popwreckoning

After Mapquest took my friend and I on the most illogical route to El Corazon in Seattle, we arrived just in time as the doors opened to see Rooney, Tally Hall and Crash Kings on the Wild One tour on Wednesday. Thankfully, we only had to wait outside for about ten minutes, because it was pretty darn close to freezing.

El Corazon is a small, but fairly intimate venue with a great view from all vantage points. That night, the teenybopper crowd filling El Corazon differed starkly from those who worked there, covered in piercings and tattoos, dark hoodies and unkempt facial hair. I liked the odd juxtaposition, as it fit the contrasting lineup. The Crash Kings were up first, with their three-piece of Tony Beliveau on vocals and keyboard, his brother Mike Beliveau on bass and Jason Morris on drums. Tony was quite the showman, rocking out with a clavinet, a customized keyboard with guitar strings and a large whammy bar. Mike played with multiple amps, making music both full and raw without a guitar, leading to rather a unique sound.

The three-piece Crash Kings played a short, but strong set, including first single “Mountain Man,” as well as other crowd-pleasers “1985,” “Raincoat,” “You Got Me” and “It’s Only Wednesday,” which was recently featured in the film “Zombieland.” I hadn’t heard much of their music before the show, but I was thoroughly impressed with their stage presence, matching the intimacy of the venue with their brotherly synergy.

After their half-hour, Tally Hall came up on stage to set up their instruments, clad in suit shirts and vests, as well as fake mustaches to match their hair color. It fit Tally Hall’s persona perfectly, as they’re pretty much the nerdiest band I’ve heard since They Might Be Giants. Seriously, they referred to their own music as “wonky rock.”

What I love so much about Tally Hall is how funny they are, but they are genuinely good musicians, and they harmonize wonderfully, with guitarists Joe Hawley, Rob Cantor, keyboardist Andrew Horowitz and bassist Zubin Sedghi all bringing their own vocal style. To my delight, Tally Hall played some new songs, meaning a new record coming possibly soon, as it’s been a good three years since Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum. But they did play a few of the hits from ,MMMM: “Welcome to Tally Hall,” “The Bidding,” “Ruler of Everything,” and “Good Day.” My favorite song was actually during Horowitz’s one singing part, “The Whole World and You,” and they got the whole crowd clapping with Horowitz’s adorable subtle lisp. The crowd surely loved the dapper crew, as the youngins surrounding me sang along to all of the words.

Cantor and Hawley had the most charm, saying that it was “an honor and a pleasure to be playing with Rooney and Crash Kings,” causing everyone to cheer loudly, so then they’d say it randomly throughout the half-hour set. I would have preferred longer than half an hour, and it would have been plausible, as we hit the road just after 11. An hour would have given them more time to banter, showing off their unique personas. But I was happy just the same.

Rooney was up next.

Following a long intro of the “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly” theme music, building the palpable anticipation, it was obvious that most people there came to see Rooney. They were met with screaming girls, reminiscent of the reaction that the Jonas Brothers might get, but with a few token drunk guys.

The foursome came out cool and casual, and started off with “Stay Away” off their eponymous debut back in 2003. It gave me a weird flashback to a little film that you may have seen at one point – “The Princess Diaries,” yeah, cause front man Robert Schwartzman was in that movie as Michael Moscovitz, Anne Hathaway’s love interest. As was the rest of Rooney, as Michael’s band. Sure, the movie was eight years ago, but I just can’t seem to get it out of my head.

That soon left my mind, as I moved from the one side of the stage where bassist Matthew Winter seemed to not be having any fun to the other side of the stage where guitarist Taylor Locke captivated the crowd with his sweet riffs and undeniably flowy hair. Schwartzman did most of the talking, leading the room through a set list of oldies but goodies such as “Blueside,” “Daisy Duke”  and “Popstars,” which Schwartzman said they hadn’t played in a while, as well as brand new songs. One new song titled “Wild One” let drummer Ned Brower actually sing and he was quite good.

Around 10:40, Schwartzman thanked Seattle profusely for being so great, and it caught me off guard, but made everyone laugh and cheer when Locke started playing random opening riffs from classic Seattle rock songs from Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden.

“Ned’s from here, so we can do that,” Schwartzman said, “Well, born in Chapel Hill and raised in Seattle.”

It made me smile. But nothing made anyone smile quite as much as the guy standing behind me who kept shouting “I Should Have Been After You” all night. He finally got his wish during the encore.

“Who wants ‘Simply Because?’” Schwartzman asked the crowd.

People cheered.

“Tell Me Soon?”

People cheered.

“How about ‘I Should Have Been After You?’”

And people went nuts.

“Okay, we’ll do it for that guy this one time.”

I was fine with that, as “I Should Have Been After You” is one of my favorite Rooney songs.

At the end of the night, my friend had a completely different experience watching Rooney on the opposite side of the stage as I did. So I guess it’s based on your vantage point. Robert’s the conversationalist, Ned’s got the charm and Taylor’s got the charisma.

And Rooney’s surely got the light and bouncy pop rock to get you dancing, even on a Wednesday night before finals week.

Rooney: website | myspace

This week I got a little behind so I decided to dedicate one entry to this week in St. Louis concert coverage so below shall include a few words and photos about Josh Ritter, Guster and Lupe Fiasco.

On Tuesday night, a sold out Off Broadway was packed as Josh Ritter and his band dedicated songs to the Jonas Brothers who were in town the same night and raved about St. Louis’ rather wonderful City Museum. The set ranged from his later full band material in addition to his early solo work, both working rather well with fans eating up every second of his over two hour set.

Stand out songs from the night:

“Good Man”, “Girl in The War”, “To The Dogs or Whoever”

Guster graced the Live on The Levee stage on Friday night showcasing their rhythmic abilities as they covered their catalog of classics such as “Fa Fa”, “Amsterdam”, “Satellite” and even adding a new song into the mix from an album they are due to finish after this current tour.

While Guster served as headliner for the last weekend of Live on The Levee, Lupe Fiasco closed down the series with a sea of fans blanketing the stairs under the Arch. Lupe energetically, if not crazily, commanded every inch of that stage as he ran from side to side, working the crowd as he rhymed his way through cuts off Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor and The Cool.

Josh Ritter: website | myspace
Guster: website | myspace
Lupe Fiasco: website | myspace | The Cool review | @ virgin mobile fest 2008

So, if you’ve been paying attention, and my guess is you haven’t, you’ve most likely heard about Tinted Windows—A power-pop Supergroup consisting of Smashing Pumpkins’ James Iha, Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, Hanson’s Taylor Hanson, and Cheap Trick’s Bun. E Carlos. And I’ll be the first one to say it….they’re good. Really good. Popwreckoning’s Los Angeles writer, Sara Swiecki, got the chance to talk to Schlesinger for a bit, and here’s what came of it!

PopWreckoning, Sara Swiecki: So, how did the whole group come to be? Everything I’ve read says that James is the one who put it together. Is that true?
Adam Schlesinger, Tinted Windows: Uh, well no. Not exactly. I think it was actually my idea, but James and I were partners in a recording studio in New York and working together on a lot of stuff. So, I kind of mentioned it to him to see if he’d be interested. “Y’know,” I said. “We could do something with Taylor,” and he said, “Yeah, definitely.” And I had known Taylor for many years, so I just called him and said, “What do you think of this idea of doing a band? You’d be the singer. We’d get James to play guitar. We’ll look for a drummer,” and he said, “Yeah.” And that was about three years ago. And then we started working on it in little bits and pieces, and eventually, when we started talking about drummers, we came up with the idea of trying to contact Bun E. and, uh, and he said, “Yes.”

PW: Well you do realize that this is kind of an eyebrow-raising group of musicians you guys got goin’ together? Kind of an unlikely quartet…
AS: Um, I mean, I think it seems weirder than it actually is, just because there’s a big range of ages within the band, and each of the bands we come from maybe have different reputations. But, um, musically, I think we all kind of come from the same place. I mean, I think we’re all kind of fans of guitar-based pop music. And y’know, melodic music. And it seemed like a pretty natural fit on a musical level right away.

PW: Very cool. Um, do you think that with Taylor, there’s a certain stigma that he’s bringing over because Hanson got so much crap back in the day for being, like, y’know, the early Jonas Brothers?
AS: (laughs) Well, I think people understand. I mean, first of all he was a teenager at that time and he’s 26-years-old now.
PW: Yeah.
AS: The other thing is that, I mean, I don’t really know why you would give him crap. I mean, how many kids his age when he was 15 or whatever wrote a number 1 single in 28 countries or whatever it was (laughs)? It gives you a pretty good sense of accomplishment.
PW: Oh no, I totally agree, I’m a Hanson fan! I defend them all the time. I’m just saying what other people are thinking.
AS: Well, I think, I mean, certainly there’s a curiosity factor for people who maybe haven’t thought about Taylor for a long time because they haven’t seen him in any other context. But as you know, if you’re a Hanson fan, he’s been making music all along, and he’s a fantastic singer and a fantastic songwriter. So, I don’t think it’s that unusual for him to be playing with us.

PW: Ok, cool! Um, Do you think that this…y’know you were previously with Fountains of Wayne, James was previously with Pumpkins and everything…
AS: Oh, I’m still with Fountains of Wayne. Nobody’s quit their day jobs! Although James hasn’t been with the Pumpkins for close to ten years (laughs). But I’m still with Fountains of Wayne, Taylor’s still with Hanson, and Bun E.’s still with Cheap Trick. This is just something that we’re doing in addition to that.
PW: Well, yeah. But, where I was going with it, though is do you think that this is–doing a group like this is easier because you’re already established musicians? Or does it make things harder because it’s hard to disassociate?
AS: Well, I don’t really know how to answer that question. It’s not particularly hard. I mean, the only hard thing has been, sometimes just the scheduling of it, because everybody’s really busy. But I think our motivation in doing this, really, is just to have fun. It was intended to be something to do just for the fun of it, and that’s really how we’ve approached it. With your first band, there’s so much intensity and so much pressure and this is the opposite of that. This is something nobody was really expecting, and nobody really had any particular expectations about. So it’s really just something we did to have a change of pace, and get a chance to work with some friends, and just to have a good time.

PW: Ok. So you’re the primary songwriter, yes? Did it just happen that way, or…?
AS: We didn’t really plan it that way. I mean, James wrote some and Taylor wrote some. But I wrote more. But it’s still very collaborative and making the record was very collaborative.

PW: Ok. Why did we decide on the name Tinted Windows? Did it just sound cool? Does it mean something?
AS: It was just kind of a goofy name. It was almost a joke at the beginning and it kinda stuck. I mean, I think we thought it sounded slightly hokey, and I think we liked that about it. It sounded like a cover band or something (laughs).

PW: (laughs) It kinda does, yeah! You were recently nominated for an Emmy, yes?
AS: Yes.
PW: Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
AS: Sure! Well, I worked on a show called “A Colbert Christmas,” which was a Stephen Colbert Christmas special.
PW: Yeah, I saw it!
AS: And I wrote a bunch of song with a guy named David Javerbaum, who is a friend of mine and who also works at “The Daily Show.” That’s his day job. And it was a really fun project. We got to work with a lot of cool people like Elvis Costello and Feist and John Legend…Toby Keith, Willie Nelson….uh, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, obviously. So it was just a fun…a fun one-time project.

PW: That’s cool. That’s very cool. Um, for Tinted Windows, for the band or for your songwriting…What would you say, like, what other bands or what other style is your primary influence? Y’know, for people who haven’t heard it yet.
AS: I think we were thinking about a lot of power-pop bands from the late 70’s and early 80’s. I mean, The Knack was one of my favorite bands. Obviously Cheap Trick was a big influence, and the fact that we got their drummer was kind of a miracle (laughs). We love Cheap Trick. We were also thinking of some of the pop-punk bands from that period, too. The Buzzcocks, mainly, and stuff like that. But I think there’s also….Y’know it’s got a retro vibe to it, but I think there’s also some modern rock guitar sounds on it that aren’t completely retro.
PW: Right.
AS: As an album, I think we mostly just wanted to have a high-energy record and have the songs be very direct. And I mean, hopefully they’re catchy.

PW: They are! What are your favorites, I mean if you had to pick two or three favorites from the album, what would they be?
AS: Oh, it’s hard for me to be objective…
PW: It’s like picking one of your favorite kids!
AS: Well, I really like “Messing With My Head.” That was one of the first ones we did.
PW: That’s my favorite.
AS: And I think it came out really well. I think that one of the songs James wrote, which is called “Back With You,” which is kind of a ballad, is really strong. And the song which is last on the record which is “Take Me Back,” which is one that Taylor and I wrote together. That was also an early one that we wrote, and I like that one a lot. We kind of kicked that one out in an afternoon at his house in Tulsa. So I have good memories of putting that one together.

PW: Alright. Do we have plans to tour anytime soon?
AS: Well, we’ve got some shows coming up in August. We’re doing shows primarily on the East Coast. We’ve got like a Boston, a D.C., a Philly show. There’s one in Connecticut. And then we have a San Francisco show a few weeks later. And we’re going to try to do some more after that. We’re talking about going to Japan. That hasn’t been officially booked yet, but we’re working on it. But all the tour dates are up on our website, which is tintedwindowsmusic.com.

PW: Ok. You guys actually made your debut at South By Southwest this year. Correct?
AS: Yep.
PW: Alright, what do you think? What what the popular reaction?
AS: I thought it was really positive. I mean, y’know, the record wasn’t out at that point, and it was such a curiosity once people heard that the band existed. So, I think a lot of people turned up just to see what it was about. But I feel like it went really well. Y’know we went down there and played like three shows, and we got really positive feedback from people.

PW: Great! I think that wraps everything up. Is there anything else you want to say or wanted to be known about Tinted Windows?
AS: No, I think you covered it!
PW: Ok great! Thank you so much, Adam!
AS: Yeah, I appreciate you doing the site!
PW: Yeah, no problem! Have a good one!
AS: You, too.
PW: Bye!
AS: Bye!

Tinted Windows: website | myspace | @ Pangaea, SXSW