Pitchfork

When we last checked in with graphic artist/musician Zak Sally, he was on ABC News talking about his love for the band Tool. We were confused--but not as confused as Sally himself. In a recent interview, the former Low bassist described the incident to Pitchfork as "just another case of someone asking me to do something bizarre out of the blue."

It all started when Sally-- who dabbles in freelance writing when he isn't too busy creating graphic novels or running his publishing imprint, La Mano 21-- pitched a piece about one of his favorite bands to his local alt-weekly, Minneapolis' City Pages. "I pitched them because it was something I've been thinking about and wanted to write about at some point," Sally explained. "But...I really wanted to get into the show for free. And then I couldn't! I couldn't go see them! Which I'm still kind of fuming about."

The City Pages piece was picked up by the Village Voice, one thing lead to another, and the next thing he knew, Sally was on "World News Tonight". "The whole thing was a surprise to me," he said. "It was absurd in a good way."

Although Sally has never met any of the members of Tool, he did manage to enlist the services of guitarist Adam Jones in writing the introduction to La Mano's latest book, the bizarrely funny story/drawing collection Wait, You're Not a Centaur by artist/musician Nate Denver. (The book comes packaged with Ghost Alarm, the latest album from Denver's band, Nate Denver's Neck.)

Sally explained how he came to publish Centaur: "I just knew Nate from touring with the Dirty Three, when he opened for them. I didn't know that he wrote or did that sort of thing. He sent that book to me cold. About thirty seconds after I looked at it, I said, 'I have to put this out, it's the greatest thing ever.'

"I want this book to be bigger than The Da Vinci Code! I want Nate Denver to be elected King of I Don't Know What! He should be king of something."

To help further his goal of Nate Denver world domination, Sally recently hooked up a distribution deal for La Mano through Sub Pop. The powerhouse label is selling La Mano books through its website, as well as distributing them to record stores.

Announcing the partnership on the La Mano website, Sally wrote, "For a long time I've had this theory about music and print: there's a connection between the two (and to be more specific, the 'underground' end of both) that goes back as far as...well, my lifetime at least, and I am 87 years old. The only difference for me between 'independent' (a million bucks to the person that can come up with a decent term for the non-commercial/ mainstream...uh...genre...) music and its equivalent in print-- say, your great 'zines, comix books, and other small press artifacts-- is that one thing you can listen to and the other you can't. Aside from that, it's two sides of the exact same beast."

As for Sub Pop, "yup, they made me take a 'grunge test,' and I passed with flying colors, thank you very much."

To further strengthen that print-music connection, early next year La Mano will put out Nights of Passed Over, a collection of lyrics "and ephemera" by Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon). Previously published only in Portugal, the book has been updated with "a new introduction, the lyrics to Sun Kil Moon's Ghost of the Great Highway, additional handwritten lyrics, and setlists," according to the La Mano site.

Also in the pipeline for La Mano is another collection of work by John Porcellino, the man behind King-Cat Comics and Stories and the collection Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man, previously published by La Mano.

Although running La Mano is a lot of work, Sally is hesitant to claim it as his full-time job. "Since I started this up, I've kind of been feeling my way through it, just learning as I go," he said. "The longer I go on, the more I think I don't want to be a real publisher, insofar as, when you're a real publisher you have to do this all day, 24 hours a day. That's your job, that's your gig, that's what you do.

"I'm doing this on the most bare-bones level possible, and it just takes a ton of time and a ton of effort, so I'm just trying to split the difference between being a cartoonist and being a publisher. I don't have any grand plans, it's just people I know and friends of mine who trust me and I trust them. There's not any kind of schedule.

"What I want to do is put out some beautiful things and establish some way that they can reach people in an honest way."

On the artistic side of things, Sally is working on "this big long 250-300 page story about an alcoholic mouse and his alcoholic pals," which he hopes to have finished by January. The book is going to be published by Fantagraphics as part of its Ignatz series. He's also working on art for a forthcoming release by Ida Pearle.

But what about music? Sally said that he occasionally plays with White Map and has been "helping out a bit on the new Kid Dakota record, but just because Darren Jackson is a good friend and a great songwriter," but other than that, he's pretty much given up doing anything "career-oriented."

"When I was in Low, we covered a whole lot of ground," Sally said. "So there aren't many facets of that experience that I didn't experience. We played basements and we played with Radiohead. I think if I ever did music again, I think I would not want it to be my career. When it's your career, there are certain things you have to do. Like with any job. And I just don't think I'm prepared to do those things again. I couldn't tour like that anymore.

"I think one of these days I will play music, but I think it will be, when and if it happens, it will be probably very humble. I just want to be in a position where I don't have to give a shit if people like it. At all. And no matter what, if it is your job, you have to go out and work and make sure people like it.

"I'm not young and cool-- not that I ever was-- but I'm an old man. I hate young people. I hate music. I hate haircuts. I just have to stay at home and...you know what I'm saying. We've got to invent a Cool Bomb that explodes and kills all the cool people."

Later, he added, "My little boy Isaac seems to enjoy my guitar playing," Sally added, "but he's only one year old and his critical faculties are not to be trusted."

As for his former bandmates in Low, "I wouldn't say we don't keep in touch. It was a pretty difficult ending for all of us. We all wish each other the best, but I think we probably took on some damage as friends at the end of it. But everybody wishes everybody else the best. It's just hard for us to...it's just hard. It's complicated stuff. I guess we're all just trying to do the best we can. It's more about us as people than as a band."