Ballroom Dancing

Nardwuar's Video Vault

Friday, March 20, 3:30-4:45pm, Room 16B

There's a man in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, who has devoted his life to interviewing pop culture icons. He often wears plaid and always wears a tam, at least since Sebastian Bach ran off with his tuque. He's possibly the most Canadian Canadian ever born. He comes across as schtick, a mix of Tom Green and Ali G, but upon closer inspection, Nardwuar the Human Serviette is a walking Wikipedia. He's Google incarnate, and while he might be neurotic, Nardwuar is living his dream. And yes, his name, since 1986, is actually Nardwuar.

"Basically, I'll interview anyone," he begins. His eponymous radio program has been gracing University of British Columbia's CITR Radio since October 1987, and he's been putting the underground on videotape since 1990.

"As things progressed, I would transcribe the interviews for fanzines ... and then when you start writing for mags, they start pitching you with stuff, and I was able to do an interview with Nikki Sixx even though Universal Records had banned me from interviewing anybody on their record label because Beck told me to fuck off in 1994!"

Nardwuar speaks in run-on exclamations, each clause more excited and nasal than the last. He has stories of everyone from Snoop Dogg to Jello Biafra, Andrew W.K. to Mikhail Gorbachev. Quiet Riot threatened his life, Sonic Youth broke his heart, and Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos sang "Take Me Out" with Nardwuar's band, the Evaporators. Nardwuar asks the tough questions ("I won't do anything that's racist, sexist, or homophobic") and questions the tough acts.

"You wonder, 'Nardwuar, why are you interviewing this band?' Well, Sloan gave me the term: 'GGBB: good guys, bad band.' In other words, most bad bands have good guys in them, so it doesn't really matter who you talk to. And the good bands that are bad guys, you can just go with the flow. Like Sonic Youth? They were kind of bad guys, but whatever. We like them anyway."

So who is Nardwuar? He's a persistent archivist, a research maniac, the man who interviewed Kurt Cobain just before his death and who's dying to get Little Steven and Lil Jon in the same room. He's a guerrilla journalist, and whether he's posting new video interviews to www.nardwuar.com, presenting them to a panel crowd for Nardwuar's Video Vault ("Hopefully there will be some people, and if they do come, they will get gifts"), or performing at SXSW with the Evaporators, he's doing it all with soul.

"Everybody has a story. I won't discriminate. ... As long as I live, I'm going to be interviewing people."

Nardwuar is a legend. Just ask Courtney Love. – Darcie Stevens

Nardwuar’s Picks for SXSW 09

Janelle Monáe (Wed., Stubb’s, 8pm; Sat., Vice, 12mid)

M. Ward (Wed., Central Presbyterian Church, 9pm; Thu., Auditorium Shores, 8:15pm)

Lovvers (Wed., Red 7 Patio, 11pm)

Vivian Girls (Thu., Aces Lounge, 9pm)

Black Lips (Thu., Cedar Street Courtyard, 11:30pm; Fri., Emo’s Main Room, TBA)

Little Boots (Thu., Emo’s Annex, 12mid)

Wavves (Thu., the Music Gym Patio, 12mid)

Kid Cudi (Thu., Aces Lounge, 1am)

The Sonics (Fri., Emo’s Main Room, 8pm)

The Evaporators (Sat., Habana Calle 6, 1am)