd or on a tape are THE bands.

(Then we come across some pretty great noise stuff by a band called Tumble Cat Poof Poofy Poof. We all liked it, but Fred said he would probably give it to Chad. Chad says that at the radio show, he has to be careful not to subject people to too much noise- and the trick is to keep it short or use it in the background.) We next listen to some guy who is a total Beck rip off, etc. etc.)

M: Is this fun for you?
F: Yeah.
C: I'll tell you what's amazing is when you find those bands... that you just really love and it's like even if it's like "okay I love it and everybody else thinks it's cool" or whatever, but there's some bands that just hit, and you know, it's like, "yeah!"...that's what it's all about.

Well, it goes on and on- my head swimming with songs and bands and colors and whew! Listening to the bands was actually a lot of fun. Just after about 5 hours of the Demolisten experience, and my illness coming on harder and harder- I was totally overwhelmed and very ready to go home.