As I Lay Dying’s Tim Lambesis Arrested For Murder-For-Hire Plot

As I Lay Dying’s frontman Tim Lambesis has been arrested on accusations that he had sought the assistance to have his estranged wife murdered, according to San Diego Police.

San Diego County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said that Lambesis was taken into custody in Oceanside, California after soliciting help with murder from an undercover detective. Caldwell said that “the information came to us late last week. We acted quickly on it. I believe that we averted a great tragedy.”

Lambesis is expected to appear in court for an arraignment on Wednesday or Thursday.

Ed. note: MTT sat down with Lambesis for an interview at last year’s Mayhem Fest. Besides being a gigantic and intense guy, he seemed very nice.

Chuck D (Public Enemy)

The Tracks interviews the legendary Chuck D of Public Enemy, and D drops serious knowledge (and jewels) on all of the Track’s listeners. 

Interview with Chuck D (Public Enemy)

Chuck D, Brian Kracyla and Monty Wiradilaga

Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo

 

“Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding don’t come in the microwave.”

B:  Here with Chuck D, the legendary MC of Public Enemy.  In the 80’s, you pioneered politically and socially conscious rap music, do you feel that that is something that’s lacking in the genre today?

C:  I think people when they ask me that question need to ask me, “Do you think that it’s something that’s lacking in the United States?”  And I would say, well, yes.  The maintenance of it is lacking, but it’s all over the world.  I think one of the problems most Americans have is that they don’t understand that what has evolved in hip-hop is that it’s super-global.  The United States is one of the places that it does it.  Does it do it better than all the other places?  I don’t know.  You got guys that can spit three languages, how do you weigh that?  I mean how do you weigh it, do you weigh it because you live in the United States, like this is it?  It’s like covering the Phillies, you live in Philly, so I’m covering the Phillies, you know, so outside of Ryan Howard I don’t know what’s going on.  But that’s my answer there, it’s like, political rap, you cannot be

around and in the rest of the world and not say something that resonates with the people.  You cannot, it doesn’t exist.  There’s hundreds of thousands of rappers out there.  Whether it’s Dam, them Arabic MCs, that’s in Palestine talking about that friction over there.  Whether it’s like my man MV Bill and Eli Efi from Brazil, you know we’re talking about thirty years of recorded musical science.  So, this is the thing that I hope and think that the hip-hop nation here understands, that you gotta comprehend that it’s over your head.  What’s the exposure?  BET, MTV, any of your local radio stations.  Obviously, you’re limited to the two or three places that you can name when you say that that’s the epiddimy of exposure and if whatever’s being said out there, can’t get on there, there must be some kind of ulterior motive.  We’re in the days of MySpace pages, Twitter, and YouTube accounts.  I mean, what do you want to include and what do you not what to include.  I think that the major labels dominance of saying, “This is official”, that’s been over.  I don’t know why people keep holding it up.  Let me tell you why it’s no excuse, you cover hip-hop right?  Sports fan?

B:  Absolutely.

C:  Do you ever hear a sports journalist talk about activities in high school, JV, college being lost?  They cover everything.  Everything is covered, even damn-near the playground gets covered!  And 1 gets covered!  Hip-hop, it’s just like, it’s the level of laziness of going past what’s thrown at you.  I mean, what’s the level of coverage is only going to depend on how legitimate the coverage wants to consider itself.  They’ll say, “Oh, we only wanna cover if Def Jam releases something, we’ll follow that.”  If it don’t come through this one imprint than, you know, “If we don’t know about it, we ain’t gonna cover it.”  Now you in the day of MySpace pages, man.  I think diligence have to go to it.  It’s gotta be like, “Well, I’m not getting paid, but I does this, I follow, ‘cause I love it.”  Like I said, I’m a sports fan, and they don’t let a pitch go by without figuring out was that 94 or was that 83 mph coming from this college kid that’s playing a college game that might be meaningless between two teams, but it’s still be documented.

B:  But they can tell you every pitch count, yeah.  You were a consultant on the Let Freedom Sing project.  You wrote the liner notes.  Describe that compilation’s significance.

C:  The compilation’s significance is because especially black people use a portal of music and expressed ourselves through other ways when we couldn’t express ourselves to the masses just by speaking alone.  There’s often times when the poets and the artists would have to say something that would penetrate the veil of racism and do it in such a way that, you know, speaking for what is right is colorless.  It doesn’t matter what color you are, you speak for what it right versus what’s wrong.  That’s why on that box set it’s everybody from blues artists to Pete Seger.  And using music, being that we were a people and are a people that follow music a little bit more closely, because of that history of it being this expression when you couldn’t really express yourself, it meant that much more.  A lot of people said, this is how I feel, so I’m gonna hum it and sing it so I won’t get beat-down maybe, or killed.  Spread your wings dog!

M:  When you guys were coming up, you came up with the roots of hip-hop, as artists…

C:  Oh yeah, ‘cause I was getting ready to say that when I was coming up there was no such thing as rap records or hip-hop.  Even when I graduated outta 12^th grade, if someone would have said that I would have been making records, I would have said you out of your mind, doing what kind of records?!  You know, you had Earth, Wind, & Fire, the Commodores, that kinda thing going on.

M:  With your music, with how politically fueled it was, when you say about your color didn’t see color, you appealed to the masses.  You appealed to me as a kid.  I was a kid in the suburbs.  You spoke to me, you spoke to the kids in the ghetto.  What did it mean to you to get your message out there, so strong, and have the sort of influence that Malcolm X influenced you?  You have a voice, in a different way, but you have a voice to the masses, where you can speak to millions of people and get your message across.

C:  Number one, you’re thankful, but it does not start with, it doesn’t end with you.  You’ve got to be humble to all those things that were able to give you the platform and it’s not about you.  One of the greatest things I’ve heard President Barack Obama say, last year when he was actually at the democratic nomination, he said, “Hey, it ain’t about me, it’s about us as a people, and if this out there I see it and if you see something say something.”  And I just think that that goes across the board.  One of the worst things that ever came and attached itself to the culture of hip-hop in a very wrong and misconstrued way is when they come across and say, “Stop snitching.”, and not even know the true idea or essence of where it comes from.  That’s why you got to know your history or have an old-head not afraid to tell a young-head that this where it comes from.  Yeah

you can do your thing but just know where it comes from and do the right way.  This whole thing of older heads mixing with younger heads to try to appeal to them and be fly with them, I think, is a discouragement and it is discrediting young people from living their life.  I think the responsibility from an older person to a younger person is to say, “Yo, man, you know you can do your thing but just look out…”, boom-boom-boom, you know, and just keep it moving or whatever.  No ulterior motive like, “I hope you love me, I hope you dig me, I hope you buy me.  I’m thirty-five years old, your twenty-one, yo, support me.”  There’s not a reason to support you!  Young people wanna support their circle of things, they just want older people to give them guidance because knowledge, wisdom, and understanding don’t come in the microwave.  I mean, that’s our role, that’s our objective.  When you don’t do that and your like, “I ain’t nobody, I can’t say nothing, I don’t want to be preachy.”  When you say that, was your saying is that,

“I don’t want to be older, I don’t wanna grow older.  I might have well as died when I was young.”  I think that that has hurt hip-hop.  The other day I got a list of rappers right and the list was like thirty deep.  And everybody was like thirty and over.  And the latter half, like twenty of them, were like thirty-six and over.  How can you be thirty-seven years old and not say something to somebody young that somebody young can grow off of, like we say, “drop jewels”, and you keep it moving?!  There’s no excuse not to be men, and women.  And not saying there’s one type of man or woman that somebody should be but being a man and being a woman that means that your mind, you know, you gotta drop somebody young down.  Yeah, you know, do your thing, you know be at the club or whatever.  Wup, wup, wup!  If you see somebody trying to act like their… Well, you know, I got the world’s biggest teenager with me!  (Laughter) But there can be exceptions!  Everybody can’t be like that.

M:  So, you’re a little bit older, has your message been received well by the people?

C:  Always.  Well, number one, ain’t nobody else my child or my children.  But, I’m gonna be like that older brother figure.  Yeah, cool, do your thing.  If your gonna ask me a question, I’m gonna give you the answer.  If you’re gonna ask me, “Yo, what’s up old-head.  Can you give me your wisdom on this?”  Then I’m gonna be like boom-boom-boom, I give you what I can give you.  If I don’t know, then I’m gonna try to say, hey, this might be an answer you can use.  That’s our responsibility, that’s our accountability.  It’s been received all over the world, and I’m thankful for that.  If it had to come through the portal of rap music and hip-hop, I’m doubley-thankful for that!  I’m very honored and I’m blessed and there’s no excuse not to hold my head up high.

M:  So, what do you think about Bonnaroo?

C:  Bonnaroo is a wonderful thing.  Whenever you can get groups to come together and play, and play in front of the masses… Festivals are an opportunity for people, who would not check you out of your own, to check you out by default.  And Public Enemy was one of the first rap groups to play festivals.  Festivals were a common thing in different continents because economically it was the thing that would work for maybe countries that just didn’t have this plethora of a financial situation.  But, now that the US economy has dipped down and shifted gears, it’s like okay, festivals work and instead of promoters taking like two or three acts across arenas and stadiums is not looked upon as being feasible.  Although, the arenas and stadiums are brand new and in many cases need and have a big interest in not to pay, they’ve got to fill them.  But, other than major league sports, which is another pressing matter, they’re trying to get it filled.  I think Bonnaroo, the Warped Tour which fifteen years ago was able to take parking lots and make that feasible… At the end of the day somebody’s got to say, “Okay, I paid the price.  It didn’t kick my ass, but if it did kick my ass, I want the show to kick my ass and make me say that’s the best thing I’ve ever paid for and it was worth while.”  You’ve got to give people more for what they spend.  You’ve got to give them an experience, and that’s the gift of music.  Now, what I try to tell many artists, and hip-hop artists really included, is don’t let your art overtake your responsibility as a performance artist.  The whole key is to bust your videos and your songs, bust them in the ass when you’re live.  That’s the best way that you share your experience with that audience.  And that makes them go back to the music, not the music first makes you come, yeah, in a way.  Really records came from the fact that I went to see Duke Ellington, blew me away, what can I take home other than just the ringing in my head?  And that’s what that evolved out of.  Once that became a business, it flipped back the other way.  We can’t lose sight of that.  But it’s easy to lose sight of it because people are distant from the history of even the things that they like.  Sportscenter, when it comes on ESPN, it behooves that they show it six times so that their followers will not be stupid in the afternoon, so by the afternoon, you’re up to speed, you know.  We like to see the same in rap music and hip-hop.

M:  So what do you have to say to people that haven’t made the trip to Bonnaroo?

C:  It’s a wonderful festival.  It’s in the southeast, there’s a lot of people in the southeast that probably can’t make it out west or up north to the other festivals that are in those other different parts.  If you don’t catch it, you know, we’re in a highly technological age, there’s no excuse not to hop on YouTube and catch somebody’s filming of it.

B:  You’ve been one of the most vocal activists for peer to peer file sharing on the internet.  Where would you like to see the music industry be in the future?

C:  The music industry is healthy.  I’d like to see the record industry become more supportive and the music industry become even more supportive of providing platforms for artists to be able to come at a grassroots performing level and really try to help a great minor leaguing, maybe Single A, level of artist doing their thing and let that cream maybe rise to the next level.  One thing you have in sports, not to go back into the sports analogy, somebody always has a chance to try out for JV or varsity.  Not to say that they’re gonna make the team, but they have the chance to try out.  Well, a person should have the chance to try out as an artist, somewhere.  Not to say, this whole thing, “Well, I gotta blow up!”  If you can’t do your thing and be supported and blow up local, you know, down the block, then why should you even be bigger?!  So, I always asked for radio, urban radio, how come it doesn’t support it’s local?  If an Indianapolis radio station calls itself the home of R&B, then how come everything you play is groups that get signed to major labels from L.A. and New York, and even the Atlanta artists!  They’ll play the Atlanta artists but only if they’re legitimized by the New York and L.A. companies.  You can’t have no legitimacy that way.  So, I would like to see the structures be more giving to, my wife says it best, territory bands.  Territory bands were a big thing in the early parts of last century, territory bands.  You really succeeded by maxing out your territory before moving into other territories.  We need to see that in rap music and hip-hop.  If not, it’s gonna be this thing of “Oh, we signed this person and nobody knows who this person is.  We’re gonna put this put galvanizing, steroid of a marketing plan behind them.  I hope everybody gets it and it blows up!”  I mean, that’s ass-backwards, and because it worked at one time in our past doesn’t mean it’s the right way.

B:  What’s the future hold for Chuck D?

C:  Getting on stage, and trying to defy time! (Laughter)

B:  Alright, Chuck, thanks for your time.

Toots and the Maytals

Interview with Toots Hibbert (Toots and the Maytals)

Brian Kracyla, Jacob Little and Monty Wiradilaga (Moe Train’s Tracks)

Hey, what’s going on reggae fans worldwide, you’re listening to a special reggae royalty edition of Moe Train’s Tracks.  In this very special show, the Tracks has the honor to bring you one of the most memorable voices and performers in all of music, Mr. Toots Hibbert from Toots and the Maytals.

We had the opportunity to interview the man with the golden pipes about being a part of the establishing scene of reggae, coining the term reggae, being great in an amazing scene, finding his voice, and tons of other topics.  Toots was definitely one of the most endearing and genuine musicians that we have interviewed over the years.  Toots and the Maytals just released their latest album, Flip and Twist, and we’re sure that it will further his legacy as one of the top reggae artists of all time.

So Moe Train’s Tracks is honored to bring to you, this very special interview with the legendary Toots from Toots and the Maytals.

Moe:  Absolutely amazing set today.  Were you really having as much fun as it looked like you were having?

Toots:  Yeah, a lot of fun.  The people are so nice that when you sing for them you have to have some fun.

M:  Feeding of the energy…

T:  Yes, that heart energy.

M:  After a long weekend like this, everyone’s energy is going down, but when you got out there…

T:  Everyone just liked it.  It’s a nice day!

M:  Your voice is one of the most recognizable and classic sounds in all music, where do you draw all of your positive energy from to bring it into the music?

T:  Well, my music is from good spirits, good spirit from the church, and from the people that come to my show with a good understanding to learn the ways of reggae music.  That’s part of my energy too.

M:  Your community of musicians, back in the day in Jamaica, included the most legendary performers of all time.

T:  Yeah, mon!

M:  Skatalites…  The Wailers…  How was the community of musicians back in the day when you coined the term “reggae”?

T:  It’s a good fellowship in music from that time until this time.  When I coined the word reggae it was just like now but people lived different.  It took a little time for people to know about my music and they are really into my music now.  So, it’s a good t’ing, the times have been changing and music has been better for Toots and the Maytals.  When I coined the word reggae, when I sang the song Do The Reggae, the music was already playing in Jamaica all over but nobody called it reggae.  People were searching for the name reggae but couldn’t find it.  People used to call the beat in Jamaica “blue beat” and “boogie beat” and those are the things that spread from America to Jamaica.  Boogie beat, blue beat, and “ska”, it’s like a slip.  My two friends, Jerry and Raleigh, we sat down one morning and the word came up.  We used to use a word in Jamaica called “streggae”, when the girl was looking so good you call her streggae, if she dressed raggity, you know.  So, maybe the word comes from that, but I was the one who said let’s Do The Reggae!  R-E-G-G-A-E.  Reggae was spelled a lot of different ways in those days, but this is what it’s spelled like now.  R-E-G-G-A-E.

M:  Did the community feel that there was something huge happening?  Because your music is universally recognized across all genres.

T:  Yeah, that’s why I have 31 number one records in Jamaica.  In those days, as it came out, people enjoyed it and knew that it was good.  I have a couple of number ones, 31 number ones in Jamaica, and on vinyl in those days.

M:  What was it like recording in Studio One?

T:  It was strange.  But, I started from Studio One.  I was a good t’ing.

M:  The whole process, working with Coxsone, was it just…

T:  It was great, the process was good.  Sing for very many, no good for many maybe, choose the songs.

M:  I heard that you have some members of your family in the band.

T:  My daughter and my son, my son play the bass and my daughter back up for me.

M:  You’ve got to be proud.

T:  I’m never proud of myself.  I know it’s good, but it’s not good to be proud, because the Lord says that you should not be proud.  You just know that it is good and give t’anks.

M:  Your music has been covered by some of the most recognizable names in all of music, like the Clash, the Specials, and Sublime.  What’s your take on their covers of your music?

T:  Well, I think it’s good, it’s a good t’ing to do.  If a song is good, you can cover it.  You can put your own line, your own style on it, and it’s still good.  A lot of people cover my songs, I never really say which one is the best.  I know I appreciate it, and they appreciate it also.

M:  54-46 is an amazing track…

T: I don’t even want to talk about that prison business.  I’m tired of talking about that crap…  It was a number one song though!

M:  Well, some of your tracks… When they think of you… They think of certain tracks…

T:  When I just came in, when I was like fifteen or sixteen…  Those things happened when I was getting my first tour abroad, to go to UK.  So I hardly talk about those t’ings again.  It was a frame-up.  When I didn’t get to go to UK, they sent a different group in my name, which never worked out for them.  It was a thing that was planned.  I just sang a song about it and it went number one.

M:  You have the Toots Foundation…

T:  Well, we planned this foundation for helping the youths, not only in Jamaica but wherever help is needed.  My foundation is going to be bringing a lot of assistance.  We founded it a few years ago and it’s been doing well.  We did foundation things for the children in Jamaica, for the hospitals, for the blind, for the cancer society.  We gave to the schools, we gave to the old age homes.  We gave to the school in Clarendon, where I was born.  The foundation is going good and I hope that we can give a helping hand whenever I do my show, which charges one dollar extra to go towards the foundation.

M:  What does it mean to you to be able to give back to Jamaica, to give back to your country?

T:  It’s been good, that’s why I do it.  I couldn’t do it by myself, not without the people in America and all over the world.

M:  We are also doing a special on the passing of Michael.  How has Michael Jackson affected you musically?  Or do you have any stories dealing with Michael Jackson?

T:  No, his music never affected me.  His music refreshed me.  He was a cool guy, I liked him.  I loved him too.  It’s a pity that what happened happened, but it’s like you knew something was going to happen too.  I figure he’ll always be innocent for me.  He will always be missed by Toots and the Maytals.

M:  With your music, with so many albums, so many number ones…  When you are looking at your career as a whole, how do you think it lays in the history of music?

T:  It’s history.  My music is history. It’s antique… and it’s unique… and it’s good.  It’s fattening.  It’ll make you strong.

M:  (Laughing) That’s the best quote I’ve heard all weekend!

T:  It’s full of love and happiness.

M:  How much longer are you going to be doing it?

T:  Well, I’ve got no limit.  We have to live good to one another, whether you’re black or you’re white.  Show love to one another.  Show respect.  Learn to say good morning again, and good evening, good afternoon, good night, hey how are you doing, hello.  Just be good, be nice, be Rastafari.  That’s the way God would love we to do.  His name is Rastafari and I’m just a son of God.  I look at myself as an angel and a son of God.

M:  So you’re looking to further the message…

T:  My songs will always be a message of spirituality and happiness.  My words have to be positive, if the words are negative than its not real reggae.  They have to be positive, that’s the fulfillment of reggae music.

M:  So, you just draw from the energy, from that positive energy, and put it through your music to your listeners.

T:  Yeah, because it’s for real.  Music is for real, for Toots and the Maytals, it’s for real.  And love is for real.  It’s not just “one love”.  True love and real love is for real, there’s more than one love.

M:  And that fuels everything you do?

T:  Yeah.  I love to do this, I love to do that.  So many love, you know.  What’s love is real… So make it reveal… Whenever you feel… It make you feel good!  Wake up in the night and rejoice that you’re gonna live to see another day.  There’s no limit in my career.  I do it as I can.  You will always hear about Toots and the Maytals.

M: What’s your responsibility to all your listeners, to the world, through your music?

T:  My responsibility to the world and for everywhere is that I’m truly responsible to the people and my music is to be positive, as it used to be and as it is right now.  You have to be positive, that’s my responsibility, to make music positive for the world and for God to give us more blessings.  He gave me the talent.  (Singing)  And I sing everything I talk!  Hey-aay!  (speaking again)  I have to give thanks for giving me that kind of voice.  I can sing it without music, I can sing it with music.  It’s a revelation, a message of salvation.

M:  Getting your start, how did you really come to find your own voice?

T:  I give praise, I grew up in the church with my parents.  Over the radio, I listened to Ray Charles, I listened to every artist, and I listened to every artist in Jamaica also.  I founded my voice, and I have to learn it more, and I have to do things with my voice like (making sounds with throat).  It’s a thing you have to do, like practicing a guitar.  (making yodeling sounds)  It’s thing that’s coming for the church, from the Lord God Rastafari, and I have it.

M:  Absolutely.  When did you know that ‘this is my voice’?

T:  Well, I haven’t got one special voice, I have a lot of voices.  I can make it turn to sing any kind of way.  I know that I can sing, and people call me great, but I don’t think I’m great.  I just want to be simple, and make people think I’m great.

M:  (Laughing) Gems…  I’m loving it!  Is there anything else that you want to do in your career that you haven’t done yet?

T:  Yes, there are a lot of things I want to do that I haven’t done yet.  I wanna make a straight-up R&B record, well it will have some reggae in it, but mostly R&B flavor.  I’m doing that.  I want to be able to extend my foundation’s reach.  I want to do things in Africa where a lot of black, and white people, is also, cuz there are a lot of white people born in Africa also.  They’re African, so it’s not a black t’ing.  If people need help, you help them when you can.  My plan is to spread out my foundation and see what people think of it, and they can donate things for my foundation, and I could help.  From American to Jamaica, and from America straight to Africa, all over the world, I want to do something for some people who need help, each and everywhere, north, west, east, and south.  That’s my plan and my good thought and my wish.

M:  That’s excellent.  Thank you very much for being with us.  It’s an honor and we appreciate it!

T:  Yeah, mon.

Dillinger Escape Plan

The Tracks and Greg from Dillinger speak about camaraderie, DIY or Die and more at Bonnaroo.

DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN INTERVIEW WITH MOE TRAIN’S TRACKS

Greg Puciato, Monty Wiradilaga, Brian Kracyla

Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo 2009

 

You never know what’s going to happen during a Moe Train’s Tracks interview, as Greg Puciato, frontman of Dillinger Escape Plan, has his own interview with a dazed and confused girl, we speak about the camaraderie of the scene, how “DIY or Die” fuels his band, their new lineup, and next year’s upcoming album.  Enjoy.

M:  What’s going on man?

G:  Nothing, just hanging out, just walking around checking some stuff out.

Random girl:  (to Greg) Can you point me in the direction of the Rendezvous Tent?

G:  Umm. (Laughter)  What is your name?

RG:  I’m Caroline.

G:  Caroline, I’m Greg from the Dillinger Escape Plan, and we are doing an interview right now.

C:  Okay.

G:  Um, and I have no idea where I am right now either.

C:  I’m supposed to have a rendezvous at the Rendezvous Tent.

G:  That what you do at the Rendezvous Tent, right, but you don’t know how to get there, which poses a problem.  I don’t know either.  (to random passerby)  Do you know how to get to the Rendezvous Tent?

RP:  I don’t know how to get there.

G:  What good is trying to rendezvous with someone if you can’t get to the Rendezvous Tent?!  (all laughing)  Caroline, good luck trying to get there.

C:  Thank you.

G:  Wow!  How many drugs did that girl take?

M:  Welcome to Bonnaroo.

G:  Seriously, that was amazing.  She was higher than a kite.

M:  (Laughter) I think that’s the general consensus with most people here right now.

G:  Most people I look at here, if they don’t have sunglasses on, you can just look in their eye and be like, “You’re on some other thing right now in some other place.”

M:  Exactly.  Earlier today, when you guys came on, it was like, “Wake the fuck up Bonnaroo!”

G:  Dude, I can’t believe how siked people were.  I thought for sure, in general at this fest’ because it has a reputation for being more of a hippy peace-love type of thing, that as soon as we come out and start screaming at people and doing cool shit, people are going to turn around and just walk the other way, but people were siked, at one in the afternoon on the last day!  It was honestly, we were talking about it after the show, the best big show that we’ve ever played in the United States.

M:  Really?

G:  Yeah.  We felt like we played well.  People seemed stoked on us.

M:  Yeah, the reception was definitely great.

G:  This type of vibe, it just doesn’t exist that often in the U.S., this type of festival vibe.  It felt very European.  In the United States, when you think of a festival, you think of Ozzfest or Warped Tour, and it’s like the same thing all day long.  But this is cool because yesterday was Nine Inch Nails and today, if you wanted to, you can see the Dillinger Escape Plan and then Erika Badu.

M:  She’s still on right now.

G:  I really wanted to see her…

M:  I’ll cut it short then.

G:  It’s okay.  It’s cool because it seems like, for a very long time here, people have been very into the mind-set of like, “I’m only listen to metal” or “I only listen to hip-hop”.  Now, it’s cool to see so many people turn out for such an eclectic thing.

M:  Exactly.  It’s just always weird to see the different  the different scenes clashing.

G:  No, it’s cool, it’s very cool.

M:  In watching your set it became evident how camaraderie really works its way into your music.  You don’t see often where you can throw your mic into the crowd, let them sing, and when you call for it, they throw it right back to you.

G:  I think something about our music, we’ve been around for ten years, I think there’s some aspect to it, besides the obvious insane energy and aggression of it, there’s a vibe of everyone knowing that it’s not the easiest thing in the world to listen to and it’s not the easiest thing in the world to get.   For as many people who are siked on it there’s a lot of people that just probably hate it.  I think that makes the people that are into to it have this really us-against-the-world type of vibe.  We’ve always tried to be really hands-on with our fans and really communicative and never to-cool-for-school and always talk to them and do cool stuff with them.  If they right to us online we try to write back to every person.  I think, over the years, it’s created now a point where we have this really cool synchronous type vibe with our fans.  It’s neat man, it’s really nice.

M:  It’s also basically crossed the line from camaraderie to trust.

G:  Yeah, that kid could have stole the mic and ran away with it, but he threw it back.  That’s the other thing, I think when you have confidence and you give someone some responsibility and your cool to them, they feel obligated to be cool back.  If that kid had tried to run away with the mic I probably would have jumped on him and killed him.  But it feels good and it’s interesting, I have a lot of people say that our shows, even though they are so aggressive and so violent, it feels like the overall vibe is still positive in a way.  So, yeah, that’s really cool.

M:  Absolutely.  Also, not just that, but you doing stage diving and your guitarist stage diving with his guitar!  Now that’s trust.

G:  Yeah.  To me, we just try to take the vibe of playing in a basement to twenty people where we came from and try to get that to translate to bigger places and the only way to do that is to be as hands-on and as physically in people’s faces as possible and force them to wake up a little bit.  It sad to see so many people have such a rock star complex that the only time that they engage their fans is if they do some kind of scheduled meet-and-greet or a signing or something.  You know, hang out for a little bit and shake some people’s hands or jump into the crowd or do something.  I do know man, you (the rock star) are no better than anyone else. This is going to be over for us one day and who knows what we’re going to be doing.  So to try to act like you’re cooler than school is silly.

M:  Hippies versus hardcore kids…

G:  It’s two sides to the same coin because the whole hippy vibe and the punk rock thing, which is what hardcore came out of, are both very socially aware movements.  The

re both very communal, we’re all in this together versus some type of exterior force type of vibe, and one just took a much more aggressive approach than the other.  It’s kinda like one is Malcolm X and one is Martin Luther King Jr.  They want the same thing but one is like, “I’m gonna smoke you out” and the other is like, “I’m gonna kick you in the fucking face!”  But we want the same thing, so I think that’s why it translates.  It’s not like we’re just knuckleheads trying to incite the crowd to beat each other up.  I’d like to think it’s more intelligent than that.

M:  What do you think about the term “DIY or die” and how’s that relate to your band?

G:  Well, for us, that’s pretty much exactly how we try to do everything.  We don’t have a manager, we self-manage ourselves.  We are very hands-on, there’s no merch’, there’s no poster, there’s nothing about our band visually, sonically, how we are represented in press, anything, that we are not the seed of and have the final say in.  As much as it drives us nuts and we spend every waking moment of our lives working on this, I know that there is absolutely nothing out representing us that we didn’t see from its inception to its finality.  I think that it’s another thing that our fans appreciate.  If they get a t-shirt from us, they aren’t getting it from some graphic designer that works for the record company that we were just like, “Yeah, whatever, that sounds cool, how big is the check we’re gonna get?”  That thing has to look like something that I would wear, that means something to me, that’s looks cool.  I think, especially in the climate now where the record industry is just collapsing completely, that the people that can do the most DIY are the only ones that are going to stay afloat.

M:  That’s basically how the trend in music is going these days.

G:  It has to be.  It has to go back to that.  If you’re forced to be in a position financially to cut back every bit of slack you possibly can and to try to do as much by yourself as you possibly can, it’s gonna weed everybody out.  The only people that are going to stay alive are the people who really give a shit and the people who care enough to put in the time to do everything themselves.  The days of being a kid, and thinking that your rock star fantasy is going to come true and someone else is going to wipe your ass for you and do everything for you and you’re just gonna get a check at the end of the day, are completely over.

M:  Hit the road and promote yourself.

G:  Yeah man, go out and do the shows.  Don’t suck live.  Don’t write shitty music.  Put out cool shit and you’ll last.

M:  So what’s your favorite lyric, the one that means the most to you?

G:  You know what, it’s probably a lyric that’s going to be on our upcoming record because, for me, lyrics are snap-shots of where you were in your life, and you don’t want to be there forever.  So when we sing songs from our past records it’s like looking at a picture of myself in an auditory way.  I’ll be singing a song, and I’ll remember writing that song, I was twenty-three, I was in my basement, this is exactly what I was talking about.  I might not relate to it now.  Hopefully, you’re in a different place, especially when you’re yelling and screaming and pissed, you know.  You shouldn’t still be pissed six years later at the same thing.  The trick is to find a kernel of that memory and hone in on it, you can still mean what you saying and you’re not just spitting out consonants and vowels.  That’s for someone else to decide.  I know that’s a shitty answer, but I don’t have a favorite one of my lyrics.  I know they’re all pretty piss-poor, to be honest with you.  (laughter)  If you want to listen to lyrics, you should probably listen to Dylan or something.

M:  So when’s the new album coming out?

G:  February or January of 2010, which sounds like a long time but it’s realistically like 6 months away.  We do three more weeks of touring and then we go home and start recording in late July, early August.  January, February at the latest, we’ll get it out, and we’re siked man.

M:  What can we look forward to in the new album?

G:  Well, we got a new drummer, and that’s the biggest difference.  Our new drummer is just on fire!  He’s twenty-four and honestly the best drummer I’ve ever played with.  He wants to crush everyone.  He’s got this fire in him that he needs to prove to the world he’s the shit.  That’s kinda cool because he’s pushing us, and we’re really hard on ourselves so to be pushed by someone who is brand new is a really good feeling.  I can honestly say, after being in this band for a decade, that the stuff we’re writing now is the most inspired stuff we’ve ever written.  It’s hard to know whether you’re still going to be able to do stuff without becoming a caricature or parody of yourself.  The fact that we can still have something to say, ten years into it, with essentially the same style music, to me is nice, the fact that people still give a shit.  I think everyone will like it.  Anyone that likes us should be pleased with the new record.

M:  Awesome.  We look forward to it.  Thanks a lot for being with us.

G:  Definitely dude.

You Can’t Hold Down Excelsior!

Every once in a while, we experience technical difficulties which attempt to interrupt the domination of The Tracks.  Well, that shit doesn’t fly around here, so we’re back up and running.

Music fans, you know what time it is.  Festival lineups are starting to trickle out, and you’ve started to prepare yourselves for the summer.  This winter hasn’t been that bad (yet… here comes a massive storm), but we need the warm weather back to get back into our shorts and flip flops (I can do without the massive amounts of patchouli, thank you.  Sorry, but it’s the truth).

The lineups are looking pretty damn good.  Personally, I’m pumped to see that Vampire Weekend will be back out on the road to support their upcoming album.  However, I think that some major hitters will be coming out of hibernation to blow up the fest scene this summer (Daft Punk anyone?)  Look for more greatness this year, and possibly some reunions of past media team-ups.

If anyone wants to call the Team Excelsior Hotline, hit us up at (727) 4-TRACKS!  (Yes, it’s a real number…)

- Train

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Interview with Robert F. Kennedy Jr on Moe Train’s Tracks

Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Monty Wiradilaga, Brian Kracyla

Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival

 

M:  I’m here with Mr. Robert Kennedy Jr…  Why are you here at Bonnaroo?

R:  I’m here at Bonnaroo because this is a festival that famously has a very strong environmental ethic.  The people who come here, generally speaking, have very strong ethics.  I’m going to talk to people about coming to Appalachia this summer and getting arrested to stop the coal industry from cutting down the Appalachian mountains, which is the biggest crime in American history.  And my kids come here every year, so I wanted to make sure and see them.

M:  To appeal to a younger audience, what does that mean to your cause?

R:  The people who come here, generally speaking, have a very idealistic vision about this country.  They want our nation to live up to its historic destiny of being an exemplary nation.  They want America to be everything America promised everybody that it was going to be.  And it’s important at this point, particularly with coal, to remind people that coal represents the subversion of our democracy, the corruption of our public officials, and the destruction of our most precious national heritage, the historic landscapes where Danny Boone and Davy Crockett roamed, a place that so much of our culture, our history, our values, are rooted in those landscapes.  And we’re cutting them down.  We’ve already cut down five hundred of the biggest mountains in West Virginia.  We’ve buried twelve hundred miles of streams.  We are going to cut down an area, flatten an area, the size of Delaware and they’re not going to be able to tell their kids, to take their kids to the Cumberland.  It’s criminal and it’s illegal.  We got a court order saying it’s illegal but the industry was able to corrupt officials in the public, the Bush administration, and get them to reverse the court order.  The entire business plan for this industry is based upon their capacity to corrupt public officials, subvert our democracy, and get away with illegal behavior.  Their product is not cheap, it’s hideously expensive, and it’s not clean, you know, that’s a dirty lie.  All the claims about coal by the industry are lies and they are destroying America.  And they’re destroying the planet as well.

M:  How do you feel the Obama administration will deal with this national crisis?

R:  I think all of us had great hopes with the Obama administration.  There’s a lot of heartbreak in Appalachia today and a lot of heartbreak in the environmental community because the White House just released its Mountain-top Removal Policy and it is, to say the least, extremely weak.  It’s going to change nothing on the ground.

M:  Mr. Kennedy, thank you very much.

Bill Kreutzmann (The Grateful Dead)

The Tracks brings you Mr. Bill Kreutzmann, drummer for The Grateful Dead.  In this interview, we touched on The Grateful Dead’s influence and interactions during President Obama’s campaign, their responsibilities to the Deadheads, and if the Bay Area’s New Year’s Eve shows will be the curtain call for The Grateful Dead.

M:  Mr. Bill Kreutzmann, of the Grateful Dead, thank you very much for being here on the Tracks.

B:  Yeah, nice being here, thanks for having me.

M:  Legends… The Grateful Dead… Obviously if you think about American bands, you think about the Grateful Dead.  How do you feel the Grateful Dead’s influence and responsibility to the fans has been over the years?

B:  The responsibility lies in the love of playing music and trying to play the best music you possibly can.  For years and years we never pitched politics until this last horrendous eight years came up.  We’re always pretty much a-political and we didn’t tell the fans anything, we just entertained.  We just played music, that’s all we cared about.

M:  So you said these horrendous past eight years, how are the next years going to happen, how do you feel about it?

B:  I think the next eight years are going to be incredible.  At least it’s going to be a lot different, a lot better.  I got to meet President Obama and he’s real, man.  I stood closer than you and I are talking right now and I looked right in his eye.  He’s also from Hawaii so I kidded him about his surfing.  There was a picture of him bodysurfing and he had really good form, he was on his side and had his arm out like you’re supposed to have when you bodysurf.  I was kidding him about it, and he didn’t know where I was from, he thought Grateful Dead, he must have lived in the states or something.  He looked me in the eye real close and said, “You’re from Hawaii, aren’t you?”  That cat’s smart, man.  No, I really see a freshness.  We played the inauguration.  We played the Atlantic Ball.  He came and he met us there the first time and it was terrific.  The guy really took time to come and meet the people that helped him because we had played at Penn State to about 16,000 people, a young audience, college educated people, and that really helped.  I think the

young vote really helped him.  And the way he did his campaign was so smart.  Dave Axelrod is a wonderful person and he lead President Obama down the right path.  He said, “use computers, use the internet, don’t get lobbyist money, get donations” and that was smart.  Now he doesn’t owe any one person something, like some big corporation or something.  Of course, you know all about lobbying, I don’t want to get into all that nonsense, I dislike that myself.  That’s not politics.  You hire somebody from your state to be your senator and then they’re paid for by something

else.  That’s no good.

M:  So the Dead influenced the voter’s vote?  (laughs) Did you get him into office or what?

B:  I think we influenced them at Penn State for sure.  What happened to me is, about four or five years ago, I read his second book, The Audacity of Hope, and I said, my God, this is a dream if this guy can be president.  So I’m really happy with it.

M:  The show on New Year’s Eve is in the Bay Area.  The rumor is that that will be the farewell show for the Dead.

B:  That’s a rumor.  We have actually talked about that yet.  I’ve been asked a few questions today about plans and records and stuff but we haven’t actually gotten together and had a sit down about what we’re going to do yet.

M:  Well, thank you for the music for all these years.

B:  You bet, man!  It’s been fun!

M:  You’ve made a lot of people happy.

B:  It’s made me happy.  That’s probably why I’m still alive!  (laughs)

M:  Appreciate it.

B:  You’re welcome, man.

LCD Soundsystem’s “Shut Up And Play The Hits” Coming To iTunes

After selling out movie theaters nationwide on July 18th during a special one-night-only screening event, Oscilloscope Laboratories is proud to bring SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS exclusively to iTunes.

On April 2nd 2011, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM played its final show at Madison Square Garden. LCD frontman James Murphy had made the conscious decision to disband one of the most celebrated and influential bands of its generation at the peak of its popularity, ensuring that the band would go out on top with the biggest and most ambitious concert of its career. The instantly sold out, near four-hour extravaganza moved the thousands in attendance to tears of joy and grief, with New York Magazine calling the event “a marvel of pure craft” and TIME magazine lamenting “we may never dance again.” SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS is both a narrative film documenting this once-in-a-lifetime performance and an intimate portrait of James Murphy as he navigates the lead-up to the show, the day after, and the personal and professional ramifications of his decision.

PULSE FILMS production of a film by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace
Produced by Lucas Ochoa, Thomas Benksi, James Murphy

iTunes.com/shutupandplaythehits
www.shutupandplaythehits.com

IN THEATERS

08/17/2012 Lansdowne, PA Cinema 16:9- ONE WEEK ENGAGEMENT
08/24/2012 Columbus, OH Gateway Film Center
08/24/2012 San Francisco, CA Roxie
08/30/2012 Burlington, VT Palace 9
08/31/2012 Chicago, IL Facets- PLAYING THRU 9/1
09/06/2012 Indianapolis, IN Indy Film Fest
09/08/2012 Philadelphia, PA Trocadero Theatre
09/13/2012 Syracuse, NY Westcott
09/14/2012 Boston, MA The Brattle
09/20/2012 Winnipeg, MB Cinematheque -9/26 SHOW ADDED
09/21/2012 Tucson, AZ The Loft

O.A.R.

Chris from OAR talks to MTT about staying “independent” on a big label, Madison Square Garden and more at Bonnaroo.

Chris Culos (O.A.R.) Interview on Moe Train’s Tracks

Chris Culos, Monty Wiradilaga and Brian Kracyla

Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival

Manchester, TN

June 15, 2008

Moe: We’re back stage here with Chris of O.A.R. How’s it going man?

Chris: It’s going good man. We just got here, I’m really excited. We’ve got some gorgeous weather out here.

Moe: Oh, it’s beautiful out.

Chris: Yeah.

Moe: It’s the first day of your new tour, is today the first day?

Chris: We just started our new tour today. So excited about it… A big summer.

M: Supporting the new album that comes out next month.

C: It comes out July 15^th, yes, and actually our single is called Shattered. And we’re actually getting some radio play already, which is exciting. It officially goes to radio tomorrow and fans can get it online. They can get it starting June 16^th on iTunes and stuff like that, exciting.

M: How’s this album compare to your others?

C: It’s a little bit of everything. I think by calling it all-sides, it really is capturing the all encompassing thing of O.A.R. It’s got the rock, the lighter stuff, it’s got the reggae, it’s got a little bit of everything. I think the song writing is really strong. I’m really proud of all the guys in the band, our song writers… You can really see their growth. But also the musicianship side of stuff, we feel really comfortable in the studio. That was always the thing. I think our audience really gravitated to our live stuff, and they liked the studio stuff, but they didn’t think it compared to that energy. It’s was only natural. We’ve played a couple of hundred shows a year but only made a handful of CDs. It’s still a lot of time in the studio, but for us we’re still learning.

M: Is that why you guys have encouraged the taping of your live shows?

C: Absolutely. But not just that reason alone. We’re proud all our stuff that we do in studio but as far as our live shows, that’s our bread and butter. That really is what we do best, and where we feel the most comfortable. I think by encouraging taping of the shows it creates more of a community interaction, you know for people who wanna come out and see us multiple times. It keeps us on our toes to create new set lists, and change the arrangements, and jam-out, and have fun. It’s also fun for the audience because it gives them something to talk about. It’s not the same show every night, not the same version of the same song every night. It’s a lot of great things.

M: Talking about live shows, how’d it feel standing on the stage at Madison Square Garden, at a sold-out arena, at one of the most important influential venues in the whole world?

C: Yeah, it was pretty much the highlight of our career. I can’t lie. It’s just weird because when we started this band, god, we started it 12 years ago in my basement, you could never imagine, you could never think of playing Madison Square Garden. I mean, all the things you could dream about, that’s just ridiculous to think that. So, to be standing on stage, it was so surreal. To be honest, it’s the only time I’ve ever been nervous playing.

M: Really?

C: Yeah, we’re really comfortable with what we do. Every night we go on stage, we get really excited about before we go on, and walk on, and that’s just what we do best, we’re comfortable. Going on in Madison Square Garden man, it was a whole other thing. It was a whole other ballgame man, I can’t lie.

M: I saw that. You could see the vibe in the place, it was just awesome.

C: Yeah. But, as soon as we started, yeah, we felt comfortable again. But it was the only time I’ve been nervous.

M: So what was the most memorable part of that performance? Anything stand out in your mind?

C: You know… It flew by. Most of the shows, some nights take a little longer than others, but that night flew by. I remember it being a little more lit up inside, just because we were filming it for DVD. You could see people. We can always usually see the front row, a couple rows back, but now look at and actually get a gauge of just how many people were there, and it was freaky. No, it was cool, ‘cause you could look out, we had a lot of our family there. I could look out and see my parents, my grandparents, and aunts and uncles, and cousins, and friends, and all these people who traveled from all over the country to watch us in New York. That was the coolest part.

M: Yeah, it had to be amazing for sure. So, with the new album, I know that you’re with a major label now; you were with an independent label before. Are we go to be seeing the independent O.A.R.? Or are we going to see a new incarnation?

C: We’re always independent O.A.R., man! No, see, here’s our deal. We started as a basement band, you know, when we were in high school. We went to college to really try to make it. We went to the biggest school in the country at the time, Ohio State University, and we went for four years. Not everybody graduated, but a couple of us did.

M: You did right?

C: Yeah, I did. Woo-hoo!

M: Ha, there ya go.

C: Then we started the band and we’ve been touring full time for eight years. So we’ve been a band for 12 years and everything been a real slow growth, but it’s been growing upwards steadily since the beginning. It’s given us time to learn and make the best decisions and really pay attention to what’s going on around us. And I think we really us that to our advantage, because if something happened over night, I don’t know if we’d know exactly how to deal with it correctly, and not to say that most people don’t, but who knows. For us, we’re really happy that we got to surround ourselves with great people. Our manager Dave Roberge, our singer Mark’s older brother, he started an indy label for us when we were in college. It was really just something on paper so that we could get a distribution deal, so we could get our CDs in stores like Best Buy and stuff. It wasn’t even a real label. But he grew it into an actual full functioning label with a full staff, moved to New York City, opened up office space, pretty amazing. And from what this label, Everfine Records, was able to do, it raised us up enough profile to actually get major label attention. And we had sold enough CDs on our own that when we went in to talk to a major label; we did have a little bit of leverage. Not to say that it was all in our favor, but to be honest it was a business decision to go with a major label. We just wanted to get our music out to more people. And so when we signed with, it was Lava Records, which was under Atlantic Records, which has since folded, now we’re moved over to Atlantic Records, but it’s all the same thing. We did sort of a joint-deal Everfine Records and Atlantic, so that Everfine would always be a part of us. It’s synonymous with us, it was created by our manager for us, by us. Everything about it, the mentality, will stay there. And they’ll continue to oversee most of our live releases while the major label will put out our studio releases. Sorry for the long answer.

M: No, it’s cool. Because I know that the fans are always concerned when a band makes that leap. They’re not sure if they’re getting the same band that they grew up and loved, or something that’s manufactured.

C: Of course. I mean, we’ve seen it with our favorite bands too. If anything, it’s a stepping stone for us to be able to continue what we always done in the past. If we have to put out something that’s more geared towards pop-radio, somewhere where you see us on film or television soundtracks or stuff, it’s not to say we’re playing the game and selling out, it’s to say that we wanna do that stuff to be able to continue to do the rest of the O.A.R. stuff that we love.

M: Do you consider yourself frat-rock?

C: You know, the term kinda bothers me. I don’t exactly what it is. It gives you, it’s not that it bothers me…

M: Is frat-rock a stigma?

C: It’s just used in a negative connotation. It’s not like anyone says, ‘God, these are my favorite frat-rockers!’

M: (Laughs)

C: It’s always somebody writing an article about us who pawn it off as frat-rock, as if that’s a bad thing. I’m really proud of the fact that we are able to attract fans from diverse things, whether it’s a frat, whether it’s a sorority, whether it’s just regular college kids, whether it’s high school kids, you know, older adult, any walk of life I think it sort of reaches out. I guess it is a bit of a stigma. I don’t know, I mean at first it was jam-band, and that’s really cool because some of our favorite bands are jam-bands, but we don’t consider ourselves a jam-band at all. We just don’t do that. So, to get labeled a jam-band is just I think a little misleading. So, the frat-rock thing, I don’t know, it’s just used in a negative connotation. I don’t have a problem with it if someone was using it in a praising way. Whatever.

M: Does it bother you that your band’s music makes the beds rock in collegiate America all across the US?

C: Hell no, dude, that’s the point, c’mon.

M: We’ve got a lot of comments about that, ‘Dude, you’re interviewing those guys! We’ve had sex to that music all the time!’

C: Sweet!

M: Oh, congrats on being one of the top 100 most influential indie bands.

C: Oh, thanks, performing/song writer, what an honor, we are really excited.

M: There are a lot of big names on that list.

C: Honestly, I can’t put it into words, I was a little bit speechless. We’ve never really won any honors; we’ve never really won any awards. I think, in the past, people who know about O.A.R. know about O.A.R., and everyone else outside this world has sort of ignored us. It’s given us, I don’t want to say a chip on the shoulder, but it’s made us feel like we’re a little bit of the underdog, wanting to always prove ourselves. It doesn’t bother us but it makes us want to work that much harder. So to get some recognition like this, it’s really satisfying.

M: Another congratulations in order, you just got married.

C: Thank you, I’m actually about to get married.

M: Oh, I’m sorry, you’re about to get married.

C: In three weeks, it’s the countdown.

M: So what’s your thoughts?

C: Man, I’m really excited. I’m most excited to be sitting on the beach on the honeymoon.

M: Where ya going?

C: We’re going to Hawaii. And neither of us have ever been. Have you been?

M: Not yet, but this year. I think we’re going to a wedding. Apparently it’s supposed to be amazing.

C: Yeah, I can’t wait.

M: You still gonna be the same guy or what?

C: I’m gonna be the same guy, yeah.

M: What’s your most revolutionary moment of O.A.R.?

C: You know, again, I would have to say Madison Square Garden. It was pretty amazing. When we were in college, we played at a place called the Newport Music Hall. It was when we got to college and we said, ‘God, one day we’re really gonna tour, we’re really gonna do this for a career.’ And the biggest venue on campus was called the Newport Music Hall and we said, ‘One day we’re gonna play there.’ And we ended up playing there many times throughout college, and we sold it out almost every time. It was really satisfying the first time we saw our name on the marquee.

M: You guys always seem to show up with Dave Matthews. And I guess your ending the tour with them…

C: They’ve treated us well throughout the years. Honestly, we haven’t had a chance to work with that many large bands. We feel like we’ve always sort of gone out and toured on our own. They’ve been good to us, a lot of opportunities.

M: Pick up any pointers from Dave?

C: Yeah. That’s the best part of it. When I was a kid, they were probably my favorite band. I would watch them in concert all the time. So to be able to be backstage and watch a show is amazing, but really the coolest thing is to be able to be backstage and watch how they operate as a business. Most people don’t think of those things, but to see how they operate with the personnel that they hire, their road crew, the way that they handle the trucking and setting up of the equipment, and what kind of gear they use, and all that stuff. For us, that’s really the best part, I mean, we can sit there and learn from the best, you know. That’s the business model we would strive to be, if there was one.

M: Absolutely.

C: It’s an empire they’ve created.

M: Yeah, absolutely. So tomorrow, I guess you guys have your first live interactive on-line show, or concert, what’s going on with that?

C: Yeah, so it’s called Deep Rock Drive and we’re actually filming it at a studio in Vegas. There actually will be somewhat of a studio audience in there. It’s a really cool thing that we have never done before where we post a bunch of songs and people can vote on what songs, and the set list and what order they want it to be in, and people can type real-time questions into us. It’s a completely interactive show. Totally new, I’m really excited. I know they’ve done a couple shows but other artists, but it totally new for us and it’s relatively new technology that they can do all this stuff. I’m just really looking forward to it.

M: Cool. So at the end of your career, what do you hope to have accomplished?

C: Oh man, I don’t think that way. That’s a good question. Honestly, we feel like we’re just starting. If that’s another answer, I don’t even know. We just wanna be the biggest band we can be.

M: So what’s that mean?

C: I wouldn’t say awards or anything like that. I think that when I was a kid I would have loved to be on Saturday Night Live. I would love to be nominated for a Grammy, I don’t wanna win a Grammy, just maybe just one time be nominated for a Grammy. What about cover of Rolling Stone, that’s a classic you gotta go with as a band.

M: So you have your checklist.

C: Checklist, yeah. You know, seeing that platinum record up on the wall, which we feel very fortunate that we’ve gotten a couple of gold records. If you’re asking, I guess that kinda stuff, but I don’t really know. We just want to fucking play.

M: I got it, man. Thanks a lot for being with us, we appreciate it.

C: No problem, man.

Randy Blythe Released From Czech Prison – Lamb of God To Play Knotfest

Excellent news coming out of the camp of Randy Blythe (Lamb of God)… Welcome home, Randy!

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After five weeks in a prison in Prague in the Czech Republic, Randy Blythe has been released on bail and is returning to the United States. Although LAMB OF GOD has cancelled their summer co-headline tour with Dethklok, the band has agreed to play the KNOTFEST shows on August 17th in Council Bluffs, Iowa and August 18th in Somerset, Wisconsin.

 

The band is currently targeting October 26th as the start date for a U.S tour. Dates and cities will be released as soon as possible. Randy will be making a public statement discussing his time in Prague and thanking fans worldwide for their support in the next week.

 

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