Tom Scharpling , the director of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists's new Bottled in Cork video talked to Pitchfork about why they choose to make fun of Green Day's American Idiot musical and how it all came together. He explained:
I paid $125 for a Saturday matinee. You know, it's hard for me to stick it to the musical. I will say, the performers in the musical are some of the most super-talented people I've ever seen. They're dancing like crazy; they're singing; they're on wires 30 feet above the stage, doing aerial ballet. It's the most impressive thing I've ever seen! But the whole time I was like, "Why is all of this awesome effort and talent being used for Green Day?" It had barely any connection to Green Day. This might sound harsh: it wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen, but it was one of the more pointless things I've seen. I just didn't know why it existed.t's $125 to get into the punk musical, first of all. I will admit that for some reason I bought like a seventh-row seat. That's on me. I could've probably gotten in for $75. But still, it's on Broadway, and it's punk, and you get handed a thing in crazy punk lettering-- as if you're getting handed fliers at a rock show-- saying, "No photos! No video! No cell phones!" It's like, "Hey, this is all edgy! This whole thing's punk and outrageous! This is not Les Mis across the street, guys! But seriously, don't film it with your cell phone. It's our intellectual property." It's a funny experience. We had the idea for the video, and then I want and saw it, and it was like, "OK, we have to do this.
Check out the rest of the interview here.