So, I like country music, especially the more gospel-inspired old tymey music. But a major problem with liking this music (for me) is that it’s mainly about one guy. Jesus. And I am not Christian. But I am hard pressed to not sing along to fire and brimstone song about how the time is coming when the sinner must die. It’s kind of like white rich frat boys singing “Straight Out of Compton…”

I guess.  

This is why it warmed my heart that the Two Man Gentlemen Band, who take the old tyme to heart, wish they had written a gospel song. A gospel song about how the flu epidemic is really God smiting you.  

(See God smite here!)

It’s the second installment of breaking down indie myths. One of the most common is that once a band becomes popular, they are no longer talented. Maybe they sold out, or compromised their sound. Any band who has been popular from the beginning must be talentless hacks that pander to the stupid masses.

Ask any hipster what they think about a very popular band and they will get visibly angry at worst, or laugh and pretend to like them ironically. No self respecting hipster can say they earnestly like the Pussycat Dolls unless they can construe their work as “societal commentary.” Just say the word Nickelback and see indie rockers become visibly angry. No, really! Look here, here, and here:

(After the jump, that is)

After noticing Parts & Labor featured on the front page here at Uncensored Interview, it got me thinking about other knob twiddlers and pedal pushers. So in the same way I approached the Smell Scene and sampling, I will be taking a bite out of the noise scen–or at least the pop side of the noise scene.

DAN FRIEL/SHOOTING SPIRES/NOVELLER
It only makes sense to start this off with the side projects from the various Parts & Labor members. Keyboardist Dan Friel, bassist BJ Warshaw and guitarist Sarah Lipstate all have their own solo endeavors (Dan Friel, Shooting Spires and Noveller, respectively), and each one has bits and hints of their collective effort. However, each one has it’s own flair, from Shooting Spires lo-fi bedroom pop to Dan Friel’s noisy instrumentals to Noveller’s guitar opuses. Below, Parts & Labor talk about coming together as a band to create their latest record, Receivers, which is out October 21, 2008, on Jagjaguwar:

(See it after the jump)

In case you aren’t chosen, we’re coming up on the heels of the Jewish New Year. Unlike in other arty fields, like being a writer or comedian, rock music isn’t a field known for its Jews. I mean, of course there’s Bob Dylan, but a lot of rock stars are hiding their Judaism with stage names. Some rockin’ Jews who you might have thought were goyim:

• Neil Diamond
• Paula Abdul
• Babydaddy of the Scissor Sisters (aka Scott Hoffman)
• Ike Turner
• Sammy Davis, Jr.
• Scott Ian of Anthrax (aka Scott Ian Rosenfeld)
• Lenny Kravitz
• Joey Ramone (aka Jeffrey Ross Hyman)
• Princess Superstar (aka Concetta Kirschner)
• Pink (aka Alecia Beth Moore)

There are a few things in life that really define who you are as an individual. The guy who sells ThePerryTrain her tuna sandwiches thinks that mayo is a deal breaker. Some consider condoms a deal breaker, others prefer the great cat vs. dog debate, then there is farting in bed. But Irving, well, they have their own deal breakers:

(Catch more dealbreakers here)

!!! on the surreal: “People always say life is so surreal and life is strange, but really when you think about it, it could be way weirder. It really seems like Jesus kind of made it up as he went along and so I’d kind of want this kind of floating superpower like he had.”

Martha Wainwright on gender in music: “Sometimes you run into old guys in the industry and you go ‘Oh my God this must have been really tough in the 70s or in the 60s for women,’ because you can tell that it’s just really still a man’s world and they’re not taking you fully seriously and they’re hoping to get a blow job out of it or something.”

Jaguar Love on the French: “Paris and veganism are like mortal enemies. Because they eat cheese and milk non-stop. That’s all they fucking eat.”

Poni Hoax on the French: “We eat a lot of cheese, and these are cheesy times.”

The New Year on genres: “Beardcore. We all used to have beards so we were beardcore. Which was stupid because we didn’t sound like we had beards.”

These Are Powers on economics: “I think the price of shows has to go up. Just like the price of food has gone up, the price of the admission charge has to go up. We played in Cleveland the other night and the guy gave us $20 and we’re kind of like ‘Uh…gas is five bucks a gallon.’”

The All-For-Nots on swearing: “I like replacing situations in which I would normally say ‘fuck’ with ‘shit’, like ‘what the shit?” Or things like that. Or ‘shit yourself…go shit yourself!’”

The fall has brought back a familiar and unwelcome occurrence: seasonal allergies. This means that lately I’m trying to use my tongue to scratch through the roof of my mouth to my inner ear and sneezing up various unmentionables. I believe that Latham is “on the nose” about the sort of things I’ve been doing lately:

That being said I present to you ThePerryTrain’s list of The Top 10 MOST ALLERGENIC BANDS:

1. The Bee Gees

2. Sting

3. Cat Power

4. Three Dog Night

5. Skinny Puppy

6. The Hives

7. Pollen

8. Beatnuts

9. Shrimp Boat

10. The String Cheese Incident

Honorable Mention: Issac Hayes Fever