Welcome back to We Came From Celluloid, where two pop culture nerds and band geeks sit at the apex of music & film, except this week we actually let a third weirdo into the room. I'm Nicky P, here with Brian Pritchard, and this episode we're joined by Joey Steele, a man Brian has known since they were 13-year-olds destroying their hearing in a band called Nosferatu, and who has since spent the last 20-plus years fronting All Torn Up, Cop Out, and Bowhead. This is only the second time we've had a guest, and Joey did not come to play nice. He came in hot with a theory of music as community organizing, stayed hot through a debate about whether punk audiences actually agree with anything, and left us with a metaphor involving methamphetamine and Malcolm X that I'm still thinking about. What We Cover: Joey's 20-year run fronting All Torn Up, and the very different mission behind Cop Out Why "music is community organizing" and musicians who deny that "suffer" for it The Commitments and the difference between showing off and actually connecting How three bands (All Torn Up, Cop Out, Bowhead) let Joey express anger, playfulness, and pure surrealism separately Punk scenes, masculine energy, circle pits, and who gets left out of the room Night of the Living Dead as an accidental political awakening in eighth grade Spike Lee's run of films (Crooklyn, Clockers, Bamboozled) as a suburban wake-up call The "moment between thought and action," Nicky's slow-down theory vs. Joey's speed-up-and-hit-a-brick-wall theory Malcolm X as the shared reference point for both approaches Whether arguing has ever actually changed anyone's mind (spoiler: rarely) John Waters vs. anger as competing strategies for getting a message across Bowhead's surreal lyrical world, insects, conjoined twins, and a Joshua tree watching the world burn The upcoming Bowhead / Puma Thurman tour dates later this year The Real Talk: This episode is proof that our best conversations happen when somebody disagrees with us in a way that actually sharpens the point instead of just being noise. Joey and I don't agree on much, politically, temperamentally, or otherwise, but that friction is exactly what made this one worth recording. Deep Dive: The Moment Between Thought and Action: My whole framework is "slow down and think before you act." Joey's is "speed up until thought and action happen at the same time." Different roads, same destination: Malcolm X, who Joey credits with mastering exactly that synthesis, and who's quoted on every single All Torn Up record because of it. Deep Dive: Three Bands, Three Emotions: All Torn Up is anger. Cop Out is joy and resistance together. Bowhead is pure surrealism, a song about insects leaving a waterfall shelter, a song about conjoined twins in a car accident, and a song about being a Joshua tree watching fire roll down a mountain toward you. Same guy, three completely different emotional registers. Key Moments: Joey's Nosferatu-induced hearing damage and the song "Lost Monkeys" "If you wanna wank, use that thing in your hand, not your sax," Nicky's Commitments reference lands perfectly The circle pit vs. the political slogan: why Nicky's punk roots were about the room, not the ideology Night of the Living Dead: an eighth grader's first real political thought, delivered by Tom Savini The meth/Malcolm X exchange that anchors the whole episode Joey teasing Bowhead's "The Burning," the Joshua tree song that closes out the episode The Bottom Line: Whether you slow down or speed up, the goal is the same, actually thinking about what you're doing instead of running on conditioned autopilot. Joey's spent 20-plus years trying to force that moment through music. This episode is us trying to have it out loud, on mic, in real time. Also Featured: Tangents about bass players never counting, System of a Down playing to stadiums full of people who don't share their politics, and whether Nicky is secretly more of a John Waters guy than he's willing to admit. This episode is for anyone who's ever wondered whether art changes minds faster than arguing does, and for anyone who's ever had a band practice end in a broken hand over a political disagreement. Subscribe, rate, and review We Came From Celluloid wherever you listen. Follow us on social media for behind-the-scenes content, movie recommendations, and more conversations about the films and music that shape our lives.
