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By Mike Cade
If Hell had a soundtrack, one of its chief contributors might be New England's Combustible Edison, who've not only made schmaltz and elevator music acceptable, they've (a bit unwillingly) helped make it wildly popular and trendy. Yours truly recently spoke with Rhode Island resident and CE guitarist, The Millionaire.
Maximum Ink: So what's going on in
Rhode Island?
The Millionaire: I think I just saw Salman Rushdie heading for a liquor store.
MI: That could be. The president of Iran just lifted the sentence on him.
TM: That's amazing…Then it probably was Salman Rushdie going to buy a bottle of champagne or something.
MI: Well, I guess I'll fire some questions at ya. Here's something that's got me curious: what's Boyd Rice's relationship with the band?
TM: He's just a friend of mine. Actually I haven't spoken to him for almost a year now. When he and Lisa Carver were an item, we did a couple recordings together.
MI: You must know Lisa pretty well, too.
TM: Fairly well. I've been out of touch with both of them since they broke up. I like them both as people.
MI: Is Boyd a Satanist?
TM: Well, I'm not really at liberty to expound on his personal beliefs. I'll just say that people say a lot of things about Boyd Rice and he's the kind of guy who's not gonna confirm or deny anything, 'cuz I don't think he cares what anybody thinks. He's certainly not politically cor-rect.
MI: I was just wondering 'cuz I have this Anton LaVey video where he's mentioned as being one of LaVey's "acolytes."
TM: Is that Speak of the Devil?
MI: That's the one. Switching gears…you were on Space Ghost, weren't you?
TM: Yeah (laughs). It was an odd experience. I didn't actually get to talk to Space Ghost. I was getting interviewed by his hip brother Chad. He looks exactly like Space Ghost except he has a goatee.
MI: OK…you did the Tarantino movie Four Rooms. If you were to do a soundtrack again, what directors would you like to work with?
TM: That's a good question. Nobody's ever asked us that before. [There's] Tim Burton, Guy Maddin-he's a little more esoteric. He's a Canadian filmmaker and his movies barely come out in America but I think he's a genius.
MI: Do you like David Lynch?
TM: I do. I'd love to work with David
Lynch although he had Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails in (``Lost Highway"). I was like, what's the matter with this guy?? He's been in a slump for the last ten years. But I love his musical collaborator, Angelo Badalamenti.
MI: One more question: I heard you guys saw Sinatra singing "My Way" off a TelePrompTer.
TM: We saw Frank when we lived in Las Vegas. More striking than (the TelePrompTer) were two things: 1) He was unbelievably drunk when he came onstage. He was obviously sloshed. During the course of the show he downed like five Scotches. It was a prodigious feat. He should've got a standing ovation just for that. 2) The other weird thing was how, not abusive, but condescending and spiteful he was to his band director, Frank Sinatra Jr.
MI: I was
gonna ask you what you thought about Frank Junior. Amarillo Records has a pretty funny Frank Junior link on their web-page.
TM: They have an amazing roster-Anton LaVey, Harvey Sid Fisher…
MI: … Bostrom from the Meat Puppets…
TM: And of course, America's Funnyman, Neil Hamburger…
MI: He's my hero!
TM: (Laughs) I have loads and loads of bad bar-comedy records. It's a complex feeling-you have to react to it in three or four different ways. On one hand it's pathetic and sad and on the other hand, they're up there trying, by God. They've got heart. They're troopers. |
