I have had a major soft spot for Judas Priest ever since I saw the videos for Heading Out to the Highway and You've Got Another Thing Coming – they are one of the few bands I would describe as majestic. Their music, enormous and powerful, crosses over into varied tastes. People who don't even like metal embrace the instantly recognizable and distinctive Judas Priest.

I think the affection I have for this band stems from several things: Singer Rob Halford has one of my very favorite rock voices plus the guitar playing of both Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing just knock my socks off. Another big bonus for me has always been the look of this band. Quite apart from their music being so unusual, they created an entirely new appearance. I might be wrong on this but I think they brought the whole leather and biker thing to the forefront of music. And they're still doing it and doing it so well.

The material off the new cd Nostradamus sounds fantastic. Prophecy and Death were stunners. But they didn't disappoint with their impressive catalog either. Everything from Electric Eye, Breaking the Law and Eat Me Alive were gruesome fun live and Halford came out on a motorcycle for Hell Bent for Leather. Green Manalishi was so beautiful and really a special moment. They closed with You've Got Another Thing Coming, a song that's really difficult to describe just how meaningful it is to me. It's so perfect.

---------
To check out more of my Judas Priest photos visit: page 1: & page 2

I saw Your Vegas open for the Bravery in January. Right away I loved their sound and as a photographer it really is great to see this band - they are all stunners. Fortunately they actually sound great too - their debut cd, A Town and Two Cities is a brilliant mix of instantly gratifying tunes and elegant songwriting. I talked with singer and lyricist Coyle Girelli last week. Though he lives in New York, I can tell Girelli has a love of his hometown. He's also got a fascination with sharks - I would say probably because he's cool like one.

Q: You're originally from Otley?

CG: Yeah, that's right - outside Leeds in the Yorkshire Dales.

Q: They shoot Emmerdale there?

CG: Yeah - you did some research. They shoot Emmerdale and another program called Heartbeat there as well.

Q: I've seen a little bit of both of those shows.

CG: You can sort of get the vibe from them.

Q: So it's pretty small?

CG: It's pretty small - a lot of sheep, a lot of hills - not very much else.

Q: Sheep are cool.

CG: Sheep are cool - chilled out.

Q: Are you aware that there are a lot morris dance teams in Otley?

CG: Yeah, definitely. Whenever there's a festival they put the maypoles up and the Morris dancers come out with their faces painted and bells around their ankles.

Q: They're pretty incredible.

CG: They're pretty incredible. They're scary to be honest - some of their face paint is scary, really freaky. There's also a day called Victorian Day, which is in the second week of December every year. It's a day where the entire town, for whatever reason, dresses in Victorian clothes - including the police, hospital staff and everybody. The children put fake coal dust on their faces and wear shorts and little caps. Very strange. It's a strange town - something in the water's not quite right.

Q: Kind of like League of Gentlemen?

CG: Exactly. You don't know what's in the meat in the butcher's.

Q: You've written children's books?

CG: Yeah, I am actually talking to a few publishers about them. I think I'll use another name. They're very strange, about flying lips. Very trippy. They're quite cool for kids. I have a little sister, who's four now - that's where that came from.

Q: What do you like listening to?

CG:. Springsteen, Dylan, Tom Petty, U2 and Jackson Browne - Simple Minds and Depeche Mode. There are phases, I guess. I went to Graceland in Memphis so I think I'm about to start an Elvis phase.

Q: I haven't been to Graceland.

CG: It was amazing actually. You imagine someone like Elvis living in a palace, but it really wasn't - it was just a house. It feels really lived in - it's not too big. It still looks as it did. You can feel Elvis in the building. You can't go to Memphis without seeing Graceland.

Q: You're finishing up your second leg of the tour with the Bravery?

CG: Yeah, we finished in February and they took us out with them again, which was quite nice. We've been on the road with them for like four months. We've been everywhere - amazing scenery. Very cool first tour of America, great crowds as well.

Q: I saw you guys at Neumos in Seattle.

CG: That was our very first gig of our very first (American) tour. We were all really nervous.

Q: It was an amazing show though. I saw some history.

CG: Thank you very much. We got very lucky with the weather in Seattle. We were there for two days and it was gorgeous sun the whole time.

Q: We just tell people the weather's bad.

CG: To scare people away?

Q: Yeah.

Q: Where'd you come up with the line Like Cats Lying in the Sun?

CG: I was brought up with five cats so . . . there are a couple songs with cats actually. I've had cats all my life so I'm used to seeing cats lounging around. I'm a cat person.

Q: Good! Do you have a cat now?

CG: My mum has three of the cats left that I grew up with. Long distance cats. I have a long distance relationship with my cats.

Q: Speaking of long distance - why did you move to New York and not, say London?

CG: We were at crossroads in the UK. We needed a label to release our record. We were on an indie and it didn't have the backing to properly release our record. I popped over (to NY) with an acoustic guitar and a load of demos and that was it. It happened pretty quickly - I bumped into a couple people who became our lawyers and that was it. It was pretty much done after that.

Q: Wow.

CG: The rest of the guys came over and we got an apartment. We've been there ever since.

Q: What's been one of your favorite shows so far?

CG: We had a really great one in Ventura the other night. We've really started to have a lot of people in the crowd that are there to see us. People sing along to the songs.

Q: I saw the video of In My Head that just came out. How did that come about?

CG: It's our very first proper video and we wanted it to be almost an introduction to the band. So people can see what everybody does and see what we're about. We wanted to keep it quite simple and quite basic - to give it a classic feel with the black and white imagery - a Beatles Help type vibe. We're not trying to be weird with our videos.

Q: It's very crisp.

CG: Thank you.

Q: Is the US how you pictured it being?

CG: We've been very warmly received. Americans like our accents, which is nice. Who would have thought?

Q: It's true. We love British accents.

CG: New York's an amazing place - I could walk around there for hours and feel very at ease and at home. The country is unbelievable - the scenery we've seen, it's ridiculous. The last drive from LA to Colorado (was) like being on Mars in some places. Canyons.

Q: Have you seen any sandstorms?

CG: No, we've seen the odd tornado - not massive ones.

Q: What's your favorite drink?

CG: As in alcoholic drink? My liquor of choice is tequila. I quite like red wine. Whiskey makes me feel sick but I am starting to drink whiskey - which is worrying. I like Vodka. Everything is the answer to that. I usually order a beer but then I get full. Vodka and cranberry juice? I know it's quite girly.

Q: That's good. I think Vodka and Cranberry is actually good for you, too.

CG: Might as well balance it out with a little vitamin c.

Q: What's an item of clothing you have to have with you?

CG: My black leather jacket. I haven't played a show yet in America without it on. I guess that. I'm scared now - I'm superstitious so I'm probably going to be wearing it for the rest of my life.

Q: I read you like watching documentaries - nature shows, shark week?

CG: I'm obsessed pretty much. The History Channel and the Discovery Channel are the most watched channels in the hotel room. I have a shark obsession. I think I was either killed by one in a previous life or will be killed by one in this one. It's a weird obsession I have with sharks. It's a primeval thing.

Q: They are amazing. They keep moving don't they?

CG: They're the perfect predator. My fear of them is quite irrational - in fact it's completely irrational. A gym I used to go to had a pool with metal bars (inside it). A few times I had to get out of the pool because I'd gotten it into my head that the bars would lift up and a shark was going to come out - like a James Bond thing.

Q: You never know.

CG: I can't go into the sea because of it. I also watch every program there is with sharks in it. I love the Great White. Then there's the mako shark - a nasty piece of work.

Q: They're the ones that attack for no reason?

CG: Yeah, they're crazy. Bull sharks are pretty crazy as well. They can swim up river. Their gills can take in salt water and fresh water. I think that's where Jaws comes from - a story about a Bull shark that swam upriver and ate people in the early 1900s.

Q: That's one the best movies ever.

CG: I mean the shark looks ridiculous but if you can get beyond that . . . It's pretty awesome. When I was a little kid I used to have a toy shark and I'd put a red (felt tip) in the tub so the water would go red. Kids are weird aren't they?

Q: Your parents must have been worried.

CG: Yeah, I was a weird kid.

Q: Have you seen Survivorman?

CG: Is that the guy that they drop in the middle of nowhere and he has to find his way out?

Q: Yeah.

CG: He's awesome. There's an English guy but he's got a camera crew - that's cheating. I prefer the American one - he's hardcore.

Q: Your worst-case scenario would be being left out in the water?

CG: With sharks. Have you seen the film Open Water? It's a low budget film - a true story actually. They go scuba diving in the Caribbean but the boat leaves a couple behind. They both get eaten by sharks. They were really unlikeable characters so you weren't that fussed when they get eaten. They were just arguing and bickering. They weren't very nice. We played a couple dates with a band called Civil Twilight, from Cape Town. Obviously my first question was Cape Town? Shark Alley? And they were like we used to go surfing out there. You're crazy, there are great white sharks eating seals - and they were like yeah my friend got killed by a shark . . .

Q: And they'd still go out there?

CG: Yeah, the thing is it's not the shark's fault. He thinks it's a seal. If you make yourself up to look like a seal . . . It's like people with pet tigers and they get attacked. Same sort of thing. I have no sympathy.

Q: And then they go and kill the animal for doing it.

CG: It's not the shark's fault. Shark Week - I'm just gone. You don't see me for a week. We were mixing our record during Shark Week.

Your Vegas will start their tour in support of Duran Duran April 29th in Vancouver, Canada. Until then you can see them with the Bravery. And here is the video for In My Headand I got a few pix of them last time round - more on their way:Your Vegas at Neumos
--
-This review originally appeared on my Seattle PI Blog, Beat Back.-

-This review originally appeared on my Seattle PI Blog, Beat Back.-

Wanderlust, Gavin Rossdale's first solo album, has just hit stores. This is good news for all Bush fans - I really think if you like Bush you will love this cd. And if you don't like Bush perhaps there is no hope for you - but you just might like this cd instead.

Rossdale took some time to talk with me before his show in Seattle. He played a show as part of Samsung Summer Krush and it was a great runup to a planned fall tour. I was struck by how intelligent and modest he is. He's never taken a break from music since Bush began and has ventured into acting as well. He's a very busy man.
_______________________________________________

Q: Are you interested in doing more acting at some point?

Gavin Rossdale: I don't know. Everything is so great with the record that you've got to enjoy doing the record and playing and concentrating on the music. It's kind of sod's law that it probably will mean that because I am so busy with music that something will come along that's interesting.

Q: Did you feel like had more control on the solo album?

G.R.: I don't want to say this in the wrong way but, no. When you come from bands, especially if you write the songs in the band. We had a rule in Bush, if you loved something it would win out, you could even convince the other three. Since I'm such an emotional person I could often win out. A bit of a cheeky democracy really. It worked the other way too, if someone really felt something, we'd all go, okay. We'd choose our battles. All that kind of electronic stuff - the band hated all of that. I was always interested in trying to progress it. My biggest mistake throughout my career was trying to move forward. I think if you have something successful you should repeat it, just do the same songs in a different order. It's always been my downfall and maybe if I reflect on it sometimes you don't understand what the nature of your success is. With rock music I was always more interested in being a band on Touch and Go rather than being on a major label, which is ironic. When that went a bit belly up (signing to Atlantic) it was like . . . I'm not signed to Matador.

Q: What's some of your favorite work from Bush?

G.R.: I think every album would have a few songs that I would love to have another go at, that I could improve. Every record has certain moments that I think I are really interesting and I'm really proud of. It just depends. It depends on how you view music and how you view things you make. If you view things you make based upon their success then maybe you'd look at your hit singles and say that's the best thing I ever did. But for me it was what I felt most excited about driving away from the studio and listening to. There's one song, Communicator, which is on Razorblade Suitcase, which the band really never liked so they would never play it live. I always loved it. I was so happy with the riff - I just thought it was really underrated. Science of Things was a record I really liked - there's a song called Land of the Living, off Golden State . . . there are songs everywhere . . . English Fire, which I did on Science of Things. We played it one time in London. It's not really complex but it's a quite demanding song, and I remember our manager saying to me afterwards - we were playing a few nights in London, because we were very successful there, contrary to popular folklore - and he goes, English Fire, maybe don't play that one tomorrow night. Give the audience a break. And I was like, I fucking love that track. I don't choose the singles - I get everything wrong. I played that song for Tom Morello one time and he said if he ran (the) label that would be the single. I was like, yeah! On this record I really felt like every where my voice should go in, it went . . . I felt really connected to the songs and there are certain songs where I've felt like that throughout my career. There are other songs I play where I'm like, why didn't I rework that lyric? It's annoying. . . . I heard that Kerouac said something about first thought, best thought. I'm sure it worked for him. I never used to be into that. I do go through the words quite a bit. There are certain songs throughout my career where I know I could do a better lyric if I'd had a bit of more time with it, but I was into that whole stream of consciousness stuff so I didn't want to betray that redundant idea.

Q: I've always liked your lyrics.

G.R.: Thank you.

Q: You started writing on a bass guitar?

G.R.: Yeah, it was the first instrument that I played. My sister's boyfriend gave me a bass. I didn't have an amp or anything, it was just kind of fun because growing up I thought Sid Vicious was cool. My Way. . . stab your girlfriend . . . die of a heroin overdose, it's cool. Firework life.

Q: Was that some of the first music you listened to?

G.R.: In my house my mum had about four records: Queen, Roberta Flack, Abba, and Carole King - on permanent rotation.

Q: That's an interesting mix.

G.R.: Yeah it was really nice. Roberta Flack - those records had some of the best musicians ever, the smoothest musicians. And Abba - fantastic pop music. Queen, you know, great drama - and Carole King, sort of introspective. So it was a really weird four pieces. I probably know their music pretty good without realizing that I do. If you put it on I could probably start singing it, like an out of body experience. And of course the whole punk thing was really exciting. It was the clearest defining era of antiestablishment, anti-authority, anti-parent . . . that was the perfect music for youth.

Q: How did your father select the name Rossdale?

G.R.: I think it was originally Rosenthal - it was Russian/Jew. My family is Russian/Jewish on my father's side and my mother's side is Scottish. And it's weird because the Scottish really don't like the English - I'm half English and half Scottish. I'm such a mass of contradictions, it's no wonder that I slightly overthink things and I'm slightly paranoid.

Q: Some paranoia is good.

G.R.: It keeps you nimble, keeps you looking over your shoulder. You rarely get self-satisfied, that's for sure. Every time I think anything positive, something in me tells me something else. I don't even know what the word is - self-cynical? For every action there's a reaction.

Q: Do you ever think about studying Judaism?

G.R.: No, I have an entirely different mindset. There are so many books that I want to read and so many films that I want to see . . . there's so much to learn and so much to think about without going into a study of faith. I'd rather read Richard Dawkins. I like Buddhism. I like lifestyle systems more than faith-based systems. I do love the theater of faith. I think places of worship are beautiful, absolutely.

Q: What do you remember about making the video for Glycerine? It's such a beautiful video.

G.R.: It was strange because I didn't know much about doing videos. All I remember about doing that video - which was the same when recording the song - was no drums - it's so weird. So doing the video it was kind of like the band sat in the trailer for most of the day. It was the first taste of the separation between us because they're not strictly on it. There's guitar from Nigel[Pulsford] but that's about it. I love that song. I remember playing it for them for the first time in London actually and I remember them talking over it and I was like, I think this song's got something. For me it was a great song for us. I always remember it as their beer and cigarettes time. As soon as I'd start singing there'd be plumes of smoke from the stacks. Time off. Do Glycerine, play it twice. English people are very cynical. I was in a very funny band - funny for humor.

Q: I read that you like to cook. What do you cook?

G.R.: Probably a combination of English and Italian. I'm all about the ingredients. I seem to have a knack for it. Miles Davis said every musician should be able to cook because it's a combination of things. I don't do that much outside of music and hanging out with people I like and I think eating together is really convivial. Whenever I made records I would always make everyone eat together. You break bread and you drink wine together, it's a very unifying process. From a really young age, when I started living on my own in flats with lots of friends, I'd always have loads of people over for dinner before you go out. It's a really good way of starting the night. It's got kind of a bourgeois idea to it but it's cool when you break bread and drink wine - it takes the bourgeois out of it.

Q: What do you see of yourself in your son, Kingston?

G.R.: Individuality. He doesn't want that much help - he'll tell you when he wants help. You can't interrupt him. If he's in a process or if he's on his way somewhere he doesn't want you to crowd him, which I totally relate to. He likes people, he really enjoys it when people come around. He's very social. He likes girls. One of my favorite things is him coming to the shows. I never thought about being at a show with him. It's just such a shock, even two years in, to have a child and be responsible for him. He came to Del Mar - I played at this sort of racetrack - he'd seen the show in LA and he got really upset when he saw me onstage. He couldn't understand why he couldn't come on the stage. He was running around while I was doing soundcheck and he came on the stage so I could hold him. Then when I played the show he was on the side of the stage, and his foot was going in time to the music. It's shocking, he's got really good rhythm. He was in a group of about 20 people on the side of the stage and every time a song would end (there were like 10,000 people there) he would bow.

Q: That is so cute.

G.R.: No one taught him that. It's been really great playing again. I am so looking forward to coming to Seattle again. Obviously there's clear history for me, the whole connection of rock music from Seattle and when I first played there, I think it was Mo's or something, and it felt (like I was) in the backyard of where the music was at. When I first played there I thought is this going to be really difficult? It was amazing. I remember the show. I remember getting super trashed the night before. I was taken out by the label and for the first time I drank - and I think the last time - 50-year-old whiskey. I couldn't even see straight. I was so done in and I was trying to play this show, and I was trying to be good and was so nervous but I got a really warm welcome. Then I did some recording up there in Seattle at Robert Lang Studios. He's got a regular house - this was when it was being built so Lord knows what it's like now - but he had trucks of dirt at his house and he built down into the mountains. He was like Dr. No.
____________________________

Click here to read my review of Rossdale's show and here for photos.

-This review originally appeared on my Seattle PI Blog, Beat Back.-

Alison Goldfrapp is a goddess. She has done it again and released a super sexy cd with her co-composer Will Gregory. Goldfrapp's is as surreal as it is consoling with dreamy tunes and cool vibes.

Starting off with Clowns - complete with bird sounds and easing into the fairy tale of Little Bird - Seventh Tree recalls their Felt Mountain. This is a good thing. I really love all tracks on this cd - Happiness has an oompah beat and the vocals are breathy and sexy. Eat Yourself is melodic and hauntingly sad; A&E is a key track - a paean from a mental ward and I just think the concept is brilliant. It even has frog croak noises in it. Perhaps the real center of the cd is Cologne Cerrone Houdini. I am not the only one who has long-hoped that Goldfrapp will snag the next James Bond theme. It is a high honor and I think this track in particular of almost anything they have done screams the Broccoli people need to sign this band up. Fast. Her voice will make the difficult title of Quantum of Solace hot.

It's a cleverly put together cd ending with a poppy Caravan Girl and the love song Monster Love. I am always amazed by how Goldfrapp brings strange sounds together and makes them even more different than I can expect.

Check out the video for A&E and photos I took of Goldfrapp at the Showbox.

Last night I saw a band called Switches. Here's their myspace page:
Switches on Myspace. Now, maybe I am partial to great music and cute British boys. I don't know. But they were great and no one here in the cowtown that can be Seattle knew about them. If you live in Los Angeles though you have two chances to see them next week. Bastards. Pix and interview soon.

It's been a good music week in part because I got this: the new She Wants Revenge song:
Written in Blood
Sounding cruel and moody.

First thing I am going to say about Jet is that their second cd, Shine On , is brilliant. Second thing is that they are fantastic to see live. The new songs blended in seamlessly with the older ones – this does not always happen with bands.

Lead singer and guitarist Nic Cester is a star who knows how to involve an audience. Cester walked around in the audience twice, and the band seems even musically closer since the last time I saw them when they opened for Oasis . Mark Wilson is a fantastic bassist, Cameron Muncey is what I would describe as a cool, calm and collected guitarist, and drummer Chris Cester is an original.

I have many favorite Jet songs. Cold Hard Bitch still sounds fresh and dirty. Their new song Rip It Up is luscious; Take It Or Leave It is just super, and Look What You’ve Done Look What You’ve Done . . . is so touching.

To see more of my Jet photos, click here


Jet's Nic Cester, Seattle 2006

Angels and Airwaves, formed by singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge , put on an energetic and passionate performance. This was their first visit to Seattle and I will see them anywhere, anytime they return.

DeLonge has a gorgeous stage presence with amazingly unique body positions – truly great to watch. Their songs were generously appealing and DeLonge, in a black militaristic outfit, reached out to everyone in the large arena. I am never one to underestimate the effect of lighting as well, and this set had absolutely stunning lighting.

All songs sounded great, but Do It For Me Now , Valkyrie Missile , and particularly Distraction were especially intense. Distraction is perfection.

Click here for more AVA photos.

Tom DeLonge, Seattle 2006

Goldfrapp’s following in Seattle is tremendous. The fans not only sold out the show, they came dressed up and ready to dance. Goldfrapp knows how to create and sustain a sexy mood and Alison Goldfrapp appears a bit like an indifferent dominatrix in the best way meant. Watching her up close - hearing as well as seeing, yes I said seeing - that voice come out - it’s all kinds of beauty and colour.

More artists should do as Goldfrapp chose to do that night - be the only band. No openers, no filler, none of that. Just what people came to see and hear. I got the feeling that the audience would have been insulted by any opening act, that they wanted Goldfrapp and they wanted no other. It’s electronic, it’s got a chanteuse, it’s a rock band . . . it’s many things.

Singer/Composer Alison Goldfrapp really was in superb, slender form, dressed in a black zip up cat suit and black heels tied to her small feet. I could say something silly about her tininess belying her large persona . . . but that’s kind of cliche. Though she is a sleek and precious picture for sure. Her voice filled the Showbox smoothly and the band kept up throbbing and loving beats. She did that thing she does of playing her portable theremin between her legs. Strict Machine, Number One and White Horse were favorites of mine and I found some space to dance. Which brings me back to the dancing. Most of the audience was dancing - many like it was a huge disco floor, though yeah some of us tapped our toes. This was a great thing to see and rare to see at any concert.

Did you have a musical family?
Both my parents are still singing (in the church choir) My dad’s a pretty proficient piano player and a pretty good guitar player as well.

What are the differences between your albums?
Some things are different but we always try to challenge ourselves and do new things. I hope that each of our records sounds new like something we’ve never done before but also like us.

Who designed the new cover? I love it.
Josh. He designs a lot of t shirts and stuff – he’s a great artist. Watercolours and drawings.

How was touring with Keane? Is that the largest band you’ve toured with?
Now they’re really big, but that tour wasn’t so crazy. We were still playing Berbati’s in Portland – Irving Plaza in NY. It’s not like it was Madison Square Garden. We’ve gone on mini tours opening for bands at that level. In terms of world domination I guess they’re bigger than any band . . .

That was the first tour I had heard about you guys.
It was a great tour to for us to have done because I think a lot of people saw us – it’s a different demographic entirely than we’re used to playing. It was not necessarily all the hipster kids – it was more different kinds of people. It’s cool, I like playing in front of different kinds of people not just straight up rock & roll fans – although I love obviously playing for those people too. They [Keane] have a different audience and it’s working out well for them.


What do you like about playing live music?
I like playing music, period. There’s that (we laugh). You’d be surprised being in a band. You practice a lot. You drive a lot. And you do a lot of peripheral stuff. But playing – the sound check you just saw – usually it’s not nearly that long, then you play the show is not even that long. Sound check is usually about an hour, if you’re lucky and the show is 45 minutes. So in a day of tour we drive like seven hours, we talk on the phone and do business and emails for many other hours and then you play music for an hour and 45 minutes if you’re lucky. By that break down we’re so happy to be playing , which is really what we’re supposed to be doing . . . so I like that and I love being in a room with a crowd and getting a vibe going in a room. Playing and singing, there’s nothing like it – or people wouldn’t starve to death and drive around in vans and go crazy. I do think it’s the hardest thing – it’s one of the hardest things people can do. People think, you’re in a rock band cause you can’t get a real job. But I think this is so much harder than any other real job – and I’ve had some hard jobs.

What other kind of jobs have you had?
I’ve worked in kitchens – really hard. I’ve worked as a teacher, which is maybe the only thing I would put next to this as as hard. I’ve been a landscaper . . . I gravitate towards these things for some reason.

Teaching and this work – I can see how you’d compare it.
It’s like a 24 hour – you have to be all there all the time or you can’t do it. You make no money. Teachers really don’t make any money. The joke is we don’t make any money – rock people- cause obviously some rock people make more money than God. No matter how good a teacher you are you’re not going to make any money. But you get rewards that most people don’t even know about (as a teacher).

What did you teach?
Music. A school in Jersey city – a Catholic school – two Catholic schools actually. The other teachers were Haitian nuns.

Were the kids well-behaved?
No, they were horribly behaved, but they were wonderful.

Music was probably one of their favorite subjects.
They liked me. But it was hard – I mean forty kids in a class in an inner city school.
I don’t believe I’ve ever said anything about that before in an interview – that’s an exclusive. In professions like acting, music and teaching you have to engage people.Except in teaching it’s for them and everything else is for you. Although there’s a gray area there too. Teachers, especially at the college level where they like to hear themselves talk, they like to be adored, they like to inspire awe and girls to have crushes on them and stuff. I am sure you could find a lot of teachers who have weird motivations - I claim to not be one of them.

You studied at Oberlin – is that where you got your music degree?
I don’t have a music degree. I was completely unqualified for my teaching job. For this type of job I feel qualified – for my teaching job, at least on paper anyway, I was completely unqualified. They didn’t have a music teacher at all at the school.

How was working with Haitian nuns?
They’re great - they were crazy. Wanna take about making no money, they really made no money. Nuns make no money.

Were they fun?
They were great.

I guess I wouldn’t go into the nunnery to make money.
I would advise against it.

What happened to the column on French Kicks’ site, What Would French Kicks Do?
It’s gone.

Did you get tired of it?
What Did French Kicks Do? We just got lazy. For a while we were just lazy – we’d be in the car and somebody would be like, we really should do some of those. We should of done a lot more of them, but it’s the kind of thing that’s really fun for a while and then as soon as it starts to feel like a chore we’ll quickly be like, no sorry. In theory anyway there will be some enticing new content on there [the French Kicks’ web site]. It was fun to do that. I think our new idea is to have a gallery – a page where people send their art submissions in the and we critique the art submissions where we do a psychological evaluation based on the art.

I was afraid you were going to critique the art.
We’re going to do that, too. It’s like a critique of the art that gets into a more psychological profile. Whether we actually do it or not I can’t tell you. It’s in the works.

You’ve been touring continually since 2001.
Well not exactly. We’ve had sort of seasons of heavy touring. This is the first tour we’ve done in a really long time – a year.

Do you have a driver?
No, we drive. It’s something to do. It’s different when you’re driving – it’s a little better – you have to pay attention.

You’re not just staring out the window.
You kid yourself into thinking that you’re doing something worthwhile. Although sitting and staring out the window is great, too. I have no problem with that. I don’t mind it at all. It’s just that after a while, living on top of each other . . .

Who’s the first one to start picking a fight?
I pick fights all of the time. No, we’re a bunch of perfect gentlemen. We are, it’s true. A very gentlemanly band. Very nice to eachother.

No shut ups or we’re going to leave you in Fargo?
No. I mean you this about bands, I mean people get into real fights on tours all the time. Real bad fights, but we’ve been pretty good.

You played drums in the band earlier on – why stop?
Just for live purposes, it was a little limiting. We couldn’t play fast songs – we could do maybe one if we were lucky because I would be so out of breath.

They’d find you collapsed –
I used to literally see spots – almost be about to pass out after every show. I don’t have a problem with that necessarily – just I couldn’t do more than one fast song per show. I could only do so much intricate stuff. And also now I play keyboards here and there. It just basically opens up opportunities to do other stuff.

You don’t like to refer to influences – you think it’s misleading?
I just don’t like to mention them. There’s so many . . . the way we’re influenced by them is so different – it’s like little details as opposed to broader things. [He’s the same on films and literature, too] I think everything you see or read will listen to you in some way.

I’m intrigued by the title of the one about-

England? It’s the only one –

Do you get a lot of questions about it?

I’m psychic.

I know.

It’s about a time we were over there at the end of a long tour. We were out for five weeks in the States and then immediately went over there and it was sort of a kick some one when they’re down scenario. We were so exhausted and everything was fucked up. [The song] is obviously a tongue in cheek thing. It’s something that’s fun to complain about – we’re champion complainers.

How did you get involved with Poptones?

We did one record. Alan McGee – there’s this party that he puts on, it’s mostly in London with Radio 4. He was doing it in NY when the whole New York thing was happening, seeing what would stick. What stuck was the Hives.

Do you think that you are now able to get out of being labeled a New York band?

I hope so. I mean, here we are talking about it. But I hope so.

None of them sounded much like each other.

They never did.

You have a new guitar player?

For about two months. He’s great – he’s an old friend, a D.C. guy.

What’s D.C. like?
It’s much more fun as a native than as a visitor. It’s a great to be fifteen or sixteen years old – I think that’s what it’s best for. It’s sort of halfway been a small town and a big town, in a great way for teenagers. There’s a really good music scene, especially when we were in high school. But then you can also sit outside in the park and get drunk, the kind of things you can do in smaller towns. It’s a great place to grow up.

You moved to NY for more opportunities?
I think for the same reasons most people move to NY. There’s more going on.

What kind of music did you play in your teenage years?

It was pretty terrible, high school music band music. We did a lot different stuff.

Do you get to get out see things while on tour?

Every once in a while we have a day off and can go walk around. Usually it’s just drive in for sound check, do the show. In our naiive early days we used to book our own tours and book all these days off everywhere to see the sights – it ends up being sort of depressing. If you don’t - first of all if you don’t have any money –but second of all if you don’t have a home base in a foreign town it just gets depressing to be there really quick. You don’t have anything to do. If you have a friend there, anything, where you can feel a little more at home then it’s fine. We learned very quickly that it’s better not to have too much time off.

Who are some of the bands you’d like to tour with?

It’s always fun to go on tour with the Walkmen, we grew up together. It’s like touring with your old gang from high school. Dios, the Joggers – a Portland band who I think are really great.

Are there any kinds of music you can’t stand?

Like whole types of music? No, I don’t think so. I think you can find good examples of pretty much anything. There’s got to be something redeeming about everything, or it wouldn’t be anything. Somebody had to like it. Somebody in that category had to like it, for a good reason, or it wouldn’t have gotten anywhere. It’s like populist theory.

French Kicks is a handsome band and I see that mentioned in every arcticle. Does that weird you out?

No. If you think about that sort of thing you’re doomed, so I try not to think about it. What we’re doing is try to be good at music. That’s the most important thing to us. That people are listening and like the songs. We work hard at it. I like to be listened to a lot more than looked at. In fact I hate being looked at, I do. I’m not a natural hey look at me kind of guy. But I love to play, I love to be on stage so I can play.
[Though I do point out it’s better to be thought attractive than unattractive] It’s too bad.
I think there’s been times, not so long ago, where [appearance] wasn’t so much a parameter by which people were judged so much. In the 70s I don’t think you had to be so attractive necessarily. Everybody has to be a pop star now, rockers have to be pop stars. Any kind of music has to be a pop record. It’s so boring. It used to be you could look shit but if it [the music] sounded good people would listen to it. People were paid attention to for the right reasons. Even beyond looking like shit because that’s your thing but because you just don’t care. Maybe I’m kidding myself. I like to think that that’s possible again. Not having looks be a criteria for being recorded in the first place.


Do you have to force yourself to write?

I think there have been times where we’ve done that, where we’ve said we’re going to write now. Sometimes good things happen. But mostly – the beginning of song has to be something that just happens very naturally and relaxed way for fun just so you want to entertain yourself. Feel it. It will sound like you felt like it, which is the best thing. It’s a mind game, for us anyway. You take the good things that happen by accident and then you make them into things that are listenable. And you have to be around the instruments so things can happen in the first place. Sometimes that will take a little bit of discipline.
It’s sort of a balancing act.

With a triple bill of Monsters Are Waiting, Stellastarr*, and Editors I needed to stake my place early right in front of the stage to get pictures. The show was sold out and I didn’t feel like the audience would have let me back up to the front if I had left for one moment, so in total I stood about three and a half hours. Festival-goers can snicker at what appears to be my lack of fortitude. And it was scorching in Chop Suey (don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely venue), leading to a mammoth thirst on my part. Those are the only down sides from the show. Well there is one other to come up later. Not one of these issues was the fault of the bands, who were all just brilliant.

After listening to Monsters Are Waiting I was curious to see them live. Their music has such a vim and drive to it I wondered if they would duplicate it live. In fact, the four-piece, often called sexy - well they are that - played marvelously together and charmed with tender and sensual vocals from Annalee, slinky bass playing and sparkling guitar playing by Andrew and Jonathan respectively, and drummer Eric’s responsive drumming (They seem to prefer being known by first names only.) Songs like Fascination and Ha Ha were particularly groovy live, and their set closer, the lusty Christine saw the band go quite mental - in the best way possible. I am in awe of bassist Andrew’s ability to play guitar, after he and Jonathan switched places, while nearly stretched out on the floor.

Meanwhile it got hotter and the woman next to me still wore a sweater - a sweater I ask you! When Stellastarr* came on I was really starting to hurt for water but was stubborn and I kept my place even when another photographer burst his way in and out of the crowd with impunity. For some reason crew from backstage periodically came out and mopped up water on the stage floor.

I’ve admired Stellastarr* since I saw them open for the Raveonettes in 2003. There’s something loveable about them and the other two bands of the evening and I just can’t place my finger on what it is. Perhaps it’s singer/guitarist’s Shawn Christensen’s tortured and disturbing presence, or Michael Jurin’s culinary guitar work, or the centered drumming by Arthur Kremer. Or it might be the bass playing, some of the most sophisticated bass playing you will ever hear, coming from the seriously foxy Amanda Tannen. It’s probably all these things. And each time I have seen Christensen I feel like he must fall apart every night. He seemed to break down in earnest. This was good stuff and made me flinch. After they finished the classic My Coco - a guy yelled, ‘Again!’. This got a smile from Tannen, who really seemed to play joyfully.

Editors headlined and even though I had been listening to their cd and really loving it I was a bit concerned about the hype around the band. By that point, after seeing shows by bands who would more than capably headline, I had decided they needed to be something special for me to stay in the front through their entire set. I was not disappointed - only more than a bit thirsty, which was when I realized that a pipe above the stage was leaking, and that was where the mystery water came from. It was slightly distracting let alone quite dangerous around the plugged in equipment. I was tempted several times to jump on stage to get some of the water. Guitarist Chris Urbanowicz’s (joking and very funny) comments such as ‘Don’t panic’ and ‘I’m going on’ were very apt.

At one point singer Tom Smith knocked out the speakers leaping around the stage - I had never seen this happen at Chop Suey before and I enjoyed the danger. Smith, trapped like an animal, seemed to want to climb the walls.

They are a beautiful band and I fell in love them from the start of their set. Songs such as Blood and All Sparks are pure wonders. I was deeply touched by Camera, and Fingers in the Factories was aggressive and salty. Several audience members were already familiar with the songs and that gave me hope that important music has made it. Smith’s resonant vocals recall more of Jim Morrison rather than Paul Banks. Ed Lay’s drumming stunned me. And Russell Leetch’s bass and Urbanowicz’s guitar playing joined in perfect sounds and grace.