"We try to sound as loud and as fun as possible," says Sullivan, who has been known to wear an eye patch on stage.
Aarrrgh!!! So imagine the rockers' surprise two years later when they discovered a Utah crew was making a low-budget movie about two misfits who fancy themselves as modern-day buccaneers. Its title? "Pirates of the Great Salt Lake."
"We were like, 'Oh man, they've taken our name!' " Sullivan says. "We had a very pirate attitude about it."
Eric Nelson, the film's director, says he wasn't aware the band existed until he'd finished the "Pirates" script and begun shooting in the summer of 2005 along the west shore of Antelope Island.
"We Googled them, and it looked like they'd broken up," says Nelson, whose comedy, starring Kirby Heyborne, was a hit on the film-festival circuit last year and will get a limited theatrical release this summer.
But before Sullivan could say, "Ahoy, me lawyer hearties, let's sue the scurvy-ridden dogs!", the two groups agreed to use the strange coincidence to their mutual benefit by sharing fan bases and linking to each other's My- Space pages. At Nelson's invitation, the band even attended a screening of the movie last month in Ogden.
Now there's talk of featuring the Pirates' music on the "Pirates" DVD, due out by the end of the year. "We're partners now, sort of," Nelson says. "It's worked out well."
"It's definitely helping [boost our profile]," agrees Sullivan, who nevertheless sounds a bit disappointed that there was no pirate battle. "We weren't able to plunder them like we wanted to with our army of lawyers. Unfortunately, they were really nice. We didn't want them to be nice."
Gimme fries with that: Is nothing sacred? It was bad enough that the anti-smoking crusaders back in the 1980s pressured Mr. Potato Head to surrender his trademark pipe. Now the classic toy has been repackaged in a "Healthy Mr. Potato Head" edition, complete with running shoes, a stopwatch and a water bottle.
Well, I don't like it. Mr. Potato Head doesn't exercise. He's a fat, lazy couch spud, for cryin' out loud. Leave him alone.
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* BRANDON GRIGGS can be contacted at griggs@sltrib.com or 801-257-8689.
