Warlock Pinchers: An extensive oral history straight from the jokers' mouth

Courtesy of Andrew Novick

CRISPIN GLOVER AND THE BAND'S LEGACY

DW: The obsession with him started when he was on David Letterman, and he almost kicked him in the head and got booted off the show. I didn't know who he was, but I thought that was the greatest thing ever. It was obviously a stunt, a performance and David Letterman never really got it. He never even admitted it was him. It was kind of the Andy Kaufman thing. Are people going to get it or not? Who cares?

AN: And don't fess up to it. When we played in L.A., Don Bolles came and saw us and he knew where Crispin Glover lived, and we went there and rang his bell. A voice said, "Hello," and we started talking but got no response. Then we pressed the button again and "Hello" -- it was like an answering machine for his door.

DW: Mutual acquaintances would tell us stories of meeting him and asking him about that song, and he said, "I've heard that song, and tell those guys that I make more than one movie a year."

AN: I've talked to him several times, and he's aware of the song. People harangue him constantly, and they always bring up that song when he does public appearances. Somebody said the guitar part of that song sounds like Donkey Kong. But it's somewhat different, but that's why I made the Donkey Kong music the background to that interview tape you hear on Imposters. It's kind of an homage to what someone else thought we sounded like. Just another inside joke to entertain ourselves.

AN: We all created the band we wanted to be in individually. Everyone created for our own purposes as much as anything else. It was never a set thing. I think if you try to do something you fail but if you try to just do anything...

DW: We failed too but in a good way. People called us punk, but we laughed about it, but in retrospect we were more punk than most punk bands because we didn't follow the rules. We did what we wanted to do. We did an interview with Maximum Rock N Roll, and they asked us, "What are your views on punk rock?" and EERok's quote was "That's stupid, give up." That got printed. We got a couple of hate letters from that one.

AN: That's one thing if you tell it to Spin, but you're telling it to the punk rock bible. That's part of not playing by whatever rules. EERok, the biggest punk rocker.

MB: I'm involved in comedy now, but when I look back on the Warlock Pinchers I realize I've been doing comedy for twenty-something years except the Pinchers were rock and roll comedy.

DC: I know quite a few people that like the Warlock Pinchers and quite a few are flying in for those shows. They were always the band I thought should have been really big. Certainly they were doing metal mixed with rap before it became popular, and they were also a lot better than a lot of those later bands. More like if rap was really good mixed with a heavy metal version of the Butthole Surfers. I never liked the Beastie Boys, but the Warlock Pinchers were that kind of thing done a lot better.

DW: It was funny to us that we could barely play our instruments, couldn't remember our lyrics, couldn't keep in time even with a drum machine. People still loved us.

AN: No matter how good we got at practice, the shows were still a mess. You go and see some bands, and it's boring, but they're good musicians, but it's still boring. The talent is in the show.