What's In Your Fridge: Will Anderson

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      What’s in Your Fridge is where the Straight asks interesting Vancouverites about their life-changing concerts, favourite albums, and, most importantly, what’s sitting beside the Heinz Ketchup in their custom-made Big Chill Retropolitan 20.6 cubic-foot refrigerators.

      On the grill

      Will Anderson of Weed

      Who are you

      My name is Will Anderson. I play guitar in a band called Weed, and we're releasing a new LP called Running Back on April 7 on Lefse Records. I also play in the local groups Infidel, Crazy Bugs, and Maggot Scrape; manage a small bookstore called Lucky's; and co-publish an underground newspaper called Dunk.

      First concert

      Besides a smattering of Christian rock festivals, my first real show would have been in 2000, I'm pretty sure. My mom drove myself and a Japense foreign-exchange student to see Incubus, Sevendust, and Hoobastank at 93X Fest in Somerset, Wisconsin. It was a real trip! Don't recall much of the openers but I was there for Incubus and their set was great. They pulled out some sofas in the middle third of the performance so that Brandon and Mike could do some acoustic numbers ("Drive" and the like). Cellphones were not yet dominant, but my mom dropped us off and gave me a flip phone without any real game plan for after the gig—where we would get picked up and whatnot. Well, all the cell towers were clogged up and it was a nightmare trying to connect. It was pretty chaotic and in the madness I had my first real offer to try drugs. Some dude right out of a D.A.R.E. commercial approached us and said we should come over to his tent just to try some things out. Naturally I refused and was sufficiently freaked out—haven't tried a substance to this day! Somehow we found Ma, but her car got towed and the nightmare continued late into the night. I still admire her for being a good sport about everything!

      Life-changing concert

      Lots of candidates, but the first house show I ever saw when I was about 16 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, probably had the longest-lasting effect on me. The bands were called Solidarity and Regret, two hardcore acts from the region. Seeing bands make their own T-shirts and sell them from a picnic table outside the basement and doing everything themselves truly bent my mind. It made playing shows in a band seem possible without needing any promoter scam artists or tour buses. Just an entirely new concept to me at the time and it was a huge deal.

      Top three albums

      My Bloody Valentine Loveless  Given the sound of Weed this might seem obvious but hey, the shoe fits. I saw this album in a list of "Top 100 records of the '90s" or something in Rolling Stone when I was 16 and living in a boarding school in India, believe it or not. There was no way for me to hear it over there, so I had my parents ship it to me in a care package (along with Late Registration by Kanye West) and it was the first record that I really used as a tool for escapism. From the first four snare hits to the end of the album it will always be perfect to me. I never get sick of it.

      Hüsker Dü New Day Rising  Unfortunately I really didn't get into these guys until college, which is a shame because I grew up really close to Minneapolis, but just didn't have a shepherd leading me into their material. Anyway, once I started working at record stores I saw the name, of course. Bought this LP blindly and got pretty obsessed with their entire discography soon after. At one time I was going through a harsh breakup and listened to Side A of this album every morning when I woke up.

      Andrew W.K. I Get Wet  Hugely inspiring to me as a youngster, and it still holds up. I was quite into Linkin Park and the like in middle school and somehow AWK got kind of lumped into nu metal for a second by MTV and the mainstreamers. I watched the music video for "Party Hard" with my brother after school one day and had never heard or seen anything like it before. I bought this legendary disc at Best Buy—which was the only record store I had growing up—and I don't think there's been anything like it since. People shit on it, but it's powerful positivity and he isn't joking. I love it.

      All-time favourite video

      38 Special "Caught Up In You" I wanna make a video like this. Nice and cheesy. Lots of bizarre intertwining storylines. Two drummers. Great music. Twist ending. Gotta love it.

      What's in your fridge

      Small bowl of cooked white rice. I made some burritos the other night and my bae wouldn't let me toss out the leftovers. Personally I don't see myself reheating the rice since I don't have a microwave, but it seemed important at the time to throw a lid on it and tuck it away for safe-keeping. It'll probably kick around for about a month before I put it in the garbage for real.

      Bottle of prune juice. I'm not ashamed to say that I've been having problems with my back door. I've found it getting worse the more we are on tour. All that sitting down and not enough water. I'd like to take this space to encourage any of the Straight readers to stay regular and suck down some prune juice if necessary. Keep a bottle with you. It doesn't taste great going down but it helps!

      Massive bag of baby carrots. My boss took me to Costco a week ago. I live alone, so it's kind of a hard place to shop especially when you're getting pressured by a father of four to buy more stuff. Apparently his youngest kid can polish off a gallon of milk in two sittings. Me, I don't need more than a splash on my cereal now and again. Anyway, I've hardly made a dent in the carrot bag, but there's something weird with my apartment that seems to slow the molding process on everything in my cupboards and fridge. I bought a loaf of sliced bread in January that still has no signs of decay. Should I be freaked out? Probably, but I'm gonna ride it out while I can.

      Weed plays a Running Back release party at Antisocial Skateboard Shop on Wednesday (April 1). 

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