Every week, High Fives asks five bands five themed questions over five days. This week, we are, naturally, sitting on our hands until the deluxe edition of Beyonce’s I Am… Sasha Fierce DVD/CD arrives in the mail. To kill time, we’re discussing alter-egos in music with some other people.
Superchunk are one of the best bands to have ever existed in the world. Formed at the tail end of the ’80s in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the band defined the best aspects of both the sound and the ethic of the ’90s indie and alternative scene. Their self-titled debut full-length, released on Matador Records in 1990, ignited a major label bidding war that the band shut the fuck down, sticking with Matador until the label entered into a distribution agreement with Atlantic Records, jumping ship back to the home of their first single, Merge. Since then, they’ve continued to release consistently great, innovative, and well-received records that have come to define an era of independent music in America, influencing everyone from Fucked Up to the Get Up Kids. After a lengthy hiatus (their last full-length release was 2001’s Here’s to Shutting Up), the band released Majesty Shredding in September of this year. Unsurprisingly, it stands with the best of the band’s catalogue, sounding like they were never gone for longer than a few minutes. The band performs in Toronto this Thursday, in the afternoon at Sonic Boom and in the evening with some band called Broken Social Scene. And since it’s kind of crucial in understanding at least one of the references here, these questions were answers by drummer/jokester (I think he prefers humourist) Jon Wurster.
Who has the greatest alter-ego in music?
When Garth Brooks took on the persona of singer Chris Gaines in 1999 I was dubious. But when I learned there was a complicated back story about Gaines (he was a successful Australian swimmer before turning to soft R&B-flavored rock) and that Brooks starved himself in the days preceding the … In the Life of Chris Gaines cover shoot, I was sold. So much so that I apparently took this photo the night Brooks/Gaines appeared on Saturday Night Live:
Who has the worst alter-ego in music?
I’ve never been a fan of Michael Bolton’s “Professor Sleaze” persona. Too much of a GG Allin rip-off, right down to the jockstrap and fecal smearings.
If you had to invent an alter-ego for yourself, who would it be?
Maybe someone like this?
[Ed.'s note: that's Jon Wurster getting on stage with Patton Oswalt]
How much bad/strange/offensive behavior can reasonably be blamed on an alter-ego?
I think everything but arson. Arson comes from a person’s true heart.
How much do “more serious” genres / bands suffer from the lack of alternate personalities present in their scene? What’s one band you’ve played with who would benefit from some makeup and a new stage name?
I think Belle and Sebastian should have an alter-ego band where they wear corpse paint and spray the crowd with the blood that they exsanguinated from the previous night’s audience.
