read it for the articles

As a fringe benefit for writing the articles everyone visits the site to read, I have a membership at Suicide Girls, where I get to read lots of cool articles.

Seriously, the pretty ladies are nice and all, but there’s a whole lot more going on at SG, too. We put some great stories on the newswire, and the interviews are just outstanding, like this one with Danny Elfman that I read this afternoon.

DRE: Do you have any desire to play live music anymore?

ELFMAN: Not really. Let me put it this way, I have no desire ever to be on an Oingo Boingo stage again.

DRE: Why not?

ELFMAN: I can’t get in front of a stage that loud
again. I spent 17 years in a band in front of monitors and it fucked up
my ears. It was insanely loud. I was standing in front of four monitors
blasting my own voice into my head which has to be louder than the band
to be able to sing and hear yourself during these fucking two and a
half, three hour shows. Then it all has to be louder than 6000
screaming audience members. Believe me when I say this, it was louder
than anything you can imagine. I really got to the point where if I
stayed in that environment any longer I would be deaf right now.

DRE: Obviously, that would be highly detrimental to you.

ELFMAN: Yeah and as a result I’ve gotten some pretty
shitty hearing levels. Which is a big problem and it’s gotten to be a
worse problem as I go. So the thought of getting out into that level, I
mean I can’t even take really loud clubs anymore. If I walk into a
restaurant or a club where it’s loud it physically hurts. It feels like
I’m getting daggers in my head.

The Halloween concert at Irvine Meadows, then at the Universal Ampitheatre, were as much a Los Angeles tradition as anything else here, right up until the farewell show back in 1995. I was holding out hope that there may be some sort of reunion show, but I guess that won’t ever happen. Which is fine with me, because I have tremendous respect and affection for Danny Elfman, and hearing is sort of important and stuff.

If you’re a fan of Boingo, or any of Danny Elfman‘s other work, you should seriously check it out. There’s a lot of stuff in there about not scoring Spiderman 3, scoring Ed Wood, and how (not) crazy the Boingo days were.

Note: All the SG links in this post are technically safe for work, but it may be a little borderline for some people. You’ve been warned, so don’t bitch at me if your [husband | boss | mother | bartender] bitches at you about it.

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15 thoughts on “read it for the articles”

  2. At least Danny still composes some of the Best Damn Movie Scores in the biz, so we get to hear his music often enough.

  3. Unfortunately, Danny’s sucky hearing is par for the course with “electrified” musos, and their fans.
    The BBs and Xgeners who delighted in playing in front of, and standing close to Marshall amp towers are paying for it now.
    “WHAT?! SPEAK UP! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

  4. While I used to be a member I stopped supporting the site after reading many articles like this one and this one.
    I got drawn in by the great news articles as well, but at the same time I’m not gonna support a site who says they pull photos because of the FBI and the government ‘war on porn’ when it’s really them suing another site (so it’s been reported) which to me is a bit duplicitous.

  5. Yeah, hearing is pretty important. What a shame to think a musician with Danny Elfman’s talent would have damaged hearing. Think of the great stuff we would miss if he couldn’t hear…

  6. I will check out the Elfman article! I’ve been missing my Halloween shows for the last 10 years, but I still cheer when I see his name on the big screen. Ooh, I see a Chris Elliot interview on SG, too. Awesome. (you know I cheered for Bartek when his name popped up on the Cabin Boy credits!)
    Elfman recently did an interview on KUSC (USC’s classical music station) about film scoring, I think it was a two-parter. Anyone else catch that interview?

  7. As someone who’s just getting old enough to consider rock concerts too loud (who would think we would turn into our mothers and complain about loud music?), I was always curious about a band member’s reaction to the constant loudness of the speakers. I’ve never heard a musician honestly say that it bothered him until now. Maybe musicians are afraid of looking ‘old.’ So, I applaud Danny Elfman’s honesty.

  8. Suicide girls is blocked by my company’s firewall…dammnit! The funny thing is that about once a month fark.com gets blocked for a day or two, then unblocked. Clearly some of our IT people are farkers.
    Incidentally, I thought it was common for musicians to use sound reducing custom monitors which would help a bit with the volume of their music. To see what I’m talking about check these out:
    http://www.ultimateears.com/
    To threadjack this, I always find in-ear headphones the best for sound, but they always hurt my ears. So I’m really interested in getting one of their superFi models, which start at only $100. Thats still a lot for headphones…
    At one point this company was claiming that they’d support custom ear moulds for an extra fee on this line of monitors (in the “next few months”), but all mention of that seems to have dissappeared. Bummer, since there is no way I’m dropping $500-900 on something like that until I win the lottery!

  10. OK, on the headphones front, I’ve got to recommend Shure headphones. (http://www.shure.com/psm/earphones/default.asp). The are pretty comfy, but boy do they ever cut the sound. I work in a very loud data center environment. I typically use the Bose noise cancelling headphones ($300), but the Shure earbuds cut out all sound… This isn’t aways a good thing, since people can sneak up on my WAY to easy.
    I heard about the Shure headphones from the Orson Scott Card website (www.hatrack.com) in his reviews section… Some good stuff in there…

  12. a while back in June you posted about Pork Soda. I just wanted to comment on that partiular post. I met
    LES FUCKING CLAYPOOL once.
    And once was enough.

  13. Oh my Wow…
    That 95 farewell tour was just about the best and most sad concert I ever attended. It was my third ever concert at Universal Amphitheater (the second, notably, being The Cramps).
    At one point my buddy cried out, “Jesus Christ!” Facetiously I asked, “Where”. But the joke was on me, because my buddy quickly pointed out the robe-wearing carpenter passing-by below. “We’re all going to the Denny’s after the concert, my children” he proclaimed. Later, during “Only A Lad,” my buddy turned to me and said, “Stand still for a second!” So I stopped dancing to realize the entire mezzanine was pulsating up and down like it was being hit by an earthquake.
    Wow, but that was some night. And if anyone’s wondering, we did find Jesus later that night. At the Denny’s. We also found the Cowardly Lion from The Wiz, some interpretation of Frankenstein’s Monster and a couple in the best hippie clothes I’ve seen since my parent’s old 8-mm movies of their college days.

  14. it’s a great interview. our elf boy has been more visible lately — interviewed all over the place, even talking openly (finally) about his year-and-a-half tiff with burton all those years ago.
    it’s enough to make a elfreak tear up to see the dear man in print so much. (-;
    you going to johnny vatos’ not-exactly-boingo show on oct. 29th? wish i could get there — tucson’s a bit far to fly for it, though… *sigh*
    peace — rie

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