Bootlegs of the Untitled Band - "I Only Hate You" (All the things you did and didn't want to know about it)

I am writing this blog here to commemorate the release of this:



I wrote this song back in the fall of 2008, around the time of my 21st birthday. (I'd like to say late September or early October.) The funny story about the song is that it's obviously about a girl, but I think the muse either doesn't know or refuses to acknowledge that it's about her. Conversely, a great deal of my closer female friends have asked if it was about them, which, to me, comes off as sort of "weird." I've only had this bizarre relationship with the girl that I wrote this song about.

I remember once I was done writing the song, I was ready to throw it away or let it fall into the wealth of obscure songs that I didn't feel completely "sold" on. However, much to my surprise, when I debuted the song, it was met with such a warm reaction that I had a change of heart about it. That, and Pat Delaney convinced me that it was a great song. (This wasn't the first time he stopped me from throwing away a "great songs.")

To this day, it confuses me that the song has amassed a great amount of plays, despite it not being too old of a song on the Bootlegs of the Untitled Band myspace. I have performed it a couple of times when I was working on a college radio show, and I've also done a parody of the song called "Moon Jelly Records Joke Promo" that can be heard here. It was also one of the very first release as a single from my "record" label.

Despite its exposure, I'm definitely not delusional about it because if I truly had accomplished Internet success, I definitely wouldn't have trouble being signed or landing a record deal. However, I do have to wonder: who is listening to this song?

Regardless, on August 13, 2009 (almost a year since I wrote and recorded the song), Bootlegs of the Untitled Band partnered with our good friend, Saikyo Studios, to shoot the "I Only Hate You" music video. The conceptual planning for the video took place months ago, with various ideas being thrown in multiple directions. The original idea was a little too ambitious, and perhaps harder to shoot: I wanted to use vast locales, props, and a creepy shot that would require me slowly gliding out from under a bed.

Needless to say, the film, because of the 1960's vibe that the song is spiritually related to, we settled to shoot the video as a performance on a fictional variety show. It was later dubbed "The Chris Plummer Show" because our friend would be playing the talk show host.

While we tried to keep it in the spirit of the 60's, the film breaks it's ties with the era. I mean, after all, how 60's can you keep it when the song itself has the lyrics: "The fucking love songs/don't know shit on what I feel." And so the video has some wild gestures, dancing, and of course, minorities.

There were some fun shots that ended up getting cut out: I started stripping, Pat did a pretty sick punt to the air, Plummer pretended that his golf club was a guitar, the lights of the show flickered on and off to the beat of the song, amongst many others. However, I felt that it was better to subdue ourselves a bit. Some of the shots were just too ridiculous, while others just wouldn't work with the rest of the footage.

So there you have it. That's all about "I Only Hate You." I guess that last thing I could say that it will be appearing on a future release, but I'm never sure when I'll finish said release.

Here's full credits about the music video that you probably don't care about:

Bootlegs of the Untitled Band
"I Only Hate You."

Written and Performed by Bootlegs of the Untitled Band.
Bootlegs of the Untitled Band appears courtesy of Moon Jelly Records

Directed by Chrisopher Plummer and Bootlegs of the Untitled Band.

Kevin Ng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . himself, annoying crowd heckler.
Patrick Delaney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . himself, "light" man.
Christopher Plummer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . talk show host.
Aya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Audience member.
Jonathan Ng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jellyfish puppeteer

Shot at Kevin's garage in Carson, CA.

Edited by Christopher Plummer and Kevin Ng
Cinematography by Christopher Plummer.
Lighting by Aya.

Produced by Saikyo Studios 2009.

"Playing on the stage is probably one of the only times that I feel like if there is a heaven on earth. . . if there's a heaven on earth, that's when I'm performing. That I don't know who the president is, and I don't know who got arrested, and I don't know, I don't know anything but how, how wonderful it is . . . to [through] the ends of your fingers to talk to thousands of people out there in that audience."

Dedicated to the Memory of Les Paul. (June 9, 1915 – August 13, 2009)

Without Les Paul, "I Only Hate You" (and a lot of songs) probably wouldn't exist being as it features his innovation of overdubs and multitasking.

Here are some fun tidbits in the film:
-The beginning of the film acknowledges that the footage was found in a film vault in Carson, CA, and yet, talk show host Chris Plummer says, "This band comes all the way from Carson, CA."
-Mini vinyl is a Verbatim brand CD-R that looks like a vinyl.
-On Chris Plummer's desk is an 8th grade picture of my brother.
-Patrick is holding up the light for Plummer. He is barely visible, but you can see him to the right of the screen.
-Aya and myself made the crowd noises.
-My brother was in charge of the jellyfish, in which he kept purposely hitting me in the head with.
-Most of the footage was shot on August 13, 2009. The close-up shots of myself were filmed the next night on August 14 by me and my brother. In one shot, I'll have a budding mustache, and the other shots I'll be clean shaven and sweaty. (Those are not tears.) I also look significantly dead tired in the close up footage.
-Patrick does not play the exact chords that's heard on the recording.
-The recording features an acoustic guitar, but Patrick is playing an electric Epihone Les Paul in the video. We did this to further the tribute to Les Paul.