Vandal Punk hosts Radio Talk Show

The Washington Post Style section has an extended profile of Vandal, punk, lawyer, (ex-)record label owner and Radio Talk Show host - Joe Escalante - where he dispenses "entertainment lawyer" advice to aspiring rockers and film-makers:

Tony from Gardena, Calif., is calling: "My question is I'm in a band now and we're starting off and we came up with a name and want to know if any other band has this name. Like, is there a Web site where we can put in the name and see? And if we use this same name . . ."

"Okay, Tony," Escalante says. "I've got a Web site for you. Ready?"

"Um, yeah," Tony says.

"Okay, I'm going to spell it for you because it's kind of hard to pronounce. Ready? G. . ."

"G," Tony repeats.

"O," Escalante says.

"O. . . . "

"O. G. L. E," Escalante continues.

"Okay, and I can just go there and find out if . . . ?" Tony says, sounding more dude-ish all the time.

"What's your name?" Escalante wants to know.

"My name's Tony," he replies.

"Oh, hey, Tony," Escalante says. "Now, what's the name of your band?"

"Phonetic," Tony says.

Well, good luck with that.

Some points of interest from the article:

• He lives in the house formerly owned by The Pointer Sisters - which I find very funny - not just for the irony given the PS were on the top of the heap while the Vandals were being ignored by the MTV world but for the fact that the Pointer Sisters all lived in the same house like The Monkees.
• His label introduced Blink-182 to the greater, mainstream world. He vows never to put out another record again. Can you blame him?
• He no longer writes any Vandals songs but says that their songwriter is making a full-time living at it
• Escalante is described as a "devout Catholic"
  

Primo quote:

"I've said this on my show -- if you're 40 and you're just starting your rock career, it's over. Don't even. Don't kid yourself," Escalante says. "Apologize to everybody in your family, apologize to your wife or your husband, your kids, everybody who may go see you in a showcase, because it. Is. A. Fantasy. And then I get calls right away, from people who say, 'Oh, I don't believe that -- my friend's 40 and his band totally kicks ass and he just got a record deal,' and I stand by it. It's over for your friend. . . . Next call."