Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero (2019) - full transcript

- Hotshot Robot.

- Up next, it's the latest
from the Dayton, Ohio band,

Brainiac, who in their four
year history has opened for,

among others, The Breeders,
Jesus Lizard, Unsane and

Girls Against Boys, here it
is, Timmy Taylor and the guys.

(rock music)

- They sound like you might
get zapped if you touched 'em,

you know, like, they
were Brainiac, you know,

there was this like, they sizzled.

(rock music)

- I didn't know you could do it like that.



Legends and myths behind it,
like, they set the standard.

They set the bar really high.

- They had so much momentum.

- That band, the fervor was insane.

- Watched that right as
they arrived at that moment.

(rock music)

- Meanwhile, it was a bad
news week for fans of the

rising indie band, Brainiac,
whose leader singer,

28 year old, Tim Taylor, was
killed in an early morning

single car crash near his home
in Dayton, Ohio last Friday.

Brainiac was being courted by the majors

at the time of Taylor's death.

(somber music)

- [Director] All right, we're recording.



- Hello, my name's Tim

and this is my second cousin, Tyler Trent

and we are with the group, Brainiac.

(chuckles)

I'm sorry.

- My name's Todd Yunglen,
I already mentioned.

All right.

- I'd like to introduce you to
our bass player, Monasterio.

- Hi.

- Buenas noches.

- Monasterio, cool.

I'm in a band.

You're probably one of
our biggest influences

as a matter of fact.

- I like it, all right.
- It sounds good I don't know.

I think in 20 years, people
are still gonna be listening

to it, that's the thing.
- I hope so.

- But with that, every
time I listen to it--

- We just need more people
like you to rip us off

and that'll sort of give
us more credibility.

- Yeah.
- Keep the myth alive.

(rock music)

(applause)

- [Announcer] And now at
last, we turn the stage over

to those mad geniuses.

The answer is, hybrids, half
conservatory trained and

half trained at the College of Hard Rock.

I'm not quite sure what they're
going to do with this music

and wherever they take it,
whether you approve or not,

one thing is sure, it's going
to be fun and who knows,

it may even be beautiful.

(rock music)

♪ Kiss all the babies
and rub the politicos ♪

♪ Vincent come on down ♪

♪ The boys are rock stupid
but the girls can tell ♪

♪ And they tell and they
tell and they tell ♪

♪ Slice one open for the unknown soldier ♪

♪ Vincent come on down ♪

♪ It's half past the minute
and you're stuck down in it ♪

♪ Get up get on or get out ♪

♪ I don't think you can tell me ♪

♪ The things that I want you to ♪

♪ Short of a cataclysmic seduction ♪

♪ Nothing can stop my
car crash attack on you ♪

♪ Vincent ♪

(audience cheers)

♪ Vincent come on down ♪

♪ Vincent ♪

(audience cheers)

(audience applause)

- Hello.

Dear Brainiac, I miss you.

You were a symbol of a dream
and an explosive energy

that meant everything then and still now

and I still describe it
like this to this day.

Brainiac, the perfect
symmetry of energy between

childhood friends from
Dayton, Ohio, Devo robot

meets punk rock James
Brown in a one of a kind

new wave industrial band.

There is no other band like Brainiac.

(audience applause)

Timmy Taylor,

you are terribly missed.

There is a quiet place
in my heart held for you

that will never disappear the way that

you did to the outside world.

A Brainiac torch burns every
day for all of us that have it

and I can see yours and it is burning

very fucking bright tonight.

(audience applause)

Thank you.

(audience cheers)

(distorted voices)

- So, Tim, you say you
and your buddies are

going to visit one of Jupiter's moons.

- Yeah.
- Well,

how do you suppose
you're going to do that?

- Well I don't know if
you've heard about it or not

but they have this new type of gum out

and all it requires is that
you learn how to blow a

bubble and you too can space travel.

(rock music)

♪ Why will it take so long ♪

♪ For me to say yeah
find my big fuckin' 80 ♪

♪ Stop it with my reasonable eye ♪

- The first day of fifth grade

I just have some

memory of Tim walking down the hall

clapping his hands and
saying, Quasimodo, Quasimodo

and I didn't even know who Quasimodo was.

I thought he'd made that
name up and I was like,

man that is such a cool word.

And then we pretty much just started

hanging out all the time.

Right away we were just
interested in the same things.

We liked comic books and
music and yeah just weirdos.

- Tim, you know, he
always had the creativity

going on even as a kid.

Then he started playing
cello in the fifth grade

and Juan was his band mate.

- I remember we got in front
of the school and we had to do

like this duet, you know, we
practiced it forever and I just

got up there and I saw the
thing and I just like blanked.

(chuckles)

So Tim kinda played the
song and got us through it

which is just amazing to me because like,

Tim was like an amazing musician.

(piano music)

- He listened to everything, I
remember he loved The Beatles

but he listened to everything
from Charlie Parker,

Ella Fitzgerald to classical,
he'd go to the library

and bring home lots of classical
records and just kind of

listen to them and study the sounds.

(piano music)

- Timmy was pretty much a prodigy.

Comin' from parents like Terry and Linda,

he was inundated with music.

- Growing up, I started
piano when I was six

and then I also played cello.

- It's amazing, like, Linda is a cellist.

Terry is an accomplished
jazz musician, you know.

Both well respected in their fields and

we have Tim.

(jazz music)

- Just had turned 19 and

I went to hear Terry play one night

and I was just really
impressed with his talent.

(jazz music)

- Man, he was just a brilliant guitarist.

He'd go into a solo, they give
him a solo and a half hour

later, you know, their jaws
are all dropping and you know,

then they all come back in but, you know,

he took it a lot of places, so.

- I think what really impressed
me was some drunk that

just kept pestering me,
poking me and tried to

get my attention and I remember
Terry had grabbed this guy

by the arm and he says, "You
touch her one more time and

I'll break your arm," so
it was, I was in love.

(chuckles)

Back in those days he was on
the road more than he was home.

He said, "Come and join me
and we're gonna do this,

we're gonna get married,"
so I said, "Okay."

So I took a Greyhound bus to
Butler, Pennsylvania 'cause

that's where he was on
the job at that point.

- [Director] What was the urgency?

- Timmy.

(laughter)

(light piano music)

This was Tim's favorite place
to sit when he was a baby.

His dad's guitar case.

It was usually open because
Terry was always playing.

Tim just loved to sit there
and listen to him play.

So when Tim was about three,
Terry bought him a drum set

and it wasn't a toy drum
set, it was a nice drum set

and that's how he learned
how to read drum notation,

he learned how to read rhythm.

Basically how to read music.

- My dad is so talented,
my mom is so talented

and my brother was so
talented, it's something that

I just like couldn't believe.

- I think he was bit with the show biz

bug at an early age.

I remember him entertaining
a lot of the kids

out in the driveway one day.

I think he was about six

and he had a Cheech and Chong record.

It was song on there
that was a little dirty.

(laughs)

But I didn't know he knew
until I was watching him

hold court in the driveway
with about six of the

neighborhood kids singing this song.

It was, goin' downtown, gonna see my gal,

gonna sing her a song,
gonna show her my ding dong.

(laughs)

And I, Tim, get in here

and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have

parents calling me.

(telephone rings)

(rock music)

So yeah.

- His sense of humor
was so dry but so goofy.

- Do you know the words to the familiar

pop melody, "Mary Had A Little Lamb?"

- Very unique but you knew
he was super, super smart

just talkin' to him, you know?

- Tim had a jazz background.

He had heard records that
none of us had heard until

our adult years when we decided
to go listen to Coltrane

but he is immersed in that.

- My brother and my dad were
in a band with Michael Bashaw.

(xylophone music)

- Michael Bashaw is a phenomenal musician.

(string music)

But he's also nationally known
for his music sculptures.

(xylophone music)

- Tim was actually still in high school

when he started playing
with us he was 16 years old.

Terry asked Timmy to play
and we called the group,

The Bridge, first time I
heard him play, I mean,

I knew he could really play.

(jazz music)

- I think Tim really
loved playing with his dad

like that and he learned so much.

- Timmy brought his own
stuff to the group too.

Timmy said, "I got this line
I've been foolin' with."

It became a song called
The Lazarus Effect.

- This is called The Lazarus Effect.

Gonna try to raise the dead here.

- He had this line he played, goes--

(scat sings)

You know?

(jazz music)

- Tim coulda gone on and
just played in a jazz band

with his dad the rest of
his life but the thing that

being in a jazz band
didn't provide for him was

creating like an entire package.

- When he was in high
school, he played the drums,

he played the bass, he learned
how to play the guitar.

He was so versatile in all
of the different instruments

that he could play and I think
he realized at a very young

age that it was better to stand out.

(rock music)

- Dayton is a unique mix.

You went to school in Dayton
and half your friends were

locals, like the natives and were briars.

(bell dings)

The other half were the
children of either military

personnel or like civilian
contractors from the

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

- [Narrator] Wright-Patterson,
our country's

most important military installation.

- All of us in town who
were creative or alternative

or different, we found
each other really quickly.

Juan and Tim found each other.

- We would try to make music.

We would try to do things
with like drum machines

and like keyboards, we
tried to do the goth thing.

Even though maybe it was
a little bit more glam.

We'd never play out

and we'd sort of never
gather up other people.

It was always just me and him.

- They had been

trying to come up with something.

They were clearly like
going through mutations.

- Tim started playing with
the guys that ended up

being in the Whizz Bangs.

- Whizz Bangs were, I don't know,

it wasn't my kinda thing at all.

- And then Tim sorta forced them

to let me be in the band too.

- Why are they doing this
like bad kinda Chili Peppers.

- Musically, I don't think we
were ever that really into it.

And, you know, it was
still somebody else's thing

and I think we were getting
closer to a point where we

wanted to do our own thing.

- But I remember Tim had like a,

like one of those big harmonicas
like Stevie Wonder played.

Like with all the notes

and it was like, yeah it was
incredible, like, wow, like--

(chuckles)

You should be the front guy for everything

and we just kinda stole the show.

- And I just remember
it was a popular band.

You know, but we just didn't like it.

I was just like, what am I doin', I quit.

I'd rather fail trying to
make something that like,

is something that I like than
sit there and be loved for

something that you know
your heart's not in

and I remember Tim kinda like
shyly asking me, he's like,

"Well do you wanna do another band?"

And I was like, really, like,

you wanna be in another band with me?

Like, 'cause I kinda felt
like I blew it, you know,

he got me in that band and
then I was like, fuck this,

I don't wanna do this
and then Tim was like,

"Well if you quit, I quit."

I was like, yeah.

(distorted voices)

And then we just got really excited.

(distorted voices)

(distorted voices)

♪ Go freaks go ♪

When Whizz Bangs ended I was
like, okay we're gonna do this

thing, if we're gonna do it,
then we really gotta do it.

Then we started thinking about who

do we want to be in this band?

You had to have a great drummer.

Like, as long as you had a great drummer,

you could be a great band.

(rock music)

I mean, I don't know how old Tyler was.

I mean, for all I know,
he was 19 years old.

I don't know but he was, maybe
he was still in high school.

He looked like he was 12
and that was the thing.

We used to call him The Kid, it's like

the boy genius kind of thing.

I just remember he was around

and he was The Kid.

- So we just kind of
arranged kind of a try out

which was a trip because both Tim

and Juan had like hair
down to their butts.

Tim had on like this black
leather jacket with like

a faux rabbit fur vest over top of it.

And they both just looked
amazing, they're like rock stars

and I was so intimidated.

- I don't really remember
him being nervous.

I just remember him being great
like, right from the get go

and it's like when we got
Tyler, you know he just,

we just knew he was it.

So Michelle--

(rock music)

- The Bodine.

(rock music)

Hair's such a big deal in Dayton.

(laughs)

- Michelle and her brother
were local fixtures.

- We'd cruise around
and look for parties and

just pull out our equipment and just start

jammin' at parties, you know?

- They grew up with a
Les Paul of their dad's

and a Marshall stack next to their crib.

- Scott and I figured that we're at least

fifth generation guitar players.

My grandma and grandpa Bodine
were in a band together.

Funny story, they would
go to these chicken fights

and they were like the
music for chicken fights.

- Seriously?
- Yes.

(laughs)

That's crazy.

- [Director] What kind of music do they

play at a chicken fight?

- They played like boogie
woogie kinda stuff so.

(laughs)

- And even in a town full of rockers,

you'd notice her right away.

- Besides her being super
talented, there weren't always

a lot of females in the bands back then.

- And she was no poser, she
could hang with any of 'em

and she can really play guitar.

- She just personified perfect
chick guitarist at that time.

- Tim just came up to me one
time at a show and asked me

if I wanted to play with him and Juan.

- The people you are with, you
know, they bring more to it

than just their musical
ability because being in a band

is so much about personalities
and like that sort of like,

the sort of chemical interaction between

people that make, you know, the music.

(rock music)

- We had a lot of bands
that we just loved.

- If I was gonna trace the sort
of path of the way it went--

- I know we listened to
a lot of Sonic Youth.

- The Stooges.

- The Cure.

- We liked Jawbox.

- And Bauhaus.

- And I liked New Wave.

- That jazz stuff was a big deal.

- The Beastie Boys.

- Joy Division.

- Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Black Sabbath.

- Nation of Ulysses.

- I love Devo.

- I mean, and we were
definitely interested in funk.

- I didn't think they'd wanna listen to

the heavier stuff like I liked.

- Psycho Sluts From Hell.

(laughter)

Transposes over keys, I'd be like,

do it like a dog, do it like a dog.

- Yeah, that's pretty
much all I listened to.

- We sorta had some broad
ideas about what it might be

and then, you know, that
sort of progressed but

what were we talking about?

Sorry.
(laughs)

- Tim and Juan already had some
songs written a little bit.

Well mainly it was Tim that
wrote everything but they

had 'em worked out and
so they showed 'em to me.

- I think the very first song I played to

kinda try out was "I Could Own You."

(rock music)

And that's when I just knew,
wow, this is incredible.

♪ Child turn down the
heat my brain is boiling ♪

♪ Can't boss you around
'cause you enjoy it ♪

♪ You dig me so when I'm slacking
proves that you're lacking ♪

♪ Safety pins are back in style ♪

- When I first moved in with those guys

they still rehearsed in our
basement and I couldn't believe

what was comin' out from the floorboards.

(rock music)

- We knew he was workin' on
somethin' but had no idea.

- Tim wrote songs like probably every day.

He had a new song almost every practice.

- He would basically come
with the songs completely done

with all the parts for everybody to play

and he'd be like the beat is like this.

(drum music)

This is the guitar part.

(guitar music)

Here's what the bass is like.

(bass guitar music)

And he would have it sort of
all worked out in his mind.

He sorta put all those pieces together

and we had a list of names so I think

the name's on there were Shesus.

- One name that I remember
was We'll Eat Anything.

- Popgun.

- The Girl Who Met Ozzy.

Because Michelle had
just recently met Ozzy.

(laughs)

- And then Brainiac and I
got that out of a comic book

price guide that I bought when
I was into comic books and

we pretty much unanimously
picked Brainiac.

- When Brainiac started
because of all the electro funk

in the early 80s, like
Dayton, it was so prominent.

By like 1990 there's
just all these moogs like

sitting in the pawn shop that weren't

cool anymore and Tim snatched 'em up.

- Having that keyboard, he
would sound out Prince songs

for hours and hours, I'm like, stop that!

(laughs)

It would make you crazy, he'd
do the same song for like

two hours, you know, 'cause
it was so fascinating to him.

I think that got his charge
started, gettin' that keyboard.

- I mean I just thought he was like

a musical genius, really, I
mean he could play pretty much

anything and he could sing
and he had these great ideas.

- Tim was on his own artistic journey

to the point of even
resisting us sometimes.

Tim would do this thing and I think Tyler

will tell you about this too.

- He'd bring a new song to practice

and it would be like really catchy.

- [Juan] And then you'd be
like, oh my god, it's so cool.

- [Tyler] I mean just like
an instant overnight success.

- [Juan] And he'd be like, oh yeah?

And then that song would just disappear.

- [Tyler] And then just
slowly deconstruct it

and do a Brainiac song.

(laughs)

You know?

- [Juan] Would just come back
so fucking weird and mangled.

Anytime you told him that
something, if it was like,

oh my god, that's amazing,
this is gonna be a hit,

it would just be like,
oh you think that, okay.

You had to be very careful
about how you liked a song.

You'd have to kind of like
hold it in and be like,

oh my god, I like that song so much.

He just was not interested
in writing hits, like,

he wanted it to be something
beyond, you know what I mean?

It wasn't just like, oh
yeah, that song sounds like

Nirvana, or whatever, it's
like, this song would sound

great on the radio, he
was just like, nope.

And so we make that demo,
that's the demo that we

must have sent right away to Mike.

- We were getting like
hundreds of demo tapes a year.

It was one tape that
stood out out of hundreds

and it was guys I knew
that I had grown up with.

- Which was cool because he put out a

Smashing Pumpkins seven inch

before anyone knew who they even were.

Yeah he put out our very
first seven inch ever.

- It was not just a song,
it was a whole package.

It was a band and a concept.

(rock music)

I still can't put together
how you listen to that much

Bach and jazz and then put
that into a distorted moog.

There's no explaining how Brainiac

came out the other end of that.

- He brought the tape home
and he says, "Listen to this,

this is the new band," and I said, "Okay."

And he played it for me and
I didn't react a whole lot.

Last thing I wanted to do
was hurt his feelings but it

wasn't really, didn't really get it then

'till I listened to it more.

- [Director] So tell me
about the first time that you

went and saw the band, like,
what were your impressions?

- Oh boy.

(rock music)

- Felt like I was in a time
capsule spinnin' to the future

which was now, it was like, what is this?

♪ Now they're walking on our face ♪

♪ Put some at ease carefully replaced ♪

- And I remember being absolutely like,

so blown away and that was it.

♪ Rot yourself away ♪

♪ Shout every day ♪

♪ Rot yourself away ♪

- Like, just watching like,
one of the best bands you've

ever seen and it's like, that's
weird, I know those guys.

- I was just like,

who is this guy up on stage?

- I had never seen Timmy
as a front man and really,

talk about charisma, he exuded it.

- You'd look around
and the crowd was just,

they had 'em, they had the crowd.

- And it was 25 minutes
long and you didn't think,

oh my god, why didn't they
play longer, you thought,

oh my god, we made it
through the 25 minutes.

I think that is what I came away with

the most the first time.

Was thinking, holy shit,

if they played one more minute, somethin'

woulda gone wrong here.

Like, I'm completely convinced
that somethin' was gonna

break, somethin' was gonna burn,

someone was gonna bleed,
something could explode.

Or all of those things like, it was,

yeah, I've never,

I never seen anything
like those 25 minutes.

Ever.

♪ What they sing about on Mars ♪

♪ We don't know yet but soon we may ♪

♪ When we can ride in rocket cars ♪

♪ To visit Mars some day ♪

♪ What they think about on Mars ♪

- I wanna picture someone
visiting our planet and

listening in and they hear Brainiac

and they go, what the fuck
is goin' on in that planet?

(rock music)

- I don't think I had set foot in Dayton

until the mid 90s when my band, Shellac

played a show there with Brainiac.

- My love of Dayton started
because of Brainiac.

- We didn't even think of
them as a band from Dayton.

We thought of them as like,
who is this great band?

- It's like Ohio bands are just weird,

weird fruit, you know?

- Devo and Chrissie Hynde and just like

understanding like why is Ohio so cool?

- There was some
martian-ism going on there.

- Yeah, Dayton, what's
going on over there?

Course some weird shit's
gonna be comin' out.

I love that, I love seeing
that that's the underbelly

of America, you know, it's
not just what's on the radio.

There's this strange rumblings
coming out of nothing

assembling something really interesting.

- It's what's in the water.

All that plus Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base

is supposedly where all the
aliens are stored from UFO

crash sites so we all grew up
absorbing all the radiation.

- We could've moved to LA,
we could've moved to New York

but I thought it's so much
cooler to be from parts unknown.

You know, I'd rather be the guy that like,

the gunslinger who just shows up

and you're like, where
did that guy come from?

(gun shot)

Also with hip hop, they'd be like

rappin' about where they're from.

♪ Comin' up in Compton ♪

♪ Bed-Stuy do or die ♪

And I was like, this is it.

Parts unknown.

- Back then if you said
you were from Dayton,

people were like, oh Dayton, oh, you know,

or like, how's that?

- We love this town and we loved the

creative flow that was in Dayton.

- You know, there's so much
that has come from here.

- [Narrator] Industry and its output

is representative of Dayton.

- Great music.

(funk music)

We're proud of being from here.

- It was like our thing, it
didn't belong to anybody else.

- We're Brainiac and we are different.

We're different, you like that?

Thank you.
- So that was like,

it was a huge deal to us.

We were like, yeah Dayton, fuck you.

- I walked in after work
and walked into the kitchen

and there were just t-shirts
hanging everywhere and

Juan and Tim were busy
hanging them up to dry.

The first thought was, hey,
great, they're making t-shirts

and then I started looking
closer and then I saw the back

of it and you know, I saw the famous,

fuck y'all we're from Dayton.

(chuckles)

- You're gonna actually put
that on a shirt, you know and,

they're like yeah, I'm like, well, okay.

(laughs)

- It was brilliant, it was this home town,

they definitely weren't bastards.

- I'm tellin' ya, the mayor
shoulda been payin' us.

- And at first I was just
kinda mortified, I thought,

oh no, this is gonna cause
some trouble but you know,

it didn't take me long to warm up to it

and I actually thought it was kinda funny.

- That's the brilliant
mind of Juan Monasterio.

Juan was so, he was awesome, he did

all of our artwork, all
of our album covers.

- Tim and Juan were both so
focused, Tim was basically

in charge of all the music and Juan was

just like such a smart business person.

- Juan was not only willing to do the job

and to make the phone calls
but he was really good at it.

- So I really took on that part of like,

well we're not just gonna sit here and

be the biggest band in Dayton.

- So yeah and then we just started,

just touring, we just went for it.

♪ My candidate is a stickler for fashion ♪

♪ Better than a robot's
got superior action ♪

- We had bought like a $400
van and we'd give ourselves

five dollars a day and we
slept on people's floors.

- We did a lot of that.

A lot of announcing at
the end of the show,

hey can we crash at somebody's house?

- Yeah, I need a place to crash because

this bar is paying us $50 tonight

and the next gig is $95
worth of gas money away.

- I remember people lookin' at us like--

♪ Back to again for real can't you see ♪

What in the world is this?

♪ And they never seen me ♪

I thought it was a good sign really.

You know, 'cause it
was makin' people think

and like experience
somethin' totally different.

- When you just believe in
it 100% there was never a

feeling like, oh we're gonna
play this music in front

of people and if they don't get it,

that means this music sucks.

It was even funnier if
they didn't understand it

because then you're like,
you know, who are you?

- We played one show in
Birmingham, Alabama to zero people.

And that was a really good show too.

- Still, you know, either
playing to hardly anybody or

playing to a packed house, you know,

it was always different,
it wasn't consistent.

I remember we did get a show with Fugazi.

It was in the middle
of the week in Illinois

and it was at last minute,
we had to drop everything

to drive there and that was a big crowd

that was over 1,000 people.

- How quickly in the span
of a year they went from

literally begging me to put
out their record to me begging

them not to leave my label
for a bigger label because

it was quick, I mean it was
genuine competition for who

could put out the first
Brainiac real record.

And I lost but I mean.

(laughs)

- And then that's when I
got the call from Camille.

- Juan sent a tape with artwork on it.

It was really a cool looking tape

but I remember the first time we heard it.

(rock music)

I was playing it so loud
that people from upstairs

were coming down to hear it.

I've gotten good bands along
the way but not like them.

Not like when my heart was
coming out of my chest.

Just that, you know, that
we were gonna sign them.

(rock music)

- The next step was, you
know, recording a record.

One of our favorite bands
that we just couldn't

get enough of was Nation of Ulysses.

- Every part of what they
were doing, Tim and I

were like, oh this is what we wanna do.

Whatever they had, we wanted it too.

- And so, you know, just
looking at the credits on the

back of the record, we saw
that it was produced by this

guy names Eli Janney so
we were like, we gotta get

this guy to do our record.

- I think that they were just calling

a bunch of people whose work they liked

and I was like, sure, you
know, do you have any demos

or whatever, send me some
stuff and so they sent me these

crazy ass demos and I
was like, this is great!

♪ Stop your hands for dinner ♪

And they wanna work with
me, that's even cooler.

(laughs)

- We were totally shocked
that he'd agreed to do it.

- 'Cause he was also
in Girls Against Boys.

I think that they were
like at that time the most

heavily courted band by the major labels.

- To us, they were like,
you know, oh they're signed

and they know all these
people so we could like barely

look them in the eye,
you must, I don't know,

like, are you a millionaire?

- 1991 I had no job and no money,

I was pretty miserable, yeah.

We lived in a warehouse
that didn't have a kitchen.

It just barely had a
bathroom, it was just a

huge empty warehouse space.

- We had a lot of people
staying there and people would

just like put sleeping bags--

- Right.
- On the ground and

you'd kinda wake up and be like

who the hell's here, you know?

- One advantage of living in
a giant warehouse is that,

and you can stay with us, no problem,

we have plenty of space.

It was awesome, it was great
just like livin' the dream but

it was really bad, the
neighborhood was so bad.

Somebody sawed through our
wall and robbed us like with a

electric saw, like, how does that happen?

That was good times, bro.

(laughs)

- So he brought us up there

to New York to record that record,

to record Smack Bunny Baby.

(rock music)

- I put on Smack Bunny Baby and--

(rock music)

It sounded so depraved and so maniacal

and just so evil genius.

♪ Don't mellow out ♪

- At that point, there weren't any bands

that sounded like Brainiac,
I mean there wasn't,

they weren't like the next
generation of something else.

They were completely unique.

- The integration of the
noise colliding with the

melodic sense, clearly they
were the whole package.

- No indie record you could
ever listen to at that level

at that time compares, it just blew

everybody away, it wasn't just me.

- The picture that was
painted sonically in my mind

when I would hear them was so fantastic.

(rock music)

I would try to

emulate or find where he got
a lot of those vocal effect

ideas, you know, and you can't find 'em.

- There was like an early
vocal effect, I don't know how

he did it, if it was a pedal or what.

- They would tell me things
like oh well he's just making

up noises with his mouth as well.

So that adds to the legend.

- Really, I never rolled him
back 'cause I was just like,

it's genius, you know, it
always seemed to enhance what he

was kinda doing, I was like, yeah,

let's try it, let's just do it.

(rock music)

Most of the recording with
them was really just kinda like

trying to get outta the
way 'cause their group mind

worked very fast, and it
was like we wanna make that

really distorted and
messed up but not through a

traditional amp, like what can we do?

And so I was like, okay
here how about this?

I got this toy, let's try
that, let's just plug it into

a mic pre that you're not
supposed to do and turn it up

all the way and just see what
happens and that's how a lot

of that stuff was made just
doing stuff intentionally the

wrong way to get a unique
sound out of it and that was

definitely a hallmark of that
band just like, it was cool.

- After Smack Bunny Baby, we
went from just self-booking

these little one offs
or little mini jaunts

down the east coast to
landing a west coast tour

opening up for Girls Against
Boys and The Jesus Lizard.

(rock music)

It was crazy it was
like an overnight, just,

just kinda hurled into that world.

(rock music)

- And they like our
stuff which just started

to give us more and more confidence.

- It was so angular and disjointed.

They impressed me that way.

- And I think it started to
give Tim a lot more confidence.

- And I think a lot of stuff
was born during those days.

Just getting into people's
faces in the crowd and

swallowing the microphone
half down his throat

and just really freaking people out.

- You were stuck in between
these two bands that

were furious on stage, I
mean, crazy good and we were

just like, well, we
can't hold anything back.

Those kids got their money's
worth let me just tell you.

- And when you go on a long
tour like that especially a tour

with I think very good music,
you start to find yourself,

you start to find your voice, you start to

pull together all these
loose elements and say

this is our identity as a group.

- It just started to get,
to peek into this other

world that we were gonna be a part of.

(rock music)

- In the early 90s there
developed this kind of a

fraternity of people in bands.

- Music of the 90s was
original, experimental

and Brainiac obviously are
like, on the top of like,

the most original, coolest,
unique sounds like, only them.

- I watched them play and was like, wow.

And we stayed friendly, I
mean we didn't, there were no,

there were no cellphones at the time.

- Brainiac's stuff is, you
know, really pioneering

in that they kind of, it's
the type of music that

explodes the framework, it
kind of explodes the song.

It's like, here's a song,
we're gonna have, in a way,

a song, we're gonna have, I
mean some other bands that

come to mind like maybe even,
I don't know if they even

heard each other but At
The Drive In or something.

- Yeah we liked them, they're
fuckin' weirdos, you know?

I just really feel like
they exemplify super weirdo.

(laughs)

You know?

- And maybe they were influenced
by this that and the other

thing, what James Brown, Nine
Inch Nails, I don't even know

where their influences
were but they were like

coming through in only their sound.

- The record went really well, they were

really happy with it, Grass
was really happy with it.

- And then we were touring
and we were just having this

really fun time on tour
just really pushing

each other to play better and better.

- Going up there, recording that record,

once we toured with The Jesus Lizard,

it was like all the right
people at the right time.

- What's so cool about the
90s, obviously, I like talk

about every day of my
life today is that music

was so original and so exploratory.

(phone rings)

I have a 90s phone.

(laughs)

What would I do, I can't believe it.

(phone rings)

Probably,

hello?

(distorted voices)

- [Moderator] That's
incorrect, the answer is--

- [Interviewer] Just say
who you are and what you do.

- [Tim] My name's Tim and
I play the synthesizer

and I fantasize about playing the bongo.

- [Interviewer] All
right so you're on Grass

and you're touring, what
was it like doing like,

full cross country tours?

- [Tim] Second tour we did
was with Jesus Lizard so hell,

you can't beat that, you know?

- [Interviewer] So was
there any real heavy stuff

in the van with Michelle
or was it just like--

- [Tim] It was just like building
tension type thing where,

I mean a lot of it was our
fault too because like,

obviously like, whenever you
get four people together,

a lot of times they will
just pick out the one person

that they focus all
their, you know, anger on

and I guess, you know,
to an extent that was

kind of what happened with Michelle.

- [Interviewer] All right,
so did she leave or--

- [Tim] We kind of asked
her to leave, I guess.

(rock music)

- Well, Tim actually called
me, he was the one that

said that we should go
our separate ways so

I wasn't expecting that,
I was very shocked,

I was not happy about it, I really

did not want that to happen.

- I remember like, actually,
you know, people like

Jesus Lizard and Girls Against
Boys, they weren't so much

pissed but they really liked Michelle

and they were like, are you sure?

- Yeah I was nervous when that happened,

I was a big Michelle fan.

- Really what it came
down to with that was we

loved to tour, Michelle had
a really, pretty good job.

- Touring was hard on me, you know,

and my job at that point,
they were starting to kinda

give me a little bit of friction.

- I was freaked out all
the time 'cause I'm like,

well we have to tour because
like, if we're not touring,

then what am I, I'm just some
guy working a minimum wage

job in, you know, in Dayton, Ohio.

- We just wanted to go nonstop.

Just be on the road as much as we could.

- So you start off with
that, you have that tension

and then after a while,
when people are telling you

they can't do this or that then
everything starts to bug you

so it kind of mixed over into
some personal stuff but it was

pretty unfair to Michelle,
really, like it wasn't,

you know, we were just
kids and dummies and like,

you know, and you're
sitting there going like,

I've got a record deal and
this is gonna happen and that's

gonna happen and you're
getting in the way of this.

- I was really confused for a
while and kinda mad, you know.

I let him know later, about
a month later that I was

really mad, you know, and it
wasn't too long after that

where we made up and I'm
really glad that we did.

You know, I didn't wanna hold
a grudge, I just wanted to

let him know, you know, I wasn't happy.

(tearing)

You know but, it was good while it lasted.

- I don't know, I don't feel
particularly proud about it

but at the same time I
think it was necessary.

(rock music)

So we got rid of Michelle but
I didn't really have an idea

of like, who we should get
in there, I just remember

Tim, he saw it more as an
opportunity, like, well okay,

I can get somebody else in
this band that can maybe do

some different things that
I wanna do and then Tim

was the one who started pushing for John.

(rock music)

And I remember being like, I don't know

if I want that guy in there.

- Why?
- I mean, you know,

'cause fuckin' John is fucking, you know,

he's fuckin' John.

- [Director] Like what about him,

I mean, specifically--

- 'Cause like, I think we went
to his house and I just was

like, oh man, you know,
he's just a weird guy.

(claps)

- [Director] Perfect.

Got that down.

(rock music)

♪ Boom shalocka locka
I think she likes me ♪

♪ Boom shalocka locka
I think she likes me ♪

♪ Boom shalocka locka
I think she likes me ♪

♪ Boom shalocka locka
I think she likes me ♪

- I remember, you know,
hearing about Brainiac starting

and then eventually seeing them.

(rock music)

I was just like, man, these
guys are so good, you know?

- And I remember Tim telling me he was

writing back and forth with John.

- Tim sent me a letter first of all.

You know, he explained how
they'd been touring and all

this stuff and I'd obviously
seen the band and for me,

I was just like flattered
to be asked to be

in a band that I was a fan of.

(rock music)

But it was perfect timing
for me 'cause I was going

to school in OU, almost the
entire time I was taking

classes there I had that
thing that a lot of musicians

get that's like, just like,
playing envy, you know,

I'd see bands playing and
I was just like, I wanna be

doin' that, I'm not doing
that right now and I feel like

it's actually time for me
to either get outta school

or like, or something,
you know, or just be sad

for a long time and then I
get this letter and it's like,

yes, it was kind of like, this
is exactly what you wanna do

so it didn't, I did think
about it but not very long.

(rock music)

- Once John got in there, it's like, oh

we always needed this,
you know what I mean?

- It happened pretty fast,
I packed up my stuff,

moved to Dayton, we started rehearsing

for the tour that was coming up.

- Yeah, so John was just
kinda instantly plugged in and

just, we didn't miss a beat, really.

♪ Able to control myself and laugh ♪

♪ At the jokes or cars
are supposed to be funny ♪

- Yeah he changed everything
and I think once people saw

how great he was a lot
of people were like,

this is kinda awesome.

- I had chills, I remember the hair

on my arm was standing up.

- They stepped it into another gear.

I mean their trajectory
was already unstoppable

but John was just, you took
somethin' that was already

at 10 and you put it up to 10 and a half.

- Timmy with, you know,
John and Tyler and Juan and

they had the chemistry and
very daring and experimental.

- And you could tell there
was something different about

what these guys were doing and
just in the people that saw

them and how they reacted to seeing them.

I was pretty mesmerized because they were

so different at the time.

- They blew my mind, when
we saw them, just a lot of

energy, you know, just an
awful lot of fuckin' energy.

- For me, it's exactly
what I wanted to do and

think I was the right
person for the job so

yeah it felt good immediately,
I think the thing that was,

I was still green in the
sense I hadn't been on tour.

But we were playing with this band

and the drummer comes
into the dressing room.

He couldn't say anything
basically and he just showed us

that he had acid and Tim,
he looked at me and he,

he's like, sure, and he took
it and so I also took it.

- I thought they took
the acid after the show,

that's what they told me,
'cause I'm sure I would've

been mad 'cause we had a
rule that you weren't allowed

to get wasted that everyone probably

broke that rule eventually.

- And I just remember it
really started kicking in in

that song, "You Dropped A
Bomb On Me" was playing,

it was just like--

♪ You dropped a bomb on me ♪

(whistles)

And I'm sittin' there, I'm staring kind of

like out into space, that's a

terrible drug to take to play Brainiac.

I mean, it's certainly learned music.

I just remember feeling like
there was an elastic quality

to doing what I was doing that
just felt kind of strange.

But drugs never affected our performance.

- [Interviewer] And an album
as well, you contracted--

- [Tim] An album, yeah, we're
gonna be recording an album

in about a month.

- [Interviewer] Do you
know where and who's

at the controls and all that?

- [Tim] I think we're
gonna try to use Eli again.

- [Interviewer] You
get along with Eli well

on a musical level, then?

- [Tim] Oh yeah, totally, we
all get along really well,

like a lot of the same
music, same like ethic,

I guess, just wanting to
pervert the sound somewhat so.

(rock music)

- We did that tour and
then Grass was like,

guys make a new record
for crying out loud.

- When it came time to
make their next record,

we were still so close that
it was a easy match up.

- Eli was great to work with,
he was up for trying anything.

Whenever he would ask Tim
what he, you know, like,

what do you think this needs
and Tim was always like,

let's run it through some more distortion.

- He was relentlessly creative, you know,

and for me, having an artist who just

will push everything
aside including eating

and just do that is pretty cool.

May not have been the easiest person

to be in a band with but--

- That, I think, is almost
where like, Tim and I,

in a lot of ways, we sort of
started to go on a slightly

different musical path,
like, where I started to fall

behind and didn't quite
understand what he was doing.

- With John and Tim in the
band, you can have one visionary

person, but having two of these nutcases.

(laughs)

- In my mind, I wanted the
next record to sound even more

polished than the first
record, I was like, the first

record isn't polished
enough, we need to get

more polished but that wasn't the case.

- It was more experimental
and you know, things that were

like, "Fucking With The Altimeter."

- Remember he was tellin' us about that

parakeet record that he was using?

- Yeah.

The Complete Parakeet Trainer.

Yeah this, I think he got this before I

joined the band, I think in like Detroit.

- He had that record for
a long ass time before.

It was just sitting there
waiting for its moment, you know?

Waiting to happen.

- Give me some love.
- Just kinda like

playing around with the variants of the--

- Give me some love.
- The record.

- That song

does to me what I think
rock music should do.

It sucks the air out of the room

and it makes them feel like
something's communicating

to them from some other dimension.

♪ God save us all give me some love ♪

♪ Give me some love ♪

♪ Give me some love ♪

- So we did that record

and by the time it was done,
it was even weirder than like,

because all these sort
of things were happening.

- I remember that
thought too, where it was

just like, what have we done?

Seemed like a good idea.

- I was fuckin' scared, like, I was like--

- We really enjoyed making it
but we were just kind of like,

is this going to be a total
failure in other people's eyes?

- If you think about the stuff
that was coming out around

that time, the more mainstream
stuff that was selling big

was, you know, nowhere near that weird.

♪ One flight down the aeronaut ♪

♪ Was found ♪

♪ Under the fuselage ♪

♪ Look at me now I'm a wreck ♪

- And I remember taking it
home, putting into a boom box

and laying on the floor
in my parent's living room

being like, this is terrible, like

this record is the worst record.

- We were just kinda
looking at each other like,

is anyone gonna wanna listen to this?

Just 'cause it was, you
know, there was some

weird things, there was a poppiness to

Brainiac anyway, you
know, the first album--

(bell dings)

Oh that was you, oh.
- Such a pretty bird.

- Yeah that's okay.
- Oh okay.

(laughs)

(distorted voices)

(rock music)

♪ Whatcha gonna do the beat ♪

- They found this weird
sound they wanted to make

and they made it, it was theirs.

No one else was doing
what they were doing.

- And the whole world
was all about grunge.

Yet that came out, that's incredible.

- They had a really good
sensibility about modernizing

pop music in a way that appealed to me.

It just had a edge to it that
I thought was not common.

I don't know what they sounded
like, I'm not sure exactly.

♪ Yeah who do you think you are ♪

♪ You're not a bonsai super star ♪

- So I remember being kind of freaked out

and not really sure about it.

(distortion)

(laughter)

- What do you mean?

(laughs)

- But you know, then you get good reviews

and then you're like, oh yeah,

I always knew it was great.

- I remember Eli was
like really blown away.

He was like, this is awesome.

- I just thought it was
a really cool record and

something that I'd never done before

but cool doesn't always mean sellable.

You know what I mean, that's
the thing and it's like,

I just didn't know the
Grass people that well

to know whether they were
gonna freak out or not.

- People at Grass just,

they just, they loved it.

- Have you met Camille yet?
- Oh yeah.

- It was amazing, that's all I could say.

It was genius.

- She was, it's genius,
you guys are geniuses.

- Everything you heard from him was just,

'cause it was like I said, it was so

different than anything else.

- Oh my gosh, I love the
record, you guys are geniuses.

- They always delivered better and better.

The kid was a genius.

- You know, that was the thing about Tim.

What that music was, really
was a lot about what,

about his artistic journey, you know?

I mean we were all along for the ride but

it was definitely his thing.

- He was like, I was watching
him unfold of the guy

who was gonna arrive and
be this really remarkable,

unique artist that was unlike
anybody else and that's

what I was, I kind of watched
Timmy more from the far

because he was so--

(sighs)

- Tim was, and he was a
man of few words at times.

I wouldn't say brooding,
some other people would but,

okay he was brooding.

(laughs)

- I don't know if I was
intimidated by Timmy.

I felt like I never really got to know him

as well as I knew Juan or Tyler.

- [Director] Why, you felt intimidated?

- Maybe, sorta, kind of.

He was really good at what
he did and I probably had

issues with that.

(rock music)

- And then the more
attention he was getting,

I think the harder time he was having.

- I think it was after a
show and we ended up staying,

it was one of the few nights,
maybe a label paid for this

hotel and it was like in,
near Times Square or something

like that and it was like an
old thyme hotel and we were

like on the 30th floor and
it had one of those ledges

like in the movies and Tim
just got out on the ledge and

just walked around the building, like

so you couldn't see him anymore, like,

and I'm like, fuckin' terrified
of heights, I'm just like,

laying on the floor going,
what the fuck is he doing,

it's just like windy, just like,

just walked away for like five minutes.

- It seemed to me that
there was some part of his

personality that he wasn't
quite comfortable with

and he always kept hidden
away, he would bare himself

more live, I think, 'cause
it was a fleeting thing.

(rock music)

- He was gettin' stiff
stuff out of his system,

you know, when he was performing,
it had to be cathartic

and cleansing, it was cathartic
and cleansing to watch it.

- It was like just hyper
kinetic James Brown guy or--

- I always thought about James Brown.

- In the school of like James Brown.

- Draw some of that James Brown and

include it in punk rock, really.

- A front person who understood
how to work the room.

- Never seen anybody play
keyboards get as into it.

- Just havin' a bird's eye
view from behind the drum set

of just his genius insanity on stage,

it was just infectious.

- And a little bit scary, you know,

you didn't know what was gonna happen.

- Song stops and he's like,
I'm the fuckin' king of pop.

- The king of pop.

Bring that, the king of pop.

- I'm the king of pop, somebody

give me a kiss and I'm like--

(rock music)

- You're like, who are you?

- Tim could look like a
pretty aggressive guy onstage.

You weren't sure but then
in the next moment he'd be

totally goofin' off about something.

- I don't know, it was
just definitely like

somethin' took over.

(rock music)

- The thing was, it wasn't
just, it wasn't just, you know,

musically, yeah also with things
like, you know, with style.

- That was at the phase
where they were like wearing

all that stuff, I'm
remembering the color orange.

I'm remembering sunglasses.

- They would shop behind
a slightly different rack

at the thrift store, you know?

(laughs)

- Always fashion before function.

- Yeah they did wear weird
clothes, I mean we probably

just thought all Americans
dressed like that.

(laughs)

- You know, there's the
thrift store chic with the

tight t-shirts and the
belt buckles and then

there's the time with the ear muffs.

- Fuckin' ear muffs, just
the way they wore it.

- At some thrift store, those, Brainiac

had all bought roller skates

and then just roller skating
around the blocks around the

venue which was like in
the middle of nowhere.

- You would believe that there was some

flack to be caught from that.

- Of course, Detroit, Chicago,
Los Angeles, New York, fine.

You get to like, North Dakota,

you gotta stop for gas at some point, man.

- We got out at a gas station in

middle of America, wherever it was,

you know, it was weird.

- We'd walk in there and
people would just be like--

(yells)

- If a band is like a gang, you have to

have your gang colors, you know?

- I think that's kind of where
the magic happens in bands.

When you're around each other
all the time, you're like,

and going different places
all the time together

and so you're just sort
of like, you know, the

tour jokes and all these things developed.

- Like chihuahua, do you
want to kiss chihuahua?

- Oh no.
(chuckles)

- [Interviewer] Come on
guys, be a little serious.

- You're comin' to the
darkness with me, cameraman.

(laughs)

- I look back on that, we were just

so poorly behaved, you know?

- That's because we're--
- Fuck the number system,

oh yeah.

- Never a dull moment.
- No, no.

- Again, they're so compelling as a group.

That's what I think made them stand out

and why labels and people like myself

were so gung ho to get them.

- Everybody loved them,

you know, but they had to
finish their deal with Grass

and then Corey just grabbed
them as soon as he could.

- I always thought they were great.

Super high energy and they
were like one of those bands

where who they were was
always shining through

and who they were was
always moving forward.

They were just progressing
as a band and it just sounded

different than anything else at the time.

- Touch and Go had a
bigger arm of distribution.

They could pack shows, you just say

it's a Touch and Go
artist, place was packed.

I was sad 'cause I loved them but--

- Yeah.
- I mean I might've

even whispered to them,
go to Touch and Go.

- By the time Hissing Prigs
came out on Touch and Go,

it was like they had hit
a stride that was like,

it's all its own.

- You know, one thing I think that

we never really looked back too much.

(rock music)

I just remember it was just
kinda this straight line

where we just kept moving forward

and doing different things and yeah.

It's funny, I always thought, oh this is

how all bands are gonna be.

(laughs)

No.

Yeah.

No, they were definitely unique.

(rock music)

- They also, like the way
that they did the numbers

in the names of the songs and stuff,

it was so ahead of their time.

- That's what made, I think
another thing that makes it

so timeless, it just gets
crazier and crazier but at the

same time somehow more and more familiar.

- It's an interesting
challenge to be able to make a

record that is cohesive and
eclectic at the same time.

You know, you can listen
to different songs

and kinda feel like, oh this is like

a different world than
the last one I heard.

(rock music)

- We did talk about his
lyrical process a little bit.

Well the words were just
so weird and they kind of

flowed together but they didn't

necessarily make a lot of sense.

- Even to this day, I don't
think this is what he's saying

but I'm always going, mythical devils.

♪ Mythical devils ♪

(laughs)

- I don't know what he's talkin' about.

- And chihuahua, chihuahua, like I can't--

♪ Chihuahua chihuahua
chihuahua chihuahua ♪

- Hot metal dobermans

covered with cinnamon fins, I think is

one of my favorites of them.

- That's a pretty good line.

- It's like, what is that?

Sounded cool.

- And I said to him, I said,
"It sounds like you're saying

can I get a witness," and he said,

"Well if that's what you think it is."

- Yeah he wouldn't own up
to what the lyrics were,

we had to make 'em up.

♪ I am a cracked machine ♪

♪ I am a guide wire hussy ♪

♪ I am your favorite DJ ♪

♪ A blip on the screen ♪

♪ I am a cracked machine ♪

- Because the vocals were so distorted,

it became more of like a
relationship of vowel sounds

and things like that and if
you got to go and actually

read the stuff, you're like,

don't be so shy, man, like this is

really like, this is good.

♪ The 16 sergeants ♪

♪ Stacked like matchsticks mercy for me ♪

- Not like there's some
political message, just clever.

♪ Knock the first one down
and they all fall over ♪

You know what I mean?
- Yeah.

(rock music)

- Seems only fitting that
on the fourth of July,

the town of George Washington is the

lawn site for Lollapalooza 95.

(rock music)

♪ Put your fist up ♪

- It's like, how did we
end up on Lollapalooza?

- The year we played,
Hole, Jesus Lizard, Beck,

Sonic Youth, I mean, you
know, there really wasn't

anything else in America
like Lollapalooza.

- They were startin' to get bigger.

It was very rapid but at
the same time it was a

deserved ascent, yeah,
'cause they were just,

you know, just super original.

- They were those bands that other bands

just look at and think they're cool.

I do recall a lot of bands
loving Brainiac, you know?

- Yeah, I remember back
watching them at Lollapalooza.

(rock music)

And it was like when
"Loser" was really big and

Beck would disguise himself,
like ball his hair up

under a hat and wear cop
sunglasses and try and watch

Brainiac and like two or
three songs in, like the

girls would spot him and
yeah, he'd have to leave.

(rock music)

- That's the thing is
if you saw them live,

you were just like, man,
these guys are fucking amazing

and they still have so much room to grow.

- Hissing Prigs and during
Lollapalooza too was the

beginning of major labels
and how many more records are

we gonna make on Touch and
Go and what major label

are we gonna sign to and are
we gonna sign to a major label

and how much money are
we gonna get and like

who owns what and all
these things that like,

you never have to think
of, you know what I mean,

when you're starting out
and then you start to

think about that stuff
and you know, people are,

yeah, just, it was very stressful.

- You guys are goin' places,
especially, I love the CD,

tons of great cuts on there.

- Thanks.

(laughs)

(distorted voices)

- [Director] Okay so let's
time travel a little bit.

- Okay.

(rock music)

- Brainiac appeared at
that transitional moment

when the scene was going
from being sort of purely

underground, the transition
into where there was a

professional class that had
attached to the music scene.

- When Nirvana broke and
became huge at the beginning

of the 90s, it started a feeding frenzy.

Every major label, A and R
person, their directive was

there's this whole indie
scene out there there's gotta

be another Nirvana out there, you know.

If you value your job, you'll go find 'em.

- I mean, to me, really, the
90s just felt like a gold rush.

I mean, it felt like a
gold rush plain and simple.

- I've only been to Dayton for one reason

and that was for Brainiac.

- They were just, I mean just
throwin' money hand over fist.

- A million, two million dollars and

just tons of hand wringing.

- Man, there was so much
money being thrown around.

It was insane, it was insane.

How many bands got so much money that

no one even knows who they are.

- Some bands were harder to get to know

and they kept you at distance.

Those guys were definitely one of 'em.

They were holding that
pole with the little

feather on it and you
were the cat, you know?

- Brainiac was really good at

hanging out with all the label
people to get hotel rooms.

(laughs)

- I remember one time he was
staying at a really nice place

and the message on the
postcard said this sure beats

waking up in someone's kitchen floor

with a dog licking your face.

(laughs)

I'm like, yeah I bet it does.

- I could tell you stories
about being at dinners

and choking on, like literally coughing

at them passing on deals.

- They just saw a lotta
bands at the time get signed

and then go nowhere and get burned

and they were smart enough to realize

they should be careful about that.

- How amazing is that,
like they didn't wanna be

somebody's million dollar
flavor of the month.

- Like now, you know,
musicians are trying to survive

and if they can get a deal,
they're gonna take it,

you know what I mean, or do a commercial,

or whatever it is they need to make money.

- But at that time it was a huge deal

to go from an independent
label to a major label.

Even we had a huge backlash, like,

you know, sell outs, basically.

♪ You can't win ♪

- Juan, Juan, Juan,

wake up, Brainiac is too popular.

- You could spend 10 years building up,

crowd, your audience and just,
it could just be wiped away.

Like with just one bad deal.

- That fear that you could,

you weren't going somewhere
and that you ultimately

were making a terrible mistake that would

end you career was very palpable to me.

- You're worried also about,
well if we go to a major label

are you gonna be allowed
to do what you want to do?

Artistic freedom is a big, big deal.

- So many bands, they'll sign a contract,

take a big advance and then
not be able to produce.

He wanted to make sure that when they did

sign a contract that he could back it up.

- If you take away this
lifestyle, if you take away this

and you start giving us money
and you start letting us

stay in hotels and we drive around in a

nice van and we do all this other stuff,

is the art gonna go away, is what

makes us good gonna go away?

All these things are sort
of percolating around you.

♪ Will come out well
I'm a young principal ♪

- You guys are brothers, you're
like the best perfect band.

I'm always like, please do not break.

- Nothing ever went wrong for
us for a long fuckin' time.

- I think touring also,
some of the cracks had

started showing a little bit.

- I don't know if mad at
each other's the word but

everyone was just kind of
like living and operating

in their own crazy, sort of mini universe.

That caused me a lot of anxiety,

was like, what are we doing?

(rock music)

You're in a situation where
you're relying on three

other people to keep it
together and to keep going.

- My girlfriend got, at
the time, got pregnant.

The due date was basically
in the middle of the

Hissing Prigs campaign,
to make it more stressful,

the baby came two and a half weeks early.

I kinda had to convince the guys that

we needed to drive back.

And I missed the birth

and I was not well liked by anyone

during that time period including myself,

so it was stressful.

- Every single person in
the band, one way or another

has power over you, you know,
I would say Tim probably

had it the most together
but he also had the most

pressure on him, he blew up at me.

- We were in a hotel room and I

dropped the bomb and he's like,

you're ruining my career!

Like he literally like
outbursted at me and I was like,

fuck, well what could I say?

- It's like everybody
holding everything in

and then so when
everything would come out,

it just always comes out like--

(makes exploding sound)

- That's the thing about being
in a band, you really can't,

you just, you're flying
by the seat of your pants.

- Played that show at Lounge Act, I like,

took a just of thing of beer and went--

(makes spraying sound)

And threw into the crowd and
then somebody threw a beer

bottle and it smashed right
in Tim's face and we just

kept playing, kept playing,
it was the end of the show

and then I got off and I was
like, oh my god that was a

great show and he just grabbed
me and threw me up against

the wall and he was
like, don't ever fuckin'

do that again and I was just like, okay.

(rock music)

It's not your best self,
you're not your best person

at the time and I think
we all kind of became

not the best versions of ourself.

- It was kind of like tension building.

People getting pretty
fuckin' pissed at each other.

People yelling at each other.

- John got punched.

- Eventually we got
into fisticuffs on tour.

He was super pissed at me and

he took a swing at me.

- I mean you're putting
like 20 year olds into like

a situation where like,
here you're gonna sign this

two million dollar deal maybe if everybody

can just keep it together.

♪ The film it's translucent ♪

I started having panic attacks
'cause I was so freaked out

by all the stuff that was
kinda going on, like people

weren't getting along that well and no one

ever told me what a panic attack was.

(rock music)

So I literally thought I was
going crazy and I was trying

to hide it from other people
'cause like I'd have these

just like debilitating panic attacks

where I was just like freaking out.

(rock music)

Like, I definitely felt
like I was losing my mind

and I felt like everybody
was sort of acting out in

their own way, it's like a lot
of extra partying going on.

- Yeah, there's tons of stories.

One of the craziest things was

Marilyn Manson came through
Dayton and Marilyn Manson

ends up having an after party
at the show at Tim's house.

(doorbell rings)

(rock music)

- But that party is
sort of famous and like

the stories from that party, like the

weird shit that happened at that party--

(growls)

(clucks)

I'll tell you off camera but like--

(laughter)

Not tell you here.

- [Director] And so what
did you guys do with Manson?

- You know, I just talk about,

just you know, daily life stuff.

(growls)

(clucking)

I don't know.

(laughs)

(rock music)

(crashing noise)

I actually remember
thinking that was funny and

I don't think Tim was too
happy about the whole thing.

(rock music)

- Just felt like things were
like spinning a little bit

out of control, while at the same time

still keeping our momentum.

(rock music)

- So I'm your host, Matt
Pinfield, up next it's the

latest from the Dayton,
Ohio band, Brainiac.

This is the first clip
off their third album,

Hissing Prigs In Static Culture.

It's called "Vincent Come on Down"

and here it is on 120 Minutes.

(rock music)

- Then it was like, whoa,
and Spin's doing this

and you know, they're on MTV now.

(rock music)

- It was wild, Brainiac mania.

- They just say that about
so many bands like there's

no one like them but
they really do stand out.

♪ Kiss all the babies
and rub the politicos ♪

♪ Vincent come on down ♪

- They were so special and
like no one could deny it when

they saw it, whether it was
MTV or like a major label.

♪ Slice one open for the unknown soldier ♪

♪ Vincent come on down ♪

- And somebody else
called us up and was like,

Beck came and watched us at Lollapalooza.

Then Beck asked us to go on tour.

- It all seemed in line,
going on tour with Beck

just seemed to be like,
a part of that momentum.

- And that tour was fuckin' awesome, yeah,

I mean I think they're the
biggest shows we ever played

in terms of like audience
size and great after parties,

just felt like you were winning, you know,

like just things were happening.

- And just energy there was so incredible.

If you could somehow bottle that, it could

power an entire city, those
shows were just incredible.

- On the Beck tour, just in
the middle of a fuckin' song,

looking out and playing bass,
just totally getting into it

and I just like, sometimes
you just snap out of it and I

just like snapped out of it and I'm like,

what if this is the last time I do this?

Like, I remember thinking that, like,

what if this just stops
today and I've always

kind of thought about
that 'cause I remember

it was jarring like, just you
know, it would jump around

a lot and just this moment
of like, it just like

came into my head like,
yeah, it was a very, yeah.

(distorted voices)

- Do we go now?

- [Director] Anytime you're
ready yeah it's still recording.

- Hi, I'm Tyler and this is Tim and

we're from Brainiac and you're
watching The New Frontier.

Good enough?

- Yeah.
- My name's Todd Yunglen,

I already mentioned.

All right.

Thanks Ben, I'm here in the
backstage of the side door,

actually above the side
door in the very dim room

with two of the members of Brainiac.

You've got a new EP out, is that right?

- Yes, sir.

- And I really like it,
Electro-Shock For President.

- That's true, that's true.

I'd like to introduce you to
our bass player, Monasterio.

- Hi.

- Buenas noches.

- I'm in a band,

you're probably one of
our biggest influences

as a matter of fact.

- I like it all right.
- This song's good,

I don't know, I think in
20 years people are still

gonna be listening to it, that's

the thing.
- I hope so.

- That's good 'cause we'll still
be getting the checks then.

- But with that, every
time I listen to it--

- We just need more people
like you to rip us off

and that'll sort of give
us more credibility.

- Yeah.

- Keep the myth alive.

So please, tell your
friends, rip Brainiac off.

- Rip Brainiac off, from
Brainiac, from the horse's mouth.

Not to say that they're horses
or that they have mouths but,

you know.
- But we are both.

- Yeah true.

Back to you, Ben.

(rock music)

- We did the Beck tour and then we were

gathering pretty regularly.

- We were working on new
songs trying to figure out

what the next record was
gonna look like and also

just kind of in, you know,
heavy discussion about the

future, you know, what
label we would be on,

yeah so there was a lot going on there.

- We had a meeting and Tim was like,

we've toured, we've made these records.

He's like, if you guys
wanna keep doing this,

then we have to keep
pushing this thing forward

because otherwise this is
like, then we can just be done.

I think he was drunk one
time but he was like,

he got really wasted and
he's like, he kept talking

about the phoenix, he's
like, we gotta rise again

like the phoenix, like
he just kept saying that

over and over again and that's
what he was talking about

like we sorta had to destroy
what we'd done before.

(synthesizer music)

- It was also a turning
point because I think our

relationship, our creative
partnership was basically

coming to an end, that
they had kinda outgrown me

as a producer and so I was excited

to see what was gonna happen next.

- You know, we had made
like three records with Eli.

We were deciding to just branch out.

(synthesizer music)

- We were using trigger drums,
samplers, drum machines,

while at the same time sort of mixing it

in with the low-fi aesthetic.

♪ Go on and give me some fresh new eyes ♪

♪ Just my tongue in a new disguise ♪

♪ Go on and give me a
sexy mouth to taste it ♪

He was trying to push that
stuff in as much as he could

while still keeping a little
bit, I guess, of what we had.

(synthesizer music)

♪ To taste it ♪

- That was us kind of trying
to take it to the next level,

we started using samplers
and just other experiments.

I got into circuit bending at the time.

- [Director] What's that song sound like?

(makes circuit bending sound)

With a kind of a French guy.

(speaking foreign language)

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, that one.

- Bands have a tendency
to just repeat themselves.

- Once that band develops
an identity and they start

getting rewarded, there
is a strong incentive

to stop experimenting and keep doing

the thing that people like.

- So when you hear groups make
radical changes like this,

I think of a band like
Radiohead or somethin'.

Then you realize something's
at work that's like,

there's a lot of possibility there.

Whether it's based on the
friendships of the people

in the group or somehow in that dynamic

that change is possible.

I don't think it's
possible in every group.

- Some of those things were
like kind of four track

experiments, some bits at
home and then we brought

the reels in to Jim O'Rourke's studio.

- I mean the first thing
that occurred to me was that

they were integrating
these things in a much more

interesting way than other bands.

- Working with Jim was great.

I liked a lot of his
records that he had made and

he's a improviser as well.

- Usually mixing people's records.

They would come to me with something

they didn't know what to do with anymore.

(laughs)

I sort of became the go to guy
for when you've hit a wall.

(laughs)

- We brought this like,

you know, murky sounding
recording with a wet blanket

like draped over it and was like,

can you make this into a Brainiac record?

♪ I know how it feels
when I need a disaster ♪

♪ And everything I cannot have ♪

- Electro-Shock For President
record, I thought that was

one of the best records I'd heard.

- Electro-Shock For President,
pretty fucking amazing.

It's pretty ahead of its time too.

- The EP they did with Jim was tremendous.

(rock music)

- It kinda made me realize
at the time I thought,

wow this band's really
capable of something,

I think extraordinary.

(rock music)

(audience cheers)

- Thank you, that was a new number.

- And this is one of the hits.

- You'll be hearing a lot
of this song in the future.

- I think I'd had like a talk with Tim

about like, what the
future was gonna be like,

it just didn't feel
that resistance anymore.

I think he just had become okay with like,

we're gonna do this major label thing.

- You know, when you're that in demand,

you can set the rules
and set the guidelines.

If I choose your label, you have to let me

do things this way and
they became that in demand.

- It just kinda seemed
like the next logical step

in the evolution of Brainiac to just go to

that next level with a major label.

- A cloud had been lifted,
I think things had been

kinda worked out, we'd sort
of decided who we were gonna

sign with, some of the other
acting out that was going on in

the band, like, that had
also been addressed finally

and I just think we were
just in a really good spot.

(rock music)

- We were supposed to fly to
New York the following week to

talk to Interscope or maybe another label.

- Meet with a lawyer,
talk about contracts,

options, all that kind of stuff.

- You know, working through this new thing

for whatever the next LP would be.

(rock music)

- Just kept getting better
and better and better.

(rock music)

Rick Rubin's called and he
wants to produce your record.

I was like, oh that's cool
then I get another call

and they're like, Rage
Against The Machine called,

they want you to go on tour with them

and we're like, that's
pretty fuckin' cool.

(rock music)

We were at the final word on
the final page of the chapter

and it felt like okay now we're gonna,

here's the next chapter.

- Having your band from the beginning,

having your like, boys from home that you

get onto the world stage.

♪ They hold you together ♪

♪ Flash ram ♪

♪ Flip the switch burn me again ♪

♪ Spark me out ♪

- You know, but you know, like you said,

things happen the way they do.

♪ I'll solo out my innocence ♪

♪ And use it as ♪

- They weren't trying to be current,

they were trying to be timeless.

They were making art, they
were making somethin' that was

gonna withstand the test of time.

It was craft, it wasn't
like, oh we have to

have something so we can go on tour.

We have to have something
so that we can get reviews.

No, like, they were making

great records to make great records

and then they played live
shows because they liked to

play great live shows and
those things go together.

(rock music)

Yeah well.

I still see it.

- [Director] Well look, let me--

- It was on the news
while I was eating dinner

and for some reason I
didn't look at the TV.

♪ That you are ♪

♪ Don't call it payback ♪

And I remember hearin',
when they were interviewin'

the policeman, he was sayin' that was

one of the worst crashes he'd ever seen.

♪ Covering the wrinkles cast the mold ♪

♪ Features fold the blankets of a ♪

And then my cousin called me
and she told me that was him

and I just couldn't believe it.

♪ If I could catch up with the chameleon ♪

- I get a call and it's my sister

and she's just freaking out.

♪ If I could catch up with the chameleon ♪

They had been trying to get a hold of me

and they didn't know where I was.

They thought I was like, in the car maybe

and then they sort of told
me and I was just like--

(synthesizer music)

- I don't think I had any reaction at all.

I was completely in shock.

(synthesizer music)

Drove down Main Street and made
it about a quarter of a mile

and I just pulled into the gas station

that was there and I just lost it.

♪ If I could catch up with the chameleon ♪

- I just went into Tim's room and was

just like looking at his stuff and--

♪ If I could catch up with the chameleon ♪

I just remember--

♪ If I could catch up with the chameleon ♪

Being numb.

- We were just, it was just unbelievable.

Yeah, couldn't believe it.

(synthesizer music)

(somber music)

- I just thought it was horrible, I mean,

you feel sorry for the
people that are around him

more than anything.

- I think a lot of people just,

myself included, just
compartmentalized it, you know?

Because trying to make sense
out of something like that,

it doesn't, there is no
rhyme or reason to it.

What happened that night,
like, I wasn't there,

I know what different
people have said and like,

it was just like, it
didn't make any sense.

- I know it was a car
accident but beyond that,

I don't know what the circumstances were.

- I heard it was icy, I heard
it was, I still don't know.

- From what I understood, is
that Tim had this 72 Mercedes,

he loved this car, it was green and

just loved driving around town.

- I remember Tim had just
bought that Mercedes-Benz

and he opened the trunk
for us, it was like,

totally rusted out in the back so the,

you know, the exhaust was just

coming into the vehicle
and he basically said,

like, yeah it's got some issues and

you know, five days later
that was when it happened

and basically it was
just the carbon monoxide

was building up in his system,
like during those days.

- He just slowly

reached the threshold of that
carbon monoxide poisoning

and just happened to be
driving home at the time

and lost control of the
car and hit this pole,

so that's how I understand what happened.

(distorted piano music)

- You know,

part of the tragedy is just what

would have been next, you know, really.

'Cause I don't think that unit was done

speaking, really, you know?

- To me, Tim was Brainiac, so
the minute I got that call,

I was like, I was just like,
okay this is just done.

- We just really enjoyed what
we were doing as Brainiac and

you know, that was gone, it
was tough livin' without that

'cause it was who we
were for the past five

solid straight years, that's
all we knew, it's all we did,

was just, you know, make
music and travel and tour

and see the world and meet amazing people

and it was just gone.

- I just didn't really talk
to people from before like,

I just cut myself off from
that world almost completely

and just like this wall came
down and then I was just like,

I didn't really have the
tools to deal with it.

- I just didn't wanna do
anything, didn't wanna

leave the house, just
utter, total depression.

- The practical side of me
just, like, I guess I gotta

go get a job, gotta figure
out what my job is gonna be.

- When the dust had settled I
went around the neighborhood

to try and find work and
there was a place called

Park Chili, I remember going
there, manager's looking over

and he's like, so what
brings you to Park Chili?

And I didn't cry but it was
just almost like a breaking

point for me 'cause I was
not gonna tell this guy like,

what had just happened to me
but I was just kinda like,

well I just love chili, sir, you know?

And as soon as I left there I
was just like, this is nuts,

I can't, I gotta figure something out.

(distorted voices)

- Tim's passing was clearly
an explosion that just

rocked everything and sent everyone

careening in different directions.

- You know, once someone is gone,

it's the job of the survivors
to pick up the pieces and

figure out what works from there or not.

(rock music)

- Brainiac was done in 1997
and my own personal life

just kind of spiraled outta
control, just drug addiction

and very rapidly put on a bunch of weight.

I was a wreck, I was a mess.

- It's kind of a fog what happened to me.

My strategy was just to cut myself off.

You just move somewhere else
and start again and just

do something else and don't
really talk to your old friends.

- I was like, you know, I was depressed,

trying to make music, some
people say you can't run away

from your problems but
sometimes a fresh start is

an entirely different matter, you know?

Loaded up all my worldly possessions and

drove to New York.

Some of the details are fuzzy, you know?

- It wasn't until Kim Deal asked me to

play on a Breeders record
that I kinda popped

out of it a little bit
and got together and

started playing drums again
and went up to New York

for a couple months and we
were up there for a while,

a lot longer than expected,
I was gettin' pretty burned

out so I just left to
go get a slice of pizza

and got on the airplane
and went home to Dayton.

♪ Put your fingers down ♪

And when I came back home
from that it was just kinda

back to the same depression
and just doing nothin' really.

- There's just not a solution to that.

Yeah, there's not a like,

I don't know, maybe people
just do what they can do,

like they deal with it the way
that they can deal with it.

(guitar music)

- I think it was therapeutic
for him to continue

making music, everyone was
stunned and his way out

was to keep making music.

- You know, I was always
still tinkering a little bit

on my own just recording on a

four track and stuff like that.

And just really being in a new environment

and that, that's how Enon started.

(rock music)

♪ You carve a place I'll keep it clean ♪

- I don't know how long it took for like,

for John to put it back together
and start something new,

Enon, you know, which then became like

a really influential, brilliant band.

- John kinda spiritually just kept going.

Took what he was doing in
Brainiac and just kept going

and augmented it and still to this day

is doing interesting music.

- Where I am today is, you
know, it's all progression

that makes sense to me
now, part of my momentum in

moving forward, it's not like
painful for me to look back,

it's just like, kinda
draining, it's like, that was

like a lifetime ago, it feels like.

- Schmersal, I definitely
kept in touch with

and in terms of his kinda
commitment to music.

Juan, I, again, think about
as like a business person

who just went and was like,
well, you know, I'll move

and I'll get job and things
related to what I believe in.

- I'm a motion graphics
designer, work a regular job.

People don't really know what you did.

Maybe you're not who you were before but

you're definitely, you
can be somebody else.

- [Director] You can be
somebody else but you haven't--

- Yeah you don't process--
- Yeah, so it's like,

my question is, how long
did it take for you to--

- Well that's what I'm
saying, if that's my strategy,

did I process it, I don't think I

really did, like I don't know.

You know, I think if you
poked me hard enough,

it probably would all come
out pretty easily but like,

I feel like, you know, I put
in 20 years to not really

try to deal with it too much so and then

time definitely helps, you
put it far enough behind you,

it's like, it gets easier.

- John's doing Enon and Juan's
gone in different directions,

you know, and clearly Tyler had gone

in a whole different direction too.

(audience applause)

- Say, he is risen.

He is risen.

Around 2007, I found myself
just like, in the pretty much

the darkest, lowest
possible place I could be.

It's the drug addiction and
just all this crazy stuff.

I stayed in that darkness for

about a decade so it was
like a 10 year journey

of just spiraling outta control

and so I went back to my church that

I grew up in as a child.

I came back to my church
just full of doubts and

just read a whole bunch of books and

started reading the bible again and

kinda gettin' a fresh start.

Hey, Happy Easter!

And I started servin' to my church and

I started playin' drums in the band and

then I came on part time
and now I'm there full time

as an assistant pastor
and I just love what I do.

I'm grateful to be
breathin' much less to be

able to do what I do and
so I'm very grateful.

- [Director] Okay just
stand by and mark it.

(laughter)

- Perfect.

- What's been cool is over
the past few years, we've

definitely been reconnected which has been

wonderful and I don't
want that to ever end.

I think for the most part we processed it

individually, don't you think?

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

I think it was really
weird but I mean like--

- Sure.
- You're talking about some--

- A cataclysmic change
in everyone's lives.

- And also we just were like--

- Planets realigned.

- When something like that
happens, you just kind of,

at least for myself, it's
just easier just to go off

by yourself and not be reminded of

like, everything you've lost.

- It was so bizarre, it was
like a two fold grieving process

because first and foremost,
you lost your best friend.

- Right.
- And someone that

you were close to and you
love but then once that

whole grieving process kind
of started to die down,

then it really sunk in,
like, oh my career's over.

You know, this dream of Brainiac.

- The shift of all of that
stuff happening and then

all of that stuff not happening.

We just happened to have
something really incredibly

tragic happen.
- Right.

- And that forced a great change in

all of our lives, you know?

- Yeah, when we got back from
tour, I mean, we probably

wouldn't talk for a while, I think.

(laughs)

Get me away from these people.

I've lived in a 85 Chevy van
with for 45 days straight.

(rock music)

- I remember Tim's dad was,
of course, very distraught

but he said something that
was nice at the service,

he said that he was so happy
with his life at that point,

you know, and in a way, I
think this was a plea also to

the guys, the band mates themself to say,

try to remember that.

- I feel just so fortunate that
I had been there to witness

the power and the magic
and for unknown reason this

changing moment but I
feel like I witnessed,

some said almost biblical, mythical thing.

- And I think Timmy would've led

a paradigm shift in musical taste.

I really do believe that.

I think that band was
so cool and so unusual

that what we lost, not just
was his life and you know,

clearly his friends and
family lost that but I thought

that we could've lost something that was

more impactful to just the art.

- Hearing Tim's vocals, it's just crazy.

Just weird to go back to
those tracks and just suddenly

turn it on and be like, oh there he is.

He's not gone, he's right there, like

fully alive singing at you.

- Yeah that's haunting.
- Yeah.

It's crazy but it's also awesome.

♪ I've got ♪

♪ You for the day ♪

- When I was going through some posters

getting ready to have some stuff scanned

to send to you actually,

there was a music box that
I hadn't played in years,

so it's a little man at a
piano and he was sitting

clear across the room and I
found this one poster and I

thought, oh yeah I'd
forgotten about this one

and I was rolling it open
and I heard just like

two or three notes from
the music box and I thought

that did not just happen, I
mean, it's, I know it sounds

probably crazy to a lot
of people but, it just,

to me it was a sign like,
yeah, go through this stuff,

this is good for you, mom,
because it was, you know,

like I said it was hard
for me to, for a long time

to look at the posters or
watch videos or listen to the

music and it just, I don't
know, it just, I've heard

from many people that
think, he's out there

giving them little messages now and then.

- This dream that I had
shortly after he passed away,

we hugged and he said,
"I'm sorry, I didn't know."

And I said, "I know you didn't know."

And he says, "But I
can't stay, I gotta go."

And I said, "I know."

And we hugged and that was it.

That was it.

(chuckles)

- I had this recurring
dream, every single night.

I was in this unrecognizable
bar and every single night

I'd walk in and I'd see Tim
and I would instantly get

ecstatic to see him and then
mad because I thought he was

faking the whole thing or
somethin' and just like took off

and didn't wanna do Brainiac
anymore, you know how

dreams are and then I'd
always run to him and the joy

would overtake that and every
single night I would hug him

and as I would hug him, he would
just slither out of my arms

and disappear and that
was the end of the dream.

I had that exact same dream
what felt like forever

and I don't why, I don't know
what it meant but eventually

the dream just stopped and I don't know if

you'd call that closure or not but,

yeah, I don't know what you'd call that.

- I was, I came home
from work and I was just

kinda mad at somebody and
I was kinda complaining

to him about it and he said,
"Mom, I think you might be

overreacting," and he just
looked a little annoyed

with me and I just it, it hurt my feelings

and he knew it hurt my feelings
and so he felt bad about it

and the next day I came home
from work and on the table

in the entrance was a
little cactus with a note.

It doesn't want me telling this story.

(chuckles)

(distorted voices)

- I hope people realize
that, yeah, this is a

tragic story but it's not
a story about tragedy.

(rock music)

- Leading up to the show,
like that day, it just seemed

kind of almost overwhelming
then when we started playing

it was just, you know, it was such a

good time and it was great.

(rock music)

- You know, we made it
about having guests,

involving other people that were like

related to the band.

- Even though I was lucky
enough to work on this stuff,

I was a genuine fan of
it too, so it's like,

it's just part of my musical history.

- I can't imagine my life if

Brainiac hadn't been in it.

- It felt like this is
the time to do this.

Feel what you avoided before.

Kind of now or never.

(rock music)

- The show was spectacular and it was,

the energy, it was electric.

- It was just amazing to
me to watch the reaction

to the music and just see all
that energy and there was just

this overwhelming feeling
of love in that room.

- That energy lives on through you,

you and all these other people.

From where I'm at, it's about
celebrating that memory.

(rock music)

- I've always been very
allergic to bands getting back

together, I don't wanna be
up there and like not do it

justice so I feel like that
gig turned out really great.

It just felt natural.

Doing these shows was more
like therapy for me personally,

just being able to see all
those people I hadn't seen

in years and realize
like, how much, you know,

instead of internalizing
this like, that the music

meant a lot to them
and just see them again

and to have that experience.

- Just seeing that whole
family of people and you know,

feeling that feeling of being sort of

part of the music world is
like, it's a great feeling.

- I think a lot of it was
cathartic and I think what

happened too, I wasn't
prepared for how emotional

it was gonna be, like
I was kind of a wreck

after the show, like in
a good way, you know?

- And seeing people that you
haven't seen in a long time

and it all kinda centers
back to my brother.

It was kind of heartbreaking
but on the other hand

it was like, wow, here we are
and this music is livin' on

and people are playing it and
there's so much love here and

wow, look at what he left behind.

- You know, Tim just,
he died so suddenly and

it just changed my life forever

and I thought, it just felt
like everything was over,

you know, the music,
everything was the end

but I've come to realize lately that

you know, a huge part
of Tim is still here.

His music and the memories and
all the love that people feel

that's everywhere, that's still
here and so his story really

didn't end 20 years ago,
it's still being written.

(rock music)

♪ Don't pop your carrot top ♪

♪ We're still waitin'
for the martian dance ♪

- You know, the School Of Rock stuff

that's been going on in Texas.

(rock music)

And I was like, oh my gosh, that's crazy.

- It's so amazing for me
to be able to pass this on

to the next generation and
they were playing with more

passion and power than
I've ever seen them play

in their lives and some of those kids

I've been teaching for eight years.

♪ 'Cause we're still waitin'
for the martian dance ♪

- They came from the 90s, were
doing something completely

different, so then I was like,
okay this band's like amazing

'cause they were super weird,
and like I hadn't listened

to anything like it at all and
so now I'm using them as like

a huge inspiration for
like a bunch of stuff.

- [Trent] Brainiac's a band that's been

really inspiring to me
from a sonic standpoint.

- You can kinda hear that and other people

took those influences
and incorporated them

and Trent Reznor, you know,
I guess was one of them.

- I don't think most
people even realize that

it just has a stamp all over
lots of, lots of pop culture.

- In the landscape,
when I like, look at the

last 25 years, they
definitely inspired me.

Make us all dream to find that
kind of magic in the future.

- The impact is immeasurable
still for people that like

any of the bands I'm with, I
will always try to sit down

and say, if you like what I do,

you're gonna like what this did for me.

- I think the main inspiration
that I got is just like,

just let go of all your insecurity,

just chase the wild sparks.

Just pushed all the walls
out a little bit, you know?

Or just made you realize,
like, there aren't any walls.

(piano music)

- The music is always there.

I mean as different as he
was creatively, as a person

he was just very unique
and yeah, I don't know,

charismatic and smart and, I don't know,

he was somebody I could talk to

and I hope the film brings out
some of hanging out with Tim

but yeah I mean I really miss that.

- You know, I think Tim was
extremely and uniquely gifted,

I really do, I think he
was just an amazing mind,

a musical mind and in fact,

to this day, my favorite Brainiac songs

I don't even play on.

(piano music)

Those are just Tim, those are just Tim and

a four track and just his brilliant mind.

(piano music)

- Now I can finally after all these years,

really listen to the music,
I couldn't for a long time.

You know, I could watch
it in just small amounts

and then I would just almost
feel like I was suffocating

because I missed him so much
and a lot of that has changed

just recently and I'm hearing
a lot of stories about

how he inspired people to
follow their dreams and

that just feels great so I
think this whole process,

the documentary, the
tribute concert has just,

for me it's been so healing and

I just feel a lot of gratitude,
I'm just really lucky

I got to be his mom, so it's,

I don't know how I got
off on all that, but--

(laughs)

(piano music)

- [Interviewer] It's gonna
waste our time a bit,

all right, thank you, thank you, yeah.

Okay, so, just so when we
lose the label on the tape

20 years from now when they're
doing the big rockumentary,

no all right, can you give me your name?

- My name's Tim and I play
the synthesizer and I sing.

- If we got to shine
in that period of time,

I think that was a great time to shine.

You're just like the
guy like in the western,

you're the guy who comes
from parts unknown,

you do what you're gonna do.

(distorted voices)

And then you disappear into the sunset.

Yeah.

- Good game, guys.

(rock music)

♪ For what I am takes so long ♪

♪ For me to say yeah
from a big fuckin' 80 ♪

♪ Stop it with my reasonable eye ♪

♪ I had my hand stuck into my seat ♪

- [Director] Could you just clap for us?

(chuckles)

- I can.

(laughs)

- I, Steven Frank Albini,
being of sound mind,

hereby allow, what's your thing called?

- [Director] Give me one second.

- Brainiac documentary to use
my likeness for all eternity

for anything, forever in
perpetuity, don't give a fuck.

- Juan keeps tellin', what did Juan say?

- Guy who had lived in
there before had used it

as like kind of a sex dungeon.

- That's cool.
- Marker's ink.

(claps)

- Over the top kinda rock
and roll thing, like a--

(buzzing sound)

- Yeah.

- Fuck you.

- The entirety of the
90s is kind of a fog.

- Think I went to a show
with them, I don't remember

what we were watching but
we went someplace together.

God, I wish I knew what it was.

- I might not have been there.

- [Director] I heard you were there.

- I was there, okay.
- Yeah.

(laughter)

- I probably was there.

- Just fuckin' pop another pill, bro.

(laughter)

- [Director] Rolling.

- Just keep 'em rollin'.

- No regrets.

- No regrets.
- No regrets.

(chuckles)

♪ I've got ♪

♪ You for ♪

♪ The day ♪

♪ Don't you ♪

♪ Try to ♪

♪ Escape ♪

♪ Watch the telephone ♪

♪ With my handsome face ♪

♪ Slowly it sinks ♪

♪ Gives me time to think ♪

♪ Love ♪

♪ I told the fire ♪

♪ No response is wired ♪

♪ Don't try ♪

♪ To break ♪

♪ Loose gets in my way ♪

♪ Out of my way ♪

♪ I've got ♪

♪ You for ♪

♪ The day ♪

♪ Don't you ♪

♪ Try to ♪

♪ Escape ♪

♪ Hey don't you go ♪

♪ Never promise spoke ♪

♪ Was I ♪

♪ All that bad ♪

♪ Was I all that bad ♪

♪ Love ♪