From the Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2001 issue

Columns

It's My Party

by Kathleen Wilson

Even in the weeks before Bands on the Run made its television debut, its producers at VH1 were ringing The Stranger's phone off the hook in hopes of getting me to help them procure a Seattle band for the wildly popular series' next season. Months ago in It's My Party I, reported that eXBeSTFRIeNDS was number one on VH1's list of hopeful conquests, as well as a few other hip local bands. When I informed the show's most persistent producer that the bands he sought definitely were not interested, he revealed that, actually, what the network was looking for (if it couldn't get a grunge band with a singer who looks startlingly like Kurt Cobain) was either an all-female band or an African American band. Well, success! Almost. Last week it was confirmed that Maktub (who was widely rumored to be in hot consideration) will NOT be the first Seattle band to pile into a shamelessly posh van and have their members' every move documented on videotape, as they travel the nation in search of fame and fortune while staying in fancy suites in high-rise hotels. Don't get me wrong--I loved Bands on the Run with a deep purple passion, mostly because each and every one of the bands was truly awful, as were the band members, who never ceased to amaze me with their retarded actions. How stupid could you be to cry your little baby eyes out about cheating on your girlfriend when you knew the cameras were on you all the goddamn time? I've got no sympathy for you, jackass. And Beastie? What a mule. HEE-HAW! HEE-HAW! But--and I'm fully aware that I'm stating the obvious here--this is hardly an apt depiction of life on the road for a struggling band, aside from the cheating part, I guess. Still, it's great television, or at least it was once the Josh Dodes Band got booted off. Maktub frontman Reggie Watts is charismatic, there's no denying that. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who would have found the band slightly reminiscent of the JDB. The smartest (and most hilarious) thing members of the Seattle band community could have done when VH1 was clamoring to put together a fake "supergroup" was to come up with a band featuring perhaps Tad, a Supersucker, a Devil, that guy from Poseur, and a member of Botch. A Pan-Seattle rock group, if you will, whose personalities, egos, and philosophies would have made for some of the best TV-watching in history, with no ill effects on their respective bands, because the TV shit was never real. By the way... have you gone back and watched Singles lately? It just keeps getting funnier as the years go by. Grumbly and depressed over some unspeakable horror last Sunday night, I pulled out my copy and threw it in the VCR and laughed my ass off. If you haven't seen it in years and need a good giggle, I highly recommend it

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In other Bands on the Run news, Harlow is playing not one, but two upcoming nights at the Crocodile, and Pat Smear is producing the band's album. There's a Hole joke in there somewhere, but I just can't be bothered with that malarkey these days.

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And finally, I apologize profusely for reporting that Eddie Vedder joined Mudhoney onstage at the Showbox recently. It was, of course, Wellwater Conspiracy he sang with. Duh.

kathleen@thestranger.com