LR: What's up, Robb?

RJ: Not too much, man. How you doin'?

LR: I'm very good. "No Apologies Necessary," 3-oh-oh clock on the dot-dot-dot. Every single Wednesday, 2:30-3:30, we do it live. We play hip-hop. We play a little jazz in the background. A little dub if we feel like it. So...How you guys doin'? Why's everybody so quiet?

(laughter)

RJ: We're doin' lovely.

LR: I know, I know I'm quiet.

KS: I've just been quiet 'cause I'm awfully tired. We were partying pretty hard last night for this guy's birthday.

LR: Okay, so what did you do? And how many beers did you have?

RJ: Tuesday nights at Celebrities.

LR: Oh, Jesus, okay.

(laughter)

RJ: Does that answer your question?

LR: So you had fifteen beers --

RJ: -- Highballs are two bucks, man --

LR: So, fifteen highballs.

RJ: How can you go wrong with that?

(laughter)

LR: Wow. Yeah, I've been there once and, uh, have not returned. I think I left part of my soul over there.

(laughter)

LR: Tuesday nights at Celebrities is, uh, that'll cut ya open, that's for sure.

RJ: That will certainly do it --

LR: Well, happy birthday, Robb.

RJ: Well, thank you so much. That's today.

LR: For those of you just joining us, it's Robb's birthday, so we decided to have a radio show, and do it nice for 'im. But no, really, we got Robb in here 'cause he's part of the group called Paint. Does Paint stand for something, the P-A-I-N-T?

RJ: You know, I actually had someone ask me that before. And, and, and, no -- I mean, I could make something up, like "Pay Attention, Ignorant, Normal Turds," or something like that, but --

(laughter)

RJ: -- no.

LR: For today, we'll be "Ignorant Normal Turds." (laughs) Not to be confused with...

RJ: "People Against Intolerance Now Today." Like...

LR: That's not bad.

KS: That's pretty good fer --

LR: -- for just making it up.

(laughter)

RJ: Off the cuff...

LR: So anyway, we've got Robb in here. And as you all know, if you've been listening to this show, we've got Kenan, the young superstar, every single week. The prodigy.

RJ: (laughs)

LR: ...he's part of the group Paint. And he's humble enough never to mention Paint, really. So, he decided to bring the guy that actually makes Paint go...
(laughter)

LR: No, I'm joking. Robb. And Robb's gonna talk to us about something pretty important to him, and should be important to all of you. It's called the West Memphis Three. I read a little bit about it, but I'll let Robb explain who and what and where the West Memphis Three is. Because there is a gig on February 1st, is that right?

RJ: February 1st at the Railway Club.

LR: At the Railway Club, tryin' to raise money for the aforementioned West Memphis Three --

(cell phone ringing)

(laughter)

RJ: No cell phones or pagers, sir...

LR: No cell phones, yeah. So, Robb...

RJ: Yes.

LR: Go ahead. Tell us a little bit, West Memphis Three... You can tell I'm Black 'cause I can't even, "Weth"

KS: Weth?

RJ: Weth. "Weth Memphis Thwee, mufa!"

(laughter)

LR: Weth Memphis Three. I can't even say West Memphis Three. Anyway...

RJ: I hope I don't sound Brown when I'm talkin'...

LR: Well...

(laughter)

RJ: Um I ith, um I ith...

LR: So tell us a little bit about the West Memphis Three...

(laughter)

RJ: I just sounded Brown right there.

LR: (laughing) Yeah, you did actually...

RJ: "Oh, I be, I be winnin' da fight, mas'sa..."

(laughter)

RJ: Well, the, how it works is, I'll give you the Coles Notes version. This is in the Robin Hood Hills of West Memphis, Arkansas, 1993. Three boys were found murdered and mutilated. Their names were Michael Moore -- not the filmmaker -- Chris Byers, and Steve Branch. And within a month, three folks were arrested for that: Damien Echols, who was 19, Jason Baldwin, who was 16 then, and Jessie Misskelley, who was 17. And, what happened was, they got a confession out of Jessie Misskelley, who is actually mentally handicapped. Twelve hours of interviewing by the police without a lawyer or parental consent, and only 46 minutes of that were taped. And during those 46 minutes, he confessed to killing the boys, and named Damien and Jason. Everybody, it was noted after the fact, had alibis for that night. Nobody was actually where they were claimed to be; they were either with family, I think Jessie was out wrestling, or practicing wrestling, and Jason was out playing video games at Wal-Mart. But regardless, a trial happened, pretty high profile. No physical evidence, no murder weapon, no motive, no connection to the victims. The prosecution had nothing left to do but basically resort to the black hair and clothing that these kids were wearing, the heavy metal music and records they were listening to, the Stephen King novels they were reading. Basically said that they had performed a Satanic cult ritual. As a result, Damien Echols goes to prison -- he's on death row right now. Jason Baldwin is doin' life without parole, and Jessie Misskelley is doin' life plus 40.

LR: Wow. So essentially, all their rights got revoked.

RJ: Pretty much.

LR: And what do you think the motive of these cops were? In order to just, go at these guys to close the deal so quickly without having any evidence of anything?

RJ: Well, as usual, they were probably looking for a quick fix. It's a relatively conservative community down in the southern U.S.; easy to point to the guys that are wearing the dark clothing and listening to the heavy metal music, and into Wiccan religions and stuff like that...

LR: Mm-hm.

RJ: ...I'm not sure what the motive was. They became sort of the scapegoat; everything that was wrong in this particular community was the fault of these kids, you know...

KS: Another comment too is that they had never dealt with anything like that. I don't even think they had dealt with a homicide in, like, several decades before this happened. And they just didn't know how to deal with it. Another kid got murdered, like, far away from there, had nothing to do with them, and yet, they still questioned these kids about it. And they were like, "We don't even know what you're talking about." Just because of the way they were. And, like, they kinda got into the whole Satanic panic sort of thing, freakin' out, "Oh my god!" You know, (laughs) they must be Satanists.

LR: So, did the community pretty much rally behind that, that notion that they were guilty just based on their appearance and what they listened to?

RJ: Pretty much. I mean, it could happen at any time, and that's why I don't think this is specific to the U.S. and particular to this case. I mean, if this was, say, you know, the time of slavery, or, we've got Aboriginal situations here in Canada, where just because of who you are, that automatically makes assumptions about what you've done. This is basically an example of your rights being infringed upon just because of who you are, not what you're doin' // Well, at present, Jason Baldwin had his appeal denied in '96. All of them filed for Rule 37, which is for ineffective assistance of counsel. Some of them are still in pursuit of that. Where they're at right now is DNA. They had an approval to have their DNA evidence examined in late 2002, they finally got it approved just recently. So, we're just waiting on that.

LR: So essentially this February 1st, this fundraiser is to raise a bit of cash to help them with their...

RJ: Yeah...

LR: ...with their lawyers, and with any sort of fees that they might have?

RJ: Yeah, it's a legal defence. There've been a lot of fundraising efforts on behalf of the West Memphis Three. There were two films made about them called Paradise Lost 1 and 2 by Berlinger and Sinofsky, the same guys who did that Metallica film last year, where...

LR: Oh, right, right...

RJ: You know, Lars is goin' on his ego trip and everything, and...

LR: We'll get back to that in a second, 'cause I just watched that movie. But go on.

RJ: Some Kinda Monster?

LR: Yeah, I watched it.

RJ: That was pretty messed up, eh?

LR: Dude...

(laughter)

LR: This is important, so go ahead...

RJ: So, there was those two films were made, as well as, Damien had written a book called Almost Home just recently. And there was Black Flag, Pearl Jam, Metallica, a lot of bands around the world have been putting on fundraising efforts for the West Memphis Three. If you go to their website, it's wm3.org, you can make donations there, you can buy t-shirts and wrist bands, stickers, and all that kinda fancy swag. And, this show is basically another attempt to raise some funds for their legal defence. So, we got a pretty sweet lineup for this show. It's February 1st at the Railway Club, Rumbletone Productions is puttin' it on. Way-Out Wednesdays at the Railway. So, it's just a special one of those. We got Robert Wilson opening. He's a really bitchin', soul-folk, pretty fly for a white guy kinda bastard. I'm really lookin' forward to hearin' him. We got us in Paint, we got probably one of my favourite bands in the whole city, maybe the whole universe, The Februarys. Wanna give a shout out to Lucas and those boys in The Februarys. And of course, the juggernaut, the headliner, is the one and only Threat From Outer Space. So, we're really excited about the show. It's 9 p.m. next Wednesday, February 1st at the Railway Club, 7 bucks at the door with ID. That's a minimum donation. Basically most of what's goin' through the door is goin' to the legal defence fund. If you wanna bring more money, then by all means go for it.

KS: Another interesting note is, next week's edition of the Cap Courier, which you can pick up at quite a few places, it may be a bit easier for people in North Van. But, you'll be able to read an article about it in there if you wanna know a bit more. And I also encourage you to check out the website too. I mean, they're gonna be way more in depth than that stuff I'm gonna write (laughs).


LR: So, that movie you mentioned, Paradise Lost...

RJ: Mm-hm.

LR: ...they can get that, anybody can get that movie anywhere to get caught up on the West Memphis Three?

RJ: Pretty much, yeah, you can go to -- well, the main resource is wm3.org, and that gives you all the information on the West Memphis Three, our show listing's up there, various ways that you can raise money. But go to wm3.org, I think you can order it through Amazon, you can probably get it at A&B Sound or something like that as well.

LR: Alright, so we've been speaking to Robb from the band Paint, talking about the West Memphis Three. If you wanna know more about these falsely accused, falsely imprisoned gentlemen, you can go to wm3.org.

RJ: Yeah.

LR: Or, if you wanna help out after you've gone to the website, which I know you all will, you can go February 1st to the Railway Club, 9 p.m., it's gonna be a nice little fundraiser with The Februarys, Robert Wilson, Paint, and Threat From Outer Space. So you can support in many different ways. Don't sit on your hands, 'cause you need your hands to do stuff with, okay?

(laughter)

LR: Alright, so...

RJ: And next time, it could be you.

LR: It could be you. You could be falsely accused if you're wearing, like, a black parka.

RJ: Yeah.

(laughter)

LR: You know, so stand up for other people's rights sometimes, you know, 'cause we're all human. Except for...

LR & RJ: (simultaneously) -- Stephen Harper.

(laughter)

RJ: I read your mind, man!

LR: ...at the same time. I dunno maybe we'll leave, we'll let this election thing percolate till next week and then we'll take calls in. 'Cause he's officially still the Prime Minister Delegate. He's not the man yet, you know.

RJ: So you can still pie him and not get in too much trouble.

LR: Yeah, he's in limbo, right? They could still be countin' votes and then, "Hey! Look at that! Stephen Harper's not the Prime Minister!" Who knows.

RJ: He could get busted looking at child porn or something...

(laughter)

LR: You never know.

(laughter)

LR: Ooooh. That would hurt his chances.

RJ: Yeah.

LR: At doing a lot of things.

(laughter)

LR: He might wanna go into drinking and driving instead. You know, instead of child porn. If you're gonna do something bad, maybe do that.

(laughter)

LR: Yeah. Well, I don't know why, it's just, that was my first impression. I was telling you this last night, Kenan. And maybe it was the Celebrities --

LR : -- That he's into child porn?

RJ: The first time I ever saw Stephen Harper -- and this is totally getting non-political and non-intelligent --

(laughter)

RJ: -- that was my first impression of him, man. I was, like, I could just picture him lookin' at child porn, I don't know...

(laughter)

RJ: ...maybe it was those eyes, or somethin'...

LR: -- (laughing) maybe you're projecting...

RJ: -- there was just something creepy about him...

(laughter)

RJ: I don't know, I think I'm making assumptions here...

LR: Maybe you are. But hey, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt...

RJ: -- I'm Brown, what can I say?

LR: ...he seems like (laughs), he seems like a nice enough guy not to go down that road.

RJ: I hope so.

LR: So, I hope nobody from Ottawa's listening.

(laughter)

LR: (laughs) 'cause I might get a few phone calls, this place might be shut down.

(laughter)

LR : ...based on these comments (laughs) but...

RJ: I'll take the flack, don't worry.

LR: ...with that we'll just go into some Paint. How about we get high on Paint?

RJ: This is a song called "The Write Thing."

LR: Alright. CFRO 102.7 fm, "No Apologies Necessary."

Song: Paint's "The Write Thing"