Brandon Linton's Blog

Fall Out Boy's latest

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:49:00 +0000

The newest song from Fall Out Boy , "I Don't Care," has been posted here: http://www.falloutboyrock.com/falloutboy/disco.php

EDIT: The song is available on iTunes as of September 8.

The song is the first single from the band's new album, "Folie A Deux," which will be released on Election Day, November 4.

The song is something a little different for the emo/punk-pop quartet from Chicago. "I Don't Care," is mish-mash of a 70s inspired riff-rocker and a pop-punk song.
Patrick Stump's vocals continue in the more soulful direction taken on the last record, Infinity on High, especially on songs such as "This Ain't A Scene(It's an Arms Race.)"
The lyrics are about what you would expect from bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz: "I don't care what you think as long as it's about me/the rest of us kind find happiness in misery"
FOB doesn't really have anything extraordinary going on here, but the song is pretty solid, and these days for anything from "Folie" not to be a huge hit, it would have to be pretty horrible.

Fall Out Boy "I Don't Care" Grade: B-

New Metallica song

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:40:00 +0000

The newest Metallica single has made it's way online. The band promised a return to their glory days, and I guess whether they have done so would also require you to believe those days existed in the first place.

To me, it sounds like a song that is long for the sake of being long. The song begins as a "Load"-era ballad which then transitions to a "St. Anger"-ish unnecessary, oddly produced mess of wanna-be speed metal.
There are a lot of crappy, much younger bands making better versions of this kind of music out there, such as Avenged Sevenfold or Bullet for My Valentine.
If you want some mindless and cheesy, but capable guitar rock to pump your fist to, check out those or the dozens of other emerging metal inspired bands.

Metallica "The Day That Never Comes" Grade: D

Kanye West, the end of VFest 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:50:00 +0000

I left Nine Inch Nails a little early to make sure I had the chance to see a considerable amount of Kanye (NOT KAYNE, AS THE PROGRAM LISTED HIM) West's set.
I made it there in time to see "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" and "You Can't Tell Me Nothing." And of course it's not a Kanye show without a rant of some sort. He was going off about the music industry and the "people in mansions with pools who separate me from you."
After a few songs, I went back to see Nine Inch Nails' encore, and then made my way back to Kanye for the last 25-35 minutes of his show.
The hits rolled out at that point with, "Gold Digger," "The Good Life," and "Jesus Walks," before closing with a ridiculously energized version of "Stronger."
Kanye put on a great show, but it's hard to compete with the eleborate stage show of Nine Inch Nails. That being said, there were probably about 3 times as many people watching Kanye than there were watching NIN.
Trent Reznor joked at the end of his show, "Thank you so much. After this song, make sure you go check out Kanye. I feel kind of bad because no one is over there."
All in all, a great weekend of music.
I'm going to let this all sink in for a day, and then come back with some reflections on the weekend as a whole.

Nine inch nails

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:44:00 +0000

These guys have been rocking the north stage for about 30 minutes. The light show is incredible, and the sound flawless, most likely due to he fact that they run a pro tools rig live. That's ok, a great experience nonetheless.
Trent Reznor must have found a way to digitally enhance himself, because he looks too perfect. If you are familiar with the Trent from the old music videos, he has bulked up a lot. Almost as if he has been lifting weights since the release of "The Fragile" in 1999. Gone is the long hair, traded for a very short crew cut.
To borrow words from a couple of female fans nearby, "When did Trent Reznor get hot?"
The technology of the stage show is considerably amazing.
A wall of lights makes of the backdrop for the stage, combined with two movable screen-like objects that lower and raise, either providing a new backdrop for the band, or going in front of the band to combine a lights with visuals of the band provided by on stage cameras.
There was so much going on, that even with NIN was playing instrumental tracks from the Ghosts album, trading guitars for xylophones, bells and God knows what else. ( I say this, because Trent Reznor was playing so many different things, including things I have never seen before, not to mention the screen was blocking most of the view of said instruments.)

Stp, Dylan

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:05:00 +0000

STP just finished their set. They came out 20 minutes late and ended on time, which wasnt cool, but they still sounded amazing. Bob Dylan is grooving over at the South stage right now. Fortunately, I get to see him now because of the stage being behind.
Next I am going to watch Nine Inch Nails until it is time for Kanye West to perform, then I will head back to this stage.
Dylan sounds a lot better tonight then when I saw him 4 years ago.
He must have banned the jumbo tron cameras from closeups or angle changes because it just shows one constant wide shot of Dylan and his entire band. He is Bob Dylan, he gets what he wants.

Lateness, STP

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:22:00 +0000

So after yesterdays schedule went off without a hitch, today has been filled with tardness. Lil Wayne was 40 minutes late, and now STP was about 25 minutes late.
They played a pretty tight set, but ended on time, which meant we miss out on 25 minutes of the band's performance because of the late start.
I was actually just relieved to see the band hit the stage. Ever since singer Scott Weiland's "meltdown" last week in Arizona, the media has been a buzz with rumors that the band may not make it through the rest of it's reunion tour. Weiland, of course, is known for his past problems with heroin and other drugs, and is also notorious for going missing right before a gig.
Weiland seemed to have it all together, performing flawlessly. It's the between-songs time that had me wondering about Weiland's stability. He talked, often slowly, and the things he said were a little odd, and at times, hard to hear.
His desire to connect with the fans seemed like an honest one, holding out the mike for fans to sing portions of "Interstate Love Song," "Wicked Garden," and "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart."
I really hope the band can keep Weiland in check, because they sounded great, looked like they are still really into their music, it would be really interesting to see what the guys can churn out on their sixth studio album after the critical acclaim, though commercial failure of "Shangri-La Dee Da."

Iggy and a quesadilla

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:47:00 +0000

I'm in the quesadilla line rocking out to Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Iggy is truly insane, dumping bottles of water on his head, running and spinning around, and of course, humping the amps.
Food and then non-stop rocking with Stone Temple Pilots and Nine Inch Nails before Kanye brings the house down. Because of Lil Wayne's tardiness, I'm hoping to catch some others as well, such as Bob Dylan or The Black Keys.

Special guest....

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:31:00 +0000

You probably can not tell from the photo but kanye west made a suprise appearance during Lil Waynes set.
The crowd went wild.

Lil Wayne

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:18:00 +0000

Lil Wayne is currently singing about the female anatomy...use your imagination but very descriptive.
He stepped up the performance after 30 mins....full songs, much more energy and even a guitar solo by Wayne himself.

Taking back sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:44:00 +0000

These guys are sounding a little messy. Lil Wayne time soon.

She and him

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:06:00 +0000

The vibe is way more chill at the she and him set, but its really annoying that Lil Wayne's jerk fans are being super rude. Zoey sounds great and looks even better, with a classy blue dress and matching flower in her hair.
Their set would be even more enjoyable without a bunch of thug wannabes spilling beer on me or smoking in my face. I just watched a woman in her mid-40s take a cigarette out of one of the wankstas hands and put it out on the ground. The guy's "thug" melted away quickly to a "yes ma'am, sorry ma'am."
Looks like She and Him fans in their forties are more badass than any of these fakes will ever be.

Chromeo and paramore

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:36:00 +0000

Chromeo was so fun. Even my dance impaired booty was shaking during his hour set. At the end of his set, the crowd cheered chromeo, only it resembled the chant of the guards at the wicked witch's castle in the "Wizard of Oz."
Chromeo came back to treat the audience to a medley of 80s tunes including Journey's "Don't Stop Believing."
Paramore is now on the North stage and I'm about to head over to the south stage to check out She and Him.
Paramore sounds great and is full of energy. Singer Hailey Williams has quite a set of pipes, belting out "Crush Crush Crush" and "That's What You Get," while running the length of the stage or synchronized head banging and dancing with her band.
A lot of people are singing along too, and guess what - 80 percent are also drinking beer, which means Paramore isn't just for the oily skinned teeny boppers.
I thought there would be mostly tweeners watching them, but there aren't many tweeners even at the festival, probably due to the ticket price.

Chromeo is so ga ga ga gangsta

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:05:00 +0000

Day 2 kicks off with some BRMC

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:39:00 +0000

Black Rebel Motorcycle is rocking the north stage right now. For a three piece, they sound ultra heavy live. I really like the combination of hard rock and harmonicas. There is just something about it, done well, that makes me smile.
I really wish there was a bigger crowd here, as I'm sure most people that are here to see Stone Temple Pilots or Bob Dylan would also really enjoy these guys. BRMC is kind of a blend between those two worlds, STP hard rock and Dylan folk.
They are about to play their last song, and then its off to dance tent for Chromeo.

Foo Fighters, Day 1 thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:10:00 +0000

Day 1 of the Virgin Mobile Festival was quite an experience. Foo Fighters closed out the day with an incredibly ferocious performance. Their crowd was by far the wildest of the day, and with Dave Grohl, one of the most charismatic and energetic performers in rock today, it combined for a rather whirlwind performance for the Foos.
Dave Grohl is part stand-up comedian, part energetic motivator, but all parts rock star. Grohl commanded the stage like no other, the only performer to run the entire span of the rather large Virgin Festival stage multiple times, stopping to slam on his guitar at both ends each time.
The band played a rocking cover of The Who's "Young Man's Blues," throughout the set that covered a seemingly endless array of radio hits.
Grohl calmed himself for a while, leading the Foos through a four song acoustic set. However, even those songs end up full of frenetic energy. "Skin and Bones," though folky and somber at the beginning, builds and builds into a frenzied jam complete with the signature Dave Grohl scream "oooooooooooooh yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaah!" at the end of it.
For those that haven't seen the band in a while, these aren't your 1998-2001 Foo Fighters. Hell, they aren't even the same band that recorded, well, any of the albums you have heard.
Something happens to these guys, particularly Grohl and drummer Taylor Hawkins, that transcends their recordings or reputation once they take the stage.

The Foo Fighters set list went something like this: The Pretender, Times Like These, No Way Back, Learn to Fly, Cheer Up Boys (Your Makeup is Running), Young Man's Blues (The Who), Long Road to Ruin, Breakout, Stacked Actors.
Acoustic set: Skin and Bones, Marigold, My Hero, Cold Day in the Sun.
Everlong, Monkeywrench, All My Life, Best of You.

Here are some observations from today:

These bands showed up, played their songs and sounded great, but performance-wise, were kind of forgettable: Bloc Party, Cat Power, The Offspring

Next we have, best gimmick: The Silver Beats, a japenese Beatles tribute band. They sound just like the Beatles, and they look just like them too - well, almost. It was just a lot of fun to sing along to some of the best songs ever written.

Most awkward performance: Chuck Berry. Not only did Berry look lost in front of the thousands of fans, but most of them looked lost too. That's not to say that Berry didn't tear it up, because he was great, especially for his age. And everyone went nuts every time he started a song that they thought was "Johnny B. Good." In fact, during almost every song Berry played, this happened at the beginning. You can probably guess why. The awkward award is basically being awarded because Berry invited 12 young ladies up on stage near the end of his set. They didn't immediately come up, and then he demanded they come or he wouldn't finish his set. So, the 12 young ladies came up on stage, and I don't think Berry knew what he was asking for. The girls were grinding and dancing, approaching Berry, not scared to touch his guitar and make the legendary father of rock and roll look very very uncomfortable.

Most unique performance, Most fun performance and Best Mustache of the Day goes to Gogol Bordello.

Best peformance, hands down, goes to the Foo Fighters. No one came close to the performance, or the crowd they had last night.

Best recovery from technical difficulties: Lupe Fiasco. Lupe was having microphone problems, but after about 7 minutes, re-engaged the crowd with one of the most passionate peformances of the day.

Best introduction: Dave Grohl introducing the band's percussionist: "We have the best cowbell-bongo guy in rock and roll! Ladies and gentleman, the master of all the shit you played in third grade, the Eddie Van Halen of the triangle, Drew Hester! Nine Inch Nails doesn't have a triangle player the caliber of ours!"

Best song dedication of the day, once again, goes to Dave Grohl: "This one goes out to the kids who spent all day in the rave tent, dancing with their glowsticks and kissing people they don't know."

Best joke, Dave Grohl: "Ok everybody, make sure you come back tomorrow because we are going to be playing at the dance tent at 3. I'm just kidding, I wouldn't be caught dead with a f-ing glow stick. I do like those necklaces and braclets, though."

Best sing-a-long of the day goes to The Offspring's "Bad Habit"
"Drivers are rude, such attitudes, but when I show my piece, complaints cease, something's odd, I feel like I'm God, you stupid....." (if you don't know the rest, look it up)

Best dancing of the day (not including the dance tent, i'm sure there was a lot of great stuff going on there): Gogol Bordello

Most overdressed: The Dap Kings....boy did those suits look hot!

The stoner award goes to Citizen Cope, who attracted the most pot-smoking of the day, from what I could see.

Go johnny go!

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:04:00 +0000

Chucky Berry's set was fun, but left a ton of younger concert goers bored out of their minds.
A lot of people were using this time to collect cans and bottles that jerks through on the ground.
You see, here at Virgin Festival, they have a stand set up where you can obtain a bag, and then redeem those items collected for prizes. For example, 3 bags full gets a shirt, etc.
I have to mention, an angry couple who looked a little blitzed stormed past me and the couple standing in front of me. The guy in front of me turned and joked said, whoa don't do drugs. That same guy just packed a pipe and asked if I wanted a hit. Oh, the irony.

Circus tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:53:00 +0000

Not only did this guy drive a motorcycle on a tightrope, he did it with a girl attached to the bottom. Then, he did somersaults around the tightrope...pretty sweet huh?
This family circus was just one of the many non-musical performers you could watch at the Virgin Festival this weekend. The Charm City Rollergirls performed, as well as a flame thrower, among others.

Sun, sun go away

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:05:00 +0000

I made the mistake of not wearing sunscreen today. That combined with the fact that god has spited me up top means that my head is fried.
The Silver Beats sounded great. They are a Japanese Beatles tribute band, and they have been nailing the legends' hits, including "Back in the USSR," "Hard Days Night" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
What is really funny about this band is that, outside of the songs they are singing, they know very little English. This is really not noticeable in anyway, except when they are not singing.
The legendary Chuck Berry took the stage next. He opened up with "Rollover Beethoven," and then launched right into "No Particular Place To Go" and "You Never Can Tell," which plays during the famous dance scene in Quentin Tarentino's "Pulp Fiction." Chuck will be followed by headliners, the Foo Fighters.
Since, my last update, I checked out sets by Bloc Party, the Offspring and Lupe Fiasco.
Bloc Party sounded pretty good, but could have been louder. I took this opportunity to get some food and watch the band's set from one of the various Shade Tents provided on the grounds.
They played their new single "Mercury," "Helicopter," "The Prayer" and other songs from their two discs "Silent Alarm" and "A Weekend in the City."

Lupe Fiasco put on the most passionate performance of the day. It's really refreshing to see a rapper with no entourage tear it down. His set consisted mostly of songs from his latest album, "The Cool," including "Go Go Gadget Flow" and the mega-hit "Superstar" and one of his first hits, "Kick, Push" from "Food & Liquor."

The Offspring played a literally effortless set. I don't know if lead singer Dexter Holland was just having a bad day, or if there was some other problem, but The Offspring hit the stage about 10 or 15 minutes late and pretty much stood there, lifelessly playing through their songs.
I think the band may be discouraged by crowds that only know the big hits, but there were obviously some die-hard fans in the audience (such as the guy beside me who had the band's logo tattooed on his neck.)
Don't get me wrong, the band sounded great, but they should really do something about that stage presence problem. The formerly spikey-haired frontman now sports a longer, surfer-dude looking looking do.
Even when Dexter put his guitar down to sing high-energy punk-rock classics such as "Bad Habit," "All I Want" and "Americana," (ok, so that last one isn't exactly a classic), he looked like he wanted to be somewhere else, like, on the beach, dude.
Still, that didn't stop the crowd's energy, as it was by far the most rowdy as it had been all day at this point. Hundreds of crowd surfers hoped not to fall to the ground on their heads, though some did, and numerous circle pits tore into the thousands packed toward the front of the stage, being beaten on by the sun.
Being a fan myself, it was great just to see and hear the band, and the band cranked out enough hits to keep the casual listeners having fun. It just would have been nice if it looked like they wanted to be there.

The Offsprings set list went something like this: All I Want, The Kids Aren't Alright, Come Out and Play, Hammerhead, Gone Away, Have You Ever, Staring at the Sun, Bad Habit, You're Gonna Go Far Kid, Gotta Get Away, Want You Bad, Why Don't You Get A Job, Americana, Can't Get My Head Around You, Pretty Fly (For A White Guy), Self Esteem.

Foo Fighter Chris Shiflett

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:48:00 +0000

Shiflett was signing autographs and meeting fans for about an hour at the campus progress booth.
Campus Progress is an organization dedicated to organizing young people to take part in the political process.

Photo of Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:22:00 +0000

Gogol Bordello and Cat Power

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:34:00 +0000

I am standing at the south stage as Gogol Bordello are introduced. These guys are sure to be the most ridiculous looking act of the day.
The lead singer is wearing blue Capri pants with an open army green button down shirt and sports a Ron Burgandy-style mustache. The six piece band includes a fiddle and accordion player. Gogol's sound is pretty hard to describe with words. It's like a mix of Russian folk, Irish folk, Spanish rap and American punk rock. I'm sure I'm missing a few other styles, but you get the picture, it's an insanely fun chaotic mix.
The energy introduced here is certainly a step up from Cat Power , who provided a much more laid back opening to the day. Chan Marshall redeemed herself from her Lollapalooza meltdown, performing a tight, and might I add complete set.
I wasn't sure if it was late enough for anyone to be drunk, but about 300 drunks just materialized, forming a dancing train to the front for the multi-ethnic gypsy punk rockers.
Two Asian dancers just emerged with giant cymbals and a marching band bass drum. Now the crowd has launched into group jumping and dancing.
It's going to be a hard performance to follow for sure.

The virgin mobile festival is now!

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:32:00 +0000

As I type this, I am walking across the Virgin Festival grounds at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore toward the north stage that will feature Cat Power in about 30 minutes.
Early birds have spread blankets out all around, blankets that are sure to be trampled when The Offspring and Foo Fighters deliver their hard hitting performances this evening.
What a great, breezy day for an outside music festival!
Alcohol is priced what you would expect - 8 bucks for a crappy beer and 9 for a decent one. 8 to 10 bucks for a mixed drink and 7 for a really small wine.
There are lots of things to do other than watch the bands.
Various booths are all about and every area radio station is broadcasting live with different promotions to keep people busy. The WHFS tent has Guitar Hero set up for concert goes to try their hand at jamming out a tough song to win a prize. Playstation has its own giant video game trailer where you can play Rock Band and various other video games for some Playstation swag.
Festival sponsers such as Dell, Major Leage Baseball, and Kryocera have different activites, including video games, chill stations and cellular phone recharging stations.
Dell's "Recharge Dome" is actually quite interesting. You can go in the air conditioned dome, sign up for contests via various laptops, have a mixtape of songs you select sent to you via e-mail and make buttons, t-shirts or have your hair done into a "crazy style" for free.
The Charm City Rollergirls, including former Capital reporter Nicole Young, are skating around and will perform an exhibition later today.
It looks like the music is about to start up, so I will update again in an hour or so.

Virgin Mobile Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:55:00 +0000

I'm going to try live mobile blogging for the first time from this weekend's Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore.
Here is the schedule. The sets I most likely will watch are in bold, and of course, I'll try to catch bits and pieces of the others during set transitions.

Saturday, Aug. 9 GATES OPEN at 10am

NORTH STAGE
12:00 - 12:50 Cat Power
1:10 - 1:55 Duffy
2:15 - 3:05 The Swell Season
3:25 - 4:15 Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
4:35 - 5:25 Rodrigo y Gabriela
5:45 - 6:35 Citizen Cope
7:00 - 8:15 Wilco
8:45 -10:00 Jack Johnson

SOUTH STAGE
12:15-1:00 KT Tunstall
1:20 - 2:10 Gogol Bordello
2:30 - 3:25 Lupe Fiasco
3:45 - 4:35 Bloc Party
5:00 - 6:00 The Offspring
6:30 - 7:30 Chuck Berry and The Silver Beats
8:15 - 10:00 Foo Fighters

DANCE TENT
12:00 - 12:30 JDH & Dave P
12:30 - 1:45 Erol Alkan
1:45 - 3:15 DJ Dan & Donald Glaude
3:35 - 4:35 Soulwax
4:45 - 6:10 Steve Lawler
6:10 - 7:40 Ferry Corsten
8:00 - 10:00 Underworld

Sunday, Aug. 10 GATES OPEN at 10am

NORTH STAGE (all times p.m.)
12:00 - 12:45 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
1:05 - 1:55 Shudder to Think
2:15 - 3:05 Paramore
3:30 - 4:20 Taking Back Sunday
4:50 - 5:50 Iggy and The Stooges
6:20 - 7:35 Stone Temple Pilots
8:05 - 10:00 Nine Inch Nails

SOUTH STAGE

11:30 - 12:00 Hollywood Undead (Book the Band winner)
12:20 - 1:05 The Go! Team
1:25 - 2:10 Andrew Bird
2:35 - 3:25 She & Him
3:50 - 4:50 Lil' Wayne
5:15 - 6:15 The Black Keys
6:45 - 8:00 Bob Dylan
8:30 -10:00 Kanye West

DANCE TENT
12:30 - 1:30 Chromeo
1:50 -3:20 Rabbit in the Moon
3:30 - 5:00 Deadmau5
5:00 - 6:30 Richie Hawtin
6:30 - 8:00 Moby (DJ Set),
8:00 -10:00 Armin van Buuren

Less Than Jake will shout it out loud at Rams Head

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:07:00 +0000

Monday night, two giants of ska-punk will join together at Rams Head Live! in Baltimore for the first date the "Shout It Out Loud 2" tour.
Less Than Jake and Goldfinger, two bands who transcended the mainstream over a decade ago and continue to sell out clubs across the globe, will be joined by Suburban Legends and Westbound Train.

Less Than Jake will release the new album "GNV FLA" on Tuesday, and trombone player Buddy Schaub said fans at Mondays show will be treated to a few of those new songs filtered into a set that will span most of the bands 8 studio albums.
I had a chance to chat with Schaub on Thursday about the band's new record label, and the new album and tour.

Hey Buddy how's it going today?
I've been on the phone so long I think my cheek is fried. The guy before you has had me going for over a half-hour. He wasn't asking stupid questions or anything, but my phone is really hot on the side of my face.
Isn't there a study about too much cell phone usage causing brain cancer or something?
Feels more like cheek cancer.
So you guys have a new album coming out Tuesday.
Yes sir.
This is the first new album you guys have put out on your new "Sleep It Off" label. Are you excited to see this thing out there?
I'm completely excited, especially since it's already leaked to the Internet, so it could come out today and I'd be stoked.
Do you guys get upset when your albums leak?
Um, yeah you know it's hurts a little bit. But at this point it's an inevitable thing. It's more of a game at this point to see how long you can go before the record is actually out before it goes up online, because it always gets up before somehow. You expect that the day of it's going to be up there, it's going to be everywhere and I'm not really worried about it. I was just saying this in my last interview too, at this point a new record is pretty much a marketing tool, it's not really a product for sale anymore. It's a way to get people to like, come to your tour.
Have you guys ever thought about leaking your album yourselves before the "Internet pirates" do, just to kind of say "we knew this was going to happen, so at least we control what happens to our music." A lot of bands do online streams the week before release, stuff like that.
Um, well I don't know about just putting in people's hands like that. It's definitely something we have slaved over for, you know, four months. As much as it's fun, it's work to do that and you do still want to put it out and have people go buy it, you know? For us to just be like, "hey everyone, go get it for free," Radiohead did that, or whatever, but that's easy to do when you go play Reading the next month and make a million pounds. Know what I mean?
Yeah exactly.
When you are already that big of a band, it's easy for you to go do that, and that was all just a big marketing tool anyway, to be able to just go up there and try and look really cool in the public eye. People did the donations, and I'm sure they made tons of money just off of that, because that was their whole marketing scheme.
You know, the Internet is what it is. It's the "wild west" at this point and at some point it's going to get regulated in a weird way. I don't know if they will do it through an ISP server, or you will eventually have to purchase stuff through like, I-Tunes...but the end is going to happen at some point because of the "wild west" that is going on right now. Now that the movie industry is getting screwed over pretty royally too, I think it's going to start changing a bit...but I'm riding it out while it's the "wild, wild west." You know, you've got to live in the "now."
I don't fight anyone for going to download our record, but that's why we kind of let people know that we are really doing all of this ourselves and we've put a lot of effort into this record. It's not like you are taking money from the mouth of the belly of the beast, you know Warner Bros. or whatever. It's coming out of our pockets. But, you know, at the same time, if you don't have any money and you're starving and you want to listen to our record, go download it. That's fine. Then come to our show and buy our t-shirt, as long as your support us in one way.
It seems like there was a lot less turnaround with this album, not necessarily the time between albums, but I mean, you guys were just in the area twice last year, you were in Europe for a while. The band didn't go hide for a year or so, it seems you guys got off the bus, recorded an album and then jumped back on.
As far as turnaround went, it still took a few months to set it up. We got done with recording at the beginning of April, right on our deadline actually, because we wanted it to come out at the beginning of summer, instead of at the end. We actually are going through distribution company, it's not like we're actually at the printing press ourselves, burning the CDs or whatever. I'm not sitting at the CD burner at my house or anything like that, it's not THAT do-it-yourself.
I can just see you guys all sitting in a room all stressed out, printing labels, burning CDs and someone coming in the room and saying "Hey guys we need a couple thousand more before you hit the road."
Yeah exactly. "Eight thousand, let's make this happen!" But yeah, so they still have their deadlines, you know, the distribution company we went with on this was like "if you want this to come out by June 24, you have to be done recording by this day." And we were really under the wire in the studio, we were like "yeah, we're going to make this happen." We sent it off like, the last day to mastering. We got it done just in the nick of time so that we could have it come out now, so the turnaround was pretty quick because we really were cutting it close on getting it done in time. We squeezed all of the artwork together out of nowhere, and you know, made it happen.
Was the whole process of making this album less stressful because you didn't have to deal with anyone telling you what to do, or was it more stressful because you had to make all of those decisions, and do everything yourselves?
It was definitely more stressful on this one because, you know, we could have made the decision to go back to a different label, like go back to Fat Wreck Chords or something like that and have other people do the work, but we really decided to have no other cooks in the kitchen. So when something goes wrong, it's our fault, and when something goes right it's our fault too, so we reap all the rewards, so taking it on....you know, we already thought we did a lot of work ourselves, but taking it all on adding a pile to the list for sure.
We all have our own niche in what we are doing. I do all the video stuff for the band, Roger record all of our demos, we all are taking on as many interviews as we can, we share in doing all the Web site stuff, the MySpace..we are all taking on different marketing aspects on the Internet, because that's basically your biggest tool for marketing these days. Trying to go get huge on the radio, or go be on David Letterman, a lot of that stuff is going the way of the buffalo. Kids spend 8 hours a day on the Internet, you know? That's the place where this stuff really gets across, people are going to see that you have a new record if you advertise there, and not with some Fuse commercial or something.
Are you guys anticipating a better reception for this album than the last one? It seems like a lot of your fans were kind of upset about the direction of "In With the Out Crowd."
Yeah. Well, I think a lot of that came from just us being, like, I dunno there is just kind of a dark cloud over that last record and a lot of just came from the way the whole writing process went. Just, I think a lot of it was like what I was saying before from the label side of things with "Sleep It Off," when there is too many cooks in the kitchen, things get confused and everything gets clouded and murked over. None of us were like, completely happy with the way the record came out last time either. I think there are a lot of good songs on that record, but the way ended up coming out, and the way that things got twisted around and stuff, it just didn't come out being our best album by far.
For this record, we just like, shut ourselves up in a bubble and it was just the five of us again, like the old days. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we went out last year too and did those six shows in a row where we played all of our records and a lot of the touring we did, we tried to bring back to that, because secretly we were trying to stay prepared because we did the same thing in London later in the year, so we had to keep all of the songs fresh in our heads. Just by going back and doing all of our records like that, doing our homework on everything we've done before as a band, kind of led to, whether it was subconsciously or not, led to us having more of an old-style record. We went back and learned what worked really. Like "Oh man, we haven't done that in a while or we haven't done this sort of thing" and I think that helped with this record where we went into it with a fresh perspective on things as opposed to you know, trying to move forward in some other direction. We kind of got back to our roots, which is kind of what the whole record is about, really doing that in the truest sense, going back and reviewing all of our stuff and trying to figure out what is good and what isn't. I think that this new record is going to definitely, in the eyes of our fans, stand out more than the last one for sure. It's a lot more like our older records. I think that, actually, what it is is a conglomeration of all of our records. That's what it sounds like to me. If you took all of our records, threw them into a pot and stirred it up, this is what would come out.
There is also a reemergence of sorts of horns on this album. Was that something that was always a point of contention on the last few albums?
Yeah, you know, once you get in the major label world a lot of that stuff happens whenever you are trying to get on the radio, whatever is not like... When we first were a band, it wasn't a big issue when we did "Losing Streak" and "Hello Rockview" when we were on Capitol Records because all of that stuff was popular at the time, Reel Big Fish's success with "Sell Out" and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and all of that stuff, it was like "it's cool to have horns on the radio."
But then you have some guy like "We did market research and it might not be a good idea to have horns." You know, it wasn't so specific you know, it wasn't like "You better not do this!" But it did get into some heavy handed arguments about changing our sound to a certain degree, and we fought it out the best that we could, and we still did stuff. There are some horn parts that are there that are so buried behind the keyboard parts you can't even hear them. It was like "are you kidding me?" It's crazy, you know. It's been a wild ride in the respect that we really have gone through all of those stereotypes of what the major label world is like. And the way that they do it too is so non-direct. They find their ways into making things happen by, you know, blackmailing you to a certain degree.
That had to be hard on your personally being the trombone player.
Are you kidding me? It was a nightmare the whole time. But we still got through there, we were in there and then we got play live and it is what it is. But definitely this record is more like our old school records in that respect for sure because we went in there and it was just the five of us and we were like "well, this is what we want it to sound like." And maybe this is what it should have sounded like on some of those other records.
You guys have already hit the road. You're in..
Yeah! Day two! We're in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. It's raining cats and dogs outside now.
You don't join up with Goldfinger until the show in Baltimore on Monday.
Correct. As much as they are co-headlining this tour, they seem to be dipping out a bit on it. That's the luxury of being a producer as well as a band I guess. They are doing a decent amount of dates, though they are in and out, and the band Suburban Legends is doing the whole tour with us. Big D & the Kids Table is jumping on for most of July and Mustard Plug is out right now, so it's a nice conglomeration of ska goodies.
I have noticed the past couple of tours, you have been compiling much more ska-punk exclusive line-ups.
That's our theme for the summer tours. It's called the Shout It Out Loud tour, which we started last year with our co-headlining tour with Reel Big Fish, this is kind of like a continuation of that tour. The future plans are to continue to do stuff like this, but we might run out of ska bands, so we're going to have to start repeating. The idea is like, it's summertime, to go out and, you know because ska music is all upbeat, fun, danceable lets go out in the summertime type music, so we decided we'd try to bring some of that back and really push the limit with that.
Have you guys ever been out with Goldfinger before?
We've done some shows with them before, we've never gone out on a full tour, but we played festivals in Australia with them and we've done a couple of one-off shows here and there, we actually played some snowboarding show with them once a long time ago.
Have you guys decided who the actual show ender is going to be?
It's kind of a flip-flop thing so when we are out for a few days in a row, it'll be like we'll headline one, and they'll headline the next one. So kind of a back and forth thing. That's kind of what we did with Reel Big Fish the whole time, we flip flopped every night.
Being that you have so many records and a brand new one coming out that you are excited to play, does it make it that much harder to choose the set for the night, because you know so many people want to hear the old stuff?
Haha, that IS the downfall of having so many records is having to pick which songs you are going to play in an hour-long set. Like for bands with one record it's easy, just go up and play the whole record. When you get to the point that you have 14 records or whatever we are at at this point, it gets pretty difficult. We are playing some new stuff for sure, and you don't want to flood the set with the new stuff either because everyone hates new songs. We are actually really excited to through the new songs in this time, because we are really excited about the new record. We are doing about 3 off the new record every night and then, you know, a conglomeration of the oldies behind it. That is good part too about having so many records. Even if you have one good song on each record, by the time you get to our level all you have to do is play one song off of each record and you're alright. You've got a whole set list.
It's been over a decade since you guys broke into the mainstream.
Yeah. We've been a band for entirely too long.
It's kind of amazing though, because you are still able to come to these clubs, the 9:30 Club in D.C. or Rams Head Live!, where you are playing Monday, and pretty much sell them out every time. There are still young kids at these shows.
I know that's what rules about it. I think that's what has kept our band going for so long is that we are a live band, we've always been a live band. None of us are even really that stoked on any of our studio records, everybody is always going "yeah, that's kind of what we sound like.." But you know, we've always been a band that's like "this is what we are" as soon as we take the stage. That's what our band is, and it's really hard to capture that on a record and really get across. The energy that we try to create in a live setting is different than anything that has ever come off our records. Although, this new record I am kind of pretty stoked, I think it really has kind of hit the nail on the head as to what we are as a band. I think that too is why people keep coming out because what we are known for is our live show, so when we do go out on tour, people aren't like "well, I like their last record, but I hate going to see them live because they are boring." It's the complete opposite, "well I didn't get their new record, but I went out to the show because those guys are awesome live."
So I think, it's weird because the music industry is kind of going in that direction and it's actually working in our favor now. None of us are actually that worried about the downloading trend that is going on, where there are these other bands that have relied on their CDs for all of their income it's like "what are we going to do now." We've never really made money off of our CDs anyway, so for us it's nothing but a positive thing that the only way to make money is on the road, because that's been our strong point from day one.
You guys always hit the road hard with long runs, and not a lot of breaks before runs. Has it gotten to the point where you find a way to make both being home and on tour "normal"?
Oh yeah, I have multiple personality syndrome and everybody in our band does...AMONG OTHER THINGS!! We should all have a shrink bill the size of Bill Gates' petty cash fund. It's gotten pretty ridiculous with the multiple personality thing. It's definitely two worlds for sure. You see the tour buses on the road and you are like "wow that's so glamorous those guys must be living the life." But, you pile ten people on here, and it's basically a Chinese hotel up in here. There's not a lot of private time. It's weird because after we go on a long stretch, where we've been out for a good six months, but then we get home, and I'm sitting in the living room like "oh my god, I'm the only one in this entire building right now! I freak out because I'm in my house and I'm the only one there. It's crazy! Even when you are on the road and you get off the bus, you are still never alone. If I go to a restaurant, even if I go by myself, there's still other people there, or if you go into the club, there's still other people there. Everywhere you go, there is no private time ever. We don't get hotels or anything like that either. So it's like, you know, we're in this bus all the time with ten guys in your face, farting or putting an armpit in your face.
Do you have anything lined up after this tour? Is the plan to stay out for the rest of the year?
Oh yeah, we are booked through December right now. We get done with this tour at the beginning of August and then we have a week and half off, then we go to Europe to do some festivals that are at the end of the summer over there. You know, huge, people camping in the mud-type things, pretty much for the rest of August. Then we have off a week again, and then we go out through Canada and the northwest on our own thing for three weeks in September. Then we get back and October is kind of up in the air. We've been talking about doing some college shows. Originally we were going to go to Brazil, but I don't think we are going to do that anymore and right after that, November through the middle of December we are going to be in Europe again doing a whole club tour. Six weeks in Europe, we could bring someone home in a body bag, we'll see what happens.

A chat with Natasha Bedingfield

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Linton) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:21:00 +0000

Pop singer Natasha Bedingfield was in Annapolis yesterday to sign autographs at the Harbour Center's Verizon Wireless store before her concert last night at Rams Head Live! in Baltimore. The singer is on tour with Kate Voegele and The Veronicas in support of her latest album "Pocketful of Sunshine." The title track to that album is currently No. 10 on the Billboard Pop 100 Airplay chart. The singer's song "Unwritten" is also featured at the theme song for MTV's top ratings earner, The Hills.

So how long have you been out on this tour?

We're half way through now, we've been out about a month.

You are playing smaller clubs this time out.

Yeah.

Do you like to play the smaller shows as opposed to the large arena shows you have done with artists like Justin Timberlake?

Yes I do, but I love the big arenas because it's a huge crowd, and you can be much more dramatic on stage, it's more of a show. Um, what I do love about these smaller venues is it's much more intimate. You get to see the audience and they feel that connection and actually you know, I stay back and I meet people at the end as well, and it's just much more, a much better way of seeing America. And the sound is better as well. I can hear things, it's not as echoey like in an arena.

And this is your show, this is your tour. You also have a couple opening acts on this package. Did you purposely seek out a couple up and coming female artists?

It wasn't actually initially the idea. It just happened that The Veronicas and Kate Voegle, they just seemed like the best people to open at the time, but it was never an idea like "Ok, lets get an all female thing," that's just the way it happened. We had some other ideas as well at some point, like maybe some guy artists and things like that. That wasn't the thing behind it, but it's kind of cool. All the girls are very strong in what they like and they're cool girls.

Verizon put this whole thing together, the "Verizon V.I.P. Tour." You've got a bunch of interactive stuff for the fans at the venues every night.

Yes, it's a very special kind of gig because it's got like, yeah, interactive, a way that people can feel like not just spectators, but they're really being part of it. There is the duet contest. Parked out side of the venue most of the time there's the Verizon bus, which has a studio on it. Anyway, they get kids to go on there and sing one of my songs, and they win a chance to come to Sacramento with me. I'll listen to their version of my song, and then they'll sing a duet with me.
The other one that is really cool is the green screen. and they dance in front of the green screen, and they get to be in the video just dancing...

Is it the video for "Pocketful of Sunshine?"

Yes, and I think they can do it with videos for the other girls to, and then they get that sent to their phone.

Oh wow, hooray for technology!

Yes! I love that.

So your latest album is out, it's been out for a while, you're on your second single..

Yes, this is my second single. The album came out a couple of months ago. "Pocket Full of Sunshine," it's doing well. It's staying around. It's been in the top ten for quite a while.

Obviously, your biggest exposure for your music in the U.S. is "Unwritten," which has become the theme for one of the most popular shows on television, The Hills.

Yes! It's wonderful. I mean, "Unwritten" was a hit on radio before that, it was like the most played radio song. And then The Hills started using it. I got a relationship with them through, when it was Lauren of The Hills, they came and visited me in the studio and I was in one of their episodes. Then they just decided to use "Unwritten," and that just kind of took the song to a whole new audience.

And I'm sure you really saw the I-tunes stats sky-rocket after a few episodes aired...
Yeah! It did amazing. "Pocket Full of Sunshine" started to do really well on I-Tunes too. For about a month it's been in the top ten.

So you're going to be playing Rams Head Live tonight (Tuesday) in Baltimore, but you'll be back in the area this fall opening for New Kids on the Block right?

Yeah, I met some of the guys from New Kids on the Block at a radio show about a month ago and we kind of, we were just talking about their tour. My tour manager just said to them, "Hey, we're free in September!" And then it just, it happened, you know, and I'm very excited.
It's going to be perfect because they are, historically, one of the first, really the first big boy band, so they'll have a lot of people wanting to kind or relive things and be involved in that too.

It'll definitely be a very retro thing with the guys singing the old "classics" and doing the "New Kids Dance" about twenty years later..

Yes and they have a new album coming out, so I'm sure we'll hear some of that, so, it's just great. We're going to be at Madison Square Garden, The Staples Center, all of these amazing venues, so I'm very excited about that.

As far as the future goes, do you have anything else lined up other than the New Kids tour. Is there any recording in your plans...

This tour I'm able to write a little bit as I go, so I'll just keep writing. I'm writer first, before anything else, so my next album, there are already a lot of ideas. I've got a number of songs that are in the, what do you call that, are about to come out soon that I've written for other artists as well, so I'm looking forward to that.