Our New York ComicCon & CBGB Festival Report Starring Pete Holmes, Bob Gruen, Andrew McCarthy & Fake Daft Punk, plus: Ice-T Is The Most Proud Of Which Of His Videos?
This past weekend in New York City was a double-shot of awesome for pop culture fanatics. Both New York Comic Con and the CBGB’s Festival had fans bouncing back and forth from comics to music, from Times Square to the Javits Center, all weekend long. Both events experienced record turnouts, and THE GOLDEN AGE OF MUSIC VIDEO filed this report about sniffing out any classic music video-related findings at both events.
Pete Holmes, who was there promoting his upcoming project “The Pete Holmes Show” on TBS which premieres after Conan on Monday, October 28th, said his favorite music video is Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”. “Something to jerk off to,” he explained.
The fake Duck Dynasty guys said they liked ZZ Top & Green Day videos, as well as the video for Kiss’s “Lick It Up”.
Ghostbusters were out in full force, including original ‘busta Ernie Hudson, posing for photos with the fans standing next to the Ghostbusters car. We didn’t think we needed to ask his favorite music video, but probably it’s not Huey Lewis & the News’ “I Want A New Drug”.
Scratch Academy DJ AnchWax said his favorite music video is Pharcyde’s “Drop”, directed by Spike Jonze.
Ever thought about how awkward and uncomfortable the actors look in the “St. Elmo’s Fire” music video with John Parr? Yeah, me too. We asked actor, author and “Orange Is The New Black” director Andrew McCarthy about that, and he replied, “It was ridiculous. Well, it was a silly song, really.”
Staying in character, the fake Daft Punk guys didn’t really say anything either. “Hey, are you guys looking to GET LUCKY?” Nothing. Not a peep.
Robert Carradine, known to most as the character Lewis from the Revenge of the Nerds movies, was there promoting the second season of his show “King of the Nerds” with Curtis “Booger/Burt Viola” Armstrong. When I mentioned his lead role in the Motels’ “Suddenly Last Summer” music video, and then asked what he remembered from playing lead singer Martha Davis’s love interest, he said, “Her!”
You know what we asked, and her answer was “U Can’t Touch This”.
While moving several blocks east and ingesting all the CBGB Festival had to offer in the middle of Times Square, we ran into legendary rock photographer Bob Gruen & a friend. When we asked if he ever think he’d see a CBGB Festival in Times Square, he replied dryly, “No, I didn’t.” “Do you think much about that time?” “No, not really.”
Pittsburgh rockers Nic Lawless and His Young Criminals, who played Cake Shop on Saturday night, stopped and told us their favorite classic music videos: Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “True Colors” (totally serious), Sonic Youth’s “Shadow of a Doubt” as well as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ “In The Ghetto”.
We attended a CBGB Festival press event at the Standard Hotel in Cooper Square, not that far from the original CBGB’s. Veteran hip-hop artist and “Law & Order: SVU” actor Ice-T gave a rare press talk about any subject we wanted to approach. We managed to get him to talk some about his music videos, although it seemed like he took a jab at Snoop Lion for his recent reggae leanings…
GAMV: In your career, you’ve done some very ambitious music videos, both as a solo artist and for your band Body Count. You worked with Peter Christopherson on “Born Dead” –
Ice-T: Yeah, they wouldn’t play the video on MTV.
GAMV: Right. And you worked with Matt Mahurin on Body Count’s “There Goes The Neighborhood”. What video, of all of them, would you say you are the most proud of?
Ice-T: Probably “O. G. Original Gangster” because I did that with a camera lockoff in a room, no jewelry, just a guy in a room rappin’, simple, with visuals going on in his head, I would pop up in different parts of the room, kind of like a raw, black and white video. That was kind of dope.”
“Right now I’ve got an idea for the Body Count album [Body Count is currently finishing their new album] that I think I’m going to do. I think I’m going to shoot maybe myself, and then just farm out to all these kids who’ve got viral abilities, and let the ones who send in the best videos get a budget and I let them make the Body Count videos. Farm it out, because there’s some geniuses out there, and then edit it all together and make a movie. Instead of a listening party, I’ll have a screening of the album. How about that? Ice-T is always trying to get start up some different sh*t. I’m from the school of see-what-everyone-else-is-doing-and-don’t’-do-that. Ya dig? If I’m not first, I’m not really going to f*ck with it. I don’t do reggae because I’m not Bob Marley. If I was Bob Marley, then I’d f*ck with it. I want to be first, so I sit around with my boys and say, how can we do something that’s never been done before? It’s corny to me. It’s like if I was trying to sell crack today. (laughs) Too late!