Travis Keller first landed on my radar via Buddyhead.com, the website he co-founded with The Icarus Line (and future Nine Inch Nails) guitarist Aaron North in 1998. The site's give-no-fucks take on the music scene of the era helped it go viral before anyone used that annoying term. I remember fellow haters sending me links to Buddyhead articles on a regular basis back then.
One time, Keller stole Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst's red baseball hat (at the time, the cap itself could have probably landed its own MTV afternoon show), which was later auctioned off and its proceeds donated to a rape crisis charity.
Hole's Courtney Love sent Buddyhead a cease and desist letter after they published her cell number (more on that below). In 2002, Keller and The Icarus Line vocalist Joe Cardamone spray painted "$uckin’ Dick" on The Strokes' tour bus while it was parked on a tour stop in North Carolina.
Co-directed by Keller and Cardamone, On the Lash: The Buddyhead Movie is the latest chapter in the website's irreverent story. Produced by Shepard Fairey and Elgin James (he used to be a member of Wrecking Crew, 454 Big Block, and Righteous Jams, and is now a successful Hollywood showrunner), the documentary will feature unseen footage and unheard stories featuring At the Drive-In, Marilyn Manson, Iggy Pop, and My Chemical Romance, among other musical artists.
With he's trying to crowdfund some of the documentary's costs to get it across the finish line, I spoke with Keller to learn a bit about his upbringing, move to Los Angeles from Idaho, and Buddyhead's early days.
Where and how do you think you got your irreverent spirit from?
I think was born this way cuz as best I can remember. I’ve been like this since day one. I was brought here to this world to drive my parents and other squares crazy, it’s my job. I’m sure being an only child and kind of raising myself was a big factor in that.
It’s always kind of been just been me so if I know that if I don’t do it no one else is going to. And also, my life, my rules. I didn’t ask to be born, so I’m at least gonna do whatever the fuck I want to while I’m here is the vibe.
How did your parents deal with it?
My parents were not into my spirit. They were super bummed I was not a square that wanted to go to college and get a corporate job and have kids and be a mini version of them. My dad was a track coach and I was not into sports, instead I was obsessed with art, film, skateboarding, and punk rock. They didn’t really understand what I was into and were not very supportive of what I was doing or my goals.
They used to just get confused and ask if I was gay. And due to that there were definitely long periods of time where we didn’t speak once I moved to Los Angeles. We got closer once they divorced but my teens into my late 30s were bumpy with my folks. But I don’t blame them they did their best and honestly that’s also what made me - me.
Since you're a fellow Los Angeles transplant, what was your initial take on the music scene here? Outside of the Icarus Line guys, did you know a lot of people here? How did you become so connected to things?
I didn’t know anyone here, I met The Icarus Line dudes because they came through my town in Idaho on tour the year before. My friend Joel Jett booked the show and they stayed at my other friend, Jimmy Flame's house. They gave me their address and I remember when I moved to Tarzana I looked Joe up in the phone book and called and was like, “I live in LA now,” to which he informed me the Valley was not LA [laughs].
But yeah they were my only connection at first. But they were playing shows and promoting shows and involved in this scene so I quickly met other people and bands. I was taking photos a lot so that was always an easy way to become friends with someone take some cool ass black and white 35mm photos of their band and hand em proof sheets next show.
I see, taking photos gave you some access to the music scene.
For me, taking photos gave me something to do and was like a security blanket a bit as well. I could hide a bit by being busy and having a camera in my face. We just became connected through music and playing shows and all that. Buddyhead definitely accelerated that too.
My initial take on the music scene was I was right where I wanted to be. It felt like something special was happening coming from the cultural wasteland of the Pacific Northwest. I loved it and I just keep filming and taking photos. And soon we started touring, at first America in shitty vans, and then overseas, and even arena rock tours here. It was a fun ride that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
You're a self-taught coder, so that led to the creation of the Buddyhead website. At what point did the site start growing and amass a huge unique visitor count? Can you trace it back to a specific posting/article?
Yeah, that was kind of the key to our “success," I knew how to code websites before most people. I had taught myself HTML in Idaho due to pure boredom and the need to sell my homemade skateboard videos online. So, when I got to LA, it just seemed to make sense that we do a music zine but a webzine so everyone could read it. And they did.
I don’t have the most linear memory and some stuff is fuzzy but I’m pretty sure the first big article we had was Rules of Rock, which was a list of rules for being in a band. Basically, how to not be a poser. And after that I think it was Rules of Rock Audience.
I don’t remember what our first big band interview was, but I remember the At the Drive-In interview being a big deal cuz we had unfiltered access to them. We were some of their first friends in LA and The Icarus Line shared a manager with them as well.
And then shit really start popping when I started doing the Gossip page. That dumbed it down enough for everyone to get it and posting celebrities phone numbers got eyes on our shit.
When I think of the Buddyhead website, two names come to mind: Fred Durst and Courtney Love. Deep down, do you think they loved the attention? Tell me about those two and your history with them.
Courtney, I think, loved it and I think she likes me. Fred Durst I don’t know much about, only been him around him once. Don’t think he enjoyed it, honestly. I think he still hates me.
Courtney, at least, has a similar taste in music as me, we’re both punk or come from the punk scene so there’s some what of a mutual respect there. We both like The Wipers. Fred Durst not so much.
I hung out with Courtney a few times. It started after she sued me for posting her phone number and she figured if you can’t beat em join em and paid my rent for a few months. I went over to her house that was south of Sunset Blvd in Beverly Hills. One time, I met a nine-year-old Frances Bean, who gave me a tour of the house, showed me a bunch of her dads guitars and his jukebox.
Then Courtney showed me a bunch of the Kurt journals (this was before they actually got published and there was tons of stuff that didn’t make it) and tried to give me some of his clothes which I turned down cuz I thought I was weird as fuck. Looking back, I should have taken em and sold that shit on eBay.
Another time, she came to my DJ night at Beauty Bar in Hollywood right before that Nirvana Best of record came out. She pulled up in a limo and came in with the unreleased song you got no right song on CD-R and played it like four times and then got back in her limo and left.
Another time, she played me demos of that solo record, America's Sweetheart, at her other house which north of Sunset and next to the Entourage house. I think right after that is when she took The Icarus Line on tour.
I also saw Hole at the Viper Room sometime around then and I got a shout out from stage. Courtney is a wild character, not really sure if I like her or not but I definitely hang out or talk to her whenever she pops up.
Fred Durst I’ve only been around once and that was at Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas when Nine Inch Nails played in like 2005, I think, and Aaron, me and Trent Reznor got in an elevator and Fred jumped in last second. He started dick-riding Trent who couldn't have cared less and then realized who we were and got quiet. And then the doors opened and it was over. It was weird and funny. I've ever been around Fred again.
Both of them should step up and produce my movie. It would be the coolest thing either of them could do at this point.
Did you ever make real money from the website? It was definitely the wild west back then and I know some sites cashed in during that time.
I turned down all of the offers I had to sell the site, some of which were over 9 million bucks. And that was because I thought that would be lame and plus was making pretty good money off ads and merch and some side hustles I had selling free records. Just from thetruth.com anti-smoking ads I had on the site, I was pulling in 5 grand a month and they advertised for a number of years.
And on top of that, I had a hustle of going to meet with A&R dudes [the overpaid assholes who sign bands to major labels] giving them whatever record I had just put out and taking as many promo records as I could get them to give me. I would then immediately take those records to Amoeba Records and sell them.
Some days, I would hit 5-6 A&R dudes and end up selling the records for grand or so. It was a different era for sure.
What's the story behind this documentary and will it cover everything you've done with Buddyhead throughout the years, or will it mainly focus on the website and the controversies around that?
This movie is our story, my story. The story of Buddyhead and The Icarus Line and just that period of time that was the death rattle of the old world before social media and everyone having a phone in their pocket. Los Angeles and the time period are as much of a character as anyone else in this film.
The goal of the documentary is for it to be a fever dream and take you back to that era, no modern footage only footage of the time. The only thing from now will be some audio interviews. The Kid Stays In The Picture is a big influence.
This movie is mainly 1998-2005, which it will touch on things before and after that’s gonna be the bulk of it cuz that’s what most of my footage and photos are of. It will touch on a lot of things I’ve done with Buddyhead but not everyone and everything gets mentioned, gotta keep it interesting.
But that era is music is pretty undocumented so I think it’s an important one. And no one else can really tell it except us.
Looking back at the Buddyhead website, do you regret anything you ever wrote about anyone?
Nope, I was right.
What else are you up to these days? Any projects to promote?
I just released a vinyl record by LA's best surf band, The Cauterizers, called Bender Ender. I'm really proud of that. It's up for sale on the Buddyhead Bandcamp, pick up a copy.
I'm also about to start on a photo book and it's kind of a precursor to the movie, a lot of these images need to be scanned for the film so I figured might as well make a book with them first and kind of tell some of the story that way. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and I’m talking to a record label about releasing it this year with a vinyl soundtrack coming with it.
I’m also going to be working on a new zine that’ll be stuff I’ve shot since 2017 to today, and a Buddyhead book that’s some of the hits from the old website along with some bonus material and just words and images to explain it all. The goal with that would be a piece that if you never saw the old site you could pick that up and get it.
We’re always working on music videos to pay the rent as our production company, American Primitive:
Joe and I will be reissuing The Icarus Line discography, seems like we’re starting with a repress of Penance Soirée on 2xLP first and maybe a Peel Sessions compilation second. We’ve got lots of extra stuff if people are excited. Joe might also have a book of Icarus Line stuff.
Other than that, I’ll just be filling the website up with new content, starting to make On the Lash, and continuing to survive out here in this hell world.
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Learn more about (and donate some $$$) On the Lash: The Buddyhead Movie at this link.
Buddyhead.com is back up with new content.
You can find all of Travis' social media pages and more here.
Tagged: buddyhead
