AAR/TBS Press Conference Video is up!

Check out Shows/ The Rock Star Stories tab for the All American Rejects/Taking Back Sunday videos.  Thanks to Matt and Adam from TBS and Mike and Chris from AAR for talking with us.  Also thanks to Alex our host!

All American Rejects and Taking Back Sunday Press Conference 12-6-09

AFI Press Conference PIctures 11-18-09 Revolution Ft Lauderdale

New Moon Soundtrack Review

by Diana Ciuca

The album begins with the quintessential Death Cab for Cutie song, with the electric piano and occasional wavering in and out of loud and soft harmony. The symbol of the equinox in the song displays some astrological influence upon the entire album. So far, I’m hoping that this is a themed album; fingers crossed.

Luckily, or not, the next few songs tend to stick to a similar principle. Truly, the only theme to this album can be summed up in three words: soft, indie, dreamy. After some ups and downs in tempos, beats, and instrumentation (guitars, drums, and piano), the only conclusion that can be drawn is that this is a genre piece. The album advocates the beauty of the indie (sub/counter) culture that has motivated hipsters to invade American Apparel and also the local Salvation Army/Goodwill in search of “hot buys.” They are the picture-hoarding, iPod wearing, Twilight-reading youngsters who are fluent in the language of music and, thankfully, that of texting. By putting all these songs together, I feel like their (the individual song’s and the hip, excitable, teen’s) originality is forsaken; Nevertheless, each song, on their own, is truly a work of art – as are most indie pieces. As Andy Warhol said, “Art is what you can get away with.” Certainly, we have gotten away with much avante-gardness in the past, and this album, as fresh or unique as you want it to be, is no different.

Most critics see this as a medley of wonderful musicians. Still, I can’t help but question what is so great about these musical sensations? Usually it is the voice, or the smooth guitar, or the sound effects. This album has so much of those techniques that it almost becomes overwhelming. In conclusion, the New Moon soundtrack is like food. Sure, I love peperoni pizza, chocolate ice cream, steak, salsa, and salad. But, if you were to throw them all on one plate, I might not enjoy it as much.

The album ends with the quintessential Classical music piece, with the alternating piano and occasion speeding up and down of the tempo. The symbol of the new moon in the title displays some astrological influence upon the entire album – given that it is the title.
Sounds like you’ve heard that sentence before? It sounds like I’ve heard all these songs before, too.

Ghostland Observatory Interview

By Brittany Reeber University of Texas Austin

The Monday after Austin City Limits Music Festival was a day of recovery from a weekend with little sleep and lots of noise. I had my doubts about the interview scheduled with Ghostland Observatory for that Monday night. If I was dead tired, I could only imagine how the Austin duo felt after two days of shows, blowing up both Zilker Park at the ACL Fest Saturday night and then downtown at Stubbs’s BBQ the next day. But sure enough, Thomas Ross Turner, exactly one half of the spacey ensemble and master of multi-tasking (managing synthesizer, keyboard, drums, and backing vocals), showed up on my friend’s front porch around ten o’clock.

This weekend has been crazy for you!

-Yeah a pretty intense weekend, a lot of preparation.

How did you feel about your show at ACL?

-That was really good, really large crowd, and everything went really well. The crowd response was really good and we had a good time up there.

Do you prefer playing a festival or a club show?

-They’re all pretty surprising because say you have your mind set on how a certain show is gonna be or a certain city…in the beginning when we were touring, it’d be like ‘Oh this is gonna be the best ever… it’s this city or its this festival,’ and then you’re kind of let down. Or sometimes it’s the opposite, you go in to some town you’ve never been to before and you’re like ‘Oh I wonder how this is gonna go,’ and it end up being insane. So you never know what you’re gonna get, they can both be fun.

Have you always had the whole light show?

-No, because in the beginning, like right after the Paparazzi Lightening record, we’d go on tour and play a show in Los Angeles for like ten people. After we got home, I was like, ‘yeah this may not work, we may have to think of something else.’ Because you know we’d go up to Seattle and there’d be like eight or nine people there. We played some coffee shop in Bellingham, Washington and people were trying to study and we were trying to rock out. And then we’d have to drive all the way home from Bellingham and have to think about that. Like, ‘okay we just did a string of shows that maybe equaled up to fifty people total and things are not looking to good.’ We did a lot of shows like that in the beginning but we just kept going and eventually it worked.

How did you find the motivation? That seems pretty deterring.

-Well we’d come back to Austin and get rejuvenated. We’d play a crazy show at Emo’s or something and there’d be a thousand sweaty, hot people and a lot of energy. It would be so fun and we’d be like ‘Oh alright let’s try it again.’ We’d go back out and more people would be at the shows and it just started to grow like that.

It all seems to very be connected, the music and the lasers, do you guys work it out a lot beforehand?

-Yeah I mean that’s part of our partnership, being together for three years. It’s like a whole unit now: the sound, the lights, the performance, and the lasers. It’s all the show, the whole thing, so everything works together. I guess it’s sort of choreographed in a way to where it’s like nothing should be out of place.

Do you feel like it really enhances everything?

-I think so…with the lighting and the lasers and the different feelings and climaxes and parts of the set. I think it enhances everything because not only are you hearing it and feeling it, you’re seeing things happen. If there’s an exciting point in the set and the lights are going nuts, you see the crowd reacting and it helps.

Your whole setup on stage, you’ve got your keyboards and everything, what’s going on over there? It just looks like you’re doing so much all at once!

-Yeah I’ve got my synthesizers and my sequencer and my mixer and the drums. I’ve kind of got tunnel vision, I don’t really look out too much to the crowd cuz I try to make sure everything keeps moving along and everything is right. I get to groove out back there, but I can’t move around. That’s why I sport the cape, so I can just be back in my little control station.

I read online that your wife made your cape.

-Yeah and she made me a new one for ACL fest and it had lights on it so that’s pretty cool.

That’s a big deal! You never change from the other cape, right?

-I had the original and I wear the original still, and then she made me another one for ACL fest two years ago, but I threw that one in to the crowd.

Was she mad?

-No, she was alright with it, but she made this one and she was like, ‘no throwing this one.’ She spent a lot of time on this last one so I wasn’t gonna do it.

What’s it made out of?

-Hmm, I don’t know materials and things, but it’s some kind of material and she hand sewed it. Then got these lights and got this engineer to help her get all the lights connected to this thing in the back that has a switch and it runs off batteries.

Do you think you’re gonna catch on fire?

-No I don’t think its got enough juice to light me on fire, but it does get hot in there.

Aaron is your other half and he’s out front singing, do you ever get jealous and want to stretch around ?

-He does what he does and I do what I do. He’s more like live and loose and entertaining and I’m just like: ‘Okay, we need to be here at this time. Alright, what are the lights doing? Okay perfect.’ So he’s perfect for what he does and I kind of stay back in my little area.

The sound that Ghostland Observatory has is really unique, in Austin and in general. How did you guys come to find that sound together? Did you have something in mind or did it just happen?

-I think what we were trying to do when we first started creating was just push it out there, you know, be different. We really wanted to make music that was either loved or hated and not just kind of middle of the road. Same thing with our live show, we either want people to be like, ‘oh yeah I love those guys,’ or they show up and are like, ‘I can’t stand them, I would never go to see that ever again.’ It’s either or, you know, and that’s just all we try to do.

Do you believe in life on other planets?

-I’m sure, I mean, you can’t even chart how large the universe is, right? It’s like ever expanding, so how would you even know? You’d be taking a guess either way. There’s no telling what’s out there.

Well because your music is so spacey, how do you think aliens would receive your show if they saw it?

- Haha, hopefully they’d want to groove out. Especially the light set up we had at ACL fest; it was designed to look like a mother ship.

That’s how I felt when I saw it! I could see the show all the way from the other side of the festival.

-Yeah so hopefully they’d be like ‘these guys know what’s going on.’

What are you plans for the future? What do you hope to happen with the band?

-Just first get through these forty shows from now until January, take a little breather, and then start creating again and try to push it even further.

Dashboard-New Found Glory CANCELLED TOUR

CANCELLED!!!

Due to family circumstances Dashboard Confessional has cancelled their tour with New Found Glory, Never Shout Never and Meg and Dia.

Our student press conferences with the above bands has been cancelled!

Still on:

November 18th with AFI at the Pompano Beach Civic Center at 4PM.

December 6th All American Rejects and Taking Back Sunday at The Fillmore Miami Beach 4pm.

email us info@therockstarstories.com for your invitation to both of these.

THANKS AND SEE YOU THERE on the 18th!

Win a Weezer Snuggie!

Enter to win a Weezer Snuggie and a copy of their new release Raditude.

Send us an email  info@therockstarstories.com and you will be entered to win. Ends 11/18!

The Academy Is Interview with Morgan and Melanie

Mumiy Troll Interview

by Diana Ciuca

Breaking the bonds of Soviet Rule, Mumiy Troll emerged as an incredibly successfull Russian rock band.  The animated band members of Mumiy Troll are now traveling 40 cities in North America. I got the luck opportunity to interview the front-man, Illya Lagutenko, as the band traveled across Montana to preform in Canada. With a refreshing rock sound and unique history, this band is definitely worth checking out.

1. Being from a communist country, how have the strict regulations on rock music affected Mumiy Troll’s growth?

First of all, it was not anything like Music “traffic code” or an amendment in the constitution treating Rock n Roll as pedophilia…it was more like adultery:)   You actually can do that if you find a right partner who agrees to conspire a little affair together. But if you wanna spice up your hot nights there is only you and no toys:) Its pretty filthy comparison. I guess but that was exactly the thing. Slightly risky, cool  includes smuggled records and black market blue jeans. It was so easy to become a rebel in Soviets time.

2. What made you and the other band members rebel from societal constraints and form a band?

Funny thing is we were never considered rebellious , we just wanted the music on our terms, our outfits on our terms.  It was more like teenage angst.  But when you grow up in totalitarian society, strange things can happen.  Only for having strange band name MUMIY TROLL (which is actually play on letters from moomintrolls, scandinavian fairytale characters) they’ll put you on pedestal of Most Dangerous Band in the world together with Sex Pistols and Black Sabbath. How cool is that? Never made an album and to already be in a same league, at least among your schoolmates?

Were there any musical influences which aided in the band’s development?

We did not have music stores. Soviet TV was not like anything western, so our musical tastes formed as combination of Italo Pop Festivals, DIY made Iron Maiden tshirts and smuggled new wave records. I was really open to any kind of new music.  I guess I still can be good at Pop Quizzes regarding 80s music.

3. The band temporarily broke up because of the draft to the Soviet Army. Are there any other notable difficulties that the band members have encountered through the years?

It was mandatory. So we did not really suffer in the end. I just had two years to think about lots of things in my life. Soviet Union collapsed soon after that. So it was very discovering times for me. Just imagine – your life and your country changed almost overnight when you’re in early 20s. No more old doctrines, you’re free to go anywhere, feeling of total freedom. Many people could not handle that. However in my life searches it was close to perfection. I studied Mandarin and Chinese Economy.  I went to China and saw with my own eyes how the Dragon grows, got a job in a City of London where a company’s bankruptcy sendt me on the street in a perfect time to witness Britpop all that cool Brittannia thing.  So many great liife experiences only to prove that music is the only thing which I do really enjoy doing.

4. Mumiy Troll is a pioneer in Russian music because of its unique sound. What impact do you think that your music has had on setting trends in Russia and influencing society?

I guess we were just in a right time in a right place. In general my idea of rock n roll band has not changed since I was teenager, however life and music experience gives you a special intuition how to guide yourself in this world where everything been invented. If I’m not mistaken, there are the words “Honesty and freedom” describing rock n roll at The RNR Hall of Fame.  This is what I was doing, always.  I would not write about things which I’m not familiar with and I’m not trying to copy anyone else. You can not be Pink Floyd if you’re not actually Pink Floyd.  Rock band is a combination of music tastes, abilities, characters. The moment you realize you just do your best at what you do, then there always people who appreciate that.

Every single label in Russia hated our first self-funded album; they said that “westernized pop rock approach” never sells in Russia.  We had a hard time proving to distribution that they had nothing to lose, as they did not really have to invest anything  - only to prove in year time that our record became a most significant record in modern Russia not only for sales figures, but also for the fact that it is not a niche thing.   Everyone from ex-military pilots to teenage girls found something for them in my songs.  I guess because it was time of new hopes in Russia (late 90s) so we kinda sang everyone’s hope on our own terms. That things really can be different and it works…

5. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, how do you think things have changed in Russia? What things do you like about it now that were not in existence before the fall of the communist regime?

Russia became oh so different – in its own way of course. I mean, you hardly recognize that Moscow in 1980 and Moscow in 2010 is the same place.  But nothing really changed visually in many places.  It’s quite difficult for people to absorb new way of life, new modern “capitalist” values.  I do understand that.  When you live for 60 years when they said right is right, and suddenly they told you right is left, it’s a bit surprising isn’t it?  It was kinda safe and easy life – if you of course appreciate that someone controls you and actually tells you how to live your life.  The moment you have a slightest idea that things can be done differently – goodbye Soviets. Then, welcome to real world jungle.  But life is full of contrasts and I’m lucky to actually live many of them, not only read in a book.

6. You have gained international popularity through tours and even by participating in the Eurovision contest. Are there any specific places or events that you would consider to have made a huge impact on the band?

I guess its all coming in the future.:)   Really we did not have anything special – we simply work hard, because to live this rock n roll lifestyle is a special reward which is more valuable than any chart position or awards ceremony.   It’s just a lot of people dreaming about it, but not too many fulfill that dream. You gotta be realistic, have common sense but have enough courage to admit that every rose has its thorn.

7. Speaking of all these tours, how was your first tour in North America, and what made you come back again?

We’ve played selected cities like New York or San Francisco before, simply because they have significant Russian communities.  However to go on 40 dates across whole of US Canada and even Mexico was quite a challenge not only from the booking agent standpoint also from the band’s point of view.  Imagine Lou Reed goes on tour in China in 2012. Kinda start all over again to explain who you are to people who do not really care about your Velvet Underground background…pretty rock n roll-ish, uh?

8. How would you describe your fans, and how do you think they have changed through the years and through various social revolutions?

Our fans are sweet. And funny. You look at them in audience and you have absolute picture of modern Russia. People so different. This is what I really like. They are different breed of people.  Maybe they’d never communicate in real life, but they come to see us. I guess it’s a quality of music and personal things. My band mates are totally devoted musicians; however, they will never bore you with their techniques etc.   They’re fun people to go and play.  We’re rather realistic, intelligent and GSOH about music industry truths . We were old enough to get success not to be starstruck.  In russia being rockstar never paid as oil-mine ownership.  So we’re still the same boys on the road. People like that attitude. We’re honest with them. To sing about outer space – you should spend some time there at least. We do.

9. Finally, what is the uniting force that has kept the band together for so many years even in the face of political danger?

I guess I’m a naturally born diplomat…in other life I’d lead UN or something like United Galactic Peace Corp.  I’m sure I can handle that.

For more info, you can check out their site: www.mumiytroll.com, their myspace: www.myspace.com/mumiy, or the myriad of articles about their shows.

The 88 Interview

by Diana Ciuca

The 88 is “new, fresh, modern” band as described by the keyboard player Adam Merrin. My interview with him provided descriptive information about where the band has been and where it’s heading. With outstanding appeal along with a strong Californian foundation, The 88 keeps rising to success.



From the Los Angeles region, Adam Merrin described the band’s hometown as being an “upper-middle” area which influenced the band’s music, since most environments tend to have an impact on the overall tone of a band. The two founding members, Keith and Adam both met in high school due to their common affinity for music. Adam remembers the “day that changed [his] life.” He recalled the idea of starting a band as a haphazardly recommendation friend. Nevertheless, Keith and Adam later tried to record a song that they wrote at a party, as that’s when the band finally took off as less of a concept and more of a possibility.The feeling of their first session of playing together – Keith’s great voice and Adam’s guitar talents – really had them saying “this is it,” as if being in a band was what they were meant to be doing. Although the band (formerly titled The Freeloaders) had no real direction or “financial motives,” their mutual passion for music and spirit of hard work helped lead to future success.
As every band knows, the members will suffer a few struggles, especially with the passage of time. Adam recalls how two of the foremost band members left and were succeeded. “Carlos was on the band for 13 years,” Adam mentioned, so it was tough when he left. Carlos was the former bass player who left because touring was taking a toll on the amount time he spent with the members of his other family – his wife and kids. As Adam illustrates it, the band members had always had a real family feel or closeness; He describes by mentioning that “it was difficult even leaving for a weekend” without being heartbroken. Brandon was also a former member of the band but moved on to a more Hollywood career and is featured in the HBO hit Weeds. The 88 actually has a hit on the soundtrack of Weeds along with many other hit TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy and The OC.
Being in LA is definitely a “great starting place,” as Adam puts it. It really aided in getting the band spots on radio stations and even live performances like on The Late Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. This helped “spread their music” and commercial success. Bands like The Beatles and The Band are huge influences on The 88. They’ve also toured with big names like the Smashing Pumpkins and one of Adam’s personal favorites, The B-52’s on the east coast and Matt Costa on a Canadian tour. Adam mentioned these last two as being some highlights of his musical career. Nevertheless, the band, known for their energetic shows, put effort into every show. Adam expresses the 88’s shows as if every time they go on, they “try and make it the best show ever.” “We show fun when we’re doing it, we’re not too serious (not on stage at least),” he comments, “but we are very serious about the music we make.” When asked if Adam considers the band “indie,” he replies, “oh yeah, because we do everything ourselves; it’s how we survive as a band.” Their dedication and hard work is clearly evident, especially in their varied music that merits to fit under a broad genre.
With possible plans of a tour to Europe and elsewhere, this band, 19 years in the making, sees no plans for retiring. “I cannot see myself doing anything not music related,” Adam remarks. This is the general ideology of all the band members. Music is foremost. “Writing, practicing and preforming” is what The 88 does best. “We work hard and keep doing what we’re doing, ” Adam summarizes and adds, “we’re lucky and blessed.” A truly appreciative band that deserves the appreciate of fans everywhere, the 88 is a band who continues to thrive since they “open to doing something different because there’s always something new.”

To find out more, check out their website: www.the88.net; their myspace: www.myspace.com/the88, and even their twitter: twitter.com/the88

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