Tuesday, February 21, 2006

somewhat funny interview moments

From an excellent Ben Monder interview:

BM: Oh, yeah. But yeah, he did a great job on that piece. Obviously, there are these phrases and each phrase repeats—that’s probably why I called it “Echolalia.” It’s kind of a psychological term.

AAJ: It’s kind of a psychological term.

BM: No, I mean it is a psychological term.

AAJ: No, I’m demonstrating echolalia.

From an interesting interview with a manufactured-pop-star-turned-bona-fide-hard-rocker:

"Gradually the teenyboppers departed and the rock press began grudgingly showering the band with superlatives."

The drop in worth of superlatives (you know: big, bigger, biggest) must be pretty vertiginous if they can be given "grudgingly." Not just given, but in fact "showered" "grudgingly." I imagine that's like taking a power shower with a clogged head.

This quote, from an interview in which grown men twice admit to wanting to cry, reminds me of university:

"The pinnacle of my enjoyment on that particular trip came when we stopped at traffic lights and someone shouted out, 'Look, it's those queers off Hollyoaks.'"

Also, you have to love the unwitting admission of the NME's utter inanity:

"The Ordinary Boys' second effort, Brassbound, limped to No 31 in the charts, before giving up the ghost. Some observers thought the band was about to follow suit. "I saw them playing live at the South By Southwest festival last year, and I thought, 'This is completely over'," says NME editor Conor McNicholas. "If you'd told me last November that we'd have the Ordinary Boys on the cover of the NME by February, I'd have laughed at you."

That was before lead singer Sam Preston decided to take part in Celebrity Big Brother."

That inanity is not limited to the NME, of course:

"If the Ordinary Boys' success lasts longer than the public's memory of Celebrity Big Brother, it raises some intriguing questions about what, if anything, "alternative" music now means."

Those questions of course are raised only if you seek out your "alternative" music on the likes of Celebrity Big Brother, which is like eating a "light" salad in a McDonald's and wondering what it could entail for health food stores. Then again, this is Alexis Petridis writing.