Rob: For those that don`t know who you are, give us a little inside information on what you do and a little bit about the site www.chicagostonerrock.com...
Stu: Basically, I`m a professional artist and writer, and I`m also a big music fan. Along with a lot of other stuff, I build web sites for a living, and in the Summer of 2003, after seeing a kick-ass High On Fire show, and watching a killer live St. Vitus video that my roommate taped for his zine - Doomed Nation - I decided to build a web site dedicated to my favorite kinds of music. I called it chicagostonerrock.com, after StonerRock.com, which is my favorite music site on the web.
Rob: How long have you been into the stonerrock style of music?
Stu: The first band I ever liked when I was a little kid back in the 70`s was Black Sabbath, and then, when I started smoking grass in the early 80`s, I got into stuff like Pink Floyd, Blue Oyster Cult, and Led Zep. Monster Magnet, Trouble, Masters of Reality, & Kyuss got me through the 90`s, and things have just gotten harder, heavier, and more psychedelic from there. Sabbath is still one of my favorite bands.
Rob: You help organize a lot of the Chicago Stoner Rock gigs/events, tell us some of the events/shows that you have helped promote and some of the future events that are happening for some of the community members in the Chicago area...maybe a funny story as well from one of the event/shows...
Stu: I`ve only been doing the site since July, so I haven`t organized any shows yet, beyond making suggestions to some of the bookers around town, but I do help to promote as many of the good shows as I can by listing them on my site, by sending out a weekly e-mail newsletter reminding folks about what`s going on, and by playing a lot of great music when I DJ twince a month at a local bar (BAR 13 on Damen & Division!). I also do some flyering & poster hanging, for shows that I`m either psyched about personally, or for shows that the bands hire me to do promo for. So far, because of my site, I`ve helped to promote Smoke, Speedealer, Gravitron, Glasspack, Buried at Sea, 18 Speed Tranny, & even Thin Lizzy!
Rob: I hear that you were involved in a bit of a little legal trouble with KRAFT over the name Velveeda...what happened?
Stu: That`s right, some folks might remember me as "King VelVeeda," which was my official nick-name for a lot of years, until I was sued by Kraft Foods in 2002. They claimed that my "unwholesome" image was damaging the reputation of their processed-cheese loaf piece of shit. They tried to nail me for a quarter of a million bucks in damages & fees, but I fought them for a year, until, in the end, I gave up the name, and they gave $10,000 to an organization called "The Freedom to Read Foundation" on my behalf. There`s a documentary movie about the whole mess, called "The King The Lawyers & The Cheese," that was made by Brigid Maher, a local film maker here in Chicago. The movie does a good job of showing how much it sucks getting sued by a huge corporation. Plus it has a lot of my artwork in it, and a kick ass soundtrack.
Rob: What are some of the things that Cheesy Graphics do ? You do a lot of stuff for bands?
Stu: Cheesy Graphics is my art company, and I do custom underground art & graphics for web & print. I`ve done comic books, book & magazine illustration, web sites, animation, tattoo designs, poster designs, T-shirts, whatever. I`ve done a lot of work for bands, mostly for punk bands, because I was involved with a lot of zines back in the 80`s, and got pretty well known in the punk scene. I just finished doing a cover for a CD tribute to the punk band The Devil Dogs being published by a German label called Headdip.
Rob: Who do you consider are some of the best bands in the Stoner Rock genre?
Stu: Holy shit, there`s too many to mention! Electric Wizard is one of the best bands in ANY genre. They`re number one as far as current bands for me. I`m a huge Kyuss fan too, & I like anything that John Garcia does, like Hermano, Unida, Slo Born, or any band that sounds like Kyuss, like Dozer, Lowrider, or Mushroom River Band. Around our house we`re huge fans of Smoke, Grand Magus, Acid King, Sleep, Buzzoven, & Eye Hate God. Tons more.
Rob: What are some of the local acts in the Chicago area that you really like? Maybe some lesser known geniuses...
Stu: Chicago has a lot of great bands that folks all over the world should know about already, like: Buried at Sea, Pelican, The Last Vegas, Cianide, The Steepwater Band & of course, Trouble. Some of our local geniuses that your readers might not know about yet include: Cursed at Birth , Inner Throne, Plastic Crimewave, Indian, & 18 Speed Tranny. We`ve got a some folks in this town, like Velcro Lewis (Behold! The Living Corpse / 100 Proof Band), Dina (Oasis One Sixty), Kevin (Gravitron / 4 Walls Records), and Sanford & another Kevin (Buried at Sea / School Shooter / Original Sound recordings) who are doing a lot by being in several kick-ass bands, promoting good music, recording some of the heaviest shit in the area, and / or generally being really cool people who support the scene. There`s a lot of great bands & people that I haven`t mentioned. Check my site!
Rob: What are some of the more frustrating moments you have experienced promoting the stoner rock scene?
Stu: Twelve people showing up to see SMOKE at The Note last summer was a low point. Smoke fucking rocked the house anyway. Great band, great guys.
Rob: Do you have anything you would like to add for the readers at StonerRock.com?
Stu: Just that Chicago is a great town for Rock. It`s full of friendly folks, good eats, & awesome drugs. Come visit!
Rob: Here is the part of the interview that we call the silly questions...have fun with them:)
If you weren`t a rocker, what would you most like to be?
Stu: Astronaut, Ballerina, Indian Chief. In that order.
Rob: What was your worst gig and why? What was your best gig and why?
Stu: Har! They were all so bad! Mostly because we sucked. Our best gig was at The Middleeast in Boston in 1990-something, just because we played a half-way decent show, and the crowd seemed to actually dig the tunes.
Rob: Top three movies, books and albums of all time?
Stu:
Movie: Godzilla vs Monster Zero from Outer Space
Book: Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas
Album: Come All My Fanatics - Electric Wizard
Rob: How often do you surf the net and what do you mostly do while online?
Stu: I surf the net for at least an hour or two every day. I look at porn for about 99.9 percent of that time. The rest is spent reading music web sites, catching up on shows, tours, & events, checking my own stats, researching political topics, and buying shit on e-bay.
Rob: What is your favorite city and venue to play, and why?
Stu: A private party in any town is the most fun, I think, because you can smoke.
Rob: What is the most rock `n` roll thing you`ve ever done?
Stu: Blacked-out on stage because of mixing pills & booze, but finished the show anyhow, and went to a party afterwards that I can`t remember.
Rob: What`s the most rock `n` roll thing you`ve seen someone else do?
Stu: Watching the singer from Kilslug almost stab an over-enthusiastic fan in the face with a broken drumstick was pretty cool.
Rob: What`s your worst "bad trip" story?
The first time I ever took LSD, I was 15 years old, and I got busted by my parents, while I was still tripping, for having some grass in my room. It was like a bad after-school special.
Rob: What’s the most painful thing you have ever witnessed at a rock show?
Stu: Someone`s knee in my crotch in the pit of a Husker Du show circa 1986.
Rob: How old were you when you first realize you wanted to rock?
Stu: Like, two. Or maybe 15. Emotionally, I`m still twelve.
Rob: What`s the most embarrassing job you ever had?
Stu: I worked at an Ice Cream parlor for less than an hour once.
Rob: What`s your favourite ice cream flavor?
Stu: Har! I hadn`t even read this question before I answered the one above. My favorite flavor is Hagen Das Vanilla.
Rob: If you could date any rock star dead or alive in the world, who would it be? Movie star?
Stu: Oh, man, I had a wicked hard-on for Wendy O. Williams back in the day, but I`m not sure if I`d survive a date with her. Maybe Gwen Steffani? Except that I`d have to pretend to dig the tunes all night. How about Lori from Acid King? She rocks!!! For movie star: I`ve a got a strange attraction to Tori Spelling that I can`t explain.
Rob: What would be the ultimate dream gig of all time line-up be, with your band opening? Limit to three bands please (including your own...) and where?
Stu: Um, let`s see, my band, plus, Electric Wizard, & Black Sabbath at The Double Door (so I can walk home afterwards). Only, my band cancels because we totally suck, and we get replaced by Hidden Hand.
