CHARTattack:Features Feed

Brand New Explain How Their Songs Become Noisy

Ian Gormely — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:57:51 -0600

After several years of avoiding the prying eyes of the music media, particularly here in North America, Long Island, N.Y. emo-heroes Brand New decided to open up about their new record, Daisy, on a brief stop-over in Toronto.

Here's what lead vocalist/guitarist Jesse Lacey and guitarist Vinnie Accardi had to say.

CHARTattack: When you head into the studio do you have an idea of what you want the general vibe of the record to be?
Jesse Lacey: At the beginning, it's us trying to find out what the vibe is going to be. It takes us a little while to feel each other out as far as, "What kind of sounds are you interested in?" Then, as time goes on, a pattern kind of emerges and you can grab onto that and follow it a little bit further and say, "Well alright, let's write a little more like this," or "O.K., we have enough of that. Let's see what other avenue we can experiment with."

But, for the most part we're just kind of like, "How does this fit together at all?" because some of the time some of [the songs] don't even sound like they're from the same people. You look at a song you wrote and one you wrote six months later, not only do they sound different, but they're from such different parts of your brain or from different parts of what was going on in your life. But that's what albums have become for us. They've become weird sections of our lives that all just end up on this one thing.

Vinnie Accardi: There's always like that song or two that's a turning point for everybody. Someone will bring something new into the studio that everybody's either shocked or impressed by, which is a great thing to still be shocked and impressed by your band. And you realize that you might not have been thinking that the record could possibly go there, but now you're so excited by what somebody else did.

JL: Or someone brings a better version of the thing that you did already and you realize that your thing is trash and they succeeded at what you attempted. It's a relief and a failure at the same time. Like, "Oh, I sucked at that but you did it so well. I'm so happy that you're in my band."

Was there a song on the new record like that?
JL: When Vinnie showed me "You Stole," I just thought that was the coolest thing I ever heard. Even some songs that didn't make it on the record, like this song that Brian [Lane, drums] wrote we call "Lazy." When he brought that, at the time I was like, "This has to go on the album." And there's days that I think it should have been there and there's days that I don't think it would have worked the right way. But I just remember hearing it and thinking I never would have though to write that.

Your early records, particularly Your Favourite Weapon, seem much more straightforward sonically than the layered guitar textures on The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me and Daisy. What inspired you to move in that direction?
VA: I have a feeling that even when we were recording and writing Your Favourite Weapon we might have been thinking that we were doing what we're doing now. When people ask me what prompts the change in sound or the production, if I really think about it, I can remember standing in Mike's [Sapone, the group's long-time producer] mom's basement at 17 years old and thinking that I was making something that sounds way more like Daisy. So I guess we've been lucky to work with a lot of great producers and engineers over the last few years.

JL: There's a level of danger to it. If you listen to a song like [Nirvana's] "Come As You Are" and you listen to the chorus on the guitar, it's actually a very extreme chorus. It's very wobbly and under-watery. And when I listened to it as a kid I thought, "Oh, that's a great sound."

But when you go to play something like and you go to set that effect, you have to be brazen to make it that bold. Because in your head you think "it's too much." But it's not too much. And that's how things become homogenized.

Some of our favourite bands growing up didn't care. They did things that were just so absurd with their music that they set a precedent for what is good. If you listen to a band like Sonic Youth or My Bloody Valentine, they didn't even play their guitars. They hit them and bent them and stuff like that.

VA: Mike has an uncanny ability to hear something you're doing and immediately track it to any song in his library that he stores in his brain. He'll go to it, show it to you and tell you that that's what needs to happen. Here's the better version of it. This is what you're trying to do and you don't even realize it.

JL: Some of the bass sounds we just took directly from Jesus Lizard and Husker Du records. You hear the strings rattling so much. We just kind of fell in love with that sound. There's a couple of thing like that that we just went after intentionally and there's other things that we've come up with on our own over the years that we just decided to take that to whatever new level.

I've read that this record was written primarily on acoustic guitar.
JL: Most of our songs are. Vinnie brought that up like two weeks ago. He just thought that was hilarious that he's never written a song on electric guitar. I don't think I really have, either.

VA: We own a storage space where all of our gear stays, but we don't own a practice space. The only way that I play music at home is on a guitar that I got through a special at Sam Ash because I got a trumpet. I'm too lazy to go and set up my gear at home so everything just winds up being written on acoustic guitar. It's funny to hear the song be finished and it's this loud, obnoxious squealing thing and it's like, where did the song go? What happened? Because on my couch in my living room it sounded way nicer and prettier.

So where do these noisy songs come from then?
JL: It's always written on acoustic guitar but it's never thought that it's going to be like that. When I'm playing it I'm thinking, "I can't wait to play this on electric guitar when I get it out of storage."

Imagine a sculpture that sculpted out of crumpled up paper thinking, "I can't wait to get my clay." It's my job. Like, why wouldn't I have my tools with me all the time? But living in the suburbs, there's just not room for some guitar amps and drum kit. The neighbours just aren't going to have that.

Twilight's Jackson Rathbone Sings About Drinking, The Devil And Women Who Cheat And Steal

Elizabeth Chorney-Booth — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:51:56 -0600

Actor Jackson Rathbone is undeniably best known as Jasper Hale from Twilight and the upcoming Twilight sequel, New Moon. But in his heart, he's just a guy playing in a rock 'n' roll band.

Rathbone talked to CHARTattack from the set of Eclipse, the third movie in the Twilight saga, about his life as a teenage vampire heartthrob and his beloved band, 100 Monkeys.

CHARTattack: Twilight came out last year, you're doing press for New Moon and you're working on next year's Eclipse. You don't feel like your life has just become about Twilight all the time?
Jackson Rathbone: I don't, actually. I have a lot of things going on outside of the Twilight world.

Being a musician, I have my band 100 Monkeys, so whenever I'm not working on a film, I work with them. We make music constantly and we're constantly on tour. It's a pleasure to be part of the Twilight books, but I've got a lot of other stuff going on.

As well with film, I've got some other movies going on. I'm actually producing my first film this year with my production company. It's going great because of the wide Twilight fanbase I've been able to have people follow my other projects, which is just such an honour. They're so supportive of all the movies and of us as individuals.

Do you see Twilight as a blessing, or are you afraid of typecasting with such a huge franchise? Any reservations with being part of such a cultural phenomenon?
At first, I was a little bit worried. It was one of my first conversations with my manager when they offered me the role of Jasper — "Is this the right move? Will I get stuck in it?"

But we've tried to establish all throughout my career different looks every time I play a character. Not just in terms of hair and eye colour, but the way I walk and the way I talk.

I've always been a character actor. When I was in theatre and was learning how to act as a child, I was a character actor. It's always going to be a struggle, to not be identified as one of the brat pack from the Twilight movies, but at the same time, it's all about what you do next, I think.

I'm not one character, even in my personal life. I'm a very multi-faceted person — I have my band, I have my music, and I have my movie career. I consider myself an artist more than I do an actor.

Twilight isn't the worst place to be as the singer in a rock 'n' roll band. Vampires are pretty rock n' roll, aren't they? Those broody kids who watch Twilight probably are very into the fact that you're a musician.
All of the fans have been very supportive of 100 Monkeys. We have a lot of Twilight fans, but we have a lot of fans who aren't into Twilight, too.

We aren't a tweeny-bop rock group. We're not the Jonas Brothers. Our songs aren't about loving the girl next door. Our songs are about drinking and the devil and women who cheat and steal.

When you look at our songs, we sing kind of more blues-oriented songs. We idolize bands like The Doors and The Rolling Stones. Our sound is often compared to The Doors and Tom Waits and Coldplay. We hope our music is acceptable, but we play music that we love, we really do. And because we play music that we love, we find that other people like our music, too.

How do the other guys in the band feel about your gig as a movie star?
They're my friends from high school. They've known me since before I was trying to make the decision whether or not to move to L.A. back when I was 18. And they supported me in whatever I did. We've always just been great friends.

Our friendship inspired a sort of musical collaboration, as opposed to becoming a band after Twilight or something like that. And this experience hasn't changed me because I've been blessed to have my friends who keep my grounded, my bandmates, my partners in crime, if you will. I'm the exact same guy I was before Twilight and I will continue to be.

I heard somewhere once that fame changes people around you, it doesn't change you. And I find that to be true. Certain people around me have always stayed true, while some friends I had back in Texas I've kind of fallen out with because they do see me as a movie star.

Whereas my friends that I keep up with just see me as a normal guy and being in movies happens to be my job. And those people are my true friends because they know at the end of the day not to believe IMDB or TMZ or any of that stuff. Jackson is just a cool a regular guy who likes to make music with his friends.

Shout Out Out Out Out Kill Vocoders

Phil Villeneuve — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:23:12 -0600

We haven't touched base with Shout Out Out Out Out since the release of their latest rave-tastic monster, Reintegration Time. Can you believe it? We couldn't either, so we thought it was about time to sit and have a chat.

We gave mad synth-scientist Nik Kozub a penny and he gave us his thoughts on crazy equipment, how the band will never leave Edmonton and, of course, the feelings of Polaris Music Prize rejection.

CHARTattack: Has it ever happened that the electronic side of your show didn't work and you had to completely improvise everything else?
Nik Kozub: We haven't had a full meltdown yet, but we've come close.

It's something we do talk and worry about a lot because we do use a lot of old technology and analogue synths that depend on voltage working. Everyone gets clocked by one central brain sample and if that went down, I don't know what we would do. We've played a bunch of shows where the power has gone out on us while we're playing, but with the number of people in the band and that fact that we have two drummers and everyone has a bass and lots of percussion instruments, we can jam out on something for a while.

It's certainly an issue when we're dealing with so much electronic stuff, and bands like Junior Boys have had similar problems. I've had multiple vocoders die on the road, so we've started bringing back ups. Hopefully my current one doesn't die 'cause it's an old, rare one.

Why are your vocoders dying!?
I used to use one particular brand of vocoder and I've had three of them die on me, so I think they're just bad. The one I'm using now is from the '70s and it hasn't had any problems since the '70s, so it's probably just built better.

We've developed that attitude more and more over the years. We didn't used to want to bring all our analogue synths on the road so we were getting all these digital analogue modeling keyboards and as the years have gone on we've phased all of those out and actually just use all of our analogue stuff 'cause it seems to work more reliably and it sounds closer to what were doing on the record anyway.

We've always talked about pairing down our live set up and trying to simplify things, but now the opposite has happened. Everything has grown and now we're bringing more gear on the road with us than we ever have before.

In some of your tour videos, the crowd chants your band name in a certain way. Is that done everywhere you go?
I don't know where that came from, but it seems to happen a lot. Then we'll play somewhere new and they'll scream it a different way, it's kind of confusing. Usually at that point we're like, "Oh shit, what else can we play..."

Will you guys ever leave Edmonton or are you hardcore locals?
I think as a whole we're all pretty dead set on living in Edmonton. We like it here. Aside from the brutal winter that takes up half of the year, it's a pretty comfortable place to live. There's a really nice community vibe, especially in the music community.

It's logistically weird, living so far from anywhere you can tour conveniently and string dates together. If we wanna do a tour, we have to drive across the country and start in Ontario. Going to Ontario is a 40-something hour drive, so it's logistically weird, but other than that it's not really detrimental to us and it's a misconception that because we're living in this northern prairie city we can't just go and do things. The winter sucks, but that's just the weather.

Tell me about the tattoo on your arm? The big one?
That is the Edmonton area code, 780.

Any other major tattoos in the band?
Gravy has a few gooders. He's got a gravy boat on this arm. He has a tattoo of an old sparkly Gretsch drum set. Lyle, we've been trying to convince him to get ... there's a company called Oberheim with a ridiculous logo, but I don't think he'll get it. I don't really consider myself a tattoo guy, but I continue to get them.

Were you disappointed you weren't nominated for Polaris this time around?
Maybe moderately. I didn't expect we would be. When the long list came out, people said "Oh, man! You guys were ripped off not being on the long list!" And I was like, "Whatever, man." That would be sweet, but I'm not loosing sleep over it.

Tegan And Sara Break Habits With Sainthood

Kate Harper — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:22:06 -0600

Take someone out of their element or remove their routines and idiosyncrasies and they're likely to feel pretty strange about it.

Sara Quin says that's exactly how she felt when she and her sister, Tegan Quin, began writing songs in New Orleans for what would eventually become Sainthood, Tegan And Sara's sixth studio album. The twins, who the media have painted as "bickerers" and who've become known for their quirky on-stage banter, decided to write together for the very first time.

"You know, [feeling weird] has nothing to do with Tegan 'cause people are like, 'Did you guys fight the whole time?' It wasn't about fighting," Quin says. "It was more about, you know, for me, I've been writing songs since I was 14 and that's almost 15 years of writing a certain way.

"It was weird for me to be in a situation where someone was in the room with me. I'm a creature of habit. I'm habitual. I do things in the same way over and over and over again, and writing songs for me, I sort of zeroed in on a process that would work for me, and for the last, probably seven or eight years I've been doing it that way.

"So to suddenly be not in the place where I usually write, not using the tools that I usually use to write, being in a room with just another body, like another human being, that's not familiar to me in that process.

"It was uncomfortable. We were still productive. I think some of the songs are really cool, and I would like to continue to put ourselves in that position. Maybe not all the time, but I think so much interesting music could come out of it.

"But I was definitely uncomfortable. I wouldn't blame that on Tegan; I would just blame that on the fact that we've never done that before and it's kind of awkward."

Ultimately, none of the songs Tegan And Sara wrote together in New Orleans made it on Sainthood. But Quin says it was one of several changes the duo made while writing and recording the disc.

Although the twins were set to work with Death Cab For Cutie guitarist Chris Walla again (Walla produced 2007's The Con), Quin says she pondered how best to make the album different before she and Tegan started working on it.

"I just kept thinking, 'What are some of the variables that we can change in terms of the writing process and the inspiration for the lyrics and for melodies and co-writing and stuff like that?'" she says. "'How can we adjust some of our natural styles or our natural processes to potentially provoke or inspire something different?'"

Sainthood, which is based on a set of lyrics from Leonard Cohen's "Came So Far For Beauty," examines the act of loving someone, and considers how "exemplary behaviour" in relationships (whether they work out or not) makes one into a secular saint of sorts.

Tegan And Sara recorded the album with Walla and producer Howard Redekopp (The New Pornographers, Said The Whale), who co-produced 2004's So Jealous. Walla played on the album, which was something he also did with The Con, but this time he played as a member of a full band, recording the disc (for the most part) live off the floor.

Recording as a band was yet another change for Tegan And Sara. So Jealous and The Con were heavy on overdubs, and while there are still overdubs on Sainthood, Quin says recording live off the floor prevented the duo from using overdubs in the same way they had in the past.

"Everybody's been talking a lot about the tempo of the album, the feel of the album," Quin says. "They say it feels quick and energetic, and I love hearing that because what you're hearing a lot of the times, the majority of it really, truly is like a performance.

"We literally performed those songs dozens and dozens and dozens of times and then we would go and listen for a full performance. Not like, 'Oh, there's a great drum and bass take. We'll edit this and do that.' It was like, 'That's a great band take and that will go on.' So I feel like the album has the energy of people in a room playing music."

Quin also says making Sainthood completely changed how she thinks about the recording process. She describes a conversation she had prior to the album's release with Death Cab For Cutie drummer Jason McGerr (who plays on the record) in which she said she thought the recording process changed her as a performer.

"I was telling him about rehearsals. I was like, 'You know, this record changed me as a performer because I didn't like to rehearse. I didn't like to practice. I know that we have a natural instinct and a natural intuition on stage and it gets us by and whatever.

"But I feel like the guy who just discovered working out and energy drinks or something. I'm really into those powders right now,'" she says. "He was laughing really hard, but I loved playing so much.

"We essentially would play for, like, eight hours a day with Jason and Chris to get the songs feeling like they'd got the take that we needed and now I'm addicted to it.

"It's like the adrenaline and satisfaction of being so tired at the end of the day but knowing that your muscles are creating a memory and therefore you're just a better band."

Hidden Cameras Headed In Dark Directions

Scott Bryson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:47:57 -0600

The Hidden Cameras' Joel Gibb is sick of talking about his band's latest disc, Origin:Orphan. He doesn't say as much, but his disinterest is palpable.

Gibb's malaise may be the result of a growing distaste for journalists. It's also possible The Hidden Cameras frontman is ready to move on. A lengthy Origin:Orphan tour is approaching, but Gibb says he's already making plans to head to a studio to record a new dub album.

CHARTattack talked to Gibb about Origin:Orphan's genesis and The Hidden Cameras' gloomy new direction.

CHARTattack: Where does the title Origin:Orphan come from?
Joel Gibb: I just thought of it one day, gestalt style. I had been writing that song [the album's title track] and realized it needed a special title.

I also wanted to ask you about the title of the first single ["In The NA"] — what is The NA?
It's like a variable, like x, y, or z. So it's sort of playing with the idea of meaning.

Any particular reason you picked those two letters?
No, just [for] singing. Songwriting is not always an intellectual process. Writing lyrics and making words fit and mean something, that is. In the initial moments, when you have some sort of abandon... that's at least how I write a song — through abandon, through not even thinking. I guess that's what this song is about, in a way — that part of me which you could call NA, if you want to.

I really like everybody else's interpretation, actually. I love how everyone's all stumped and wants to know what it is... Not Applicable, Narcotics Anonymous, North America. My favourite is that a journalist said — because there's a lyric that says "free from any MA or BA" — that they thought it was a Masters and a Bachelor Of Arts and NA would be another degree.

You mentioned something in a press release that I was hoping you could expand upon — that with this album that you were "exploring genre as a theme in itself."
The record wasn't recorded in one place, with the same people, at the same time. These songs span years, studios and people, and I just let each song take its own course.

From what I've been reading in reviews so far, it seems everyone is quick to point out that sonically, this record is much more gloomy or mournful than your previous albums; had you always planned for it to sound that way?
I've been writing like that for years; it's just finally catching up on the recorded process. A record is not really representing that year — it's representing years past.

Had it always been the plan with these songs to incorporate more instruments than you did on [2006's] Awoo?
Yeah, I guess Awoo was more stripped away. The strings were still there on most of the songs but the horns weren't there. I think [Origin:Orphan] compliments the past records. I think there are classic Hidden Cameras moments on the record, but it's also moving in different directions with different sounds.

Were you worried that in venturing into new territory you might lose what people consider a signature Hidden Cameras sound?
No, but you're making me worry. Why bring it up? I don't think like that. Oddly enough, journalists keep asking me this and it's kind of bothering me. Why should I worry? Is that my main priority?

I was reading that you plan on turning this into some sort of theatrical production, yes?
I've been talking to a theatre in Berlin. I still need to write the proposal for funding, but yeah, it's very possible we could get this off the ground... I actually regret saying it because I don't like talking about things that aren't happening. I don't like going on about something I haven't finished.

Strombo's Holy Trinity: The Clash, Public Enemy, George Carlin

Liisa Ladouceur — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:49:14 -0600

George Stroumboulopoulos came to the attention of the nation's music fans (and Bono) on MuchMusic, but he got his start in radio.

Now the host of CBC TV's The Hour, he returns to the airwaves with his weekly Strombo Show, four hours of commercial-free music and talk Sunday nights on CBC Radio 2.

In advance of the show's premiere on Sunday (Nov. 8), he spoke to CHARTattack about his relationship with songs and the spirit of radio.

CHARTattack: Making The Hour must be a more-than-full-time job. How and why will you find the time to make The Strombo show?
George Stroumboulopoulos: All I do all night during the week is lay in bed and listen to songs. I'm constantly digging around for new music. It's as important to me as anything in life. I started blogging and twittering about what I was listening to, and I got a lot of feedback. So I started a radio show on the Corus network, but as I found new things and my own musical consciousness expanded, I found I couldn't go as far as I wanted to.

Why did you leave the Corus network for CBC Radio 2?
Radio stations have relationships with their audience. They make a promise to them, and those listeners have certain expectations. Modern rock listeners — well, what has become the modern rock format — don't tune in to hear a wide variety of music they don't know.

Corus never held me back, and my contact Dunner at CFOX was very supportive of what I was doing. But knowing radio, I realized the majority of the listeners did not appreciate hearing hip-hop on a rock station. I was way out there for some of these stations — not all — but those who prefer to play more familiar artists.

And to be honest, after [friend and colleague] Martin Streek died I had no interest in going back on The Edge [in Toronto]. So Corus was not the best place for me to be. I think you can tell a lot about a radio by its slogan, and CBC radio's slogan is "everywhere music takes you." That's where I belong.

People grew up with you on MuchMusic. They think they know you — you're the guy who wears Slayer belt buckles. What is it about your musical tastes that would surprise people?
That I like tender music. They think I only listen to one kind of music, but I like beautiful songs. And I like old music, really old blues music.

It sounds like you're going to be Canada's John Peel. Who are your radio heroes?
Anyone fearless. I always point to Jim Richards on CFRB 1010 in Toronto — he's not afraid to be smart. And Indie 103 in L.A. was the best on the planet until it shut down. I grew up on John Derringer and the Rock Report on Q107, that's my style of radio.

One of the exciting things about the new Strombo Show is that it will be available all across the country, even in small towns.
That was a selling factor. I was already ready to leave Corus when the head of the CBC network approached me, but the idea of being in every market was important.

On the Internet, you can find any song now but it takes a lot of work. I'll be doing that work, and it's even more important to me to be on the air in Nunavut as it is in Toronto. The Hour has put me in the homes of all kinds of people, it's brought me together with a ton of other music lovers. And so while a lot of people are already mixing and sharing all kinds of music, like on blogs, I have the privilege to do it for a national audience on Radio 2.

Should anyone be afraid of your show? Your CBC bosses or otherwise?
I don't think so. Although I will play songs from time to time that will scare the shit out of some people because they are manifestos. And it may not be my personal manifesto, but the message of the artist. If a music show doesn't scare you a little, it's not doing it's job. It's not just about discovery of things you like but exposure to things that dare you to change your way of thinking.

What will be your first song on the new show, and does it matter to you?
It's hugely important. I haven't yet decided between something by Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash. Because every show is a "thank you" to those who have provided the great songs. Johnny Cash isn't my favourite artist — Joe Strummer, George Carlin and Chuck D are my holy trinity — but you can't deny he's one of the greatest songwriters. So it will be one of those first, and the other will be in there, too.

The Grist 13 And Shitty 7 – November 2009

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:47:52 -0600

The Grist 13

1. The Flaming Lips
Everyone should want to be Wayne Coyne when they grow up.

2. Apple Pie
M&M Meat Shops were giving them away for free a couple weeks ago. Man, they were delicious.

3. Randomly Finding $20 On The Ground
This doesn't quite make up for soul-crushing student loans and working poverty, but it helps.

4. Dressing Up Like A Giant Bat And Scaring People
This rules.

5. "Prostiboots"
Word of the month. With thigh-high boots all the rage right now we think it's important you add this to your vocabulary for when you're feeling catty.

6. Kiefer Sutherland Drinking Stories
My kingdom for a chance to go boozing for a night with Jack Bauer.

7. When A Hawk Throws A Pigeon Against Your Window And Then Starts Eating It
It's like the National Geographic channel just exploded into high definition real life at your doorstep.

8. Dirt Bike Hill Climbing
This doesn't appear to be the brightest sporting pursuit, but the misadventure of others will always be our entertainment.

9. The Rise And Fall Of Balloon Boy
The crazy stage dad, the vomit, the media coverage... and ironic T-shirts were on sale within 24 hours. Bless you, Internet.

10. Coach Sue Sylvester On Twitter
Most people's tweets are stupid and boring. Hers are less boring.

11. Discount Halloween Candy
That's right, mothafucka!!! Bring on the 70 per cent off Twizzlers!

12. Rediscovering R.E.M.
One Chart editor recently spent a week listening to 'em non-stop. Said editor still believes Document is their best album.

13. Probably Bad News
We once put "Canadian Hip-Hip" on a cover instead of "Canadian Hip-Hop," but we can still laugh at others.

The Shitty 7

1. Serial Nut Kicker On The Loose In British Columbia!
Listen, few things are as funny as watching when a guy gets whomped in the pills, but this shit is just too much.

2. Having A Temporary Crown In Your Mouth That Means You Can't Take Full Advantage Of Discounted Halloween Candy
Ha. Ha. Ha, to you too, God. At least my earthy representatives don't diddle little boys.

3. Forgetting Your Umbrella
You raindrop-ass, motherfuckers! I will fight all of you. You can't break me. C'mon!

4. Bruxism
Grinding one's teeth at night. If the weight of the world wasn't so heavy this wouldn't be such a problem.

5. Zombies
I know. I never thought I'd get bored of them either.

6. Swine Flu Hysteria Is Outta Control
You people really know how to put the pan-ic in pandemic.

7. National Sandwich Day
Why do sandwiches only get one day? Beautiful sandwiches need to be celebrated every day.

Lamb Of God Still Tough Guys Who Drink

Pete Richards — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:20:37 -0600

From the south came a band called Burn The Priest. They became Lamb Of God and trudged on to become one of the most powerful entities in the world of heavy metal.

When other bands seem to recycle members, change with the trends or decide the money just isn't worth it, Lamb Of God have stayed solid, progressed and fucked the world along the way for 15 years. They're now on tour with Metallica.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Lamb Of God guitarist John Campbell about his career and what it's like sharing the stage with one of the most famous bands in the world.

So you're currently on tour with Metallica, taking turns between playing with them and shows with Gwar. How do you find balancing large arenas with smaller venues?
Honestly, I can't wait to get back to the clubs. The arenas sound really dead onstage. I mean, it's cool shit. There are tons of people to watch out there while playing onstage at arenas with Metallica all the time. But for me, the performer onstage when it's your PA and it's open, it's a lot more fun.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade this for anything. Plus, it's fun playing for an audience that doesn't necessarily know what to expect from you. So we do that for a week and then we get to go back to our fans at our shows and play to a room packed full of people screaming the words back at us.

Obviously some people are there to see Metallica and you, but do you find you go over some people's heads?
Hell yeah, definitely. But I think we're also pulling in new fans also. I think a lot of the old school metalheads who may not have found out who Lamb Of God is yet or even if they've heard of us, hadn't quite heard us, I think we're definitely picking up new fans. And it's just one of the many fringe benefits of going on tour with Metallica.

So it's definitely broadening your horizons even further.
(laughs) Let's hope, man. Let's hope.

Does it get much bigger than this, unless you are Metallica?
(laughs) I think those words came out of my mouth earlier today. But yeah, I don't think so.

I think at this point it's just a matter of longevity and how long we can keep at it. Who's to say where we're going to be in another 10 years because we're hitting 15 now and those guys are at 25 years, something like that. So who knows what our status will be at that time? Whether we'll graduate up to Metallica status, plateau at where we are now, or drop off seriously.

Well, you'll always have your core fans who'll still come to your shows in 20 years time.
Oh yeah, I don't mean to sound apocalyptic or anything. But yeah, it's a question of from here what possibly could be next?

For us, specifically what's next is we're doing some tours in Europe and we're going to hit some new places we haven't hit before. Come springtime I think we're booking some shows in China. We're going to play a show in Israel and then some other Middle Eastern spots, especially the crazy Air Force. This is all coming up in the near future of our career, which may or may not end up like Metallica's.

What have you learned from Metallica, as far as how they conduct themselves on tour?
They're a lot more down to earth than you would think. They're very personable. They've brought us out for dinner and drinks, they hang out in the dressing room sometimes, you know. It's been a pretty amazing run for us to have this opportunity.

And you guys are known for your partying. Has the drinking slowed down much?
Yeah, we're not trying to be tough guys and drink all your beer, but we are tough guys and we'll drink all your beer. I don't know if it's slowed down, but it's developed, I'd say.

Everyone comes and goes with their love of drinking. I don't drink beer anymore, I drink whisky. I mean, we have a little bit of age now so we're not quite as insane as we used to be. But we're Lamb Of God and stupid shit still happens.

Trews Change Up On Record, Fight You On The Mat

Trevor Morelli — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:03:05 -0500

Punchy, hard-driving rock anthems have always been The Trews' bread and butter, but the Antigonish, N.S. quartet are ready to branch out sonically.

Singer Colin MacDonald says the guys are sick of being known as the "Not Ready To Go" band and their new Friends & Total Strangers acoustic CD/DVD will show people they're musically capable of much more than producing catchy radio hits.

You also shouldn't go picking a fight with The Trews in a dark alley.

Drummer Sean Dalton has been known to dabble in mixed martial arts and, amongst other things, CHARTattack wanted to know if he's tougher than fellow Canadian MMA enthusiast Robin Black. MacDonald puts the smart money on their guy.

CHARTAttack: You guys aren't normally known for acoustic songs. Was it difficult to turn your electric songs into acoustic ones?
Colin MacDonald: It came really, really naturally. So many times, things are hard when you're trying to write new songs for a new album. It was a lot of fun to just jam for five or six hours at a time. We'd just be playing and then suddenly it's, like, "Where did the time go?" So we thought that if this felt good, we should just do it.

The DVD version of Friends & Total Strangers also includes footage from your beginnings as a band. Is it odd to look back and see how far you've come?
Other than what's out there on YouTube, this is sort of our first "official" documentary. I think all the time it's just odd for me to see myself, period. You learn as you go. When you first start, you don't have any money, so you can't buy any cool clothes or anything like that. A band like us may have looked like a fish out of water.

Speaking of YouTube, do you think websites like that are still helpful for artists or are they starting to damage bands' reputations?
It's a lot of distraction. I saw something in the paper about how more and more kids on Facebook are starting to fail at school. Or maybe it was that more humans are just failing at life (laughs).

At the heart of it, I think great music will prevail. Look at a band like Kings Of Leon. They've become big because they have great songs, not because they have some exceptional YouTube campaign. Those sites are just vehicles and the same ethics still apply as when a band first starts out. A lot of first albums are really good because the band was putting eight hours a day into making music. It's when you start to think you're big because you have 10,000 hits on YouTube that you'll let it get to your head.

So The Trews would rather win fans the old-fashioned way.
Yeah, we're always thinking 10 years ahead. It's just a matter of not always doing the same thing. Your instincts always take you to different places. It's about breaking out of the box.

Our biggest concern is always keeping it going and not spinning our wheels. I've always admired how The (Tragically) Hip did that. Each album sounded different from the last one. That's why we've never gone back to the same producer twice, and that's a way to keep yourself interested.

It's a way to keep your fans interested, too. In Canada, there's a lot of great talent and great fans, but it's always about "What have you done for me lately?"

What do guys do when you need to get away from the music for awhile? I heard one of you is into mixed martial arts.
That's our drummer Sean. He's into jiu-jitsu. The rest of us are into Heineken. That's how he keeps his zen-like focus.

And how do the rest of you keep your zen-like focus?
Well, ideally, you should be reading and listening to music and keeping in touch with people. But usually you end up hung over and talking shit and having a laugh.

It's funny how tours sort of devolve like that. You start with the best intentions — you bring [author Fyodor Dostoevsky's] Crime And Punishment to read or you plan on checking out all these neat indie bands. Then somehow you end up doing mad libs and filling in the spaces with dirty words.

So who would win in a fight: Sean or Robin Black?
I think Sean would beat Robin Black, but I've heard he's a pretty tough mofo. I know he's got cool hair, but I think Sean could beat him.

It's funny 'cause when we first started out, we played Edgefest in Barrie. There was Billy Talent and Three Days Grace playing the sort of mid-level stage and then us playing on the tiny stage. That's when we heard about Robin Black And The Intergalactic Rockstars. They had strippers and served people shots and they just looked like they were having a lot of fun.

Flogging Molly Benefit From Loyal Fans

Trevor Morelli — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:09:11 -0500

Flogging Molly are finally embarking on their own.

The Los Angeles band are headlining their first Canadian tour. Sure, they've been north of the border for sporadic Warped Tour dates and such, but this jaunt will mark the first time the Celtic punk outfit will travel across Canada on their own terms.

For Flogging Molly, gaining notoriety in North America has been a slow and steady endeavor. Their 2002 Drunken Lullabies album recently went Gold and the band hope to keep the momentum going thorough relentless touring in support of last year's Float.

CHARTattack recently had a chance to talk to multi-instrumentalist Bridget Regan about their most recent album, their Canadian excursion and their ongoing growth as a band.

CHARTAttack: How is Float different from any of the other records you've done?
Bridget Regan: I can honestly say for us as band that we genuinely had the most fun making Float and that comes across in the music. If the sentiment comes across to the listener half as much as it does to us, then we've done good.

So you'd say that this disc is a step up from your last one (2004's Within A Mile From Home)?
Big time. The engineer that co-produced this record was really on the same page as us. From the writing down to recording the last track, it was an awesome time.

Our last record was rushed because we had to go on the Warped Tour. At the end of the day, that album could've been a lot better. If we could go back in time to fix it, we most certainly would.

Did it surprise you at all that Drunken Lullabies sold half a million copies without much radio or TV support?
It didn't surprise us because we're an indie band at the end of the day. We have a really loyal fan base. People freak out about downloading music for free, but the true fans want the album and the artwork, so buying albums is what loyal fans do.

It was a slow climb and it took a long time. The album has grown as the band has. We worked hard to get there and we can only thank the people that went out and picked it up for that. It's kind of frustrating that Britney and those shite boy bands go gold in a week and it takes us eight years, but oh well.

Nathen Maxwell (bass) recently released his solo White Rabbit album under the moniker Nathen Maxwell And The Original Bunny Gang. Would you ever consider releasing an album outside of Flogging Molly?
Dave and I have a lot of songs that don't suit Flogging Molly. It's certainly something we'd consider doing in the future.

You guys are bringing along Gallows [who've since switched up to the AFI tour] and Inward Eye for your cross-Canada tour. Who are your favorite bands to play with?
Gallows are friends of ours, so that's what we try to shoot for on the road. It's obviously a lot more fun when you're playing with bands you know. We also like to bring over bands like The Mighty Stuff from Ireland and unsigned bands as well.

Are there any other new bands out there that inspire you?
There are tons of new bands that we love, but our inspiration still comes from the old school stuff like The Pogues and The Clash. There are seven of us, so it would probably be seven of the most completely different iPods you'd ever seen.

Some bands love to write on the road and some despise it. Which category does Flogging Molly fall into?
We never write on the road. It's almost two different sides of the brain you're using. You have to be in a completely different mode to write. Some bands can do it, but we never have.

What can people expect to hear on this tour? More Drunken Lullabies stuff or more Float stuff?
In the places we've played since Float came out, we've tried to mix it up. Instead of just playing the songs people want to hear, we throw in some slow ballads as well as some of the hard stuff. We enjoy playing that stuff just as much as the fan favorites. We're looking forward to seeing everyone at the shows.

Islands Re-Arm On Vapours

Erik Leijon — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:02:49 -0500

If the in-your-face album cover featuring frontman Nick Thorburn's mugshot wasn't enough of a clue, Montreal's Islands have once again taken a dramatic step in another musical direction — this time eschewing the elaborate movements of 2008's Arm's Way for sleek and simple pop on Vapours.

The group's 2006 Return To The Sea debut contained a lot of bubbly, summertime musical jaunts that were spectacularly lanced on the very ornate follow-up Arm's Way.

But Vapours represents a happy medium, demonstrating some of Thorburn's most mature songwriting yet, while retaining the sunny arrangement/sinister lyricism contrast that has defined his career since his time with The Unicorns.

"I knew wanted to scale things back and I had songs that fit that mold," says Thorburn says of his group's third record. "All these songs were demoed in my room with an acoustic guitar. That's how they all started."

CHARTattack had the opportunity to speak to Thorburn about his latest.

CHARTattack: Would you call Vapours your most straightforward album yet?
Nick Thorburn: I think of it as being very diverse within itself. It's the most consistent record I've made, but I also think it's the most varied one I've made.

There's a wide spectrum of influences you wouldn't necessarily see as fitting together, like the Motown vibe of "Vapours," and My Bloody Valentine-esque guitars on "Everything Is Under Control." A song like "Shining," I wouldn't expect to see a song like it with a weird dubstep wobble bass and a crazy drum machine, next to a song like "Disarming The Car Bomb," which is a throwback to '60s proto-punk like The Sonics.

I don't think it's a straightforward record at all. It has a lot of twists and turns, but I also think it has potential to have a broader accessibility.

Was the songwriting process then drastically different on Vapours compared to previous projects?
Some of the songs on this record predate Arm's Way songs, so it wasn't a conscious decision to make a record different from Arm's Way. The songs that were written after Arm's Way are more in line with the shorter, more condensed pop songs I wanted, the kinds that elicit a more immediate response. Arm's Way was a real methodically plotted record that required a lot of concentration and time to unravel. Vapours is meant to be a more visceral experience.

When Arm's Way came out, you were saying it was a concerted group effort. This album seems to be largely the opposite. Is that a fair assessment?
Yeah, it is.

Arm's Way was the result of a band that toured behind Return To The Sea and had fleshed out these songs I had written in the interim, the songs subsequently becoming Arm's Way. It was a real natural thing. It was the group that made the record.

Same process as Vapours, really, except Vapours was more expedited. I still wrote the songs, but with Vapours I demoed them by myself, whereas Arm's Way I would bring in the song and we would jam it out then play it live on tour before recording it. The final songs were then plotted out pretty thoroughly.

But with Vapours we were flying a little bit by the seat of our pants. I brought in a new group of people [original Islands drummer Jamie Thompson, along with brothers Evan and Geordie Gordon] who are more inclined to perform the songs in the style I was going for: more scaled back, dancier, more electronic.

How did Jamie Thompson return to the fold, anyway?
I asked him. He left right around the time the first record came out. He wanted to step out of the rigamarole of touring and recording. He started doing a lot of electronic production, and a lot of hip-hop production, and getting really knowledgeable about modular synths, programming and sequencing.

So when it came time to make this record, I was getting interested in certain types of music. I heard this song by [French songwriter] Sebastien Tellier called "Divine" — which is the inspiration for the song "Vapours" — and I heard a remix of the song by a French producer named Danger. I liked the style: the real simple rhythm and repetitive throbbing movement to it. It was a big shift for me.

I wanted to make a record that was like that, with an electronic tinge. Jamie had been honing those precise skills these last two years, so I enlisted his help.

Vapours also seems like a big shift for you, lyrically. You don't utilize morbid imagery as much as before, and many of the songs are built around your vocal hooks.
It's a very personal record. More so than the last ones which were built along abstract hyperbolic metaphors that have to do with a lot of grisly, violent imaginings of death. This one was a little more vulnerable, a little less cloaked in metaphors.

I think this album is definitely dark. I think I'll always have a dark inclination with songwriting. Two new songs on the record — "Devout" and "Disarming The Car Bomb" — are more in line with songs I've written like "Creeper" that are about explosions, car crashes, knife fights and bank robberies — that sort of stuff.

The Sounds Are Affected By Recession, Too

Phil Villeneuve — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:22:33 -0500

Even Swedish musicians are affected by the recession.

The Sounds may have opened for No Doubt this past summer and are on tour until December, but they feel these hard economic times, too. They also like to talk about growing up, writing songs, their connection to The Cardigans and favourite drinks.

CHARTattack sat down with keyboardist/pianist/guitarist Jesper Anderberg before their show in Toronto earlier this month. Here's what was said.

CHARTttack: Have your opinions of the U.S. changed since 2002 when Living In America came out?
Jesper Anderberg: Apart from the venues getting a little bigger and more fans, your mind reacts differently now then when you are 21. So when I was 21, I would finish the show I would want to find the party, not as much these days.

We can also feel the recession, especially with pre-sales. Some cities sell as they used to, but others people are waiting longer to buy tickets.

How about merchandise sales? You guys have some pretty great T-shirts.
Merch is weird; it's kind of going up for us. I guess once people have come to the show, they're OK with spending some money.

Has the merch gotten better over the years, maybe?
I think so. We know how we want the shirts to look like, but what we want, our fans might not share that view. They might think we look cool, but it's not something they'd necessarily like to wear.

How does the writing process work with five Swedes?
It depends. Me and Felix [Rodriguez, guitar] do most of the writing, but often we have blank spots. So if someone comes up with a great line for a song to add with what was already there, then it's good.

Everyone is very creative in the band. We're very open and everyone can do their own thing. Sometimes it's better to let someone finish what they had in mind, but in the end, everybody's part of it.

Ever since we've been a band, we've always been writing together to make it sound like us. If we were to take one member out of the band, we just wouldn't sound the same. It's like The Police. When Sting does his own thing, it sucks. We obviously have a magic combination.

Speaking of a magical combinations, you guys often seem like an old time rock 'n' roll band. You tour your faces off and have to work hard to stay alive, is this true?
That's good. Keep that image! It's mixed. In some ways it is like that and in others it isn't. We don't really want to look like a big shot band, even though sometimes we wish people who work with us could make more of an effort to push us better.

We're doing well, though. I haven't had a job since high school, but it's not like we're super-rich, either. You always have this dream when you're 18 of being a superstar, but then you realize it's a lot harder.

Sometimes when we release a song we realize it's not up to us how successful it will be. It's the time, the country, the radio, the economy. But what we do have, 10 years after we started, is that we can still do what we love to do and not worry about money right now and still be our own boss.

Maybe you're able to survive because of where you call home when not touring. Where do you all live in Sweden?
We live in Malmo. We live really close to each other. I live 30 seconds away from Felix. Johan [Bengtsson, bass] is three minutes away, Maja [Ivarsson, vocals] and Fredrick [Nilsson, drums] are five minutes away.

We have our studio there, too. It's a rehearsal space we turned into a studio and we share it with The Cardigans. It's a really nice community of people. The city is pretty small. I like that.

Tell us how it was touring with No Doubt …
It was really fun. They are a super-nice group of people. They had all their families with them, so it was like kindergarten. We hung out in their dressing rooms, drinking, had some water balloon fights. We were together six weeks and you couldn't ask for a better tour.

No cat fights between Maja and Gwen?
No. She is super-sweet for being such a superstar. And her husband, too.

Most important question of all, what are your favourite drinks?
Felix drinks cosmopolitans, Fredrick is rum and coke, Johan and mine is white Russian and Maja's is a screwdriver.

Nardwuar Vs. The Polyphonic Spree

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:04:43 -0500

Nardwuar: Who are you?
Tim DeLaughter: My name is Tim DeLaughter from The Polyphonic Spree.

And Tim, who else is in The Polyphonic Spree?
Good grief, that's a loaded question. I have 24 other people in this band.

Are you able to name them?
Uh, yeah. It'll take me a bit of time, but I can name them.

I would love to hear their names.
Alright, here we go. We have Mark Pirro. We have Rick Nelson…

Actually, I hate to interrupt, Tim, but where do you start when it comes to naming your band? Do you look at the instrumentation first? Do you do it stage left or right? How do you remember who's in your band? Maybe that's my question. How do you remember who's in your band?
Well, what I started with this time was I was actually looking at Mark Pirro, the back of his head. And I knew Buffi [J, cello] was next door, in the room next door, so I thought I would choose her next…

photo by David Leyes

Now, speaking of Mark, is Mark afraid of Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian, Gordon Lightfoot?
Is Mark afraid of Gordon Lightfoot? No, he loves Gordon Lightfoot.

Have you integrated Gordon Lightfoot into any Polyphonic Spree songs at all?
Well, we did have a history lesson for a lot of people in Milwaukee about Gordon Lightfoot. Mark went on to tell the whole story of what went on with the Edmund Fitzgerald and it sparked a whole list of opportunities for fans to bring things related to Gordon Lightfoot and the Edmund Fitzgerald. And it was quite an interesting evening that night.

Y'know what's interesting about Gordon Lightfoot? Y'know the song "Sundown"?
Yes! [starts singing] "Sundown, I think…"

Do you know what that song is about, Tim of The Polyphonic Spree?
No.

That is a song warning people to stay away from Cathy Evelyn Smith.
Really.

And do you know who Cathy Evelyn Smith is?
No.

The woman that injected John Belushi.
You're kidding me?

No, Gordon Lightfoot's ex-girlfriend was the same person that injected John Belushi in Los Angeles. So some historians have speculated that if John Belushi had listened to Gordon Lightfoot, he might still be alive.
The song was written prior to that?

Yes!
Oh my gosh.

Just an interesting connection. Now, going back to the other 23 members
of The Polyphonic Spree, Tim.
There is 24 of us.

And we've done 22.
What do you mean?

We've named two so far.
We've named two.

Are there any more to go? We've got Mark…
Are you ready?

Yes.
OK, Audrey Easley, Bryan Wakeland, Evan Hisey, Ryan Fitzgerald, Daniel Huffman, Jay Jennings, Jennie Kelley, Jennifer Jobe, Jessica Jordan, Julie Doyle. Keith Hendrix, Kelly Repka, Kristin Harden, Matt Bricker, Nick Groesch, Nicholas Wlodarczyk, Apotsala Wilson, Ricky Rasura… uh, Rick Nelson, Stephanie Dolph, Tamara Cauble and myself.

What about Brian Teasley?
Brian's not with us on this run.

So would he make it, like, 25 or 26 people? Because he's almost like
two people.
Yeah, he is. When he's on fire he's like that. Yeah, he would account for at least two people.

Tim, you're playing tonight at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Another member associated with your band is playing Vancouver, coming up. St. Vincent is being billed as "featuring members of The Polyphonic Spree." How many bands are billed as "featuring members of The Polyphonic Spree"? There must be quite a few.
There've been quite a few bands who've come from this group. We've been together for about seven years, so we've planted some seeds of bands around this country from people who have been in the group.

What are the rules for being in The Polyphonic Spree, Tim?
The only rule I would say is you have to be able to improvise on your instrument thoroughly.

What about the guest list? You're a member of The Polyphonic Spree, what kind of guest list are you allowed because you have so many people in the band? How many guest list spots? Because I imagine the guest list must get pretty huge. What is the biggest guest list you've had from The Polyphonic Spree, just from the members?
Oh, 100.

What do the promoters think of that when they see 100 names on the guest list?
Well, it depends. If it's a sellout, they don't really mind it. And if it's not, they usually start screaming.

What's the smallest club that you've played that you've had a 100-person guest list?
Oh gosh.

Like, Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey?
You know what, this band has never played Maxwell's. Tripping Daisy played Maxwell's. But this group hasn't. Wait… we did play Maxwell's. Yeah, that's right. Golly, we did play Maxwell's. But that was back in 2001.

So would there have been 100 people on the guest list for that night?
No, not for that night.

So there would be rules. "You cannot put that many people on the guest list."
Yeah, you can't do that. You might get one apiece. It really matters where we're at, what city we're in, the venue, the sale of tickets, that kind of thing.

Have you ever been confused with Nine Inch Nails at all? What's the difference between The Polyphonic Spree and Nine Inch Nails?
Uh, about nine inches, really. Nine Inch Nails and The Polyphonic Spree? We don't have any nails in our group.

There are some similarities. You're both on TVT Records, or associated with TVT Records. And they had The Fragile and you have The Fragile…
We are The Fragile Army.

Yeah! So there are some similarities. That's what I was wondering. There are similarities. What are the differences?
Yeah, they're not on TVT anymore. But his first record was on TVT and then I think he split from there.

Looking at the stage set-up of The Polyphonic Spree there, Tim of The Polyphonic Spree, I think I saw some plexiglass in a photo. What's plexiglass doing onstage for a The Polyphonic Spree gig?
Well, that helps separate the sound for the choir from the cymbals and the drums so their sound doesn't bleed into their microphones.

What have The Polyphonic Spree been criticized for?
Criticized for? I think we've been criticized for being too optimistic, at times.
I heard you were criticized because you "had a confetti show."

Had a confetti show?
Yes, they criticized The Polyphonic Spree because you had a confetti show.

Somebody didn't like confetti shows. Is that the pettiest thing you've been criticized for? A confetti show. Is there a confetti show with The Polyphonic Spree?
Yes, there is. And, quite frankly, I love the confetti show.

[Nardwuar takes a phone caller]

Caller, are you there?
Caller #1: Hi Nardwuar.
Go ahead to Tim of The Polyphonic Spree.
Caller #1: Hey Tim, how ya doin'? Hello?
Tim: Hey there.

Caller #1: Hey Tim, lookin' forward to the show tonight. I wanted to know why Brian Teasley isn't touring with you guys right now?
Tim: Brian is working on getting his real estate license. Believe it or not, he's back in school and he's taking a break from the rock 'n' roll world.
Caller #1: OK, thank you very much.

Caller, I understand you wanted to do an interview with Brian. Now this caller got confused because there were a couple Brians in the band.
Tim: Yeah, well there's a Brian Wakeland in the band and a Brian Teasley, but he's off at school right now. And then we have a Ryan in the band.
Caller #1: That must be confusing, eh?
Tim: Oh yeah.

Well, thanks so much caller, and doot doola doot doo…
Caller #1: Doot doo.

We're speaking here to Tim of The Polyphonic Spree, who are playing here tonight in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at the Commodore Ballroom. Tim, people say, "Well, the Arcade Fire did stuff with David Bowie." Well, you were the first to do stuff with David Bowie, weren't you? The Polyphonic Spree were the first to do something with David Bowie. Or you beat the Arcade Fire to David Bowie, didn't you?
I guess so. He's just been supportive from day one of our band. He was responsible for bringing us to the U.K., for taking us outside of Texas for the first time. And then we went on tour with him in his North American tour, so he's pretty supportive of the group.

But I just think it's important to note that The Polyphonic Spree were first of getting support from David Bowie. They were before the Arcade Fire. It's great that he helped the Arcade Fire, but first was The Polyphonic Spree. First. You beat the Arcade Fire to David Bowie. You did win that race, didn't you Tim of The Polyphonic Spree?
Yes, we did. Thank you for clarifying that.

I have a little quote here. I interviewed a metal groupie a few years ago and she was a big fan of Tripping Daisy and stuff. Did Tripping Daisy tour Canada with Def Leppard?
Yes, we did.

And this is what she said about that. I was asking her about stuff and I said, "How does it compare to being a groupie on the scene with metal bands to the new brand of alternative bands?" How does it compare? She used to be a groupie to metal bands like Def Leppard. And then she went on a tour with you guys and she got converted to alternative bands because of Tripping Daisy.
Good grief! Alright.

This is what she says though, Tim. And I'm not sure she's addressing you: "I personally think the alternative bands are a lot more disgusting. The guitar player from Tripping Daisy doesn't bathe at all on the road. So I guess the metal guys were a little more concerned with their appearance. And hygienically, that was preferable. Also, the metal guys are a little ruder, like, ‘We're cool, we're famous, we can be assholes.'" Do you remember not bathing on the road at all in Tripping Daisy on tour in Canada?
Well, that would be Wes [Berggren]. He didn't… yeah, he didn't bathe very much. I can't believe that that finally made it out there, but that was a true fact.

Tripping Daisy, Def Leppard, across Canada. Do you remember those gigs? And how do they compare to tonight's gig at the Commodore Ballroom? The Polyphonic Spree at the Commodore Ballroom versus Tripping Daisy opening up for Def Leppard. Differences?
Good grief. My gosh. Well, the food was a lot better with Def Leppard than it is right now. We had a bus with five people on it and a couple crew guys back then. Now I have a bus with 27 people on it. It smells horrible in the morning on the new bus. But the show here the last time in Vancouver, that show was off the hook. And I think that was in ‘04, the last time we were here.

It might have been 2003. And that was at Richard's On Richards.
Yes, that's right.

And that has gone down in Vancouver punk rock gig history — and I say the word punk rock there because there's nothing more punk rock than beating the Arcade Fire to David Bowie. And we're speaking here to Tim from The Polyphonic Spree, live on the Nardwuar The Human Serviette radio show and winding up here what can you tell me about KEOM Dallas? KEOM Dallas? It's a high school radio station? You like listening to high school radio, Tim?
Oh man, you do your homework. Yes, I love that station. I love it because they play all ‘70s music, all of it. But they play the deep cuts there. There's no commercials there. And they talk about how to make a guacamole salad and then they'll talk about The Big Dipper. And then in one segment they'll talk about the White Tailed Deer. It's just a really refreshing radio station. And it's kids in high school, so they stumble on their words and they give the metro traffic and I don't know, I like it. It's a great, charming station.

A high school radio station. This sounds amazing. This is in Dallas, where you're from. Do you do any firsthand JFK assassination research at all, being in Dallas and stuff? Have you seen any stuff? Have you been to the site of the Tippett murders? Are you fascinated by it? Have you been to the grassy knoll? Has any of that been incorporated into The Polyphonic Spree on the brand new album?
No, but I did do a meditation on the grassy knoll with a producer one time. I was trying to do one of my records back in the Tripping Daisy days. He took us down there and he wanted to do a meditation, so we did that. But yeah, there's a lot of interesting conspiracy theories down there. There's a lot of people down there selling their magazines and handing out their pamphlets of their idea of what went down with JFK. But as far as being inspired with songs of JFK, no it hasn't happened.

OK, we're going to play a track now from the brand new The Polyphonic Spree The Fragile Army CD. Which is the closest track on this CD to a JFK-inspired lyric? What is the closest song to a JFK/Dallas assassination theme that we should play?
I would say play "The Fragile Army," the self-titled track.

And how does that relate to JFK?
Because that's an ode-to-Bush song. I wish someone would just get his ass.

And lastly here, Tim of The Polyphonic Spree, playing tonight at the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, what advice do you have for bands playing corporate gigs? Because you've played some corporate gigs, you've done some ads for, like, Volkswagen Beetles and stuff. What's your advice for doing a Beetle ad or an iPod ad or playing a phone company after-party after the Sasquatch Music Festival? What's your advice to bands? What's it like doing the corporate sort of thing?
Well, the money's really great. And when you've got a band like myself that's got 27 mouths to feed and keep this band on the road, we take it how we can get it and we use that money to do other great things like make a record, The Fragile Army. So that's how I justify it.

How about the reaction of the people you're playing to. Do you have any hints for bands playing corporate gigs? What sort of songs do the corporate bigwigs want to hear? What sort of corporate gigs have you played? Do you gear your set to those people? What sort of reactions have there been?
I've never really played a corporate party per se. I've done some commercials, but I've never really played a corporate party. I dunno, you just do what you usually do until they come up to you and tap you on the shoulder and tell you that you need to turn it down. I don't know.

Well, thanks so much Tim. Why should people care about The Polyphonic Spree?
Because we're bringing a message of hope in this dismal world. At least how it is in my country. Here [in Canada] it seems rather charming and beautiful and you're an awfully upbeat guy, but in my country it's tough right now and my band brings a sense of hope to people when we come through. It's a very spirited event when you come to a Polyphonic Spree show.

And that's tonight at the Commodore Ballroom. What's the longest encore that you've played?
Probably about an hour-and-a-half. We've played for about three hours before.

So you did an hour-and-a-half encore?
Yeah.

So the encore is as long as the actual gig?
Yeah.

That's great. Thanks so much, Tim. Keep on rockin' in the free world and, anything else you want to add to the people out there at all?
Just support The Fragile Army because we're giving it everything we've got and tonight this house is going to blow up with Polyphonic Spree. It's going to be an awesome show.

Well, thanks so much Tim. Keep on rockin' in the free world and doot doola doot doo…
Doot doo!

The following interview appeared in the October 2007 issue of Chart Magazine.

Happy Mondays Go To Work

Ian Gormely — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:50:58 -0500

That the Happy Mondays still exist in any form — let alone as a functioning band — is a minor miracle.

Although they were more of a foreign curiosity here in North America, in their native England the Manchunian sextet were a game-changing act who helped blur the boundaries between rock and dance music. Of course, their off-stage behavior often threatened to eclipse their musical highlights.

Drummer Gary "Gaz" Whelan, who now lives in nearby Burlington, Ont., along with lead singer Shaun Ryder and dancer Bez managed to weather that storm and continue to record and tour.

CHARTattack: So how do you make it from Manchester to Burlington?
Gaz Whelan: In the mid-'90s I left and moved to London. I lived in New York back in '99 for a year. I lived in Australia for four years. Then we planned to move here to Toronto, so we came here and went to visit a friend in Hamilton and stopped up in "Borington" Burlington on the way and saw all the kids playing and loved it. It's great. I love Canada.

The Mondays is kind of a day job now. It's just me, Shaun and Bez.

Bez does his own reality stuff. He's like Flavor Flav over in the U.K. He does his own celebrity TV show — that's what he's good at and he's says he doesn't want to be jumping around all the time at his age. He's a couple years older than me so he's about 40, so fair enough.

Shaun does all sorts of this and that. I think old Shaun's kind of clean and straight. Maybe that's what's ignited the old passion.

So it's a day job, it pays the money. But we enjoy it. We did half a new album and then shelved it while we all did our solo stuff and then next year we'll go back and revisit it.

This is a new album after the one that you did a couple years ago?
That one kind of came together by accident. I was living in Australia at the time. I'd come back to London to do a couple of one-off shows. We'd taken a break — we only split up once; people think we split up two or three times, but we just took a break — and while I was back I met up with the engineer.

Everyone else hadn't gotten back and I was stuck in London and we wrote six or seven songs and Shaun came down and put vocals down so then we had an album. We were just a couple short and then we did the rest in Manchester.

Shaun never does the music; Shaun just does lyrics. We all do the music, me and the bass player and the guitarist. We jam and get tunes that Shaun can put lyrics on.

The tour is with The Psychedelic Furs. How did you get hooked up with them?
Similar agent, but we were going to do it initially with Depeche Mode, possibly. I think they're clean again and I think Shaun's clean, but I don't think they're sure that Shaun's clean. So we thought it might not be a great idea. So we got in touch with The Psychedelic Furs.

To be honest with you, we only ever did a couple gigs in Canada, we didn't sell well in Canada. We did O.K. in the States, but when we toured the States we were younger and we were pretty ignorant. We just put on a party. We did Madison Square Garden opening for Jane's Addiction.

So we were staying in a hotel and me and Shaun are late. We jump in a cab and couldn't get in [to the venue]. We were supposed to go on stage at 8:00 and by the time we got there it was a quarter past 8. We went to the dressing room to apologize and no one else was there. We ended up doing one fucking song.

So we didn't do ourselves any favours like a lot of British bands don't in North America. It wasn't an attitude thing. We did O.K., especially on the coasts. To be fair we couldn't fill big venues on our own so to be honest that's why we're doing it with Psychedelic Furs.

What is it about North America that's so daunting to British bands?
In Britain it's seen as an art form, whereas in North America it's seen as a job or a profession. So when the first tours of British rock 'n' rollers took place in the 1950s, the only places that would put them up were art colleges. So the people who got into rock 'n' roll — The Beatles, Clapton or whoever — were artists.

In America, all the art colleges were for architects. American bands kind of work it like a business, they know how it works, they play the game, which is I think the right way to do it. But you play the game. I don't think it's resentment, but British bands don't really play the game as well. Oasis maybe did it the first time. And you've got to watch what you say [in America]. You can be as controversial as you want in the U.K.

You helped run an electronic/dance label when you were living in Australia. Were you the one pushing the dancier side of the Monday's music?
No, it was just the time. We were all into it, we all loved funk, soul, punk and The Beatles and Stones and all that. I was always championing The Beatles, Shaun was always championing the Stones. Me and Paul, the bass player, were no more into it than the rest, but maybe just by the fact we were the drummer and the bass player it shone through.

In the U.K., dance music is so big and mainstream...
It's not as big here, is it? When I got here, I was really surprised how big rock music is. I'm not a big rock fan. I don't know any of it. But there's no cross-pollinating of genres here.

There's only two types of music, there's good and there's bad. In England, there's mixing a lot. Manchester specifically is good for mixing. The immigrant set in Manchester — there was Polish, Irish, Scottish, African, West African — everyone just mixed. And there was only a few venues that played music so they had, like, Monday night would be Polish night, Tuesday night would be West African night Wednesday night would be Bangladeshi night... eventually they closed the nights down and everything was mixed.

You look at someone's record collection, it's got to be mixed. How can you have one type of music? It's a cornucopia, it's everything. I have a radio show at McMaster University and people say "Well, what do you play?" Well, music. It could be anything.

Stolen Songs Can't Stop Die Mannequin

Trevor Morelli — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:50:58 -0500

A knuckle sandwich to the face is probably the last thing anyone wants after a long day but for Die Mannequin, it's a mere bump in the road to rock stardom.

At only 22 years old, Care Failure (real name Caroline Kawa) has already gone from being dirt poor and playing on the streets in Toronto to signing a record deal and touring with some of her idols, including Guns N' Roses and Marilyn Manson.

As Die Mannequin's fearless leader, Failure has quickly become a poster girl for Canadian rock. She's not afraid of the pressure or challenges that come along with being in a major label band. Hell, stolen demos couldn't even stop her from getting the band's Fino + Bleed debut out on time.

CHARTAttack recently had a chance to talk to Failure about the hard work involved in making Die Mannequin's first full-length LP.

CHARTAttack: Fino + Bleed (pronounced "Fee-No-Plus-Bleed") is both an interesting and unconventional title. Where did it come from?
Care Failure: [Bassist Anthony "Useless"] Bleed is a member of the band and is my partner in crime. We've been together as a band for six years in November. It's an amazing coincidence that I can even remember this. One day we were in this shitty hotel in Washington he found a good spot to write it in the wall. They're sort of pet names we have for each other.

After six years, how does it feel to finally have a proper full-length record out?
There are definitely some good feelings. You know how the music industry is. It's always like "What's next!? What's next!?" and you never have time to slow down and take pictures. It's pretty good to have it out, though.

Are these the heaviest songs you've ever written?
I don't think of it in terms of heavier or lighter. It'd be pretty shitty if I got worse as a songwriter. I'm trying to become more bulletproof and dangerous. The sonic tone is huger than anything I've done. I'll always give you something heavy, but I wanted to show what other songs I could write, too.

Industry pressure aside, what challenges did the band face while making this disc?
There's always so much shit. Anything and everything. Everything I had written and demoed got stolen, like, two weeks before it was due. That alone was huge.

The biggest challenge was getting every drum part and every note right. Going through that process for 20 songs is a lot harder than going through it for four or five. I really wanted the listener to go on a journey with it and listen to the album in full and wanted it to keep their attention.

Matt Hyde produced the album. How awesome was it to work with the guy who produced Slayer?
[laughing] I hate him! No, he's amazing. I can't say a bad word about him. He goes beyond the call of duty. We have this weird connection like we've been at this for years together. He even brought me back in to coach with some of the other bands he was working with.

He goes far and wide beyond what producers need to do, and he does that for everybody. He's addicted to people's talent. It's endless.

Do producers still play an important role in the success of an album?
It's less of the producers these days.

Back when you had Zeppelin and The Beatles, you had six or seven records to get it right. These days, you have one shot to get it right. You're supposed to have it right on your first record. There are a lot of people that don't understand the importance of developing a band in the early stages.

Fino + Bleed was supposed to be out two weeks before it actually hit shelves. Why the delay?
It's actually because we wanted to release it with the DVD of the band (The Rawside Of... Die Mannequin, directed by Bruce McCulloch). It just got nominated for two Gemini Awards, so that was good enough reason for us. I think we might be one of the first bands to put out a full documentary on their first CD.

Now that the record is finally out, what's next for Die Mannequin? A new single? Another video?
I guess those are the things bands do these days. There's a song called "Dead Honey" that might be the next single. There's a lot of talk that goes around and a lot of ideas as well. I have complete creative control and you always want to talk things through. You sign with a label because you want their experience, but it's a team effort. It's also a giant machine.

So would it be fair to say you don't always see eye to eye with the machine?
Yeah, we fight all the time. You can't agree all the time.

That's why the album has two different covers. I made a cover that I love, and sometimes when you make something you love, it scares people. You have to pay your dues until you get more respect. Sometimes I have to put my foot down. It's a funny relationship, but nobody agrees with each other all the time.