THE BLOG WISER HOT SEAT: MR. BLOTTO

by Rupert and Stan, Ghosts of Wayne Fontes

We’re back folks for another Friday, but not just any old Friday here at EC. We’re giddy as school kids around here as one of our favorite bands dropped by to talk chat about sports and a few other odds and ends. Chicago natives will definitely know the one and only, Mr. Blotto, and the rest of you are about to find out what you’ve been missing. Both Paul and Mike “Chief” Bolger joined us for the interview, so there is a pair of responses for each question. For those of you who are interested in checking out some incredible musicians, we’ve got a little compendium at the end of the post. In the meantime, let’s get down to business.

Ghosts: This has been just a brutal month for Chicago sports fans. What are you doing to cope with the Cubs colossal collapse? Any thoughts on where they go from here?

Blotto (Paul Bolger): It’s starting to look like something supernatural is happening. I can’t really quantify it as yet but I feel there may be significance in the mascot of a team. I mean a rattlesnake (diamond back) eats a bear cub in nature, and that’s what happened on the field. Who is a cub (or worse Cubbie) gonna devour? We need to play teams in the playoffs with mascots like the “Buffalo Peanuts” or the “Colorado Mealie Worms.”

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): I don't know what to do. Years of Cubs dominance of the league has left me utterly unprepared. You could hear a pin drop all week at my house. I've been walking in circles in the dark, chanting. It seems to help. Also, huffing paint. I suppose there's always next year, but that seems like such a cop out to say.

Ghosts: What about the Bears? How did they go from having the most fearsome defense in football to giving up 331 yards on the ground in a single game, primarily to a rookie… To the fucking Vikings? Shit, even the Lions beat the Vikings.

Blotto (Paul Bolger): Losing Brown was bigger than people think. How many times did that guy pick off a pass and single handedly turn the momentum of the game around. Brown was to defense what Hester is to returns: a guy who actually wins close games for you.

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): As to the Bears, anyone can go from really fearsome to having a weak season. (see previous response to #1).

Ghosts: Assuming you don’t view Brian Griese as the future of team, who would you rather see playing quarterback? Of course, you may employ a wish list if you like.

Blotto (Paul Bolger): First of all, Griese over Grossman right? Even though they’re both like the two ugly girls at the prom, if you decide you got to make something happen with one of them, Griese has bad breath but Grossman has warts downtown. Seriously maybe we could still get Kenny Stabler.

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): I'm writing this Sunday night, so I move for the immediate canonization of Brian. I also move that we shoot Gross Rexman out of a cannon - aimed north, preferably.

Ghosts: What are you going to open with when you play Soldier Field one of these days?

Blotto (Paul Bolger): “Bear’s Choice” whole album.

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): "And We Bid You Goodnight." I think that'd be a really nice opener.

Ghosts: What is your favorite personal achievement in your career?

Blotto (Paul Bolger): Probably when I converted my late Uncle Joey’s contra bassoon into a bong.

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): Longevity. We always wanted to be playing music all the time. We watched a lot of our friends get signed and put out on the road by record companies that criminally mismanaged their careers. These bands would go out on the road and come home demoralized and so much in debt that they ended up not being able to stay in the game. Look at a lot of the bands that got signed in that Chicago music gold rush of the early 90's Not so many are still playing today. We knew we didn't want that, so when the labels came sniffing, we already had a CD or 2 out on our own, and we told them that we'd love to sign but they'd have to do something for us that we couldn't do for ourselves, like actively promoting it. They went scurrying away and we're still here. That's what I'm proudest of, that we didn't let the suits ruin our music. As a result, we can work with John Perry Barlow on a CD. We can run our Blottopia Fest and do these other things that we want to do.

Ghosts: In our opinion, you guys conquered the mothership of all covers, You Enjoy Myself (Phish). There’s a lot of good jambands out there, but not many can plow through a song that complex - and with authority. How long did you take you to learn that as a band? Can you still play it? What was tougher, that or Divided Sky?

Blotto (Paul Bolger): From a flat our brain strain perspective I would guess Divided because of the palindrome section which seems like pure chaos but is 100% rote memorization. Anytime you go after something that complex, you get into it and some sections are harder than you would have thought because as you get close to nailing it you listen harder to see what’s different in your version VS Phish and you start to see really detailed differences which you then need to conquer in order to have it nailed. Others sections are easier than you thought they would be but there’s no doubt, it’s work.

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): YEM is much harder to pull off than Divided Sky, with the exception of the 45 second long "mary had a little lamb" bit that occurs right after the lyric. I think of that as their Captain Beefheart bit in that it sounds random, but is absolutely not. Aside from that, Divided Sky is really fun to play, but isn't particularly difficult. It's one of my favorite Phish songs. If you want difficult covers, try playing some Rush. Playing Rush makes Phish seem like the Allman Brothers. YEM took a bit of time to get, but we didn't rush it. It's hard to say how long it took, because it was really a labor of love. Mark Hague (lead guitar) and i are Phish freaks. We'd get together before we were in the band and watch Phish DVDs and try to figure out the songs and see where the weirdness was and the cues were and what the counts were, etc. It was true musical geekdom. It makes it hard to say how long it took b/c we were working on Stash and YEM for shits and giggles before we had the idea to play together. We played YEM 3 or 4 times. We could play it again, but we'd have to walk through it to make sure we all remember it the same way. It's fun to run rough through a Stones song, but it sucks to come at a complex piece like YEM and hit it weak.

Ghosts: I’ve often wondered; how come you guys don’t take to the road more often? It seems like that would be the logical next step for a band with chops like yours to go on tour. For instance, this comes from a wise man named Trout on your message board. “So here's the deal. The World Series will be here in Denver on October 27,28 and 29th if necessary. Blotto could go watch the game, Rockies win, we flip over some cars start a riot burn down some homes. Then Blotto plays a late show??? What do you think?”

Blotto (Paul Bolger): Do crowds flip over tour buses? Really though I don’t know the answer. It’s not that we are complacent, we’re not, we want the world. But there are ninety ways to go on the road and eighty-nine of them are dumb. We have the bus, the gear, the drivers, the contacts, but going on the road to go on the road doesn’t work for us. We need a reason. There are big tours out there and if we can hitch on to one, we’re gone bro. But we make a living here and play our music to our fans and create our own CDs/DVDs and that is the dream on a smaller scale which can then be plugged in to a bigger system at any time. Not to mention that the road kills people, we’ve lost friends out there.

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): We’ve always existed outside of mainstream media. As a result, we live on word of mouth as our best PR strategy, if you can call it that. We've played CO a bunch and always have a good time there, but the reason we don't go on the road more is that 1) we don't have to and 2) it's often counterproductive. As to 1), I've lived in and gone to school in, smaller towns throughout the Midwest. If i was there now, I’d definitely get in the van and go play Chicago, but I am here, in Chicago now, and I play here a lot, stay in my own bed, and get up and work on the 9 million things that need doing in order to keep a band together. These do not get done on the road. We get to write, rehearse, and record during the week because we're at home. These things generally do not get done well on the road. Then, when we do go, our people come with and it's a real cool thing.

Ghosts: How has the internet music industry (myspace, archive.org) impacted your musical aspirations (positive/negative)?

Blotto (Paul Bolger): Very positively. Record companies always had the keys to the distribution flood gates. Now they don’t. Anyone reading this can go to www.mrblotto.com and buy a shirt or CD or whatever and we get all of it (they don’t need a record store). The record company would have taken 93% of it. What the record companies still have is loads of cash to buy their artists time on the radio which jams it down peoples throats and the good stuff sells a lot and the bad stuff sells OK. So what we will see in the next 10 to 15 years is a marginalization of music playing radio because they will play to very specific markets. Older folks who aren’t getting iPods will still have to listen to oldies radio and that will be big. Young kids who can’t afford iPods will be another category. But folks who have iPods aren’t going to listen to programmed radio that has no real scope. That is what record companies and radio conglomerates are up against. I’m sorry what was the question? (I’ve got to put this contra bassoon down!)

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): It’s been 100% positive in that it's helped the dissemination of our music and vibe and scene. An example - there's a thing called the Blotto Project where somebody has taken upwards of 30 shows and posted them for download on the net. He's also created artwork for the CD and cover art for the booklet based on his feelings about the show. People were asking me, how'd you do that? I told them "i don't even know WHO'S doing it". We later found out and commissioned him to do the art for our DVD, and there's a bunch of things like that. a archive.org has about 125 blotto shows posted. I didn't do any of them. So, here's the net promoting our band. Perfect.

Ghosts: If you had a time machine, like say a Delorean that contained a flux capacitor where would you go, why and what you do?

Blotto (Paul Bolger): Great Scott the possibilities are endless! I would definitely go to the original Woodstock. I would try to crash the last supper but they probably would say who’s that Irish fella at the end? I’d find the guy who invented the wheel and bring him a frosty Guinness. And lastly I would attend FDR’s famous speech and when he says “we have nothing to fear but…”in that long pause I would yell “fear itself…fear itself!” Not only would all the people around me pat me on the back for calling it, I would hear my voice on the FDR tape anytime it got played (like on Letterman’s great moments of presidential speeches)

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): I'd hit the Grande Ballroom in Detroit and see the MC5 and the Stooges play. I'd catch a Van Morrison show ca. 1974. I'd get to Jamaica and see Beres Hammond and Tiger play the single coolest musical thing I ever took in. And I'd go back 10 or 12 years and get myself a job on the Florida board of elections and save a lot of lives.

Ghosts: Where can I find a downloadable studio version of “Kiss Me in the Morning”…that song is pure brilliance? Outside of that song, what other original songs are you most proud of?

Blotto (Paul Bolger): There are close to 200 live Blotto shows at livearchive.com and KMITM will be on lots of those. As far as the studio version, obviously the CD and www.mytracks.com which is an awesome site for finding new music and sharing songlists etc. I am most proud of “Cabbages and Kings/Already Gone”, “Triolet”, “Kelly Marie”, “Long Honeymoon”. They all have something for me that I can’t explain.

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): I don't think there's a free download of any of the studio stuff, because we've asked the people not to post it. We let everyone tape and we've set up a dock where people can plug into our soundboard at most shows. We encourage it and we help tapers out as best we can, but we tell everyone that we need to sell the studio stuff to pay for the costs involved in making it. That being said, i think you can buy it at iTunes for 99 cents.

Another side of being unsigned (our biker friends call us GDI - god damn independents) is that we've never had a label rushing a release. So we can take our time and put out stuff we're proud of. I'm proud of it all. That being said, I especially like Little bit of Love off of Parking Karma, Got Nothing off of Bad Hair Day, the Crescent City Ghost story cycle off of Ancient Face, and Clampdown World off of Barlow Shanghai. These each have something in them that makes me like them just a little more.

Ghosts: Do you any of you guys play fantasy football? If so, how is the team doing this season? Is Devin Hester on your Fantasy team?

Blotto (Paul Bolger): We do but it’s with the cheerleading squads, not the actual teams themselves, per se. I am happiest about having Renee Cha Cha Lorenzo on my team, she say’s “gimmie an O”

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): Fantasy football. I don't play it, but it seems like an interesting concept. It's like a re-mix of a rap song applied to sports.

Ghosts: Seriously, when are you coming out to California for a mini-tour? You can play in my backyard, I’ll promote it? San Diego tour…on the beach?

Blotto (Paul Bolger): Done and done-er. Can I bring Cha Cha?

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): Mini tours are what we do. I'd love to get to CA. We haven't been that far west yet.

Ghosts: Name your Top 5 albums (non-bootlegs) of all-time?

Blotto (Paul Bolger): 1) Abbey Road (Beatle), 2112 (Rush), Love Country Style (Ray Charles), Burglar(Freddy King) and Kozmic Blues (Janis Joplin).

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): 1) The Soft Bulletin (Flaming Lips), 2) New Day Rising (Husker Du), 3) Murmur (REM), 4) Ace of Spades (Motorhead), and 5) Astral Weeks (Van Morrisson)

Ghosts: Any chance of Phish re-union tour…ever?

Blotto (Paul Bolger): Hippy Dippy answer: Sure because the mystic connection between those four magical guys can’t be defeated, only interrupted…Real World answer : they’re all friends so as soon as one of them runs out of cash, they will tour again.

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): My prediction is that Trey will call the guys back for a tour. It'll go really well and the boys will end up going out every 2nd or 3rd summer. They're too good to not play together and their individual solo projects, while good, lack the power of the Phish stuff. Once they all realize that there's still good stuff to do, I think they'll be back. I'm not holding my breath, but I think it'll happen.

Ghosts: Outside of venues you’ve played at, what’s one of your favorite venues to see a show?

Blotto (Paul Bolger): Park West. Comfy room to see a show in, I love it. I saw Neko Case there this year from a booth in the dead center of the room and beers kept arriving. None more great!

Blotto (Mike “Chief” Bolger): I saw the stooges at the Congress and I loved that. Any older theatres like the Vic or the Aragon Ballroom are my favorites and, if the band knows how to do it, outdoors are the absolutely best venues.

Ghosts: Well, thanks so much for stopping by and providing some terrific and very funny insight to the lives of Mr. Blotto these days. For the readers, if you are curious to get a taste of the music, we have a few recommendations below.

GoWF Picks

The Green Room (4/23/05) - Kiss Me in the Morning is probably the best song for a newcomer. Also, there's a great You Enjoy Myself (Phish) like we talked about about in the interview, a very funny rendition of Stir It Up (Bob Marley) with a very impressive freestyle rap.

Blottopia #8 - Complete rendition of Phish's Gamehenge (!!!), Almost, Clampdown World, Indiana Jones, Once In A Lifetime (Talking Heads), another Kiss Me In the Morning and more.

Oasis 160 (9/14/02) - This show is a lot of fun from beginning to end, but there's a lot of stuff you'll probably recognize like Graceland (Paul Simon), Psycho Killer (Talking Heads), Poor Heart (Phish), and an absolutely blistering St' Stephen>Not Fade Away>St. Stephen suite (GD).