When I write one of these things, I listen to the record over and over. You can really tell how much you like something when you have to listen to it obsessively for work. I went in to Borders late the other night to look for something to review for Punk Planet and they were playing Hocus-Pocus. I wasn't just professionally pleased. I was excited to hear the record in a new context.
Then again, the band's driving force John Schmersal was in Brainiac, responsible for my absolute favorite song I discovered by downloading -- legally, of course, from Epitonic -- "Flash Ram".
It's funny. When you do an interview for a feature, in which you're only going to end up selecting a few quotes from a great many, you never know what's going to be most valuable until you start writing. The comment about video games seemed like the one least related to the record when I was conducting the interview. I regarded as one of those necessary icebreakers. But by the time I was done, it proved to be the key to everything.
