Matt Connarton Unleashed 10-20-23

What's my daddy, John Hopwood. Here's my daddy, John Hopwood. Here's

my daddy, John John John John John John John John John John John.

You are listening to Totilluminates. You command guy, don't get so freely Madsel

godding you. Welcome everybody. It is that time again, Happy Friday.

Matt call Unleashed and we are live from the studios of wm NH ninety five

point three FM in glorious downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, also on Comcast Channel

six if you're in Manchester, and hello to all of our online listeners across

the nation and around the globe. You can go to my website Matt Connerton

dot com for all of your live streaming options, social media links, contact

info, show archives, etc. Et cetera. Today is Friday, October

twentieth, twenty twenty three, so nice to have you all with me.

We have a great show for you today. Coming up later in the first

hour, we're going to have Eric Pilcher's classic film review and today the subject

is Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness, and I've already heard the review. It

is excellent. I think Eric's really come a long way with those, to

be honest with you. So that's going to be coming up toward the end

of the first hour, and then in the second hour, we have a

great musical guest coming in, which Trot, Which Trot. I just want

to be clear about how I'm saying that, because there's also a band called

witch Rot, but this is not witch Rot. It's witch Trot, So

one word, I guess, I've seen it both one word and two words,

so I'll ask. I'll have to ask them when they get here.

But they've got a brand new track, freshly mastered, that we will play,

and of course they're gonna I believe they're gonna play live for us when

they come in, so that will be very cool. That will be coming

up in the second hour. And of course today is Friday, my favorite

day here at WMNH, my favorite day of the week because it's my long

day here and I do love it. So I do this show four to

six pm, and then coming up tonight from eight to eleven PM. It's

Retro Spectrum Radio with PAULI C. And I'm the honor and privilege privilege,

I can't speak apparently, I'm so excited about tonight's show I can't even talk

about it. The honor and privilege of being one of Paul's co hosts on

that show along with DJ Steve and and of course I'm Mike from Queen City

Cabinet, one of our great sponsors here at WMNH. And tonight the subject

on that program because every week there's a theme. Well here, I'll just

read it to you from social media. This is what Paul posted tonight.

We'll be featuring everyone's favorite involuntary pastime, dreaming. Whether a dream inspires you

to reach a goal or wakes you out of a dead sleep. We'll cover

it, movie and TV clips, commercials, and of course long lost tunes

you haven't heard since your first nightmare. Do join us, and of course

you can stream it live from anywhere at Wmnhradio dot org and if you're local

here in Manchester, you can listen at ninety five point three FM. And

of course we encourage people listen online. Stream the show online, but open

a second browser tab and join us in the Facebook live chat during the show

so that you can hang out in there with us. Paul does mute the

mute the audio on Facebook so that we don't get in trouble for that show,

but you can stream it and all it's stereo glory at Wmnhradio dot org.

By the way, so our friend Nick Murdoch is in the Facebook live

chat and he says we're all lessly devoted to you, Mattie c. Yes,

little song parody I played there, and Nick also said Chris James need

needs to call in again. And it's interesting that you mentioned that, Nick,

because someone made a comment maybe this is you, I don't know.

Someone made a comment on a video posted from a few years ago now,

a video that I'd posted on YouTube of a clip of the show, and

this is part of why I played that Chris James clip there, saying John

Hopwood is my daddy. This is pretty funny. So the name of the

clip that I posted on YouTube again this is years ago now, is called

Sebastian Gorka and Sam Seeter help Matt Connerton unmask John Hopwood's nemesis Chris James,

because in that clip I talk all about how you know, because Chris had

been prank calling the show of course from anyas not even a show. And

he's got a great Patreon channel two that I subscribe to, really great content,

Jenny and I enjoy it tremendously and so but I didn't know. I

didn't know who he was at first, but I figured it out that it

was Chris James, and then we connected and became friends. And someone named

CFTV data commented just the other day, I've been meaning to bring this up

all week, commented on that Facebook I'm sorry on that YouTube video and said,

we miss seeing you on an Eas Matt again Anyas not even a show

that's Chris James's show. We miss seeing you on Anyas Matt. To be

honest, I kind of missed the old days of that show, when there

were more regulars and fewer fake interviews. The vibes were better, a lot

more lighthearted, and you really helped to contribute to that hope all as well.

So, whoever you are, CFTV data, thank you for like I

said, for all, I know that's you, Nick, I don't know.

You don't have to identify yourself of but I thought that was very nice.

I thought that was very nice, And I do miss Chris's calls.

But see I knew back then one I figured out who he was and we

became friends. See that's the irony of it. We became friends, but

then his calls into my program dropped dramatically, and I knew that would happen,

because you know, it's not as fun. Part of the joy of

prank calling someone is them getting upset, you know, if you get under

their skin a little bit, or if you can embarras him in some way.

That's part of the joy of such shenanigans and tom foolery. But first

of all, even before I knew who he was, I'm probably the only

I might be the only radio host on all of FM radio in the United

States who actually enjoys prank calls as long as they're clever. As long as

they're clever you put a little effort into it, I'll actually go with the

bit. I like that kind of stuff. I think it's fun, I

understand the artistry of it, and I really enjoy it, so I wouldn't

get mad. I would actually go with it. And then when he also

realized that our politics are somewhat at least in the same I mean, he's

probably to my left, but we're somewhat in the same universe politically. That

also, I think, you know, he would still call the show it's

been a long time though, but he would still call the show, but

he would be more you know, it would be more lighthearted and so forth.

But it's been a long time. It's been a long time since Chris

Is called the show. So oh. Nick Murdoch says it is not him

who made that comment on YouTube. Nick says in the chat room, it

isn't me who left you the YouTube comment. I remember a while back when

John Hopwood was convinced I was connected to anyas, which I'm not. I

deny it pretty strongly because I don't want to take credit for stuff I don't

do. But I guess so strongly that John is convinced I was trying to

hide the truth. Ah. Yes, he thought you doth protest too much.

You know what I'm reminded of of. I'm reminded of in Helsinki when

uh President Trump at the time, when he stood next to U Vladimir Putin

of Russia and uh and said, uh, yeah, I asked him about

election interference, but he denied it. So you know, we're cool.

I'm paraphrasing, but h yes, if you deny something too strongly, that

might be it. Nick. You might have denied it too strongly. And

John Hopwood, who is a very very smart, very perceptive and uh you

know he used to uh. Well, we won't get into his career in

his background, but uh uh I can see where he might be suspicious.

But uh, but regardless, while whoevert whoever left that comment, whoever this

person is on YouTube, CFTV data, I appreciate that very much. And

I appreciate you Nick and and everyone I've met through any as uh except for

Tom Gully not that guy. I'm kidding. Tom hates me, but it

is not reciprocal. I actually try to. Uh. I well you've all

heard the story. It was months ago. Now it doesn't matter. I

did try to. I did try to make things up with Tom make,

you know, make things up. That's not even an expression. Yeah,

I tried to make things up with him. I called the show and I

just made up stories. No, I tried to. Uh. I tried

to uh clear the air. That would be a better uh. I tried

to do that with Tom, but he was he was not receptive, which

is too bad. You know. I think what it is is he's still

jealous that I'm the original green host on uh on not even a show,

and he thinks that, you know, being Stone Green is special, But

I'm the original Green. There's only there can only be one original Green host.

But uh, I hope someday, I hope someday Tom and I can

reconnect. I hope that doesn't. I hope my falling out with Tom doesn't

have anything to do with why Chris hasn't called this show in a long time.

I hope not. I certainly hope not. Anyway, Uh, let's

give the numbers. Uh, six oh three two five six seven. The

studio line is open six o three two five seven. You can also text

me at six one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on

social media at Matt Connorton. You can email me Matt at mattconnorton dot com,

and you can interact end Opine in the Facebook live chat and we will

say hello to everyone else in there in just a moment. But the best

thing to do so that we can hear and enjoy your Dulca tones is to

give us a call at six oh three two five six oh seven. Jayfed

says in the chat, did you try and hug him? That seems to

work? Uh? No, I've not tried to do that. Now,

there's two problems with that, Jayfed. One is that Tom is living in

Texas, so that's a bit far from the northeast. And the other issue

is, I have to be completely honest with you. Tom doesn't strike me

as a hugger. Now I could be wrong. I don't know Tom in

terms of I've never met him in person. He used to Tom used to

call this show once in a while, and I always really liked uh speaking

with Tom. But the last time, I you know, he brought back

his show recently and I called in and he was very mean to me.

He was also very mean to Jenny in a chat room once. But but

but again, the the whatever whatever venom he has, whatever animas he has

to me, it is one way. I mean, if if if Tom

called the show right now and said, hey, it's Tom and now I

want to patch things up, I would be like, well, we could

do a virtual hug. My heart is open, Tom Gully if you're listening,

which you're not because you hate me, but if you are, my

heart is open, Tom Gully, my heart is open. I don't know

why people this is a little bit of a sidebar, and we'll get onto

some real stuff, because there's plenty of real stuff going on. But I've

never understood why people take things so personally in this realm of radio shows and

podcasting, and you know, people get so mad and they take things so

per personally. It's like, this is supposed to be fun. It's weird

to me how angry some people get. I mean, you know, it's

like you try to get around with some people and they're just like, girl,

I'm angry now, and it's like okay, But you know, the

thing is too if you're feuding with someone, if you have like a radio

feud or a podcast feud going, if you play it right, everyone benefits.

Everyone involves benefits because you're drawing attention, You're getting people interested in what

you're doing. People like that kind of stuff, people like the drama.

But but no, some people just get er. I'm mad you said something

about me that was vaguely mildly insulting, and now I will hate you forever.

And I'm not doing this for publicity. I'm genuinely furious with you.

And it's like, okay, dude, well I don't know, I don't

know what your problem is. But life's a little short to be taken.

All of this quite that seriously, that's just my feeling on it. Oh

Nick said in the chat room. I know he's called at least once since

all this Tom Gully stuff went down. Yeah, yeah, yeah he has.

Chris has, but not since. But Chris is not called since.

I tried to call into Tom Gully's newly rebooted show and tried to smooth things

over with him, and I was very friendly. I called Tom's show.

I think I played the clip on the show. I had to edit it

because Tom, you know, his show is strictly online, so he can

have a potty mouth. I can't do that here. I can't have people

swearing, so I had to edit the clip. But I did play the

clip on the show of me calling into his show, and I was very

nice and I was like, hey Tom, it's Matt Connorton. And he

immediately swore at me and hung up. Had I tried calling back and he

swore at me again, and it's it's very challenging. You know, my

heart is open, Tom Gully, even though you'll never hear this because you

hate me, but my heart is open, sir. In a platonic way

of course, but yeah, what can you do? Nick, says,

shalom, Jenny, he played a bit from Anyas and I mentioned Chris and

now he's talking about Tom Gully. Jenny, of course, is in the

chatroom and says, shalom, peeps, whose drama did I miss? I

was talking? So Jenny doesn't even know about this yet. The very nice

comment. I'll have to explain it to her later. The very nice comment

that someone left on a YouTube clip about how they miss Chris James calling into

the show and I was talking about Tom Gully and my falling out with him

and so forth. Speaking of missing people, Scott Robinson in the chat room

says, John c. Hopwood has sorely missed on this show. What I

would give to hear Matt John and Eric Gagnan in the studio again, Radio

Gold. Those shows were, yeah, well John is John is always welcome.

It has been. It's been at least a month since John's been on

the show. And of course ezg now lives in Nashua, so he he

calls once in a while to do an entertainment report, but we don't uh,

we don't see him in person these days, unfortunately. But yeah,

those those were fun. Uh, Seohn would get upset with Ezg and uh

it would get a bit rancorous, and uh, that's always fun. Of

course, John getting upset with anybody is fun. Uh. Scott says,

not to pile on Matt. But the gentleman from Idaho hates this show also,

now we were Facebook friends, but he unfriended me after the fallout.

Gentleman from Idaho? Who are you talking about? Because the only person I

know from Idaho is Billy Painter, and Billy and I are friends. Uh,

and we we actually have both a working relationship and a friendship. So

is there somebody else from Idaho? Unless you're confusing? Are you conflating Idaho

with Iowa? And you're talking about Eric Pilcher? Did you and Eric Pilcher

have a falling out? I don't know what's going on, but but I

got to know because I have to admit I kind of like the drama myself.

I enjoy it as long as it's you know what it is though,

See, this is why other people get upset and I don't. It's very

easy for me to compartmentalize this stuff where I don't take anything having to do

with the show personally and I it's it's just like I can separate the two,

so it's it's never uh, it's never a problem. We have a

call. Hi, welcome to Matt Connorton. Unleash. Who's this? I'm

Robinson, Hey, Scott, what's going on? Maybe one was from Idaho?

I s Gary was from but he gave Eric that that like a a

MacBook or something like that, and Eric sold it. Oh you're talking about

Brian Mackey. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Brian, Yeah, wow.

I haven't heard from him in a long time. Last I knew he wasn't

doing very well. He was having some pretty serious struggles. But he kind

of had a falling out with all of us. But Brian's got some Brian's

got some issues. I I uh, I can't say more than that,

but but yeah, now I know who you mean. Was he living in

Idaho? Maybe North Dakotah it was. It wasn't North Dakota, but it

was. It might have been Ida. You might have had it right,

actually, Scott, maybe it was Idaho where Brian lived. I forget.

Yeah, I think it. I think no, I think you had it

right. I think it was Idaho. But yeah, Brian Mackie. That's

a that's a name I haven't heard in quite a while. But but now

it makes sense because Brian kind of had a falling out with everybody who listens

to the show. It's kind of odd on the Facebook. And then all

of a sudden he was gone. So I know, I just thought it

was I'm just not the pylon, Matt. But you know what, if

you're not having controversy, you're not doing it right. That's right, thank

you, Scott. Yes, I agree, I agree Controversy Creates Cash,

which is a great book by Eric Bischoff. You know what they say,

there's no such thing as bad publicity. Yeah, although, well that's although

it's that's not really exactly true. I've never liked that expression, only because

there are actually a lot of examples where there is such a thing as very

bad publicity. But but yes, you know, but basically, yes,

the the general idea is is valid. You know, as long as they

spell your name right, as they say, as long as they're talking about

you, then at least you're at least you know you're relevant, which is

important. That is very correct. Yes, all right, you take care

of yourself and have a great weekend. All right, Scott, you two

man, great hear from you. Take care, bye bye, all right,

the wonderful Scott Robinson, Scott's very most days, actually is in the

chat room. Uh, loyal listener, but it's rare that he actually calls

the show. So Scott, very nice. Hear from you, my friend,

preciate the call. Eric Pilcher is in the chatroom and says, if

you don't have haters, you ain't popping. I think the young people say

that. I think Dj Reckless said that yesterday when he was here. Uh,

if you don't have haters, you ain't popping. Six three two five

six seven. The studio line is open if you would like to join us.

Uh, six three two five six seven. If you are just joining

us, of course, we have a busy show. Uh. In a

little bit we're gonna do Eric Pilcher's classic film review Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness.

And then in the second hour we have a great band coming in which

trot looking forward to that. Uh. So, lots of good stuff coming

up today. Uh. We'll finish saying hello everybody in the Facebook live chat.

Jay fed is in there says good afternoon everyone. Uh. Ronda Favero

from the Great state of California joins us. Hello. Melanie Liberty, also

from Vermont, says, Hey, guys, I promise to be less feisty

today. Melanie. You uh, you can be as feisty as you want

to be in our chat room. I think it's fun. Crystal. Not

everyone does, apparently, but I think it's fun. Crystal from the Great

State of Illinois joins us and says hello everyone. Hi Crystal. Oh.

Nick Murdoch says, oh crap, I'm gonna have to go through these show

archives and see what happened. Well, if you're referring to oh, regarding

yesterday's show, Yeah, let's see. Oh, Nick Murdoch says, And

I realize I am mean in here all the time. No, no,

you just say you express your opinions everyone, And I like that. I

like the chat room to be I like everyone to be able to express their

free and open opinions in our in our chat room or on the show if

you call in or whatever this is. I like free and open dialogue.

Of course, in the chat room you can say things you can't actually say

on the air. Let's see. Isaac Banks joins us in the chat room,

of course, from I believe if I'm not mistaken. From Greensboro,

North Carolina says hello, hashtag everyone, let's see I just want to make

sure we don't miss anybody in here. Do oh? Crystal says uh.

According to Anthony Blincoln, Hamas released two of the American hostages, a mother

and daughter today. Yes, I actually was hearing that on my way in

in the car. Two American hostages have been released by Hamas. Let's see

here. I want to make sure we don't miss anybody else in here.

Carol zo Warwitz joins us in the chat room. Hello Carol, nice to

see you in there. And Paul See joins us in the Facebook live chat

of course. Poly See from retrospect from radio with Policy. I did plug

that earlier tonight. The subject is dreams on retro Spectrum Radio. I wonder

if we'll hear a little dream Weaver, dream Weaver blah blah blah. I

don't know the rest of the words. Sorry for singing. I just feel

like I should apologize for singing. Actually, I could avoid that entirely by

just not singing. It's a great song, though, isn't it, dream

Weaver? So there is news just in the last couple of hours. By

I don't know if you all have noticed, if you've been paying attention to

what's going on in the the House of Representatives. Melanie says, you should

apologize. Hey, I thought you were going to be less feisty today.

No, I'm kidding. You can be as fisty as you like. The

uh, this, this mess in the House of Representatives just continues. When

we talked about it on the show yesterday, actually we didn't have much time

to get into it yesterday. I was a busy show. But I know

that when we were talking about it the day before, you know, we

were in a place where Jim Jordan was trying to become the next speaker and

it didn't look like it was going to work out. And now it's definitely

not going to work out. The Republican caucus in the House has said never

mind, So now somebody else is going to run. But there's also this

idea that we've definitely did talk about this week or maybe at the end of

last week. Definitely this week. Patrick McHenry, who by the way,

is only forty seven years old, which surprised me because his hair is completely

white he's kind of got that Steve Martin thing where his hair went totally white

at a young age. But there is this possibility of Patrick McHenry, who

is the Speaker pro tem, becoming well, not actually becoming speaker, but

they would vote to increase his power so that he could actually conduct House business

as the speaker without actually being the speaker. There is both a potential advantage

but also a problem, a big roadblock to that. The advantage being there

is nothing in the House rules that says a speaker pro tem can be vacated

unlike a speaker. So in theory, he could just go about conducting business

if he has given these additional temporary powers without the constant threat of somebody like

Matt Gates saying, hey, let's vacate the speakership. There's a problem though,

that I learned about today that I didn't even realize. And the problem

is this, until there is a House speaker, this is quite the catch

twenty two. Until there is a House speaker, nothing else can be voted

on except voting on a new speaker. Why is that a problem? I

mean, aside from the fact that it's effectively paralyzed the legislative branch of our

government. The obvious. But why else is that a problem. Well,

here's the thing. If you want to give Patrick McHenry some additional temporary powers

as speaker pro TEMs so he can hold votes and you know, do the

things a speaker would do if we had an actual functioning government instead of this

mess, the only thing you can technically vote on without a speaker is getting

a speaker, which means you can't vote on giving Patrick McHenry additional powers.

If you want to give him additional temporary powers other than conducting votes on who's

going to be speaker and getting to bang that gavel, which he seems to

really like to do. He's into it. He likes to hit that gavel,

you can't do. You see the problem here. You have to vote

to do that, to give him additional powers, But you can't vote to

give him additional powers until you have voted and successfully elected a new speaker.

So we're just we're even more stuck here than I realized until today. Now

there is one fix to that problem, and that is just ignore the rule

and just go ahead and say, because what else can they do? They

don't have anybody who can get to two seventeen from what we've seen so far.

Now there is somebody new who has entered the contest who we'll get to

if we have time. We're probably not gonna have time, but there might

not be anyone who can get to two seventeen. So the only way to

fix this, my be, might very well be to give Patrick McHenry those

additional powers and do kind of a bipartisan power sharing thing, which they've talked

about and the Democrats are open to, and McHenry would probably be acceptable and

palatable for that, except you can't do it because you can't vote on it,

because the only thing you can vote on is electing a speaker. It's

this impossible situation. So they're going to have to ignore that rule. They're

going to have to just I don't there's no work around to that that I

know of, that's already within the existing rules. The House can change the

rules, they can vote on rules changes and change the rules, but again

they can't vote technically, according to the rules as they're presently written, they

can't vote on anything until they elect a speaker. So, you know,

sometimes we throw this around as a bit of a cliche, this uh,

you know, we talked about our government is broken, our politics is broken,

but it really is, you know what I mean, It's not just

a cliche. Look at this mess, look at this terrible situation that we're

in, and it's so bad for the country. It's not just bad for

the Republican Party because they look like they, you know, can't govern.

I mean they at a lot of republic This isn't just me saying this,

by the way, a lot of Republicans are saying this, waking up to

this reality. They have definitely they have given away. I won't even say

they have lost. They have given away the House in twenty twenty four.

There is no way with all of this going on, there is no way

they maintain control of the House in twenty twenty four. It cannot happen.

It cannot happen. Look, Republicans will vote Republican, Democrats will vote Democrat,

but independence swing voters, none of them are looking at any of this

and going, oh, yeah, you know, the Republicans, they really

seem to have it together. We should we should keep them in control.

I mean, this is We've never seen anything like this ever ever in our

history. Have we ever seen this level of dysfunction in the House of Representatives.

Kevin McCarthy was the first speaker to ever be ousted. And you know,

and I've I've talked about it, uh this week, well last week

too. I mean, it's been two weeks of this madness, right,

I think maybe a little more than two weeks of this, And I've said,

you know, I've I've added some nuance to it. I've said,

I also I also partly blame the Democrats because they could have put politics aside

and maybe swallowed some pride and and and stepped up and saved Kevin McCarthy.

And I understand all the reasons that they did, I do understand, but

I wish they had kind of maybe seen past some of that and and for

the good of the country said Okay, well, we don't like Kevin McCarthy,

we don't trust Kevin McCarthy, Let's be honest. He's kind of a

d bag. Even a lot of Republicans think so. But at least we

know he thinks government shutdowns are bad, and he definitely definitely thinks the possibility

of ever going over the fiscal cliff and defaulting is very bad. He understands

those things. Some of these House Republicans do not understand those things. Let's

stick with the guy who understands those things, as gross as he might be.

For lack of a better way of putting it, Well, there's a

lot of other things I could say, but that I'm really not allowed to

in this venue of terrestrial radio. But but I do wish that they had

saved McCarthy. But here's the thing, though, So those of us who

analyze politics and think about it a little deeper, and we look at it

from different angles, you know, we might realize that and we might say,

well, this is blamed to go around. The problem. At the

heart of it is the dysfunction of the Republicans in the House. But the

Democrats could have saved the situation and they chose not to. So there's a

little bit of blame to go around. But the average American who does not

pay as close attention to all of this as some of us do, they're

looking at this and they're just seeing these bumbling, clueless, Keystone cop Republicans

who I heard Scarborough say today on MSNBC, you know they couldn't they couldn't

get it together to make a bowl of oatmeal. Let alone, you know,

keep our government functioning. So so yeah, I mean they've given away

the House in twenty twenty four. But I'm very worried what happens at the

end of this current term if well, actually what happens on what is it

November seventeenth, when once again we'll be staring down the barrel of a government

shut down, which of course costs the economy billions of dollars every time we

have one. But just very very quickly, and then we got to get

to Eric's film review, and then we've got guests coming in the second hour.

But Politico, I was just looking up this. Who is Patrick McHenry?

It says here, Well, actually, this is the interesting part.

How did he get here? How did Patrick McHenry get to be the Speaker

pro tem? It says here, you're going to read that the eighteen year

House veteran is the adult in the room compared to other GOP hardliners, a

pragmatist who's ready to govern, and even as Democrats clamoring for him to run

the House. But it wasn't always that way. Oh, I thought this

talked about maybe it was a different article. I was looking at this talks

more about his background. I think it says he's close to them. He

used to be very conservative, but now he's closer to the middle of the

party. There was something else I was reading that explained apparently the reason he

ended up in this position, because I was never even aware of Patrick McHenry

before all of this. Apparently he ended up in this position because he was

on some secret list that was put together by Kevin McCarthy of who could step

up and be the Speaker pro temp if something happened to McCarthy, Because McCarthy

knew that something was going to happen, and he picked Patrick McHenry. So

it's because of Kevin McCarthy. Maybe because you know a couple of Irish guys

I don't know their names, both start with mc. But because of Kevin

McCarthy, that's how Patrick McHenry ended up in this position, and who knows.

I think they should just make him the speaker. Why not just make

him if he's acceptable enough to everyone, even some of the Democrats, to

potentially be a Speaker protemp but with enhanced powers powers of the Speaker, why

not just make him the new House Speaker. Just vote on that. Maybe

he can get to two seventeen. But they got to find a way out

of this mess. This is really, really, really bad. All right,

here's what we're gonna do. It's about a quarter of to the top

of the hour, so we're gonna get to Eric Pilchri's Classic Film review and

then after that we'll show some love to our amazing sponsors, and then we're

gonna get our guests in here. I see musicians in the hallway. But

so we got a lot, a lot coming up, so don't go anywhere.

Plenty more show to come, but here it is. This is Eric's

review is Classic film review of Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness. This is really

good. Check this out. My name is Ed and I am a slave

close as I can figure at. The year is thirteen hundred eight, and

I'm being a drag in my death. It wasn't always like this. I

had a real life at once a job hardware al twelve chop smart job smart.

I had a wonderful girlfriend, Linda. Together we drove to a small

cabin in the mountains. It seems an archaeologist to come to this remote place

to translate and study his latest fine acronomicon ex mortis the Book of the Dead,

found in human flesh and ink in blood. This ancient Sumerian text contained

bizarre burial rights, funerary incantations, and demon resurrection passages. It was never

meant for the world of the living. The book awoke something dark in the

woods. It took Linda, and then it came from me. I got

into my hand and went back, so I locked it off at the wrist.

But that didn't stop it. It came back big time. In nineteen

eighty one, a little heralded independent supernatural horror film about a group of college

students camping in rural Tennessee that find the Necromonicon otherwise known as the Book of

the Dead and unwittingly bring forth demons from mal that take their lives, captivated

audiences. However, at the end of that film there was one survivor.

That survivor would go on to star in two additional sequels and a cable television

series. It is the third film of the series that is most known and

our subject for this week's Classic Film review. Directed by Sam Raimi, released

in nineteen ninety three, Army of Darkness is the third film in the Evil

Dead series The film continues directly where nineteen eighty seven's Evil Dead two left off.

Our everyman hero Ash Williams Bruce Campbell, in his career defining role,

is transported through a demonic portal to medieval times. We're in order to get

back home, he must retrieve the Necromonicon, but in doing so unwittingly Unleash's

demons of Hell onto the land and must help the Kingdom ward them off in

a climactic final battle. Our opening clip was the voiceover that starts this film.

Ash explains the story of the past two films and where he is at

now. Our next clip sets Ash up as an unlikely hero of the Kingdom

after defeating the infamous Pit Witch, where he was thrown into a pit to

die. He uses his unknown technology to the people a shotgun lovingly known as

his boomstick, to ward off the Witch and gets the people of the Kingdom

to rally behind him and get him home. For that arrogance, I shall

see you dead. Yeah, all right, Two primitive screwheads, listen up,

see this this is my bookstick The Twelve Gays double billed Remington s Mart's

top of the line. You can find us in the sporting goods department.

That's right. This week baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan, retails

for about one hundred nine to ninety five. It's got a wal Let's stock

cobalt blue steel and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop Smart, Shop

Smart, You got Doc. Now, I swear the next one of you

primates even touches me. Now, let's talk about how I get back home.

It could be argued, and I would even get behind the argument that

the original Evil Dead is one of the greatest cult classics ever. A great

deal of the credit has to go to Campbell in his performance of Ash.

This is because, in a way, like many great movie characters, Ash

can be seen as all of us. We have all been in positions where

situations of possible heroism or the requirement to help have been thrust upon us,

and we have to accept it against our own intuition. That is Ash in

a nutshell. Our next two clips show. This first is a short clip

that has Ash being given specific instructions on what words to say by the village

wizard, the great Ian Abercrombie, better known as mister Pitt from the great

TV series Seinfeld and the words are a homage to the original The Day the

Earth stood still. Ash proclaims he will remember those words. But then our

next clip shows us that despite Ash's best intentions, he once again, through

his own inability to do things the right way, brings dadites onto the world,

and that is due to his own dim witted nature. This path will

lead you to an unholy place, a cemetery. They're the necronomica that waits.

When now retrieves the book from its cradle, you must recite the words

platu verrata nickto, clatu verrata nto. Okay, well repeat them clatu verrata

nickto again. I got it, I got it. I know your damn

words all right now. Ash attempts to recite the words when he retrieves the

necromonicon. Wait a minute, the words right right right, say the words

plantu veranda mm hmm, necktie nectar nicole nod said word. It's definitely didn't

worded, definitely an in words plateau aranda. Okay, then that's it.

M hm okay, everything's I said to work like whoa. This film is

such a phenomenal array of genres. It has comedy. This is largely due

to Ash and his many quotable one liners. It has horror, science fiction,

fantasy, action, and even old style special effects that will even warm

the heart of the most hardened cinemaphile. With so many elements of film at

play, it's easy to see why so many, no matter what they are

a fan of of, simply adore this film to this day. This film

lives on you. Hear ashes quotes regularly. Hail to the King, baby,

groovy, you got really ugly, really quick, that was only pillow

talk baby, and this is my boomstick, among many others, are a

part of pop culture vernacular to this day. Campbell is one of the most

highly regarded and best beloved B movie actors of all time, a role he

relishes and welcomes at comic book and film conventions to this day. That is

why this film is a classic. It doesn't take itself too seriously. It

doesn't allow itself to get put into one genre. Forget about talking about awards,

box office numbers, or even critical analysis. If you want a great

film that serves anything you're in the mood for, this is that film that

will do that for you. It is one of the best films to watch,

and much like all the films covered this month, the time of year

does not matter. I hope you join me next week when we conclude our

Halloween slate of films, within my opinion, the greatest slasher film of all

time, John Carpenter's Halloween. To close this week's review and a rarity for

classic film reviews, I want to share the final scene of Army of Darkness

and let Ash have the final word and for you the audience, to hear

how once again Ash is ineptness brings doom to the world. For WMNH and

Matt Connorton unleashed, this has been a classic film review with Eric Pilcher.

I thought about staying. They offered me the chance to lead them, to

teach them to be king. Uh huh, But my place is here,

So I swallowed the Jews said the words, and here I am. Did

you say the words right this time? Well? Maybe I didn't say every

single, tiny little syllable no, but basically I said him, Yeah,

basically you know that story about how you could have been king? Yuh?

I think it's kind of cute. Yeah, lady, I'm afraid I'm gonna

have to ask you to leave the store. Good name's that housewares. I'll

swallow your soul, come get some. Sure I could have stayed in the

past, could have even been king, but in my own way, I

am king. Hail to the King, Baby. Come on down to the

Hop Knot at one thousand Elm Street, Manchester's premiere Kraft Beer and yourmet Pretzel

Bar. Tell us more Trudich. We make our dough fresh every day.

We make a variety of styles of pretzels and serve Kraft Beer, cocktails and

a few bottles of wine. We do the traditional pretzel and we have multiple

flavors for that. We also do stuffed pretzels, pretzel sandwiches, free dessert

pretzels and pretzel knots the Hop Knot in the Great Sullivan Plaza at one thousand

Elm Street. Bring your kitchen to life with Queen City Cabinetry, located at

eighty seven Elm Street in the historic Sunbeam Wall in Manchester. Open Monday through

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They can be reached at six oh three two two two to zero zero

seven or on the web at Queen Citycabinetree NH dot Com. Come see the

possibilities Queen City Cabinet Tree. Another brown sponsor of w MNH Clemento Clementone Pizzabria

Family Friendly, Awesome for day Night Clemenzo Clementon Peetzbria Port delivery costs six O

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in as friends and leave us family. This hour on w m n H

is sponsored by CGI Business Solutions, located at five Dartmouth Drive in Auburn.

They serve all your business needs including employee benefits, planning, corporate design and

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at CGI Business Solutions dot com. W m n H rip the nobles you're

listening to where Welcome back everybody. This is Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are

live from the studios of WMNH ninety five point three FM Inglorious, Downtown Manchester,

New Hampshire also on Comcast Channel six. If you're in Manchester, and

hello to all of our online listeners across nation and around the globe. You

can go to my website Matt Connorton dot com for all of your live streaming

options, social media links, contact and fo show archives, et cetera,

et cetera. Today is Friday, October twentieth, twenty twenty three. We

have a great musical guests we're going to introduce in just a moment, but

I do want to remind you because it is Friday. It's my favorite day

of the week here at WM ANDH because it's my long day here and I

do love it. So after this show, I'm back tonight at eight to

eleven PM for retro Spectrum Radio with Paully c. I have the honor and

privilege of being one of Paul's co hosts on that show, along with DJ

Steve and Mike from Queen City Cabinetry, who also happens to be one of

our sponsors here at WM ANDH. And this is what Paul posted about tonight's

show on retro Spectrum Radio. We'll be featuring everyone's favorite involuntary pastime, dreaming

whether a dream, inspires you to reach a goal, or wakes you out

of a dead sleep. We'll cover it, movie and TV clips, commercials,

and of course long lost tunes you haven't heard since your first nightmare.

Do join us and you can listen from anywhere at wmnhradio dot orgon of course

you can join us in the Facebook live chat for that show as well.

So that will be tonight from eight to eleven pm. And also want to

remind you, of course, our great sponsor, the hop Not right across

the street at one thousand Elm Street. This is what they have posted.

Attention pumpkin spice besties, come get a pumpkin pie dessert pretzel this weekend.

That does sound good. We've made a cream cheese pumpkin filling and topped it

with marshmallows and fired it off in the on the oven. We even have

a salted caramel cream to go on the side with it. Very nice.

Uh So that is at the hop Not this weekend and they're always adding things

to the menu. So very very good. And by the way, I

thank you to our friend Eric Pilcher for another great classic film review Army of

Darkness and uh if you missed it. Of course, you can always go

back and listen to the archive later on. But uh, let's go ahead

get those mics up for you guys. We're going to introduce our great musical

guests. So we have on the couch Matt Collier and you are from the

band Witch Trot. Yes, and is it by the way, is it

one word or two? I can't. I can't figure out online if it's

one word or two depends on the month. Yeah, it is one word,

but is the is the second syllable also capitalized? Ye? Oh?

Okay, so I got it right then in the Facebook post I made earlier.

That's good. That's good. So we have Matt Collier is here and

Edward McPherson. Am I saying last name correctly? That is how it's pronounced.

Very impressed that you got it right the first time, because a lot

of people don't. What do people usually say McPherson. They usually say McPherson.

As far as I understand it, I think McPherson is the Irish way

and McPherson is the Scottish way. Oh, I think that's it. So

you're a Scottish of Scottish descent and Scottish people get upset if you say things

the Irish way, right and assume it's the same, because it's not the

same. You're different. At that point, you're in over my head.

See I'm Irish, so I understand these things. But by the way,

you guys are getting some love in the Facebook live chat already. Let's see

we have Adam Jocelyn from able Blood. We were talking about able Blood off

air a little bit. He says hello, and hello witch Trot. What's

up? Fellas and Isaac Banks in the chat room says witch Trot rocks all

right, yeah, yeah, and I thought there was another and Malcolm Sols

says yeah, says witch Trot rules. Let's see. I think there might

be some other people in here too. It's a very very busy chat room,

which we love to see. And now if you're watching online, you

can see that Matt has an acoustic guitar with him, so, uh,

we're gonna hear some music. Matt's gonna play something for us from the band,

and we're also we have a brand new and I think it'll be the

world radio premiere right of this newly remastered song that we're gonna play it a

little bit. Yes, very nice. We like the world radio premieres around

here, very very good. But I don't should we go ahead and and

have you play. I'm dying to hear you play. But but but before

we do that, can you tell us what it is that you're gonna play?

Is this au? Is this the witch Trot song or a solo thing

or what have you got for us? Yeah? This is a witch Trot

song. It's one of the ones we recorded at off A make a studio.

We just got it mastered, so this will be the first time anyone

would be hearing it really Yeah, very cool, Yeah, very cool.

All right, well yeah, if you want to uh now, what is

this called parallax? Parallax? Okay, all right, yeah, if you're

ready, Matt, I'm dying to hear you play. Come on the absence,

Oh you restless pigs to the place him the swan dudes, rounding of

what I'm indifferent to, motivated by survivable. I never want to miss this,

remember ants, could you just leave me alone? Now? Play some

melody? Why should I tie all of these vacancy and give a fe new

life taking the shape of limitless plight, A fly to run slow sound,

pushing paul, the pampering off affection, glyss sins through, worried about recluse

a carry the fire in the road so I can fly kit through. Humanity

was our business taking terrors for a wetness, to catch up, mantist clean

and or grind never on a shrug this tantness. I could to preach through

my pouls ah, playback smelody and climb new heights away from the smellody.

Let's give it a try. Pray for vocipity or showy shirts. Bite a

fly to run slow, A fly to run slow, A fly to run

slow, fly to run slow. I portrayed them for you today. Play

some melody, why should I die? All of these vacan season less game

in might try break forth the melody of choerish shit spite fly to run so

very nice, very nice. I like that a lot. I like that

a lot. Adam Jocelyn in the chat room, of course, from Abel

Blood says, such a unique voice. You do have a unique voice.

Your your uh, your vocal delivery is very raw, but but I like

it. Thank you? How I mean? Is there anyone who inspires you

vocally that you kind of try to sound like or or or who has influenced

the way that you sing because it is it is unique. Yeah, it's

definitely a lot of the grunge nineties music like Kirk Obain, Kavin Rossdale.

Yeah yeah, Pete Hamilton from Helmet, those are my vocal influences. Yeah,

yeah, very cool. Now, now the two of you is is

are the two of you witch Trot? Or are there other members? Because

I know I saw I saw at least one video online, a live video

where it was just the two of you. Yeah, right now, it's

the two of us. We've had my girlfriend Ed's sister Meghan fill in on

bass for us for some shows. Yeah, great band. Yeah, so

but for right now, like just the two of us. And uh now,

how long have the two of you been in the span? Like,

are you both original members of witch Trot? No, but I've been in

the band for about four years now. Oh okay, so but no,

Matt's been Matt's had this thing going since he was like god sixteen or something.

Yeah, okay, okay. And then how did the two of you

meet and come to work together through the Stone Church? Yeah, it was

through a through a mutual acquaintance the guitarist of a band I was formerly in

called Marvel Prone. Oh, Marvel Prone. Wait a minute, have you

been here before? I have not? You have? You have not?

They have? I left that band a year inge ago? Okay, I'm

like, because you said that, I'm like, wait a minute, have

we have we met before? No? It's funny how you know the scene,

it's like this, it's a so many people move around in different bands.

Okay, so you were in Marvel Prone. Interesting, I was in

Marvel Prone, and I believe Rayner, the band leader of Marvel Prone,

and Matt met each other at the Stone Church sometime and Matt mentioned that he

needed a drummer. So, okay, put us in contact with each other.

Oh cool? Cool? And then so now what about so you had

a bass player? Did you have a regular bass player before Meghan or a

while? Yeah? Yep? Okay? And then how long were they in

the band? Two years? Two years? Yeah? So now do so,

but you guys do some shows where it's just the two of you if

Megan's not available or how does that work? I think we have done that

before. Yeah, because I'm pretty sure, Like I said, I'm pretty

sure. I saw a YouTube video where it's just the two of you.

And I think somebody whoever posted it put in the description something about, uh,

even even without a bass player, of these guys rock or something,

or maybe it was one of the comments in the video. But I feel

like that happened once. It's kind of I feel like you could say playing

with a bass player is a is best practice. Yeah, but I think

once in a pinch, we did do it just the two of us.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean there's there's others that have that have done it

and and made it work, but yeah, there's there's nothing quite like having

you know, you want to have that bottom end if you if you can,

you know, like I saw Local h once in Boston years ago,

and uh, but it's obvious, you know, it was just the two

guys, but it was obvious, said I can't remember his name for the

life of me. The guitar player, you know that he he had an

effect that you know, gave him extra bottom end. And I've I've I've

seen bands do that, not very many, but now so, so how

long has the band been around total? Because because you said you've been you've

been doing it for but was there another drummer before Edward. Yeah, there

were some other projects a little different from witch Trot that I had started up,

but witch Trot was fairly new when ed joined. Okay maybe six months

Okay, yeah I didn't even know that. Yeah, yeah, so I

had it was. It was pretty much similar genres, but just different band

names. But I I separate Witch Trot from that. Yeah, it's different.

Yeah. Fredo was in the Facebook live chat. Uh. Yeah,

I was gonna say, you guys must know Fredo. Everybody a right.

I do enjoy I oh, absolutely absolutely. Fredo has been on the show

a number of times. I do enjoy saying his full name when I see

him in the chat room. Alfredo Enrique Benevitez. But yeah, Dank Sinatra,

Cosmic Blossom, great great stuff, you know, and he posts a

lot of solo videos too. That it's just such a such an enormously talented

guy, really good on the show too. We gotta get him, get

him back on. Yeah, Ronda Favera, you know, when I was

asking you about your vocal style, Ronda from our friend from California, she

said, kind of reminds her of Nirvana, So that makes sense. Yeah,

are you are you self taught vocally or yeah, yeah, what about

now? What about on guitar? You ever take lessons or are you self

taught? I haven't take lessons, Yeah I was self taught. Wow.

Yeah that always. That always impresses me. How about you, Edward?

On the drums, I had drum lessons for like two years, like the

first year I played, and then I went a few years without. Yeah,

then I took lessons for another year. I've been playing for like eleven

years, so I had lessons for two of them. Okay, okay.

I like to think I'm pretty good at self teaching. Yeah, like like

actually working on things and not just screwing around. Right right, that's good?

And uh, are you in any other bands? Because most drummers I

meet are in like ten different bands because there's just not a lot of drummers

around. I've been there, homie. Yeah, I'm currently in one other

band, a metalcore band from Newmarket called Proelium. Actually, the guitarist of

Proelium, a dude named Darius, was the drummer of witch Trot before I

was Oh no kidding, yeah, oh wow. So it's all so it's

the music scene. It's like incestuous in a way. Yeah, but but

but not in that way, you know what I mean. I mean,

we are in the Northeast after all, so but uh no, but uh

yeah, So that's interesting. So the reason I say that is the reason

I asked that, is there's just been a trend where, like I have

these bands and everybody's drummer is in like multiple bands. And I have a

theory about that. I think it's because when you're growing up and you first

start getting interested in playing a musical instrument, and you have to kind of

have the talk with your parents like, hey, I want to take up

an instrument. If you express an interest in the drums, your parents are

probably going to try to talk you out of that and say, well,

how about guitar or something, you know, something where you're not going to

be making a lot of noise. So what that ends up happening is you

end up with just not a lot of drummers around because you know, parents

don't want their kids growing up playing drums and making all that noise. That's

my theory. Anyway, bass players tend to be in high demand too,

but I think drummers especially, Yeah, I think your theory is pretty spot

on for drummers. I think for bass players it's just because everybody wants to

play guitar. Guitarists get the glory. Yeah, yeah, you know most

bands have a guitarist playing bass. Really right. Well, it's funny because

I so I'm a bass player, but I started out on guitar when I

was a kid. I took guitar lessons and never took a bass lesson.

But I took guitar lessons. But unfortunately, I was one of those kind

of lazy kids that if I wasn't good at something really fast, I would

get discouraged. And so I was getting discouraged with the guitar and I wasn't

putting the work in to really practice it. And then when I was in

high school, I picked up a bass, you know, just hanging out

with some friends playing music. And bass players hate when I say this,

but it's just the reality of it. I picked up a bass and I

said, oh, two fewer strings and I don't have to learn any chords.

I think I found my instrument, and but yeah, I mean it

worked out. I went on to you know, I played in a bunch

of bands, and so I did find my instrument, but it kind of

sucks that it happened the way that it did because it was out of my

own laziness. But it's true though, And bass players hate when I say

that because it, you know, it makes it sound like, oh,

the bass is easy and to play. It's not easy to play the bass

really well. But if you just want to be you know what I always

say. I was never good, but I was always good enough. And

bass players being in not as high demand as drummers, but in sort of

high demand, you know, you end up playing you can you can be

just okay and end up in a buns. I was in a bunch of

different bands at once, actually, but but yeah, drummers, I mean,

so many drummers who were just in just in tons of bands. Uh

So maybe we should maybe we should talk about this more after we play the

single. But I don't want to forget to ask you this in terms of

influences, Edward, I when I was listening to the you know, because

Matt sent me the single earlier that we're going to play in a couple of

minutes. Well, first of all, overall, I got kind of a

Sabbath vibe from it, and I definitely got a bill Ward vibe from your

drumming, and I'm curious is he an influence of yours or that's a that's

an interesting question. I think your your pills, your drum fills remind me

a lot of Bill Ward, and he's one of my favorites. So it's

you know, it's please take it as a compliment. Oh, I absolutely

do. I love Black Sabbath, Yeah, always have. I don't consider

bill Ward specifically an influence, but I do consider that kind of music and

Black Sabbath's contemporaries to be a great influence. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,

Well what are tell me about? Who are some of your influences? Really?

I'm just a sucker for all of the great prog rock drummers. Yeah,

Neil Peart, Phil Collins, those are probably the biggest two. Who

else? I always my head always goes blank when people ask me things like

that. Yeah, that's okay, that's all right. It kind of puts

you on the spot. Phil Collins is a surprise to me though, because

I don't know, I never really hear anyone say so is Phil Collins?

I know this kind of an ongoing debate that I've seen online in some forums.

Is Phil Collins a great drummer in your opinion, Phil Collins is the

man, no kidding, But you have to listen to the early Genesis albums

to figure it out. He also has other bands. He has, like

a jazz fusion band that I haven't listened too much from. Yeah, but

honestly, if you like Bill Ward, yeah, you would probably dig Phil

collins drumming on the early Genesis albums because that was a very similar, loose,

jazzy, feely style, if you know what I mean. It's not

rigid at all. He's very much just like sinking into the music. See

that surprises me because I guess the more commercial Genesis stuff that came out later,

I feel like his drumming is very rigid. But but I have but

I have heard some early Genesis with when I Peter Gabriel was singing, and

now that you mention it, yeah, his drumming was different. I know

what you mean. Yeah, I'll have to go back and let's to some

of that. Yeah, you're getting some support on that in the chat room.

H DJ Midas, who's part of the w M n H family.

In fact, he has a show here called Late Night to Light. He

says Phil Collins is a phenomenal drummer. Malcolm Salz says, any Genesis album

he wasn't allowed to sing on was incredible. That's a great way of putting

it. Although I love Phil's voice. Phil's got a great voice. But

I but I understand. I understand what he means, because that makes sense

if you're talking about the earlier stuff before Phil took over on vocals, and

Fredo says, uh, brand X. Actually, let me read these in

order. Fredo said Phil Collins was a masterful drummer. Check out his fusion

band. His fusion band brand X. Brand X is Phil Collins displaying his

jazz prowess and crazy Prague chops. Interesting. Interesting. Oh, and Malcolm

had said earlier Phil Collins and early Genesis is some of the best Prague you

will ever hear. Interesting. Yeah, I'll have to I'll have to go

back and give that another listen. Okay, Yeah, it's coincidentally several months

ago I happened to hear I cannot even remember what album it's on. It

was on one of their really commercially successful albums, Genesis with Phil on lead

vocals. But the song is Domino. Do you know that song. I

do not know that song. Yeah, it's from It's It's again. It's

from their really commercial period. But but I just remember listening to that song

and I'm listening to the drum track, and I'm thinking, you know,

this, this song would be so much better if the drums weren't so you

know, they sound it sounded like programmed drums. I don't know if it

was actually him playing or if it was all programmed, but but I remember

thinking, this song would be so cool if you know, it was Phil

Collins without drumming, without all the effects and everything. But it was,

you know, it was like the mid nineteen eighties. You know, I

lived through it. It was. Everything was very sort of overproduced in that

way. But I'll have to go back and listen to some early Phil Collins

or some early some more early Genesis, and I'll have to check out Brand

I didn't even know about brand X, so that must have been the band

he was in before Genesis. Maybe I don't really know. There might have

been some overlap. Yeah, yeah, interesting, No, I'm very curious.

Now Now how about you? How about you, Matt In terms of

influences, I mean, we talked a little bit about your vocals, but

how about guitar or just the overall vibe. Like I said, I get

a heavy Sabbath vibe from from Witch Trot. Yeah. I really like the

Melvins. I can hear it. Yeah, I like Cudini. That's probably

my favorite from them. Stoner which is another one I really like. Of

course, Nirvana and Utero is one of my favorite albums. Yeah, and

I love Black Sabbath as well. Sleep is a cool band. Electric Wizard

a lot of that doomy type rock and as well as the grunge stuff I've

always been a fan of. Yeah, yeah, Oh, Fredo and the

chat Room says regarding Phil Collins, he didn't need to, he didn't need

to give us his all on the Tarzan soundtrack, but he did. Yeah,

when the Tarzan soundtrack, I remember when that came out, and I

remember kind of thinking, yeah, he's definitely entered his Uh, he's moved

from his rock face to his adult contemporary face. Actually he had probably done

that long before that. But yeah, I understood. He can't even he

can't even really, it's hard for him to stand up now, Phil Collins,

like you see you see any videos from that last from the Genesis farewell

to her. It's kind of it's kind of heartbreaking. Feel bad for him,

you know, although miraculously his voice still sounds pretty good. Oh,

his voice is great. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, I'm just a poor

guy. He can't it's hard for him to move around. And you know,

but drums is such a physical instrument too that you know, if there's

anything you're gonna get injured playing, it's that. I suppose. Well,

we should get to this track since we've been talking about how you guys sound.

Now again, is this no mas Thomas? Is that how you pronounce

it? Yes? Okay, now what does that mean? No more Thomas?

So I have a friend named Thomas, and uh, he's I can

tell this will be a good story by Edward's reaction. Well, he he's

very unpredictable and like he's always he always does very like wild things, like

I've always and like he's younger than me, so I've always kind of been

like I've acted like the older brother in some ways. So I'm always like

Thomas, no, don't do that, especially in public, or he's gonna

watch this and be like but yeah, So yeah, that's that's why I

called it no more Thomas, and I've told him that and he thinks it's

pretty cool. That's cool. I thought maybe it was Latin or something very

cool. All right, let's give this a listen. Where was this recorded,

by the way, Alfa Omega Studios, And where is that? That's

in Massachusetts? Some town in Massachusetts I've never heard of before. Okay,

all right, cool, Let's give this a listen and then we'll come back

and we'll talk some more with these guys. Check this out. This is

Witstrot. This is brand new, newly remastered and world radio premiere. Much

as such boss s by Heaven he why your pass away? The newest came

the Fast and sacrifice surpressor Holy exercise please the Holy One who will win jomp

on the darkness? Sho s oh, that is so good. No,

miss Thomas, am I saying that right? Matt must no mass Thomas,

Yes, from the band witch Trot, And we have Matt and Edward from

the band here with us live in studio. That is the world radio premiere

of that track, and I love it. You know what's cool? Is

it? Kind of the song fools you? I'm sure I'm not the only

one who's made this observation. But when I was listening to it for the

first time, I was like, Oh, it's an instrumental, and then

the vocal finally shows up, but it's so far into the song, but

it's it's like a cool surprise when the vocal comes in. I was like,

Oh, it's not an instrumental. I like that, Like, did

you do that intentionally or is that just kind of how the song developed?

That was actually done intentionally. A lot of the stoner rock doomy stuff band

Sleep does that a lot. They'll have a lot of instrumentals and then they'll

sing, and then they'll stop and do a lot of long instrumentals and then

continue back into singing. Yeah, yeah, No, I like that.

It's cool. It's it's kind of a cool twist. Yeah, Fredo in

the chat room says long intro. Fredo also said too earlier, you know,

the The Melvins came up as an influence, and Fredo said, up,

Melvins are one of the most influential badass bands ever. They did more

for grunge, sludge and underground music in general than any of their contemporaries.

Yeah, definitely. The Melvin's very, very influential but kind of unsung heroes.

And you know one of those bands that you know, musicians know the

Melvins, but non musicians never even heard of them. This is one one

of those kinds of bands. Yeah. So we've got the guys here from

witch Trot in studio. If you have any questions or anything for the band,

feedback or anything at all, the studio line is open six oh three

two five oh six oh seven six O three two five oh six o seven.

You can also text me at six one seven nine one seven four four

seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connorton. You can email me

Matt at Matt coonorton dot com. And of course you can interact into opine

in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing to do so that we

can hear and enjoy your Dulca tones is give us a call at six O

three two five o six seven and Riley King, fellow broadcaster, joins us

in the Facebook live chat. Hello, nice to see you in there.

By the way, So where does the name come from? Uh, witch

Trot. I assume you came up with that, Matt, because you're the

like the original, the founding member. Yeah, yeah, well, there's

several wis Trout roads in Maine. I noticed that. I noticed that when

I googled you guys, and I was like, oh, the this is

a common thing in Maine. Yeah. Yeah, And well the name came

about was Maine was part of Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials, and they

brought down a preacher or parson from Maine, and the road is called witch

trot Road. That was trotting down, which is on horseback. They would

commonly do that and and pick that name because it was it signified like judgment

and symbolized the road to judgment when those witches were crossing over. Yeah,

yeah, I thought that was cool. Yeah, no, it's a cool

name. Now how many songs have you? Is this the only Is this

the first song that you've done in that studio in North Reading or do you

have others that you're working on or we would like to go back soon.

We have two other ones I played. Parallax was one of them, and

I played the acoustic version of that. Yeah, we have a song called

Hello Dmitri that that's also was recorded at Alpha Omega. Oh okay, yeah,

we're gonna, We're gonna sorry, We're going to release those, hopefully

tonight or tomorrow. Oh okay, yeah, oh okay, yeah, I'd

love to hear Hello Dmitri. So that'll be so at some point this weekend,

that'll be available, yes, online. Very cool, very cool.

And what's the writing process, Like, do you guys write together or do

you come up with the ideas initially and then bring them netword or how does

that work? It's sort of they always originate with Matt. You know,

I like to consider myself a valuable part of the band, but it's always

been Matt's songs that we're playing. Yeah. He sometimes he comes at me

or me and whoever former basis was in the band at the time with a

completed idea. But usually it's just like, you know, an intro of

verse and a chorus and we jam on it for a while. Someone might

make a few suggestions. Yeah. They come together very organically and as a

consequence, somewhat inefficiently. Sometimes it kind of takes a while for them to

reach their final form. Really yeah, like how long like, uh,

to develop a song? Does it take? Does it take days? Weeks?

A couple practices? Yeah? Okay, yeah yeah yeah, Because Edward,

what what you're doing on the drums that that that winds up becoming you

know, even if the idea doesn't start with you. I mean you you

are really kind of contributing to how the song forms because your drum patterns are

complex and you know it's it's not it's not like you know, you're not

the guy from a CDC sitting over there. You're actually really you know,

not nothing against a c DC, but you're really you know, you're really

helping to form and shape that song with what you're doing on the drums.

Yeah, so I scer them, you could say. Sometimes sometimes it's something

as simple as like a bro, what if we like this? Right?

But it's being humble. But like for actually Nomas Tomas, that song,

the breakdown at the end, that wouldn't have happened, you know without the

drums. A lot of the drum Definitely drums carry like all the songs.

Yeah, it's just you know, I have a rough draft really and then

it forms into something Yeah, I wouldn't have expected right right now now in

studio. Now, who's playing bass in studio? Are you doing that yourself

or is Megan doing that? Or who's our friend Tony Woodman played bass on

that actually. Oh okay, yeah, he has a band, Black Headdress.

I drummed for for that band and he helped us out a lot.

See. Now that's a twist on this whole drummer thing. So there's this

other band that you play drums in. See is it? What's your first

instrument? Is drums your first instrument? Or or is a guitar? It

was? It was drums was the first thing I learned. I gradually went

to guitar, and I've been playing that. That's kind of like my main

instrument. Oh, I got you, I got you a Black head Dress.

That's the other band. Yeah, it's a cool from around here?

Is is everybody from around here? Uh? Yeah? There? Tony's from

Sandford, and then Josh is from he's the guitarist and the band. He

is from Alfred and then so it's kind of kind of all over the place.

Alfred. Where's that it's It's in New Hampshire. No, sorry,

Maine. It's in Maine. Oh, it's in Maine. Yeah. And

I know Sandford is in Maine. Yes. Yeah. The only reason I

know that is because that's where I almost dround when I was a kid.

My dad had to save me. So the Sandford, Maine is uh is

forever etched in my brain. So you're now you live here now, but

you're from Maine originally? Is that York Maine? You're from York. Okay,

that's a nice area. Now about you, Edward, Do you live

in the area here or or do you have a commute? I live in

Rochester currently. Okay. I I grew up in Portsmouth. That's where I

was living when I joined the band. Oh okay, yeah, yeah,

So you guys got a little bit of a commute between you. It's half

an hour. It's not bad, It's not bad. Yeah. Yeah.

Now are you playing a lot of shows? Do you play a lot of

shows or are you focused on recording? Or we have a couple of shows

coming up. We have a house party on the twenty eighth, and then

we're playing at the Stone Church on Halloween. Oh very cool. Yeah,

we're playing. We're playing with Proelium. They're headlining. Yeah. Yeah,

it's gonna be Prollium headlining witch Trot before them, and then a band called

green Eye before witch Trot. Yeah. And does one of you play drums

and green Eyes? No, we've reached the limit. Okay, understood.

Speaking of drums, I wanted to mention something. Yeah, a lot of

the older Witch Trot songs, like from when I first joined the band,

I actually learned from demos that Matt posted on YouTube again when he was like

when he was like seventeen or so, And on all those demos he's playing

drums. Oh wow, So the way I played drums in the band was

influenced by what Matt played oh way back in the day. Oh. Interesting.

So it kind of like it's sort of like a it comes full circle.

Yeah, so you you committed to learning, but do you play the

parts now the same as when Matt put them in those demos originally? Do

you or do you even still play those songs, because obviously those songs go

backways some of them we do it kind of it depends on the song.

Sometimes. I sometimes I liked what he played and and I would more or

less stick to that, and if anything changed, it would again change like

subconsciously and organically over time. Yeah. Other other things, it was more

of a like, hey, I have an idea for how else this could

be done? Right, Yeah, makes sense. But I definitely think even

even if the parts themselves have changed the way Matt plays drums influenced how I

choose to play drums in the band. Now, okay, okay, interesting,

So are your styles now today on drums somewhat different then or or are

they similar very much? So we're completely different drummers? Really? Yeah?

Yeah? In in in what way? I mean? Cause I kind of

have a vibe of how you play obviously from listening to that track, But

like, what, how how are your drums different, Matt? If it's

something you can put into words, maybe it's not the easiest thing to verbalize,

but I'm curious. Now. Uh. Well, with Black Head Dress,

a lot of the songs are kind of tribal, like O lot of

a lot of toms. It's pretty heavy on that rather than a lot of

a lot of crashes or fills or it's just kind of sets the tone for

because I follow, Like with Black Head Dress, I follow Tony and Josh

quite a bit. I just go back and forth, and they're really the

ones who are setting up the structure, and I'm and I'm yeah, it's

just kind of tribal, like, I mean, that's kind of how the

songs felt. Yeah, No, that makes sense. Yeah, I was

actually just looking up black head Dress online and uh, maybe we'll maybe to

end the show, we'll play Uh do these have swears in them? Honestly,

it depends on the song like Disconnected that shows up on the website.

Do you know? If you don't know, we just won't risk it.

But I was just thinking if if you did know, we could play something,

because I'm curious to hear here it now. But if not, I'll

just wait till later and we won't risk it. I can't remember, honestly.

Yeah, No, that's fine. That's all good. By the way,

Melanie in the chat room says high five for not being a part of

Massachusetts anymore. Now have you guys obviously you play shows around here. Have

you have you toured anywhere outside of the area. No, we've never been

on tour. Okay, We've played mass a little bit, New Hampshire,

a little bit, Maine a little bit. Yeah, but I think that's

it. Okay, Yeah, okay. And are there are there any other

bands in the area that you kind of team up with? You know,

I mean it tends to happen organically, kind of by accident. You know,

bands will have other bands that they wind up playing a lot of shows

with. Do you have anybody in the area like that? Oh yeah,

well Wired for Sound Yeah yeah, played with Marvel Prone a few times back

when I was in that band. Played a few shows with Proellium. We're

about to play another show with Proelium. Yeah. Who else? Who are

like some of the Charlie's Hill bands? We played with Sauce on the side,

I was one on the show. Yeah, yeah, they're they're fantastic,

Yeah they are. Yeah, they're great. Able Blood of course,

able blood, love able blood. We had them on the show. We

have sophisticated adult martial law. There's a lot of I found that in the

more of the Seacoast area, there's a lot of more metal type bands,

hard rock bands, yeah, like metal core type bands. Yeah, and

yeah, so we we kind of get placed in in those types of shows,

which is a lot of fun, a lot of the mosh pits and

whatnot. Yeah, no, no doubt, no doubt. And uh so

this, uh this weekend is a stone church? Is that this weekend or

next weekend? That's Halloween night? Halloween Knight. Yeah, that's very cool.

That's a good that's really good. I haven't been to the Stone Church

in forever, but that's a really nice that's a nice place to play.

They're actually a not normally open on Tuesdays, but Halloween is a Tuesday this

year. Yeah, and so they figured they'd throw a little shin dig.

It's gonna be a full on costume party. Three bands, good fun,

very cool if anyone's interested. Wish Front, Prellium, and Green Eye,

not in that order. The Stone Church Halloween Night come in costume seven pm.

Yeah, very cool, very cool. Well, listen, we're going

to hope we have a call. Oh looks like this is Malcolm Souls who

we saw in the Facebook live chat. Hi, welcome to the show.

Hey man, it's Malcolm from Abel Blood. Hey Malcolm. Oh that Malcolm.

Hey what's up? Man? I just want I just want to chime

in here and tell you that these guys are like they're like having a reaction

video at your show, because every show we play with them, we always

like to watch people milling about before they start. Yeah, and as soon

as they start playing, everything stops and everybody's like, holy crap, who

are these guys? I believe it. That's awesome, very cool, very

cool. Yeah, they make a lot of noise for well, three piece

technically right when you've got when you've got a bass player with you. But

uh yeah, that's cool, have you well, yeah, go ahead,

Malcolm. I was gonna say, they can reach out to Adam and I

because we have bass issues too, so we're splitting bass duty now. Oh

that's right, that's right. Yeah, that's right. We talked about that

when you guys were here. I forgot about that. You're you're one of

the bands I was I was thinking of earlier when we were talking about the

bass thing. Yeah, that's funny. That's why I call it, just

to remind you. Yeah, hey, I still play Uh geez, maybe

I'll play it at the end of the show today. I want to have

time to play the whole thing. But mental note, man, that always

goes over a big when I play that on the show. People go crazy

for that in the chat room. Awesome. So glad to hear, So

glad to hear. But I gotta I got to run because I have my

daughter with me. Thank you, Malcolm. Yeah, I love you guys.

Can't wait too to do a show again soon, all right, Malcolm,

thank you for the call. My friend, take care you bet guys.

All right, by bye? All right Malcolm from Abled Blood very cool,

very cool, such a great band. Well listen, guys, we

got to wrap up in a moment, and I want to remind everybody of

course I'll be back tonight. Oh. Actually a couple things to remind you.

Coming up immediately after the show, a brand new episode of Granted State

of Mind, not live in studio, but they are returning to Friday's at

six pm immediately following the show, hosted by the Great Rob as a Veto.

So that's coming up at six pm. And don't forget I will be

back tonight from eight to eleven pm for Retro Spectrum Radio with Paully c right

here on w MNH. And what was the other thing? Oh? Oh

and no, I guess that's it. Yeah, I guess that's it.

But guys, thank you again. And where should people go online? What's

the best way to go online to find you guys? Just Google? Because

if you google witch Trot, I guess Witch Trot band, right, because

otherwise all those roads come up in Maine. Yeah? Yeah, On YouTube,

Instagram, Facebook, yeah soon, every screaming platform that matters, Yes,

yes, yes, and the new single comes out this weekend. What's

it called again? Yes, Parallax, Okay, yeah, and then followed

by shortly no Mas Tomas and hello Dmitri very cool. Oh right, hello

Dmitri. That was the other one. Yeah, thank you for playing live

for us. That was phenomenal. Man, all right, Matt and Edward,

thank you guys so much, witch Trot and good luck with the Halloween

show. That's amazing. Good for you guys, and I really appreciate your

coming in today and I will tell the listeners, of course, if you

miss any part of today's show. It will be up in just a little

bit at wmnhradio dot org and at my website Matt Connorton dot com. And

Malcolm, if you're still listening, here's a little bit of able blood for

you. Mental note to close out, Matt Connorton Unleashed and I'll talk to

you a little bit later and hopefully i'll talk at you tonight on retro Spectrum

Radio with Polly c. Starts at eight pm. Bye, everybody,

Game Plan