THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2007

5B

loggedin

MetalfansflockforDethklok
Twelve-campus tourmakes stop atCUcampus
Story and photos by Brit Horvat YourHub.com staff

Home Movies
Its 11:30 p.m. on a Sunday night in 2002, my freshman year at CU. By this time Im finally getting over one of my freshman year death hangovers, and need to relax before another week of trying to go to classes. The rest of my new dorm buddies Paugh feel the same way and we all congregate in the dorm room with the largest TV. I stop on a channel becauseof a funny commercialand the show that follows is a cartoon that has such bad animation that it almost hurts your eyes. Just as I am aboutto hit the channel up button,one of the main charactersbusts into a song called, Do Not Put Marbles Up Your Nose, and we are instantly hooked. The name of that cartoon which we discovered that one fateful evening was Home Movies. It has reachedcult classic status on Adult Swim. It has differentqualities than the norm for cartoons.While others rely on crazy cartoon antics or unbelievable events, Home Movies relies more on witty improvisationaldialogue similar to that of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Creator and head writer, Brendon Smalls cartoon is based around a 4th grader, creativelynamed Brendon Small and his two friends Jason and Melissa that get togetherevery day after school to film movies in Brendons basement that usually relate to the deepermeaning (thats right people,this cartoondeals with deeper meanings) of the current episodes.Thecombination of Home Movies being a great show and the timing of it being on television during my collegecareer has made it a memorable show for myself. Brad Paugh Boulder

How does an animated band with the highest charting death metalalbumevermanageto go on tour?Ask Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha, creators of Cartoon Networks late night Adult Swim show Metalocalypse. Perhaps you know Small from his pastworkas co-creator,writer, voice actor, composer and musician for the Cartoon Network series Home Movies that aired from 1999 to 2004. Currently, hes knee-deepin the second season of Metalocalypse, an animated seriesbasedon a fictionaldeathmetal band named Dethklok. This sociopathic yet successful foursome isincapableofdoinganythingnonmusical, with the exception of sometimesgettingawaywithmurder. Since the show started airing in August2006, metal fans and musicians have been showing extensive loyalty nationwide. Members of metal bands such as Metallica, Nevermore,Archenemy,Cannibal Corpse, King Diamond and Exodus have already done voices for the show. And accordingto Small, so many artists are contacting him that hes faced with possibly creatingnewcharacters. In addition,thefirst day The Dethalbum went on sale in September, the deluxe edition (two-disc set with additional songs not heardon the show)soldout everywhere. The show had only been on the air for a year and after the deluxe edition sold out, people were selling it on eBay for $300, saysSmall. When Small and Blacha first came up with the idea for the show,theynotonlydecidedDethklok would need an album, but a live tour would seal the deal. As a result, a 12-campus heavy metal tour with ...And You Will Know Us by theTrail of Dead kickedoff Oct. 29 at the Universityof New Mexico and made its eighth stop at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Nov. 11. Although the turnout didnt reach maximum capacity, lines were spiraling outside CUs UniversityMemorialCenterhours beforedoorsopened. Clay Keibler, 22, of Boulder, summedup the spirit of the crowd by saying, Dethklok is the great-

est band ever. Tonights show will melt the spines of all who witness it. Freeforstudentsattheuniversities where they perform, the tour hasbeengainingcriticalattention. Peoplehave beencomingfrom all over driving five to six hours to seetheshow,saysSmall.Wehad to turn away at least 1,000 people attheUCBerkeleyshow. Small does all the music for the television series, but when it comes to bringing the band to life on stage, he has three other musicians accompanyinghim. Small is on guitar and vocals, which he refersto as gruntingand grumbling into the microphone.Hes joined by legendary metal drummer Gene Hoglan, who is known for his technical, extremely high-speed drumming; composer and bassist Bryan Beller and Mike Keneally, a former Frank Zappa stuntguitarist andkeyboardist. How does a fictional metal bandsidentitytakethestage?According to Small, the band remains anonymous and ominous by wearing all black. Weaving in the animated effect, the band plays along to a movie projected ona giganticscreenbehindthem. The movie itself tells a little bit of a story and we capturethat storyandplayitlikea pitbandataballet would do, says Small. Its like a realbig,stupidDisneyride but with metal and murder and the crowdgoes crazy and moshes and does all those things theyre supposed to do at a metal show. But whether or not youre in to metal, the awesome, scary energy is an undeniableexperience. Although the Berklee College of Music graduate has an extensive

Above: Brendon Small, 32-year-old co-creator of Adult Swims Metalocalypse, practices backstage before the Nov. 11 Dethklok show at the University Memorial Center on the CU campus in Boulder. Below: Zachary Camara, 18, right, and Joe Turco, 24, play their turn at the Guitar Hero stations set up before the show. Both fans drove all the way from Cheyenne, Wyo. just for Dethklok.
music background and plenty of recording experience, performing on a live tour is a differentconcept forhim. Playing on tour like this is totally new territory for me, but its fun and Im learning on-the-road etiquette, stage etiquette, what wire goes where and how to make things not sound bad, laughs Small. ButIm in a safe place musically, because these musicians areso good. The 12-campus gig has been a tryout tour, meaning Dethklok will be making more appearances in thefuturewithotherheavymetal bands.Idgive this toura B+ so far, and thats good coming from me,says Small. Rightnow this is an experiment to see how the band is working with the picture andtoseewhatlittlechangesneed tobemade. While Small claims he has the coolestjob ever,he says he could use a few days off to actually realizeit.Besideshisfuturemusicalendeavors,the metal musicianis not afraid to show his softer side. Id like to go to Disneyland, says Small. You heard me, I have a metal show and all I want to do is gotoDisneyland.