Tag Archives: interview

Massive Q & A with Throwing Muses’ Kristin Hersh: ‘We didn’t want to work in an ugly business any longer.’

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Throwing Muses, 2013.

A 6000 word interview with Throwing Muses’ frontwoman Kristin Hersh just went online at Uncut magazine coinciding with the release of the excellent new Throwing Muses’ album, Purgatory/Paradise.

The interview is by Michael Bonner, who writes “The View From Here” blog at Uncut.

Here’s a choice section:

Is there an inspiration behind the collection of songs on Purgatory/Paradise?

Ten years off, I suppose. The songs don’t give a shit about whether or not anybody is letting us work. We didn’t want to work in an ugly business any longer. It was never really the right thing to do, except it allowed us to make records. But eventually your morals can’t bear to hear ‘Dumb it down’ one more time. So you’re morally bound to either stop working or work in private if you can’t play the game, and we were not out to play the game any longer. So we did both. There were times when we couldn’t work at all and times when we worked a little bit, and this collection is a window into that more private world.

You say you’ve been working on these songs for three or four years.

That’s recording. The songs kept coming, and we always play together whenever we can. And that’s all there were but it always was, because we were such dorks we couldn’t really learn how to, I guess care. You’re supposed to want to be a rock star, you’re not supposed to filter down into the choices you make including selling a cartoon version of yourself and your friends and your product. I don’t see how that could not be transparent to everyone right now. I wouldn’t want to be caught doing that even if I could, and I couldn’t because I’m such a dork and so are my friends but eventually we were livid that that’s what was expected of us when all we were trying to do was… well, really what we’re trying to do is manifest heaven. I don’t know how else to put it! There aren’t any better ways. In private, we called Purgatory/Paradise Precious Pretentious! We don’t care anymore about caring. We care so fucking much, we’re tired of apologising for it. This is our Precious Pretentious world and it’s been private for the last decade because we haven’t wanted to engage in the music business and now the music business is dead and we’re dancing on its grave.

Read the entire interview at The View From Here

Listen to a track off the album:

Watch & Listen: Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen Part of 92nd Street Y Online Archive

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92nd Street Y has recordings of over 10,000 events going back to 1949. This Thursday they will start letting people watch or stream audio of over 1000 of them, and right now there’s an audio stream of Leonard Cohen performing “The Stranger Song” from 1966, and an interview with Lou Reed from 2006 that you can check out.

Lou Reed:

Leonard Cohen reads two poems – “For E.J.P” and “You Have the Lovers” – and performs “The Stranger Song.”

Q&A: Kathleen Hanna Talks About “The Punk Singer”

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Photo via the New York Times. Photo by Shervin Lainez.

In today’s New York Times Kathleen Hanna spoke about why she cooperated with having a documentary, “The Punk Singer,” made about her life, and why she is so open about herself in the film. “The Punk Singer” will be in theaters starting next week. There’s a clip from it below.

You really opened up your life, from late-stage Lyme disease to your relationship with your husband.

Mortality looming over you really changes your personality in such a huge way. I thought I was dying, so I was like, “I don’t care anymore — I am vulnerable. I’m sick of being guarded!” Adam really got me through coping with Lyme: every day, he would place every single one of the 39 pills I had to take in my pill case so I didn’t have to do it. He’s the person who changed my IV bags, kept the house clean, cooked every single meal for me and kept everything running for two years. Besides the fact that he’s hot as hell, really talented and has the best sense of humor of anyone I know, who else would change an IV bag for you while you’re laying on the couch having a seizure?

“The Punk Singer” begins with footage of you performing an early confessional spoken-word piece where you describe the importance of “screaming what’s unspoken.”

I’m standing in a coffee shop with Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, rocking back and forth and saying all this stuff about incest! When I see it today, my stomach drops and I want to hide under a blanket. At the same time, that’s what I was like — Mr. Confrontation.

For more, head to the New York Times.

Inside The Stooges, Guitarist Ron Asheton’s Story: “Iggy was kind of a clown”

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There’s an amazing story about The Stooges on the vice.com website. The late Stooges’ guitarist Ron Asheton spoke to Legs McNeil at length and now we get to read Asheton’s version of The Stooges’ story.

Talking about the group getting signed and recording the now classic first album, The Stooges, Asheton said:

I think we had three songs, and one of them was, “I’m sick.”

Jac [Holzman, Elecktra Records president] asked, “Well, you guys got enough material to do an album right?” We said yes when we didn’t, so we just busted our asses and I came up with the riff to “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”

When we went to New York to record the first Stooges album, Elecktra asked us again, “You’ve got more stuff, don’t you?”

We said, “Oh sure!”

So I went back to the hotel and in one hour came up with “Little Doll,” “Not Right,” and “Real Cool Time.” Once I had the music, Iggy came down and listened to it, and then he went up and came up with the lyrics. The next night we rehearsed one time and then we went and recorded each song in one take.

We’d never been in the studio before, and we set up our Marshall Stacks and put the volume on ten. So we started out, and John Cale, our producer, said, “Oh no, this is not the way!” But we couldn’t play unless it was high volume, we didn’t have enough expertise on our instruments. It was all power chords, and the only way we could get it done was to play big and loud.

There’s plenty more good stuff here.

And you can listen to The Stooges:

John Fogerty On Creedence Clearwater Revival: “the fine running machine was starting to get a little wobbly”

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Creedence publicity still. John Fogerty at far right.

John Fogerty talks about why he’s playing the entire Creedence album Cosmo’s Factory, in an interview with the Washington Post that ran today.

“Well, it was actually an idea my wife said to me one day. . . ,” Fogerty said in the interview. “I went: ‘Gee, I don’t know, honey. Why would anybody want to do that?’ But the more I thought about it, what it did was it kind of placed you in that era. And it made you remember a lot of stuff that was around the album. I’m a fan, I buy albums, too. I sure remember sitting with Elvis’s first album, I don’t know how many thousands of times. Or Buddy Holly and the Crickets’ first album. And you sit there and you’re listening. You’re just in that place because it was so magical. And somehow that stays in you. That little chapter gets tucked away in your brain even though you live another 40 years. But somehow going and doing that, listening to the whole record puts you right back in that place you were all those years ago when you did it that way. . . . It’s a pretty fascinating phenomenon really.”

Talking about his role in Creedence, Fogerty said, ” I was a very strong leader, and I had a mountain, a whole roomful of musical ideas. So I was sort of an unstoppable force. Basically the hardest part was just getting the band up to speed musically so they could record and accomplish these songs. And also just to be in sync and on the same page, wanting to do it. As the success and time went on and got greater there was more and more dissension within the band. You mention how other bands are. What happens then is you spend half your time in the political realm, meaning, well, ‘I don’t know if I want to do that song.’ Or, ‘I want to come up with my own song.’

“That takes time,” Fogerty continued. “There’s a lot of time being consumed in bands where everybody’s having their say, then you have a meeting, you take a vote — you see what I’m getting at. But basically, Cosmo’s Factory was really the very end of me being very strong and very pure and very clear in my direction. And after that . . . the fine running machine was starting to get a little wobbly. Democracy’s a wonderful thing. But as we all know in America, it’s really hard to manage.”

For more, head to the Washington Post.

Check out Creedence live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1970:

My 1996 Interview With Lou Reed

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I read the news today, oh boy. Fuck. Lou Reed dead. I can’t believe it. I know we all die, but Lou Reed? I remember as a kid listening to a used copy of the Velvets’ first album in the living room of my parents house and trying to hear all the words to “Heroin.”

I was fascinated by the Velvets long before I really understood what they were all about, and why they were so important. I have played their albums for decades, particularly the third album, The Velvet Underground, and Loaded.

Like for millions of other fans all over the world, for me this is truly a sad day.

In 1996, when I was editor and publisher of Addicted To Noise, I had the opportunity to interview Lou Reed. The interview is still online. Here’s part of the introduction, with a link to the rest of the story.

Lou Reed is dressed in black. Black leather pants. Black t-shirt. Black shoes. Electricity is, literally, crackling off him, as he stands in his elegantly cool, private sixth floor office at the back of Sister Ray Enterprises, overlooking Broadway in the Village.

“Did you hear that?” he asks, walking over to an open window and closing it.

I think he’s referring to the street sounds, but I’m wrong.

At Sister Ray, there are Lou Reed and Velvet Underground posters on the walls, as well as framed gold and platinum albums for New York. A rack holds copies of many of Reed’s older albums; boxes of the recent Velvet Underground boxed set sit on a bookcase. A photographer is setting up to shoot Reed up front. Reed’s publicist is on the phone, dealing from a couch at the back, just outside the room where Reed and I are talking. Nearby is Reed’s Internet expert, Struan Oglanby.

“I’m getting a shock every time I get up,” Reed says with a grimace, taking a seat back at his desk. “That was that snapping sound.” Then, in that classic Lou Reed monotone, “I conduct a lot of electricity. It’s really strange.”

Maybe not so strange. We are, after all, talking about Lou Reed, founder of the Velvet Underground. Writer of such highly charged songs as “Heroin,” “I’m Waiting For The Man,” “Sweet Jane” and, of course, “Rock & Roll.” And Lisa Says.” And “Walk On The Wild Side.” And “Satellite Of Love.” And “The Blue Mask.” And “Romeo Had Juliette.” And “Dirty Blvd.” And….

You can read the rest of the interview here.

Watch Lou Reed perform “Sweet Jane.”

Return Of The Throwing Muses: “We wanted no further part [of] the recording industry”

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Later this week the Throwing Muses return with a new album, Purgatory/Paradise, their first in ten years. The 32-track album comes with a 64-page book of essays and stories by Kirstin Hersh, plus photos and artwork by Muses’ drummer  Dave Narcizo and Hersh.

“We’ve always lived in our own private world,” Muses leader Kirstin Hersh told The Independent, “and we might  well have made this record and never released it, but we felt it was worthy of release.”

The group has spent the past decade “divorcing ourselves from the recording industry, which is collapsing. We wanted no further part in it,” Hersh said.

The new book/album is being published by HarperCollins’ The Friday Project Limited imprint.

For the entire story, head to The Independent.

Here’s are some old videos for your enjoyment.

Post-R.E.M. Peter Buck Talks About Vinyl Records, The Punk Revolution & Lots More

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peter_buck

Peter Buck did a rare interview with Salon that was published today. The former R.E.M. guitarist and songwriter seems quite happy with his life. He’s working with musicians he digs, taking walks, writing songs and pretty much having a ball.

It wasn’t always that way. Buck says when R.E.M. disbanded, he was in a bad way.

“It seemed like everything occurred at once,” he told Salon’s David Daley. “I remember I felt really sorry for myself for a day or two, and then I thought, well, this is bullshit. I have got a million friends; if I was broke I could just call them and stay on their couches for 10 years. I still have whatever ability I had, which isn’t a lot. I’ve got great family, great friends. You know, I don’t have to work for a reason; there’s no need.

“I was just down. Disheartened when things end. When lots of things end — I was really sad when my kids went off to college. They weren’t.

“I’ve just got to remember who am I and consider what I’m going to put my time to doing. You know, I’m like a lot of people my age — music is not something I need to do 24 hours a day, but I want to continue to create. And I want to do things that are interesting and entertaining and fun.”

Buck still thinks back fondly on the days when he could introduce journalists to great unknown bands of the punk and post-punk era.

“We had bands open for us that we really respected.,” Buck told Salon. “At a time when no one knew who the Minutemen were, I would play tapes of them for writers in England, and they’d say, ‘This is amazing. This is a revolution happening right now in America and nobody’s paying attention to it.’ We’d talk about it, whether it’s Howard Finster or Flannery O’Connor. You know, we weren’t getting a lot of information either. I grew up in Atlanta in 1978, and every once in a while somebody would have a Melody Maker that was six weeks old.

“The B-52s went to New York and they would tell you things. I didn’t know them very well, but you’d hear, ‘Wow, there’s this great band called Gang of Four.’ My whole thing was whenever I would do interviews, I’d say, you know, it feels like there’s only 20 people in this town, but there’s 20 people in every town in America interested in these things. I’m still really good friends with a lot of them — Steve Wynn, Bob Mould. People who helped shape scenes where they lived.”

Buck recorded a solo album for Portland-based Mississippi Records and only released it on vinyl.

“Well, when R.E.M. went the way of all flesh — it was all amicable and we decided and we agreed 100 percent, but it left me thinking, well, I’ve been dissatisfied for a few years with what has gone on. So what don’t I like? And I sat down and made a list of things I like and a list of things I don’t like. The things I don’t like had nothing to do with music — it was all the other stuff. The business part of it, and you know, the interviews. I’ve only done five in the last five years. I don’t promote my own stuff with interviews because I don’t need to. But for years I’ve been saying I hate the way CDs sound, and on top of that I don’t like records that are made on Pro-Tools, even though that makes it easier. So I went all the way to the other side. I’ve been lucky enough where I don’t have to make a living making records. So I can do it exactly the way I want to — and if that’s seen as exclusionary, that’s OK, but you know, you can order the records.”

For more, head to Salon.

Listen: Nirvana Interviews From Early ’90s

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Kurt Cobain sings "Scentless Apprentice."

James Sherry interviewed Nirvana a number of times between 1990 and 1992 for Metal Hammer magazine.

From Sherry’s new introduction to the interviews:

“It’s hard to express quite how important Nirvana were to my life and the direction it took. In the late eighties I started my first job as office junior at Metal Hammer magazine. I had my own fanzine ‘Phobia’ and I was over-flowing with enthusiasm and eager for every bit of nasty noise that came my way; ‘you used to like everything….everything’s great,’ an old work college reminded me recently. And he’s right, I loved it all.

In one of my first weeks in the office I happened upon a package of records that had been sent to the then reviews editor John Duke. He had recently left the magazine and I was charged with the job of sorting through the pile of records for review. One of the packages really caught my eye. It was from Anton at Bad Moon Publicity and had three records inside; ‘Superfuzz Bigmuff’ by Mudhoney, ‘Bleach’ by Nirvana and a Tad record which I now forget. I snuck the records home and suffice to say, they tore my little teenage mind apart.”

Read more here.

Read what James Sherry has to say about his experiences with Nirvana here.

Krist Novoselic Talks About Kurt’s Creativity

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Cobain

In an interview Krist Novoselic did for a story Rolling Stone is running about In Utero, the bass player speaks about the group’s creative process.

“There were songs that Kurt would woodshed,” Novoselic said. “He would come in with it, and we would work it out, build it up. There were songs that were made up on the spot, coming out of jams, which took a few rehearsals to come together. But they would find form. That was another thing with Kurt – he could have a riff, but then he was so good at vocal phrasing. He would usually write the lyrics at the last minute. But he was so good at vocal phrasing [in rehearsals]. And voilà – you have a song.

“Once we settled on an arrangement, we never changed anything,” Novoselic continued. “You can see that in different versions of songs we recorded [live] over the years. We never changed the arrangement. Once it was done, it was done: ‘Let’s play it.'”

Read more at Rolling Stone.