One of the best and most original acts to come from Philadelphia in a long time, Atom and His Package puts on an amazing live show with only a synthesizer, guitar, and his hilarious but inspired lyrics. He thinks Har Mar Superstar has a better chance of revolutionoizing rap than Patrick Swayze (he told us),and he hates the English system of measurement. Go get his newest cd, Attention: Blah, Blah, Blah (Hopeless Records). Street: So you graduated from Penn? Atom: I went here for a semester as an undergrad, and then I came here for graduate school -- I went to the Graduate School of Education and got a Masters in Education and certified to teach high school chemistry and biology. Do you plan on doing that in the future? Or just do this as long as possible? I don't really know. Probably not as long as possible, I hope I'll stop before the point where it's not possible any more. It's really fun and I really enjoy doing it, and it's working for now, so... I don't know, I tend to plan my life in eight month intervals, so I can tell you what I'm doing for the next eight months but then after that I don't really know. So what are you doing for the next eight months? Well I leave to go on tour all across Europe for May and June and then I'll get back and hopefully work on a new record and then I can tell you then. At some point I think I would enjoy teaching if I found a good match and a school that was a good match to teach in, I think it would be good. What's your favorite Philly venue to play, assuming they're all good in their own right? I definitely have a lot of respect for the people who do R5 Productions [Sean Agnew] and do shows at the Church. They certainly encountered a good deal of adversity and what they do is a really really good thing for the city. I think it's a good thing to have an all-ages venue where it's not like a bar and I think it's great to have cool safe spaces for kids to do stuff. So I definitely admire what they do a lot and I guess working with people like that makes it really cool. How do you like playing with Har Mar [Superstar]? I love it, he's a friend of mine so we went on a whole US tour for like two months together in my mom's car, and we had a really good time. What song do you play that you think gets the best reaction from the crowd? Of mine? Yeah, of yours. I don't know, I guess there's some songs that people like more than others. I don't know, I tend to mix it around; I have a lot of songs, so I kind of just mess around. I guess some people like to hear "Punk Rock Academy"... people also like a song on the new record called "I'm Downright Amazed with What I Can Destroy with Just a Hammer"... I don't know, people like some, some people don't. You know a lot about punk music and really like it, but you don't really play punk music...why? I mean, I like a lot of different kinds of music and its not really thought out well enough that I'm trying to play a particular kind of music - that's not to be interpreted as like -- oh the music I play, no one can explain it, it's undescribable, it's nothing like that. Its just that I write songs that I think sound good to me and I guess because the instruments I use to do it -- a lot are synthesized and drum machines -- those are not particularly what you would think of when you think of punk music. Would you ever consider being cryogenically frozen [reference last week's Patrick Swayze interview]? Yeah, sure. I would consider it - not like now, but you know... if I felt very healthy and was like 45 and was diagnosed with a terminal illness... I would really appreciate it if you had some insight as to when and how I'm going to die you would let me know because I'd certainly change my life accordingly. I keep asking my dad because my dad is a really really smart and insightful guy and seems to know what's up. If he can tell me like, you know what, the way things are going, there's probably going to be fucking shit in 10 years, I would totally live my life according to my dad. [During this discussion, a member of Aim of Conrad decided to explore his journalistic aspirations, engaging Atom in a philosophical discussion about... skydiving. Thanks for taking over our interview, jerk off.] Who are the Packettes and what happened to them? They all got jobs. They would drive around with me and play shows -- they were really good. Three friends who are girls who came up with really awesome choreographed dances to a few of my songs. They made up really fun, awesome dances, and dressed up really nicely -- and people thought they were men. It wasn't the most flattering thing for them. Why did you cut your mullet? I don't enjoy having hair at all. I really wish I could just be bald and never have to shave and never have to get a haircut, I just don't like the feeling of having hair. Who will be the first Philadelphia sports team to break the championship drought? I don't know, I thought it would be the Eagles. I think at least this year they will all be exciting to watch, because you know for so many years everybody sucked. I'm definitely a big Flyers fan -- I'd love to see them do well. Since I've been away I haven't been able to see Tony Amonte play with them. This will probably be the year since I'll be probably be away during the Stanley Cup Finals, and that will be really depressing. What's the weirdest dream you've had that you can remember? I had a really really bizarre dream the other evening. The dream was that I was consumed with depression. I lived in a big house with a lot of friends, and I was like "I think I've had enough of this." It was a really weird dream because I don't think I feel that way, and I was telling people -- "I'm done with living, its fine, I think I'm done." And people were like "Why?" I was like "Look at all these clothes that are on the floor, I have to clean them up, I don't want to do that, I'm done." Then I woke up and I was like, what the fuck was that all about? Your instrumental songs have really bizarre names. When you're playing the song are you actually inspired by the title or do you just pick titles randomly? No, I write the song and then when I write the text that will be on the record, I'm like, whoa, what am I going to name that? The only one I know of off-hand is "Tim Allen Is Not Very Funny." That's true. I don't even know what song that is. I know I have a song named that, but I have no idea what that song sounds like.

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