Wednesday Elektra: Greets! Dare I ask
"How are you today?" Hehe.. Just kidding. So what has Mr. Cameron
Archer been getting himself into lately?
Cameron Archer:
That's good, you're playing off me and ripping off my
interview technique. I like that! I'm kidding, I think it's obvious
by my ripping down the fourth wall like this. Anyhow, Mr. Cameron
Archer has been working his arse off as of late writing interviews,
contacting people, trying to catch up on university work and
annoying the people at http://www.livejournal.com/community/seebelow/ with
stuff about Disney and Doctor Who. To answer your question, I'm what
people call "pissing around."
Wednesday: You're just a bloggin' machine aren't you?! I
guess in away we all are, sure beats having to go to Hallmark to
spend $15 on a cheesy little notebook to write down your "thoughts
of the day" in, eh? So for all the other blog-aholics out there tell
us about your infamous blog and how it came to be.
Cameron:
My blog's not infamous. The closest I've come to infamy was
that bit with Scott Gosar. Cripes, I haven't even reached the level
of infamy I want to and the blog's pretty much an avenue to promote
UR [Unbelievably Retarded Zine] anyway. It's sort of a jumping-off
point to what could make a decent UR article. Thing is, I didn't
even want to do a blog until March 2004, since I'm not the type of
person who feels he needs to spill out the most infinitesimal
details about himself and his cat. I guess I enjoy trying to find an
alternative to the typical blog and I do whore it around somewhat.
Basically the blog's evolved into an integral part of sweetposer.tk and is
an avenue for media blather and news about UR. It's at http://www.sweetposer.tk/blog/ and you can tell I'm a
huge shill, can't you?
Wednesday: I see your UR newsletter thingy on Yahoo/Launch
Groups is doing rather well, you sure accumulate lots of nifty stuff
to pass around. For those interested how can they join and what can
they expect to find floating through their inboxes from
it?
Cameron: Spam. Actually, I link to urnewsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com on my blog
(the E-mail will soon be on the site) and the http is http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/urnewsletter/ if
you're so arsed. Basically I post music news there from the various
pieces of PR pap I get, sometimes I'll whore UR there as well. God,
with all the shilling I'm doing right now why don't I just join a
street team? (Note: this was written before I decided to fold UR
Newsletter into the blog. I don't know how I'll do that just yet,
but The UR Newsletter still has only eleven people so I'm
considering shutting it down in a month or two or dedicating the
other Blogger account I have to it. Stay tuned for
details.)
Wednesday: What kind of music are you really into? From your
reviews and what not you seem to be more into the obscure and
bizarre types of music along with "metal" (can it even be called
that anymore?!), so what's in your CD (or other media) collection
right now that you favor?
Cameron: Truth be
known, I haven't listened to much in the past month as I've been
busy trying to catch up on university school-work. Here's a tip:
never take a film studies course while depressed and irritable,
because you'll hate EVERYTHING by the end - even masturbation.
Seriously, there's a lot of shit in my collection and I have odd
tastes. Honestly, my collection goes from Bloodstorm to Ford Pier to
Weird Al Yankovic. It's my fault; growing up in a small-town pissant
rural area forces you to have thrift-store sort of tastes. I really
don't have any favorites right now, but I'm enjoying the Noisecore
Freak remixes Chris Stepniewski sent me (there's his plug. I should
start a promotion agency.) I still call it metal without the "ironic
quotes," by the way. What offends me more is the irritating lumping
of all metal-derived music into so-called "heavy metal," which is
erroneous as that term hasn't been relevant since about 1986. I
should also mention Blood Cult, as "The Reverend" is like my biggest
fan and everything. He's like the Norm MacDonald to my Dennis Miller
Live...well, without as many references to COCK!
Wednesday: Are you still in school? You went to Ottawa didn't
you? What'd you take there, I can't
remember?
Cameron: I'm
technically still in school. Carleton University, no word of a lie,
has done shit for me ever since I went there. It's taken me five
years to get a BA because I've been going through emotional/health
problems and instability since around 2000. Film studies was my
major, but I honestly can't say that major was a good choice at all.
What I find about film studies is this: most people taking it are as
ignorant about the way the film world works as the rest of the
general public is. I personally find people are fooled by the
hierarchy as well as the blatant promotion of an agenda, although
some people consider it beyond the point. Honestly, Jean-Luc Godard
is a good filmmaker but film studies to me seems 50% focused on this
blatantly idiotic belief that only the art-film/Hollywood/"indie"
triptych is important enough for discussion, the other half being
worried about stylistic things with no regard for substance or crazy
things like "plot." Film studies at CU places almost no emphasis on
HOW TO MAKE A FILM, and this is supposed to be one of the better
film studies programs in the country. What a crazy university. Sorry
for the ranting, but I'm not going to pretend to be happy about
something I despise.
Wednesday: When did UR start and why did you start
it?
Cameron: Oh, shit, this is going to take a while. I did
a website in 1999 that I termed The Cameron Archer Episodes,
which evolved into The Ziff-Davis Pornoweb and eventually
became The Unbulova Ripoff. No, I can't name to skin a cat
(also, the name changes every six months were deliberate at the
beginning.) I bunged shit on there as only an 18 year-old could for
a year or two and then I found I wasn't passionate about the
business of music reviewing anymore. I felt my work was becoming
more esoteric and I stupidly believed I needed to become more
mainstream-oriented, so I started my first issue of Metal Strike
Force (i.e., my "Pinkerton," for all you Weezer wonks) in 2001.
Needless to say, I was under assloads of pressure, grief, what have
you around this time, and after a few months I looked at MSF and
realized the thing was just SHIT. I quickly had to swallow my pride
as the guestbook/forum-whoring of the thing was poorly received
(although I did get co-author credit at a well-regarded site called
Schwah at one time; I'm still co-credited on whatever-dude.com for
an old "girl singers" article) so I went back to a hoped-for
quarterly edition of The Unbulova Ripoff. I only did this for
like two issues and I just couldn't commit to a set time for the
thing, which led to UR in May 2002. The whole point of UR was to
become my personal site i.e., alienjack.com and the like, and
eventually it turned into this "humorous" (my word) pisstake of a
site which has been the most successful of the webzines I've done so
far. Personally, I wanted UR to be a hit-whore of a site but I
realized it'd be better off as a music/metal webzine with my
trademark bizarreness bunged on for poops. Basically, I'm an
amateur-turned-semiprofessional.
Wednesday: Why the name Unbelievably Retarded? Just curious.
I guess I'd have a lot of explaining to do if someone asked me why I
named SJM when it has nothing to do with space or junkies...well
maybe music junkies!
Cameron: Y'know,
people haven't figured out for TWO AND A HALF YEARS now that the new
UR is the bizarro version of The Unbulova Ripoff. UR, UR see?
Basically, I needed a name that wasn't so damn esoteric and could be
a viable Google search term. The name's pretty much a paean to
hit-whoring. Also, the original plan was for UR to be a blog-type
random-topic site but look how well that turned out. Five years into
music reviewing and I'm deeper in it than I've ever been. I don't
know how to plan correctly.
Wednesday: How'd you come across SJM
originally?
Cameron: Andrew
Parrish. I used to read Eternal Frost and he wrote for them at the
time. That's how I came across SJM as he used to be part of the
staff here - that, and I felt I needed to contribute to more than
that one site I was barely updating (mine; don't look at me like
that.) Truth be known, I'm surprised I've lasted this long at SJM.
I'm not complaining, mind you - it's just the turnaround here is
incredibly heavy at times and there's like six hundred writers here
now and everything. Cripes, I've been here since the first year. I'M
OLD.
Wednesday: What other magazines/zines are you into? Do you
currently write for any others?
Cameron: I don't
think I've bought a 'zine since September 2003 when I bought Golden
Lake (decent 'zine, their rating their own product through their own
'zine is lame though.) Right now I'm actually subscribing to
Consumer Reports (yes, I am that middle-of-the-road) and wandering
through the blogs and Google's news search. I currently write for a
wrestling site at http://www.wrestlingopinions.com/ which has a more
than competent staff. Hell, TheMikeSays has been doing more
shilling than humanly necessary and I wouldn't blame him. It's
actually a pretty decent site. I used to write for http://www.theddt.com/
- they own Wrestling Opinions - but I guess I was moved over to
strengthen the staff or something. I'm hoping to write for
Unrestrained! but given relations between me and Adrian Bromley I
don't know what'll happen in the near future. You'll see my name
somewhere, believe me.
Wednesday: What are some of your favorite movies and TV
shows?
Cameron: Eh, I've sort of grown tired of those two media
as of late but I really do enjoy The Simpsons, Last Comic Standing
(John Heffron sucks, quote me on that) and whatever "cult"
television comes down the pike. Right now I've been enjoying
Touch of Evil, two Andy Milligan films and G-Men From
Hell was surprisingly good (sue me, I'm a comic fan. You can
only expect so much from a pussy PG-13 rating but I like Mike
Allred.)
Wednesday: What do you think of the Riot-Soundz group? Can we expect any
interviews/reviews/coverage of any of the artists on it in the
future?
Cameron: They're good, not a fan of some of the topics
though (that whole conservative punk convo - oh man was that tedious
to read.) Riot Soundz will be covered in detail, believe me. Ho
ho.
Wednesday: Where do you get most of your information and
materials to cover for UR? Are you affiliated with any labels or
companies or do you just surf the web and get people to send stuff
in?
Cameron: Usually I go through webzines (http://www.musicextreme.com/ is perfect in this
regard) and/or surf the actual sites themselves and then a) buy
things or b) be a pesterer for promos. Lately I've gone a step
beyond some webzines and utilized the AWESOME POWER OF FAX. It's a
scummy, thankless chore, trying to get promos. I think most serious
people who do 'zines know it...unless they're consumed by utter
greed or whatever.
Wednesday: What has been, in your eyes, the best interview
you've done to date? Why?
Cameron: I'd
probably have to say the interview with Jason Karns from Tales From
Uranus. Actually, I don't have a clear favorite, as most of the
people I've interviewed over the past five years know how to answer
a question with a clever answer (okay, I goad them to do that but I
want people to REMEMBER the interview three years from now, dammit)
and considering my tastes I don't really get anybody generic enough
to give generic questions to generic answers. Personally, I took my
present cues from Jeff Rappaport of Metal Rules! (Is that mag still
around? The website went down recently) though when I was doing
earlier 'zines I also piled on the stupid questions, though not to
the extent that I do now. Best recent interview would be Blood Cult,
and best throwback to my knowing nothing of what I'm talking about
would be the Fuck the Facts interview. So many mistakes on that
one...
Wednesday: List all the places people can find you online.
What are some of your favorite online services and why?
Cameron:
More shilling! YAY!
http://babyteabag.zed.cbc.ca/ - this has some
random shite I've done for poops and spurties, it's on CBC though
and the site suffers a little from...well, listen to CBC Radio 3;
these guys sometimes try way too hard to be "cool"
http://www.livejournal.com/~babypercola/ - wacky
shit. What I do in place of actual LiveJournal whining.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/seebelow/ - I
post here a lot. Stupid comics news. I'm babypercola, by the way -
the one with the Spot the Dog icon
http://www.poe-news.com/ - I rarely post but I
have a reciprocal link to UR here. The forums are rather tedious
reading, though. ADMIT IT, GUYS
http://www.sweetposer.tk - you know this
http://www.sweetposer.tk/blog/ - we already linked
about this one
http://www.teufelstomb.com/
http://www.theddt.com/theddtmessageboard/ - the only
message board I inhabit these days
http://www.wrestlingopinions.com/ - I'm The Yob here.
As for services, I'm more a fan of Gmail although the Javascript
overuse is a little grating. http://www.download.com/ and http://www.tucows.com/
are good, http://www.sourceforge.net/ is your friend and http://www.bloglinker.com/ has been surprisingly good
at finding decent sites for me. You'd be surprised.
Wednesday: Do you have any non-music/web/zine related
hobbies? If so what are they?
Cameron: Doodling,
collecting old videos and reading old copies of Consumer Reports.
I'm a very boring man.
Wednesday: What else are you into besides
music?
Cameron: I'm into the entertainment industry in
general, I guess. Personally, I'm at one of those crossroads in my
life where I don't know exactly what's going to happen from one day
to the next and I honestly find myself deviating from music
reviewing as a quasi-hobby. Whether that is due to my distaste for
how the music industry operates or not defeats the point as I'm
trying to see which scene I can be allowed to glom onto. Not that
I'm pretending to be anyone other than myself here, but I have a lot
of interests - politics, societal trends, media criticism and
possibly screen writing I also seem to listen to too much CBC Radio,
which is funny as 89% of the MotherCorp's radio output is
second-rate AT BEST.
Wednesday: Alright, I'm runnin' low on questions, so do you
have anything else you'd like to "promote" or tell the readers of
SJM about?
Cameron: tv.cream.org, oohnasty.com, offthetelly.co.uk, badmovieplanet.org/unknownmovies/ and bloodcifery.com.
There's some more shilling. Man, I should have become an advertising
executive. Shit knows there's more money in that than in what I'm
doing now, whatever that is.
Wednesday: Thanks Cameron!
Cameron: Okay, so
you want the next batch of reviews by next week right? Er, I mean
you're welcome.
