popwreckoning

Anthemic. Epic. So incredibly reminiscent of the pop-punk days of the 90′s. I almost called this a guilty pleasure album, but there’s no reason to feel guilty. Balance and Composure’s Separation is just really good and should have come out twelve years ago. It has Kurt Cobain’s dark feelings to it, but pops and rocks like early Jimmy Eat World. Its twelve tracks clock in at around 48 minutes which means it’s initially a big undertaking. But once you give this album the time of day it deserves it becomes very cohesive and works well as a whole.

This might not be your typical summer album, light and happy tunes for your backyard bonfire, but it’s definitely the type to be blasted through car stereos with windows down on a sticky summer night. It packs a punch and provides the angst to scream along with at the top of your lungs.

From the first notes of “Void,” listeners hear the intensity Separation brings. Things start simply with clear  vocals from lead singer Jonathon Simmons, which can range from effortlessly sung to passionately screamed. The intensity of “Void” showcases the dark mood of this entire release and it seems to be a nod towards Balance and Composure’s earlier material which showcased heavier and somewhat darker hooks. Soon afterwards though we see the title track and “Quake” lighten things up with a more pop-punk feel. Simmons picks and chooses when to showcase his vocals, and on these two songs he definitely chose to feature guitar and drums.  ”Stonehands” comes as a welcome moment to catch a breath, while “More To Me” starts as something similar but only for a while. The song takes off with heavy riffs and screaming vocals. No matter how Simmons chooses to sing his songs, the tone of his voice is always exactly what the song calls for: a sign of true musicianship.

Balance and Composure is arguably best when heavy and loud, but maybe that’s my inner angsty teen talking.  ”I Tore You Apart In My Head,” “Fade” and “Patience” are some of my favorites and they’re the rockers of the album. Regardless, Separation has something for everyone and Balance and Composure fans both new and old can appreciate the variety of this album. I look forward to what the band puts out next.

Track listing:

1 Void
2 Separation
3 Quake
4 Stonehands
5 I Tore You Apart In My Head
6 Galena
7 Fade
8 Progress, Progress
9 More To Me
10 Echo
11 Patience
12 Defeat The Low

“These are my famous last words!”

That’s how the new Foo Fighters’ record Wasting Light begins.  It’s a rather stark and haunting coincidence, since the record comes out April 12, just a week after the 17^th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death.  Plus, Dave Grohl’s other former Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic was a guest musician on Wasting Light. Whether or not that was planned is beyond my knowledge, but it certainly added another layer to an already great album.

This being the Foo’s seventh studio album, a question of longevity rather than innovation is what’s at the forefront of Wasting Light. The innovation came in the marketing strategy, which played out like a game of Clue, with Easter eggs hidden all over the Internet, and short clips of songs leaked to their own website, giving the fans just a taste of what was to come on Wasting Light.

In true Foo fashion, the album begins with a swift kick to the stomach with “Bridge Burning.” And it doesn’t slow down much from there. “Rope” has more attitude than a lot of the rock newcomers with their precisely quaffed hair. I guess the attitude comes with age, at least in Grohl’s case. A slick intro partnered with a driving rhythm makes it a perfect second track (and I can only imagine how awesome it will be live).  “Dear Rosemary” is a lighter track, with a heavy pop hook, but is still signature Foo.

Honestly, the greatness of the Foo Fighters comes from their performance. I’ve only ever seen recordings of their live shows, but their albums are meant to be performed, not over-mixed in the studio to make certain instruments sound better than they naturally would. Whether it’s a softer song like “I Should Have Known” or a frantic metal-tinged hit like “White Limo,” the Foo Fighters sound like they do live – energetic, passionate, and like they’re having fun. Grohl may be one of the best drummers of our time, but he’s also one of the greatest front men.

“Arlandria” and “Back and Forth” are two of the catchiest tracks on the album, easy to sing along to, and “A Matter of Time” hints at older tracks like, “Times Like These” off One by One and “Monkey Wrench” off Colour and the Shape. By the far the darkest track on the album, “Miss the Misery” brings in some of the influences Grohl gained from his time with Them Crooked Vultures and mixes them with the Foo Fighters’ undeniable energy.

Sure, the album doesn’t necessarily break any new ground for the Foos, but it’s a perfect example of what they do best. The Foo Fighters need no prefixes to their brand of rock music; they just rock.

Track listing:

1. Bridge Burning”
2. “Rope”
3. “Dear Rosemary”
4. “White Limo”
5. “Arlandria”
6. “These Days”
7. “Back & Forth”
8. “A Matter of Time”
9. “Miss the Misery”
10. “I Should Have Known”
11. “Walk”

Go to http://wastinglight.foofighters.com/

I have a bit of a history with Greg Dulli’s music. Three of his albums mean a lot to me, but unfortunately I can’t add Dynamite Steps to the list. I’ve listened to it a half dozen times in the last few days, but I still can’t find much to get excited about.

The last Twilight Singers album, Powder Burns, was basically a concept album about doing a lot of cocaine. A whole lot of cocaine. Having done my share of coke, it was a concept I could get behind. It was also an album about redemption and recovery. Albums like that rarely work (Eminem, I’m looking at you.) It’s easy to write about self destruction. It’s much harder to write about the opposite. Pain is a great motivator for amazing art. Health isn’t. It’s just how things work.

Dulli is something of a ‘90’s alt rock survivor. His old band, The Afghan Whigs, is somewhat legendary. How Gentleman didn’t blast him to superstardom, while Nevermind made Cobain the voice of a generation is beyond me. I’m sure I’m not the only person hoping (somewhat naively) Dulli will make another record that earth shattering.

Dynamite Steps isn’t bad. It just doesn’t break any new ground. It sounds amazing when it’s on. I can set my brain on autopilot to this, which is kind of the problem. I want my whole body to be fire when I listen to Dulli’s music. It’s happened many times. I’m sure there are many people who would enjoy this. Twilight Singers albums sell very well. If you’ve ever enjoyed Dulli’s music in the past you’ll find something to enjoy here, I almost guarantee it. I, however, am going to go listen to Congregation again.

Track Listing:
1. Last Night In Town
2. Be Invited
3. Waves
4. Get Lucky
5. On the Corner
6. Gunshots
7. She Was Stolen
8. Blackbird and the Fox
9. Never Seen No Devil
10. The Beginning of the End
11. Dynamite Steps

Dynamite Steps is out now on Sup Pop Records.

From the band that made grunge cool, we bring you the entire Nirvana catalog. Relive Dave Grohl behind the drums before Them Crooked Vultures. Ride along the bass lines of Krist Novoselic. Lose yourself in Kurt Cobain‘s vocals and lyrics.
We’re giving away: Nevermind, Unplugged, Greatest Hits, In Utero, Incesticide, From The Muddy Bands of the Wishkah, and Live At Reading

Nirvana Live At Reading was recently issued in a limited edition CD+DVD Deluxe Edition as well as DVD-only, CD-only configurations on November 3, 2009, the 2LP version is available November 17, 2009.

To win the catalog, simply answer the following question correctly and we’ll pick a winner from the correct answers on Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 12 p.m. CDT.

Cobain and Novoselic met hanging around what band and their practice space?

And be sure to check out this trailer for the band’s 1992 Live at Reeding performance:

Nirvana: website

The much buzzed about noise pop act Pains of Being Pure at Heart took some time at Denver’s Monolith Festival to speak with Bethany about their new EP, what the band would have been called if not PoBPaH and the greatness of Scribblenauts. Check out the interview below.

Bethany, PopWreckoning.com: Let’s talk about your EP that’s about to come out, Higher than the Stars (editor’s note: just came out on Sept. 22).
Kip Berman (vox), Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Sure.
PW: What’s the story on it, why an EP and not an album?
KB: Our new album came out in February and we’ve been touring a lot behind that album. At the same time, we have some new songs that we’ve been playing live for awhile and we just wanted to put them on the EP so people could have access to them as well. It was exciting for us to go into the studio and try new things, “Higher than the Stars” and “Falling Over” kind of expressed a different side of the band that wasn’t really there on the album. It was fun for us to record those songs and put that forward.

PW: You say new things, what kind of new things?
KB:Uh, role playing. Haha. The songs are cleaner. The album was heavy on this distortion and fuzz. The EP is cleaner and draws on different influences. The song “Falling Over” in particular is centered around Alex’s bass line. Up to that point we had never developed the bass lines to a point that was sort of the forefront of the songs. It was cool to write a song around a bass line and putting that forward.

PW: Haha. Alex, you excited about the more bass line?
Alex Naidus (bass), Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Totally. Showing off.
KB: Alex’s fan mail is going up 25 percent after this EP.
AN: It is just a fun song to play.

PW: So new album, I feel like I saw you’re already planning a January release?
KB: We don’t have a new album ready yet. January would be a bit soon. We kind of have to write it first. After December, when our touring is done, we’re going to take some time and work on some new materials. We’ll go into a studio, but I don’t think we’ll start recording until spring 2010. January release is a bit premature.
AN: It’s impossible, actually.
KB: There might be another band we don’t know about called the Pains of Being Pure at Heart looking to put out a new album in January and trying to still our thunder.
PW: It is a really popular band name.
KB: Yeah, there are tons of them.
Peggy Wang-East (keys), Pains of Being Pure at Heart: We couldn’t believe it wasn’t taken.
KB: The MySpace URL is all ours!

PW: Now, there is tons of information online about where the band name came from, but not too much about where you guys came from and how you all got together. Is there a story there?
KB: It probably isn’t as good as the band name story. Is is pretty much straight up like any other band story. We were friends and we enjoyed hanging out with each other. We were all kind of music nerds and our interests overlapped. I started writing demos. Me and Alex were psyched on this idea of playing music together then I asked Peggy to play music for me. I thought she was too cool for me and she wouldn’t want to do it, but I tried to phrase it in as cool a way as possible like (in a deeper voice), “Hey, you want to be in this band that’s going to be like noisy pop music.” I guess she had nothing better to do so she said ok.
PWE: Yeah, basically, I have a small hole in my life to fill with Kip and his silly pop songs.
KB: I wasn’t really interested in filling Peggy’s small hole.
AN: Haha, oh my God.
KB: Haha, but at at the same time, I did want to play pop music with her, so it worked out. We played for awhile with a drum machine. That made traveling easy. Eventually Kurt, my roommate, joined up on drums. It really changed things for the better. It really added a dynamic aspect to the music having a drummer. He’s really good and he understands the type of music that we play. It is so essential to what we do. He helped us become a better band. The first band practice we had with him, it felt like every song we were playing was for the first time because it was so exciting.

PW: So Peggy, what is it like to be in a band with all guys and be the only girl?
PWE: You know, it is funny. I’m just so used to it at this point. I hang out with a lot of guys anyways. I have like two really close female friends, but I don’t know, I hate being the girl that’s like I hate hanging out with girls and only hang out with dudes because that’s not necessarily true. I feel like the guys that re in the band are not like exclusionary. They include me on their activities. Though when they talk about video games, I don’t know what they’re talking about. Sometimes I wish there was another girl around, but it is totally fine. No complaints.
PW: You could easily work another girl in on cowbell or something.
KB: Originally we wanted it to be 50/50. When looking for a drummer, we thought a female drummer would add balance and I was really into bands that were co-ed and not just one female member. I liked the idea of it being more balanced. There are weird things that come out of it and are interesting. You can’t put your finger on why bands like that are cool, but they are. Kurt’s pretty girly to be honest, so it works out ok. He was really good at drums and he wasn’t too masculine, so we’re all happy.

PW: Yeah. You do have a good balance from what I saw in your stage show today. What was it like to perform in the Monolith weather right as the rain started up and people were reaching their most miserable cold point.
KB: We weren’t at our most miserable point. We had a lot of fun.
PWE: It was a lot of fun. I was feeling like a baby before we went on, “It’s so cold. I’m miserable.” Then being out and once we started playing it was fine. Though I definitely missed a few keyboard notes due to my fingers being really numb.
AN: It was incredible how good the energy was. It was like such a testament to the people that were there. It is so appreciated that not only there were people there, but they were into to it. It made it so much more fun.
PW: Yeah. I’m getting used to it. I’ve been to four festivals this year. Three of the four had rain. Bonnaroo was a monsoon. Lollapalooza had a cold, rainy day. I think South By was the only one.
KB: Yeah. There’s no raining at South By.
PW: Oh yeah. You were at that one! I missed your set.

PW: Oh, so speaking of the video game love and knowing that you have a song that reference’s Kurt Cobain, “Kurt Cobain’s Cardigan,” what do you think of the Cobain avatar in Guitar Hero 5 and the controversy with that?
AN: I just saw that like Activision or whatever had just put a statement out because they had to confirm whether or not it was legitimate and Dave Grohl had to officially say we had nothing to do with this and Courtney Love signed off on it. I don’t know, it doesn’t bother me.
KB: He’s just a dude who started a band. I love him, but it’s not like his image is so sacred you can’t put it in a video game. Jim Morrison was in a video game. Whatever. These people are all public figures. I don’t know how to say this and I probably revere Kurt Cobain more than anyone, but he’s just a dude that wrote songs. If people want to put his picture in a video game, it’s not going to end the world.
PWE: I thought it was totally, really embarrassing to watch. If he wasn’t dead, he’d be upset about it. It is not like the songs in the trailer were so…I just think if he was alive he’d say that wasn’t cool. I don’t know.
KB: If there was a video of Peggy as a cartoon character singing Soul Asylum songs…
PWE: That’d be awesome, but that’s Soul Asylum. I’d do that anyways.
KB: Runaway train never coming home….There are real problems in the world and Kurt Cobain’s avatar is not one of those.
AN: That’s our next song title.
KB: It’s going to be the B-side. “Kurt Cobain’s Avatar” will be the B-side to “Kurt Cobain’s Cardigan. They’re just graphics on a video game.
PW: I hear they’ll let you go into the Rock Shop on the game and buy him a cardigan.
KB: That would actually be cool. I would like to have Kurt Cobain’s cardigan.
PWE: That was the inspiration. I would really like to wear the one that he wears in the MTV Unplugged thing. Some green thing.
KB: It is like pea soup colored. It would be cool to have that to wear right now when it is so cold out. I’d appreciate it a lot.
PW: Oh I know. I’m ready to splurge on the $40 hoodie even though I’m already wearing two right now.
KB: I almost did that too. It is almost worth it.

PW: So what video games would I find on the Pains tour bus then?
AN: MarioKart.
KB: I play a lot of Scribblenauts or whatever.
AN: Scribblenauts. It will revolutionize gaming. I wish I could tell you more, but the other guys can explain it better.
PWE: It’s like a secret club. I watch them play it and they’ll get really into it.
AN: I’ve witnessed it. It’s pretty impressive.
KB: A little known fact. If our band wasn’t called the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, we were going to be called Rainbow Road, which is my favorite level on MarioKart. You beat the game and you get to drive on a rainbow in outer space.
PW: That’s the hardest level! You always fall off.
KB: You fall off, it is really dangerous, but at the same time, a cloud picks you up if you fall off. So you’re in outer space and on a rainbow and it really happy. I love it a lot. So if we weren’t called Pains of Being Pure at Heart, we’d be called Rainbow Road. I’m sure that would open us up to even more jokes about the same subject matter.

PW: Haha, you guys would be fine. You’re popular on the blog circuit. Even Pitchfork gave you a good review and they hate everybody.
KB: Haha, I’m sure that’s not true.
PW: Now Pitchfork is called a hipster blog and you guys get labeled as a hipster band, but nobody every agrees what that means. As a “hipster band” what does that mean?
KB: It is not something that concerns us. We think of ourselves as just a pop band and we have a good time. At the end of the day, all bands are measured by the quality of music they produce and we’re excited about the music we’ve made and what we’ll make in the future. That’s who we are. We’re just regular dudes that like video games and regular stuff.
AN: I don’t think we think of ourselves as a cool band or cool people really. We’re just people who just generally like what we do because it is fun.
KB: All of us growing up were never the cool dude. We just enjoyed what we enjoyed. Music is something we identify strongly with and force our identities around. The kind of bands that we like are the kind of people that we wanted to be. The music we loved growing up and then to meet people who had that too was just a thrill. I never really had friends that knew who half the bands I liked growing up, but then I met Peggy. And I was like oh my God, you’re into what I like, too. It was just awesome to meet these people.

PW: For a final wrap up question since we’re at Monolith, what other bands here are you most excited about? Who have you already checked out that impressed you?
AN: We can’t stick around tomorrow. We got to see Depreciation Guild today on a really big stage, which was amazing. I like them a lot.
PWE: Edward Sharpe was awesome. They were on before us. Then I couldn’t get in, but Starfucker. They were in a room that was really packed and crowded. I kind of snuck in through the back, but then we got kicked out. That’s my teenage rebellion of the day. I want to see Of Montreal. They’re always so fun.
KB: We’re on tour with Depreciation Guild, so we’re psyched about that. Edward Sharpe was really cool. Starfucker, I was with Peggy, we were trying to watch them and they kept throwing us out of the place we where we could watch them. They’re a cool band that I’d like to see. I’m bummed we won’t get to stick around tomorrow because Yeah Yeah Yeahs are playing.
PWE: No, they’re tonight. Phoenix is tomorrow.
KB: Oh, Phoenix. Phoenix is great. We saw them briefly in France, which was cool they’re from there. I’ve loved them since the album United and the song “Funky Square Dance.” They’ve been putting out good records for awhile and they’re finally starting to get the acclaim they deserve. We’ll be driving to Salt Lake City tomorrow, but everyone should see Phoenix. They’re great.

Pains of Being Pure at Heart: website | myspace | @monolith

When I first saw the Kurt Cobain avatar “featured” on the new Guitar Hero 5, my gut reaction was to pause it after fifteen seconds and to gasp loud enough that it made those around me come running to the rescue. I was found with my hands covering my mouth, paralyzed. I’m not being dramatic, it’s that bad. Go ahead and have a look at the damage:

and please for the love of God, tell me I’m wrong. Tell me Courtney hasn’t completely sold Kurt out while taking boudoir photos with her pet turtles in bed. This is fact and there are TwitPics to prove it.

In the video, a clip of which has gone viral on YouTube this week, Kurt is a sort of ringmaster/karaoke clown who is lip-singing alongside cartoon skeletons and anime vixens to Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” and introducing the game with an amped-up homeboy bravado that blurts: “…let’s show them that we can do this…like we always do this…turn it up…Yeah Boyeeeeeee!” a la Vanilla Ice? The image of Kurt is a much loved and familiar one from the “Smells like Teen Spirit” era, showcasing his signature blonde shag and the pilled Seattle weather-worn brown cardigan that spawned a thousand, an image which Tim Riley of Activision, the makers of GH5, told Rolling Stone Courtney styled herself for the game. Despite the virtual likeness, this is a horrifying image of Kurt, one that bears no true resemblance to the artist who spent his entire career combating the media’s misrepresentation of him and Nirvana.

Love has apparently spent the past few days blasting, via Twitter, Activision as well as Novoselic and Grohl for the Avatar fiasco and says that she plans to sue. Activision released a subsequent statement confirming that Guitar Hero did indeed secure the proper rights, signed by Love, to use Cobain’s likeness as a “fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5.”

In a statement made by Grohl and Novoselic, the remaining members of Nirvana assure fans, despite love’s rusty battle-axe, that they didn’t have any hand in creating cartoon Kurt and that they don’t legally control the image of Cobain. “We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate – we have no control whatsoever in that area.”

Novoselic and Grohl are urging Activision to “re-lock” the character so it can only be played with the Nirvana songs that were licensed.

“While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in “re-locking” Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.

It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.”

Let’s remember the real thing.

Guitar Hero: website

Arriving in the Seattle Center on Sunday proved that people don’t give a shit about the weather when good music is involved. It reminded me of a movie I recently saw – “Taking Woodstock,” where the famous Woodstock festival was almost put to a halt because of a terrible rainstorm.

We’re Seattle, it doesn’t affect us much.

But in defiance of the sky’s will, the rain did stop and start during various times during the day – the most ironic one actually was during the Cold War Kids set on the main stage when they started playing their hit “Hang Me Up To Dry.” Seriously. Everyone had just put on their hooded raincoats, and the sun came out all of sudden. It was magical. Even the front man Nathan Willett noticed it – “clothes are just coming off all over the place.” For being the first set on the main stage, the Cold War Kids rocked Memorial Stadium. Guitarist Jonnie Russell brought a lot of the charisma to the stage, switching instruments, and beating a cymbal with a maraca. It took a little while for the crowd to build up their energy, seeing that it was early in the day, and wet, but the Cold War Kids didn’t really give a crap about the rain. They played some old songs and some new songs, but since I was pretty close to the stage, I noticed that the crowd sucked compared to Saturday. But it was early yet, so I didn’t mind.

And they were great warm up for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who were next on the main stage.

Holy crap, I’m so glad I had a second chance to see them. They came to the Sasquatch Festival back in May, and I missed them because Bon Iver played at the exact same time, and when I saw that they were playing at Bumbershoot too, I jumped to joy.

Let me tell you – that is one live show you can’t afford to miss. Karen O came bounding on stage in this multi-colored stringy, almost harness-like get up, with a equally colorful cape, and Nick came out with his ridiculously awesome hair and dark pair of wayfarers, and they killed it. The rain had started again by then, but I couldn’t count how many people crowd surfed in that hour-and-a-half. A few people around me actually were dropped because people weren’t paying attention to them enough to remember to hold them up. Karen said over and over how awesome the crowd was – and I couldn’t argue with her. We were singing along to slower hits like “Runaway” from It’s Blitz! and frantically jumping and dancing to older heavy hits like “Date With A Night.” Karen O is the epitome of a front-woman, with her melodic singing, fantastic shrieking, and something that sounds almost like an orgasm, especially during “Date With A Night” as she shouts “I’ll set you, I’ll set it off!” At this point, I was thinking to myself, “why are they playing at 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon?” The scheduling for Sunday didn’t make much sense, having Yeah Yeah Yeahs in the early afternoon and Jason Mraz being the headliner at 9:30 p.m. But that’s a testament to how great a show Yeah Yeah Yeahs put on.

During the last half of “Skeletons,” where Karen O wasn’t singing, and it was just a powerful keyboard solo, a huge gust of wind blew in and tossed the tarps lining the stage around like sails on a boat. I might have been the only one who thought it was cool, but it fit perfectly into the song. But the best part of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ set came when Nick switched to an acoustic guitar and we all knew “Maps” was coming.

“This is a song about love. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Seattle – Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Seattle – love.” And Karen O put her hand on her heart. Her stage presence reminds of Freddie Mercury – with her wild outfits and insurmountable amount of energy. It’s amazing. And on this day, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs could feel the love from Seattle, and Seattle – for sure – could feel the love from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

After my sister and I left the main stage, trotting through puddles and slowly ascending the wet stairs, we took a breather to have some lunch and shop around to give my sister’s back a rest. At 6 p.m., we headed over to the Broad Street Stage to catch the Vivian Girls. The audience was quite a bit smaller than Matt & Kim or Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head from the previous day, but the crowd they did have were really into it. But I think the Vivian Girls music is more fit for smaller clubs than large festivals. I haven’t heard much of their music, but oddly enough, they were very reminiscent of late 90s indie chick rock, but with a little more grungy edge. I’d like to think that Kurt Cobain would enjoy their music. That’s basically how I can describe it, with everything from their vocal stylings, fashion, and stage presence. My sister made some odd comparison as, “the less poppy Donnas.” I personally wouldn’t go see them again live, as I like my live shows to be slightly more energetic, but I listen to their self-titled record a lot. I’m a 90s kid, so the Vivian Girls are my kinda nostalgia.

At that point, the batteries in my camera died, so I had to run down the street to OfficeMax and pick up some more AAs before we got in line for Patton Oswalt at the Charlotte Martin Theater. I’ll just say this – I haven’t laughed that hard in…well I don’t remember the last time I laughed that hard. And I’m so glad I got to see him Sunday, because his set on Monday is during Franz Ferdinand – which is the one band I’m not missing for anything.

The last act of the night – Jason Mraz, I went merely to appease the wishes of my sister. I own one Jason Mraz album from when I was 14, and since then, my musical taste had changed a bit, so I wasn’t nearly as excited to see him as the thousands of girls and frat boys packed inside Memorial Stadium. It’s almost insane how much ladies go crazy for Jason Mraz. He has the appeal of a younger Dave Matthews, certainly with the instruments he works into his live performance. Even though it took me awhile to warm up to him, he’s awesome live. He’s way better than on his record, without a doubt. But it took him a long time to get to the more upbeat, crowd-pleasing songs. At the beginning, I was almost bored, as the songs didn’t fit the enthusiasm of the crowd and the greatness of the venue. This is where I questioned the scheduling again.

His beachy, surfer-dude, chill persona didn’t fit at 9:30 p.m. Chill music doesn’t work well with people who are already tired. But once he got to the second half of the show, and busted out with some Lionel Richie, everyone sang along to “party, karamu, fiesta, forever!” It didn’t make much sense to me, but I sang along as well. He played some more upbeat songs, “The Remedy” and “Coyotes,” which kept the energy up. By then, I was having fun, but what made me and the rest of the people around me extremely frustrated were the constant stream of people leaving. Now, we were towards the front of the crowd, and people who were much closer than we were left 20 minutes in. And they kept leaving throughout the show. I ask you – why squeeze your way to the most crowded area of the venue if you’re just going to leave halfway through? I don’t get it. The father with his 3-year-old standing right in front of me stayed all the way through. And it was adorable, especially during “I’m Yours,” when the 3-year-old sang all the words. That’s how big a spectrum Jason Mraz appeals to. You’ve got middle-aged women, frat boys, boy-crazy teenage girls, and fathers and their young sons.

By the end of Jason Mraz’s set and he played a wicked version of “Butterfly,” I was dancing along like the uber fangirl standing right next to me. From starting slow, to picking up the tempo and getting the crowd more involved, and ending with a bang – Mraz did not disappoint me. At that point, the scheduling made more sense having him as the headliner – because his fans love him.

I’ve still got one more day of this. Yes.

Bumbershoot: website | day 1

Written by: Abby Williamson

Any wise alterna-rocker from the ‘90s knows Our Lady Peace. They’re currently touring in support of their 7th studio album, Burn Burn. Just hours before their sold-out show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, Sara sat down and had a chat with drummer Jeremy Taggart, and here’s what he had to say about hard work, changes, and what John Candy and Ghandi have in common.

Sara Swiecki, PopWreckoning: I apologize in advance if you’ve answered these questions 8 million times and are totally sick of hearing them.
Jeremy Taggart, Our Lady Peace: Oh no. That’s fine.
PW: What would you say to people who have criticized your later releases such as Gravity and Healthy in Paranoid Times?
JT: Nothing.
PW: Nothing?
JT: Yeah. Why would I try and waste time changing the opinion of someone who’s not into something? I’ll always love what we do, and we make our records as honestly and as real as we can at the time that we make them, and I don’t think we have any regrets. But we just do what we do, and that’s all we can control.

PW: Yeah. But I’ve also heard that Raine (lead singer Maida) has criticized Healthy in Paranoid Times. Is that true?
JT: Well, I think it was just the experience that it was. It wasn’t the perfect situation. And a lot of other bands we know went through it. And we were lucky enough not to go through it. And I think we were just a little lost. That’s where some of the upset and the idea of bitterness comes in, and the unpleasantness of the experience, rather than we were doing something we didn’t want to do. We were just searching, and we may not have got where we wanted to be. But in that situation, you don’t always get what you want when you’re making a record, you know?

PW: Yeah. Mike Turner’s departure, how did that affect things?
JT: Not at all.
PW: Really?!?
JT: No. Not at all.
PW: Well, he was one of the founding members, yes?
JT: Yeah, he was.
PW: And it didn’t affect anything?
JT: Nope.
PW: Ok, then!
JT: No, because, I mean, we were already in a position where the creative….the music that was getting done at the time….that’s the reason why we parted ways. Mike, he was slowly, more and more going his way and we were going our way. That’s just the way it is. Sometimes when those things happen, it makes things slow down until that happens. And then things go along, generally….I mean, for us, things went along swimmingly (chuckles).

PW: Right on. Raine is known for his vocals, particularly his trademark falsetto. And with the exception of a couple of tracks on Gravity and with Healthy in Paranoid Times, that’s kind of disappeared. But recently, it’s started to come back. What happened there? Was there a reason that he got rid of it for awhile?
JT: I think if someone asked us before our 2nd record, they wouldn’t have said he had a signature falsetto, until Clumsy. That was just kind of a thing that we went into, and it wasn’t like, “Oh yeah! And I sing like this, too!” It was kind of affected by some of the music we were listening to at the time, like Jeff Buckley and Shudder to Think. A lot of those bands were using falsettos and it really created kind of a cool darkness to have that texture. And I think that was more the reason, that it went along with the decision-making process to do that. And songs like “Car Crash” and even “Clumsy” just had a element of all those kinds of bands. And that’s just the way it is, you know? Bands like Garbage or Portishead, those kind of records were the ones we were listening to at the time. They all kind of had an eerie quality that we kind of took the mindset of.

PW: Ok, um…You guys have been out there for quite a long time now, not stoppin’. So you kind of have to think about it. You know, Neil Young said it, Kurt Cobain made it famous….is it better to burn out or fade away?
JT: Well there’s two examples. One’s still burning and the other one burnt out (chuckles). I mean Neil Young is a good example of if you’re creative and you keep that creative fire going, then you’ll be happy in life. And obviously Kurt Cobain lost that. He had it early in his life, and making music to him helped him escape the problems and the thoughts that were making him feel depressed. And I think that once Nirvana found success, he probably lost that and tried to get it back. And he couldn’t find it in a relationship, and he couldn’t find it in making another record with the band. And who knows? It had nothing to do with the BIG picture, which is inner thoughts of a human being. That doesn’t really have anything to do with Nirvana or success or all that stuff. It has more to do with someone who grows up and what they go through, and their connection to reality, and their connection to the earth and life. And he obviously felt really very terrified. And that’s something that I’m glad I don’t know what that feels like.

PW: Nice. Where do we get the name Our Lady Peace from?
JT: It’s from a poem by a man named Mark van Doren, who was a poet and a literary professor at Columbia University in the ‘50s, I think. He was kind of an early visionary for people like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Kind of a straighter version of that. You know, the outspoken, creative poet. And that poem, “Our Lady Peace,” just kind of had a quality that we all kind of dug.

PW: Out of your guys’ best known songs…you know, your hits and everything. If you had to pick one that best defines your band, what would it be?
JT: I don’t know. I think when we play anything our sound happens. When we play any song in our set, it’s us. So it’s hard to pick one to say that is us the most. Like “this is me more than this is me.” It’s hard to judge that. But I feel what you’re saying.
PW: Like if you were to–for somebody that has no idea who you are–hat one song would you pick for them to hear and know this is Our Lady Peace?
JT: Um, well, I don’t know. Because I can’t say, “This is us.” But you can just hopefully pick something that people would have known the most. Songs that are singles and ones that are more specifically musical songs….I don’t know. I’m not sure. Maybe “Superman’s Dead” or “One Man Army” or something like that. I don’t know.

PW: How have you guys noticed your career change as the industry has been shifting?
JT: How has our position changed?
PW: Yes.
JT: Well, now that we’re kind of independent purveyors of our own music, that’s kind of cool. That’s amazing. And it’s great to have a transparency to the business side of things. To know where all our hard earned dollars are going when we’re trying to put a record together, and all that stuff. You know? The cost of putting an album together and all those things you don’t generally have to think about when you’re on a major label. But in the big picture, it’s important to know about that stuff.

PW: You guys have a sold-out show tonight. Does that still feel really good after all these years?
JT: Oh yeah! Yeah! I mean, it’s great to have people come out. I think, for us, to play these songs is the exciting thing. To be playing at The Troubadour again….I think we played here in ’95. So, that’s kind of cool to be back here and to be in such a historic place. But in terms of playing and selling out or whatever, that’s just….that’s our creativity at work in a sense (laughs). People are lining up! They’re lining up outside to watch us play! That’s a good feeling.

PW: Cool! Back to when you guys were first getting started, what did it take and how hard was it to bridge the gap from just playing local clubs and little hole-in-the-walls to getting signed and picking up?
JT: Yeah. To paying rent and eating!
PW: Yeah (laughs)!
JT: It’s hard, you know? It was difficult, but we were prepared. We didn’t have anything to do but the music and we were on tour for 9, 10 months of the year, we were making an album when we weren’t on tour. You kinda have to give 100% of your life to give yourself a chance…to get to make a career out of music. It was easier then, because there were more bars to play. There were more live venues that were there for bands to develop. The labels had more money to pay for tour support, and stuff like that to keep the band on the road. Now, it’s more, you have to scale everything down, and it’s more….it’s about performance. And that hasn’t changed. I think if you’re a good live band, and your songs have a feeling that people can get when you play them, then you’ll have a chance. And that’s it. You just have to keep performing and practicing and you’ll be alright. I think for us, our success has always been based on one day at a time in terms of the shows. And when we’re in the studio, we don’t get precious with our ideas, and we record as much as we can, and we try and write as much as we can while we’re making a record. And we don’t really feel we’ve finished a record until it tells us. And that’s it. Anything other than that, you can’t control. People will say what they want, or try and get into our head space, or try and explain why we don’t sound like we do, or we do sound like we used to or whatever.
Man Outside: FUCK YOU!
(both laugh)
PW: Welcome to LA!
JT: That’s how I feel sometimes. When people tell you how life is supposed to be through rose-colored glasses. We’ve just been super cautious to be really simple. And all our mindset has been is just to sell some records in order to make another one. Not a lot. Not to fill a gap. It’s only about performing at a level that we feel is exciting to us musically. And making records that we like to add to our body of work.

PW: You were talking about not necessarily wanting to fill a gap. But going from a band that was just recognized in Canada to being recognized in the US, was that something you guys were shooting for? Something you were pushed towards? Was it difficult or hard? Did it just happen?
JT: Well, we’re at our best when we’re just trying to write, and everything comes from that. Whether we’re trying to make it through a performance, or trying to write a song, we follow….the only formula is just kind of mining an idea, and whether that be just trying to make something tighter, or trying to create an actual song. The only way to get through it is hard work. Again, it’s the only thing we want to do…we’re not interested in trying to do anything other than that.

PW: Alright. So I’m sure you guys get sick of being asked the same questions over and over.
JT: (Sarcastically) Oh, it’s totally a pain. (laughs)
PW: (Laughing) Well, where I’m going with that is there anything that nobody ever asks you that you’d love to talk about?
JT: Oh no, never. I think people that are like, waiting for a certain question, like wanting someone to ask…like, that’s fucked up. (laughs)
PW: (Laughing) Like did you ever see Kanye that year at the Grammys on the red carpet? He was dying for Kathy Griffin to say something about his outfit and they were only asking about his music and he was pissed.
JT: Yeah, I’m not a big fan of setting up things. No, I think the best interviews are slightly conversation-based. That way, they can be anything, like someone on the street. I don’t expect anything from anyone.
PW: I agree. Totally. So, nothing special you want to say at all?
JT: Well, no. That’s not what I meant by that! (both laugh)
PW: That’s basically what I was getting at. Is there anything that you want to say? That you want to tell people?
JT: I just want people to like me.
PW: (Laughing) Don’t we all?
JT: That’s it. That’s what John Candy said, and that’s a pretty good way to live. He was a pretty loved guy, so… John Candy is Canada’s Gandhi.
PW: That’s epic. Thank you for that quote. And for everything!
JT: No problem! Enjoy the show!

Our Lady Peace: website | myspace

Photo  by: Christopher Hickson