Jeremy Wheeler – The Bang!, comics, movies and life in the Midwest.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Jeremy Wheeler over a few cold ones and talk about his life in Ann Arbor, MI and all the things he’s currently involved in. Jeremy has the kind of easy nature and laid back disposition that instantly puts you at ease. The first thing you notice is his trademark goggle-style glasses, then the “ah, fuck it” hair style followed by the sighting of a collectible or two on his person (is that a Batman belt buckle?) Then you notice that the man almost never stops smiling, except when he’s looking off at the ceiling searching for the precise way to answer the latest question.

We traced some of his current projects back to his days in high school and followed their progression (and his) on to his days at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, the lack of a decent scene in Grand Rapids, his fortuitous move to Ann Arbor and everything that’s happened there since. He isn’t shy about the downs as well as the ups, and never fails to give credit where credit is due, acknowledging (and often heaping praise upon) those around him who have not only made an impact, but continue to help make him who and what he is today; an artist, a DJ, a movie critic, an entrepreneur, a visionary and a risk-taker. He’s neither short on opinions nor breath, so grab a cold one and settle in for a round with Jeremy Wheeler.

STI: This is Derek Batting with Street Team Interviews and I’m here with Jeremy Wheeler.

JW: Hello!

STI: We’re talking about The Bang! and I’m sure a lot of these people have no idea what The Bang! is. What is The Bang!?

JW: The Bang! is an audio visual dance explosion. We strive to make the best time possible. It is a place where all are welcome. Many people dress up according to the different themes we pick and stuff like that and we do it — it’s a monthly event. We do it mostly at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor and we have been doing it there since 2002 but we actually create The Bang! in 2001 in the basement of a dorm at a place called The Halfass, or the Halfway Inn.

STI: The Halfass.

JW: [laughs] The Halfass, but –

STI: As it’s commonly known around here.

JW: Yes, exactly, as it’s known here in A2. Yeah, so…

STI: So it’s what, seven years old now?

JW: We just celebrated our 7 year anniversary in November.

STI: Excellent. I’ve heard it described as everything from simply, “sexy” to “Deadly dance party madness” to, my personal favorite, “A dance dance superfest that will never rest!” What say you?

JW: [laughs] Uh… just [pauses] outrageous. If you wanna have one word, I would explain The Bang! as outrageous. It’s a dance night like no other. I don’t know if anyone out there is doing a dance night like this. It’s not your typical DJ environment. We decorate, we build sets, we have a rabid fan base who are fantastic and every time, they surprise us with what they come up with, the outfits that they do — that they put together and wear or just their fine, foxy selves. I’m consistently entertained and impressed by the people that come out.

STI: Over the past seven years, how has The Bang! evolved?

JW: Well… One thing how it hasn’t evolved is we’ve always used mix tapes. It’s always been a mix tape driven dance party. In the beginning — and we’ve always tried to decorate a little bit, but in the beginning there were mostly blown up posters of designs I had made or something and one great thing that we’ve always had is we’ve always had the logo which stems from one of the most overused typefaces around, Impact, but for whatever reason, it stayed with us and has been great, so whether it was at the Halfass or whether it’s at, you know, the Blind Pig to this day, the logo was always in your face and it was always there. As we’ve added a light show, we’ve added –

STI: Huge backdrops!

JW: Huge backdrops. Thirteen foot backdrops, large sets whether it be a shark’s mouth or a pirate ship or many various spinning things.

STI: I believe I was there once for a Back To School Bang! with a huge yellow school bus.

JW: Yeah, yellow school bus with either spinning wheels or non-spinning wheels depending on if our motors are working the night of. So yeah, we’ve added plenty of light shows and more and more decorations. I’m more and more impressed with the things that our crew comes up with and the crew has evolved. It was my partner in crime, Jason Gibner, and I, we started it. We both come up with the music, we both come up with the visuals for the video that plays everywhere and we still use VHS.

STI: The notorious videos.

JW: Yeah, the notorious videos. We still use VHS. I record half of it and he compiles the other half. But then we’ve added various, like, crew members over the years and they’re usually, you know, friends of ours. At the beginning, we definitely had friends helping us and stuff like that, but now we’re really kind of, like, bona fide and we do have these people that come with us every time and their just as invested as we are.

STI: Speaking of everyone who makes The Bang! happen every month, do you want to give a shout- out to, say, Gibner and the whole crew that makes it work?

JW: Absolutely. Jason Gibner and I would not be where we were, where we are, without the people who help us. We have a crew of carpenters, we have a crew of lighting technicians, we have an engineer on our team, and we have decorators. We’ve had people come in and out of our Bang! crew that are connected to many different scenes whether it be the electronic scene with Lauren Hill or other fellow DJs like Ayron Michael Nelson or our resident rock & roll guitarist Chris “Box” Taylor. It is kind of like a family thing. We’re very happy to have them on board and not only that, but we’re happy to help give them a means to survive. I mean, this has become a business, and because of that, we’re really happy that the people who are working with us, we love them and we care for them and they bring only their best to every time. So, I’m happy to give them props.

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STI: Speaking of doing something that’s just a balls-out party like this — when it gets so big and there are so many people involved, you were saying it becomes a business, it is a business. It almost has to become a business because it has to be run as such. It has to be streamlined and lean and efficient and purposeful. When did you realize that it’s gone from “the basement” to “the business?”

JW: A couple years or so. It was just like, you know, we have to become legit about this and we got tons of shit for it, you know? People really — there’s some people who were really not happy about that and they thought –

STI: “Aw, you sold out, man!”

JW: Yeah, and it’s just like… Well, you know, “I love you, but fuck you.” This is our lives, this is our future at stake and frankly, if we want The Bang! to go forward it’s gotta be legit in some kind of way. You can’t sell out every time at a venue and not be legit in some sort of way. Not after seven years. And it’s just a way for us to have some sort of building blocks  for the future. We have Bang Media, which covers button making and silk screening, and then there’s Bang Productions for the events that we throw, so it’s kind of like us looking out for, like, “Listen, if we don’t do this now, when are we gonna do this?” And if we ever do get bigger than where we’re at, how are we gonna explain for it? Cuz people gotta look out for themselves in that kind of way.

STI: So you kind of get that reaction where the band you’ve always followed at all the small clubs finally gets a major label deal — “Oh, they sold out. They’re on the radio.” You kind of get that kind of throw back in your face like you guys went corporate or something?

JW: Yeah, we did get that and it was kind of like, “Give us a break. We’re DJing with tapes.” You know? We still slave over cassette tapes and put plenty of time and effort into this.

STI: You’re not even burning CDs.

JW: No, no. Not at all.

STI: You’re still straight analog.

JW: Yeah. Yeah.

STI: You’re old school!

JW: Yeah! What’s crazy is I put together compilations of songs on CDs. Just about a CD for almost every Bang! for — I’m on my fifty-something’th volume or something like that, and then I take stuff from there and I take stuff from records and all sorts of stuff, but you know, we’re still doing it the same. It’s just a matter of watching out for our own backs, frankly, when it comes to this. Frankly, we’re just getting by, but that just has to do with where we’re at and where the economy is at and where Ann Arbor is at.

STI: See, that’s where your cred remains. You’re just getting by.

JW: Yeah.

STI: You can still buy a beer here and there, I’m sure.

JW: Oh, yeah. Sure.

STI: Well, there you go. It’s not like you’re fat cats going, “Yes, dance my little friends. Dance and pay us!”

JW: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I don’t own a condo in Ann Arbor. I don’t own a house. I’m still renting, I’m still feeling my way through all of this stuff. Whether that’s a bad thing or a good thing, I don’t know, but we’re here, we’re still doing it and we still have these parties for people. If the people didn’t show up, we wouldn’t throw them anymore.

STI: What’s the web address, by the way?

JW: MySpace is MySpace.com/TheBangLovesYou

STI: There you go. My point exactly.

JW: Yes. We love them. Yes. Yes, we wouldn’t do it without the people. And the people have changed. Ann Arbor is a transition town. That’s not unknown to us and certainly our crowd has changed throughout the years but each and every year we get more and different beautiful people than we had before.

STI: Plus the rabid diehards.

JW: Plus the rabid diehards, yeah. But you know, every couple years we get new rabid diehards and the face of The Bang! changes. People move to Chicago, people moved to L.A., people move to San Francisco, people move to New York and they’ve taken a little of The Bang! with them and they’re doing things in those areas and we’re very proud of that. We’re very proud of them and we’re very proud that, you know, if there was any influence at all on our parts then we’re very happy that we had a hand in doing something.

STI: Mission accomplished?

JW: Absolutely! Why not? Fuck it. [laughs]

STI: How do you keep The Bang! fresh every month? Do some ideas get recycled or pulled back by popular demand or do you always strive for something brand new every month, on and on and on?

JW: Well, [when] you do The Bang! as long as we have, you do something for seven years, there are certain themes that click. In a college town, you can depend on every September when the students come back, there’s going to be a “Back to School” one, and that one is consistently the biggest of the year every time. There are some things, you know, like the first Valentine’s, actually the first Valentine’s one we did was still at the Halfass ,so we’ve had one of those every February. Other than that, we’ve just had wild lists of different themes that we’d like to do. Most of them are completely joking and just out there. You know, shit like “Bang Marley” and, you know, “Back to The Bang!” which we might do one of these days. People always request it but we’ve never done it before.

STI: Woo, daring.

JW: Yeah, yeah, you know? [laughs] It’s just like, part of me says like, “Oh, that’s really shitty” and then another part of me is like, “Oh, well, you could probably do something like that.” But what’s surprising is no matter what we come up with, it seems to work. It’s rare that something doesn’t work.

STI: Yeah, I’ve never seen a Bang! where people are standing around going, “Man, what a drag…”

JW: Yeah, yeah, yeah!

STI: Never. I mean, people are hanging from the rafters and clothes are flying and people are grinding and, you know, stuff’s happening!

JW: [laughs] Yeah, I mean, my big thing with The Bang! is, I like to look around and see people smiling. If people are smiling, I know we’ve done our job right, whether they’re looking at the crazy videos that we have or whether they’re just enjoying a song or, you know, if they’re enjoying themselves then that’s what really matters and so far, we’ve done it pretty good.

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STI: One thing I’ve noticed about The Bang!; no matter which one you go to whether it’s a Valentine’s Day or Back to School or New Years or Halloween or a month where no holiday exists — it’s just a month where you’re having a Bang! — no one’s too cool to dance. I mean, everyone gets in on it and that’s kind of a testament to what you’ve built, you know?

JW: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for whatever reason, Ann Arbor has become a really great place for people to not feel self-conscious about dancing and about having fun and whether that’s something we bring or something else that brings [it] out, it’s really nice to see. It’s nice to see that and its really nice to be a part of a group of people that just kinda go out and have fun and they’re creative about it and they’ve really enjoyed themselves and what we kinda deliver for them.

STI: You always release the mix tape list of songs from any given Bang!. Have you ever made the mix tape first and then fleshed out The Bang! around that mix?

JW: I see what you’re saying, but not really. Not really. We’re usually — the mix tapes are the very last things that happen. They’re the last week. Most of the time with me they’re the night before.

STI: So you’re going in fresh.

JW: Yeah.

STI: It’s not contrived like you’re not putting too much thought into it. It’s spur of the moment.

JW: But, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but if you — say if we did, like when we did the Beach Blanket Jaws thing, I made sure to try and put on — Lalo Shifrin did a great Jaws cover on one of his jazz albums and so, made sure to put that on and, you know, I wouldn’t be surprised if we did a “Back to School” then you’d probably hear “Hot for Teacher” so it’s just like, the themes that we pick, there are certain songs that spring to mind that we’re definitely going to try and play. We just had “007 Year Bang!” for our anniversary so, Marvin Hamlisch of all people, made the most groovy, great Bond song for [thinks for a moment] Let’s see, for… It wasn’t “From Russia With Love”, but “Spy Who Loved Me.” In fact, I think it’s “The Spy Who Loved Me.” So yeah, definitely we were going to play that. But we’ve never quite made a mix and then went, “Ok, what theme are we gonna do this time?” You know, it’s always a month in advance or two months in advance. “Ok, we’re gonna do this then we’re gonna do this, then…”

STI: So you kinda schedule it out a little bit ahead because there’s a lot to plan for, and then the mix is the last thing to hit, so it’s in the moment.

JW: Yeah. I mean, we’ve known since August we were booked through the year and we knew exactly what we were going to do. Right now, it’s the beginning of December. We have the New Year’s party then we’ll have the Love Bang! in February and then March is up in the air. We usually do it around St. Patty’s Day and it might not hang around there, so…

STI: Last year was Glamrock –

JW: Glamrock Shamrock. Yeah, so we’ll see what we come up with. Maybe we’ll still keep it green.

STI: It was like Ziggy Stardust does Ireland.

JW: Yeah! Yeah! You know, put disco and crazy shamrocks together.

STI: You were talking earlier about your rabid fan base. When was it that you realized you had a hit on your hands?

JW: Well, definitely not to this effect, but we were immensely surprised at how well the first Bang! went off. We pretty much threw The Bang! for the friends we had in town. There was a great supportive, fun, young, creative, smart group of people who came out of the days of the Pirate House, which is an old house that used to have shows, and so we really wanted to kinda throw a party of our own that would bring those people in, that would give them something to do. There was nothing like that unless you went to Detroit, you know? No one from Detroit would come out because Detroit people are known for really not liking Ann Arbor, for having a preconceived notion and you know, that’s fine. I totally understand it.

STI: Too stuffy? Too liberal? Too hippy? Too college?

JW: Uhh, I’ve seen people say that we’re too hippy.

STI: Well, there is Hash Bash…

JW: I mean, there is Hash Bash and maybe they’ve been to Ann Arbor during a Hash Bash and they think that’s what it’s all like. I’m not really sure. I know that there are definitely some complaints about the venues that we have in town but… But, I don’t know, but getting back to your original questions, we were really happy with the reception we got. We had no idea it was going to go off that well and just the fact that the space was filled with people and they were dancing and they were having fun, we’re just like, “Wow! This is really cool. Who knew that this was gonna to happen, so let’s do another one!” And then we did another one and the turnout was just as solid as the first and then when we hit the Blind Pig, it’s just kind of… when it got to the point where we’re at now, where, if the students are in town, you can depend on there being a line outside or something like that. I’m not sure when we got to that point.

STI: There’s no definitive moment. It’s just, it happened when it happened and you went, “Hey, this is cool. Let’s do another one” and it just went on from there?

JW: Yeah, well… I can definitely say that when we started, there weren’t many opportunities for people to go out and dance to rock music. There was a big electronic scene in Detroit. Frankly, one of the reasons we started The Bang! was because the club in Windsor, Canada, the Loop, that we all used to go across the river till, um, September 11th happened and right after September 11th happened, there were back-ups of like, 9 hours or something for people to get across the bridge, so that was kind of… going to Windsor and partying anymore was just kind of out. So that kind of made us make the decision. “Ok, well, let’s try to make something; try and do these thing that we’ve thought about for a while and actually do it.” It was also our stab at trying to get Detroiters to our fair city instead of us always going to them.

STI: So The Bang! kind of came from 9/11, would you say?

JW: Yeah! It definitely had an effect.

STI: Something good came from that?

JW: Yeah! [laughs] I mean, it’s a terrible thing to say, but yeah, there were certainly times when we were at the Loop or before that ,there was an indie dance party in Detroit in, like, ’99 called SIPS and that, you know… going back then, that really was the earliest example we had experienced where people were dancing to, like, Pulp and Blur and the Smiths and things like that.

STI: Kind of like your smaller college basement party where you would put on your favorite college-type radio albums or just tune into the local college station and dance if you want to, don’t if you don’t, you know? That kind of thing except on a grand scale?

JW: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And there were things that like, when we were at the Loop or something, we would notice songs that would go off great and we would notice songs that wouldn’t go off too well. “Why are they playing this, why don’t they play this?” And we were just like, “Why don’t we do this?”

STI: So your Inner DJ came out, kind of?

JW: Definitely. Definitely. I mean, we were taught from SIPS and from The Loop on what music really worked. What people were into, what we were really into. We moved here… Jason Gibner and I moved here eight years ago. We moved here from Grand Rapids and this was after my time in Pittsburgh, and really, there was nothing going on in Grand Rapids that was remotely supporting any kind of scene where people would dance and party and things like that. There were house parties, but nothing really that special. So, we were really energized when we came to Ann Arbor. When we met all these great people who liked to dance as well and as soon as we started going to these other events, we were just like, “Wow! This… We could really do something here.” Or “we could just throw a party of our own and see how it goes.” And the next thing you know, it’s seven years later.

STI: Just like that. [snaps fingers]

JW: It feels like it! [laughs]

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STI: Have you been approached by other venues or clubs outside of Ann Arbor to put on a Bang! at their place?

JW: Yes. Some we’ve agreed to. The Bang! on the road hasn’t been the most successful for many different reasons that were just kind of out of our control. So in a way we’ve kind of nestled in in Ann Arbor because it’s comfortable and because we at least know what to expect from our own venue and out of our own equipment.

STI: Home base?

JW: Yeah, yeah yeah. I mean, there’s definitely something very comforting in that. We have been approached by other venues but you really get a sense that people don’t really understand what we’re about. You  know, bookers don’t understand what we’re about. They want to put us on a Thursday night somewhere and things like that. Really, it needs to be a weekend thing. It needs to be this or it needs to be that. I think bigger clubs are a little more hesitant to give us any kind of a spot just because, you know… someplace like the Necto. The Necto is very secure in their Friday and Saturday nights. They’ve been doing them how long? They get the crowd they get – - why change it, you know? So, that’s fine. We’re totally fine with that. But another really cool thing is that we’ve been invited, just this last year we were invited to the D.I.A. (Detroit Institute of Arts), to do an event. They were having an art show of ash can art featuring some paintings of, like, boxers so then they created this event where there was live boxing, live wrestling, a band AND they invited us.

STI: All at the same time?

JW: All at the same time, all at the D.I.A. In the marble room, you can look up to the balcony and you can see centuries old, you know…

STI: Priceless works of art?

JW: Yeah, priceless works of art and we were invited and we got to project Rocky movies around the marble room.

STI: Onto rock!

JW: Yeah, exactly, onto rock! So, it’s just amazing to be able to do that and frankly, there were no problems with that gig which was really great so, we hope to be open to more things, it’s just a matter of having the right kind of thing — opportunity presented to us.

STI: That’s a pretty heavy thing, but what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen happen at a Bang!?

JW: We had a riser collapse at a Bang!. We had a runway and I think which one it was, I think it was a New Years, and so we had, like, a walkway running off the front of the stage and I have distinct memories of dancing on it during Led Zeppelin and bouncing around on it and for some reason the riser failed later that night. All I know is that I was roaming around the party and then I kind of looked towards the stage and I was just like, “Well, where’s that riser? What happened to it?” And I found out later that it completely collapsed, people were on it, but then what was genius — Well, what was one genius was no one got hurt, thank God, and number two what was genius is, they just picked up all the pieces, put them to the side and kept on dancing.

STI: There’s your rabid fans, right?

JW: Yeah! Yeah!

STI: That’s your hardcore base right there.

JW: Destruction is a part of The Bang!, you know? Whenever we build something, we take into account that, this might get broken or this might get pulled down and what do we do from there?

STI: So at that point it’s not just a clever name…

JW: Oh yeah! We definitely mess shit up, absolutely. If we have a backdrop that’s hung from the ceiling, it’s amazing if it stays up all night. It’s amazing.

STI: Speaking of, where did the name come from?

JW: The name came from — there’s a whole group of Bang! nights around the world, really, that use the name, especially in L.A., that’s just Club Bang. They’re still going now. They were going before we were and their pictures were fantastic, so when we were talking about what we wanted to do, we were like, “Well, why don’t we call ourselves THE Bang”, you know? Something like that. So that’s kind of where it stemmed from and then since then, since then it’s kind of an interesting thing that all the nights were sort of connected. It hasn’t happened in a few years and we haven’t really acted on it the way we should, but there is some sort of connection between the different nights, which all use some variation on the “Bang” name. But its weird, you know? It’s been a hindrance in a way just because you can’t really trademark a name like that if other people are using it, but then again we are “The Bang! Mix Tape Dance Party.” There is nothing like that. But we were definitely inspired by other places.

STI: The Bang! aside, you’re also a comic artist. What work of yours is currently on the racks for people to pick up?

JW: If anyone’s in town, they can head to Vault of Midnight and they can check out — they should have various stuff there, most having to do with the Age of Sinnocence line which I am involved with with my best buddy, Matt DeLight. We went to high school together and have been doing Age of Sinnocence, I guess now for over ten years which is crazy and I should call him and congratulate him for that.

STI: He writes and you do the art?

JW: He writes and I do the art. We both star in the comic and it’s just about our exploits of, you know, being either sex-crazed twenty-somethings to us complaining about why we’re not huge or any number of things. You know, being up Abe Lincoln’s nose or… you never know what you’re going to get.

STI: Kind of like your Ornery Boy or your Penny Arcade or your Mac Hall of Ann Arbor.

JW: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, we’re not Ann Arbor specific. He lives in San Francisco now so he’s kind of hooked into the whole ‘zine culture of the west coast and stuff like that and I’m kind of keepin’ fort in the Midwest. So that’s where we’re at, but they can find stuff at Vault of Midnight on Main St. and if you go to Vault of Midnight the murals on the wall you see are mine. I painted the robot and the Godzilla monster. I created their logos so anytime you see a Vault of Midnight logo, chances are it’s mine.

STI: I’ve seen that logo in tattoo form as well.

JW: Absolutely. There are many people who have that tattoo on their body and its fantastic and I love them all and I think it’s great and I’m a chump for not having one myself.

STI: Little shout-out to Vault of Midnight there?

JW: Absolutely. Curtis and Liz and Steve, you guys are the best. I love ya.

STI: I can’t go in there without spending a lot of time.

JW: Yeah, absolutely. There’s tons to look at. I’m very happy that I was able to help them grow to a bigger spot and they are one of the most fabulous comic places I’ve ever been to. Their spot is fantastic and I can’t wait to see what we come up with next.

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STI: You went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and graduated when?

JW: ’97

STI: Ok, and from there, that’s when the comics started coming out, right?

JW: Yeah, yeah. The comics started coming shortly thereafter or during. There were actually some comics that were made during when I was there that never quite made it out, but shortly after Pittsburgh I moved back to Grand Rapids and hooked back up with Matt DeLight and we started doing Age of Sinnocence and we also started — and that’s when I met Jason Gibner from The Bang!, and that’s when I started doing comics with Jason as well as Matt. We did some series of comics called “I Fucked Up 1 and 2″ and “I, Loser” which Vault of Midnight might have a copy or two of those.

STI: “I, Loser”. Is that in the vein of, like, “I, Robot” or more like an Apple “iLoser” kind of thing?

JW: It’s more like, we’re idiots who have completely fucked up with women many times and here are some stories of us being, just, complete jerks or complete losers. Very self-depreciating and just really good stories that we had to tell that we probably told each other a million times and it was time to do it in comic format. So yeah… we’ve excelled at the “small press world.” The roots of  The Bang! actually go back to a zine we did called Geek Monthly. Whether people have read our stuff or not is a whole other question, but that’s a Midwest thing, I think.

STI: Is there still new material coming off the press?

JW: Uhhh, yeah. Well, as the years have gone on, more and more things have happened. I started a comic blog that was kind of like a personal blog called Keepin’ It Wheeler. I started doing, um, it was just kind of a way for me to kind of spew out all of the things that I was involved in and interested in. So it was kind of like a bio/comic meets film analysis meets party planner extraordinaire. I mean, its just a mix of so many things and it’s actually hard to send around to people because you’re just like, “Well, this isn’t exactly all movies and it isn’t exactly all bio stuff.” It’s just a whole big mix.

STI: It’s one central location for Van Wilder meets Rob Gordon meets Bankie.

JW: Yeah, I mean, yeah! It was a whole big thing and I did that for a while and I actually released a limited edition volume of that and I hope to do more of those soon. And then, Age of Sinnocence has kept on going. We continue to do stuff. Lately, my newest project is “Remake Hell“ and that’s at remakehell.tumblr.com. This is a comic of me retaliating against Hollywood for their constant lack of creativity and the reckless mining of their back catalogs.

STI: The full-page comic that always opens with watching the TV and getting the latest report from Hollywood.

JW: Yeah yeah yeah yeah!

STI: Generally a spit-take follows or something like that.

JW: Yeah, yeah! A spit-take follows, usually with some violent, over the top shit ending with me dead every time. I just started it, and there’s no shortage of material to go on. It’s a tough thing because just today there was a remake announced and I know that probably tonight I will have to spend a couple hours kickin’ something out. I don’t know what the fuck it’s gonna be, but I’ll figure it out.

STI: Which one was announced today?

JW: Captain Blood, the Errol Flynn pirate classic. Phillip Noyce, who directed “Clear and Present Danger” as well as plenty of other great movies, he’s going to direct it. It’s in development and we’ll see what happens. There’s a pirate craze. Everyone loves pirates. Everyone loves movie pirates but hates pirates who actually kill you on a cruise ship, so… [laughs] That’ll ruin the vacation real quick!

STI: Speaking of movies and remakes, you’ve been reviewing movies at All Movie Guide since 2001. What drew you in that direction?

JW: Location. Ann Arbor. I had no idea that the All Media Guide was based in Ann Arbor. I had no idea who the people behind it were. Jason Gibner and I were working at the Harmony House downtown on State St. People might have known it because there was a Ticketmaster in there. They also might have known it because we had a shitty music stock. [laughs] I mean, we were a crappy chain place and they closed it on us. In, like, a week’s time, they closed it and I just so happened to know a gal who worked at the All Media Guide who got me a job and within a year or so I was working in the movie department. That’s around the time I started reviewing movies and started working on their database and just kind of feeling my way through that. And it’s nice that I’m interested in movies so it creates a good environment there.

STI: Professional critic?

JW: Yeah yeah yeah! Absolutely. I mean, in a time when film critics are dying, I still have a job as a film critic. No matter what you say about our company, no matter what you say about our database, no matter how much more awesome you think the All Music Guide is compared to the All Movie Guide, I still have a job and that’s great. Our company just bought TV Guide, so now I’m a real deal TV Guide reviewer, which is bonkers. Really nuts. And I love the people I work with, so… they’re fantastic.

STI: Well, you write a bit, you draw a bit, you DJ a bit. We’ve kind of covered all things. Is there anything you haven’t tackled yet that you think you might venture into?

JW: Film-making. I was involved in [some film-making in] Grand Rapids. Jason Gibner and I, as well as a few other of The Bang! alumni, we were involved in a public access show called “Late Night Movie Geek Monster Fest” which is almost 15 years old at this point which is nuts to think about at this point. And we played wild stuff like “Black Shampoo”, like Sam Raimi’s “Crimewave”, Tim Ritter’s “Truth or Dare” — that one being a terrible, but hilarious, low budget blood fest. We had a lot of fun with that. Recently, we were involved — God, it was almost two years ago — there was a Grindhouse — there was a contest for “make your own Grindhouse trailer” for when Grindhouse came out and we put out the “Detective Frankenstein“ trailer and it actually, well, just like all the other fake trailers that were created by just, normal people, we got press for it and people looked at it and thought it was funny, so we’re hoping to do a Detective Frankenstein movie at some point. The makers of Detective Frankenstein, we are shortly going to go into music video territory for a band in Chicago that we’ll be announcing pretty soon. I’m also do button-making on the side, as well as all of the design work for The Bang!. I have something over– oh, I dunno– it’s like a hundred or some odd posters right now and if you go to GigPosters.com you can see all of them. Take a look.

STI: So it sounds like we’re going to speaking again in the future when the video thing happens and you’re suddenly pitching the new video for the band.

JW: Or, or not! [busts out laughing]

STI: Not very optimistic!

JW: I mean, here, The Bang! is seven years old. Should we have grown bigger in that time? Probably. Do we regret not growing bigger than we have? No, because life moves on. I mean, The Bang! and comics are just this crazy railroad that just bowls over you and you try to keep up. Especially in the Midwest. People don’t really have contacts in the Midwest. You aren’t really connected to other people who are really making it big in any given industry, so if you’re a big fish in a small pond or not, it’s a little hard to kind of grow beyond your means if you are rooted where you are. That’s entirely not a bad thing because I wouldn’t– I don’t regret anything that we’ve done so far. Right now, we’re looking forward to the Ten Year Bang!. This  is our next goal, besides securing a workshop/practice space. I don’t know if we’ve had too many goals before, but right now we’re looking forward to the Ten Year Bang!. I’m hoping to take the people involved to Disneyland at the Ten Year Bang!. That’s my big teary-eyed dream that I will stick to and I will hope for and I will do short of making full-fledged promises. [laughs] We’re also proud to announce that we’ll be handling decorations duty inside the Michigan Theater for the Annual Ann Arbor Film Fest this year, which should be pretty insane – in the classiest sense of the word, of course.

STI: Well, Street Team Interviews will keep its finger on the pulse of The Bang! for the next several years so we can see how the Ten Year Bang! turns out.

JW: Fantastic. I can’t wait! It should be… it should be plenty stupid. [laughs] Until then, I can promise plenty of stupid shit to come out of us, of The Bang! and of Age of Sinnocence and all of our comics and all that crazy stuff. And, you know, tune in… or not.

STI: Thanks so much for talking with us today.

JW: Absolutely. It was my pleasure. Yes. Thank you for the beers. [laughs]

[Interview transcribed from an audio interview conducted on December 3rd, 2008]

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