What was the inspiration for the one-second Super Bowl ad for Useless Trinkets?
Mark Everett: We innocently asked how much a Super Bowl commercial cost, and then we did the math and thought, “Oh, we’ll just buy one second for $100,000.” Then, at the last minute, we found out that they don’t sell it by the second. It’s the story of my life. Nothing thought through quite enough. AVC: It didn’t end up airing subliminally? ME: No, because they would have to sell 29 other one-second blocks to other advertisers and that would cause seizures for people with certain medical conditions since it would be flashing by. They basically told us to get lost. AVC: In your book you talk about making several albums between your “official albums,” but don’t release them. Is there a difference between albums you release and albums you shelve? ME: Sometimes you write a song because there’s some personal situation where you just need to express it and get it out of your system. If I had made Electro-Shock Blues something that was just purely bitter and sad I wouldn’t have put it out. I
