Pitchfork

Photo by John Ray Fuller

Last week, we ran two stories about a contest called "Feed the Beat", in which 50 bands were each awarded $500 in food from Taco Bell. The first story revealed the winners of the contest to include Girl Talk, Blitzen Trapper, Panthers, White Rabbits, Enon, and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, among others. The second story was about how Ted Leo, a vegan, was unwittingly entered in the contest as a prank.

That second story included the following line: "(For the record, Ted Leo's Touch and Go labelmates Enon did, in fact, enter the contest knowingly.)"

To clarify, we didn't mean to imply anything whatsoever about any of the winning bands' political stances or feelings about Taco Bell, the Pepsi corporation, or corporations in general. We also weren't accusing any of these bands of selling out. Personally, I'm more of a Chipotle guy, but I've got nothing against Taco Bell. Nonetheless, Enon's John Schmersal had a few things to say in explanation of his participation in the contest. We called him up for an interview, and what follows is the insight he gave us into the situation.

"It's not really an endorsement or anything. I sign up for free contests all the time. It's not a big deal to me, and I thought it was funny when I won. I don't buy lottery tickets; I don't spend my money gambling on sports or anything like that, because that's a waste of money. But this is something free to do, and I'd never really won anything in my life, so I was happy when I won. One time I did win some goldfish at an outdoor festival, but they died, like, a week later. That's the only other thing I can think of that I've ever won.

"I don't really have any use for Taco Bell myself. To tell you the truth, I ate a lot of Taco Bell in the 90s, but that was just because I was younger and I didn't care as much about what I ate every day as I did about buying records. So I would buy a bean burrito on tour. I got a five-dollar-a-day per diem, and basically every two days I would buy records and eat Taco Bell. But that's not really what I'm about. The band doesn't really eat fast food at all on the road."

Schmersal heard about the contest "through our publicist," and emphasized, "I was the one who entered this contest and not my band, and I feel bad for my band members for feeling complicit in this. It was something I did; it wasn't necessarily supposed to represent my band on any larger scale or anything like that.

"I don't feel as strongly about it as Ted [Leo]. I feel like I won something that was free, and I can use it as a gift. I can give it to homeless people if I want. I thought it would be a great opportunity to be a party-bringer to people. You stay at kids' houses, and they love Taco Bell. And it's a way to feed the poor, not necessarily a great way to feed them, but I've given people my leftovers and stuff [before]."

Since Schmersal has yet to receive the prize, he doesn't know exactly what form it will take. But assuming it's a certificate of some sort or another, he plans to redeem it mostly as a gift for others:

"I'm certainly not going to set up shop at a soup kitchen or anything with it. But if I'm in an area where there's a Taco Bell and homeless people, fuck yes I'm going to give them some Taco Bell, if they want it. Whether it is the homeless or whatever, anybody who's putting us up on tour-- with a snap of fingers, I can make a hot fucking salsa party."

Enon begin a big tour in New York City at CMJ tomorrow (October 18). Their new album, Grass Geysers...Carbon Clouds, is out on Touch and Go now.

Dates:

10-18 New York, NY - Highline Ballroom (CMJ) #
10-20 Allston, MA - Great Scott #
10-21 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa #
10-22 Toronto, Ontario - Sneaky Dee's #
10-23 Buffalo, NY - Big Orbit's Soundlab #
10-24 Pittsburgh, PA - Garfield Artworks #
10-25 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop #
10-26 Chicago, IL - Abbey Pub #!
10-27 Chicago, IL - Abbey Pub #!
10-30 Seattle, WA - Nectar Lounge *
10-31 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge *
11-01 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill *
11-02 Berkeley, CA - Lower Sproul Plaza (early show)
11-02 Pomona, CA - Glass House *
11-03 Los Angeles, CA - Echo *
11-04 San Diego, CA - Casbah *
11-06 Austin, TX - Emo's Jr. *
11-07 Houston, TX - Proletariat *
11-08 Baton Rouge, LA - Chelsea's Cafe *
11-09 Tallahassee, FL - Club Downunder *
11-10 Tampa, FL - The Crowbar
11-11 Orlando, FL - Back Booth
11-12 Gainesville, FL - Common Grounds
11-13 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn *
11-14 Durham, NC - Duke Coffeehouse *
11-15 Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel *
11-16 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's *
11-17 New York, NY - Knitting Factory *
11-24 London, England - Brixton Windmill
11-25 London, England - Brixton Windmill
11-26 Pilzen, Czech Republic - Pod Lampou
11-27 Berlin, Germany - Cafe Zapata
11-28 Hamburg, Germany - Molotov
11-29 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Bitterzoet
11-30 Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
12-01 Paris, France - Point Ephemere
12-02 Geneva, Switzerland - L'Usine
12-04 Udine, Switzerland - No Fun
12-06 Rome, Italy - Init
12-07 Bologna, Italy - Il Covo
12-08 Verona, Italy - Interzona
12-09 Schaffhausen, Switzerland - Tap Tab
12-10 Munich, Germany - Orangehouse
12-11 Cologne, Germany - Tsunami
12-12 Leipzig, Germany - UT Connewitz
12-13 Dresden, Germany - Star Club
12-14 The Hague, Netherlands - State-X New Forms Festival
12-15 Innsbruck, Austria - PMK
12-16 Prague, Czech Republic - Club 007
12-17 Vienna, Austria - Chelsea

* with Love of Diagrams
# with the Octopus Project
! with the Appleseed Cast