Stereo Warning

In a dusty parking lot at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the California desert, a shiny tour bus sits in the sun, engine running to power the air conditioning. Inside, the founding members of the Brooklyn electro-psychedelic band MGMT relax on leather couches having just performed to an adoring crowd at one of America’s biggest rock festivals. Several attractive young women climb aboard, smile sheepishly at the two guys and head straight for the room at the back of the bus. As the door opens and closes, a whiff of marijuana escapes. It is a scene fitting for the young musicians, whose meteoric rise to stardom has been fueled by their hit single “Time to Pretend.”

"Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives," Andrew VanWyngarden sings on that song. "I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin and f*** with the stars/You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars/This is our decision to live fast and die young/We've got the vision, now let's have some fun."

Continue reading "MGMT : interview with Ben and Andrew" »

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As a teenager in California, Peter Hayes first tried his hand at playing guitar by learning the Jimi Hendrix song “Castles Made of Sand.” Years later, after four albums with his garage rock band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, he is keenly aware that a career in music is just as fragile these days as a kid's construction on a beach. He laments high-spending rock stars that ruin the good name of modest, hard-working musicians and low-spending music fans who would rather download BRMC for free than support the band with a little cash. Check out our interview.

Where/how did you grow up?
I was born in California and raised in Minnesota on a farm of 90 acres until I was 14, then I moved back to California. I guess I grew up with a healthy disrespect for city folks. Us farm boys stuck together. I still have a bit of that even though I live in a city now. Just holding on to the roots... I just look back at that and what I do now I don’t really consider work. That was work, on a farm. Out here, playing music, is nowhere near working. I try to keep that reality in my brain.

Continue reading "Peter Hayes, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Interview" »

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So we happened to chat with the singer dude in Rooney and it turns out that they know there is a certain Wayne Rooney in England. Not only that, but the band challenged him to a football game -- the catch is though that the 5 of them want to play against Wayne by himself. I think we know who would win that one... The band did say though that they wouldn't like to invite Wayne to collaborate on any songs. They don't think he can sing...

Oh, and another thing: Rooney don't like it when you steal their songs. Here is Robert Schwartzman.

Continue reading "Rooney challenges Rooney to a football match" »

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Sinead O’Connor is finding her way back after a long struggle with bipolar disorder that drove her to attempt suicide eight years ago. “It gets better as you get older,” she says. “You get more used to yourself. You’re not so angst-ridden because you don’t give a shit. It’s a good place to be.” After long avoiding them, she is again performing the songs that made her famous in 1990, like “Three Babies” and the Prince cover “Nothing Compares 2 U.” After a seven-year diversion into roots reggae, she wrote the Bible-inspired “Theology,” an album in which she says God is getting a bad rap because of man’s use of religion. “It pisses me off to see people blowing up people on behalf of God,” she tells us. “I wanted to lift out scriptures and show the peaceful nature of the God character.” Amen! Read on for the full interview.

Continue reading "Sinead O'Connor interview" »

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Ben Harper has been playing with the Innocent Criminals for more than a decade, each album soaring higher than its predecessor, hitting a peak with the soulful “Lifeline.” On stage he delivers electrifying slide guitar solos. He sings with abandon, eyes closed, living and breathing the songs, easily ranking as one of the most magnetic live performers out there today. Ben is a true music fan who still does it old school, listening to CDs instead of mp3s, studying the lyrics and the liner notes. In this interview, he reveals his secret: an early immersion into music and a keen ear for inspiration.

Where and how did you grow up?
I grew up in a town called Claremont, in California. It’s about 40 miles east of Los Angeles. I discovered music through my parents’ passion for it. They have a music store they built up since 1958 and it’s been open until now. That’s my earliest inspiration, the earliest way that music formed me.

Continue reading "Ben Harper interview" »

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Apologies to everyone for the delay, but here's -- finally -- the final part of the interview with Robert Smith from the Cure. Enjoy!

Does it bother you that The Cure is still being called a goth band when it’s so much more complex than that?
I’ve given up a long time ago worrying about mainstream media calling us a goth band. It lightened up a little bit when we were called goth-pop after the Live 8 show, where we played some upbeat 3-minute pop songs. It’s so pitiful really when “goth” is still tagged onto the name The Cure...

Continue reading "The Cure - Robert Smith interview - final part" »

Posted by lusson at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's part three of the interview with Robert Smith from the Cure. Part four -- and final -- coming tomorrow.

You don’t have a keyboards player for the first time in decades. Why did you not replace Roger?
There’s no need to when you got someone like Porl playing guitar. He can pretty much create any sounds that you want. There are only two songs out of the 33 that have any keys on them at the moment and that’s me playing so I don’t really miss the keyboards. It’s nice every once in a while to totally limit the palette of sounds that we have. We did that on Disintegration to only allow certain sounds to happen so that that holds the whole album together so if you’re playing a very slow Eastern sounding song and put it against a really upbeat driving song, the fact that you’re using the same instrumentation and the same palette of sound tends to hold the whole thing together.

Continue reading "The Cure: Robert Smith interview - Part 3" »

Posted by lusson at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's part two of the Robert Smith interview. Stay tuned for part three tomorrow, this thing is loooong!

How’s the recording going?
As usual I’m holding it up, because I can’t get the words how I want them. I find myself stopping short and thinking I’ve done this before better, so it’s hard to find subject matter that really matters to me, things that I really want to sing. I just don’t want to make a record because we’re in a group. That flies in the face of what I’ve always wanted The Cure to be. It frustrates the others a lot I think but there’s not much anyone can do about it. The last four Cure albums have really stalled on my lyric writing. I think it’s worthwhile because they end up better than they otherwise would have been. I never worry about writer’s block, I figure if I don’t have anything to write about I shouldn’t be writing.

Continue reading "The Cure: Robert Smith interview - Part 2" »

Posted by lusson at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is the first part of a long conversation we had with The Cure's Robert Smith while he was working on his band's latest album, due in stores next spring. A very candid Robert talked about everything from his relationship with Porl to the trials and tribulations of writing the new record to his approach to the live show. He even talked about drinking, getting old and (maybe) working with Ashlee Simpson. Enjoy!

Once again, you made big personnel changes in your band. What happened?
At the turn of the year 2005 it was time for a change. Roger O’Donnell and Perry Bamonte left and Porl Thompson returned for his third time in the band. It’s very hard to leave a successful group. Sometimes it takes a little cajoling and a little nod to make people realize they’re not happy in what they’re doing and holding everyone else back. I’m always the driving force of the band and if everyone’s happy with what I want to do it’s a happy band, if they’re not it’s not. I’m not very good at compromising when it comes to music and art. I just find it ridiculous that I should have to do something I don’t want to do, so it leaves everyone only one option, to leave. That’s what happened to Roger and Perry.

Continue reading "Robert Smith from The Cure -- Interview" »

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A yearning for adventure has always defined Icelandic singer Björk, whose 14-year solo career has journeyed from chart-topping pop gems like “Army of Me” to risky experiments such as 2004’s “Medulla,” an album consisting entirely of vocal tracks.

In the past few years, Bjork's adventures included raising a daughter and traveling extensively through Africa and Indonesia, both of which have left a strong imprint on her sixth studio record, ‘Volta.’ The eclectic album contains danceable work by Timbaland, as well as more daring compositions featuring instruments seldom encountered in pop songs, like kora, pipa and even a foghorn.

But in our interview with her, Bjork insisted nothing about her work is avant-garde. Read on...

Continue reading "Bjork interview & review on Volta" »

Posted by lusson at 09:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So our interview with Beastie Boys turned out to be actually a press conference with a few other journalists. Which is all the same, since you guys didn't post too many questions for the Brooklyn boys here and since they weren't bent on answering any of the questions seriously anyway.

Nevertheless, their answers were as witty and entertaining as ever. They took the piss out of several Scandinavian journalists who were trying to be too serious or too critical (this was backstage at Roskilde, btw). So ch-check it out, along with exclusive pictures!

Continue reading "Beastie Boys interview - funny press conference" »

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When we told you to ask Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age a question for our interview, we didn't know you would send 60, many of them actually good!

Well, we met the man, and first of all we'd like to report that he's one of the nicest rockstars we've ever dealt with. And probably the most polite. The fact that he's still touring despite his bum knee speaks volumes about his commitment to music and his fans. It was almost painful to see him limping about with the help of a walking stick (albeit a cool one -- dark wood with a silver cap) and grimacing at every other step.

Here are his answers to some of your questions and some of ours. Check back soon to see some exclusive pics on Stereo Warning of Josh rockin' with the Queens.

Stereo Warning: How's your knee?
Josh Homme: It's mesed up bad. It hurts. I gotta go home and have surgery again. On stage it hurts a lot. I have at least 3-4 moments a set where it feels like boulders underwater, when they hit each other. It's the only way I can describe it. But what do I do, go home? I gotta finish what I started. Everyone cancels all the time for hurting their finger and stuff like that, that's not me.

Continue reading "Josh Homme answers your questions" »

Posted by lusson at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

When it rains, it pours. After slacking off for a while on our plans to bring you guys more "ask a rocker-dude a question"-type entries, now we have two in one week.

We're very excited to announce that we'll interview Beastie Boys and that a couple of you smartasses will get to ask them your own question.

Same deal as with Josh Homme: post your questions in the comments to this entry, then come back to read the interview and see if your question was answered. Hopefully their answers won't be instrumental, like their new album.

Tags: beastie boys

Posted by lusson at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

This will be music to the ears of those who have predicted Velvet Revolver's demise from the moment the group was put together.

Bassist Duff McKagan tells Reuters: "There's big egos in this band. It could implode at any time." Duff says he was a bit saddened that his backing vocals and songwriting expertise were not required by singer Scott Weiland. You can read the whole piece by clicking here

Tags: velvet revolver scott weiland slash duff mckagan

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When Velvet Revolver formed a few years ago and released "Contraband," detractors immediately started betting the band would soon implode in a drug-fueled disaster. The ride hasn't been without bumps, but the boys have so far proved the nay-sayers wrong and have just released their sophomore effort, "Libertad." Maybe for their third album they'll start using two-word album names.

"We toured for two years and got really close in the making of this album," singer Scott Weiland said.

Continue reading "Scott Weiland talks about Velvet Revolver's Libertad" »

Posted by lusson at 09:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of our contributors will interview Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age in the very near future.

So we decided to continue the tradition that we started with Wolfmother of allowing Stereo Warning readers to pose questions to artists we interview.

Era Vulgaris is out, and we know you like it, so if you want to ask Josh about it (or anything else, really), post your questions in the comments below.

So, fire away!

Continue reading "Ask Josh Homme a question" »

Posted by lusson at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (60) | TrackBacks (0)

In an interview, the moody but charismatic Reznor revealed his worries about his comeback, his fight with addiction and his philosophy about writing music and playing live.

STEREO WARNING: When you were preparing for your comeback , did you have a clue whether anybody still had an appetite for you brutal sound and dark lyrics?
TRENT REZNOR: The culture, the times, the people and the business had changed. I had a new excuse to fight: what if I can’t write sober, what if I don’t have anything to say, what if I’m irrelevant, what if I’m just old now, what if it was just an accident that I got popular in the first place? My lack of putting out records and time between records, although not a calculated career move, may have benefited me because it skipped certain whole subgenres of really bad music. But I didn’t go into the record cycle [for "With Teeth"] assuming that I had all the power that I once wielded.

Continue reading "Trent Reznor interview. Yes, Nine Inch Nails still rules!" »

Posted by lusson at 09:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

Ozzy Osbourne is back with a solo album on May 22. It's called "Black Rain" and you can hear samples of tracks from it on Ozzy's official site.

If you pre-order it, you get 2 free tickets to Ozzfest while supplies last.

Ozzy, who recorded the album with his touring band consisting of Zakk Wylde (guitar), Mike Bordin (drums) and Blasko (bass), says this is the true follow-up to "No More Tears." Here are a few quotes from Ozzy about the album:

"It’s a well-put together album. I think it’s evident that it hasn’t been just slapped out and put down. I took my time on the album and Zakk plays some amazing stuff as always."

Continue reading "Ozzy talks about his new album "Black Rain"" »

Posted by lusson at 08:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

The Arcade Fire's record label has been sending around a long interview with the band conducted by the blog Radio Free Canuckistan, so we figured we might as well reproduce here the most interesting bits, now that their new album "Neon Bible" is out.

What is the difference in the mood for this album?
RICHARD REED PARRY: I feel like it is less manic than previously. It made me nervous in some ways. You can be manic if you want, but you can only claw your way out there for the first time once.
JEREMY GARA: Unless you fail, then you can do that for your entire career! We're still figuring it out. I joined after the last record was made, but during the touring, there was this attitude of: 'our life depends on this,' 'give it all you got or die.' It wasn't discussed, but that's how it felt.
RÉGINE CHASSAGNE: "Windowsill" in the beginning was supposed to be a very quiet, bare song, just Win, me, and a guitar. (laughs) I was listening to it in mastering and thought, 'What happened?' The ending is so big. I think it's just what we do by default.

Continue reading "Arcade Fire interview on Neon Bible" »

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You asked, and Wolfmother answered. Thanks to all who posted questions for the boys in the comments on Stereo Warning, we wish we could have ran all of those great queries by the Aussies, but unfortunately time was limited. But still got to a few. And, as a bonus, we posted some exclusive pics from a recent Wolfmother show.

Here are bassist Chris Ross' answers to your questions and his view on other topics, such as the Mike Patton "controversy." Enjoy!

Stereo Warning: Hey Chris, how's it going?
Chris Ross: I'm alright, I've been on the Internet all day, looking stuff up and writing email. I hate when you do that...

On Myspace?
Nah, not me. Everyone else on the tour bus does it all the time. I just read some books and listen to music. I just never really got into it.

Have you heard of Wolfmother.net?
I know about it, but not very well.

Continue reading "Wolfmother answers your questions" »

Posted by lusson at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's part II of our interview with Chuck D from Public Enemy about useless hip-hop, useful snitches, good and bad cops, self-centered journalists and how to improve life in the black community.

Stereo Warning: What role does police play in this?
Chuck D: I never collectively looked at police as being the bad guys.

But there is a lot of distrust and they've made some mistakes...
But we've made some mistakes too as a community. I'm a firm believer that officers who are out there to protect and serve at least they should be able to come from our neighborhood. If they come from there, there might be some tactics that might be a little bit rougher to protect us, but at least let it come from people in our neighborhood that would be able to give people a chance before running the law on them. Yes, you have bad police, but in the general sense of the matter, people from our community should be in law enforcement and they should be able to judge in a courtroom as opposed to us being in front of somebody else that might not consider us family.

Since the start of your career, how have you seen your community evolve and are you hopeful that things are getting better?
I've seen the community go from thinking that it should do for itself and demand things to getting in a comfort zone and thinking that it should be fed through some kind of virtual umbilical chord of government support. When you rely on that you have what happened in New Orleans. You have to demand the support and you have to see the problems before they unfold. You have to aspire to greater heights as a community even when the odds are against you. Thinking that everybody's gonna become rich without education, to me is stupid.

Continue reading "Chuck D Interview Part 2 - Still Black, Still Strong" »

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Chuck D is one of the best rappers of all time. As the frontman of Public Enemy, he turned heads in the 80's with brilliant and politically astute albums like "Fear of a Black Planet" and "It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back." Chuck D did it with a message of community empowerment, self-awareness and political activism, but that stuff doesn't sell nowadays. Most of today's successful hip-hop artists make a living out of glamorizing gang banging, drug dealing, getting-rich-quick obsessions or just by singing plain inane lines like Akon's "I wanna fuck you/You already know."

Speaking of Akon, he's the latest to propagate the stop snitching message in a shameful video in which three guys kill their friend for cooperating with the police in a bank robbery case. We spoke to Chuck D a while back about such issues and we'll be presenting his views here. This is the first of two parts of our conversation about the state of rap music today, the state of the black community, and the state of American society. Your comments are welcome. Check back for part II of the interview, and catch Public Enemy on a worldwide tour right now.

Stereo Warning: What's your opinion on today's hip-hop and hip-hop press?
Chuck D: Today's hip hop is corporate-dictated. A lot of the artists are very talented but in order to have one of those nice big contracts it behooves them to be similar to what makes a hit record and a hit artist, as opposed to carving their own niche from an art standpoint.

Continue reading "Public Enemy's Chuck D says: Start Snitchin'!" »

Posted by lusson at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Post your questions to the boys in a comment here on Stereo Warning and watch the blog in the next two weeks to read your query and their answer.

By the way, it looks like we have a little controversy brewing, with Mike Patton of Faith No More, Mr. Bungle and Peeping Tom fame sniping back and forth with Wolfmother. We're not gonna say whose side we're on, but you make sure and ask those Aussie dudes some clever questions about that. Fire away!

Tags: peeping tom faith no more mike patton wolfmother mr bungle interview

Posted by lusson at 09:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

The Roots are the best live group in hip-hop right now. The only other performer that comes close is Kanye West. So when we talked to Roots drummer ?uestlove recently, we had to ask him why so many hip-hop acts suck so bad on stage. He also told us most hip-hop artists are broke, both financially and when it comes to meaningful lyrics, which of course we know is at least party caused by a rotten attitude of "sell big or get out" at major record labels. On the lighter side, we discussed his former bandmate and current in-demand producer Scott Storch's recent propensity for fast cars, thick gold chains and appearances in tabloid pages alongside various starlets. So, check it out, and catch The Roots world tour, coming soon somewhere near you.

Stereo Warning: Many people thought that signing with Def Jam would mean your big commercial break. But you stuck to your guns. Were you ever tempted to get Jay-Z to guest-star on Game Theory or do anything that would draw mainstream attention?
?uestlove: We kinda knew that people were gonna overestimate the situation. And I love playing people for a loop. I knew everyone expected us to break open the bottle of Cristal, hop on a yacht, have an iced-out chain and holler 'we're partying now.' That would've been a dreadful mistake. The look on people's faces when they heard the record and said 'oh shit, they didn't sell out' was great. How strange is it that Def Jam is a label that once overflowed with artistic merit? In the 80's, if it said Def Jam you knew that the album was an instant classic. And now it has almost the opposite meaning.

Continue reading "?uestlove on Bad Hip-Hop, Broke Rappers and Keepin' It Real" »

Posted by lusson at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Stereo Warning: You guys took three years to make this record and almost broke up because of it. What happened?
Abe: I didn’t expect this album to ever be completed. It was difficult. It took three years to make, a ridiculous amount of time. There was no communication. We were very burned out after White Pony and the self-titled record. We came very close to being over with. This is what I do, music was my dream, and so I was uncomfortable to think that it could be over. I took a deep breath and it got pretty heavy, but things work in strange ways and we’re better now for it. We’re best friends and we’re brothers and we needed to tell each other that.

SW: What took Chino so long to do the vocals? Where you worried when he went on tour with Team Sleep?
Abe: Team Sleep are very dear friends of all of us so it shouldn’t have been anything competitive but it became very threatening when Chino decided to go on tour with them right when he was doing his vocals. We were like, ‘finish your vocals before you leave’ and he didn’t so that’s when it got extra tense. He went away and we didn’t know what was going on. We had put so much into this and we just left it floating and sinking. But looking back now it was necessary for him to leave and get away from this project and come back with a clear head and dive into it.

Chino: I had only a few good vocal ideas at the time. A lot had to do with my personal life, but I didn’t like what I was coming up with vocally, it was too dark and too personal. I wasn’t enjoying singing. I wanted to hide behind the guitar and I didn’t feel like writing words. Everybody was like ‘can you just finish the record’ and they were forgetting the quality. After stepping away and coming back everything started to open up. It probably took a whole another year, but to me it was really worth it. I didn’t want to be the person holding everyone up, but what’s the use of making anything if it’s just for the sake of making it. We came really close to a breakup ‘cause no one was communicating that well about it. Once I got back from that tour we met up and sat down and I had to ask them, ‘do you really want to do this, do you want to invest the time of your life to make this music?’ I needed to hear that everyone was really into it. They asked me the same question. They figured I didn’t care and I figured they didn’t care. Once those doors opened up, everyone started communicating.

Continue reading "Interview with Chino and Abe from the Deftones" »

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Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich told me recently that the hard rock band will finally start working with producer Rick Rubin on their ninth original studio album in January. Then I read here about how Velvet Revolver were upset that they felt Rubin didn't give their project enough time since he was so busy with other records (including Metallica's) so I started to feel like maybe my first instincts about this Rubin-Metallica marriage were right.

I know a lot of people think Bob Rock screwed up Metallica, made them too poppy, etc, but I think the Black Album is a masterpiece, and anyone that watched Some Kind of Monster saw how Bob managed to craft some decent songs out of what began as pretty average starting ideas.

So I figured I'd post here a conversation I had with Lars, Kirk and James a while back, during the last tour, about Bob Rock, recording and generally being a band again. This is not new material, in the sense that we didn't have this chat yesterday, but it's new because it has never been published before. So, enjoy, and look keep checking this site for a brand new interview with the boys closer to the time when the record will be finished.

Kirk Hammett
-- On former producer Bob Rock: I can't picture us doing an album without Bob Rock. If there's anyone who deserves the title of fifth member of the band, it's definitely him. 

-- On relationships between band members: I've always been the buffer between Lars and James. When James went into rehab, it really felt like Metallica might not be what it ever was. It felt like we might lose James. Now that we’re back together, in retrospect, Metallica is not what it was, but we're in a healthier place because of it.

Continue reading "Metallica in the studio with Rick Rubin" »

Posted by lusson at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mike Patton: the man, the screams, the wacky on and off stage antics, the Epic rap-rock smash hit single, the legend. After Faith No More broke up, he set up one of the most creatively exciting indie labels, Ipecac, and produced some crazy avant-garde music with Fantomas, Tomahawk and others, as well as discovering some real gems like ISIS. Still, we gotta admit, most of the songs he was himself singing on were pretty hard to digest, with the exception of Get Up Punk from the album General Patton vs. The X-ecutioners.

Last year though, Mike brought us Peeping Tom -- music the masses and us poor chaps at Stereo Warning can understand. A bunch of awesome songs set to trip-hop beats and grooves and featuring cool cats like Rahzel, Kool Keith, Massive Attack, Dub Trio and even Norah Jones (her track is the weakest, though). Download Five Seconds, Mojo, Don't Even Trip and We're Not Alone.

Here's a conversation we had with Mike about Peeping Tom, about why Faith No More broke up and about how much money it would take to get them to reunite. Enjoy!

Stereo Warning: After Faith No More, your music has been very avant-garde and not very accessible. What brought the more mainstream music of Peeping Tom about?
Mike Patton: It's more song-oriented. Balance. I really felt stimulated to embark on these adventures and a lot of the time I don't know where they're going, and some of them ended up taking a lot more time than I thought. Fantomas, for instance, started out as kind of a studio experiment and it turned into a band, which is great. I'm gonna keep it on that path. But as a result, a lot of melodic song ideas were seeping up and I had no outlet for them. I remember looking over on my desk and seeing a pile of these tunes and I thought I really gotta focus and start to take note of other adventures and bring them to life.

Continue reading "Mike Patton is Peeping Tom -- The Interview" »

Posted by lusson at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

Aussie rockers Jet recently released their second album, which suffers a bit from the dreaded sophomore slump. It has none of the biting rebelliousness of Cold Hard Bitch or Are You Gonna Be My Girl. Have they gone soft? We found out recently from drummer Chris Cester.

CC: We have written a lot of ballads, but that's because we live on a bus, man. It's not like you can set up the drums and the amps in the tour bus and get a rock'n'roll album happening.

The album hasn’t been selling as well as their first, Get Born, but then again it hasn’t benefited from the immense publicity Are You Gonna Be My Girl received at the time in iTunes commercials. Cester explains:

CC: That was a huge thing for the band. It's got nothing to do with money, it's about getting a chance to make another record. The bands who don't like to do that sort of thing, good on them, man, it's a good fight to fight. But we're in the fight for the long haul, we want to make lots of records and unfortunately the way it works now on a major label is if you don't sell enough on your first one they throw you off.

They were well on their way to getting dropped before the commercial rescued them. Nobody knew who they were, let alone buy their record, and they were playing in near-empty clubs. Luckily, they had drugs to rely on. (Note to kids: drugs are bad.)  

CC: It was hard. We dealt with it by nearly drinking ourselves to death and taking large amounts of speed and cocaine and whatever else we could get our hands on. It nearly broke the band up, too. We were trying to live up some kind of cliché, we wore ourselves out really quickly. 

Continue reading "Interview: Jet drummer Chris Cester" »

Posted by lusson at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

So, as I promised, I'm posting a short conversation I had with Billy a few years ago when he was promoting his solo album TheFutureEmbrace in which he shows a lot of irritation toward D'Arcy and James. As we sit here now still wondering how exactly is in this new and reformed Smashing Pumpkins, it may be worth to revisit his words. 

Funnily enough, you'll see at the time he told me he wouldn't reform the Pumpkins except "for his own reasons." Of course, about a month later, he took a one-page out in the Chicago Tribune and announced just that -- that he would reform the band. So enjoy this excerpt as we wait with bated breath the revealing of the band's lineup.

Stereo Warning: How's your relationship with Jimmy now? Billy Corgan: Great, we talk all the time, I love him to death.

SW: Do you ever hear from D’Arcy or James? BC: No.

SW: I see James a lot at parties and shows in New York... BC: Parties first, shows second.

SW: Would you ever envision a reunion of the Smashing Pumpkins? BC: I’m not interested in reforming Smashing Pumpkins for anybody else’s reasons. I only want to do it for my own reasons. I'm not telling you which are those. They're not the usual reasons.

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Posted by lusson at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

They broke up over 30 years ago after only two records, but the influential New York Dolls spawned countless punk and hair metal bands. Over the years, drugs and illness claimed the lives of drummers Billy Murcia and Jerry Nolan, guitarist Johnny Thunders and bassist Arthur Kane. But remaining original members Sylvain Sylvain (guitar) and David Johansen (vocals) have reunited and coopted some friends (including Sami Jaffa, formerly of Hanoi Rocks) to release "One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This" on Roadrunner Records in the summer of 2006. This record is fun, boisterous, clever, ass-kickin' and, of course, punk rock. Stereo Warning was lucky enough to chat with Syl and David, so... here you go:

Stereo Warning: How were the parties in the 70s compared to now? 
Sylvain Sylvain: When we went to England in 1972, we became such huge stars. People were sending us Rolls Royces to come to their parties. There was this big lord who was gay but was married. Liberace was there and all the Who guys and Rod Stewart. We were just out of 14th Street, we would piss in the bidet because we didn't know -- well I knew, but I wasn't about to tell anybody. Now the parties are few and far between. But I still go out.

Continue reading "New York Dolls Interview" »

Posted by lusson at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)