The Pope

By Chuck Ansbacher

Tuesday November 15, 2005

The Smell Of LA

“Paul” (guy on the right) teaches history at a Christian High-School in LA. The school is so seriously Christian that they fired him one time when he dropped the F bomb in a magazine interview. It turned out ok though cause the kids rallied around him all Dead Poets Society style and got him re-hired. But now he never does interviews or uses his real name or has his photo taken or anything. And in an entirely unrelated matter, it’s pretty hard to do research on a band called The Pope, so you sorta rely on whatever they say on their website and take it at face value. Awkward alert!

ONLY: Where are you guys from in Texas?

Watson: No, no, no. We live in LA. You’re referring to the Myspace thing? Yeah that’s not real. Most of the stuff on there is completely a joke.

ONLY: So you’re not republicans or religious either?

Watson: No. I mean, you can put that if you want but–

ONLY: That would be a lot more fun.

Watson: (laughs) I can pretend to be one if you want.

ONLY: Shit man, I think all of my questions revolved around you
guys being from Texas–

Watson: Well I’ve been to Texas so I can try to wing it.

ONLY: No I’ll figure something else out… So what do you do for work? You said that “Paul” teaches kids to hate America in that e-mail?

Watson: No that was a joke too. He’s a teacher, but he teaches a lot of American foreign policy and stuff like that. Stuff that you wouldn’t get from a regular High-School teacher I guess.

ONLY: I was all thinking it was real cool to teach kids to hate
America in Texas.

Watson: I think if he did that in Texas he’d probably get lynched or something.

ONLY: Yeah… So did you grow up in LA, or did you guys move there or something?

Watson: No, I grew up out here.

ONLY: And what’s the scene like? I’ve only been to LA once. It was real brief.

Watson: LA’s weird. I used to go to shows a lot, but now I generally go to our own shows. It’s cool, but honestly I like The Smell and that’s about it.

ONLY: The smell of LA?

Watson: Yeah there’s a place called — have you heard of The Smell?

ONLY: Oh, I thought you were saying you loved the way it smells in LA.

Watson: (laughs) No I don’t love that. There’s this all ages place called The Smell. It’s in downtown and it’s the one place you can go and actually see some decent bands.

ONLY: What are the good LA bands right now aside from Phantom Planet?

Watson: I like Silver Daggers and The Mae Shi. They both play at The Smell, and it’s mostly good because since it’s all ages there’s mostly just kids going there.

ONLY: All ages are always the most fun I think. Although I usually hate them since I hate kids, they have way more fun than dumb old people.

Watson: Yeah I’m not a big fan of kids at all, but they’re less concerned about looking cool and all that. Like, I went to see The Tight Bros at Spaceland once, and everyone was just standing around with their arms folded, observing I guess. I was trying to get everyone to have fun and get rowdy, and everyone was just like “ow,” like I was being a jerk.

See The Pope with The Mae Shi and Hot Loins at The Lamplighter on Wednesday, November 23, 2005