Photo via Too Much Effing Perspective
Spinal Tap was a comedy about a rock band whose pretensions got the best of them. They’re the guys whose guitarist spoke of turning it up to 11 when 10 was the top number on the volume dial of his Marshall amp.
The podcast “Too Much Effing Perspective,” debuting Aug. 24, is a sympathetic insiders’ look at those moments in the careers of musicians when—in an abundance of self-regard—they reached too far and fell on their faces. The hosts are a pair of Milwaukee expats in LA and Portland, Allen Keller and Alex Hofmann.
Keller surfaced circa 1990 with Womens Liberace, a snarky alt rock outfit, and went on to greater sophistication in a band with great promise The Falling Wallendas. Keller left town and I had to begin our conversation by asking, “What have you been up to for the past 30 years?”
“When we first met, Dave, I hadn’t even been alive 30 years yet. Funny how that works,” Keller replies. It’s been a busy three decades. After a pair of excellent Wallendas albums and a solo record, “I completely quit music and started writing sketch comedy at Second City in Chicago. I had a historical sketch comedy show there for a while called Patriautism.”
By 2005 Keller was in LA, shooting video for a series that never found a home. “I kept writing and shooting things and getting closer to making a sale, but it was a bunch of ‘close but no cigar’ moments. Actually, no one smokes cigars out here so it was more ‘close but no vape’ moments.” Some of his work from that time can be found here.
Keller and his wife started a vegan cheese business, Nary Dairy, as his screenplay for a dark comedy, Walking Time Bomb, made the rounds. “Netflix optioned it with Elizabeth Banks producing. Unfortunately, the movie fell apart at the last second. Super disappointment,” he recalls. “A couple years later, it got picked up again by a director Stacy Title (Bye Bye Man) who assembled a cast including Bob Odenkirk, Jesse Plemmons, Jason Alexander and Courtney B Vance. Then Stacy got ALS and died late last year while we were still seeking money.”
He maintained some ties with Milwaukee, recording an album with Mike Benign and helping write PSAs for ALS with Dave Hanneken and Hoffman York and Countney B. Vance. “And that’s where I’m at. I continue to churn out scripts and bang my head against the wall,” he says.
Radiohead to TED
As for Alex Hofmann, he was a musician who also managed The BoDeans before becoming tour manager for Radiohead’s North American tour. He got a business degree and worked for Disney, PBS and TED Talks. “After he quit Ted Talks, Alex said he wanted to start a podcast where we ask famous musicians and celebrities about their Spinal Tap moments,” Keller explains. “He is pretty well connected in the podcast world and had gotten some great feedback on the idea. We complement each other quite well. He’s kind of the play-by-play man and I’m the color commentator.”
They began by comparing notes on who they knew who would make great guests. “Our first one was obvious, Falling Wallenda drummer, Todd Sucherman,” Keller says, explaining that Sucherman also played “The Tonight Show” and “The Daily Show” with Spinal Tap. “Then I asked a long-time friend of mine, Matt Walker, who replaced Jimmy Chamberlain in Smashing Pumpkins years ago, fills in for Butch Vig occasionally with Garbage, and recently quit Morrissey’s band after playing with him for maybe a decade. Alex lives in Portland and he asked his neighbor Patterson Hood from Drive-By Truckers to do it.”
The Stars Keep Coming
The chain of personal connections kept gathering new links. “Zia McCabe from the Dandy Warhols is a realtor in Portland and he just called her up and she agreed. His wife is friends with Corin Tucker from Sleater Kinney so she and Carrie Brownstein are going to be our next guest. I’m friends with the guys from Fountains of Wayne and got their guitarist Jody Porter. Same with Joey Santiago from The Pixies. And we just interviewed nine-time Grammy nominee and Milwaukee native (and high school friend), jazz vocalist Tierney Sutton.”
Hofmann adds, “The format is intentionally conversational rather than a more traditional question/answer interview style. We want listeners to feel like they are sitting around the table with us plus the guest swapping stories. With each episode, we start in a personal way by sharing some of our own Spinal Tap moment stories and setting-up the episode theme. Then we dive in with the guest to hear and discuss their best stories.”
Eventually, “Too Much Effing Perspective” will reach beyond music for guests. “We are trying to widen the aperture, not sticking with just musicians nor rock musicians. I know many people in the world of comedy and eventually we’ll have on Dave Foley from Kids in the Hall and Rhys Darby from Flight of the Conchords,” Keller says. Each episode will be 45 minutes long.
“We think our podcast is different because it’s not just a bunch of people talking over each other, cracking wise for the sake of it,” Keller says. “We strive to find the universal truths hidden in the film. Basically, This is Spinal Tap is about what happens when things don’t turn out as intended, and that happens to everyone, not just performers. As someone wiser than me once put it, ‘Want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans.’ Spinal Tap moments turn hubris into humility. Moments that might not have been fun when they happened, but in retrospect, are hilarious. As Alan Alda said in Crimes and Misdemeanors, ‘Comedy is tragedy plus time.’
“Also, Alex and I have lived it. Alex has tour managed at the very highest level and has great stories about the bands he’s worked with and toured with. And even me and my meager music career has resulted in tons of moments. For example, in our premiere episode, I talk about the time The Wallendas played Shank Hall and I jumped off the stage wearing brand new, slick platforms shoes. When I landed on the plastic dance floor, my legs flipped over my head and I cold cocked myself. I finished the gig but found out years later I had suffered serious injury. We thought it was funny that my spinal tap moment resulted in actual spinal damage. “Perfect example of what Mel Brooks said, ‘Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into a sewer and die.’”
Or as Hofmann puts it, “Had we known there were seven billion podcasts, perhaps we would have gone into a less competitive form of creative expression -- such as starting a band (again).
“Too Much Effing Perspective” will be available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.
