Warped Tour - Review

by Tina Whelski

Vans Warped Tour combed Randall’s Island August 13 with My Chemical Romance stealing the scorching day’s spotlight. The performance of Gerard Way (vocals), Mikey Way (bass), Ray Toro (guitar), and Bob Bryar (drums) on Saturday showed why the band’s comic book-colored emo/rock has been catapulting them to well-earned superhero status. Preparing for their first headlining tour in September the band played “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” “Helena,” and “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid” among others from Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. The band’s New Jersey brethren, Senses Fail, also offered a powered performance with singer Buddy Nielsen delivering his usual consuming rock-wrenched melodies. Other highlights from the sold-out lineup included Hawthorne Heights, Funeral For A Friend, Transplants, The Offspring, Dropkick Murphys, Atreyu, Fall Out Boy and My American Heart.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 8/31/05.

My Chemical Romance photo by Tina Whelski.

My Chemical Romance video for "I'm Not Okay."

Lollapalooza - Review

Chicago’s Grant Park/
July 23-24

Lollapalooza returned this year, transforming itself from a touring music festival to a one-site, two-day affair July 23-24 set in Chicago’s Grant Park. Showing the same tenacity he became known for when he pioneered the alternative music festival in 1991, Lollapalooza founder/organizer and former Jane’s Addiction front man Perry Farrell revised the event to adapt to the concert industry’s changing climate and to regain control over the integrity of the Lolla experience.

Over 60 acts lined up for the revived showcase, with stellar live performances by The Arcade Fire, The Bravery, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Louis XIV, Drive-By Truckers, The Killers, Weezer, Primus, and Farrell’s new project, Satellite Party, a nebulous, satisfying musical experience with former Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt and No Doubt’s Tony Kanal on bass.

In introducing The Arcade Fire, Farrell explained they were an example that it’s still possible to be original. In restoring Lollapalooza Farrell proved there are always alternate paths towards that goal.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 8/10/05.

Weezer photo by Tina Whelski

Tori Amos - Interview

by Tina Whelski

The breezy, sensual songs of Tori Amos’ ninth, and latest album, The Beekeeper (Epic) ride the drift of an impending storm with honey sweet vocals and a storyline that looks at mending the historical rift that divides a woman’s sexual and spiritual self. In writing the music Amos draws from both her own emotional impulses and the rhythm of the world as she sees it at this moment. Days before her Summer of Sin solo tour began Amos offered a synopsis of The Beekeeper and shared her creative process, which she also chronicles in a new book Tori Amos: Piece by Piece, co-written with music journalist Ann Powers.

WOMANROCK: On The Beekeeper you continue to satiate your worldly curiosity and desire for self-discovery through song. How has your music evolved since Little Earthquakes (13 years ago) and do you feel you approach your instruments differently on The Beekeeper?

TORI AMOS: When I can listen to something a few years later, I’m able to be more objective. When I’m in the thick of it, I’m making choices based on what is right at the time and you have to trust your instincts and you have to be clear on your vision. For instance, I was listening to Choir Girl over the last couple of days because I’ve been learning a few songs for the tour and I hear that album really differently now than when it was occurring (laughs). I’m able to step back and you have a sense of detachment, which I think is really healthy—not when you’re trying to finish it though. If you’re too detached, you’re not passionate enough.

WOMANROCK: True. As we grow we often don’t notice differences in ourselves until we look back in retrospect.

AMOS: I like to use the word “changing” because at each time that an album is created, that reflex is where you are and just because some people are more drawn to a “fiery you” and some people are more drawn to an “intellectual you,” it doesn’t’ mean that they’re both not valid. They’re both valid—all of the albums are—but they come from a different place each time and I think that’s what’s essential. I don’t think any different than a visual artist; I don’t think you can say one installation is more important than another installation. I think that it might have had more impact on the masses at a time, but they’re all responding to the changes that are occurring and you couldn’t really super-impose one ten years later if you follow me. It sometimes works because of the time at which it comes out.

WOMANROCK: Lyrically you’ve commented that you write so that people can find themselves in your music, not you? You focus on that a lot in your new book too.

AMOS: In the book I call it giving people a “backstage pass’ into the creative process. When the songs come, sometimes they come in two-bar phrases and sometimes they come more complete. What I am always trying to do is to translate them in a way that people can develop their own relationships with the songs. If you ‘re too literal sometimes you anchor a song into space and time in a way that it doesn’t allow it to take flight. I try to work more with parables and prose as a songwriter than a style of lyric writing where there’s no room for interpretation. I’ve always been drawn to songs where word association and wordplay are part of what that artist does. Sylvia Plath was always very much like that and Anne Sexton. I was inspired by their work as poets. I’m trying to translate what I call “essences.” They don’t have arms or legs, but it’s more like light filaments. They don’t look like us when they’re complete. They look more like light structures. That’s really what it’s all about.

WOMANROCK: Giving people such license for imagination in your work, are you surprised sometimes when you hear how your songs are interpreted?

AMOS: I find it pretty intriguing because it’s not as if what it means to them is wrong. It’s not. That’s their perspective and the songs have always wanted people to have their own relationships with them and I have my own relationship with them, so I’m able to have my opinion.

WOMANROCK: I would think that’s an interesting turn when you’ve created something so personal and you put it out there to witness people cling to it with a different attachment.

AMOS: This is where you really have to let the songs go. You have to let them go and make their friendships and make their enemies with people. The songs are very capable of having their own lives (laughs). They’ve made it very clear to me. It is a paradox where on one hand you’re a co-creator with them and it feels as if there are pieces of my own mosaic of life within them that I really don’t have authority over. I have to allow them to go and be. The authority that I do have is how they’re presented and I try and work with them. A lot of times that has to do with what is going on globally, what is going on in our world at this time and that means the sound of it, the melody choices, and rhythmic choices. Sometimes it’s very much about chronicling time and the music is I would say a lot more involved than people give it credit. A lot of times people talk about the lyrics because it’s more tangible but the curds are very much in the music.

WOMANROCK: Applying your process specifically to The Beekeeper, combined with the sense of “urgency” you felt for this album, could you discuss bringing it all together.

AMOS: Because the right wing movement is not covert any more, but overt, I felt that it was essential to go after certain ideologies and teachings. One major one has been that a woman was responsible for getting us all chucked out of paradise. Therefore the garden allegory that The Beekeeper contained was core, no pun intended, but I felt that we needed to create gardens that represented different emotions that weren’t presided over by the patriarchy. Therefore on the album “Tori” goes to God’s mother, Sophia and asks her how to combat the violence and destructiveness of this time and Sophia basically says, “Tori, you must eat of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, unlike my son suggested.” So Tori eats of the fruit and each song is what she begins to have to look at in her own life. Some of her relationships are very loving and some of them are laced at the root with betrayal.

She begins to create this pantheon of songs once she begins to become conscious and that’s really at the root of The Beekeeper. The marriage of sexuality and spirituality is also very much part of what’s occurring here—a marriage within the being, not a marriage between male and female outside the being. The honeybee represented sacred sexuality in the ancient feminine mysteries and because Christianity has taken such a hold, as a minister’s daughter, I felt like we needed to go after this concept.

I did a lot of research reading the Gnostic Gospels written by Elaine Pagels discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. I also read the gospel of Mary Magdalene, which was discovered in the late 19th century and I began to realize that there was another element to Christianity that was not included by some of the early fathers of the “proper” church. Women and their roles had been diminished and we had become subservient and subjugated in the new church. I was concerned because of some of the choices that were being made for leaders around the world—religious as well as political—that I felt were proponents for the ideology of the patriarchy opposed to the ideology of Jesus, which included women as equals.

If you read the Gnostic Gospels you discover that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute, but a “prophet.” Maybe that was not “profitable” to the fathers who were creating the church, because how do you get power? Well the patriarchy’s view is you divide and conquer. The greatest way to divide and conquer is within the self, so when you divide sexuality and spirituality within a woman, she is completely and absolutely divided, therefore, The Beekeeper was very much about bringing these paradoxes together into the garden, into one being. The garden’s reflective of a woman’s body. That is the back-story.

Originally posted on WomanRock.com August '05.

Tori Amos performing "The Power of Orange Knickers."

Dave Matthews Band - Concert Review

Randall's Island, NY
7/31/05

Billed as the "Island Getaway" at Randall's Island, Sunday's Dave Matthews Band show fulfilled its promise of escapism with musical virtuosity and a selection of radio hits, live favorites and offerings from the band's latest album, "Stand Up."

The group played with the tightness of an ensemble that has jammed together for 14 years. The grass-roots-minded superstars shared and traded improvisational spaces, navigated mood-changing tempos and explored grooves with spontaneity and excitement.

The band opened with "Every Day," on which singer-guitarist Dave Matthews broke away from his acoustic guitar and gravelly voice to raise his fist and squeak his falsetto for emphasis, singing, "All you need is love."

With the tone set, the socially conscious performers reeled off a series of highlights, including "What Would You Say," which hails back to the band's 1994 debut album, "Under the Table and Dreaming."

Classically trained Boyd Tinsley ripped his bow back and forth across his violin strings, dreads flying as he swirled, absorbed in rhythm. Tinsley grabbed the spotlight again during "Ants Marching" with the distinctive riff that helped catapult the tune to commercial success. Matching Tinsley's hillbilly funkiness was the gusty saxophone playing of LeRoi Moore.

Drummer Carter Beauford, Moore's onetime neighborhood jazz cat in Durham, N.C., tiptoed busily on his kit. Beauford is not a power drummer, but he is a "powerful" drummer. His fusion background and open style offered him a range of melodic sounding beats and rhythms. Dave Matthews Band's signature jumpy, slick bop comes courtesy of Beauford's choices from the band's co-pilot seat. Beauford smiled as he divided sixteenth notes, calmly blowing bubbles with his chewing gum amid the pulses.

On "When the World Ends," Matthews clutched his frets, eyes squeezed tight as he succumbed to that musical tic he gets in his legs; pivoting on the right foot, he alternately shakes the left -- a truly enviable approach to time-keeping. During "Dream Girl," Matthews' animated style continued as he arched an eyebrow, marking select lyrics with heightened emotional importance.

The new album's title track was accompanied by steel guitarist Robert Randolph, whose Family Band performed earlier in the day. Looking for an audience ready to testify, Randolph entered into an extended version of the song and then launched into a fiery version of "All Along the Watchtower." Overpowered by sound, Randolph kneeled to play, while Matthews and bass protege Stefan Lessard surrounded their guest with complex, uplifting, percussive riffs.

Originally published in The Hollywood Reporter 8/2/05.

Perry Farrell - Interview

by Tina Whelski

It's The Doors’ Ray Manzarek on organ and Robby Kreiger on guitar and you can hear the hypnotizing riff of “Touch Me” build until suddenly the song ignites. “Come on, come on, come on, come on, now touch me baby,” sings Perry Farrell. Huh? Perry Farrell? No, the former Jane’s Addiction front man is not replacing The Doors of the 21st Century’s Ian Astbury. Farrell is just joining his heroes for three tunes during Decades Rock Live, a new live concert series that’s taping to premiere on VH1 Classic in September.

Presenting legendary performers alongside today’s newest artists, the first concert will feature The Doors of the 21st Century with Robby Kreiger, Ian Astbury and Ray Manzarek. Special guests include Macy Gray, legendary rock guitarist Pat Travers, the original Vanilla Fudge, Antigone Rising, and Farrell.

Perry Farrell talks about the upcoming show, the return of Lollapalooza and his new project Satellite Party.

AW: Decades Rock Live is a new live concert series that pairs celebrated artists who have influenced popular music over the last 50 years with acts who have been inspired by them. What do you think of the concept and how do you fit into this first episode?

FARRELL: I love the idea of different generations of musicians getting together to play music, especially important musicians. It would be like if you have a great quarterback or a great center on a team and a draftee comes in. It’s going to take him a few years to get up to that level, but he’s got at least this legendary player who can tell him the inside things and what to look for. In the world of music, there are so many pitfalls and at the same time there are so many wonderful places to go as a musician. Just to be able to get the rub from The Doors; you don’t get any more integrity than the Doors. To be able to play with them and ride on their sound is going to be an experience. You probably couldn’t put into words the benefits that I will get and the other people will get from just being around them.

AW: What will you sing?

FARRELL: “People Are Strange,” “Crystal Ship” and “Touch Me.”

AW: With Lollapalooza becoming a destination festival this year, will you comment on how your revised format strengthened it and why you picked Chicago?

FARRELL: I guess you have to go back probably seven years when certain corporations were buying promoters around the country. What they did at the same time was bought property and form-fitted tours into the property using the promoters that they pretty much owned. What this did for the concert business, for myself as an independent promoter, was rather than being able to go around the country and meet different promoters and say to them, find us a great location, we really had no options but to play in amphitheatres. These amphitheatres came with deals for vendors that were pre-cut. There wasn’t much room for us to bring in the type of food and the type of extra things that we like to present to the audience.

It also price-fixed the package. Let’s say a promoter said, "Hey you can come play in my venue and I’ll pay you so much." Because there was a monopoly around the country on the venues and the promoters, the price fix was getting lower and lower and therefore the quality of the festival was beginning to suffer. Rather than being able to say, “Hey, let’s do something crazy and build a technology gaming system,” if the overseeing corporate promoter didn’t want to pay for that, you had no money for it. It was basically just turning into like a radio show. They would pay you what they felt they wanted to pay you for the acts. You didn’t even have room to negotiate that, so a lot of times, you’d basically be doing it for free. I hate to admit it, but I have made so little money putting Lollapalooza together. It got less and less and less to where the last year we were going out, there really wasn’t a chance to make any money at all because the promoter had us by the balls.

So what I decided to do is look for our own location. I was very lucky and found a private backer, yet another independent promoter, one of the very few left in the country. There’s probably less then five…What we did was we teamed up and we looked for our own location and decided to refine Lollapalooza. Lollapalooza was in its day, the first traveling festival. In 1991 it started all the other traveling festivals. It was a wonderful concept and the country really loved it, but it was a different time. There was not the monopoly that there is today, so we changed the model and we went to a location and built it ourselves and you know what? It has proven to be a very good idea.

AW: After last year’s cancelled show, how excited are you to have it back?

FARRELL: It was beyond my expectations. I honestly didn’t think I would ever do another Lollapalooza. As you know, the way things are with the monopolies and the corporations, once a tragedy happens to you in the business world, it’s very hard to regain your footing. I almost believed it myself.

AW: You were able to maintain the festival’s integrity and bring atmosphere back.

FARRELL: I think we have more integrity than we’ve had since probably 1994 now because we look over everything and locations are wonderful again. We’re paying for the groups that we want and I think that you feel it. It’s kind of like home cooking. You’ll taste the different.

AW: Tell us about your new project Satellite Party.

FARRELL: Satellite Party is being developed into a play that will eventually become a feature film. As I was writing this, I had the good sense to realize I needed a musical partner in this and I sat down with this amazing musician, Nuno Bettencourt, who’s just one of the great guitar players of our day. I don’t know if you’ve heard him?

AW: He’s formerly from Extreme?

FARRELL: That was his band back in the eighties and this guy is just as far as guitar, you ask guitar players about Nuno and there’s agreement that he’s just a great player…The music of Satellite Party is sounding even better than I would have expected because we have a somewhat difficult arrangement in that we work with electronics. We play with sequencers and things like that and that’s not an easy thing to pull off and really play. There are people who play with sequencers who really don’t play. Then there’s people who can’t play with sequencers. We are doing a wonderful job and it sounds powerful and I’m starting to move like I did in the day. A great sign for me…The people who have helped me to write the Satellite Party are Fergie from Black Eyed Pea who came in an sang on probably three tracks. We have Flea, who has written probably four songs with me. John Frusciante wrote one with Flea and I. The core is just Nuno and I…I’d love to see the music tour for a time, but I’d absolutely like to see within three years it become a feature…I really want to create something that will be in the future for all times sake a classic and so that’s what I’m looking for from the Satellite Party. It’s a beautiful story and the music’s beautiful too. I want it to come to fruition and be something that changes the perception of people. Maybe it even opens up a paradigm in thinking of mankind. Jim Morrison has something to do with it?

AW: How does he inspire you?

FARRELL: Jim Morrison opened paradigms and was a classic. Not just Jim Morrison, but the Doors. They’re still here and as far as I’m concerned I could count on one hand the greatest modern groups and composers and on one of those fingers has got to be The Doors.

AW: I saw you speak at Pollstar’s Concert Industry Consortium last year and you talked about how “everyone is an artist at one time.” You talked about how the artist is one who “continues to believe he can self-decorate the world.” What does being an artist mean to you today and how do you balance that with being a business man?

FARRELL: The artist in a way has an edge on life in that he really sees the depth and the realities even further than most people, but the problem with that is you get to see how pathetic human beings can be at times and how cruel and how brazen and just the lack of regard human beings have for each other, so they’re blessed, but they get cursed because their lenses are so clear. Then at the same time, they are very much overlooked because people just consider that what they created should have just been there or was there. They don’t realize what it takes to get it there. It takes your imagination, your time to pull it out of your mind and either put it to paper or record it to tape or digital. So they’re not appreciated. This is what I think really kills them. It’s the guy who in school might be wearing the letter jacket (who in probably five years is going to be working for an insurance company nonetheless but has got bigger muscles).

Unfortunately, I see this in music too. That person gets all the girls if you know what I mean. Artists understand their own value and at the same time they realize that others don’t. So the artist has to kind of suffer through life.

AW: On being a business man and an artist then?

FARRELL: You have to really balance that out. What I like is I like to become clever. There’s a lot of ways you can get exposure. People may say all press is good press. I disagree with that quote. You don’t want to be known as the person who’s got something really cheesy. You don’t want to be known as the person who sold out. You want to be known as an author. You “authenticate” something. I feel that you go to your strengths and you create something that will turn peoples’ heads and that’s how you do it. You become ingenious, rather than following what’s going on and cashing in on things or stooping away from what your God-given talent is. You create something that will be a classic.

Check out Decades Rock Live @ Trump’s Taj Mahal in Atlantic City on August 5

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 8/3/05.

Puffy AmiYumi - Interview

by Tina Whelski

You may recognize the chart-topping Japanese pop duo Puffy AmiYumi best as cartoons but their career success beyond the two-dimensional world is anything but imaginary.

Their TV show Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m on Cartoon Network and opens with a song you can’t miss, “Hi Hi” with that ridiculously catchy chorus: “Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi show/Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi show” repeated a gazillion times. Based on the J-pop stars’ fantasized rock star lives the show follows them as they jam with aliens on an international space station, get chased by their No. 1 fan, and learn new dance moves for a Japanese dance competition.

In one episode make-believe manager Kaz even creates a pair of life-sized Puffy dolls so that the girls can be in two money-making places at once! It’s then up to the girls to stop the creepy dolls before they take over the Puffy girls’ world. Hmm. Not a bad idea Kaz, considering Puffy AmiYumi’s real lives are not so far removed from “all” of that fantasy.

Puffy AmiYumi have sold millions of records, including the first single they ever released in 1996 “Asia No Junshin” which launched Puffy-mania. Since then, they have hosted a television variety show (Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy), headlined arena-sized concerts, and inspired action-figure dolls and even a line of shoes. All of their singles has been licensed for high-profile commercials for products such as motor scooters, cosmetics, computers, and soft drinks. You also heard their song “Friends Forever” in the Scooby-Doo 2 soundtrack.

The Japanese idorus (idols) celebrate their tenth anniversary next year, impressive longevity when you realize that the girls were actually strangers to one another until brought together by a record label and a management company. In 1995 Tokyo-bred Ami Onuki and Osaka native Yumi Yoshimura had each learned about talent searches underway in Tokyo. Ami sent her demo to Sony; Yumi auditioned for a management company; the next thing they knew, the unlikely friends were blending voices, creating hit after hit and launching a cultural phenomena.

The group’s latest CD, the Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi Soundtrack, was produced by Tamio Okuda (formerly of the platinum Japanese rock band Unicorn) and Andy Sturmer (formerly of American rock band Jellyfish).

What is the plot of Puffy AmiYumi’s next real-life adventure? The duo kicks off an East Coast tour this month to perform songs like “Joining a Fan Club,” “Planet Tokyo,” “Love so Pure” and “Koregawatashino Ikirumi chi” before a crowd of screaming fans.

*Speaking through a translator the girls gave WomanRock a heads up on what they’re up to.

WOMANROCK: What differences do you find between how Japanese and American audiences receive your live performances?

AMI: In the states it’s normal to have dance parties and to express yourself in body language. The cultural differences are not so different, but we can feel more movement in the American audience.

WOMANROCK: Everyone may not be familiar with the term J-pop. How do you describe it and is that where you feel your music fits?

YUMI: J-pop is actually Japanese pop. In that category there are a lot of other categories. It’s just a big way to say Japanese music. If the audience who listens to Puffy thinks it belongs in J-pop, that’s what we feel. We want to leave it up to the audience to categorize it.

WOMANROCK: What is it like having a cartoon based on your pretend rock n’ roll adventures?

YUMI: When we watch it, we watch it as cartoon Ami and Yumi. We don’t really portray ourselves in it. It’s so exaggerated and if we were really portraying our normal lives, it wouldn’t be that interesting as a cartoon (laughs).

WOMANROCK: You’re no strangers to television. You also hosted a television variety show in Japan a while back called Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy?

AMI: That was like five years ago. It was fun and it was good for us because our music could be portrayed to a new variety of people who haven’t heard our music, so it was a good opportunity for us.

WOMANROCK: If you had to guess what makes you so relatable to your fans, what do you think it is?

AMI: Can you tell us? (laughs). We really want to know.

WOMANROCK: You were strangers to each other until you were brought together by a record label and a management company. Musically you hit it off, but personally how did you get to know each other?

AMI: In the beginning we were so different so we didn’t think we’d hit it off. Once we started to become friends we hit it off right away though.

WOMANROCK: Your debut single in 1996 “Asia No Junshin” launched Puffy-mania. Were you surprised by the sudden attention at what you had created?

YUMI: We didn’t expect it. A famous producer and musician in Japan, Tamio Okuda, was the producer for our first song and just everything that was put together for that song all came together and made it happen, but we didn’t expect it. It was luck.

WOMANROCK: You’ve had three CDs now. How did you approach this last album as artists.

AMI: We don’t write the songs ourselves. We write a lot of the lyrics. When we choose the songs, we always imagine how they will be performed at the concerts. That’s our main thing. We love to have fun doing our songs.

WOMANROCK: What do you like to write about?

YUMI: It really depends on the song and how we feel at that moment. There’s not really one thing that we’re influenced by. It’s just when we’re on the spot writing it together, we put our minds together. There’s nothing in particular we want to show or portray or anything like that.

WOMANROCK: Who are some of your favorite American bands?

AMI: Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, and of course Jellyfish because Andy Sturmer is one of our producers.

WOMANROCK: What are your plans for the future?

YUMI: In the near future is obviously the East Coast tour and actually next year is our ten year anniversary together, so we want to do something together. We’re in the process of thinking of that.

Originally posted on WomanRock.com August '05.

Feist - Interview

by Tina Whelski

Canadian-born Leslie Feist takes her experience gained through eclectic unions with Broken Social Scene, Gonzales, By Divine Right, and others and turns it into what she calls a “cross section of reality” on her highly praised debut solo effort, Let It Die (Cherry Tree/Interscope).

Feist was originally quite content as a collaborator, four-tracking her original material only as an aside for many years. But when the moment came to share home demos with Gonzalez, her seductive voice and cinematic music premiered.

“We weren’t intending at all to make a record,” says Feist. “It wasn’t even on my radar anymore to make records for myself because I was always having such a fulfilling time playing with my friends. I love the role of supporting someone whose music you really believe in. I didn’t feel that anything was lacking…I made these songs and we realized it was a record.”

Identifying the singular moments between life’s episodes, Feist’s songs playfully skip through genres in songs such as “Mushaboom,” “Tout Doucement,” “When I Was A Young Girl,” and the record’s first single, a cover of “Secret Heart.”

“I’ve never really been a student of any particular styles or genres,” says Feist. “I’ve never had the patience to stick it through and learn all the ins and outs of particular genres…I’ll love something and I’ll love it until I love the next thing."

During production the intent was to keep all of the instrumentation very simple and maintain an uncluttered feel, which enhances the storytelling, hooks, melody and certainly the airy mood.

“With the players that I’ve really been drawn to playing with and listening to over the years, you can hear them deciding what not to play rather than showing every second what they’re capable of,” says Feist.

Let It Die accentuates Feist’s vocals and practices restraint, intensifying her expression amidst the record’s movement. Lyrically she practices the same philosophy.

“I guess when I saw that movie Lost In Translation somehow it resonated really deeply in me,” says Feist. “Afterwards, I thought, ‘Why did that hit me so deeply?’ I thought maybe that represents in a movie what, without realizing, I’ve been trying to write about, which is all the little moments between the drama. All the follow up moments where this enormous thing goes down and you’re by yourself and you’re in your bathroom sitting on the floor having one of those stark reality moments of truth?"

Originally posted to WomanRock August '05.

Feist video for "Mushaboom."

Whitesnake Drummer Tommy Aldridge - Interview

by Tina Whelski

Drummer Tommy Aldridge admits he’s enjoyed a very blessed career. He’s performed alongside the likes of guitarist Randy Rhoades, Ozzy Osbourne, John Sykes, Yngwie Malmsteen, Pat Travers and currently Whitesnake, who he’ll appear with at the Beacon Theatre on July 28.

“I met David Coverdale [Whitesnake frontman] when I was working with Ozzy touring in Europe supporting Whitesnake when Randy Rhoades was alive—in the good old days,” says Aldridge. “...David just out of the blue one day phoned me and we’ve been kind of hooked up off and on ever since…I’ve been really really blessed to have worked with some really really great guitar players and great musicians over the years.”

Coverdale qualifies as one of those exceptional talents.

“There are just a handful of guys like that in the history of the genre,” says Aldridge about Coverdale. “…He’s the real deal. It’s not somebody out there struggling to maintain the status quo. The guy gets better every year. It’s amazing.”

While Aldridge humbly credits some of rock’s greatest vocalists and riff players as inspiration, he feels equal admiration for the drummers whose well-written parts he’s playing on tour.

“There have been some really great drummers, Ian Pace, Cozy Powell, and Aynsley Dunbar associated with Whitesnake,” says Aldridge. “Even though I don’t play things exactly the way someone else would, I try to faithfully re-produce whatever magic was created in Cozy’s parts and particularly with Aynsley Dunbars because really the incarnation of Whitesnake that really set Whitesnake up was that 1987 record with John Sykes on guitar and Aynsley Dunbar on drums. It’s just a stellar record. Those drum parts could in no shape or form be improved upon…If I can’t successfully in my mind improve upon what’s there, then I won’t touch it. It’s the same with some of that early Ozzy stuff. When you’re working with someone like Randy Rhoades and he comes in with a guitar riff, like “Over The Mountain” the drum part is like built in. I really feel in a lot of ways how Mitch Mitchell must have felt when, not to compare myself with him, but when Jimi Hendrix would come in with some of those ridiculous guitar riffs or Jimi Page would come in with some of those unearthly guitar riffs, how inspiring to a drummer that is. Again, I don’t take a lot of credit for some of the parts that I’ve come up with working with Travers [Pat] and some of those guys. They’re just inspired by the riff you know? So you just sit down behind the kit and they kind of play themselves.”

Aldridge’s personal approach to writing is akin to “separating the weed from the chaff.”

“When I’m coming up with material I always overplay,” says Aldridge. “Like most drummers I like to play more notes than really are called for. I think it’s a complex from being constantly pushed to the back. We try to compensate for it by making as much racket as we possibly can. So I try to start simplifying things…We’ll throw stuff down in Pro Tools or something and I’ll listen to it and study it at home at night and come in the next day and just try to make it as simple as possible…The bottom line is really coming up with something creative that I haven’t heard everyone else play and it becomes ever more challenging with every passing year. Being the oldest instrument on the planet, it’s a real challenge to go in the rehearsal room and come up with something that’s different. It’s kind of daunting sometimes.”

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/27/05.

Tommy Aldridge performing "Here I Go Again" live with Whitesnake.

Judas Priest - Concert Review

Jones Beach
Wantagh, NY
June 17

“Breaking the what?” teased Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, his studded, leather glove to ear. “Breaking the what?” Then as we’ve been conditioned to expect after 30 years, all hell broke loose as “Breaking The Law” thundered from the speakers during Judas Priest’s Jones Beach show on June 17. What made the anthem more meaningful than ever however, was that it was revved by the definitive lineup of rule benders themselves, here on their first headlining U.S. tour since the release of 1990's Painkiller. With a new CD, Angel of Retribution (Epic), the band’s first collaboration in 15 years, lead guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, bass guitarist Ian Hill, drummer Scott Travis and Halford not only returned to introduce their latest sounds, but with a set list of classics tucked under Hellraiser garbed arms, its members were out to remind us that Judas Priest created heavy metal.

“Judas Priest is re-united bringing you more than thirty years of heavy ‘meh-tal,’” declared Halford with his signature exaggeration of the holy word.

Opening the show with “Electric Eye” Halford emerged mysteriously, his former serpentine moves more Godzilla-like now, but equally commanding. Stomping the stage deliberately in silver-spurred biker boots he raised tasseled arms in defiance, stretching his impressive vocal chords clear across Jones Beach. Halford’s range was particularly mesmerizing on “Diamonds and Rust,” where his wail pinched with such high pitch he seemed impressed himself. He expressed his approval afterwards. “Fucking great song, yeah? That’s going all the way back to 1976.”

Halford wasn’t the only one carrying headbangers back to their metal roots. The tones exiting Tipton’s and Downing’s guitars, although live, had that familiar, immortalized record quality. The dueling axe-men weren’t just recalling Priest riffs; the hard tones of their guitars hit you in the face flat.

Before “Living After Midnight,” Halford shouted “You know the song. Sing along.” Invitations were obviously not necessary for this affair, because everyone knew nearly all tunes during this hits show: “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin,’” “Turbo Lover,” “Metal Gods,” “Painkiller.” During the encore Halford, observing Priest tradition, emerged on his motorcycle to sing “Hell Bent For Leather.”

The double bass driven classic “Exciter” marked a turning point in the show, where the audience now fully mystified by the aura of sound, saw the band return to its youth. The players ran across stage lifted by a glimmer of the former Birmingham steel town lads they were when they began this chrome-laden musical quest.

Among Halford’s theatrics was the planting of a flag bearing Judas Priest’s crest. The former opera singer positioned it with ceremony and allegiance. Every empire needs its symbol, and it was satisfying to see Priest’s banner mark their role in heavy metal history.

Origionally published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/13/05.

Judas Priest "Breaking The Law" Video.

Breaking Benjamin - Ben Burnley Interview

BREAKING BENJAMIN’S BEN BURNLEY

TALKS ABOUT BILLY CORGAN, RAT TAILS AND REALLY BAD TV

The concept of a songwriting deadline was completely new to Breaking Benjamin’s Ben Burnley as he came off of the success of the band’s debut album, Polyamorous and into their sophomore effort, We Are Not Alone (Hollywood Records). Combine that with the fact that he was not only collaborating for the first time, but that it happened to be with one of his musical influences, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, and it was in the cards that Burnley was in for a “thrill ride.” Burnley talks to The Aquarian about working with Corgan on the now nearly Platinum record, how movies and TV factor into his songwriting (and laughs at the shows that didn’t make the tracks).

AW: There was a period of time in high school where you constantly listened to Smashing Pumpkins. What was it like getting to write with Billy Corgan?

BURNLEY: Well obviously it’s an amazing thing. Billy to me is like a living legend. We wrote really well together and the songs turned out really well, so it wasn’t just to go out there [to Chicago] to meet him. It was actually productive and we actually turned out something that was worthwhile.

AW: What made you pick Billy Corgan?

BURNLEY: I think he kind of more picked me (laughs)…We were pretty much a bottom-of-the-barrel band. A mutual friend of ours at the label hooked us up.

AW: What were those first few minutes like?

BURNLEY: Well, that’s funny because when I first went to work with him the first thing he said is, “O.K. Sit down and play.” So, I did…I played him some stuff I wanted his help on and then we got to work right away from there.

AW: How did you work off of each other?

BURNLEY: Well I had a basic outline of the songs and he was just able to say, “Try this” and I’d try it and then once the music was all said and done with, we sat down with it and bashed out the lyrics. He would come up with a line or I would come up with a line that rhymed with it or didn’t rhyme with it or whatever and we just fed off of each other that way. It’s really cool to hear Billy Corgan singing your songs. One time I came up with a line, and I can’t remember what it is, but he’s like, “I wish I would have come up with that.” That was cool.

AW: You wanted to write an album that was different from the first. Factoring in that you spent years experiencing what you wrote about on the first CD, and that going into the dreaded sophomore album you had time constraints, which was new to you, it seems pretty challenging to achieve that. What did you do try to make We Are Not Alone different than Polyamorous?

BURNLEY: Well a lot of that had to do with our producer as well because the first record I pretty much produced myself. We got David Bendeth (Vertical Horizon) to do the record. He didn’t really write anything. He just says, “Why are you doing this part here and why don’t you change this and write a new section here?” and so on and so forth. So that really changed the formula of how I write songs because the first record for the most part is a lot of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, end—kind of basic stuff. That does have its place and we do have some of that on the second record, but we just looked for different ways to arrange music. With the moods and music we’re also taking ourselves a little more seriously and being less fictitious with it. The first record doesn’t really have much to do with me at all personally. They’re just stories. This one is a little more personal to me.

AW: You’ve had a lot of success with the single, “So Cold,” now “Sooner or Later,” and you’ve been working the album hard by touring relentlessly. Are you surprised by the band’s success or did you know it was just a matter of time until it would catch on?

BURNLEY: Oh, no. We were all very surprised. Of course we think what we do is good or else we wouldn’t do it. It’s a known thing, but it only takes one song to get you anywhere and “So Cold” is what did that for us. We were just glad to get our foot in the door. We got a gold record from pretty much one song and now hopefully it’s going to place platinum. It’s just a thrill ride and we’ve been enjoying it. We never put any expectations on it, so it was a definite surprise, not only to us, but to our hardcore fans.

AW: Your song “Blow Me Away” is also featured in the Halo 2 video game. What’s it like playing to your own music?

BURNLEY: …It’s towards the end where you have to fight off all the bad guys. It’s just a sequence of it, but it’s still pretty damn cool to be associated with something like that.

AW: You have to fight off the bad guys to get to your music? So people have to be skilled at the game to hear you?

BURNLEY: No. They can play on easy (laughs).

AW: There was a time growing up you used to watch music and think, “Why do people even get into music.” Are you surprised that music’s now your career?

BURNLEY: Yeah. When I was growing up I didn’t like it and did not get it at all.

AW: What kinds of stuff were you listening to, or trying not to listen to?

BURNLEY: Well, you had hair bands and stuff like that, like Motley Crue. I’m not one of those guys that liked it. I never did. You know maybe when I’d go to the skating rink when I was like eight-years-old. My brother always would put it on MTV and I’d see the videos and I always thought they looked so stupid. I never got how it could be entertaining to watch that.

AW: Oh come on. You secretly wanted that hair.

BURNLEY: No (laughs), but you know as a kid I had a rat tail. [That’s a dear friend of the mullet].

AW: You did not!

BURNLEY: I did. Then I grew up and Nirvana came along and it was something I was actually entertained by. I just loved it for some reason, so I started to get into it.

AW: You’ve commented before that many rockers outstay their welcome in the industry. When does one reach that point and what is your career plan?

BURNLEY: I’ll write probably one more record, maybe two with this band. I think three or four records is enough. I was talking about bands like Limp Bizkit and Scott Staph from Creed. Nobody likes them. They’re just so annoying to me. It’s like, “You’re rich. You’ve got your money. Go away.” For me, I love writing music. I love performing now and then. I don’t really like being out on the road for months at a time, but if it got to the point where I’ve done what I needed to do and made my money, I’d be more than happy to stop and sit on a boat somewhere for the rest of my life, you know what I mean? Go fishing? Do everything that I like to do and not have to travel and all that. There are entertainers who force themselves on you and then there are entertainers that the public actually wants. It’s like Ted Danson with Becker. You ever see that show? See Ted Danson pays to have that show on the air (laughs) because he just doesn’t want to leave. We don’t want Sam Malone. It’s like, “OK Sam Mallone get out of here already.” It’s not one of those things where it’s like, “Hey. Did you see that episode of Becker last night?” “No.” You don’t sit there and go, “Becker’s on everybody!” They’re like, “So?” Joey too. You weren’t like, “Joey’s on!” “So what?” You know? With Friends, it was great. Then Joey comes along. Poor Joey.

AW: The object then is not to be Joey?

BURNLEY: Yeah. The object is to not be Joey. Yes. I’m all about the Johnny Carson thing and getting out while you’re on top. That’s what you should do before you spoil yourself, especially if you’re as annoying as Scott Staph.

AW: I know you don’t like to talk much about what songs are about specifically, but will you talk about them generally?

BURNLEY: It’s just a typical artist thing. I don’t really like to say what a song is about. It’s kind of known that I get a lot my ideas from watching movies, so if someone asks me what a song is about I’ll say, “Watch this movie.”A

AW: O.K. So if I was listening to your new album and I wanted to get insight into what you were thinking about on a few tracks, what movies should I watch?

BURNLEY: Well “So Cold” is 28 Days Later. “Forget It” is a movie called Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind…TV and everything else fills in the rest of the gap with the record. I guess that just proves that I don’t have a life and that’s all I do (laughs).

AW: Well at least you’re not writing about Becker or Joey?

BURNLEY: Not yet (laughs). That’s for the next record! Becker. What an awful show. It’s like comedy’s throw up…I don’t have cable at my house cause I’m not going to pay a cable bill when I’m barely there, but we’ll spend a week or two home every now and then, so I have to watch Becker cause there’s nothing else on.

AW: As TV also figures so prominently in your songwriting we should find out, when you do have cable, what do you like to watch?

BURNLEY: …I stay on the bus because we have a satellite dish, so all the movie channels like HBO and stuff. If there’s nothing on I’ll see if there’s something on Comedy Central or Cartoon Network. I like Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Shit like that. That’s the one good thing about the road is I don’t have to watch Becker anymore. It’s funny because Ted Danson, when you see him apart from a show, he’s like bald and he’s really old. Then when he goes on a show, he’s like an android. He must have like twenty guys working on him. They give him hair and you know what I mean? He’s like Darth Vader, mostly machine now. It’s awesome. There’s so much garbage on TV to pick from now to rot our minds out.

AW: You know I have to watch it now. What night is it on?

BURNLEY: Unfortunately it’s on every damn night.

Originaly published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/6/05.

Breaking Benjamin performing "Sooner Or Later."

Otep Shamaya - Interview

Heavy Mental Rock

Whether you love or hate Otep does not concern front-woman Otep Shamaya, so long as her music provokes something in you. What the disturbing poet does obsess about, however, is a fear of that moment when she stops being a “pilgrim for invention.” Fortunately on House of Secrets (Capitol), her newest release and second album, there are no signs of her brimming imagination waning.

In her lovely, brutal voice she confesses that she doesn’t value her self-worth on anything other than how hard she works at being creative and that to be successful at art, you have to make yourself vulnerable.

On House of Secrets Otep’s distressing imagery pushes boundaries, forcing her various influences in art, poetry, movement and music to squirm until they create a cohesive, rhythmic outpouring of emotive sounds. Otep’s dynamic passages are violent, troubling and authentically felt. Whether she’s ominously singing “I don’t feel pretty today” in the title track “House of Secrets” or whispering “Surrender is your only hope” at the end of “Requiem” (after a disturbingly violent spoken word introduction), the messages seethe. With haunted visions screaming from its walls, this House constructed by Lee Rios (guitar), Doug Pelerin (drums), eVil j (bass), guest drummer Joey Jordison (Slipknot) and Otep is not for the faint of heart. In fact the band first captured the interest of the mother of metal herself, Sharon Osbourne, who offered Otep a third stage slot at Ozzfest 2001 after she and son Jack noticed the band performing at the Roxy in Los Angeles. A record deal soon followed.

Otep took a break on her Mouth of Madness tour to talk to WomanRock.

WOMANROCK: Otep’s music has been described as ‘Heavy Mental Rock.” Does that fit?

OTEP SHAMAYA: I think it’s accurate. Our music is a synthesis of many forms of art. It attacks the brain in a way that stimulates a very sacred experience from the emotional cargo hold of the soul. The music is sometimes formulated in odd meters, composed and arranged according to the instinct of the song. It has been described as avant-garde, a dissident cabaret, a total assault on the senses in the purest sense; A tribute to Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty. I don't mean to imply the listener has to be an art snob to understand or appreciate our music, but I think those that experience what we do understand it is not the same ole formulaic claptrap that congests the airwaves these days.”

WOMANROCK: You mentioned that for art to be successful you have to make yourself vulnerable. A lot of people are afraid to be thought of as weak, but your only fear is not being creative. Can you go with that idea?

OTEP: I am obsessed with the spiritual connection I feel when creating or performing. Having a dry spell or writer’s block or becoming stagnant seems worse than death to me. I want to evolve, polish my talents, whatever they may be, and give back to the muses a fitting tribute and sacrificial offering that allows me to explore every territory of art and invention that I have yet to discover. That gives meaning and purpose to my existence.

WOMANROCK: You describe yourself as a conduit, the conductor through which everything flows. Can you talk about bringing your art, poetry, movement and music
together?

OTEP: I think all creative people are conduits, sponges of experience, and once we are soaking with life, we must squeeze every drop from our swollen souls. I am still learning, still trying to awaken pieces of me that remain trapped in slumber. The movement is the message and the message is evident in the music.

WOMANROCK: You've said that once you broke through the gates of metal it was lonely not just because of your gender, but because of the overall environment. How did you counter those negative elements?

OTEP: The odds have always been against me. I actually kind of enjoy the fight. This is nothing new. We have made many friends in the aggro community and elsewhere that proves what we are attempting to do and the music we make is important. We have mutual respect with many bands but if or when we encounter some strange opposition we just focus on what we do, our purpose and intention, and then annihilate it with our live shows.

WOMANROCK: Certainly having support helps. Sharon Osborne was so captivated by your live show she offered your band a third-stage slot on Ozzfest 2001 before you signed a record deal. You had only formed in 2000 and this was only your eighth gig! What was it like having the mother of metal take you under her wing?

OTEP: It was overwhelming and an honor and validating and empowering. She is one of
the best people I know.

WOMANROCK: Interestingly you said you never performed in your life really, but that you felt compelled to try. Why? How did you prepare yourself?

OTEP: I'm not sure really. It was just an echo in my head, an itch I needed to scratch. I never really thought much about it. I was really focused on finding the right musicians and learning everything that I could about songwriting and singing. I was basically on the verge of being homeless and this just seemed the only alternative. Either use the muse or evacuate.

WOMANROCK: So you taught yourself to sing then?

OTEP: I’ve never taken a vocal lesson in my life…The only thing I ever did was went to this opera teacher who taught me how to use diaphragmatic breathing…With the amount of touring we do you have to. On our last tour we were doing six nights a week for seven weeks solid.

WOMANROCK: Can you talk about why you include the “You Are Not Alone” page on your website?

OTEP: The most terrifying place for me to be, other than being absent of creativity, would be isolation… I wanted to give people an opportunity in the privacy, and I guess anonymity, of the internet to have a place that’s sort of an oasis for people who may be experiencing depression for the first time. Or maybe they want help with managing their cutting or suicide, or whatever. I just thought it was important that people realize that lots of people go through these things and you’re not alone and here’s proof. I think it empowers people when you don’t feel so lonely…I wanted to give people an opportunity to connect…Sort of a support group for the counterculture (laughs)…Yeah, sometimes life hurts, but its the obstacles we overcome that define who we are.

WOMANROCK: The literary figure Sappho is a favorite of yours. Why?

OTEP: Sappho has been called the 10th muse. She was one of the most revered poets in all of antiquity, but only fragments of her work remain. They were destroyed mainly due to her gender and puritan morality. She changed the way we use poetry. She made it personal and that was very appealing to me.

WOMANROCK: Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison joins you on six cuts for House of Secrets and producer Greg Wells also worked with you. What did they add to the record?

OTEP: It was an honor to work with both Joey and Greg. We had so much fun making
this album. They brought elements of creative depth that I felt were needed for House of Secrets. I learned a lot from them and they both aided my creative growth.

WOMANROCK: What are you listening to right now?

OTEP: I have been listening to a lot of Mike Patton lately, Hole (1st album), Jeff Buckley, Corey Taylor, Kurt Cobain, Wu Tang Clan, Thom York, Cannibal Oxe, Mudvayne, Bloodsimple, Blackstar and a collection of spoken poetry from the Beat Poets, which is very interesting to me now as I have performed twice on HBO'S Def
Poetry and will be on an episode in early August.

Check out the band’s website: http://www.otep.com/ and tune into HBO’s late-night series, "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry” when Otep makes a return appearance August 5 (11:30 p.m.-midnight ET/PT).

Originally posted to WomanRock.com July '05.

OTEP video "Buried Alive."

Feist - Concert Review

Bowery Ballroom, New York
6/25/05

Content as a collaborator to such performers as Broken Social Scene and Chilly Gonzalez, Canadian-born singer-songwriter Leslie Feist didn't intend to write her new album, "Let It Die" (Cherry Lane/Interscope); it just happened. Her show Saturday at Bowery Ballroom in New York, however, proved that the effort was long overdue.

Four-tracking original music had been Feist's aside until she shared demos with friend Gonzalez in 2003 and they realized that a record was about to be conceived. Supporting the new release, Feist's New York appearance marks her first solo tour, but her friends never were far from mind as she made nods to them throughout the nearly two-hour set.

Eyes sparkling under a shroud of bangs, Feist slyly explained before her cover of the Bee Gees' "Love You Inside Out" (retitled "Inside and Out" on her album) how she found it very hard to "disco dance and disco play" by herself on the road, so she enlisted the help of the Apostles of Hustle to concoct an "unmix" of the version she played out. Feist also delivered "The Build Up," written with the Kings of Convenience, her "buddies from the North." Feist even went as far as to invite a chum, guitarist Tony Scheer, to perform a few numbers, including "Lonely Lonely," which she revealed was based on Scheer's "Sacramento." They shared the "inaugural duet."

Feist's gracious acknowledgments added to her charm, but she was a competent performer in her own right. Surrounded by piano, drums and trombone, she gripped her guitar as she did in her By Divine Right stage days and caressed the words of "Secret Heart" (a cover of a Ron Sexsmith cover), "Gatekeeper," "One Evening" and "Mushaboom." Her sultry phrasing and smoldering voice embraced her genre-jumping songs. In songwriting, Feist deliberates to capture the moments between life's dramas, and her airy timbre made her lyrics hover to create those stills.

Feist's crowning achievement as a solo performer, however, was her ability to coax a packed room of hipster New Yorkers to imitate a barnyard of farm animals during her whimsical delivery of "Now at Last." Written to evoke springtime during one of Feist's stays in the "deep, dead, cold winter" of a foreign country, she explained that in fun one night, she prompted friends to emphasize the song's bird references with chirps. "It then progressed to tigers, kittens, giraffes and then rabbits," she said. When that section of the tune came around Saturday, Feist cooed, "Come on little tigers," at which point the audience actually began roaring. When she yelled, "kittens," there was purring. When the neighs of horses became audible, Feist agreed that "the maximum nerd quotient had been reached."

Originally published in The Hollywood Reporter 6/28/05.

Aimee Mann - Interview

by Tina Whelski

Only singer/songwriter Aimee Mann can make cotton candy seem sad. Setting up her new concept album, The Forgotten Arm, Mann opens with “Dear John” describing the scene of the Virginia State Fair in the 1970s when “cotton candy was king” and her characters John, a boxer, and his girl Caroline meet.

Mann’s evocative voice and lucent storytelling detail how the couple falls in love and attempts to run away together. Their old Cadillac doesn’t move the relationship very far however, as mile for mile John’s drug and alcohol addiction shadows them.

Mann seems particularly empathetic towards the character of Caroline, who holds her pain at John’s side like a prizefighter. Sensitivity to the topic of substance abuse comes partly from Mann’s experience with friends who are recovering addicts, so whether she’s singing “Why does it hurt me to feel so much tenderness?” in “Beautiful, “We’ll have a big parade for every day that you stay clean” in “Going Through The Motions,” or “I was thinking I could clean up for Christmas” in “Clean Up For Christmas,” an insider’s perspective enlivens the CD with tender realism. By using the sucker punch as a metaphor for the unpredictable nature of addiction she frames the experience in a way it can be universally understood.

Released on Mann’s own Superego Records, The Forgotten Arm, Mann’s fifth solo album, was recorded almost entirely live in the studio by producer Joe Henry in only five days giving songs like “I Can’t Help You Anymore,” “Little Bombs,” and “Video” additional intimacy and a sense of being in the moment. Listening to CD’s of heroes Elton John and Rod Stewart beforehand helped Mann set the swampy, southern seventies rock scenery that carries each track. Mann also features a honky tonk piano feel on the album to complete the mood.

While The Forgotten Arm’s songwriting seems dire as the record progresses, it actually becomes optimistic in Mann’s mind’s eye. Mann believes that when her characters hit the bottom, that’s when things get hopeful, because that’s when people change.

Suddenly that cotton candy tastes sweet again…

WOMANROCK: Your new concept album, The Forgotten Arm, follows the characters of John and Caroline as they meet, fall in love and try to run away together. What attracts you to the story of these two people?

AIMEE MANN: The characters are kind of a composite of people I know and in general, the situation of people trying to have relationships with alcoholics or drug addicts. I have a very good friend who’s a drug addict, who is currently relapsing, and it can be a pretty bad situation, so I do have a personal experience with that. I also have other friends who are addicts in recovery or people who have friends who are drug addicts. I think if you are a musician you sort of inevitably run into folks with substance abuse issues.

WOMANROCK: You take a hard look at co-dependency within relationships, which can be a factor when you’re dealing with addicts.

MANN: I think inevitably your first reaction is you want to help. There are all different ways for how people play that out. You can feel like you’re helping by pointing out the dangers of drug addiction, or trying to push people into treatment or there are various ways. I started going to Al-Anon because the same friend has relapsed before. He’s a crack addict, and not that any addiction is worse than another addiction, but he’s relapsed a couple of times so you are just immediately waiting for the call that your friend is dead. It’s pretty tough…Through Al-Anon I met people who have the same kinds of issues. Talking to them and listening to their lives, it all sort of goes in and informs the dynamic on the record.

WOMANROCK: Substance abuse is of course a universal problem, but you’re right about it being particularly obvious in the music industry. I relate to that anxiety of “waiting for the call” for assurance that the person you care about is actually okay.

MANN: In music, it’s like your circle of friends are all addicts or people who are involved with addicts…I found the “open AA” meetings very helpful because you listen to peoples’ stories and, you know, it’s eventually, “Oh, he can’t stop.” I mean you know that, but you don’t really know that…

It’s a terrible thing the way people approach drug addiction in this country. There’s a lot of like, “Throw ‘em in jail.” There’s a lot of judgments about “Why can’t they get it together?” and “Why don’t they use their will-power?” which is of course the thing that got them into it in the first place. It’s certainly not going to get them out. It’s certainly a real tragedy and I wish this country had a more treatment-based approach to drug addiction, rather than a punishment-based approach. We’re a very punishing nation.

So that’s really the story on the CD. These people just run away together. It’s sort of the classic, “I hate my life so I’ll make a new life.” It’s like taking the trip to Oz or something.

WOMANROCK: You’ve taken up boxing. Was that part of the inspiration for making the character of John a boxer?

MANN: Yes and no, or all of the above. My currently relapsing friend is a boxer and he kind of got me into boxing, so he’s sort of based on my buddy.

WOMANROCK: You talked about how “The knockout punch is always the one you never see coming.”

MANN: Yeah, that’s kind of a classic boxing term. Another great quote is a George Foreman quote that’s sort of contextual because I think he was talking to somebody who had lost a fight. They’re like, “I don’t understand? I thought I had a great plan going in.” Foreman goes, “Everybody got a plan til they get hit.” To me that’s just my philosophy of life.

WOMANROCK: You titled the album, The Forgotten Arm. Why was that reference particularly appropriate to the concept of your story?

MANN: “The Forgotten Arm” was the name of the move that my boxer friend showed me and his name for it was ‘The Forgotten Arm,’ which is the greatest name. The move is basically a move of misdirection. You have somebody on the ropes and you’re hitting them with one hand and you keep the other hand sort of at their waist so that they forget to keep their guard up against it. To me that was like the perfect metaphor for drug addiction. It’s just waiting there under the surface. If you’re not guarding against it, it’s really going to rise up and take you down and that’s the case for both of these characters, cause it’s something that she has to deal with too.

WOMANROCK: Musically you visualized the CD’s story taking place in the early ‘70s, beginning at the Virginia State Fair where your characters meet. What did you do to immerse yourself in that vibe?

MANN: There were a couple of records that I was listening to that I remember from more or less that era because I was going for a little of that seventies southern rock. There’s sort of a seventies southern rock as interpreted by British artists. Elton John had a record called Tumbleweed Connection that I sort of referred to and I was listening to a lot of early Rod Stewart, Every Picture Tells a Story, which is really kind of swampy in parts, with its mandolin. I love it.

WOMANROCK: I love him (laughs). I’ve had a crush on Rod Steward since I was like eight. “Hot Legs,” “Do Ya’ Think I’m Sexy,” “You’re In My Heart,” “Tonight’s The Night” (sigh).

MANN: (laughs) And the song “Maggie Mae.” I literally never get sick of hearing it. The sound of that and kind of the trashcan sounding drums, but also just the story, because once again, that’s just two people who just run off together. It starts out great and it’s sort of a kid with an older woman and this guy’s like, “What have I done?” He should be in school and he’s kind of thrown his life away. He left school and took a chance on this relationship that’s going nowhere. There’s a real pathos to that I remember. Even as a kid I remember not really knowing what was going on in the song, but you really hear it in the music and the vocals.

WOMANROCK: You also mentioned a “white-trashy, redneck feel that you have a weakness for.” Can you describe that?

MANN: I had the idea that the characters would meet at the state fair because with him being a boxer, I just pictured his doing the exhibition bout and I’m obviously from Virginia and spent some time at the State Fair. It’s just like when you’re a kid, its just got this kind of cheesy magic, like the rides and stuff. It seems like the height of romance and that’s a bit of a white trashy ideal, that an amusement park is really romantic. It’s also a childlike idea. I feel like these characters are very childlike in their own world.

WOMANROCK: You wrote some songs on the piano for the first time?

MANN: I gave it a shot. There aren’t that many songs that I actually ended up writing on piano, but I really did want piano to be featured and one of the ways to do that is to not have a lot of stuff going on in the mix so that you can really hear…I think especially this keyboard player [Jebin Bruni] keeps things moving rhythmically in a way that I really like, so I definitely wanted keyboards to be more featured.

WOMANROCK: Let’s talk about what’s happening to John and Caroline in your songs.

MANN: “Clean Up For Christmas” is where the character of John is hitting bottom and a lot of the lines from the song were taken directly from a conversation I had with my friend who was at the tail end of a really bad relapse. He had really given up hope that he could ever get sober or live sober, so that was the sentence that he said. He was going to try to clean up for Christmas so that he could spend Christmas with his family.

WOMANROCK: It’s a heartbreaking conversation to have with someone.

MANN: I know. It wouldn’t have been possible to write a song like that until he was out of danger and in treatment again…So the companion piece to that is “I Can’t Help You Anymore,” where Caroline’s realizing that at this point if she stays with him or maintains contact with him or whatever, that she’s going to get sucked down into it and she’s got to start worrying about herself. It’s like the awareness that she really can’t help him. It’s not only that she doesn’t want to anymore, but she sort of realizes it’s not possible and kind of sticking around to continue this fruitless endeavor is going to kill her, so she makes the choice to be in her own kind of recovery.

WOMANROCK: How about “Going Through The Motions?”

MANN: “Going Through The Motions” is heavily based on the same friend. It was like a phone call I had with him, where he was out of treatment, in a half way house, and was super manic and then you just know that—you just know. Then he relapsed shortly after that.

WOMANROCK: “She Really Wants You” seems to go in a different direction.

MANN: “She Really Wants You” is more heavily based on a different person, a guy who I knew who was an alcoholic. I was observing his relationship and it was kind of the classic relationship with the crazy girl. They would break up and get back together, break up and get back together, so I drew a lot from observing him.

WOMANROCK: I was paging through your press clips and I noticed reporters overwhelmingly label your music as depressing and tortured. Do you see your songs that way?

MANN: I don’t see them that way, but then I’m probably the only one that sees the whole picture. For me there’s also a bit of black humor. I always think that there’s something that’s kind of optimistic about really just stating the problem clearly. If you’re really depressed, it’s hard to even state what the problem really is or move to any kind of solution, but obviously I know what’s in my head.

Another thing I get a lot is writers who say they find my lyrics really depressing, but the music kind of cheerful and that is always kind of bewildering. The thing is I never write lyrics unless I already have the music going and the music puts me in a certain mood. For me, the lyrics are already lightened by the music. You pick a song like “Dear John.” The music isn’t downright cheerful or anything, but it’s got a lightness to it, that to me, already informs the lyrics and sets the tone. You can’t look at them separately because they’re meant to go together. One mitigates the other. I think if I had lyrics that were really depressing and put really dark, creepy music under, it would be too much because that’s not how I intended it. I intended to have a bit of an emotional lightness, like a song like “Clean Up For Christmas,” which is very depressing, but I mean the impression I’m trying to give is this guy is completely at the bottom, but that’s a good thing, because that’s when people change.

Originally posted on WomanRock.com June '05.

Aimee Mann performing "She Really Wants You."

The Bravery - Review

Irving Plaza
5/16/05

Distilling synth-rock brewed on the corner of Mott and Broome streets, the Bravery made a homecoming from Britain at Irving Plaza.

"This is our first time at Irving Plaza," frontman Sam Endicott said. "For years I've been coming to this place. This is where you'd see all the awesome bands. I was always like, 'Someday Irving Plaza,' and here we are."

Delivering sounds popularized when Capezios were cool, crossbred with unruly, organic rock, the Bravery valiantly commanded attention, not that they've been lacking any.

Underneath the shadow of his faux-hawk, Endicott peered through thick smudge-proof mascara, delivering an earnest plea for love during the newest single, "Give In," from the Bravery's self-titled debut Island CD. Leaning into the front row, he crooned, Morrissey style, "Will you give in?" The singing lessons Endicott took via phone years ago left their impression.

"All I want is everything," Endicott continued. It seems that's not too much to ask. The bedroom recordings Endicott produced with keyboardist John Conway circa 2003 set off a chain reaction of opportunity that snatched the band from the Arlene's Grocery stage in New York and landed them in the U.K., where they twisted everyone's knickers around with a string of sold-out dates. They have returned stateside -- media-hyped, unfortunately, to potentially damaging overexposure.

The Irving Plaza show, however, showed how the fire started. It's hard not to get stirred about a band that can play sweaty, sexy, tight grooves with contagious hyperactivity. Endicott, bassist Mike H. and guitarist Michael Zakarin revel in movement and follow the music's driving low end around each other so intensely you wonder if you're watching a rotating stage. Perhaps it's from practice dodging beer bottles at shows in the U.K., but the frantic motion added commitment to their cause.

The Bravery unified most strongly on "An Honest Mistake," which featured Endicott's reeling vocals about a tryst with lasting consequences. Behind clear Ludwig drums, Anthony Burulcich drilled kicks through his fours on the floor on "No Brakes." On "Out of Line," Mike H.'s walking bass lines were articulated by the bobbing point on his rockabilly haircut. Throughout all the mayhem, Conway calmly manned his station, shooting well-placed keyboard crescendos over Endicott's shoulder on tunes like "The Ring Song."

"This is a song about living in New York City," Endicott announced. He approached "The Ring Song" verses like a narrative, but when he got to the part about becoming an honest man, he uttered an incredulous, comical, "Oh yeah?" as Conway cascaded a wave of sonics into the chorus.

The band's notorious swigging was barely detectable onstage, except when Mike H. doused the first row with Budweiser. With band parents in the balcony, perhaps they were on their best behavior.

Originally published in The Hollywood Reporter 5/17/05.

Dresden Dolls - Amanda Palmer Interview

Punk Cabaret Darlings

by Tina Whelski

“Coin-Operated Boy/Sitting on the shelf/He is just a toy/But I turn him on/And he comes to life/Automatic joy/That is why I want a/Coin-Operated Boy.” These lyrics open the Dresden Dolls song “Coin-Operated Boy” from the punk cabaret duo’s self-titled debut CD. From its beginning, you're plunged into the delirious depths of dark, vulnerable emotions. You'll hear drummer Brian Viglione's rompy oomph pah pah oomph pah accompaniment and latch on to Amanda Palmer’s vocals as she twinkles piano keys, vibing a child nursery innocence that makes the “picture of girl getting bitter” even more tragic. “I will never leave my bedroom/I will never cry at night again/wrap my arms around him and pretend," she sings."

Above their din is playful musing, but like the illusion of carnival sounds, something sadder lurks. This story’s disenchanted girl bets “a billion dollars” she’ll never love you…but won’t you try to convince her otherwise?

While “Coin-Operated Boy” is certainly a highlight, the entire CD is filled with Dresden Dolls’ song-oriented conundrums. With its opening drum blast and manic-depressive melodies the psychologically pressed “Girl Anachronism is a flurry of madness and minor keys.” Lines like, “You can tell by the scars on my arms/And the cracks in my hips/And the dents in my car/And the and the blisters on my lips/That I’m not the carefullest of girls,” are surrounded by Viglione’s panicky instrumentation and wash an image of a girl with knots in her hair and bruises on her thighs who can’t connect. “Good Day” captures a surreal soundtrack akin to the visuals of a Tim Burton movie and “Missed Me” is simply sinister and troubling. Clear away the smoky cellar sounds and you’ll find the Dresden Dolls submerged in their fantasy of Germany’s Weimer-era cabaret.

Palmer talks to WomanRock about Dresden Dolls’ music and attraction to old-school cabaret, their tour with Nine Inch Nails and the band’s desire to transport audiences far away from the anxiety and doldrums of every-day life.

WOMANROCK: Not to pick a favorite song, but “Coin-Operated Boy” is brilliant. Your musical and lyrical choices perfectly capture that innocence of a girl losing her fairy tale fantasy of love.

AMANDA: The most interesting thing to me about that song is the fact that I really didn’t think it was going to go anywhere when I brought it to Brian. Not because I didn’t think it was a good and funny little song, but because I thought that’s all it sort of was. I played it for him thinking, “I’m sure we’ll never add this to the set or anything, but isn’t it a funny little song and why don’t we play it at one of the shows.” Even after we had played it at a couple of shows and went in to record it was at the very bottom of the list of songs to put on the record…Meanwhile as that was happening and we were going through the whole pre-production for the record, which took a few months of back and forth, we were playing all these live shows and people kept requesting that song. Over the course of a couple of months it became everyone’s favorite. That was this little hint to us that maybe we should stick it on the record. Low and behold it became the single. That’s really comforting to me to think that my judgment of my music is so off base that something that I sort of wrote as a joke could turn into a hit.

WOMANROCK: How did you bring your punk and cabaret elements together to create Dresden Dolls?

AMANDA: Well that’s always an interesting question for me to try to figure out… I think looking at my music collection from seventh grade and then again from tenth grade and then again from twelfth grade gives you a good clue to unlocking the mystery to where such an erratic sense of style comes from…The music collection from when I was really young had The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Prince and Madonna and the soundtrack to Evita. Then when I got older it was The Cure and The Legendary Pink Dots and Leonard Cohen and things. When I got a little older, it was Laurie Anderson or experimental music and I got into stranger and darker things. But all my favorite albums of all time have all had that one essential thing in common, which is that they’re very much writers’ records and the music has never been as important to me as the words.

When I used to go record shopping when I was a kid and I would go into Harvard Square and root around in all the used record stores just looking for music and looking to see familiar names and bands that my cool friends had t-shirts of and stuff, the litmus test to me was that I would pick up the record or the tape and I would pull out the artwork and I would read the lyrics. If the lyrics looked stupid to me I wouldn’t buy the record. I still do that.

WOMANROCK: Is seventh grade when you started playing piano?

AMANDA: No. I started playing piano when I was really young. My folks got divorced and my mom moved up to Boston. The first house we moved into had a piano in it…I think I was actually like two…I was always playing it, but I wasn’t one of those child prodigies who could sight-read Bach and Mozart. I always really clung to my independent spirit being a hack and it’s painful to me to this day…Now I wish I could sight-read other peoples’ music and I find it very difficult, but on the flip side, I developed my own style.

WOMANROCK: When did you start beating your piano (laughs). You didn’t play like that as a little girl did you?

AMANDA: (Laughs). Oh, you should ask my poor step-father because I have a great recording. It’s like this unspoken joke we have. I have this recording of when I’m like fifteen or sixteen. I used to always keep the tape recorder by the piano to record little sentences, ideas or songs or whatever. We were always battling about my piano playing because he didn’t like the noise in the house. I have a bunch of recordings of him walking into the room telling me to play more quietly or to stop. There’s a great one where he crashes into the room and he literally loses it. He’s like, “Amanda it’s 11:00 at night and what you’re playing doesn’t even sound like music. You’re just banging on that thing and getting your aggression out and we’re going to send you to a psychologist!” It’s true. You listen to my old recordings from when I was fifteen and I’m treating it like a pure percussion instrument. It’s funny when I look back because Brian was doing the same thing on his drums. We were both really frustrated kids.

WOMANROCK: You met Brian at a gig at the artist’s collective in Boston where you still live. He was attracted to your storytelling?

AMANDA: And the pounding (laughs). He liked the pounding too. The story of how we met is actually very auspicious because it tells you a lot about where the band has ended up present day and all the artists we work with and the atmosphere of the live shows…I moved in here in 2000 right at the beginning of the year and I immediately started producing events, sort of like cabaret, salon-type parties where bands that I knew and performance artists and noise artists, whoever, would just come and I would put together a performance schedule. The house has four floors and a garden and there was just stuff going on all night in all the different spaces and I was just trying to bust out on my own as a solo performer. I would play at my own events and that’s where Brian found me. He got dragged over to a Halloween party here that I was throwing and I played at the end of the night.

WOMANROCK: Do you remember your costumes?

AMANDA: Well it’s embarrassing to me because I was so, although it’s very telling, I was so busy running around producing the event that I didn’t have time to think of a costume so half an hour before the party started I just dressed up as a temporary office worker, which for me was so out of character that it looked bizarre. Everyone that knew me was horrified. I put on a smart little black suit and a string of pearls and some clip-on earrings and did my hair up…Brian had played with his band the night before at a club and they had done the entire album of Pornography by The Cure…He just wore the costume he had worn the night before which was just a strange black costume with his face painted white and blood dripping off of his head. I saw him across the room and I remember seeing him and being like, “God, who’s that guy? Definitely looks like an ally.”

WOMANROCK: Was the current look of the band your doing?

AMANDA: Well it’s funny because people sort of see it as a thing. To me the look of the band is the result of five minutes’ worth of spontaneity one night when Brian and I were about to play with a Burlesque troupe and we said, “Hey, just for shits and giggles let’s dress up tonight.” I had a black dress and striped tights and Brian had a suit and I said, “Ah, let’s paint our faces.” Brian said, “Sure, sounds cool.” That was that…We both felt the real tangible, palatable difference in how we felt on stage and how the audience responded to us. There was just something. Once you put a mask on, once you put makeup on, once you wear a costume, the audience sort of takes a deeper breath and looks at you and they sort of expect a little more from you, but they give you a little more and there’s something magical about that. We felt that that night. We didn’t even talk about it, but next time we had a show we both looked at each other and said, “Let’s do that again” and that was it.

WOMANROCK: Did you always have an attraction to the old-school cabaret?

AMANDA: Well the thing about cabaret is I know as much about cabaret as the next person. To me it’s just as vague and ambiguous a term as everyone else seems to think it is because a cabaret is a genre and it is a place. Nowadays it’s a genre that if I opened up the paper and went to the cabaret listings there would be nothing that I’m interested in, cause it’s just generally going to see show tunes and standards sung by a woman in a sequin dress with a piano accompaniment. That’s just not my thing. But it’s the fantasy of the cabaret. Cabaret the musical. Weimer-Germany cabaret. Kurt Weill cabaret. That excites me the way some people can’t get over the fantasy of Woodstock or something like that. There’s just something about it where I look back and I say, “God that must have been amazing.” But it’s got deep meaningful associations, artistically, aesthetically, politically, just the way saying Woodstock does. It’s not just that there was this concert. There was a movement. There was an idea. There were political things happening. There was a change afoot. That’s what was happening in Weimer Germany. There were a lot of risks being taken, a lot of great political satire and a lot of, at least in the fantasy, a real exchange of ideas between artists. The idea of the cabaret being the place, like the cauldron, where all these artists meet, drink, get crazy and come up with their wild ideas that they then go out and spread into the world is the fantasy that I have in my head. That is what we try to do with the shows. We want to make sure that it isn’t going to be an ordinary fucking night where you show up, buy your ticket, buy your beer and you watch the band, but that you’re going to a place where something’s happening. It doesn’t matter what’s happening. It’s different every night, but we want people to walk through the door and feel like coming to a Dresden Dolls show means that you’re going somewhere special and that’s sort of where we enlist the help of our fans.

WOMANROCK: Tell me about your extra ensemble entertainers.

AMANDA: We invite the fans to do anything they want. We encourage them to do things that will work within the context of people coming to a show and hanging out before the show…On this next tour we’re going to see everything from living statues in the clubs and outside, to people doing magic, to belly dancers and aerialists to fortune tellers. There’s definitely a very carny element to it. The cool thing is there are plenty of kids who come to the Brigade, which is what we call it, and say, “Well I want to do something, but I don’t have any special talent. I can’t juggle barbells. I can’t do anything special.” These kids who don’t have any kind of carnival-type talents will come up with these insanely creative ideas. We saw on this last tour, this girl folded a ton of origami and put it in a big basket and put this crazy costume on and walked around handing it out to everyone. We just encourage people to be as random and spontaneous as possible. We’ve also had people hide in the bathroom at the clubs and play violins and saxophones. It’s whatever you do. Can you incorporate what you do into the show or can you come up with something and if you can, bring it on.

WOMANROCK: That’s fun.

AMANDA: Yeah, it’s totally cool. Sometimes it goes horribly awry, but sometimes it’s the most incredible thing. The most beautiful thing is almost every night Brian and me are surprised because we’re so insanely busy now that we actually have someone else organizing the whole Brigade. So, we’ll show up in like Cleveland and we’ll go into the club and all of a sudden we’ll see all this stuff happening and these human puppets walking around. It’s a beautiful thing for us also because being on the road can get really mundane and repetitive and tiresome and it keeps the tour from getting boring. We’re actually getting a show every night in return for what we’re doing.

WOMANROCK: I’m trying to picture your Brigade mingling with the Nine Inch Nails fans on your upcoming tour?

AMANDA: I don’t think we’re going to do it at the Nine Inch Nails shows because it’s just not right. A lot of what these people do is also very dark, a lot of the living statues, there’s a lot of very burlesque-looking stuff and there’s a lot of bloody, gory looking stuff. It falls somewhere between Halloween and Mardi Gras.

WOMANROCK: Trent Reznor hand-picked Dresden Dolls to open the Nine Inch Nails dates. Are you psyched?

AMANDA: Absolutely. We actually already played two dates with them in London and that was wonderful. They were exceptionally kind people. We were a little apprehensive about how we would be received by the fans of Nine Inch Nails.

WOMANROCK: Yeah, I was curious about that.

AMANDA: Well so were we (laughs). We were more than curious. We were a combination of curious and terrified…The fans at least in London were incredibly receptive to the Dolls and not only did we leave stage unscathed and no bottles were thrown, but the reaction from the audience was incredible and we made tons of new fans. I think if that was any indication of how the states tour is going to go it’s going to be incredible.

WOMANROCK: In the tradition of the old-school cabaret thinking, you guys try to bridge the gap between theatre, music and politics. Are there any programs you’re currently involved in?

AMANDA: We’re always doing different things. One of the questions for us is always how can we use the platform that the band’s been given by the fans for good without abusing it, without being tiresome. As far as the live shows go, we do what we can, and anyone who asks to sort of do anything politically at the shows, we give it really serious consideration and we try to involve those things.

WOMANROCK: That’s cool you try to give back.

AMANDA: We just try to do what we can. I think it’s very dangerous to just pick a cause and cling to it. I think one of the things that is important for artists to realize is that you can be way more politically effective by being the right kind of artist than getting up and waving a flag…By encouraging people to even just be creative in their daily lives, you do so much to nourish their hungry souls. I mean people are so starved for the right kind of stimulus and the right kind of support in their lives. People spend so much time watching television and getting barraged by advertisements and confusion and war and death and it’s just like, “What can we do to not add to that? What can we do to actually ameliorate that?” We don’t want to be another one of eight million forces telling people what to think, how to act and what they’ve got to do now, and say now and fix now. We’d rather just say, “For God’s sake, come to a Dresden Dolls show and do something creative. Use your imagination and have some fucking fun because we’re not here for very long.”

WOMANROCK: We’re both very song-oriented, so let’s just dive into your lyrics.

AMANDA: I never get asked about the songs. “Girl Anachronism” started interestingly enough, like “Coin-Operated Boy.” It was sort of going to be an in-joke to myself and there is a very specific story about it. I was a cesarean but my mother asked the doctor to take me out a day early…She didn’t want me to be born on an odd day cause my mom is strange like that. Don’t ask me why. It’s a whole other interview. She wanted me to be born on an even month, on an even day…I remember musing on that point thinking what a great thing for a song to be this open letter apology to the world for the fact that I’m such a flake, but I’ve got a great excuse because I was taken out before I was finished (laughs). That was the seed of the song and of course it became a free-for-all about my recklessness.

“Half Jack” is my favorite song on the album and it’s one of my favorite songs to play live too. I wrote that one around the same time I wrote “Girl Anachronism”…When I hear them as a set, they actually make a lot of sense together because they grapple with some of the same issues…My folks had divorced when I was really young and my relationship with my dad was very formal and very obligatory growing up. We were not close at all. As I got older and older and learned about him through my mother I hit my twenties and started really wondering about how much of who I am is made up of what I’ve been through and how much is made up of the fact that I’m biologically half my mother and half my father. It’s that whole nurture versus nature thing. I was really thinking about the unfairness of how little control we have over who our parents are and that’s basically what started that song off. It’s basically the idea that you can’t ever escape the fact that you are literally made up of half your mother and half your father. It doesn’t matter who they are or what kind of relationship you have with them, whether you’ve ever met them. Of course like all the other songs, it goes off on tangents.

Originally posted to WomanRock May '05.

Dresden Dolls video for "Coin-Operated Boy."