Written by: Paul Gleason

Last week, Bully Pulpit released their Bylaws LP on Lotuspool Records. The record is innovative, smart, and catchy – and, best of all, you can pick it up for free at the Lotuspool Records website. In fact, you can grab Bully Pulpit’s other full-lengths and releases by the entire roster of tremendous Lotuspool bands. Hollow Body, Suneaters, Mild 7, Zoom, and Panel Donor are available there as well.

Thomas F. Banks and Matt Hohmann – Bully Pulpit’s guitarists and vocalists – sat down with Stereo Embers to fill out our Scouting Report.

Banks went first:

FULL NAME: Thomas F. Banks

NICKNAME: Rocky, Baywatch, Banks

HOMETOWN: Bellwood, Elmhurst, Western Springs, LaGrange, Rogers Park, Evanston, Skokie.

WEBSITE:  Lotuspool Records

RECORD LABEL: Lotuspool

DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND IN ONE SENTENCE: filigree

PROUDEST PROFESSIONAL MOMENT: accomplishing Bylaws

THE SONG YOU WISH YOU’D WRITTEN: Yü-Gung (Fütter mein Ego!)

FIVE MUSICIANS YOU ADMIRE: Lou Reed, Brian Wilson, Brian Williams, D. Boon, Cris Kirkwood

ALBUM YOU CAN’T STOP LISTENING TO: With Light And With Love / Held in Splendour

DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS A KID: bookish quiet nerd

THREE THINGS THAT KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT: my son, my past, my future

LAST BOOK YOU READ:  The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.

THINGS WE’D FIND IN THE TRUNK OF YOUR CAR: folding chairs

HARDEST PART ABOUT YOUR JOB: making people believe me

FIRST THING YOU DO WHEN YOU GET TO A NEW CITY: find brewpub

WHAT WORD DO YOU OVERUSE IN CONVERSATION?: actually

WHAT WILL THE TITLE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY BE?: actually

FAVORITE LATE NIGHT TV SHOW: don’t watch late night tv shows

DRINK OF CHOICE: alcohol

BEST ALBUM TO PLAY AFTER A BREAK-UP AND YOU’RE HOLDING A BOTTLE OF VODKA AND SOMETHING SHARP:  anything by Elliot Smith

INDULGENCE YOU REFUSE TO GIVE UP: The New Yorker

WORDS TO LIVE BY: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einmal_ist_keinmal

I’m glad to see this now has a wiki page!

Hohmann was next:

FULL NAME: Matt Hohmann

NICKNAME: none

HOMETOWN: Evanston, IL

WEBSITE: Lotuspool Records

RECORD LABEL: Lotuspool

DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND IN ONE SENTENCE: Filigree guitar, odd time signature tunes without sounding odd, backed up by an unflappable rhythm section keeping the whole thing on track.

PROUDEST PROFESSIONAL MOMENT: Making Bylaws

THE SONG YOU WISH YOU’D WRITTEN: “The Orchids” by Psychic TV

FIVE MUSICIANS YOU ADMIRE: D. Boon, Pete Townshend, Pablo Casals, John Coltrane, Jónsi Birgisoson

 ALBUM YOU CAN’T STOP LISTENING TO: Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust – Sigur Rós

DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS A KID: grade school – a goof, interested in fire; middle school – sporty, fascinated with girls; high school – irreverent, overly self-aware, awakened by music

THREE THINGS THAT KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT: my kids screaming in their dreams, either in fun or terror; my inability to figure out what I should be doing with my life, despite doing just fine; the stupid internet

LAST BOOK YOU READ: A Multitude of Sins by Richard Ford

THINGS WE’D FIND IN THE TRUNK OF YOUR CAR: having kids, I don’t have a trunk, I have a hatch back, and back there you’d find: a kid’s stroller nicely folded, dirty diapers, a Frisbee, sundry kids’ toys

HARDEST PART ABOUT YOUR JOB: working in corporate governance for a large international non-governmental service organization, I have to deal with many big personalities from various cultures who suffer no fools, so there is little room for being remotely foolish, which is not always easy.

FIRST THING YOU DO WHEN YOU GET TO A NEW CITY: find a good bar either in my hotel or near by, get a beer, then take a walk around the area

WHAT WORD DO YOU OVERUSE IN CONVERSATION?: shitbag or fuckface

WHAT WILL THE TITLE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY BE?: Silence is Golden

FAVORITE LATE NIGHT TV SHOW: Don’t watch that stuff

DRINK OF CHOICE: morning – coffee; afternoon – Oolong Tea; evening – Belgian Ale

BEST ALBUM TO PLAY AFTER A BREAK-UP AND YOU’RE HOLDING A BOTTLE OF VODKA AND SOMETHING SHARP: the Meat Puppets’ first album

INDULGENCE YOU REFUSE TO GIVE UP: film photography

WORDS TO LIVE BY: Macbeth said it best, and it keeps humble and sane:

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury

Signifying nothing.