Ryan Monroe hadn’t considered himself a control freak by nature. Then he found himself at Redstar Recording in Silver Lake, Calif., with its myriad instruments scattered around, just begging to be fiddled with. For a guy who can play just about anything, it was impossible to resist. So Monroe took a breather from his continuing role as the 34-year-old bastion of versatility in Band Of Horses to record A Painting Of A Painting On Fire (RCM). Monroe hopes to tour this summer behind A Painting before things get too busy with Band Of Horses, which is finishing its fourth album with producer Glyn Johns and eyeing a September release. Monroe will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on him.
Monroe: This is one of those VHS tapes that was in a stack in the cabinet under the TV in my house growing up. It had Teen Wolf written in cursive on a label that was curling up on either side and always about to fall off. I vaguely remember always having to press the label back on before I stuck it in the VCR. I would rifle through all of our home movies, passing over Rocky IV and Romancing The Stone, creating the unmistakeable sound of VHS tapes banging into each other until I found that beat-up-ass tape with that busted-ass label. I can see it now: It was my mom’s cursive handwriting … my dad’s writing was much different, all caps, big letters and usually on the yellow labels. My mom’s was usually on the white labels, all cursive and nice. Anyway, for some reason it was my go-to movie, and I would never dream of recording over it, even if I saw the dunk contest on and was scrambling to find a blank. No way, Teen Wolf … was mine, even though it was the family’s. I can’t really say why I took such a shine to that one. Maybe it was the beautiful Pamela, or Boof or whatever. Or … maybe it was because, ahem … Michael J. Fox turned into a werewolf and began dunking on everyone!
Whatever the reason, my affinity for the flick continued into my late teenage years, all through my 20s and remains intact as I type this. I even got a tattoo (see below). My old friend, the amazingly talented and painfully hilarious Brian Sansbury, and I had joked about getting Teen Wolf tattoos since I can remember. Brian and I used to shotgun beers or “howard” beers. “Howarding a beer” is in reference to Michael J. Fox’s character when he wasn’t a wolf in the movie, Scott Howard. Scott Howard as “the wolf” gets carried into a pizza joint after, only hours earlier, suddenly getting all hairy and flat crammin’ on everybody. Someone throws the wolf a can of beer. He bites it, drinks it and everyone cheers, and they get free pizza and whoooo! Yay!!!!!! Free things!! Teen Wolf!!! Yay!!! Go team!! (In retrospect, I’m glad they showed the beer getting thrown to him because otherwise it would’ve been unrealistic having the beer spray all over the place. I’m glad someone was there to keep everything realistic. Cinematic gold, I tell ya.)
It’s a shame that I feel like I have to make the headline “’80s Teen Wolf.” I tried to watch the new series on MTV … not bad … anything revolving around a teenaged wolf is fine by me, Jack!
Tattoo after the jump.
P.S. This is a call to everyone who ever gets a “what’s with the beard?” question. Tell them, “The movie Teen Wolf made me want to grow a beard.”
P.P.S. Tattoo done by Jonathan at Devine Street Tattoo in Columbia, S.C.
