Watchers of LA Ink either loathe the guy or champion him, but Corey Miller -- who plays second fiddle to camera-magnet Kat Von D on the reality show -- describes himself as an old-school carny and folk artist, instead of a dramatic lightning rod. He also has an old-school surf-punk band (naturally) with skateboarding legend Steve Alba.

Miller will be in St. Louis this weekend for the Old School Tattoo Expo and talked about tattooing, punk and being a reality TV star. This interview was conducted while Miller was waiting in line for a ride at Knott's Berrry Farm amusement park outside LA, where he was celebrating his daughter's birthday. Guy is a trooper.

Photo: Tim Sutton

"TV is going to end, this shit is going to end eventually. I took the ride. The circus was in town and you do that," says Miller about his time on LA Ink.

​What do you look for at these tattoo conventions?
I come not necessarily to look for work, but for me to see what's going on, what artists are doing, who's doing radical new stuff, that's what inspires me. I love going out and seeing guys getting creative and doing neat things. Especially for the fact that it's an old-school convention. I know Lyle (Tuttle), he's a great guy, to be invited by those guys it means a lot to me too. I've been around along time, but now I'm in the big limelight of the whole tattoo industry, and for those guys to appreciate me coming around, it's a good feeling.
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Today marks that most significant of festivals: National One Hit Wonder Day. It's time to celebrate "The Macarena" and "What I Am" and "Come On Eileen" and "I'm Too Sexy" and "Afternoon Delight" and "'She Blinded Me With Science" and my own personal bête noire, "Barbie Girl."



A question to ponder as we observe today's holiday: Why are so many one hit wonders so annoying?

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Mark Mulcahy isn't a household name, but he should be. In the '80s, the singer-songwriter fronted Miracle Legion, a Connecticut jangle-pop act that managed to transcend early comparisons to R.E.M. and evolve into a pretty solid original rock band. In the '90s, Miracle Legion -- or, rather, Mulcahy and the band's then-rhythm section-- morphed into Polaris, who you might know as the house band on the Nickelodeon cult show The Adventures of Pete & Pete. (Fun fact: RFT writer Mike Appelstein had a hand in programming the music for that show. Really.) Mulcahy has since released several solo CDs and opened for some pretty big names in the northeast.More >>

(Welcome to Obscurity Knocks, where every Thursday we'll unearth something good -- but obscure -- we think deserves notice.)

MP3: "Susie's Getting Married"

Artist: The Cucumbers

Album: The Cucumbers four-song EP

Year: 1983

Label: Fake Doom Records

Who were/are they?  A band from the New Jersey suburbs revolving around singers/guitarists Jon Fried and Deena Shoshkes. They started in New England sometime in the early '80s and eventually found themselves in Hoboken. Perfected the "married couple in indie-rock band" template that everyone from Yo La Tengo to Mates of State would follow. Released a couple of genius records on the ultra-obscure Fake Doom label before signing to Profile Records (home of Run-DMC) and having a brief moment of MTV fame with "My Boyfriend." Kept going even after the video fell out of rotation and Hoboken traded its hipster cachet for frat bars. Still performing and recording today; Shoshkes recently released a pleasingly and diverse solo CD, Somewhere In Blue.

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Tonight at Off Broadway, Future Clouds and Radar is playing with the O's and Elsinore, a pretty good triple bill. FC&R is also performing as part of Euclid Records' Euclid Sessions series at 3 p.m. on Sunday, February 22.

But before 'Radar leader Robert Harrison played under that name, he fronted Cotton Mather. The Austin power-pop band was championed by Oasis thanks to 1997's Kon Tiki. The song below is from this album; yes, it came out in the late 1990s, and not, say, England in the late 1970s. Like any classic power-pop song, the tune is devoid of signifiers of any certain area. Cotton Mather released a smattering of EPs, singles and three albums, but split in 2003. Two other members of CM formed Stockton, whose CD appears out of stock at that link. Video for another song "April Fool's" after the jump.

MP3: Cotton Mather, "My Before and After"

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(Welcome to Obscurity Knocks, where every Thursday we'll unearth something good -- but obscure -- we think deserves notice.)

Artist:Beanpole

MP3: "Now I Know"

From: Pop Goes The World! compilation 7" single, Catch That Beat!/Lovemeknot Records, 1998

Who were they? Sacramento multi-instrumentalist Verna Brock, mostly. A veteran of numerous Sacto bands, including Holiday Flyer and the sublime Rocketship (that's her bass playing and backing vocals on their classic single, "Hey Hey Girl"), she began creating low-tech solo recordings in the mid-1990s, leaking them out on a series of 7" singles and compilation albums.  Beanpole never did release a full album, although there was a five-song 12" single on Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club, an absurdly prolific record label and vinyl manufacturer.

What happened to them?Beanpole's final single, 1999's "In A Muddle," was the first to feature backing musicians, mostly friends from Holiday Flyer. Not long afterward, Verna put Beanpole on permanent hold to devote her energies to that band, and later the California Oranges. These days Verna plays flute for musical-theater productions and other projects in and around Sacramento.More >>