Friday December 15, 2006 SGN.org |
 |
Volume 34 Issue 50 |
 |
|
Friday, Aug 29, 2008
|
 |
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||
|
Best of Music 2006: Feature Artist Interview / We Are Scientists |
||
.JPG) |
||
| Best of Music 2006: Feature Artist Interview / We Are Scientists | ||
|
by Albert Rodriguez -
SGN A&E Writer How does one experiment with scientists? With beer, of course. On a sunny weekend afternoon, I yanked all three members of We Are Scientists inside the Bad JuJu Lounge to chat over beers. The Brooklyn-based alt rock trio has completed a busy, exciting year performing in Australia, Europe, Asia, and every major US city at least twice. The threesome toured several weeks with breakthrough act and fellow pranksters the Arctic Monkeys. This interview, a thank you from We Are Scientists to Seattle Gay News for all the support given to them this year, reads more like a chatter session over drinks, which essentially is what it was. Keith Murray, Chris Cain, and Michael Tapper are three of the most open-minded, hilarious, and talented guys in music, and it's been amazing to watch them grow as artists and expand their fan base in 2006. Grab a cocktail or a beverage of choice and prepare to be educated (well, maybe not) and entertained with We Are Scientists. The band's With Love and Squalor and "The Great Escape" made our Top Ten Albums and Singles year-end lists, respectively. Albert Rodriguez: What were some of your favorite CDs of the year? Michael Tapper: I just got the new Mastodon album, and I've only listened to half of it once, but it's really fucking good. Keith Murray: I'm a big fan of the Oxford Collapse record, which came out way back in October. Chris Cain: I really like Band of Horses. I've listened to that record a shitload. I've also listened to the Mates of State record a lot, the one that came out this year. Rodriguez: Any opinions on the new Justin Timberlake album? Murray: A lot of the songs are really Timbaland songs, so maybe you would say, "guest vocals by Justin Timberlake"? Timbaland raps a lot and he's always talking. He's present in every song vocally. In some songs I don't think Justin Timberlake is in them, unless he's saying, "What up?" Tapper (busting up laughing): You don't think Justin Timberlake is in them?! Murray: No, he's not. Tapper: But he dances in the videos, and that's important! Rodriguez: Tell me about your new album. Murray: It's going to be a piano ballad album. We're making the sort of switch Coldplay did from Parachutes to A Rush of Blood to the Head. Keith will no longer play guitar. He's going to rock out on piano. Big monstrous, authentic ballads. Rodriguez: There's an audience for that. Murray: Y0u bet there is! Cain: We do a cover of "One" by U2 right now, and that's what we're shooting for. The three of us all sitting at a piano playing the parts one person would normally play. Rodriguez: That's pretty funny. What are you doing for the holidays? Cain: I'm going home to Utah, where my family lives, for a week or so around Christmas. Do some skiing. Murray: I'm going to sit around, and sleep. It won't be much of a vacation, but more like being jobless in New York. I'll lie on the couch a lot, watch some DVDs, go to bars every night. Tapper: I'm going to try to go to Thailand. I have a good friend from New York who moved there a couple of years ago, so I haven't seen him in a while. Cain: (leans over to me and whispers loudly) David Byrne is his name. Rodriguez: Ah, that friend. Cain: They were boys together, back in the day. Rodriguez: Got it. Were there any venues you played this year that were kick ass? Murray: We played the Fillmore in San Francisco a couple of days ago with Art Brut. That was fantastic! Much better than the Warfield, where we played with Arctic Monkeys. They're both Billy Graham venues, so I'm not stepping on any toes when I say the Fillmore is the better of the two. Tapper: Fillmore rules! Cain: Good job Billy Graham, except on the Warfield! Thanks for the Fillmore! Tapper: The El Rey is really cool, in LA. Cain: We played Irving Plaza for the first time. That was good. The Black Cat in DC is an amazing venue. We always have a great time at the Black Cat. Tapper: And Bowery (Ballroom) we played this year for the first time. I really like that place. Rodriguez: Matt Rubano of Taking Back Sunday told us he often loses socks on tour. Are you guys notorious for losing things? Cain: I lost a sock today. I threw it up in a tree to keep our tour manager from putting it in my mouth. Murray: (shaking his head) The games you play. Rodriguez: Yeah, that's a little weird. Tapper: I lost a pair of shoes. Cain: This outfit I'm wearing is because of a bet with our tour manager. He's gonna pay me $780 if I wear it for the rest of the tour. (His outifit is hideous, Easter Bunny meets Gay Telletubby) Rodriguez: Have you washed it? Cain: I actually have several of them. I have a $300 wardrobe budget. Tapper: Do you have the doll? Cain: Yeah. (He pulls out a doll dressed exactly like him) A fan in Portland had a voodoo doll of me, and we joked around that it would be funny to wear that (the outfit). There's a lightning bolt design on the front of Cain's shirt, which leads me to believe this is a strange association to the Church of Satan. This sparks a discussion on the Church of Satan practices, voodoo dolls and curses. Then, we talk about TV shows and celebrities (Murray met The OC's Adam Brody), and other stuff. Then, we wrap things up so Tapper can get a haircut. Rodriguez: Do you guys have a special holiday greeting you'd like to share with our readers? After some mumbling and a few more sips of beer, something is said about enjoying peace and going to a better place and to keep rocking on. So, take that as your holiday greeting. |
||
 |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
International Readers read the SGN in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 post your own information on Seattle Gay Blog |
copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2006