GET TO KNOW ian c stewart

DATE OF BIRTH
30 May 1972

HEIGHT
Taller than you but shorter than Mike Chuck Bill, let's put it that way. 6'2". Or 6'4" when I need a haircut.

PIERCINGS/TATTOOS
left ear 4x, right ear 1x. No, I don't want more, and no I don't want tattoos. But thanks for offering.

INSTRUMENT PLAYED IN DEVILCAKE?
What day is it again?

WHAT GEAR IS IN YOUR CURRENT DEVILCAKE SETUP?
Um, it depends on what day of the week it is. It could be the Roland guitar synth minus the synth part running through my new Marshall G80RCD amp, which RULES because it's LOUD AS FUCK. Or it could be the Peavey Patriot bass (aka THE MACHO MAN) played through the Peavey TNT (I think it is) bass amp. Despite my utter contempt for all Peavey products. Hey, the shit was cheap. Or if it's last year then the five-piece red Premier APK kit with Zildjian and Sabian cymbals. Most likely it's the Anniversary Bass. Yamaha fretless dealio my wife bought me for our second wedding anniversary.

FAVORITE DEVILCAKE SONG?
I'm all about Deez Nuts. But my favorite Devilcake song is probably Pie Hair Pie just because it's so energetic and old-school and it sums us up as a band pretty fuckin' well. But Deez Nuts ain't bad either.

SIDE PROJECTS?
Super Breakout with Todd and Darrin - vocal techno
the rest are just me -
SAMARKAND - ambient techno
FZZY PMPR - cut 'n paste drum 'n bass sample-frenzy BS
STAR*PILLOW - foolish and sexist guitar pop
also I have solo recordinngs out as IAN C STEWART, which was the dumbest name I could think of
I'll probably have 14 more side projects in progress by the time you finish reading this.

WHEN DID YOU START PLAYING MUSIC?
I got my first guitar for my 10th birthday. My dad and my mom both played guitar and both of their dads played guitar. Both of my grandfathers were in country bands around Columbus in the 1950s + 60s and they actually knew each other. Which is kind of odd. This could also be why I despise country music in any form. As a kid it was always around and not in a good way. Fuck country. My uncle plays drums too and has a sweet Carvin PA that I want him to sell me. Yeah right. It's bigger than the systems in most of the clubs in Columbus. Plus, where would I keep it? Plus, who cares? My uncle was also an influence on me as a kid - he'd always be practicing his drums or playing on his Remo practice set.

WHO WERE YOUR EARLY MUSICAL HEROES + INSPIRATIONS?
ACE FUCKING FREHLEY. I got KISS "Dressed To Kill" when I was 4. It's been all downhill from there. I used to get KISS records for every holiday. Hell, they were cranking out 2 albums a year at one point in the 1970s. I always dug Ace more than the other guys. Later in my childhood I got into DEVO "Freedom Of Choice" - that album got major play. I still love DEVO. Then I got into THOMAS DOLBY and pretty much whatever was on MTV between 1982 and 1983. Then I stumbled upon MOTORHEAD, SLAYER, MERCYFUL FATE, METAL CHURCH, CELTIC FROST etc. and became possessed by having long hair and writing metal riffs of my own. Eventually I got sick of metal and got into XTC, THE CURE, THE DAMNED, SONIC YOUTH, KING CRIMSON and everything else in the world almost. Except country, showtunes, doo-wop and opera. And anything else Darrin has on his Top 10 list.

WHAT OTHER INSTRUMENTS DO YOU PLAY?
I play guitar, bass, drums, a little bit of keyboards and anything else that has strings or can be beaten on. Anything that requires breathing into is out of my realm.

ALL TIME TOP TEN ALBUMS

1. XTC - SKYLARKING (1986)
It's my knee-jerk reaction to immediately say that Skylarking is my favorite album of all time, but I haven't really listened to it in at least a year or more. Skylarking is the first XTC album I got into. I had a dub of it on one side of a Sony 90 minute tape (with THE DAMNED - ANYTHING on the other side) that got constant Walkman rotation during a long long family vacation in England when I was 15. The pastoral English songs on the tape were the perfect soundtrack for excruciatingly long drives through pastoral England and the impression on my brain was indelible. Obviously. Here it is 228 years later and I'm still talking about it.

SKYLARKING isn't for everyone. The first song I latched onto was "Dear God," which is Andy Partridge's anthem for atheists everywhere. It actually helped galvanize my own beliefs on spirituality etc. I was eventually seduced by the rest of the album too, which presents the songs as a cycle. The first song represents birth or dawn and by the last song it's night or death or winter or whateverthehellyouwannacallit. Every song has its place and there's not one ounce of fat on the album.

The initial pressing of SKYLARKING didn't include "Dear God," which was merely a b-side of the UK single for the song "Grass." But after "Dear God" started getting a freakish amount of radio play for no apparent reason, Geffen reissued SKYLARKING to include it.

To make room for XTC's biggest US hit to date, Geffen had to bump a song from the intended song cycle. "Mermaid Smiled." This shit didn't happen in any other countries. The UK and Canadian pressings still don't have "Dear God."

As it happens, "Mermaid Smiled" is my favorite song in the universe, period. It's 3+ minutes of everything anyone could ever want: swingy jazzy horns, manic drumming, great lyrics. It's all there.

SKYLARKING is far better with "Mermaid Smiled" instead of "Dear God." Of course the best would be a Frankenstein version with both songs. But that's probably asking too much.

Everything else dwells in the shadow of SKYLARKING. So the rest of the albums aren't ranked in any kind of order. They all just rule and that's good enough for rock and roll.

CELTIC FROST - INTO THE PANDEMONIUM (1987)
VOI VOD - NOTHINGFACE (1990)
CHRISTIAN DEATH - ONLY THEATRE OF PAIN (1982)
COCTEAU TWINS - HEAVEN OR LAS VEGAS (1990)
THOMAS DOLBY - THE GOLDEN AGE OF WIRELESS (1982)
SKINNY PUPPY - TOO DARK PARK (1990)
SWANS - WHITE LIGHT FROM THE MOUTH OF INFINITY (1990)
JAPAN - JAPAN (1982)
BILL NELSON - VISTAMIX (1984)

And every single runner-up that didn't make the TOP TEN is still a pivotal album for me, and one I consider to be definitive or great. Either that or it just continues to kick my ass and open my mind years later. Stands the test of time. After literally weeks of near-constant deliberation I've narrowed it down to the following.

runners-up:
NWA - STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON; ULTRAMARINE - EVERY MAN AND WOMAN IS A STAR; LEVITATION - NEED FOR NOT; PREFAB SPROUT - SWOON; ICE-T - POWER; 808 STATE - GORGEOUS; LOW - LONG DIVISION; IDAHO - THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND; VENOM - AT WAR WITH SATAN; DEVO - FREEDOM OF CHOICE; CATHEDRAL - FOREST OF EQUILIBRIUM; CATHEDRAL - THE ETHEREAL MIRROR; KISS - (MUSIC FROM) THE ELDER; GARY NUMAN - DANCE; BAD NEWS - BAD NEWS; MR BUNGLE - MR BUNGLE; AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB - SAN FRANCISCO; GODFLESH - STREETCLEANER; THE CURE - PORNOGRAPHY; THE CURE - DISINTEGRATION; DEAD CAN DANCE - WITHIN THE REALM OF A DYING SUN; KING CRIMSON - DISCIPLINE; MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO - SATYRICON; RED HOUSE PAINTERS - (ROLLERCOASTER); THE DAMNED - STRAWBERRIES; THE DAMNED - BLACK ALBUM; THE DAMNED - PHANTASMAGORIA; THE DAMNED - ANYTHING; IRON MAIDEN - PIECE OF MIND; FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD - WELCOME TO THE PLEASUREDOME; PUBLIC ENEMY - IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK; CAPTAIN BEEFHEART - TROUT MASK REPLICA; RATT - OUT OF THE CELLAR; NAPALM DEATH - FROM ENSLAVEMENT TO OBLITERATION; STEVE MARTIN - WILD AND CRAZY GUY; XTC - APPLE VENUS; BUSTA RHYMES - EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT; RIDE - GOING BLANK AGAIN; BEASTIE BOYS - PAUL'S BOUTIQUE; ORBITAL - ORBITAL2.

and probably six hundred others I'm forgetting.

ALL TIME TOP FIVE BOOKS
This one is a piece of piss because I'm not a huge book guy. Nearly every book I read is a biography of a band I like. Namely KISS and XTC. "KISS AND SELL" by CK Lendt is an extremely sweet book for anyone who's interested in the behind-the-scenes shit of KISS. On the XTC tip, there's been two books and they're both very good. "Chalkhills And Children" and "Song Stories."

MJB sent me "HIGH FIDELITY" the book and that was very good. Nick Hornby? I think? Wrote it?

I read tons of magazines but very few books. I don't know why this is either.
The ROBERT FRIPP book by Eric Tamm was fucking sweet. And I like old HENRY ROLLINS books. M GIRA from SWANS wrote a really fucked-up book that was okay too, just because of how disturbing and unclean it all was. And THE YOUNG ONES book, BACHELOR BOYS. That one is fucking good.

I am currently reading KURT VONNEGUT "Breakfast Of Champions" (cheers C Reider) and Darrin's copy of "THE MUSIC'S ALL THAT MATTERS, A HISTORY OF PROGRESSIVE ROCK" by PAUL STUMP. It's an overly wordy, wanky, beardy account of prog-rock that blows certain aspects of the genre out of proportion while glossing over other aspects entirely. And yet I continue to read it. Kind of like you now.

ALL TIME TOP FIVE FILMS
1. EAT THE RICH
Because it features all of my favorite actors (The Young Ones, Lemmy, Paul McCartney, Shane Mcgowan, uh etc). It's occasionally violent, silly, loud, very dumb, and there's lots and lots of swearing and cannibalism. Motorhead is in it. Everyone knows I've sampled the ass off this film, but no one is sure why. Me included. Because it rules? Isn't that reason enough?

2. WITHNAIL & I
I haven't seen it in about a year, so it might deserve to be a few spots lower. But uh... What initially drew me to this film was Richard E Grant, after delivering such a hilarious and engaging performance in "HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING."

Then in 1992 I realized that RIDE had sampled Paul McGann saying "even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day" (later picked up on by ORBITAL and everybody else in the world). And I read in the liner notes of that album that the sample was from WITHNAIL & I.

WITHNAIL to me initially seemed to be a film with no plot. Grant and Mcgann (whose character is never addressed by name, his name is never revealed. In the credits, it lists Paul McGann as "& I") basically talk a huge amount of shit to each other for two hours in a variety of settings.

Only later do the various converging plot elements become apparent - the fact that both characters are unemployed actors; that the film takes place in 1969; drugs play a large part of the plot; escapism for its own sake (taking drugs, going out to the countryside for a long weekend); and Withnail's eccentric gay uncle who assumes that Withnail and &I are lovers (incorrectly, as it happens - or doesn't happen in this case).

There's no explosions or fight scenes or any hot chicks. Just a bunch of shit being talked by English dudes, basically.

3. HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING
Richard E Grant plays a prominent advertising executive in late 1980s London who eventually goes insane. His descent into madness is fucking excellent and very funny.

4. OFFICE SPACE
Come on! I love that fucking movie! Every other scene is a classic.

5. REVENGE OF THE NERDS
I know all the words to this film for a reason.

runners-up: CB4, STILL CRAZY, STRANGE BREW (even though I hate beer and that stupid little theme song of theirs), CADDYSHACK (despite my continued - and increasing - loathing of golf, it's Chevy Chase's best performance ever, especially the piano scene), LA STORY, ED WOOD, 9 1/2 WEEKS (which would've benefitted from 23 more Kim Basinger masturbation scenes, but that's also true of every film ever made), SUPERGRASS, BRAZIL, SALOME'S LAST DANCE, HIGHWAY 61, DOWN BY LAW. Anything but KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM, which is the worst film ever made that didn't directly involve Ed Wood.

FAVORITE TV SHOWS
THE YOUNG ONES, BOTTOM, BRITISH MEN BEHAVING BADLY, I'M ALAN PARTRIDGE, THE SIMPSONS, BLACK ADDER, MONTY PYTHON, PRESS YOUR LUCK, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE sometimes gets it right too.

FAVORITE ACTORS/ACTRESSES
RICHARD E GRANT, RIK MAYALL, ADRIAN EDMONSON, NIGEL PLANER, JENNIFER SAUNDERS, ROWAN ATKINSON, JOHN CLEESE, CHEVY CHASE in the 1970s and early 80s, STEVE MARTIN, JOHN CUSACK, WILL FARRELL, ASHLEY JUDD. Clearly.

FIRST CONCERT YOU EVER ATTENDED?
Ohio State Fair, 1981: KENNY LOGGINS!
My first arena concert was summer 1982: CHEAP TRICK / KROKUS / SAXON ! A triple-bill that continues to make no fucking sense whatsoever to me.

BEST CONCERT YOU ATTENDED?
Hmm. Wow. They all sucked.

SWANS at Phantasy in Cleveland, 1992. Oh my god.
Beastie Boys at Bogart's in Cincinnati, 1992. That was insane.
Suicidal Tendencies at the Newport, 1987. My first mosh pit.
Slayer/Motorhead/Overkill at the Newport, 1988. Slayer's set was the first time I truly feared for my life.
Soundgarden/Primus at Stache's, 1989. We loooved Soundgarden already. Primus blew us away too.
Red Hot Chili Peppers/Faith No More at the Newport, 1987. You could smell the Chili Peppers when they came out onstage. There were about 100 people there. "Uplift Mofo Party Plan" is still my favorite Chili Peppers record.
Skinny Puppy at the Newport in 1990. We had no idea what we were in for. Fuck. I still have nightmares.
Meat Beat Manifesto/Orbital/Ultramarine in Boston, 1992. It was the Communion Tour. Ultramarine kicked my ass with their video projections and their lite live-new-age sound. Orbital was basically a light show and the two guys up in a DJ booth or whatever. Couldn't see shit. Meat Beat was tremendous.
808 State at 700 High in Columbus. They played "Pacific"! I was happy! I miss 700 High.
The Damned at the Al Rosa in Columbus and Bogart's, October 1999 - dodging Sensible's underwear!

LAST CONCERT YOU ATTENDED?
Gary Numan/Gwenmars/Grand Theft Audio at Bogart's. Gary was awesome. I'm so glad I finally got to see him. Fuck the other bands.

WHAT'S THE FURTHEST YOU'VE EVER DRIVEN TO SEE A CONCERT?
Cleveland. It's about three hours away. I've been up there to the Agora and to the old Phantasy a few times, to see Meat Beat Manifesto/808 State, Beatsie Boys and uh, Swans. I guess that's it.
Cincinnati is closer, so I prefer to go there.

YOUR FIRST LIVE GIG?
The Uncultured got to play at a punk rock party one weekend in spring 1988. The main band at the party was Nosferatu (the Columbus punk/grind/metal band that later became Borborygmos, not the UK goth one. Be reasonable!), which featured Mark and Mike Dean (later convicted of murder) on drums and bass. I think Wycked might've played too at one point. I was the lead guitarist in The Uncultured, but we didn't have a drummer at that point, so I actually wound up playing on Mark Dean's double-bass drumset. That was the first time I ever played a double bass kit and I was worse than you can imagine. We sucked and we sounded terrible and our songs were dumb but drunk punks were amused by it. I had written this song about guinea pigs that the punks all liked so we wound up playing that twice. It was a very nervous and unfulfilling occasion. The Uncultured was Ray Lilly singing, Michael Million on guitar, me on other guitar, Jeff Sampson on bass and eventually Mark Ward on drums. But Mark Ward wasn't in the picture for the first gig. Fortunately.

YOUR BEST LIVE GIG (AND WHY)?
DEVILCAKE opening for GWAR in October 2000. Come on. Be reasonable. DEVILCAKE OPENING FOR GWAR. Don't make me say it again.

WHO ARE YOUR MUSICAL HEROES + INSPIRATIONS NOW?
KISS, VENOM, GARY NUMAN, BILL NELSON, BUSTA RHYMES, IRON MAIDEN, BUCKETHEAD, GWAR, LAMB OF GOD

NAME THE LAST 3 CDS YOU BOUGHT.
OHGR - "Welt"
HIGH LLAMAS - "Cold And Bouncy"
808 STATE - "Forecast" Japanese import

FAVORITE FOODS?
Pizza, Hot Pockets, chicken nuggets, the buffalo chicken sandwich at Max & Erma's, salt + vinegar potato chips, pretty much anything but Hawaiian pizza. And cooked broccoli is out too.

CAN YOU COOK?
God no. I can eat though!

FAVORITE BEVERAGES?
Dr Pepper (duh), my extra-strong extra-sweet iced tea

WHERE'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE ON THE PLANET?
England. Pretty much anywhere in England is good with me. London especially.

I HAVE TO ASK, WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?
Living Colour!