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TIGER BEAT MAGAZINE 1975 style INTRO:

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Better than the Bay City Rollers!
Hotter than the Records!
Less suicidal than Badfinger!
It’s TINTED WINDOWS from USA!

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With! Taylor Hanson (uber-celebrity) out front, he of honest American earnestness, childhood fame, and plaintive voice clear as his Oklahoma-blue eyes.

On Bass Guitar: rugged New Yorker Adam Schlesinger, putting aside the intricate cleverness that garnished him two (COUNT THEM GIRLS) Grammy noms with his old band (the Oneders) to pen with Sir Hanson a bunch of straightforward good time rock and roll guitar jams about mean girls and how cute they are when they are mean.

The mysterious James Iha on rhythm lead…the man without a past—his smoky eyes only hint of a dark secret, a hurt in his heart that he cannot shake off, which makes him pull eversweeter two minute symphonies of distortion from his sympathetic axe!!!!

Finally, on drums, the Legend, the sexiest man ever to wear gloves onstage, the one who wants YOU to want HIM, who puts the ROCK back in Rockford Il., Bun E. Carlos! Bald is Beautiful! Fab! Gear! Posh! Spit-spot!

Even in an informal chat by electronic mail Adam was utterly dreamboat.

P.S. if you don’t go to see them on Wednesday at the Black Cat you’ll never reach puberty and no boy will ever want to French Kiss you. SO DON’T BE UPTIGHT!

BYT: Did you do any secret surprise shows anywhere to prepare for the tour?

BYT: Any hilarious reactions where someone just thought you were a disparate group of newbie musicians who all looked really familiar?

We haven’t really had anyone mistake us for “newbies”…although we have had a lot of confused reactions about the lineup. Especially when the band was first announced. But I think when people hear the record, the line-up starts to make more sense.

BYT: If you guys were playing in a stadium and someone started to flick his lighter and heckle you, would Bun E. Carlos be the first to jump off the stage and beat the guy’s ass or is that a misconception?

Bun E is pretty nonviolent, as far as I can tell. James, however, is a bit of a loose cannon. You don’t want to get on his bad side. (Editor’s note…James Iha more of a badass than whiny former band members when confronted by uppity fans: CONFIRMED.)

BYT: Let’s imagine for a moment that this album’s success is the start of a massive nationwide Powerpop craze and that within a year all the emo and electro bands on the top 40 have been replaced by kids doing their best Superdrag and Holly and the Italians imitations: how much better would the world be for all its inhabitants, serious question.

BYT: Copout Alert! Just kidding.

OK, When writing was there a concerted effort to strip things down musically? Is it somehow harder to write simple 1-4-5 rock and roll or did it come easily and naturally? Were there fights about putting a fourth chord in anywhere?

We definitely made a conscious decision to keep it stripped down and simple. It’s not necessarily easier to write this way. But we wanted the band to be all about the energy and the immediacy, and not overcook it.

BYT: Was there a focus on recording stuff on analogue equipment or playing on vintage gear? If not, since it still sounds really authentic, how did that happen?

We definitely used a lot of vintage amps and old microphones and stuff like that, but the record was recorded digitally, as most are these days. I find that you can’t really tell the difference anymore. But the aesthetic of the record is pretty old-school…just two guitars, bass, drums, and vocals. And some tambourine, of course.

BYT: Of course. Is playing what was originally mid-70s teenybopper music after you’ve all been in different sorts of bands that all were very successful with teenagers a kind of revenge or a kind of nostalgia?

BYT: Are you more of an ELO-style Megasupergroup or the Firm-style? I mean are you going to try to forge something brand-new and lasting or is it purely a side-project to have some NSA fun?

“We’re more like the Monkees!” (Editor’s note…actually they forgot to answer this question or else avoided it because it’s the nerdiest question ever and nobody remembers the Firm who were actually pretty good classic rock for the mid-80s).

BYT: Thanks for your time, see you at the show! I’ll be the one with the piano key tie.

Ready for more? Were you ever!
Socialize with Tinted Windows on myspace here and on twitter here
and check out their live show @ The Cat Mainstage (US Royalty is opening) tomorrow!

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