What's my daddy, John Hopwood. Here's my daddy, John Hopwood. Here's
my daddy, John John John John John John John John John John John.
You are listening to Totilluminates. You command guy, don't get so freely Madsel
godding you. Welcome everybody. It is that time again, Happy Friday.
Matt call Unleashed and we are live from the studios of wm NH ninety five
point three FM in glorious downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, also on Comcast Channel
six if you're in Manchester, and hello to all of our online listeners across
the nation and around the globe. You can go to my website Matt Connerton
dot com for all of your live streaming options, social media links, contact
info, show archives, etc. Et cetera. Today is Friday, October
twentieth, twenty twenty three, so nice to have you all with me.
We have a great show for you today. Coming up later in the first
hour, we're going to have Eric Pilcher's classic film review and today the subject
is Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness, and I've already heard the review. It
is excellent. I think Eric's really come a long way with those, to
be honest with you. So that's going to be coming up toward the end
of the first hour, and then in the second hour, we have a
great musical guest coming in, which Trot, Which Trot. I just want
to be clear about how I'm saying that, because there's also a band called
witch Rot, but this is not witch Rot. It's witch Trot, So
one word, I guess, I've seen it both one word and two words,
so I'll ask. I'll have to ask them when they get here.
But they've got a brand new track, freshly mastered, that we will play,
and of course they're gonna I believe they're gonna play live for us when
they come in, so that will be very cool. That will be coming
up in the second hour. And of course today is Friday, my favorite
day here at WMNH, my favorite day of the week because it's my long
day here and I do love it. So I do this show four to
six pm, and then coming up tonight from eight to eleven PM. It's
Retro Spectrum Radio with PAULI C. And I'm the honor and privilege privilege,
I can't speak apparently, I'm so excited about tonight's show I can't even talk
about it. The honor and privilege of being one of Paul's co hosts on
that show along with DJ Steve and and of course I'm Mike from Queen City
Cabinet, one of our great sponsors here at WMNH. And tonight the subject
on that program because every week there's a theme. Well here, I'll just
read it to you from social media. This is what Paul posted tonight.
We'll be featuring everyone's favorite involuntary pastime, dreaming. Whether a dream inspires you
to reach a goal or wakes you out of a dead sleep. We'll cover
it, movie and TV clips, commercials, and of course long lost tunes
you haven't heard since your first nightmare. Do join us, and of course
you can stream it live from anywhere at Wmnhradio dot org and if you're local
here in Manchester, you can listen at ninety five point three FM. And
of course we encourage people listen online. Stream the show online, but open
a second browser tab and join us in the Facebook live chat during the show
so that you can hang out in there with us. Paul does mute the
mute the audio on Facebook so that we don't get in trouble for that show,
but you can stream it and all it's stereo glory at Wmnhradio dot org.
By the way, so our friend Nick Murdoch is in the Facebook live
chat and he says we're all lessly devoted to you, Mattie c. Yes,
little song parody I played there, and Nick also said Chris James need
needs to call in again. And it's interesting that you mentioned that, Nick,
because someone made a comment maybe this is you, I don't know.
Someone made a comment on a video posted from a few years ago now,
a video that I'd posted on YouTube of a clip of the show, and
this is part of why I played that Chris James clip there, saying John
Hopwood is my daddy. This is pretty funny. So the name of the
clip that I posted on YouTube again this is years ago now, is called
Sebastian Gorka and Sam Seeter help Matt Connerton unmask John Hopwood's nemesis Chris James,
because in that clip I talk all about how you know, because Chris had
been prank calling the show of course from anyas not even a show. And
he's got a great Patreon channel two that I subscribe to, really great content,
Jenny and I enjoy it tremendously and so but I didn't know. I
didn't know who he was at first, but I figured it out that it
was Chris James, and then we connected and became friends. And someone named
CFTV data commented just the other day, I've been meaning to bring this up
all week, commented on that Facebook I'm sorry on that YouTube video and said,
we miss seeing you on an Eas Matt again Anyas not even a show
that's Chris James's show. We miss seeing you on Anyas Matt. To be
honest, I kind of missed the old days of that show, when there
were more regulars and fewer fake interviews. The vibes were better, a lot
more lighthearted, and you really helped to contribute to that hope all as well.
So, whoever you are, CFTV data, thank you for like I
said, for all, I know that's you, Nick, I don't know.
You don't have to identify yourself of but I thought that was very nice.
I thought that was very nice, And I do miss Chris's calls.
But see I knew back then one I figured out who he was and we
became friends. See that's the irony of it. We became friends, but
then his calls into my program dropped dramatically, and I knew that would happen,
because you know, it's not as fun. Part of the joy of
prank calling someone is them getting upset, you know, if you get under
their skin a little bit, or if you can embarras him in some way.
That's part of the joy of such shenanigans and tom foolery. But first
of all, even before I knew who he was, I'm probably the only
I might be the only radio host on all of FM radio in the United
States who actually enjoys prank calls as long as they're clever. As long as
they're clever you put a little effort into it, I'll actually go with the
bit. I like that kind of stuff. I think it's fun, I
understand the artistry of it, and I really enjoy it, so I wouldn't
get mad. I would actually go with it. And then when he also
realized that our politics are somewhat at least in the same I mean, he's
probably to my left, but we're somewhat in the same universe politically. That
also, I think, you know, he would still call the show it's
been a long time though, but he would still call the show, but
he would be more you know, it would be more lighthearted and so forth.
But it's been a long time. It's been a long time since Chris
Is called the show. So oh. Nick Murdoch says it is not him
who made that comment on YouTube. Nick says in the chat room, it
isn't me who left you the YouTube comment. I remember a while back when
John Hopwood was convinced I was connected to anyas, which I'm not. I
deny it pretty strongly because I don't want to take credit for stuff I don't
do. But I guess so strongly that John is convinced I was trying to
hide the truth. Ah. Yes, he thought you doth protest too much.
You know what I'm reminded of of. I'm reminded of in Helsinki when
uh President Trump at the time, when he stood next to U Vladimir Putin
of Russia and uh and said, uh, yeah, I asked him about
election interference, but he denied it. So you know, we're cool.
I'm paraphrasing, but h yes, if you deny something too strongly, that
might be it. Nick. You might have denied it too strongly. And
John Hopwood, who is a very very smart, very perceptive and uh you
know he used to uh. Well, we won't get into his career in
his background, but uh uh I can see where he might be suspicious.
But uh, but regardless, while whoevert whoever left that comment, whoever this
person is on YouTube, CFTV data, I appreciate that very much. And
I appreciate you Nick and and everyone I've met through any as uh except for
Tom Gully not that guy. I'm kidding. Tom hates me, but it
is not reciprocal. I actually try to. Uh. I well you've all
heard the story. It was months ago. Now it doesn't matter. I
did try to. I did try to make things up with Tom make,
you know, make things up. That's not even an expression. Yeah,
I tried to make things up with him. I called the show and I
just made up stories. No, I tried to. Uh. I tried
to uh clear the air. That would be a better uh. I tried
to do that with Tom, but he was he was not receptive, which
is too bad. You know. I think what it is is he's still
jealous that I'm the original green host on uh on not even a show,
and he thinks that, you know, being Stone Green is special, But
I'm the original Green. There's only there can only be one original Green host.
But uh, I hope someday, I hope someday Tom and I can
reconnect. I hope that doesn't. I hope my falling out with Tom doesn't
have anything to do with why Chris hasn't called this show in a long time.
I hope not. I certainly hope not. Anyway, Uh, let's
give the numbers. Uh, six oh three two five six seven. The
studio line is open six o three two five seven. You can also text
me at six one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on
social media at Matt Connorton. You can email me Matt at mattconnorton dot com,
and you can interact end Opine in the Facebook live chat and we will
say hello to everyone else in there in just a moment. But the best
thing to do so that we can hear and enjoy your Dulca tones is to
give us a call at six oh three two five six oh seven. Jayfed
says in the chat, did you try and hug him? That seems to
work? Uh? No, I've not tried to do that. Now,
there's two problems with that, Jayfed. One is that Tom is living in
Texas, so that's a bit far from the northeast. And the other issue
is, I have to be completely honest with you. Tom doesn't strike me
as a hugger. Now I could be wrong. I don't know Tom in
terms of I've never met him in person. He used to Tom used to
call this show once in a while, and I always really liked uh speaking
with Tom. But the last time, I you know, he brought back
his show recently and I called in and he was very mean to me.
He was also very mean to Jenny in a chat room once. But but
but again, the the whatever whatever venom he has, whatever animas he has
to me, it is one way. I mean, if if if Tom
called the show right now and said, hey, it's Tom and now I
want to patch things up, I would be like, well, we could
do a virtual hug. My heart is open, Tom Gully if you're listening,
which you're not because you hate me, but if you are, my
heart is open, Tom Gully, my heart is open. I don't know
why people this is a little bit of a sidebar, and we'll get onto
some real stuff, because there's plenty of real stuff going on. But I've
never understood why people take things so personally in this realm of radio shows and
podcasting, and you know, people get so mad and they take things so
per personally. It's like, this is supposed to be fun. It's weird
to me how angry some people get. I mean, you know, it's
like you try to get around with some people and they're just like, girl,
I'm angry now, and it's like okay, But you know, the
thing is too if you're feuding with someone, if you have like a radio
feud or a podcast feud going, if you play it right, everyone benefits.
Everyone involves benefits because you're drawing attention, You're getting people interested in what
you're doing. People like that kind of stuff, people like the drama.
But but no, some people just get er. I'm mad you said something
about me that was vaguely mildly insulting, and now I will hate you forever.
And I'm not doing this for publicity. I'm genuinely furious with you.
And it's like, okay, dude, well I don't know, I don't
know what your problem is. But life's a little short to be taken.
All of this quite that seriously, that's just my feeling on it. Oh
Nick said in the chat room. I know he's called at least once since
all this Tom Gully stuff went down. Yeah, yeah, yeah he has.
Chris has, but not since. But Chris is not called since.
I tried to call into Tom Gully's newly rebooted show and tried to smooth things
over with him, and I was very friendly. I called Tom's show.
I think I played the clip on the show. I had to edit it
because Tom, you know, his show is strictly online, so he can
have a potty mouth. I can't do that here. I can't have people
swearing, so I had to edit the clip. But I did play the
clip on the show of me calling into his show, and I was very
nice and I was like, hey Tom, it's Matt Connorton. And he
immediately swore at me and hung up. Had I tried calling back and he
swore at me again, and it's it's very challenging. You know, my
heart is open, Tom Gully, even though you'll never hear this because you
hate me, but my heart is open, sir. In a platonic way
of course, but yeah, what can you do? Nick, says,
shalom, Jenny, he played a bit from Anyas and I mentioned Chris and
now he's talking about Tom Gully. Jenny, of course, is in the
chatroom and says, shalom, peeps, whose drama did I miss? I
was talking? So Jenny doesn't even know about this yet. The very nice
comment. I'll have to explain it to her later. The very nice comment
that someone left on a YouTube clip about how they miss Chris James calling into
the show and I was talking about Tom Gully and my falling out with him
and so forth. Speaking of missing people, Scott Robinson in the chat room
says, John c. Hopwood has sorely missed on this show. What I
would give to hear Matt John and Eric Gagnan in the studio again, Radio
Gold. Those shows were, yeah, well John is John is always welcome.
It has been. It's been at least a month since John's been on
the show. And of course ezg now lives in Nashua, so he he
calls once in a while to do an entertainment report, but we don't uh,
we don't see him in person these days, unfortunately. But yeah,
those those were fun. Uh, Seohn would get upset with Ezg and uh
it would get a bit rancorous, and uh, that's always fun. Of
course, John getting upset with anybody is fun. Uh. Scott says,
not to pile on Matt. But the gentleman from Idaho hates this show also,
now we were Facebook friends, but he unfriended me after the fallout.
Gentleman from Idaho? Who are you talking about? Because the only person I
know from Idaho is Billy Painter, and Billy and I are friends. Uh,
and we we actually have both a working relationship and a friendship. So
is there somebody else from Idaho? Unless you're confusing? Are you conflating Idaho
with Iowa? And you're talking about Eric Pilcher? Did you and Eric Pilcher
have a falling out? I don't know what's going on, but but I
got to know because I have to admit I kind of like the drama myself.
I enjoy it as long as it's you know what it is though,
See, this is why other people get upset and I don't. It's very
easy for me to compartmentalize this stuff where I don't take anything having to do
with the show personally and I it's it's just like I can separate the two,
so it's it's never uh, it's never a problem. We have a
call. Hi, welcome to Matt Connorton. Unleash. Who's this? I'm
Robinson, Hey, Scott, what's going on? Maybe one was from Idaho?
I s Gary was from but he gave Eric that that like a a
MacBook or something like that, and Eric sold it. Oh you're talking about
Brian Mackey. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Brian, Yeah, wow.
I haven't heard from him in a long time. Last I knew he wasn't
doing very well. He was having some pretty serious struggles. But he kind
of had a falling out with all of us. But Brian's got some Brian's
got some issues. I I uh, I can't say more than that,
but but yeah, now I know who you mean. Was he living in
Idaho? Maybe North Dakotah it was. It wasn't North Dakota, but it
was. It might have been Ida. You might have had it right,
actually, Scott, maybe it was Idaho where Brian lived. I forget.
Yeah, I think it. I think no, I think you had it
right. I think it was Idaho. But yeah, Brian Mackie. That's
a that's a name I haven't heard in quite a while. But but now
it makes sense because Brian kind of had a falling out with everybody who listens
to the show. It's kind of odd on the Facebook. And then all
of a sudden he was gone. So I know, I just thought it
was I'm just not the pylon, Matt. But you know what, if
you're not having controversy, you're not doing it right. That's right, thank
you, Scott. Yes, I agree, I agree Controversy Creates Cash,
which is a great book by Eric Bischoff. You know what they say,
there's no such thing as bad publicity. Yeah, although, well that's although
it's that's not really exactly true. I've never liked that expression, only because
there are actually a lot of examples where there is such a thing as very
bad publicity. But but yes, you know, but basically, yes,
the the general idea is is valid. You know, as long as they
spell your name right, as they say, as long as they're talking about
you, then at least you're at least you know you're relevant, which is
important. That is very correct. Yes, all right, you take care
of yourself and have a great weekend. All right, Scott, you two
man, great hear from you. Take care, bye bye, all right,
the wonderful Scott Robinson, Scott's very most days, actually is in the
chat room. Uh, loyal listener, but it's rare that he actually calls
the show. So Scott, very nice. Hear from you, my friend,
preciate the call. Eric Pilcher is in the chatroom and says, if
you don't have haters, you ain't popping. I think the young people say
that. I think Dj Reckless said that yesterday when he was here. Uh,
if you don't have haters, you ain't popping. Six three two five
six seven. The studio line is open if you would like to join us.
Uh, six three two five six seven. If you are just joining
us, of course, we have a busy show. Uh. In a
little bit we're gonna do Eric Pilcher's classic film review Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness.
And then in the second hour we have a great band coming in which
trot looking forward to that. Uh. So, lots of good stuff coming
up today. Uh. We'll finish saying hello everybody in the Facebook live chat.
Jay fed is in there says good afternoon everyone. Uh. Ronda Favero
from the Great state of California joins us. Hello. Melanie Liberty, also
from Vermont, says, Hey, guys, I promise to be less feisty
today. Melanie. You uh, you can be as feisty as you want
to be in our chat room. I think it's fun. Crystal. Not
everyone does, apparently, but I think it's fun. Crystal from the Great
State of Illinois joins us and says hello everyone. Hi Crystal. Oh.
Nick Murdoch says, oh crap, I'm gonna have to go through these show
archives and see what happened. Well, if you're referring to oh, regarding
yesterday's show, Yeah, let's see. Oh, Nick Murdoch says, And
I realize I am mean in here all the time. No, no,
you just say you express your opinions everyone, And I like that. I
like the chat room to be I like everyone to be able to express their
free and open opinions in our in our chat room or on the show if
you call in or whatever this is. I like free and open dialogue.
Of course, in the chat room you can say things you can't actually say
on the air. Let's see. Isaac Banks joins us in the chat room,
of course, from I believe if I'm not mistaken. From Greensboro,
North Carolina says hello, hashtag everyone, let's see I just want to make
sure we don't miss anybody in here. Do oh? Crystal says uh.
According to Anthony Blincoln, Hamas released two of the American hostages, a mother
and daughter today. Yes, I actually was hearing that on my way in
in the car. Two American hostages have been released by Hamas. Let's see
here. I want to make sure we don't miss anybody else in here.
Carol zo Warwitz joins us in the chat room. Hello Carol, nice to
see you in there. And Paul See joins us in the Facebook live chat
of course. Poly See from retrospect from radio with Policy. I did plug
that earlier tonight. The subject is dreams on retro Spectrum Radio. I wonder
if we'll hear a little dream Weaver, dream Weaver blah blah blah. I
don't know the rest of the words. Sorry for singing. I just feel
like I should apologize for singing. Actually, I could avoid that entirely by
just not singing. It's a great song, though, isn't it, dream
Weaver? So there is news just in the last couple of hours. By
I don't know if you all have noticed, if you've been paying attention to
what's going on in the the House of Representatives. Melanie says, you should
apologize. Hey, I thought you were going to be less feisty today.
No, I'm kidding. You can be as fisty as you like. The
uh, this, this mess in the House of Representatives just continues. When
we talked about it on the show yesterday, actually we didn't have much time
to get into it yesterday. I was a busy show. But I know
that when we were talking about it the day before, you know, we
were in a place where Jim Jordan was trying to become the next speaker and
it didn't look like it was going to work out. And now it's definitely
not going to work out. The Republican caucus in the House has said never
mind, So now somebody else is going to run. But there's also this
idea that we've definitely did talk about this week or maybe at the end of
last week. Definitely this week. Patrick McHenry, who by the way,
is only forty seven years old, which surprised me because his hair is completely
white he's kind of got that Steve Martin thing where his hair went totally white
at a young age. But there is this possibility of Patrick McHenry, who
is the Speaker pro tem, becoming well, not actually becoming speaker, but
they would vote to increase his power so that he could actually conduct House business
as the speaker without actually being the speaker. There is both a potential advantage
but also a problem, a big roadblock to that. The advantage being there
is nothing in the House rules that says a speaker pro tem can be vacated
unlike a speaker. So in theory, he could just go about conducting business
if he has given these additional temporary powers without the constant threat of somebody like
Matt Gates saying, hey, let's vacate the speakership. There's a problem though,
that I learned about today that I didn't even realize. And the problem
is this, until there is a House speaker, this is quite the catch
twenty two. Until there is a House speaker, nothing else can be voted
on except voting on a new speaker. Why is that a problem? I
mean, aside from the fact that it's effectively paralyzed the legislative branch of our
government. The obvious. But why else is that a problem. Well,
here's the thing. If you want to give Patrick McHenry some additional temporary powers
as speaker pro TEMs so he can hold votes and you know, do the
things a speaker would do if we had an actual functioning government instead of this
mess, the only thing you can technically vote on without a speaker is getting
a speaker, which means you can't vote on giving Patrick McHenry additional powers.
If you want to give him additional temporary powers other than conducting votes on who's
going to be speaker and getting to bang that gavel, which he seems to
really like to do. He's into it. He likes to hit that gavel,
you can't do. You see the problem here. You have to vote
to do that, to give him additional powers, But you can't vote to
give him additional powers until you have voted and successfully elected a new speaker.
So we're just we're even more stuck here than I realized until today. Now
there is one fix to that problem, and that is just ignore the rule
and just go ahead and say, because what else can they do? They
don't have anybody who can get to two seventeen from what we've seen so far.
Now there is somebody new who has entered the contest who we'll get to
if we have time. We're probably not gonna have time, but there might
not be anyone who can get to two seventeen. So the only way to
fix this, my be, might very well be to give Patrick McHenry those
additional powers and do kind of a bipartisan power sharing thing, which they've talked
about and the Democrats are open to, and McHenry would probably be acceptable and
palatable for that, except you can't do it because you can't vote on it,
because the only thing you can vote on is electing a speaker. It's
this impossible situation. So they're going to have to ignore that rule. They're
going to have to just I don't there's no work around to that that I
know of, that's already within the existing rules. The House can change the
rules, they can vote on rules changes and change the rules, but again
they can't vote technically, according to the rules as they're presently written, they
can't vote on anything until they elect a speaker. So, you know,
sometimes we throw this around as a bit of a cliche, this uh,
you know, we talked about our government is broken, our politics is broken,
but it really is, you know what I mean, It's not just
a cliche. Look at this mess, look at this terrible situation that we're
in, and it's so bad for the country. It's not just bad for
the Republican Party because they look like they, you know, can't govern.
I mean they at a lot of republic This isn't just me saying this,
by the way, a lot of Republicans are saying this, waking up to
this reality. They have definitely they have given away. I won't even say
they have lost. They have given away the House in twenty twenty four.
There is no way with all of this going on, there is no way
they maintain control of the House in twenty twenty four. It cannot happen.
It cannot happen. Look, Republicans will vote Republican, Democrats will vote Democrat,
but independence swing voters, none of them are looking at any of this
and going, oh, yeah, you know, the Republicans, they really
seem to have it together. We should we should keep them in control.
I mean, this is We've never seen anything like this ever ever in our
history. Have we ever seen this level of dysfunction in the House of Representatives.
Kevin McCarthy was the first speaker to ever be ousted. And you know,
and I've I've talked about it, uh this week, well last week
too. I mean, it's been two weeks of this madness, right,
I think maybe a little more than two weeks of this, And I've said,
you know, I've I've added some nuance to it. I've said,
I also I also partly blame the Democrats because they could have put politics aside
and maybe swallowed some pride and and and stepped up and saved Kevin McCarthy.
And I understand all the reasons that they did, I do understand, but
I wish they had kind of maybe seen past some of that and and for
the good of the country said Okay, well, we don't like Kevin McCarthy,
we don't trust Kevin McCarthy, Let's be honest. He's kind of a
d bag. Even a lot of Republicans think so. But at least we
know he thinks government shutdowns are bad, and he definitely definitely thinks the possibility
of ever going over the fiscal cliff and defaulting is very bad. He understands
those things. Some of these House Republicans do not understand those things. Let's
stick with the guy who understands those things, as gross as he might be.
For lack of a better way of putting it, Well, there's a
lot of other things I could say, but that I'm really not allowed to
in this venue of terrestrial radio. But but I do wish that they had
saved McCarthy. But here's the thing, though, So those of us who
analyze politics and think about it a little deeper, and we look at it
from different angles, you know, we might realize that and we might say,
well, this is blamed to go around. The problem. At the
heart of it is the dysfunction of the Republicans in the House. But the
Democrats could have saved the situation and they chose not to. So there's a
little bit of blame to go around. But the average American who does not
pay as close attention to all of this as some of us do, they're
looking at this and they're just seeing these bumbling, clueless, Keystone cop Republicans
who I heard Scarborough say today on MSNBC, you know they couldn't they couldn't
get it together to make a bowl of oatmeal. Let alone, you know,
keep our government functioning. So so yeah, I mean they've given away
the House in twenty twenty four. But I'm very worried what happens at the
end of this current term if well, actually what happens on what is it
November seventeenth, when once again we'll be staring down the barrel of a government
shut down, which of course costs the economy billions of dollars every time we
have one. But just very very quickly, and then we got to get
to Eric's film review, and then we've got guests coming in the second hour.
But Politico, I was just looking up this. Who is Patrick McHenry?
It says here, Well, actually, this is the interesting part.
How did he get here? How did Patrick McHenry get to be the Speaker
pro tem? It says here, you're going to read that the eighteen year
House veteran is the adult in the room compared to other GOP hardliners, a
pragmatist who's ready to govern, and even as Democrats clamoring for him to run
the House. But it wasn't always that way. Oh, I thought this
talked about maybe it was a different article. I was looking at this talks
more about his background. I think it says he's close to them. He
used to be very conservative, but now he's closer to the middle of the
party. There was something else I was reading that explained apparently the reason he
ended up in this position, because I was never even aware of Patrick McHenry
before all of this. Apparently he ended up in this position because he was
on some secret list that was put together by Kevin McCarthy of who could step
up and be the Speaker pro temp if something happened to McCarthy, Because McCarthy
knew that something was going to happen, and he picked Patrick McHenry. So
it's because of Kevin McCarthy. Maybe because you know a couple of Irish guys
I don't know their names, both start with mc. But because of Kevin
McCarthy, that's how Patrick McHenry ended up in this position, and who knows.
I think they should just make him the speaker. Why not just make
him if he's acceptable enough to everyone, even some of the Democrats, to
potentially be a Speaker protemp but with enhanced powers powers of the Speaker, why
not just make him the new House Speaker. Just vote on that. Maybe
he can get to two seventeen. But they got to find a way out
of this mess. This is really, really, really bad. All right,
here's what we're gonna do. It's about a quarter of to the top
of the hour, so we're gonna get to Eric Pilchri's Classic Film review and
then after that we'll show some love to our amazing sponsors, and then we're
gonna get our guests in here. I see musicians in the hallway. But
so we got a lot, a lot coming up, so don't go anywhere.
Plenty more show to come, but here it is. This is Eric's
review is Classic film review of Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness. This is really
good. Check this out. My name is Ed and I am a slave
close as I can figure at. The year is thirteen hundred eight, and
I'm being a drag in my death. It wasn't always like this. I
had a real life at once a job hardware al twelve chop smart job smart.
I had a wonderful girlfriend, Linda. Together we drove to a small
cabin in the mountains. It seems an archaeologist to come to this remote place
to translate and study his latest fine acronomicon ex mortis the Book of the Dead,
found in human flesh and ink in blood. This ancient Sumerian text contained
bizarre burial rights, funerary incantations, and demon resurrection passages. It was never
meant for the world of the living. The book awoke something dark in the
woods. It took Linda, and then it came from me. I got
into my hand and went back, so I locked it off at the wrist.
But that didn't stop it. It came back big time. In nineteen
eighty one, a little heralded independent supernatural horror film about a group of college
students camping in rural Tennessee that find the Necromonicon otherwise known as the Book of
the Dead and unwittingly bring forth demons from mal that take their lives, captivated
audiences. However, at the end of that film there was one survivor.
That survivor would go on to star in two additional sequels and a cable television
series. It is the third film of the series that is most known and
our subject for this week's Classic Film review. Directed by Sam Raimi, released
in nineteen ninety three, Army of Darkness is the third film in the Evil
Dead series The film continues directly where nineteen eighty seven's Evil Dead two left off.
Our everyman hero Ash Williams Bruce Campbell, in his career defining role,
is transported through a demonic portal to medieval times. We're in order to get
back home, he must retrieve the Necromonicon, but in doing so unwittingly Unleash's
demons of Hell onto the land and must help the Kingdom ward them off in
a climactic final battle. Our opening clip was the voiceover that starts this film.
Ash explains the story of the past two films and where he is at
now. Our next clip sets Ash up as an unlikely hero of the Kingdom
after defeating the infamous Pit Witch, where he was thrown into a pit to
die. He uses his unknown technology to the people a shotgun lovingly known as
his boomstick, to ward off the Witch and gets the people of the Kingdom
to rally behind him and get him home. For that arrogance, I shall
see you dead. Yeah, all right, Two primitive screwheads, listen up,
see this this is my bookstick The Twelve Gays double billed Remington s Mart's
top of the line. You can find us in the sporting goods department.
That's right. This week baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan, retails
for about one hundred nine to ninety five. It's got a wal Let's stock
cobalt blue steel and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop Smart, Shop
Smart, You got Doc. Now, I swear the next one of you
primates even touches me. Now, let's talk about how I get back home.
It could be argued, and I would even get behind the argument that
the original Evil Dead is one of the greatest cult classics ever. A great
deal of the credit has to go to Campbell in his performance of Ash.
This is because, in a way, like many great movie characters, Ash
can be seen as all of us. We have all been in positions where
situations of possible heroism or the requirement to help have been thrust upon us,
and we have to accept it against our own intuition. That is Ash in
a nutshell. Our next two clips show. This first is a short clip
that has Ash being given specific instructions on what words to say by the village
wizard, the great Ian Abercrombie, better known as mister Pitt from the great
TV series Seinfeld and the words are a homage to the original The Day the
Earth stood still. Ash proclaims he will remember those words. But then our
next clip shows us that despite Ash's best intentions, he once again, through
his own inability to do things the right way, brings dadites onto the world,
and that is due to his own dim witted nature. This path will
lead you to an unholy place, a cemetery. They're the necronomica that waits.
When now retrieves the book from its cradle, you must recite the words
platu verrata nickto, clatu verrata nto. Okay, well repeat them clatu verrata
nickto again. I got it, I got it. I know your damn
words all right now. Ash attempts to recite the words when he retrieves the
necromonicon. Wait a minute, the words right right right, say the words
plantu veranda mm hmm, necktie nectar nicole nod said word. It's definitely didn't
worded, definitely an in words plateau aranda. Okay, then that's it.
M hm okay, everything's I said to work like whoa. This film is
such a phenomenal array of genres. It has comedy. This is largely due
to Ash and his many quotable one liners. It has horror, science fiction,
fantasy, action, and even old style special effects that will even warm
the heart of the most hardened cinemaphile. With so many elements of film at
play, it's easy to see why so many, no matter what they are
a fan of of, simply adore this film to this day. This film
lives on you. Hear ashes quotes regularly. Hail to the King, baby,
groovy, you got really ugly, really quick, that was only pillow
talk baby, and this is my boomstick, among many others, are a
part of pop culture vernacular to this day. Campbell is one of the most
highly regarded and best beloved B movie actors of all time, a role he
relishes and welcomes at comic book and film conventions to this day. That is
why this film is a classic. It doesn't take itself too seriously. It
doesn't allow itself to get put into one genre. Forget about talking about awards,
box office numbers, or even critical analysis. If you want a great
film that serves anything you're in the mood for, this is that film that
will do that for you. It is one of the best films to watch,
and much like all the films covered this month, the time of year
does not matter. I hope you join me next week when we conclude our
Halloween slate of films, within my opinion, the greatest slasher film of all
time, John Carpenter's Halloween. To close this week's review and a rarity for
classic film reviews, I want to share the final scene of Army of Darkness
and let Ash have the final word and for you the audience, to hear
how once again Ash is ineptness brings doom to the world. For WMNH and
Matt Connorton unleashed, this has been a classic film review with Eric Pilcher.
I thought about staying. They offered me the chance to lead them, to
teach them to be king. Uh huh, But my place is here,
So I swallowed the Jews said the words, and here I am. Did
you say the words right this time? Well? Maybe I didn't say every
single, tiny little syllable no, but basically I said him, Yeah,
basically you know that story about how you could have been king? Yuh?
I think it's kind of cute. Yeah, lady, I'm afraid I'm gonna
have to ask you to leave the store. Good name's that housewares. I'll
swallow your soul, come get some. Sure I could have stayed in the
past, could have even been king, but in my own way, I
am king. Hail to the King, Baby. Come on down to the
Hop Knot at one thousand Elm Street, Manchester's premiere Kraft Beer and yourmet Pretzel
Bar. Tell us more Trudich. We make our dough fresh every day.
We make a variety of styles of pretzels and serve Kraft Beer, cocktails and
a few bottles of wine. We do the traditional pretzel and we have multiple
flavors for that. We also do stuffed pretzels, pretzel sandwiches, free dessert
pretzels and pretzel knots the Hop Knot in the Great Sullivan Plaza at one thousand
Elm Street. Bring your kitchen to life with Queen City Cabinetry, located at
eighty seven Elm Street in the historic Sunbeam Wall in Manchester. Open Monday through
Friday nine am to five thirty pm, in Saturdays ten am to two pm.
They can be reached at six oh three two two two to zero zero
seven or on the web at Queen Citycabinetree NH dot Com. Come see the
possibilities Queen City Cabinet Tree. Another brown sponsor of w MNH Clemento Clementone Pizzabria
Family Friendly, Awesome for day Night Clemenzo Clementon Peetzbria Port delivery costs six O
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in as friends and leave us family. This hour on w m n H
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They serve all your business needs including employee benefits, planning, corporate design and
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at CGI Business Solutions dot com. W m n H rip the nobles you're
listening to where Welcome back everybody. This is Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are
live from the studios of WMNH ninety five point three FM Inglorious, Downtown Manchester,
New Hampshire also on Comcast Channel six. If you're in Manchester, and
hello to all of our online listeners across nation and around the globe. You
can go to my website Matt Connorton dot com for all of your live streaming
options, social media links, contact and fo show archives, et cetera,
et cetera. Today is Friday, October twentieth, twenty twenty three. We
have a great musical guests we're going to introduce in just a moment, but
I do want to remind you because it is Friday. It's my favorite day
of the week here at WM ANDH because it's my long day here and I
do love it. So after this show, I'm back tonight at eight to
eleven PM for retro Spectrum Radio with Paully c. I have the honor and
privilege of being one of Paul's co hosts on that show, along with DJ
Steve and Mike from Queen City Cabinetry, who also happens to be one of
our sponsors here at WM ANDH. And this is what Paul posted about tonight's
show on retro Spectrum Radio. We'll be featuring everyone's favorite involuntary pastime, dreaming
whether a dream, inspires you to reach a goal, or wakes you out
of a dead sleep. We'll cover it, movie and TV clips, commercials,
and of course long lost tunes you haven't heard since your first nightmare.
Do join us and you can listen from anywhere at wmnhradio dot orgon of course
you can join us in the Facebook live chat for that show as well.
So that will be tonight from eight to eleven pm. And also want to
remind you, of course, our great sponsor, the hop Not right across
the street at one thousand Elm Street. This is what they have posted.
Attention pumpkin spice besties, come get a pumpkin pie dessert pretzel this weekend.
That does sound good. We've made a cream cheese pumpkin filling and topped it
with marshmallows and fired it off in the on the oven. We even have
a salted caramel cream to go on the side with it. Very nice.
Uh So that is at the hop Not this weekend and they're always adding things
to the menu. So very very good. And by the way, I
thank you to our friend Eric Pilcher for another great classic film review Army of
Darkness and uh if you missed it. Of course, you can always go
back and listen to the archive later on. But uh, let's go ahead
get those mics up for you guys. We're going to introduce our great musical
guests. So we have on the couch Matt Collier and you are from the
band Witch Trot. Yes, and is it by the way, is it
one word or two? I can't. I can't figure out online if it's
one word or two depends on the month. Yeah, it is one word,
but is the is the second syllable also capitalized? Ye? Oh?
Okay, so I got it right then in the Facebook post I made earlier.
That's good. That's good. So we have Matt Collier is here and
Edward McPherson. Am I saying last name correctly? That is how it's pronounced.
Very impressed that you got it right the first time, because a lot
of people don't. What do people usually say McPherson. They usually say McPherson.
As far as I understand it, I think McPherson is the Irish way
and McPherson is the Scottish way. Oh, I think that's it. So
you're a Scottish of Scottish descent and Scottish people get upset if you say things
the Irish way, right and assume it's the same, because it's not the
same. You're different. At that point, you're in over my head.
See I'm Irish, so I understand these things. But by the way,
you guys are getting some love in the Facebook live chat already. Let's see
we have Adam Jocelyn from able Blood. We were talking about able Blood off
air a little bit. He says hello, and hello witch Trot. What's
up? Fellas and Isaac Banks in the chat room says witch Trot rocks all
right, yeah, yeah, and I thought there was another and Malcolm Sols
says yeah, says witch Trot rules. Let's see. I think there might
be some other people in here too. It's a very very busy chat room,
which we love to see. And now if you're watching online, you
can see that Matt has an acoustic guitar with him, so, uh,
we're gonna hear some music. Matt's gonna play something for us from the band,
and we're also we have a brand new and I think it'll be the
world radio premiere right of this newly remastered song that we're gonna play it a
little bit. Yes, very nice. We like the world radio premieres around
here, very very good. But I don't should we go ahead and and
have you play. I'm dying to hear you play. But but but before
we do that, can you tell us what it is that you're gonna play?
Is this au? Is this the witch Trot song or a solo thing
or what have you got for us? Yeah? This is a witch Trot
song. It's one of the ones we recorded at off A make a studio.
We just got it mastered, so this will be the first time anyone
would be hearing it really Yeah, very cool, Yeah, very cool.
All right, well yeah, if you want to uh now, what is
this called parallax? Parallax? Okay, all right, yeah, if you're
ready, Matt, I'm dying to hear you play. Come on the absence,
Oh you restless pigs to the place him the swan dudes, rounding of
what I'm indifferent to, motivated by survivable. I never want to miss this,
remember ants, could you just leave me alone? Now? Play some
melody? Why should I tie all of these vacancy and give a fe new
life taking the shape of limitless plight, A fly to run slow sound,
pushing paul, the pampering off affection, glyss sins through, worried about recluse
a carry the fire in the road so I can fly kit through. Humanity
was our business taking terrors for a wetness, to catch up, mantist clean
and or grind never on a shrug this tantness. I could to preach through
my pouls ah, playback smelody and climb new heights away from the smellody.
Let's give it a try. Pray for vocipity or showy shirts. Bite a
fly to run slow, A fly to run slow, A fly to run
slow, fly to run slow. I portrayed them for you today. Play
some melody, why should I die? All of these vacan season less game
in might try break forth the melody of choerish shit spite fly to run so
very nice, very nice. I like that a lot. I like that
a lot. Adam Jocelyn in the chat room, of course, from Abel
Blood says, such a unique voice. You do have a unique voice.
Your your uh, your vocal delivery is very raw, but but I like
it. Thank you? How I mean? Is there anyone who inspires you
vocally that you kind of try to sound like or or or who has influenced
the way that you sing because it is it is unique. Yeah, it's
definitely a lot of the grunge nineties music like Kirk Obain, Kavin Rossdale.
Yeah yeah, Pete Hamilton from Helmet, those are my vocal influences. Yeah,
yeah, very cool. Now, now the two of you is is
are the two of you witch Trot? Or are there other members? Because
I know I saw I saw at least one video online, a live video
where it was just the two of you. Yeah, right now, it's
the two of us. We've had my girlfriend Ed's sister Meghan fill in on
bass for us for some shows. Yeah, great band. Yeah, so
but for right now, like just the two of us. And uh now,
how long have the two of you been in the span? Like,
are you both original members of witch Trot? No, but I've been in
the band for about four years now. Oh okay, so but no,
Matt's been Matt's had this thing going since he was like god sixteen or something.
Yeah, okay, okay. And then how did the two of you
meet and come to work together through the Stone Church? Yeah, it was
through a through a mutual acquaintance the guitarist of a band I was formerly in
called Marvel Prone. Oh, Marvel Prone. Wait a minute, have you
been here before? I have not? You have? You have not?
They have? I left that band a year inge ago? Okay, I'm
like, because you said that, I'm like, wait a minute, have
we have we met before? No? It's funny how you know the scene,
it's like this, it's a so many people move around in different bands.
Okay, so you were in Marvel Prone. Interesting, I was in
Marvel Prone, and I believe Rayner, the band leader of Marvel Prone,
and Matt met each other at the Stone Church sometime and Matt mentioned that he
needed a drummer. So, okay, put us in contact with each other.
Oh cool? Cool? And then so now what about so you had
a bass player? Did you have a regular bass player before Meghan or a
while? Yeah? Yep? Okay? And then how long were they in
the band? Two years? Two years? Yeah? So now do so,
but you guys do some shows where it's just the two of you if
Megan's not available or how does that work? I think we have done that
before. Yeah, because I'm pretty sure, Like I said, I'm pretty
sure. I saw a YouTube video where it's just the two of you.
And I think somebody whoever posted it put in the description something about, uh,
even even without a bass player, of these guys rock or something,
or maybe it was one of the comments in the video. But I feel
like that happened once. It's kind of I feel like you could say playing
with a bass player is a is best practice. Yeah, but I think
once in a pinch, we did do it just the two of us.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean there's there's others that have that have done it
and and made it work, but yeah, there's there's nothing quite like having
you know, you want to have that bottom end if you if you can,
you know, like I saw Local h once in Boston years ago,
and uh, but it's obvious, you know, it was just the two
guys, but it was obvious, said I can't remember his name for the
life of me. The guitar player, you know that he he had an
effect that you know, gave him extra bottom end. And I've I've I've
seen bands do that, not very many, but now so, so how
long has the band been around total? Because because you said you've been you've
been doing it for but was there another drummer before Edward. Yeah, there
were some other projects a little different from witch Trot that I had started up,
but witch Trot was fairly new when ed joined. Okay maybe six months
Okay, yeah I didn't even know that. Yeah, yeah, so I
had it was. It was pretty much similar genres, but just different band
names. But I I separate Witch Trot from that. Yeah, it's different.
Yeah. Fredo was in the Facebook live chat. Uh. Yeah,
I was gonna say, you guys must know Fredo. Everybody a right.
I do enjoy I oh, absolutely absolutely. Fredo has been on the show
a number of times. I do enjoy saying his full name when I see
him in the chat room. Alfredo Enrique Benevitez. But yeah, Dank Sinatra,
Cosmic Blossom, great great stuff, you know, and he posts a
lot of solo videos too. That it's just such a such an enormously talented
guy, really good on the show too. We gotta get him, get
him back on. Yeah, Ronda Favera, you know, when I was
asking you about your vocal style, Ronda from our friend from California, she
said, kind of reminds her of Nirvana, So that makes sense. Yeah,
are you are you self taught vocally or yeah, yeah, what about
now? What about on guitar? You ever take lessons or are you self
taught? I haven't take lessons, Yeah I was self taught. Wow.
Yeah that always. That always impresses me. How about you, Edward?
On the drums, I had drum lessons for like two years, like the
first year I played, and then I went a few years without. Yeah,
then I took lessons for another year. I've been playing for like eleven
years, so I had lessons for two of them. Okay, okay.
I like to think I'm pretty good at self teaching. Yeah, like like
actually working on things and not just screwing around. Right right, that's good?
And uh, are you in any other bands? Because most drummers I
meet are in like ten different bands because there's just not a lot of drummers
around. I've been there, homie. Yeah, I'm currently in one other
band, a metalcore band from Newmarket called Proelium. Actually, the guitarist of
Proelium, a dude named Darius, was the drummer of witch Trot before I
was Oh no kidding, yeah, oh wow. So it's all so it's
the music scene. It's like incestuous in a way. Yeah, but but
but not in that way, you know what I mean. I mean,
we are in the Northeast after all, so but uh no, but uh
yeah, So that's interesting. So the reason I say that is the reason
I asked that, is there's just been a trend where, like I have
these bands and everybody's drummer is in like multiple bands. And I have a
theory about that. I think it's because when you're growing up and you first
start getting interested in playing a musical instrument, and you have to kind of
have the talk with your parents like, hey, I want to take up
an instrument. If you express an interest in the drums, your parents are
probably going to try to talk you out of that and say, well,
how about guitar or something, you know, something where you're not going to
be making a lot of noise. So what that ends up happening is you
end up with just not a lot of drummers around because you know, parents
don't want their kids growing up playing drums and making all that noise. That's
my theory. Anyway, bass players tend to be in high demand too,
but I think drummers especially, Yeah, I think your theory is pretty spot
on for drummers. I think for bass players it's just because everybody wants to
play guitar. Guitarists get the glory. Yeah, yeah, you know most
bands have a guitarist playing bass. Really right. Well, it's funny because
I so I'm a bass player, but I started out on guitar when I
was a kid. I took guitar lessons and never took a bass lesson.
But I took guitar lessons. But unfortunately, I was one of those kind
of lazy kids that if I wasn't good at something really fast, I would
get discouraged. And so I was getting discouraged with the guitar and I wasn't
putting the work in to really practice it. And then when I was in
high school, I picked up a bass, you know, just hanging out
with some friends playing music. And bass players hate when I say this,
but it's just the reality of it. I picked up a bass and I
said, oh, two fewer strings and I don't have to learn any chords.
I think I found my instrument, and but yeah, I mean it
worked out. I went on to you know, I played in a bunch
of bands, and so I did find my instrument, but it kind of
sucks that it happened the way that it did because it was out of my
own laziness. But it's true though, And bass players hate when I say
that because it, you know, it makes it sound like, oh,
the bass is easy and to play. It's not easy to play the bass
really well. But if you just want to be you know what I always
say. I was never good, but I was always good enough. And
bass players being in not as high demand as drummers, but in sort of
high demand, you know, you end up playing you can you can be
just okay and end up in a buns. I was in a bunch of
different bands at once, actually, but but yeah, drummers, I mean,
so many drummers who were just in just in tons of bands. Uh
So maybe we should maybe we should talk about this more after we play the
single. But I don't want to forget to ask you this in terms of
influences, Edward, I when I was listening to the you know, because
Matt sent me the single earlier that we're going to play in a couple of
minutes. Well, first of all, overall, I got kind of a
Sabbath vibe from it, and I definitely got a bill Ward vibe from your
drumming, and I'm curious is he an influence of yours or that's a that's
an interesting question. I think your your pills, your drum fills remind me
a lot of Bill Ward, and he's one of my favorites. So it's
you know, it's please take it as a compliment. Oh, I absolutely
do. I love Black Sabbath, Yeah, always have. I don't consider
bill Ward specifically an influence, but I do consider that kind of music and
Black Sabbath's contemporaries to be a great influence. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
Well what are tell me about? Who are some of your influences? Really?
I'm just a sucker for all of the great prog rock drummers. Yeah,
Neil Peart, Phil Collins, those are probably the biggest two. Who
else? I always my head always goes blank when people ask me things like
that. Yeah, that's okay, that's all right. It kind of puts
you on the spot. Phil Collins is a surprise to me though, because
I don't know, I never really hear anyone say so is Phil Collins?
I know this kind of an ongoing debate that I've seen online in some forums.
Is Phil Collins a great drummer in your opinion, Phil Collins is the
man, no kidding, But you have to listen to the early Genesis albums
to figure it out. He also has other bands. He has, like
a jazz fusion band that I haven't listened too much from. Yeah, but
honestly, if you like Bill Ward, yeah, you would probably dig Phil
collins drumming on the early Genesis albums because that was a very similar, loose,
jazzy, feely style, if you know what I mean. It's not
rigid at all. He's very much just like sinking into the music. See
that surprises me because I guess the more commercial Genesis stuff that came out later,
I feel like his drumming is very rigid. But but I have but
I have heard some early Genesis with when I Peter Gabriel was singing, and
now that you mention it, yeah, his drumming was different. I know
what you mean. Yeah, I'll have to go back and let's to some
of that. Yeah, you're getting some support on that in the chat room.
H DJ Midas, who's part of the w M n H family.
In fact, he has a show here called Late Night to Light. He
says Phil Collins is a phenomenal drummer. Malcolm Salz says, any Genesis album
he wasn't allowed to sing on was incredible. That's a great way of putting
it. Although I love Phil's voice. Phil's got a great voice. But
I but I understand. I understand what he means, because that makes sense
if you're talking about the earlier stuff before Phil took over on vocals, and
Fredo says, uh, brand X. Actually, let me read these in
order. Fredo said Phil Collins was a masterful drummer. Check out his fusion
band. His fusion band brand X. Brand X is Phil Collins displaying his
jazz prowess and crazy Prague chops. Interesting. Interesting. Oh, and Malcolm
had said earlier Phil Collins and early Genesis is some of the best Prague you
will ever hear. Interesting. Yeah, I'll have to I'll have to go
back and give that another listen. Okay, Yeah, it's coincidentally several months
ago I happened to hear I cannot even remember what album it's on. It
was on one of their really commercially successful albums, Genesis with Phil on lead
vocals. But the song is Domino. Do you know that song. I
do not know that song. Yeah, it's from It's It's again. It's
from their really commercial period. But but I just remember listening to that song
and I'm listening to the drum track, and I'm thinking, you know,
this, this song would be so much better if the drums weren't so you
know, they sound it sounded like programmed drums. I don't know if it
was actually him playing or if it was all programmed, but but I remember
thinking, this song would be so cool if you know, it was Phil
Collins without drumming, without all the effects and everything. But it was,
you know, it was like the mid nineteen eighties. You know, I
lived through it. It was. Everything was very sort of overproduced in that
way. But I'll have to go back and listen to some early Phil Collins
or some early some more early Genesis, and I'll have to check out Brand
I didn't even know about brand X, so that must have been the band
he was in before Genesis. Maybe I don't really know. There might have
been some overlap. Yeah, yeah, interesting, No, I'm very curious.
Now Now how about you? How about you, Matt In terms of
influences, I mean, we talked a little bit about your vocals, but
how about guitar or just the overall vibe. Like I said, I get
a heavy Sabbath vibe from from Witch Trot. Yeah. I really like the
Melvins. I can hear it. Yeah, I like Cudini. That's probably
my favorite from them. Stoner which is another one I really like. Of
course, Nirvana and Utero is one of my favorite albums. Yeah, and
I love Black Sabbath as well. Sleep is a cool band. Electric Wizard
a lot of that doomy type rock and as well as the grunge stuff I've
always been a fan of. Yeah, yeah, Oh, Fredo and the
chat Room says regarding Phil Collins, he didn't need to, he didn't need
to give us his all on the Tarzan soundtrack, but he did. Yeah,
when the Tarzan soundtrack, I remember when that came out, and I
remember kind of thinking, yeah, he's definitely entered his Uh, he's moved
from his rock face to his adult contemporary face. Actually he had probably done
that long before that. But yeah, I understood. He can't even he
can't even really, it's hard for him to stand up now, Phil Collins,
like you see you see any videos from that last from the Genesis farewell
to her. It's kind of it's kind of heartbreaking. Feel bad for him,
you know, although miraculously his voice still sounds pretty good. Oh,
his voice is great. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, I'm just a poor
guy. He can't it's hard for him to move around. And you know,
but drums is such a physical instrument too that you know, if there's
anything you're gonna get injured playing, it's that. I suppose. Well,
we should get to this track since we've been talking about how you guys sound.
Now again, is this no mas Thomas? Is that how you pronounce
it? Yes? Okay, now what does that mean? No more Thomas?
So I have a friend named Thomas, and uh, he's I can
tell this will be a good story by Edward's reaction. Well, he he's
very unpredictable and like he's always he always does very like wild things, like
I've always and like he's younger than me, so I've always kind of been
like I've acted like the older brother in some ways. So I'm always like
Thomas, no, don't do that, especially in public, or he's gonna
watch this and be like but yeah, So yeah, that's that's why I
called it no more Thomas, and I've told him that and he thinks it's
pretty cool. That's cool. I thought maybe it was Latin or something very
cool. All right, let's give this a listen. Where was this recorded,
by the way, Alfa Omega Studios, And where is that? That's
in Massachusetts? Some town in Massachusetts I've never heard of before. Okay,
all right, cool, Let's give this a listen and then we'll come back
and we'll talk some more with these guys. Check this out. This is
Witstrot. This is brand new, newly remastered and world radio premiere. Much
as such boss s by Heaven he why your pass away? The newest came
the Fast and sacrifice surpressor Holy exercise please the Holy One who will win jomp
on the darkness? Sho s oh, that is so good. No,
miss Thomas, am I saying that right? Matt must no mass Thomas,
Yes, from the band witch Trot, And we have Matt and Edward from
the band here with us live in studio. That is the world radio premiere
of that track, and I love it. You know what's cool? Is
it? Kind of the song fools you? I'm sure I'm not the only
one who's made this observation. But when I was listening to it for the
first time, I was like, Oh, it's an instrumental, and then
the vocal finally shows up, but it's so far into the song, but
it's it's like a cool surprise when the vocal comes in. I was like,
Oh, it's not an instrumental. I like that, Like, did
you do that intentionally or is that just kind of how the song developed?
That was actually done intentionally. A lot of the stoner rock doomy stuff band
Sleep does that a lot. They'll have a lot of instrumentals and then they'll
sing, and then they'll stop and do a lot of long instrumentals and then
continue back into singing. Yeah, yeah, No, I like that.
It's cool. It's it's kind of a cool twist. Yeah, Fredo in
the chat room says long intro. Fredo also said too earlier, you know,
the The Melvins came up as an influence, and Fredo said, up,
Melvins are one of the most influential badass bands ever. They did more
for grunge, sludge and underground music in general than any of their contemporaries.
Yeah, definitely. The Melvin's very, very influential but kind of unsung heroes.
And you know one of those bands that you know, musicians know the
Melvins, but non musicians never even heard of them. This is one one
of those kinds of bands. Yeah. So we've got the guys here from
witch Trot in studio. If you have any questions or anything for the band,
feedback or anything at all, the studio line is open six oh three
two five oh six oh seven six O three two five oh six o seven.
You can also text me at six one seven nine one seven four four
seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connorton. You can email me
Matt at Matt coonorton dot com. And of course you can interact into opine
in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing to do so that we
can hear and enjoy your Dulca tones is give us a call at six O
three two five o six seven and Riley King, fellow broadcaster, joins us
in the Facebook live chat. Hello, nice to see you in there.
By the way, So where does the name come from? Uh, witch
Trot. I assume you came up with that, Matt, because you're the
like the original, the founding member. Yeah, yeah, well, there's
several wis Trout roads in Maine. I noticed that. I noticed that when
I googled you guys, and I was like, oh, the this is
a common thing in Maine. Yeah. Yeah, And well the name came
about was Maine was part of Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials, and they
brought down a preacher or parson from Maine, and the road is called witch
trot Road. That was trotting down, which is on horseback. They would
commonly do that and and pick that name because it was it signified like judgment
and symbolized the road to judgment when those witches were crossing over. Yeah,
yeah, I thought that was cool. Yeah, no, it's a cool
name. Now how many songs have you? Is this the only Is this
the first song that you've done in that studio in North Reading or do you
have others that you're working on or we would like to go back soon.
We have two other ones I played. Parallax was one of them, and
I played the acoustic version of that. Yeah, we have a song called
Hello Dmitri that that's also was recorded at Alpha Omega. Oh okay, yeah,
we're gonna, We're gonna sorry, We're going to release those, hopefully
tonight or tomorrow. Oh okay, yeah, oh okay, yeah, I'd
love to hear Hello Dmitri. So that'll be so at some point this weekend,
that'll be available, yes, online. Very cool, very cool.
And what's the writing process, Like, do you guys write together or do
you come up with the ideas initially and then bring them netword or how does
that work? It's sort of they always originate with Matt. You know,
I like to consider myself a valuable part of the band, but it's always
been Matt's songs that we're playing. Yeah. He sometimes he comes at me
or me and whoever former basis was in the band at the time with a
completed idea. But usually it's just like, you know, an intro of
verse and a chorus and we jam on it for a while. Someone might
make a few suggestions. Yeah. They come together very organically and as a
consequence, somewhat inefficiently. Sometimes it kind of takes a while for them to
reach their final form. Really yeah, like how long like, uh,
to develop a song? Does it take? Does it take days? Weeks?
A couple practices? Yeah? Okay, yeah yeah yeah, Because Edward,
what what you're doing on the drums that that that winds up becoming you
know, even if the idea doesn't start with you. I mean you you
are really kind of contributing to how the song forms because your drum patterns are
complex and you know it's it's not it's not like you know, you're not
the guy from a CDC sitting over there. You're actually really you know,
not nothing against a c DC, but you're really you know, you're really
helping to form and shape that song with what you're doing on the drums.
Yeah, so I scer them, you could say. Sometimes sometimes it's something
as simple as like a bro, what if we like this? Right?
But it's being humble. But like for actually Nomas Tomas, that song,
the breakdown at the end, that wouldn't have happened, you know without the
drums. A lot of the drum Definitely drums carry like all the songs.
Yeah, it's just you know, I have a rough draft really and then
it forms into something Yeah, I wouldn't have expected right right now now in
studio. Now, who's playing bass in studio? Are you doing that yourself
or is Megan doing that? Or who's our friend Tony Woodman played bass on
that actually. Oh okay, yeah, he has a band, Black Headdress.
I drummed for for that band and he helped us out a lot.
See. Now that's a twist on this whole drummer thing. So there's this
other band that you play drums in. See is it? What's your first
instrument? Is drums your first instrument? Or or is a guitar? It
was? It was drums was the first thing I learned. I gradually went
to guitar, and I've been playing that. That's kind of like my main
instrument. Oh, I got you, I got you a Black head Dress.
That's the other band. Yeah, it's a cool from around here?
Is is everybody from around here? Uh? Yeah? There? Tony's from
Sandford, and then Josh is from he's the guitarist and the band. He
is from Alfred and then so it's kind of kind of all over the place.
Alfred. Where's that it's It's in New Hampshire. No, sorry,
Maine. It's in Maine. Oh, it's in Maine. Yeah. And
I know Sandford is in Maine. Yes. Yeah. The only reason I
know that is because that's where I almost dround when I was a kid.
My dad had to save me. So the Sandford, Maine is uh is
forever etched in my brain. So you're now you live here now, but
you're from Maine originally? Is that York Maine? You're from York. Okay,
that's a nice area. Now about you, Edward, Do you live
in the area here or or do you have a commute? I live in
Rochester currently. Okay. I I grew up in Portsmouth. That's where I
was living when I joined the band. Oh okay, yeah, yeah,
So you guys got a little bit of a commute between you. It's half
an hour. It's not bad, It's not bad. Yeah. Yeah.
Now are you playing a lot of shows? Do you play a lot of
shows or are you focused on recording? Or we have a couple of shows
coming up. We have a house party on the twenty eighth, and then
we're playing at the Stone Church on Halloween. Oh very cool. Yeah,
we're playing. We're playing with Proelium. They're headlining. Yeah. Yeah,
it's gonna be Prollium headlining witch Trot before them, and then a band called
green Eye before witch Trot. Yeah. And does one of you play drums
and green Eyes? No, we've reached the limit. Okay, understood.
Speaking of drums, I wanted to mention something. Yeah, a lot of
the older Witch Trot songs, like from when I first joined the band,
I actually learned from demos that Matt posted on YouTube again when he was like
when he was like seventeen or so, And on all those demos he's playing
drums. Oh wow, So the way I played drums in the band was
influenced by what Matt played oh way back in the day. Oh. Interesting.
So it kind of like it's sort of like a it comes full circle.
Yeah, so you you committed to learning, but do you play the
parts now the same as when Matt put them in those demos originally? Do
you or do you even still play those songs, because obviously those songs go
backways some of them we do it kind of it depends on the song.
Sometimes. I sometimes I liked what he played and and I would more or
less stick to that, and if anything changed, it would again change like
subconsciously and organically over time. Yeah. Other other things, it was more
of a like, hey, I have an idea for how else this could
be done? Right, Yeah, makes sense. But I definitely think even
even if the parts themselves have changed the way Matt plays drums influenced how I
choose to play drums in the band. Now, okay, okay, interesting,
So are your styles now today on drums somewhat different then or or are
they similar very much? So we're completely different drummers? Really? Yeah?
Yeah? In in in what way? I mean? Cause I kind of
have a vibe of how you play obviously from listening to that track, But
like, what, how how are your drums different, Matt? If it's
something you can put into words, maybe it's not the easiest thing to verbalize,
but I'm curious. Now. Uh. Well, with Black Head Dress,
a lot of the songs are kind of tribal, like O lot of
a lot of toms. It's pretty heavy on that rather than a lot of
a lot of crashes or fills or it's just kind of sets the tone for
because I follow, Like with Black Head Dress, I follow Tony and Josh
quite a bit. I just go back and forth, and they're really the
ones who are setting up the structure, and I'm and I'm yeah, it's
just kind of tribal, like, I mean, that's kind of how the
songs felt. Yeah, No, that makes sense. Yeah, I was
actually just looking up black head Dress online and uh, maybe we'll maybe to
end the show, we'll play Uh do these have swears in them? Honestly,
it depends on the song like Disconnected that shows up on the website.
Do you know? If you don't know, we just won't risk it.
But I was just thinking if if you did know, we could play something,
because I'm curious to hear here it now. But if not, I'll
just wait till later and we won't risk it. I can't remember, honestly.
Yeah, No, that's fine. That's all good. By the way,
Melanie in the chat room says high five for not being a part of
Massachusetts anymore. Now have you guys obviously you play shows around here. Have
you have you toured anywhere outside of the area. No, we've never been
on tour. Okay, We've played mass a little bit, New Hampshire,
a little bit, Maine a little bit. Yeah, but I think that's
it. Okay, Yeah, okay. And are there are there any other
bands in the area that you kind of team up with? You know,
I mean it tends to happen organically, kind of by accident. You know,
bands will have other bands that they wind up playing a lot of shows
with. Do you have anybody in the area like that? Oh yeah,
well Wired for Sound Yeah yeah, played with Marvel Prone a few times back
when I was in that band. Played a few shows with Proellium. We're
about to play another show with Proelium. Yeah. Who else? Who are
like some of the Charlie's Hill bands? We played with Sauce on the side,
I was one on the show. Yeah, yeah, they're they're fantastic,
Yeah they are. Yeah, they're great. Able Blood of course,
able blood, love able blood. We had them on the show. We
have sophisticated adult martial law. There's a lot of I found that in the
more of the Seacoast area, there's a lot of more metal type bands,
hard rock bands, yeah, like metal core type bands. Yeah, and
yeah, so we we kind of get placed in in those types of shows,
which is a lot of fun, a lot of the mosh pits and
whatnot. Yeah, no, no doubt, no doubt. And uh so
this, uh this weekend is a stone church? Is that this weekend or
next weekend? That's Halloween night? Halloween Knight. Yeah, that's very cool.
That's a good that's really good. I haven't been to the Stone Church
in forever, but that's a really nice that's a nice place to play.
They're actually a not normally open on Tuesdays, but Halloween is a Tuesday this
year. Yeah, and so they figured they'd throw a little shin dig.
It's gonna be a full on costume party. Three bands, good fun,
very cool if anyone's interested. Wish Front, Prellium, and Green Eye,
not in that order. The Stone Church Halloween Night come in costume seven pm.
Yeah, very cool, very cool. Well, listen, we're going
to hope we have a call. Oh looks like this is Malcolm Souls who
we saw in the Facebook live chat. Hi, welcome to the show.
Hey man, it's Malcolm from Abel Blood. Hey Malcolm. Oh that Malcolm.
Hey what's up? Man? I just want I just want to chime
in here and tell you that these guys are like they're like having a reaction
video at your show, because every show we play with them, we always
like to watch people milling about before they start. Yeah, and as soon
as they start playing, everything stops and everybody's like, holy crap, who
are these guys? I believe it. That's awesome, very cool, very
cool. Yeah, they make a lot of noise for well, three piece
technically right when you've got when you've got a bass player with you. But
uh yeah, that's cool, have you well, yeah, go ahead,
Malcolm. I was gonna say, they can reach out to Adam and I
because we have bass issues too, so we're splitting bass duty now. Oh
that's right, that's right. Yeah, that's right. We talked about that
when you guys were here. I forgot about that. You're you're one of
the bands I was I was thinking of earlier when we were talking about the
bass thing. Yeah, that's funny. That's why I call it, just
to remind you. Yeah, hey, I still play Uh geez, maybe
I'll play it at the end of the show today. I want to have
time to play the whole thing. But mental note, man, that always
goes over a big when I play that on the show. People go crazy
for that in the chat room. Awesome. So glad to hear, So
glad to hear. But I gotta I got to run because I have my
daughter with me. Thank you, Malcolm. Yeah, I love you guys.
Can't wait too to do a show again soon, all right, Malcolm,
thank you for the call. My friend, take care you bet guys.
All right, by bye? All right Malcolm from Abled Blood very cool,
very cool, such a great band. Well listen, guys, we
got to wrap up in a moment, and I want to remind everybody of
course I'll be back tonight. Oh. Actually a couple things to remind you.
Coming up immediately after the show, a brand new episode of Granted State
of Mind, not live in studio, but they are returning to Friday's at
six pm immediately following the show, hosted by the Great Rob as a Veto.
So that's coming up at six pm. And don't forget I will be
back tonight from eight to eleven pm for Retro Spectrum Radio with Paully c right
here on w MNH. And what was the other thing? Oh? Oh
and no, I guess that's it. Yeah, I guess that's it.
But guys, thank you again. And where should people go online? What's
the best way to go online to find you guys? Just Google? Because
if you google witch Trot, I guess Witch Trot band, right, because
otherwise all those roads come up in Maine. Yeah? Yeah, On YouTube,
Instagram, Facebook, yeah soon, every screaming platform that matters, Yes,
yes, yes, and the new single comes out this weekend. What's
it called again? Yes, Parallax, Okay, yeah, and then followed
by shortly no Mas Tomas and hello Dmitri very cool. Oh right, hello
Dmitri. That was the other one. Yeah, thank you for playing live
for us. That was phenomenal. Man, all right, Matt and Edward,
thank you guys so much, witch Trot and good luck with the Halloween
show. That's amazing. Good for you guys, and I really appreciate your
coming in today and I will tell the listeners, of course, if you
miss any part of today's show. It will be up in just a little
bit at wmnhradio dot org and at my website Matt Connorton dot com. And
Malcolm, if you're still listening, here's a little bit of able blood for
you. Mental note to close out, Matt Connorton Unleashed and I'll talk to
you a little bit later and hopefully i'll talk at you tonight on retro Spectrum
Radio with Polly c. Starts at eight pm. Bye, everybody,