Debaser: Ben Webster
Where plugging comes with a price
Victoria Renard
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People are always asking us to help plug something of theirs—an upcoming show, a new record, some book they wrote. Because we’re not in the pandering business, we think there should be a trade-off. Debaser allows these folks to plug whatever they want, with one caveat: They also have to tell us something embarrassing about themselves. This week, Attack Formation’s Ben Webster tells us both about his brand new record label and a particularly nasty run-in with a Chinese buffet.
Decider: Okay, you have the floor. Tell us about your new label.
Ben Webster: It’s called (iN)Sect Records, and the first release we’ve put out is a 7-inch from This Moment In Black History called “Raw Black Power.” It’s got the smash hit “Obama.” Maybe you’ve heard of him? The next couple of records are a split 7-inch from Dudley Perkins and Georgia Anne Muldrow, who are both expatriates from Stones Throw, and a 12-inch from Reaganometry, which is Reagan Van Matre who plays keyboards in my band Attack Formation. Those are coming out over the next couple of months. The label’s mostly going to be records from people in Attack Formation, Those Peabodys—local buddies of mine—but with a couple of outsiders thrown in. So basically, it’s pretty much the best label that’s ever been.
D: What made you want to get into running a record label?
BW: Well, I just moved into a new house, and the last two loads I moved in were all boxes of cash. I mean, I just can’t get rid of this stuff fast enough. I’ve bought other people’s records for the last 15 or 20 years, and that didn’t get rid of all my money. Then I took on buying old samplers and keyboards and other bullshit equipment, and that didn’t burn up all my money. I’ve seen enough people go broke putting out records, so I figured that this was the best way of going broke myself.
D: If you had to compare (iN)Sect to another label in music history, what would it be?
BW: I’m using Stax and Warner Bros. as my blueprint, maybe with a little bit of Roc-a-fella thrown in. No, seriously, I’m just trying to put out quality records from friends of mine, kind of in the spirit of Dischord. Although I’m putting out some stuff from outside of Austin, I really want to document the scene here—this little bubble I live in that seems like more and more of a bubble every day.
D: Sounds great. Time to embarrass yourself.
BW: I want to preface this by saying that this happened 12 years ago, just in case anyone thinks that this is something that happens to me all the time. It’s not at all. So, anyway, about 12 years ago I went to this old Chinese buffet that used to be on Anderson Lane, where Enchiladas Y Mas is now. It was one of those awful kinds of restaurants where the people waiting on you have dirty feet, and the whole place smells like rotten food and bleach. Me and my girlfriend at the time went there for dinner, and the only thing I remember is that it definitely had green bell peppers in it, but also probably some fucked-up pork or chicken or whatever. We go home, and about an hour later I start feeling this massive grumble in the jungle—which wasn’t, like, that abnormal, since I did go to a Chinese buffet. But about an hour after I’d taken one trip to the Super Bowl with the Browns, I just started going ape-shit. I was throwing up, having what people at the special school call a “bowel movement” at the same time. It’s getting crazy. My girlfriend is trying not to be disgusted, but it was in the air, you know? Also, we were watching my mom’s cats, so we were at her house and she was coming home that day. That’s important.
Ben Webster: It’s called (iN)Sect Records, and the first release we’ve put out is a 7-inch from This Moment In Black History called “Raw Black Power.” It’s got the smash hit “Obama.” Maybe you’ve heard of him? The next couple of records are a split 7-inch from Dudley Perkins and Georgia Anne Muldrow, who are both expatriates from Stones Throw, and a 12-inch from Reaganometry, which is Reagan Van Matre who plays keyboards in my band Attack Formation. Those are coming out over the next couple of months. The label’s mostly going to be records from people in Attack Formation, Those Peabodys—local buddies of mine—but with a couple of outsiders thrown in. So basically, it’s pretty much the best label that’s ever been.
D: What made you want to get into running a record label?
BW: Well, I just moved into a new house, and the last two loads I moved in were all boxes of cash. I mean, I just can’t get rid of this stuff fast enough. I’ve bought other people’s records for the last 15 or 20 years, and that didn’t get rid of all my money. Then I took on buying old samplers and keyboards and other bullshit equipment, and that didn’t burn up all my money. I’ve seen enough people go broke putting out records, so I figured that this was the best way of going broke myself.
D: If you had to compare (iN)Sect to another label in music history, what would it be?
BW: I’m using Stax and Warner Bros. as my blueprint, maybe with a little bit of Roc-a-fella thrown in. No, seriously, I’m just trying to put out quality records from friends of mine, kind of in the spirit of Dischord. Although I’m putting out some stuff from outside of Austin, I really want to document the scene here—this little bubble I live in that seems like more and more of a bubble every day.
D: Sounds great. Time to embarrass yourself.
BW: I want to preface this by saying that this happened 12 years ago, just in case anyone thinks that this is something that happens to me all the time. It’s not at all. So, anyway, about 12 years ago I went to this old Chinese buffet that used to be on Anderson Lane, where Enchiladas Y Mas is now. It was one of those awful kinds of restaurants where the people waiting on you have dirty feet, and the whole place smells like rotten food and bleach. Me and my girlfriend at the time went there for dinner, and the only thing I remember is that it definitely had green bell peppers in it, but also probably some fucked-up pork or chicken or whatever. We go home, and about an hour later I start feeling this massive grumble in the jungle—which wasn’t, like, that abnormal, since I did go to a Chinese buffet. But about an hour after I’d taken one trip to the Super Bowl with the Browns, I just started going ape-shit. I was throwing up, having what people at the special school call a “bowel movement” at the same time. It’s getting crazy. My girlfriend is trying not to be disgusted, but it was in the air, you know? Also, we were watching my mom’s cats, so we were at her house and she was coming home that day. That’s important.
So anyway, after one of my last trips to the bathroom, I’m sitting in my boxer shorts watching TV, holding my stomach, trying to stop the trembling—you know, I’m shaking and totally fucking exhausted after spending the whole day expelling all this awful food. I think we were watching Caddyshack, or maybe Ernest Goes To Camp, and my girlfriend made some comment that made me laugh to myself. And as soon as I did that, I dropped a whole load in my shorts. So I’m sitting on the ottoman in front of the couch and I’m looking at her, trying to figure out if there’s any possible way I can get up and get to the bathroom without her noticing. But nope, I couldn’t pull it off. As soon as I got up, I had to clutch the front of my boxer shorts to keep it in there, and as soon as I did that she knew. I got to the bathroom, and right then my mom got home, and so there’s my girlfriend and my mom sitting on the couch, talking about how I shit myself. Meanwhile, the whole bathroom looked like a butcher shop crossed with a barn. Yeah, that was probably the most embarrassed I’ve ever been.
