The Silent Comedy
In the Bungalow with The Silent Comedy
On a tip from Maxwell, I headed out to Cane’s in Mission Beach for the Crash Encore, The Silent Comedy, Get Back Loretta, and Dirty Sweet show. I was thrilled by the originality of The Silent Comedy as I stood behind the dance floor with Get Back Loretta keyboardist Kevin Martin and soaked in the feel good, fun loving revival troupe that is The Silent Comedy. One part saloon quintet, two parts musical genius with dash of Irish lullaby and a teaspoon of Broadway musical, this ensemble embodies a vibe rarely seen a stone’s throw away from the Pacific Ocean. The band features diverse instruments such as a banjo, violin, mandolin, trombone, as well as the usual guitars and drums. The Silent Comedy is also known for utilizing guest musicians from other bands and can feature up to fourteen members at a time. Bones was a soulful song that struck me as reminiscent of early Stones but rounder and richer than Mick and the guys, sorry blokes. Road Song, proclaimed by the band as “a Johnny Cash tribute song” was a jamboree, hoedown, hootenanny which included choruses of This Train is Bound For Glory and When The Saints Come Marching In that would make any music teacher smile. After the show, I caught up with band member, Joshua Zimmerman in a closet-sized musicians’ lounge.
Bill: Your song Moonshine reminds me of a distillery that I made during my college years. Are you speaking from experience?
Joshua Zimmerman: Yes, yes in the 20s, we were big in the liquor running business, it’s sort of like Highlander, we are actually immortal and you have to cut our heads off to actually kill us. We still use some of that money to finance the band nowadays. All our merchandise is paid for by moonshine money.
Bill: So, which one of you guys buried the bones under the road? We all have skeletons in our closet, I have plenty, but really, what is that song about?
Joshua Zimmerman: I can explain what the song is about, but it would take too long. My brother buried the bones under the road, let’s just say that because we just filmed a video for that song, and he drowned a girl in a bath tub. So it’s his bones because he killed a girl for the video.
Bill: So, the song is about murder?
Joshua Zimmerman: The song is about a lot of really fucked up shit. The whole thing is, to make a long story short, there is a road in Nova, no not Nova Scotia umm fuckin uh, what’s that tundra called in Russia? The upper region, what is it called…
Bill: Oh, Siberia.
Joshua Zimmerman:Yeah, Siberia, well there is a road through Siberia that when the Soviet empire was going on, they made political prisoners work on the roads in Siberia, and many would die while constructing the roads, so they would just put the bodies and bones in and under the roads. That’s why they call it the “Highway of Death” It’s literally thousands of people’s bones buried under the roads in Siberia. So that is what inspired the song, it is basically about tons of really fucked up shit that actually happened, but my brother did drown a girl in our music video, I had nothing to do with it.
Bill: Is your way of dealing with groupies, bringing your girlfriends on tour? I’d be happy to run interference for you.
The noise inside the room swells as conversations strike up. Members from all the various bands on the bill litter the long, skinny room. Zimmerman and I are off in a corner.
Joshua Zimmerman: Wait, hold on… I am the only one in the band unattached. So here’s the deal, uh, uh, we take it as a compliment when groupies are into us, but they should all funnel them towards me.
Bill: All of them?
Joshua Zimmerman:Well, I am a sharing person, I’ll share. But they all should be guided towards me first.
Really, Joshua, all of them? Can’t you spare just one for an aging, handsome, gentleman like myself? Greed isn’t always good and you might need a wingman yourself on occasion.
Bill: Your band is really high energy, I dig all the different instruments. How many people are actually in The Silent Comedy? And what are their names?
Joshua Zimmerman: Ok, well there is a core of five people in The Silent Comedy, and their names are J. John, which is myself. J. Benjamin, which is my brother, J. Benedict, who plays drums and other assorted things, J. Michael who plays the banjo, mandolin, etc. And Ivan Forbes who plays violin, guitar, mandolin etc. We are the core of The Silent Comedy, but Josh Cass from Get Back Loretta helps out sometimes, also the other guys from Get Back Loretta play a little bit. Other guys from other bands also join in, Chris from Dirty Sweet has talked about jamming, we are really about involving a larger group, but there really is a core of five members.
Bill: So, you never know what you are going to get at a Silent Comedy Show.
Joshua Zimmerman: Right! We might have five people on stage, or we might have fourteen people on stage. You never know.
On that note, Josh and I make our way to the bar and order a couple of drinks. Just as we are being served, we hear Get Back Loretta’s bassist, Josh Cass say: “You can’t smoke pot and be biased against cigarettes, it’s not fair, it’s not fair!” Zimmerman gets a good laugh out of that one. As we enjoy our refreshing adult beverages, we are joined by The Silent Comedy’s scruffy faced, Justin Michael.
Bill: I dig your banjo Justin, can you tell me a little about it?
Justin: My banjo is one of the good time banjos with no resonator, but the thing is, I got all the electronics put into it. I got a really good banjo pick up put into it. So, resonators are made to project the sound, I have the open back, without the resonator, it’s cheaper. Since I am going electric anyway, it doesn’t matter a whole lot. So then, I got it souped up by a professional at a place called, Old Time Music. It’s in North Park, in San Diego. It used to be Acoustic Expressions, then it was bought out by Buffalo Brothers.
Bill: So how many strings does it have?
Justin: Five strings. I have the five string model. They make a four string model, without the drone, which is the high G string, but I got a five string one.
Bill: So, how much does a new banjo cost nowadays?
Justin: A really good one is thousands of dollars, they absolutely are.
Bill: How much are banjo strings?
Justin: Banjo strings are dirt cheap actually, in fact the last set of banjo strings were given to me at Old Time Music, that’s how cheap they are.
Bill: So, what is your favorite part of your live show?
Justin: Our big strong point is our live show because of the energy, most of that comes from the people there that are there to see us. Our strong point definitely is that we have songs that at least bring people in and turn their heads and get them interested, so when we have a lot of people in the crowd, we just feed off it. Usually, the more people in the audience, the better the show will be. We always get them moving and jumping. Personally, my favorite parts of our shows are the parts that I get most into. I do a lot of shitty off key back up singing and yelling. Whenever I do that, those are my favorite parts.
There was evidence of that here tonight. The stage was a medley of voices, instruments and vintage clothing. And the crowd was really digging it.
Bill: I talked to some random guy here and he said, “So there’s a lot of Amish people here tonight” and I thought that was hilarious because you’re not Amish. So how do you think your image and style influence people who have never seen your band before? How does that tie into your music?
Justin: Well you know, Ian is our style guru, let him answer this one.
Ian: I feel the costume brings us to a whole new level of aesthetics and image that help out our whole live show. People are coming to a show, they’re not coming to hear the same music they can hear on a CD replayed live in a nice, perfect way. We all try to have cool costumes that involve hats and vests and ties. We are like really cool kids from the 1920s, or at least we attempt to be, and it just adds to the whole live thing.
Bill: You guys are the band that should have came out when prohibition was happening. You are the quintessential anti-prohibition band. So, from my perspective, The Silent Comedy are reviving an old-timey, folk, rock, country with unique style and performance. Being more of a live band, how do you plan to progress your way through music?
Josh: Two words, amazing producer.
Justin: I really thought it was going to be practice, practice.
Josh:Somewhere, there is going to be a producer who goes “I get that, and I will reproduce it. I understand your vibe.”
Bill: I feel like you honestly do have an original vibe with so many different influences. I’m not only going to limit you to the folk, country and the old western stuff. Maxwell and I were talking about this the other day and, I think you guys have Billy Joel and Elton John influences. Also, Maxwell thought you were inspired by The Doors and The Rolling Stones. Your songwriting reminds us of the classics. The song 49, from your new self titled EP is an addictive raw and raunchy rock tune. I can’t stop listening to it! What’s it all about?
Josh: It’s about the gold rush and revenge and anger. It’s the emotions based on my last relationship, but put into the context of the gold rush.
Bill: And Gasoline, a truly beautiful song, did you write that as well?
Josh: No, my brother Jeremiah wrote that one, but I know a lot about it. Gasoline is about death. Our grandfather just died recently, and that influenced us a lot. We were really close to him. We actually played a big show with Get Back Loretta at Soma and we had to leave directly after the show and go to the airport, take a redeye flight up to Montana, drive for a couple hours in a rental car to this tiny little town. We get out of the rental car, walk into this building, and carry his casket out to put it in the ground. It was really, really intense and crazy. That’s what that song is based on, the whole issue of death.
Bill: Bollocks! We’ll, then respect is in order.(Lifting up his drink) To your Grandfather!
(Glasses clink)
And a moment passes, a quiet eye amid the buzz of a Saturday night in Mission Beach.
