The album was unique and surprising, but still holds true to Regina’s sound. Catchy piano tunes mix with slower ballads, beautiful vocals with whimsical words, and strong, clever songwriting blend together to make Far.  “Folding Chair,” is a classic Regina Spektor pop song—it’s melodic and upbeat, and makes you smile, bob your head, and sing along. Dance Anthem of the 80s is another remarkable pop song, but this one displays Spektor’s brilliant play between vocals and piano. “Human of the Year” and “Genius Next Door” both showcase Spektor’s vocal range in a classic way, with traditional piano parts. “Laughing With” plays on religion in a brash, yet charismatic and inviting way. And the single, “Eet,” is a perfectly crafted pop song that starts off slow and then picks up, including drums, in addition to Spektor’s vocals and piano. With each song on this album, Regina Spektor proves she is a creative and talented singer-songwriter.

Her songs can cheer you up, make you dance, and comfort you. She’s got songs for any day, any mood. She can appeal to many audiences. Her music is amiable and exquisite. It is enduring. I’ve never heard any other music like Regina’s. She will always be a favorite of mine, and I recommend her music to anyone.

L-R: Keith Goodwin, Dan Schwartz, Tim Arnold.

            Today, a friend asked me, “Was there any song that, the first time you listened to it, changed your life?”

The first thing I thought of was “Coney Island” by Good Old War. I heard the demo in the spring of last year and could not stop repeating it. Even as a demo, the song was beautiful. The vocals were spot-on, the acoustic guitar a beautiful accompaniment, and the lyrics charming and sincere. The band put up a few more demos (all of them just as beautifully written and performed as the first) before they released their full-length album, entitled Only Way to be Alone.

            The album exceeded my highest expectations. The brushes on drums soften, as the acoustic guitar and keyboard melodies provide a folk feeling throughout the album. Keith Goodwin’s vocals soar through every song, accompanied by prefect harmonies from both Schwartz and Arnold. The lyrics are simple, yet buoyant. And the entire album is produced flawlessly.

            As I thought about all the things I love about this band, I realized how their music has changed my life. It is not something I think about every day, it’s not something that influences my decisions or changes my opinions. It’s something that has been there ever since I first listened to “Coney Island.” It’s underlying and subtle, but it’s always there. Its just happiness. Optimism, contentment. Good Old War’s music is ethereal and inviting, perfect for springtime. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes to smile, close their eyes and sing.

Laura Marling.

By: Kirstie Millar

Laura Marling, Laura Marling…what can I say about Laura Marling? I could say a lot about Laura Marling, to be perfectly honest with you. I could write for days and days about this girl. Her album Alas, I Cannot Swim, is, to put it simply, mindblowing.So young in her years and so different than many other young artists out there, Marling is in a league of her own. “Ghosts” opens the album, which continues to progress and grow more and more stunning with each track. Some songs chilling and eerie, some heart-warming.

She sings of tales of the heart, and usually love lost in such a way that makes the listener — me in this case — just marvel at her songwriting ability long after the album has finished. The sound of her quiet, yet strong voice, and the plucking of guitar strings stays in your mind long after silence has taken over.

It’s all in the details for Ms. Marling, from the subtle background sounds of birds singing softly, to the album artwork that make this truly a piece of art.

Her song, “The Captain and the Hourglass” is a perfect example of the writing ability this girl possesses. It’s lyrics like “The wind and I, we speak the same, but he don’t hear so well. You’re gonna have to curse him, well you’re gonna have to yell” that prove she is well ahead of her years, and well above artists like Lily Allen and Adele, who she is often compared to.

To say that Laura Marling is a talented artist is an understatement. Whether it be her shy, humble manner which she so gracefully possesses during live performances and interviews, to her lyrics, Laura Marling has a worldly wisdom that most musicians and writers can only dream about possessing.

I could still go on and on about Laura Marling. Her music has so many layers, and each song can be interpreted in so many ways that its difficult to stop pondering about this woman. She is more than a mediocre, yet popular artist enjoying her 15 minutes of fame, or some musician NME has fallen for, to only be forgotten about in a year or so. There’s a lot more to come from this young woman, who has the ability to send a shudder down the spine of any listener.

Now, in order to avoid a 7 page review, I’ll close with this and it will be the last I say about Laura Marling for a while, LAURA MARLING, WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?!

Marling's new album: Alas, I Cannot Swim.

1. Ghosts
2. Old Stone
3. Tap at My Window
4. Failure
5. You’re No God
6. Cross Your Fingers
7. Crawled Out of the Sea (Interlude)
8. My Manic and I
9. Night Terror
10. The Captain and the Hourglass
11. Shine
12. Your Only Doll (Nora)

I met with Ian “Knox” Carnochan, a founding member and The Vibrator’s lead singer/guitarist, to talk about the band, the punk scene, his affinity for art and the possible end of the world.

How would you describe your sound?

Knox: We’re a band from 1976 when punk sort of started. We’re always tagged as a punk band that’s sort of old-school and we seem to be very well regarded most of the time, so that’s alright. A lot of it’s punk and some of it’s what I call sort of intense rock, but I think that all fits into the same thing.

Have the changes in your lineup had a lasting impact on your sound?

Knox: I suppose they’ve all sort of contributed. When we do the recording and stuff and the way it’s played, it’s probably modeled it. It’s so in the background, you’re not aware of it. It’s like noticing your mother’s gotten older in the last 10 years. To you she looks the same and then you see a photograph of her 10 years ago and go, “Oh, my God!”

Your lyrics vary from songs about girls to more serious issues such as war and politics. Where do you draw the inspiration and is there a theme that you prefer?

Knox: I write about pretty well everything I suppose. I like songs that have sort of black humor stuff in the words. Sometimes the songs sort of write themselves, like “Troops of Tomorrow.” That was an idea that came off one of my friends who said we should write more meaningful songs. That was actually quite successful. Once you’ve got the title and you can put it to music, it just sort of writes itself basically. When I’m in a writing mood, I write down funny things people say to get ideas from that. Sometimes when I watch other bands, they’ll do something and I go, “That’s a good idea for a song.” One of my friends, I was helping him make some demos of this song and he was calling it “Factory Girls” or something, and I said, “Why don’t you do it about office girls, because there isn’t a song about that?” He said it’s got to be about factory girls, but the Rolling Stones have already done all that. So, I thought, “Well, I’ll write a song about office girls then.” So often it’s as simple as that.

Do you write the lyrics first then or the music?

Knox: It totally varies. Sometimes you’ve got the music and then you’ve got to put some words on it, but it’s generally easier I think if you’ve got the words. If I were a separate singer, the band would become routine in the music, whereas if you’re actually playing the music, you can’t do the words simultaneously because you’re trying to get the music right.

What’s your favorite song to play live?

Knox: Probably “Baby Baby.” There’s lot of other songs that I very much like, but we’re not doing them. But “Baby Baby” people always really like. It’s such a reliable song. I always tell people I never feel I actually wrote it, I feel like I sort of discovered it.

You’ve maintained popularity for over 30 years. What do you think makes you stand out from other bands?

Knox: I think just the fact that we kept going, I guess. If we hadn’t kept going, we wouldn’t have been forgotten but we’d be more legendary than obscure. We do 100 to 120 gigs a year, so we’re always touring around and I think people genuinely like to see you playing that music. I mean, there were people [at the show] last night, a couple guys, and they were just standing there and you could tell they just absolutely loved the band and the music and it was a fantastic night for them.

Where’s your favorite place to play?

Knox: I quite liked LA actually. I like bigger cities really, but sometimes in a little tiny village they go mad and you like that as well. As long as it’s got a real nice atmosphere. You know, when you play big festivals, sometimes you have to play to several thousand people and there’s a big gap between you and them, which I’m sort of uncomfortable with. I like to have people right at the front of the stage, even if they don’t really like the band. I’m more used to that sort of environment, I think. It’s more personal.

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How has the punk scene changed since you first became a band?

Knox: When we first played, it was sort of when punk became punk. It was quite dangerous. Everywhere you went was sort of a war zone; you never knew what was going to happen. And generally nothing happened, but you’d look out at the audience and go, “My God, there’s some nasty people out there!” But often they were alright and liked the music. Also, because it was new, you had the press thing. You had people coming to see you because of that and they were really into you, but that’s sort of gone now. You still get press now, but it’s not that same kind of initial thing. It’s more gradual now. It’s pretty much evened out. I think the crowds who come to see us now, particularly when we headline, generally are our fans, whereas in the old days some were our fans and there would also be people there just out of interest, just checking out what was happening. When we started there were mainly lots of bands playing covers. They weren’t cover bands, but they played all different sorts of stuff out of the Top 10 or R&B hits, the old R&B, sort of blues stuff.

How have the venues changed? I know that when you started, you regularly played at a pub.

Knox: Yeah, that was where you played, in bars in England. You could pretty well get away with playing anything in there. I don’t think people realized what a liberal environment it was. I think that’s where I think the music often comes from, that sort of environment and playing live. We used to do residencies, so we’d be playing places every Friday or something and as long as we didn’t do anything terrible, we could pretty much do what we wanted.

What do you prefer: writing songs and seeing it all come together or playing them live and watching the crowd’s response?

Knox: I like both aspects. I really like playing live, but I also really like being in the studio. This thing you write just sort of comes together, and sometimes it doesn’t work properly and other times it comes out better than you imagined. Sometimes you don’t have a massive budget and you need an extra couple days to finish stuff up, but you jut haven’t got the time so the songs don’t have the extra backing vocals or the cinematic sound you wanted to put in somewhere. Some people say, “If your recordings aren’t properly finished off, how can you do it?” You sort of accept that that’s a possible consequence of making the record; you might run out of time and money. But I’m probably a bit of a perfectionist.

Are you usually happy with the way they turn out?

Knox: Generally, yeah. Sometimes it can be disappointing if you haven’t got what you wanted or the band didn’t understand what you were going for. I used to get really upset about it. Sometimes you make great mistakes while you’re recording. When we’re recording, I’m often in the studio day after day putting in the guitars and vocals and you get very tired. I often come back in the next day as tired as I was when I got home. You think, “How can I make these mistakes?” You’re so tired, of course you’re going to make mistakes. One of the ways I dealt with it if it wasn’t exactly how I wanted was I’d think the current band I’m in now, The Vibrators, is making its version of my song and it’s just too bad they haven’t done a proper job of it. I think I can always record it later, but you never do. Also, it is a band, it’s not my band, so I have to kind of go along with their decisions about the music unless I’m absolutely convinced I’m right. They can do a pretty wide range of things, so it is a band rather than me being a terrible dictator.

What would you say is your biggest accomplishment as a band to date?

Knox: I think our first album was accidentally was very good, a brilliant album. We’d been playing that material for about a year previously at gigs. We didn’t use a proper producer, but I think the writing’s very strong on that. It’s very quirky sounding. A lot of it sounded sort of wrong to me at first, but you get used to it and it becomes the right thing, so I was quite pleased with that. Also, the fact that we were on this TV show called Top of the Pops (a weekly British show that included performances from the best-selling musicians of the week). It’s sort of pathetic really, but that’s how you judge things in a way.

With your busy tour schedule, how do you find time to paint and what is your favorite medium?

Knox: I like oil paint, that’s my favorite medium, but the last year I mainly painted in acrylic because I paint on tour a bit. When I’m at home, I can basically paint on anything, but I don’t have time because I’m so busy. On the road, I’ve been doing loads of stuff on A4 in a sketch pad. I draw it out and then I just sort of color it in. When I was up in Canada a couple months ago, I was actually painting in the van. It’s easy enough to draw in the van; even though it’s bumping around, that’s not too bad. You can correct it. The painting I was doing was acrylic, just one color at a time. I was doing this futurist looking painting, so you have to color these little bits. It’s really high concentration stuff because the bus is lurching around and you’ve got this little bit of water. It’s just too much effort. But I like doing a half hour here and there and gradually you build up a body of work. I really like doing it. If I had more time, I’d do a lot more of it, but I often start stuff and I haven’t got it finished. I’ve probably got 300 paintings lined up and thousands of drawings. People don’t realize how much I’ve done over the years.

Have you always been interested in art?

Knox: I was always quite interested in it. When I was in school, when I was about 17, the headmaster suddenly said to me one day, “You’re quite good at art. Why don’t you do art?” So I went to art school. I’m quite grateful to him for even noticing that and suggesting that, otherwise I probably would have gone to university and done mathematics or something. When I went to art school, I was in a band. Everyone was playing guitar, so I got a keyboard and suddenly I was in three bands because they all wanted a keyboard guy. I couldn’t really play but it looked good.

Have you ever created art for your band, such as promo pictures or album covers?

Knox: Yeah, but funny enough, a couple of times people have gone, “Who did that terrible painting for the cover?” and I said, “Oh, that was me.” One time the guy actually said, “That’s the worst cover I’ve ever seen. Who the hell painted that?” and I said I did. It was a guy from a record company and he didn’t really know what to say. He said, “Well, perhaps it’s not that bad then.” I deliberately painted a bad cover because I thought that was kind of a thing, like the Ramones used to have sort of jokey paintings. It was for Energize. I think when we re-release it, we’ll have a new cover.

Unlike most punk bands from your era, you have toured almost continuously since you began. What makes you keep going strong?

Knox: We’re just musicians and if you’re a musician, you just sort of play. It’s our way of earning a living. It’s quite a good lifestyle. To tell you half the truth, you live the life of a king but the pay is absolutely terrible. You don’t get hardly any money at the end of the day, but it’s actually quite exciting and very interesting. You meet loads of people and they’re generally quite nice to you, and you go all over the world [to places] you’d never get to, and, for me, I get to play loud guitar. It’s fantastic!

What do you think about the new wave of punk?

Knox: I don’t really mind. I think that lots of them are not terribly original, but I don’t know if that’s a terrible criticism. I think it’s quite a good live music, but I think sometimes people are in it and 10 years later they’re doing ballads. But it’s a good lark being in a punk band and it doesn’t requite a great deal of technical skill. You’ve got to have new bands. It keeps it all going, you see. By 1980, punk disappeared a bit, but it came back again about ’82/’83, so that was good.

You have loads of albums which can be a bit overwhelming for a new fan! Which would you recommend to start with for any readers who want to check you guys out?

Knox: Probably the first two albums. We’ve got a greatest hits album out and I think Hunting for You is quite good. Actually, Energize is a very good album. That was out about ’99. The last album is a cover album, sort of ’77 covers. So I think the first album, Pure Mania, and Energize and maybe the greatest hits. I think the covers one is quite nice, but it’s not typical of us. It’s just us ruining other people’s songs instead of our own

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Knox: You haven’t asked if I think we’ll be around in 30 years time.

Do you think you’ll be around in 30 years time?

Knox: I don’t think we will because computers will have taken over and killed us all, you see, because we’ll be an enormous threat to them. Technology is increasing at an exponential rate. Last century there was 100 years of technological advance. This century there will be the equivalent of 20,000 years. People don’t realize how fast it’s going. You only have to look at the iPod thing that looks like backward alien engineering. It’s a very big thing with me, computer takeover, but my girlfriend very cleverly worked out that if we don’t have free will then we are robots, too, so we have nothing to fear from these other robots!

Quick! You’re a buyable product, how would you pitch yourself to us, prospective customers?

Chris Splain: Long, hard, and bearded. Just what everyone needs.

Brendan Gauntner: Listen to our album, is smells great.

How did you guys get together?

CS: We’ve known each other for years, and have played in other bands in the Youngstown area.

BG: Chris and I had been writing and recording songs for the past 4 years but we didn’t play live until last year because we didn’t have a drummer. So Chris and I were watching this band called Posture Coach and we mutually agreed the drummer was stunningly handsome. We bought him a drink and next thing ya’ know we were driving him back to our place and many awkward situations followed.

How many shows have you played so far? What did you think of those experiences?

CS: We’ve played maybe a dozen shows, and I’ve always had fun performing.

BG: Around 12. Shows are my inspiration to get through the work/school week. I can’t ask for more than drinking beer and making loud sounds with my friends.

Dennis Thomas: These guys have voices like angels. They like fun about as much as I do.

How did you come up with your name?

CS: From a comic book, actually.

BG: It’s the name of an obscure comic from the late 80′s or early 90′s. My brother and I were pretty much comic book nerds when we were kids and I found this comic in his stash. I think my parents didn’t allow me to read it because it looked violent. As a kid I thought it would be the coolest name for a band so I always held on to that idea.

Your personal favorite song to play/hear?

CS: I have personally been obsessed with the artist Donovan, specifically his album “A Gift From a Flower to a Garden”. It has a natural feel, and is an emotionally soothing album.

BG: I enjoy our improv the most. The spontaneity is enthralling because of the risk that it may sound like shit. When it works out well, it’s rewarding and when it doesn’t we pretend like we intended it that way.

DT: “Memorable Fancy” and “Fucking Star” are favorites to play. There aren’t a lot of things I’m really required to do so I get to experiment and have fun with them. “Cracky” is probably my favorite recording.

What label would you like to be signed with ideally and why?

CS: I really don’t have any interest in being signed to a label. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to be signed, but my head isn’t there. Right now, I’m focused on having fun playing my music, and not worrying about the success of my music.

BG: I have absolutely no expectations of getting picked up by a label. I think the bands that spend all of their effort trying to get signed are missing out on the fun. I’m not opposed to being signed, but I’m not holding my breath for it.

DT: I’ve always been pretty happy being independent. There’s a lot of satisfaction in doing things yourself and being miserably poor.

What do you guys do away from the band?

CS: I’m attending school, I have a job. I read a lot (for class, and for pleasure), and write a lot. That’s about it, at least for the meantime.

DT: Posture Coach. Recording.

What about your plans for this year? And where do you see yourself in the next few years?

CS: To spread the word about the EP, make it available to as many people as we can.

DT: More recording. More out of town shows.

You can have lunch with any person, dead or alive. Who would it be and what item of their clothing would you walk out with?

CS: George Harrison, and he always wore cool hats, so I’d want to take his hat.

BG: Most people say Jesus, right? I want to know what the big fuss is about this guy and why everyone wants to eat lunch with him.

DT: Danny Dollrod. Whatever tiny shroud he might have on at the time.

What would you say inspires the majority of your musical sound? Is it a certain band, or an event, or current happenings?

CS: All of the above, for me at least. I’m inspired (in good and bad ways) by everything that I come across. I can’t deny the influence of other musicians on the way I play. And the bouts of good and evil that are constantly invading my world are all perfect examples of my inspiration.

BG: I’m always wondering why Dennis wears oversized earmuffs when we play and stares at Chris and I with a blank expression on his face.

DT: Pure, uncut fun. I really just play parts that I find enjoyable and I really don’t pay much attention to what Brendan and Chris are doing.

One of your recent blog posts, titled Eschew Obfuscation, had some really interesting lyrics (as do all of the others, but I’m singling this out because I really liked it). Can you give us some insight as to what the lyrics were inspired by, what they mean, maybe?

CS: I wrote those particular lyrics, which are still in the works, about the miscommunication or even the lack of communication that occurs in our everyday lives. I was inspired by a course I was taking in Linguistic study, so that had a lot to do with it too. I’m just curious about what complete strangers talk about.

Your new EP is titled Omnipotent Strength! Where did that rather masculine idea spring from?

CS: I actually entitled the EP “Five and a Half Tell-Tale Signs You’ll End Up Like Your Mother”. I find the idea of having a ridiculously long album title to be entertaining to me, and it coincides with our somewhat long band name (which many, including ourselves just call “Death Crazed…”). There is some personal reasoning for that title, but really it’s just a joke.

Was recording the EP strenuous or was it as energetic as the album sounds?

CS: Recording the EP was the most fun I’ve had with the band. Recording in the same room, with little use of overdubs, allowed for a very fun experience. Engineered by us, produced by us, with little outside interference. I wouldn’t change anything about what we did with the album.

DT: Energetic. A really enjoyable experience. We had a solid week’s time in the studio so we could just immerse ourselves in what we were doing. Also, I was the only engineer so we were able to do things exactly how we wanted without any outside influence. For better or worse.

Who is that singing backing vocals on ‘Down From Dover’? The vox go pretty high…

CS: Our friend, Kristal Mills (also of the band Posture Coach) sang with me on “Down From Dover”, as well as on the opening track “Cracky”.

BG: She joins us on stage when we play with Posture Coach.

Can you share with us some commentary on the songs from Omnipotent Strength!

CS: I feel this album is a solid representation of all the emotional, personal, and music influences on myself and the rest of the band. I am proud of what we created, and how fluid the songs are without sounding exactly the same. There definitely is a style, but it varies enough to keep ones attention. Simply put, it’s 15+ minutes of Death Crazed Teenage Superheroes.

DT: The entire album was recorded to a 2″ analog tape. There are a lot of imperfections (bad takes, bleed through from other songs, background noises, talking) that come through in the final mixes and makes for some very interesting moments. Also a lot of final, or at least momentary, songwriting was done right as we were recording which makes for a very unique take on the music.

Separately, what are your favorite bands? Favorite songs?

CS: The Beatles, The Kinks, Nirvana, Donovan, Radiohead, Third Class (Youngstown band). Too many favorite songs to list.

DT: Patsy Cline, Tom Waits, Scarlet Johansen, Excelsior, Nick Cave, Johnny Horton, Self, Son House, Horst Tallsede, Bowie, Warren Zevon. I’ve been listening to a lot of Aesop Rock and Saul Williams lately.

Family Force Five - Giving 'fierce' a whole new meaning.

What do you get when you combine Christian crunk music, silver hulk gloves and a passionate love for mullets? A nice heaping dose of Family Force 5, that’s what.
After waiting in line for a bit over an hour we got inside the venue. The band was playing at Xtreme Wheels, and the show we were about to see was “xtreme” to say the least.

As the show began we were greeted from the stage by the red haired lead singer of Ultraviolet Sound. Their performance was brilliant, as were the other bands to follow; Play Radio Play, and Danger Radio. (Give me some time; I’ll be able to think of something witty to say about the radio thing.)

Then it happened; the moment that separates the men from the boys, the soldiers from the civilians, the lovers from the fighters (not really but it was quite exciting). The lights dimmed and then they brightened, temporarily blinding the people in the front row, but no need to feel sorry for them, they were about to witness one of the best shows in their lives. The members of the band ran out onto the stage, wearing tight silver and black outfits, which Solomon, the lead singer claimed, “haven’t been washed in three weeks.” The clothing made them look more likely to be flying a glamorous space-ship in the year 3025 than performing at Xtreme Wheels, but they still looked cool nevertheless.

The entire show was full of violent synth sounds, a heavy drumbeat, strong vocals and the comical stylings of all the band members and the random men that kept running on stage and dancing every now and again. After the first few songs something must have overheated because there was talk of a little back stage fire, but it didn’t disrupt the show.

All in all the show was fantastic and lively, the bands passion and talent for music and live performances was obvious. The other three bands touring with FF5 were also talented and put on a brilliant show, let’s just say after last night I’ve made a few more band adds on MySpace. But I’m afraid that I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you. The bad news? I still haven’t thought of anything witty to say about the whole radio scenario. The good news? FF5’s CD “Dance or Die” is out now, and is probably available in a store near you. So go and buy it, you’ll be glad you did!

The Likely Lads have a dominating concert presence.

Pleasing Mary Poppins may not on the top of the list for The Likely Lads (their myspace headline even says so), but I think making brilliant music just might be. Hailing from Birmingham England, The Likely Lads are able to create an interesting indie/garage sound that often goes amiss today. It’s easy for talented bands to be lost amongst the hordes unoriginal pop-punk and indie want-to-be’s, but I think the Likely Lads might just be able to stand out from the crowd. With influences ranging from Oasis to Dance Gavin Dance, The Likely Lads are capable of creating good music and here at pseudononymous, we like that sort of thing. If you also like that sort of thing, then read on because in an interview with Christie, one of the band members, we managed to talk about Halloween costumes, live performances and the future for The Likely Lads. Who knows what type of trouble we’ll manage to get ourselves into?

How long have you been a band for?

We formed in late January 2007 and went through a few lineup changes but we have been settled with our newest addition since January this year.

Why did you get together?

We were all good friends at school and were the only people that took playing instruments seriously. Karl comes in one day saying he had a dream that we were in a band together and that he had earnt enough money to finally get out of England and move to The O.C. to live with Marissa Cooper. We thought we should try our best to make Karl’s dreams come true and hopefully they will one day.

How’s performing been going for you?

We like to make the crowd feel like it was money well spent so we have a set loaded with decent songs and perform in costumes on a regular basis.

Why do you dress up in costumes at your gigs?

To add an element of mystery and also to make an impression on a new crowd.

What type of costumes are they?

The costumes vary, it depends on the venue/mood. Most of the time we’ll wear normal clothes but if were feeling up to it we might whip out the superheroes or famous monsters.

What is the strangest thing that’s happened at one of your shows?

We played a gig in like April this year and while we were on stage the crowd started cheering midway through one of our songs for no reason at all. We got offstage to find out that someone had played porn on the big TVs above the stage.

Out of all of your songs, which is your favourite to play?

Mornings Were Made To Be Broken is the hardest to play live and seems to be a favorite of the fans but I would say Roll Up Your Sleeves, It’s one of our oldest songs and if you know what it”s about then you’ll find it funny.

What is the story behind that song, then?

Haha, basically I wrote it about a girl I was seeing a while back who was really clingy and wouldn’t give me any peace. As a musician I think the best way to get rid of your anger is to put it into your music because the songs that mean something to the write are usually the better songs.

Who is your biggest musical influence on your band?

I listen to a lot of metal and screamo and try to incorporate it into an indie song but the rest of the lads listen to a lot of indie.

What is your dream label to be signed to?

I would say Rough Trade Records but that’s purely because of the bands roots coming from The Libertines. It would be ideal for a band like us because we have a really raw sound like many of the other bands from Rough Trade.

If you could tour with any band in the world who would it be?

Aha I’m not sure, it would have to be Bloc Party or Arctic Monkeys I think but Danny and Karl might think differently.

How did you come up with your band name?

We took the band name from The Libertines song ‘what became of the likely lads’. Me and Tom are heavily influenced by them and thought it would be a good name as it’s the type of name you would remember because of the TV show in the 60s.

What are your plans for the future?

Ermmm, hard to say really, the only thing we plan in advance is our gigs and when were next recording so I have no idea. I wasn’t really in a band for fame at first but lately I’m hoping something happens with us because I don’t really know how to do anything else other than play guitar and write lyrics.

The members of Pinback.

Their lyrics are so, so deceptively simple. It’s good to see you / It’s good to see you go, Pinback everythingmen Rob Crow and Zach Smith croon. That is the chorus, in its entirety, of the first single off of Pinback’s new album Autumn of the Seraphs ‘Good to Sea’. The song begins with a poignant, easily memorable tune (that I’ve been humming nonstop, much to the annoyance of many) and carries through with Pinback’s effortless style and flow.

While Pinback utilizes the aid of several (Terrin Durfey, Chris H. Prescott, and Eric Hoversten this around, I’m hearing) it is largely the work of the two men you see in the picture above, and boy do they make it work. Including EP’s and one amazing collection album, they’ve released a whopping twelve of those whirling digital babies that do make my heart soar…!

By far, however, the song that seems to receive the most amount of notoriety is Fortress, off their previous release Summer in Abaddon. The song, which can be found on their Myspace, starts off with a low murmur of a voice that gives a pleasantly detached feeling, up until the chorus. Like many of their songs, the complexity is in the feelings evoked and the relentless message in each strummed chord; Stop / It’s too late / I’m feeling frustrated / I see no sign of fortress / I see no sign of fortress becomes a mesmerizing idea. While the song itself is an ode to lonely pursuits, the ethereal sound and punctuated chorus make it more of an anthem to all that is wrong in what’s right.

It also helps that the video is an animated adventure that turns my brain to effervescent musing mush.

A ++ rating

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Possibly the single greatest (or just most entertaining) band alive.

I got into Born Ruffians from — wait, you’ll never guess it — the British made-for-teens channel E4 drama, Skins. On a side note, that show is the most amazing thing to come about since Moses parted the masses. It does the same thing! I have a crush on half the cast (girls included)! Anyways; with one of its weekly emails, E4 offers free downloads, and this time, the download was Born Ruffians. They’re an eclectic sounding Canadian indie rock band (thank you, Wikipedia) that manage to delve into a sound I have been trying to define (“garage? grunge? post-punk-revival-gospel whaaaat…”). They call it “the best we can come up with”. Born Ruffians is kind of like The Strokes mixed with Vampire Weekend and those dreamy Pinback lyrics I am so in love with. Ruffian Mitch (Derosier, bassist) has been updating his tour blog on SPIN.com with quick wit and gratituous references to pop culture, subculture, and his mom — “To sum up — you fucking rock, man.” — My mom No big deal, my mom likes me or whatever. From Whataburgers to barnacle geese to drug-front hotels, not only does the blog keep your interest, the music will too. I’m definitely tripping over I Need A Life, a sort of party-lauding song I can totally see a group of good friends with their tongues loosened by some liquid courage using it as their anthem.

Myspace

Website

SPIN.com Blog