by Morgan Y. Evans
Kill The Music is one man’s journey from fandom to disillusionment and back again, a tale of keeping faith with rock’n’roll intact. “Independent” is an over-used word these days, but Plumides really embodies a sort of modern, pioneer headstrong spirit. Call it reckless or bold at times, but the guy follows his dreams.
Throughout the highly entertaining book, Plumides is a sort of self-motivated party and pussy crazed entrepreneur, yet in an every man’s way. He tries to help (and be one of) the good guys along the way even as he is often in the center of some very odd situations that would leave anyone jaded as hell. The book is basically about “staying hardcore” in the face of life’s surprises and people’s hypocrisy.
Again, Plumides is very adamant throughout Kill The Music on the value of music as a vital life component that must always be protected. He backs this up through the course of the book by putting his money where his mouth is and not taking anyone’s crap in his days spearheading more diversity in the Charlotte, North Carolina music scene via his controversial 4808 music club—from allowing all types of people including “skinheads” equal club access to championing music as varied as heavy metal and goth to personal pals Hootie and the Blowfish. He is very open-minded and never lets one type of music get a more heavy-handed prominence in the book, as he sees the merits in a wide variety of art. It’s this insistence that wins out in the book despite the petty bullshit Plumides faces along the way in multiple forms.
Let me emphasize
that I do mean multiple! This guy was arrested in the early ‘90s
simply for hosting a GWAR show, a victim of a rival club owner’s
calculated vendetta and the harsh PMRC, censorship crazed years
of Tipper Gore and the cultural witch hunts in the not so distant past.
People forget about it, but it wasn’t so long ago. In these days
where you can watch Bruno and see penises sing, it might seem
like censorship is less an issue than it used to be, but let’s not
forget that Green Day’s most recent record was banned from Wal-Mart
for very hypocritical reasons when you see some of the sex drenched stuff
they do carry on the shelves. On top of this stuff, the book
features a revolving cast of douche bags along the way who try to let
petty agendas and morally shady interests derail the wider potential for
art and commerce. Plumides manages to keep his head up and find enjoyment
in his path despite all setbacks.
Kill The Music deals with an interesting and often under-illustrated
chapter of music history. While we have all heard a lot about the earlier
‘60s or the later Nirvana years or the earlier DIY ‘80s hardcore
scenes and emerging alternative music that paved the way for groundbreaking
acts like Three Doors Down [hahaha], it isn’t so often that we get
to see an inside look into one person’s life and an illustration
of all the hard work it takes to run a rock club. Plumides is witness
to some very cool stuff when a lot of bands who have changed our lives
as a society are just fledglings. It’s a valuable reminder about
how fragile and subject to many forces cultural change is. Without people
putting the hours in to help these real, inspiring bands and everyday
fans hungry for art in their lives, we’d be faced with a much more
bleak landscape.
MORGAN Y. EVANS: As a DJ and then as a club owner, this
is probably hard to answer in a condensed fashion, but, how can you possibly
explain to people how the experiences helped change or shape your perspective
on the music industry, public and life in general? We're starting off
with an easy one (laughing).I mean, you were right in the center of a
lot of sights and sounds during your time operating the 4808 club in North
Carolina.
MICHAEL G. PLUMIDES, JR.: What happened in Charlotte, and the demise of the 4808 Club in a microcosm, was more of a reflection of the national mood at that time period, than it was just a story about intervening morality in the "Bible Belt." I think if I took anything away from the experience, it was an overwhelming distaste for governmental hypocrisy. Government, on every level, is corrupt. Government manipulates the media, and vice versa. Marilyn Manson once said that the media provokes you to fear, so you will consume. In that sense, government and mass media are partners. But government also courts industry, and allows certain behavior from big business that they don’t from the little guy. Money talks and bullshit walks. And I’ve done a lot of walking. I was able to air out my frustrations, albeit subtly, in the book. Well, maybe not so subtly.
MYE: There are several important themes of the book (and not just debauchery!) but you touch on a lot of topics, especially censorship. It blows me away that you were arrested with Oderus from Gwar for “lewd” charges in the early ‘90s. I remember not being allowed into Canada once and thinking, “This is bullshit, they let Gwar in all the time nowadays.” [laughing] In your case, there is the hypocrisy that your arrests seemed orchestrated by your rival club owner in Charlotte. It's such crap how you were sort of railroaded and they even tried to say you were a “second generation pornographer” because your dad had a burlesque club years earlier, right? But then these “morality” types will back the most heinous, immoral things like corporate hegemony gutting small businesses and towns of their character and ability to survive, for one thing.
MP: Thinking that conspiring with the powers that be might somehow take heat off of my rival, was terribly ill-advised, wrong thinking. And by empowering the man by working in conjunction with him to offer the head of David, he only complicated his own situation.
MYE: The ‘80s and early ‘90s were especially tough times in the “morality wars”. Then during George Bush the II's reign of error & terror we had things like post-9/11 radio stations couldn't play John Lennon (which I often talk about). What do you think are the major frontlines in censorship battles these days. The internet comes to mind.
MP: In my own state there was a recent episode where a film entitled "Hound Dog", starring then 13 year-old Dakota Fanning, received subsidies from North Carolina. When it was revealed that Fanning did a full-frontal in a rape scene, watchdog groups were up in arms. North Carolina House Reps introduced legislation that would give them the power to review all films applying for incentives before granting such. That mentality cost the state $60 million in revenue in 2008.
MYE: From reading the book, I was struck by the honesty, not only the sort of warts and all way you tell the story but also how you sort of follow the development of your musical tastes as time passes in the chapters. It's really interesting. I think things tend to get more niche in marketing a lot these days when real music fans always like a bit of everything, unless they are, like, really young kids who are too cool for school. Like, you booked the Cro-Mags at your old club AND elsewhere have keg parties where you sing AC/DC with Hootie and the Blowfish!
MP: Society dictates to us where we belong, whether we're categorized into this sub-group or that sub-group. Oftentimes, we choose where we think we belong, and other times we are sheep-herded into such placement. I don't have tattoos or piercings. That's not my thing. But if that's your thing then so be it. I never thought that there was one image I felt so strongly about that I would imprint it on my skin. But there are people who live for tats. They would rather have tattoos than a car, so they take the bus to the tattoo parlor. That doesn't make them different or unique. They’re succumbing to a sub-culture, made up of other like-minded people. I've had people criticize me because I'm not as "authentic" as they are because I didn't fit neatly into their category. That's why they will always play in some shitty punk rock band with the same sweaty morons coming to see them every three months. They've pigeon-holed themselves by not thinking outside the box.
MYE: Yeah, it's really lame when people's appearance is the immediate factor of belonging, especially in “punk”. It should be about what kind of person they are. It's funny, I could never stand Hootie's music as a band, just not my taste, but they always seemed like they were probably cool dudes to drink a beer with. Can you tell people reading this a bit more about your friendship with the band. You sort of had a fateful role in the early stages of the Cracked Rear View demos circulating to important people.
MP: I've known Hootie for 20 years. I remember back in the ‘90s, Darius Rucker, the lead singer of the band, Train, and I all had to take a piss behind this porta-john during a music festival in Charlotte, because some chick was throwing up and wouldn't come out. Darius accidentally pissed on my foot. Matter of fact, Mark Bryan is playing at my upcoming promotional event in Charleston, South Carolina for a bar tab. That's how well I know them. Whether you’re a fan or not, they’re genuine guys who love to play music and have earned every nickel they’ve ever made. They paid their dues.
MYE: Right on. Without giving away too much of what happens to him in the book (unless you want to), can you sort of explain to readers about the red headed kid who used to come to 4808 shows and how he played a role in you writing this book in some ways, like when you said it is also “his story”?
MP: The red haired kid embodies the ethos of Kill The Music. The character is based on a big fan who came to almost every show that I promoted. The red haired kid represents what mattered most about the era. He is who we are.
MYE: I love the part when you are at a Grateful Dead show and the pregnant junkie hippie lady is in your expensive seats and her boyfriend thinks you are harshing them too hard. It's hysterical and really black humored, but then, as elsewhere in the book, you counterbalance that with biting criticism. It was interesting when you wrote about how the promise of the Dead sort of became really bloated, not that they weren't meaningful artists, but rather that some (certainly not all) fans sort of weren't engaged in evolving the “revolution” of the band in some ways, like when 60's energy kind of stagnated into druggy directionlessness. Can you reiterate your feelings on this and maybe articulate it better than me?
MP: I read that Garcia and Weir never really got the whole Greenpeace, PETA connection. They weren't vegans, and certainly didn't live in some ashram in Oregon. They milked their own mystique until the whole thing became a cartoon, and now the Dead are touring again. Similarly, the whole punk scene was Bugs Bunny bullshit. Punks hated hippies. There again, Henry Rollins’ and Greg Ginn's biggest influence was Frank Zappa. Go figger.
There's always the idea of what it should be, and what it really is. You can't believe the hype. You can't feel the experience by playing a video game. You have to observe it first hand and comment. You'll never understand the music by relying on a paragraph in Maxim. Make your mark. If you don't, then who will? To make ad dollars, today's media is geared toward sensationalism, and is easily guided away from important issues. Michael Jackson's death killed the Iranian revolution. Which was more important? Blogging may be a waste of time and effort, but it does hone your abilities as a writer. Helps you structure your pitch. I wrote Kill The Music so that the ADD reader/fan boy could finish it in 23 shits. I counted.
MYE: It's very interesting when you are seeing your interactions with some of the bands that ended up becoming huge musical landmark bands like Soundgarden or whoever, but I also like that you talk about local acts that were great and never made it as big alongside the tales of meeting Bad Brains or Widespread Panic or what not. I hate it when, from a sociology perspective, people don't examine things from a wider angle like that, like when kids today sort of don't like a band unless they are signed but the second they are then it is ok to like them (even more funny in post-downloading times when the business model has changed and being “signed” doesn't hold water as much as it used to).
MP: I did Kill totally "indie" and I wrote, shot the cover art, and supervised the layout, with the help of my Editor and girlfriend, Anne Saunders of course, in 3 months, with a few minor errors. The second edition comes out next month, available with back cover reviews and testimonials also available in Kindle on Amazon. We didn't have Simon and Schuster or Random House behind us. But through a little hard work, we've created a grass roots movement. Similarly, indie bands can get the same recognition by pimping their own wares if they do it professionally and expeditiously, using the internet, especially the social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. But truthfully, that’s only half the battle. The closer is the music. Don’t just release something to get something out there. Make sure it’s quality work. Remember Arctic Monkeys? I think Panic at the Disco did the same thing.
But in the world of indie press, the newspaper editors look down their noses at self-published books as lesser works, in the same fashion as you describe. I just figured I would waste time, effort, and resources waiting for a publisher to absorb the value of my material. I knew it was good. I didn't need them to validate me. If you look at Hunter S. Thompson or David Sedaris, they often take the most mundane situations and make them entertaining. I took some cool shit, and made my experiences entertaining. And fuck getting "signed". Widespread released Space Wrangler on their own. My advice is to shake things up. Manipulate the hand you’re given and be persistent. They don't want what you got? Fine. There is someone out there who does. And don’t listen to nay-sayers. There’s always some asshole that will get under your skin. If you work hard enough, it will happen, no matter how much negative nonsense they sling at you. You’re free. They’re the slaves. Fuck ‘em.
MYE: What can you tell us about the "360" film project you're involved in. It sounds exciting.
MP: Since it’s in pre-production right now, I really can’t comment on "360." I will say that the material is hilarious. We'll see what happens.
MYE: Kill The Music was a really inspiring read. I just finished and published online a free download of a book on lulu.com I wrote called I Will Be Scene about 15 years growing up outside of Woodstock, New York myself and playing in bands. Reading your book Kill The Music there was a lot of stuff where I was like, “Yeah,man!” It was really validating to read someone having similar experiences of disillusionment with certain elements and types of people in the music scene but with the overall message of “staying hardcore” or doing it for the people who really matter, no matter what the odds, sort of fueling you to stay in the mix and fight the good fight even when times were more bleak.
MP: Wow. I've been waiting for someone to ask these questions. It inspires me to know that someone in media journalism has read Kill The Music and picks up on the underlying messages, truth, and importance of the book. Thank you, Morgan, for recognizing this opportunity. When I wrote Kill The Music, I felt that the era described in the book has been criminally ignored, due to the "Baby Boomers'" stranglehold on NPR, and so called "high brow" media.
MYE: What artists are currently inspiring you these days as groundbreaking? You seem like a good person to ask since you have seen so much over the years.
MP: I can't say that there are many bands breaking new ground. There are some that take all of their influences, homogenize them, and churn out some great music. The Avett Brothers from outside Charlotte, who recently were produced by Rick Rubin. I’d like to see them develop into more of a rock band. But inventive? Mastodon. Nobody can combine influences like Rush and Yes with Slayer in operatic fashion like they do. I like Muse a lot. I always dug the Stoner rock scene. Kyuss, Monster Magnet and Fu Manchu. There are a couple of Swedish bands I like who are influenced by them, Dozer, I Are Droid. Another is Mustasch, very Cult influenced. Music metamorphisizes and adapts. But there are only so many chord progressions on the neck of a guitar.
MYE: Oh, one more question. Where can I see photos of that model chick you talk about in the book! [laughing]
MP: I have to respect her privacy. Just trust me. "Chastity"
was smoking.
