Stoutly refusing to record his passionate songs under anything less than his own terms (in his New Jersey home on a TASCAM MiniStudio), F.M. Cornog, under the name East River Pipe, has released seven albums since 1994 that can stand toe-to-toe with anything by your favorite indie rockers over the past 20 years. Although working full-time at the local Home Depot and raising a daughter with his wife may have curtailed Cornog’s recording time somewhat, the quality of the finished product remains unchanged. ERP’s latest, We Live In Rented Rooms (Merge), is further testimony to a man who refuses to play the rock-star game (form a band, tour, do photo shoots, etc.) and has come out the other side with a brilliant body of work—and with his soul intact. Cornog will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Cornog: I’m From Hollywood documents Andy Kaufman‘s brief career in pro wrestling. It is part dark comedy, part cutting-edge performance art. Kaufman plays a wealthy, arrogant, sexist Hollywood star. He completely milks the mind-game/head-trip side of pro wrestling. Watch as Kaufman taunts an amphitheater full of Tennessee “hicks,” whipping them into a hateful frenzy. Laugh as Kaufman lectures Southerners on how to speak proper English and shows them how to use soap and toilet paper. Kaufman employs the trash-talking theatrics of pro wrestling as a springboard to ridicule even bigger targets: our litigious society, the dominant white-male culture, stardom and the rich. Kaufman was not only one of the greatest comedians of all time, he was also one of the greatest pro-wrestling “villains” of all time. A must-see.
Video after the jump.
