Len: Planet Pea, Custom Bitches, and the Anti-Stardom Vibe

The tiny RKCNDY "green room" is actually red-painted brick covered by red velvet drapes. A couple of worn couches and a table of the basics: bottled water, juices, pita sandwiches. At sound-check, DJ Moves spins the "Steal My Sunshine" breakbeats double-time and the group sings along in chipmunk falsetto. They are a fun band. I was all prepared with group questions and activities, but as it turns out, interviews are done in shifts, during dinner break, and tonight Phil (Planet Pea) draws the short straw.

PP: We heard Seattle was our biggest market, but I guess it was the biggest market for "Sunshine" and that was it... At our last show (in Seattle) right after "Sunshine", we played "Feelin' Alright", our new single, and everybody left. And then we got into a fight with Moby...

ME: That was the End Fest, right? I stopped over to get a CD signed and saw you all writing defamatory things about Moby all over the booth...

PP: Yeah. We were very angry at him. He was very mean to us.

ME: Was it anything more than that cigarette incident?

[Author's note: from what I remember, this involves them offering him a cigarette, and him breaking it between his fingers, throwing it away, and leaving in a huff]

PP: Yeah, it was just that mentality. We're just basically cool dudes who hang out with anybody, talk with anybody. We're not perpetrating like "we're a star now", or nothin'. But I guess he feels like he needs to act like that. And that's what really turned us off.

ME: To his credit, though, he has done quite a few albums, this newest one's getting big - and that can probably swell your head some.

PP: Man, but that's bullshit, straight up. Once you start acting like that, everywhere you go, you're going to get trashed.

ME: Alright, who are some bands you think throw out a great vibe - the anti-Moby, if you will?

PP: Styles of Beyond, for one (the opening act, who are doing sound-check as we speak). They just signed on to the new Dust Brothers label, I Deal Records. We deal with a lot of underground groups. Five of the six members of the group are into underground hip-hop. Taking it back to the original, basic roots - partying, busting rhymes about having a good time. So we try to hang around people who carry that vibe. Even in our everyday life, like when we go back to Toronto. Like Cryptik Souls - that's my crew. Good friends of mine from Toronto. (DJ) Moves, Drunc (ness Monster), Burger Pimp, and Sharon, they're all moving to Vancouver, but my home is Toronto.

[Sharon enters at this point. "Stop talking shit." she scolds playfully. There is some confusion about whose water belongs to whom. Sharon has left the door open, and the soundcheck is deafening. When someone tries to close it, the metal doorjamb twists and bends and ends up crooked.]

ME: This whole room's gonna fall apart.

PP: I guess I'll just talk louder. There's also a group we were just listening to today, from San Francisco called Sacred Hoop. They're fucking amazing. Unbelievable. The Antecon Catalyst, also from San Francisco, transplanted from Maine, they're down. There's a group called Sebutones from Halifax (a Toronto suburb), that are down with us. If you're down with us, we're just gonna bring you up. You're gonna hear, like Goviner Boltz (Burger Pimp's side project) on the next record.

ME: And the obvious question: when might we expect--

PP: The next record? Next summer. We're gonna be done by March. After this tour, which ends in two weeks, we're headed right home and working on the record. Do you have the old albums?

ME: Actually, no. I wasn't able to find them anywhere but on the web, like MP3s.

PP: The other two albums are really good, but they're like pop-punk. The hip-hop you heard on You Can't Stop The Bum Rush is like "late 80s". The next record will be more like "early 90s" hip-hop. If you can imagine old Beatnuts, or old Curious George, that's the sound of the new Len record.

ME: So are you sick of "Steal My Sunshine" yet?

PP: Not me. I don't have a radio or a television at home. I don't hear it much.

MM: How about the idea that you're a one-hit wonder band?

PP: We never expected the record to take off the way it has. "Sunshine" wasn't even supposed to be on the record. They played this really shitty demo of it, and the record company just freaked. And it's under Mark's bed, all these reel-to-reels. He pulled it out and literally blew dust off it. Had to go send it to the Tape Doctor, get that thing fixed up.

ME: I heard it was recorded one night after a rave.

PP: Yeah, after a really big rave, Burger Pimp was really fucked up on E, and he just started writing the lyrics on his leg, his arm, a piece of paper, anything.

ME: Was it all recorded that one night?

PP: The party was like, night until the morning; got home, was making breakfast, heard the Andrew Drue Connection, "More More More" - it was a big hit in the 70s - but to me, that song is shit. It sucks. The only thing about that song that's good is the break in it, which is right in the middle of the song - that's where he took it from.

ME: You guys just came back from spinning at GameWorks. Any particular video games that are Len favorites?

PP: We're actually sponsored by Dreamcast, so we've gotten pretty addicted to video games over the past couple weeks. Soul Caliber is amazing. It's like Tekken 3, but improved. On the DreamCast, nothing is pixelated. You can even see the veins in peoples' arms, and the moves are just sickening. Especially Tony Hawkins Pro Skater, like when the dude does an impossible move, you actually see the board flipping a 360 around his foot.

ME: Any problems with sponsorships and conflicting interests?

PP: Not really. We support them by wearing or using their stuff, and they support us by throwing us free shit. The joke is that we're on the Sony label, and we tried to get PlayStation to sponsor us, but Sega jumped in on it. We gotta give respects to UGO.com, they're the people that hooked it up. Coolest people in the world, video game testers - their spokeman is Gary Coleman. Serious. I met him in New York.

ME: No way. I thought he was in jail or working mall security or something.

PP: Divine Styler who is like, a "golden years" stylist with a "new school" twist [here he explains to me the chronology of hip-hop: "old school", "golden years", "now school", then "new school"], he lives beside Gary Coleman in LA, and he says all this crazy shit like, he has this huge train set in his house, and at 3am he'll hear all these weird noises from next door. And when we were in New York, at UGO, we were like, "Holy Shit, that's Gary Coleman". He's a short dude, man. He hasn't grown any since that TV show. He just looks like an old man in a little kid's body.

[Suddenly the room is Grand Central. Despite the food-spread, all anyone wants is the bottled water. No one has an easy time getting the door closed.]

ME: So how did you guys get your stage names?

PP: Five, six years ago, my homeboys called me Pea all the time, but, Planet, I'm not sure.. you know that movie... what's the one with the bugs?

ME: Yeah. Starship Troopers.

PP: In that, they go "Yo, we have to bomb the Planet P!". When we heard that, we were all "Yeah!". That's pretty dope. I'm a grafitti writer, so bombing is my thing. But the old school names? D-Rock got his name from Biz Markie; he used to just be McKenzie.

[at this point, he goes off describing the taxonomy of all Len's subgroups and pet projects to such a degree that I ask him to draw it out on a big piece of construction paper, during which we are joined by Druncness Monster, one of Len's DJs]

ME: So have I left anything out? What do normal interviewers ask about?

DM: Difference between American beer and Canadian?

ME: Alright.

DM: Canadian beer is better. It's got more alcohol in it.

ME: Is that it, or does it actually taste better?

DM: It tastes better. Like if you have three Molson Ices, that'll fuck you up.

ME: But it's not like you can't get Molson Ice here.

DM: Right, but it won't have the same alcohol.

ME: You mean that Molson Ice here is different than Molson Ice there?

DM: Yeah. Canadians know how to party better. They've got a beer store, it's like government-owned. There's a beer store, and there's a liquor store, and you can't get beer at like a 7-11. Here, that's where we freak out.

ME: How do you deal with the grind of a long tour? (back to Pea)

PP: You get kind of messed up, like your home is the bus. But it creates a kind of unity. When you're with the same 11 people day-in, day-out, they become like your family. When I go back to Toronto, I'm going to find it weird to not have these people in my life. I guess it's like when you go to camp. But touring is one of the best things ever. We went to Europe, and it wasn't like one of those "regular" promotional tours where you land in one country and by the end of the night, you're in another country, it was like, everywhere we went we had a few days to relax. So we were able to actually go out and see these places. Unbelievable. we had a great time. My girlfriend is handling all the merchandise, so we get to be together and it's great.

ME: OK, random touring question: who decides where you all eat each night?

PP: The bus driver. Wherever he stops, that's where we eat. It's like "we're stopping at this greasy spoon; if you want food, you get out now."

ME: And you had to skip dinner tonight?

PP: No, no, Sony fed us back at GameWorks.

ME: Did you have the little mini-pizzas they have there? They're pretty good.

PP: No, man. I'm lactose intolerant, and I forgot my pills today.

[Pea has finished his diagram, and shows it to Druncness Monster, who thinks it might be a good T-shirt. The next interviewer is next to me on the couch. I get the hint.]

Email Damien M. Jones

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