Jughead's Basement Podcast featuring Angry Samoans' Back From Samoa has been released. It is a long one and quite odd, if you ask me, the interviewer and editor. PJ Galligan (guitarist on the first two records) died of cancer while I was working on the interviews. He wanted to participate but couldn't speak because the cancer he was suffering from affected his ability to speak clearly. He wrote out his answers and I got an actor friend here in Japan to record his responses. They were long, too long for the podcast, and I had to edit them down. In his choice of words, and in the depth, I could hear a man telling a selected audience about a special part of his life for the last time. That may sound dramatic but while reading these, even before his death, this was the feeling I had. He came off sounding proud, humble, as strange as the rest of the band members, but ultimately he ended up sounding just like a regular man living out his life. He died in May, with the writing unfinished. He went on a hiking trip with Alice, his SO, (her words) and when he came back she said he sat down to upload his photos from the trip and then died. I decided to still include these parts even though I didn't want the weight of this event to affect the podcast as an oral document of the band. Alice searched his computer for more answers to questions he might not have not had time to send, but all she found was his self-written eulogy. Including these writings made the podcast difficult to navigate, and ultimately added to the oddness of the feel and extreme length of the podcast.
What also added to the oddness is the disparate natures of the members themselves and their divergent perceptions of the workings of the band and even discrepancies about time itself. They each have their own quirky natures and they are all more than willing to share their eccentricities. Why would I expect any less from one of the most irreverent yet infectiously melodic punk bands? It's a complicated podcast and I'm not sure if it's even completely listenable, at least in one sitting. But I worked hard, while busy here in Japan, being a Wizard, and I think the finished product helps to show their importance in the punk scene. They were vitriolic, humorous, stupid, offensive, insane, self-centered, childish, intelligent, passionate, and incredible at writing the shortest catchiest profane songs out of any punk band I liked.
Angry Samoans' Back From Samoa
I'd also like to thank Jeromy Corp and Stewart Jones for supporting this podcast, Landon Gale-George for putting me in touch with Metal Mike and Bill Vockeroth, and Jason Brow for his hard work editing the interviews.
