Michael Williams

Bonnie and Clyde, Romeo and Juliet, Mork and Mindy, Ren and Stimpy – history has given us a fair share of powerful duos over the past few years. Some of them make us want to sing. Think Salt-n-Pepa. Some of them make us want to fight crime. Think Batman and Robin. Others make us want to eat. Again, think Salt-n-Pepa. What I’m getting at is that unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past eight years, or unless you just moved here from California, you have seen a Master Pancake Theater show at the Alamo Drafthouse. This also means that you have been exposed to a certain duo that masters the art of poking fun of cheesy movies. That Other Paper’s Michael Williams sat down with Master Pancake Theater’s John Erler and Joe Parsons to talk about many funny things, some of which will not be reproduced. Sorry.

courtesy Master Pancake The cast of Master Pancake’s Independence Day show: David Jara, Joe Parsons, John Erler, and Mac Blake 

That Other Paper Master Pancake Theater. How did you come up with that name?

John Erler Oh man, that’s a tough one.

Joe Parsons Yeah, maybe we should come back to that.

TOP Okay, moving on. I polled some of our readers and asked them what questions they would like me to ask you. Here we go. What is your favorite color?

JP How old is this reader?

It’s Saturday night and you’re going to unwind by going to your favorite club. Oh joy! Eventually you’re at that club. Hurray you! But then you hear “You’re not on the list.” Oops! You’ve been caught in a lie. Plus, those words can really hurt your self-esteem when you’re trying to get into a show for free. So you say, “I’m with the DJ.” Good move! Those words will surely allow you to move past that mean bouncer who’s trying to take your money and prevent your free entrance into Dance City. But then you hear “I don’t care.” Oh no! Some more words that can super-duper hurt your already fragile self-esteem. This is no good. Fortunately for you That Other Paper’s Michael Williams got access and was able to sit down with DJ and Backspin Records co-owner Eric Wallenstein (aka DJ Mijora y Minora). Hopefully you won’t break a sweat when reading this one.

courtesy Backspin’s MySpace page Backspin’s old location on Burnet Rd 

That Other Paper You have a pretty massive collection of records. Do you remember your first record?

Eric Wallenstein My first record was by the Rock-afire Explosion Band, that animal band that played at Showbiz Pizza. I didn’t even have a record player at the time, but that was my first record. I got more involved with collecting records once I got to high school and started listening to punk and going to more shows.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been to a party. Odds are that 63 percent of you Austinites should have your hand up. These are facts. Now, keep your hand up if you’ve ever been to a party thrown by the folks at Party Ends.

Party Ends is for the people. They talk about and review music, film, and everyday objects (food, drinks, public restrooms, etc.) for the good of mankind. They also put on some shows with music and other entertaining fare. They’re local and share rewarding hobbies – like drinking. They’ll serve you in this life and the next. They may or may not really like Ben Affleck.

photo / Erin Hanson (all rights reserved) John and Luther of Party Ends 

So the odds are four-to-five that you should have your hand up. Again, these are facts. Still don’t believe that you’ve ever been to such an event? Lucky for you That Other Paper’s Michael Williams sat down on semi-dry benches with John Gross and Luther Himes of Party Ends to talk and share a pitcher of Shiner. It was good.

That Other Paper How did you come up with the name Party Ends? Is that like book ends?

Luther Himes It’s actually a lyric from a Saturday Looks Good To Me song. I don’t think anyone has ever asked that before.

TOP That makes more sense. I noticed from your archive that Luther was posting most of his stuff from Dallas when the site first went up. Were you using the Internet to communicate?

John Gross Luther was living in Dallas for a while, and we thought that a blog would be a creative way to keep in touch with each other. Eventually he made his way to Austin.