On this week’s very special episode of Don’t Bother Wearing Seatbelts, we meet Jake Whitener, founder and creator of Bazooka Fest and someone who, in a lot of ways, has lived the ultimate indie rock fan’s fantasy.
One of the things I love about independent music is that world of indie rock is so incredibly small.
A friend turns you on to a band. That band changes your life. Years later, somehow with a little hard work and heart, in my case you're opening for that band or in Jake's case you’re working with that band.
A friend introduced him to Pavement The Rock Band and some Elephant 6 Recording Co. bands, and Jake took that passion and did something with it. He worked hard. He showed up. He said yes. He was willing to do whatever needed to be done. And somewhere along the way, the kid who loved these records ended up becoming an A&R Director at Matador Records, weirdly appearing in the Pavement movie, epically presenting Bob Pollard with a trophy at Guided By Voices’ 40th anniversary celebration, working alongside bands he once admired from afar, playing music himself, and eventually creating his own independent music festival.
That festival is Bazooka Fest.
Now like I said the world of indie rock is small.. so yes I have a story about these two bands that are near and dear to my heart for many reasons but today I hope you are ready for some heartbreak... let's get into a little indie rock tragedy story..
After my old band's summer tour in 2004, I had moved and was living in Indianapolis.. Devin and my other bandmate, Ephraim, decided they would take the long drive from Iowa to Indianapolis, to visit me and see a free show happening at a college in Muncie, Indiana.. featuring Destroyer, Elf Power and some other bands. I say they were coming to visit me.. but really the true intent of the trip was to see a band they loved so much that they had never seen before... Destroyer..
It was fitting, Devin had been the person who for years had been my go to for turning each other on to new music... he was the one who had turned me on to the band Destroyer in the first place... much in the same way Jake talks about his friends introducing him to bands that would eventually change his life...
None of us had ever seen Destroyer at that point. Dan Bejar was going to be playing solo at this show and we were all ridiculously excited to be going together.. to see Dan and hell we also get to see our heroes and pals in Elf Power..
Lucky me I was seeing Elf Power twice that week.. A few days earlier, Elf Power played in Indianapolis and learned that the night of the Muncie show happened to be the birthday of Brian “B.P.” Helium. Elf Power's bassist.
Elf Power was and is one of my favorite bands ever and they have always been so incredibly kind to me and my old band. We had played with them, booked them, hell I even gave them my sitar.. (story for another time..).
Elf Power was always so supportive of our little band over the years.. Very early on in our existence my old band The Poison Control Center was featured on the NPR show with Todd Mundt. It was our first national press of any kind... and guess who sent me an e-mail right away to congratulate us.. Yes that's right, it was someone from a band I loved.. telling me that he had heard it and took the initiative to reach out and tell me how cool it was that we were on the Todd Mundt show.. Elf Power's Brian Helium, said he had always wanted to be featured on that show.
For a young indie rocker like myself... trying to figure out if anybody cared about the music we were making, that was so kind and so cool of him to do. It really gave me a spark and a boost.. to keep rocking.. Thanks BP.
Again: the indie rock world is really, really small. And full of love.
Ok back to the story.. naturally, I decided we needed to bring Brian of Elf Power a birthday cake to celebrate him at the show in Muncie.
Thinking that the show was like every other show, we figured it started.. at Like 8pm or whatever... We spent the day screwing around Indianapolis. Trying to be a rad host, I showed everybody the city. Nobody was in any hurry to get to the show. Eventually we started making our way toward Muncie, but first I said we got to stop somewhere and get BP a B-Day Cake.
We found a perfect lo-fi indie rock cake at a local grocery store. We had the baker write: HAPPY BIRTHDAY B.P. Now, everything was set and we could go to the show.
I should mention that I normally believe in a very important philosophy:
"First one at the show. Last one to leave. Is the most rock and roll."
I love getting to shows ridiculously early. And leaving late!!! It's probably a bit of internal Rock and Roll FOMO, that I'm like Steven Tyler and, "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing."
But not this day. This day, we took our sweet ass time getting to the show.
So we finally arrived at the college carrying our birthday cake, and as we approached the room, we could hear Dan Bejar of Destroyer playing.
We were excited and ecstatic. I said... “Oh! He must be sound- checking!” We walked inside a fairly small, horribly lit community room at this college.. and I quickly realized something horrible was happening!.
He was not sound-checking.
Destoyer was playing his second-to-last song of the night.
We had missed almost the entire set.
The primary reason Devin and Ephraim had drove roughly ten hours to Indianapolis and then another couple of hours with me to Muncie... it was the saddest scene in our indie rock dream.. all blurry and poorly lit. Watching Notorious lighting surround us.. We got to witness 5 minutes of his show... approximately a song and a half.
We were… destroyed.
Ephraim was physically upset. soon.. Pacing outside, in the night.
And understandably so. He had just traveled halfway across the Midwest to see Destroyer, and instead of getting there on time, he had spent part of the early evening watching me buy a birthday cake and having someone decorate it for B.P. Helium.
I tried reassuring him. “It’s going to be okay! Elf Power still hasn't played ! This is still going to be awesome!”
He was not particularly interested in my optimism.
And more than 20 years later, I still think about that day. And how I messed up our night.
There is a strange little life lesson buried inside there somewhere.
Sometimes you’re trying to do something sweet and beautiful for somebody... something as simple and ridiculous as buying a birthday cake... and while you’re doing it, you miss something else entirely. We can't be everywhere. We can't make everything work perfectly. And you definitely can't please everybody.
But you can always try to do something kind.
And that brings me back to Jake.
What Jake Whitener is doing with Bazooka Fest feels like one of those beautiful acts of kindness and in true Indie Rock Community fashion.. he want's to share the music he loves with people.
Putting on a truly independent music festival is hard. It requires an enormous amount of work, faith, luck and well... love. And Jake is doing it because he loves this music and the community surrounding it.
This year, he has somehow assembled probably the greatest line up for an indie festival ever.. Destroyer, Magnetic Fields, Joanna Sternberg, Kiwi Jr.., some wonderful Elephant 6-related artists like Giant Day, The Great Lakes and The Garment District, and so many more into one very affordable 2 day festival.
I love indie rock and how small of a world it is.. Jake proves that with hope, heart, and hard work.... one day you can look around and realize that somehow you've become part of the story yourself.
So please check out our conversation with Jake Whitener on this week's Don't Bother Wearing Seatbelts. Now streaming wherever you listen to podcasts.. We talk Pavement, Guided By Voices, Matador Records, Elephant 6, Bazooka Fest, Jake's five favorite Elephant 6 songs and a whole lot more.. including his band the Sunshine Convention... COVER his very favorite The Olivia Tremor Control song.
And if you're anywhere near New York, go support Bazooka Fest.
Just take one piece of advice from me:
Be the first one there and the last one to leave...
And Ephraim, wherever you are, I'm still sorry I didn't get us there on time.