Merry Christmas

Recently I put together a compilation of live Silkworm recordings for the people who donated and helped with the film. In the spirit of Christmas, I've decided to share a few of the best tracks along with some new(old) photos that I have just scanned. These links will only be valid for a few weeks, so get 'em while you can and most importantly, ENJOY!
(For those of you that received these CD's via internet or mail, I've included an extra track from an Andy Cohen acoustic performance on this page that was not on either of those discs.)

Garden City Blues (live at the Empty Bottle Sep.9,2000)
Couldn't You Wait (live at the Empty Bottle Sep.9,2000)


Drunk (live at the Empty Bottle Sep.9,2000)

Caricature of a Joke (Live Acoustic on WNUR May 1996)


Never Met A Man I Didn't Like (Live at The Cactus Club Dec.12,1999)


Clean'd Me Out (Live at The Empty Bottle Sep.19,1998)


The Old You (Live at 7th Street Entry Feb.06,2002)

Ritz Dance (Live at The Cactus Club Dec.19,1999)


I Wish I Was Your Mother (Mott The Hoople Cover- Sep.11,1999)

Photo 1 by Unknown, 1988. Photo 2 by Unknown, 1989. Photo 3 (1992),7 (1994), and 8 (1992) by Paul Dahlquist. Photo 4 and 5 by Unknown, 1992. Photo 6 by Tim Z. 1993. Photo 9 by Unknown, 2004.

Chicago Recap

I've been scanning pictures like mad, so here's a few interesting ones along with quotes from our Chicago interviews:


John Lee:
"They were so fucking loud and I just loved it. How could you not fall in love with a band of guys that are completely mild mannered and loud as fuck? You have to love them."





Andy Cohen on promoting the band:
"Basically if people hear your band and like it, they buy your records. If they hear your band and are indifferent to it, they don't. And that's kind of the bottom line."



Tim Midgett:
"We were together 24 hours a day for long periods of time, we'd sleep in the same room, we'd spend hours talking about stuff, arguing about stuff, getting over fights or whatever. You know, long periods of time where you're locked in a van with this person for hours on end. Any little thing about their personality that could irritate you would start to irritate you immensely for a little while, and then you'd get over it, something funny would happen. And that would go on for months solid chunks of weeks at a time. You don't develop relationships like that with anyone other than the people your romantically involved with or in a band with...I know Michael and I know Andy better than I'll ever know anyone in my life except my wife. Even my daughter, I'll never know her as well. I don't know my parent's that well and I don't my know my siblings that well."



Jeff Tweedy:
"The thing that struck me the most about their music, I felt like we had a lot of similar points of reference and what they were doing sounded nothing at all like what I was doing or really what anyone else was doing with those same points of references. It felt much more monolithic and artistic...really unified and really unique, I always loved bands like that- a group of guys get together and kind of band in some sort of unified vision that no one else would really care to share with them except these three guys."



Chris Manfrin on playing with Tim and Andy in Bottomless Pit:
"I'll never stop thinking about Michael. I use his snare drum at all times. It's something that makes me feel connected to him whenever I play; makes him part of the scene. He's always there with us in whatever journey we decide to go on."

Thanks to everyone who made this trip a blast! Our next trip is California in January.

-Seth

Chicago Part 3

Both of our interviews got postponed until later in the week, which in turn, has given us a badly needed day off. This trip has been incredible and I am very proud of what we have accomplished. When I get home, I'll post some kind of recap with photos, etc.

Chicago Part 2

Last night, we went over to Tim and Vickie's house to look through their expansive archive of photos from the last twenty years. These pictures really fill in a lot of gaps and have finally supplied us with many amazing photos of Joel Phelps. It's been virtually impossible to obtain live footage of him in the band, so it's nice to finally have something that can help us document this era. We shot some beautiful footage of Vickie telling stories and sifting through the pictures as well. I said "That's awesome," way too many times but I think I'm the only one who noticed it. I took a little over three hundred photos with me.

We woke up early this morning and headed back over to Tim and Vickie's to do the Tim & Andy interview. These guys have know each other since middle school, so you can imagine, we didn't have to give them much to run with. Very honest, funny, and serious all in the same go. We had a great time.

After grabbing lunch in Andersonville, we drove over to Jeff Tweedy's house. He was very gracious and has one bitching jukebox (We listened to a 45 of "Itchycoo Park" by The Small Faces while we set up). He said some really great things about the band and really put into perspective what it was like touring and recording in the early to mid-nineties. This interview has always been on our wish list and it's really great that we get to cross him off. Buy this man's records!

We got two more tomorrow and then we're back home to Nashville. So far, so good.

-Seth

LINK EXPLOSION:

Wilco
Loose Fur
The Small Faces- Itchycoo Park Wiki Article

Chicago Part 1

Garland and I arrived two days ago in the wonderful city of Chicago, IL. We are here to interview a few people as well as Tim and Andy. Last night, we drove out to Andy's house and interviewed him again to help replace some botched footage. We had a great time goofing around and drinking beers. Tonight, we are re-interviewing John Lee (MirrorAmerica/Seam) and shortly after, Chris Manfrin (Seam/Bottomless Pit).

Not much else to report, other than that I am reading "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving and enjoying it more than just about anything I've ever read.

-Seth

LINK SMORGASBORD

Bottomless Pit
MirrorAmerica
Seam
John Irving

Austin, Texas

My one-man crew, Garland Gallaspy, and I packed up the car and took off for Austin early Wednesday morning to interview Gerard Cosloy from Matador Records and 12XU. Garland did all of the driving; 15 hours to get there, 12 to get back.

If you see this man, buy him a drink:



Looking for a place to shoot in Austin? Want a 40 cent beer and a kick ass cheeseburger? Texas Showdown is the place, on the corner of 27th and Guadalupe. These folks let us take over their patio for hours:



First, we interviewed Emily Groves, who was kind enough to put us in touch with her friend who has more live footage to lend to the project. Gerard showed up shortly after and gave a 40 minute interview covering the entire Matador era of Silkworm and the release of "Chokes!" It's truly a pleasure to have him in our film.

Cosloy on "Never Met A Man I Didn't Like":
"If I had to be immortalized in a song by anybody, as a money lender no less, I could do a lot worse than Andy Cohen."

We hit the road again in December.

-Seth

LINK ATTACK:

Matador Records
12XU
Texas Showdown

Athens, Georgia

Last week I tagged along with my brother's puppet troupe, The Pull the Strings Players, to get an interview in Athens with Henry Owings of Chunklet Magazine and Brian Teasley of Man or Astroman and The Polyphonic Spree. Henry books comedians and is fond of our little puppet routine, so he got us on a three day run in Birmingham, Atlanta, and Athens. The comedians were great and every club was extremely accommodating to our antics. We had such a good time, it didn't even hit me until the car ride to Athens that there's was work to be done.
We got their early, walked around, looked at comics, smoked too many cigarettes and then headed to the club. On our way, we stopped inside a record store and I checked for Silkworm and found nothing, not even a card. I can't say I was surprised.
After doing the show, we set up in the basement of the club and interviewed Brian and Henry. Most of the questions centered around "indie rock" but their love and respect for Silkworm was very much expressed. It always amazes me how passionate people are about this band, we have yet to have an interview that is uninspired. When we first started doing this, I think we really had some doubts of whether or not we could express our understanding of Silkworm through the words of other people. After forty or so interviews, we've definitely learned that our opinion on this great band is shared by many others. And the donations that have come in have proved it even more.
Thanks to these generous contributors, we will begin shooting again in December. We are hoping to wrap things up by early next year but we still need a lot of money to get there. One way or another, we will get it done.
Stay tuned for more ramblings and updates...
Buy Chunklet and visit the Bottletree when you are in Birmingham!

-Seth

LINK CITY:

Chunket
The Bottletree Cafe
The Pull The Strings Players
Still Born in the USA Comedy Tour

Check out this video of Joel Phelps (ex Silkworm) performing "Pilot" from "In The West."

Welcome

Welcome to the official blog for the feature length documentary about the independent rock band, Silkworm. Here you will find up to the minute details about the current state of production from both the director, Seth Pomeroy, and the producer, Shawn Girvan.

Up until this point, the film has been funded completely independently. Any amount you would like to contribute will bring us a step closer to completion. Just click on the button below the trailer!