Speakeasy with - Henry Owings

The Overrated Book, edited by Chunklet magazine impresario Henry Owings and published by Last Gap, provides a blunt, uncensored rejoinder to those countless “Greatest Bands of All Time” lists in Rolling Stone and other magazines. You’d think putting out the book would be enough for Owings, but his current slate includes organizing the Comedians of Comedy, developing prankish DVD projects like Buckshot Boys, designing CD boxed sets, promoting rock shows in Athens and Atlanta, preparing for Chunklet’s 13th anniversary in October, and generally working like someone who believes that “rest” is overrated.

How much of The Overrated Book is new, and why devote a book to the subject?

If you wanted to draw a pie chart, I’d say about 60 percent has been published before, and 40 percent is brand-new. A lot of it boils down to my disdain for critics and tastemakers and how knee-jerk and reactionary they are. I’m tired of reading articles about Wilco or the latest White Stripes side project. As somebody who’s been a fan of music almost my entire life, I’m like, “C’mon, how about a little positive, original thought?” If Chunklet can shake things up or energize a discussion, I’m fine with that. We’ve all been at cocktail parties and confided our true opinion of things, like that we don’t think that Blind Lemon Jefferson or Kurosawa are that great. I happen to be the one with the balls to put it in print form and put my name on it.

If you had to pick one person or artist as the most overrated, which would it be? The book seems to reserve special animosity for Sting.

Personally, I think for our generation, the Beatles — not that I don’t have all their records and have them memorized. But no matter how revolutionary they were, there are records out there that are just as good, if not better. So either the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.

Chunklet has always been a music-oriented ‘zine over the years, so why have you been doing so many comedy projects lately?

At the end of the day, I think I’ve kind of grown bored with everything involved with music. Not in a bad way, but I’ve done it all. Have I toured the country with a band? Yeah. Toured the world? Yeah. Put out records? Yeah. Put on shows? Yeah. But I’ve also been an obsessive fan of comedy albums ever since I was a kid, buying Bill Cosby and Steve Martin records. I’ve found that comedians often don’t like comedy clubs, so why not bring them to a place like the 40 Watt or the Earl, where there’s no two-drink minimum and they get to play exclusively to their fans? Soon, I’m bringing Zach Galifianakis and Patton Oswalt to the Variety Playhouse. So that’s why I also do the Comedians of Comedy — I guess you’d say I’m the co-creator, or maybe the den mother who gets things done.