Pop Quiz: The Bravery

Pop Quiz: The Bravery

Aidin Vaziri | Yeah, yeah, the Bravery is to the Strokes what Stone Temple Pilots was to Nirvana -- a fourth-generation Xerox with only the most superficial bits still visible. So what? The band's self-titled debut album is more fun than a New Order reunion concert, and the five young men that make the '80s- influenced music have the most geometric haircuts since Interpol. Besides, the Bravery's hit single, "An Honest Mistake," is harder to kick than a PCP habit.



Sam Endicott of The Bravery
Q: I understand you were once in a band called Skabba the Hut.
A: Well, in college I played bass in this ska band. But that was, like, eight years ago. It was a joke.
Q: What a difference eight years makes.
A: I had this epiphany moment where it all hit me like a bullet. I was tired of working with singers that would f -- my s -- up.
Q: Does it bother you that people say your band sounds like the Strokes and the Killers?
A: No band likes to be compared to other bands because we all like to think we're unique and original and all that, but at least we're being compared to good bands instead of crappy ones.
Q: Your voice does sound a lot like Julian Casablancas on the album. But that might just be because you learned to sing over the phone.
A: That's pretty funny. Um, no. We had a broken microphone that gave it this weird sound but we really liked how it sounded so we just used it for all the stuff.
Q: But you really did learn to sing over the phone.
A: Yeah, totally. I was living in New York and I had a friend in Maryland who I would call twice a week and she gave me lessons over the phone.

Louis XIV: "We Felt Cheated"

Louis XIV: "We Felt Cheated"

Louis XIV jumps from country twang to sexy glam-rock band: Aidin Vaziri | Since signing to Atlantic six months ago, Louis XIV has been declared an artist to watch by Rolling Stone, profiled by MTV and seen its music proliferate on television teen dramas like "One Tree Hill" and "The O.C." The latter considered "Finding Out True Love Is Blind" perfect scene-setting music for a teenage lesbian make-out session between two of its main characters. Not that it impressed singer Jason Hill much. "We sat through an hour of this show to hear our music in the background for a minute," he sniffs. "We felt cheated. I could care less." Two years ago, Hill, guitarist Brian Karscig and drummer Mark Maigaard were playing in a fairly well-regarded Southern California alt-country band called Convoy. The dramatic shift in sound and style -- out went the Western shirts and Southern twang, in came the mod haircuts and skinny ties -- left some of the former outfit's fans damning them as a bunch of bandwagon jumpers. But it's pretty obvious why they changed course: Wilco plays for bespectacled grad students, while the Killers play for cocaine-addled supermodels. "It's not that crazy," Hill reasons.

Pop Quiz: Motley Crue

Pop Quiz: Motley Crue

Aidin Vaziri | Despite breaking up in an airport fistfight six years ago, the original members of Motley Crüe have reunited for an absurd, two-year arena tour. So far, singer Vince Neil, who recently had $70,000 worth of plastic surgery courtesy of VH1, is still at odds with drummer Tommy Lee. Guitarist Mick Mars is suffering from a genetic bone disease that is slowly fusing the joints in his body. And bassist Nikki Sixx is just glad to be alive after being declared legally dead no less than three times during the band's '80s heyday. We spoke with Neil.



Vince Neil of Motley Crüe
Q: Can you believe Motley Crüe sold out Madison Square Garden on this tour?
A: Yeah, I was pretty shocked. It could have gone either way. But I think it's the right time. Nobody does what we do with taking the visuals and making it a complete rock 'n' roll show with the really good songs. Nobody's done that in a long time.
Q: I thought you were going to have to drape off a bunch of empty seats at these big venues, or at least give free tickets to homeless people and dogs from the SPCA.
A: Well, it kind of didn't work out that way. I was shocked at the venues they decided to put us in, and I was really shocked that Madison Square Garden sold out in a day. It was very amazing. But the reason we got back together is because the fans wanted us to get back together.
Q: A year ago, you were playing these same exact songs on your own and you could barely sell out bars in strip malls. What changed?
A: I can sing these tunes the rest of my life, but when you get the four of us together, it's magical onstage. That's Motley Crüe.

CD Review: Queens of the Stone Age

CD Review: Queens of the Stone Age

Queens of the Stone Age's 'Lullabies To Paralyze': Aidin Vaziri | Yes, the cover art is reminiscent of a third-grade Halloween art project; bassist Nick Oliveri, who frequently took the stage naked, has gone missing; and a member of ZZ Top does make a cameo appearance. But spare your disappointment for Queens of the Stone Age's third album. The follow-up to 2002's "Songs for the Deaf" rocks so hard that within the first five minutes most sensible people will be contemplating growing their hair to their elbows and joining a peyote love cult in the desert. Front man Josh Homme sticks firmly to his utopian vision of cross-pollinating the Stooges with Black Sabbath, and he delivers. He combines a primal metal riff and manic cowbell for the blinding "Little Sister," melts the amplifiers with the spine-crushing grooves of "Burn the Witch" and enlists not one, but two hot rock vixens -- Garbage's Shirley Manson and the Distillers' Brody Dalle -- to guest on the track "You Got a Killer Scene There, Man." Lullabies? Only if you like to fall asleep to the sound of the gates of hell creaking open and dragging your soul through seven layers of fire and brimstone and Hostess Cupcakes. And, really, who doesn't?

Pop Quiz: Regina Spektor

Pop Quiz: Regina Spektor

Aidin Vaziri | Regina Spektor was born in Moscow, grew up in the Bronx and made her name on the New York anti-folk scene with bands like the Moldy Peaches. She's a classically trained pianist who records and tours with the Strokes, and her third album, "Soviet Kitsch," which gets a major-label release this month, sounds a lot like Tori Amos on steroids. Which, incidentally, is a good thing.



Regina Spektor
Q: Tell me about your lyrics.
A: There's nothing to say about them. They're just there. I'm happy I write them.
Q: Your song "Chemo Limo" is about a $100 bill that takes care of children. What kind of person writes a song like that?
A: I don't remember where that came from. It's kind of magical. It's a combination that I'm lucky and that a muse monster kisses my forehead. But the music part is really hard. I have to practice for days just to learn a new song, even though the first time I play it, it's perfect.
Q: Do you think Jesus is giving you the words?
A: Who? I'm Jewish.
Q: So it's definitely not Jesus.

Bruce Willis: Back In Action

Bruce Willis: Back In Action

Aidin Vaziri | Let's face it: Bruce Willis does his best work with a gun in his hand and fresh wounds on his forehead. "Die Hard"? "Pulp Fiction"? Good. "The Kid"? "Look Who's Talking"? Not so good. So the action hero's fans have reason to cheer his latest motion picture, "Hostage," in which he plays besieged Los Angeles Police Department negotiator Jeff Talley -- a role that allows him to shoot people, swear and strip naked. With Willis, who turns 50 on Saturday, it frankly doesn't get any better.



Bruce Willis
Q: I know this was a way for you to show your sensitive side. But don't you think having a recipe for corn bread pancakes on your Web site and admitting you watch "SpongeBob SquarePants" already does the trick?
A: You can't combine the two things. The Web site stands for itself and has very little to do with "Hostage." But you should try that corn bread recipe. It works well if you follow the instructions.
Q: I don't know. You suggest microwaving a cube of butter and pouring whole milk over the pancakes. Haven't you killed enough people in the movies?
A: Don't judge it until you try it. The milk brings out the flavor of the corn cakes.
Q: I also noticed you carry a T-Mobile Sidekick. What would one find if he hacked into that?
A: He would mostly find e-mails between my kids and me, which is why I use it, to stay in touch.
Q: I was hoping to see the video where your dog farts and you try to wave it away with a blanket and a model of Saturn falls off your ceiling and hits your head .
A: That's a true story, but it happened a couple of years ago.
Q: Now that sounds like a good movie.

CD Review: Keren Ann's 'Nolita'

CD Review: Keren Ann's 'Nolita'

Keren Ann's 'Nolita': Aidin Vaziri | Scientific fact: There's nothing more attractive than a frail French singer with perfect bangs and a pretty voice. Evidence? Claudine Longet. Francoise Hardy. Jane Birkin. It certainly helps if she poses topless or gets tangled in some ski-weekend murder mystery, but it's not entirely necessary. Witness Keren Ann, a young Parisian singer-songwriter who is determined to keep our love affair with sleepy-eyed, smoky-voiced chanteuses alive with her second full-length album, "Nolita." Around every corner there is a velvety hook, a haunting melody, a gently plucked acoustic guitar that sounds like a tree limb full of chirping birds. This isn't the kind of music that's going to get Velvet Revolver fans going, but it's hard to imagine anything going down better than quivering tracks like "Let Forme et le Fond" and "Que N'ai-je" at sophisticated dinner parties and sleepovers. To ensure the charm crosses cultural divides, Keren Ann does English as well, singing things like, "Won't the Sunday breeze put out the candle?," on "Greatest You Can Find," and, sounding like Hope Sandoval with a better accent, "Whether we were lost or overwhelmed, nobody knows," on "Chelsea Burns." Frankly, it's hard to stop the heart from beating so hard.

Live Review: Kings of Convenience & Feist

Live Review: Kings of Convenience & Feist

Hail To The Kings (and Queen): Aidin Vaziri | Kings of Convenience are often described as Norway's answer to Simon & Garfunkel. And while, yes, they are a mismatched duo that harmonizes beautifully over serene folk songs, it's hard to remember the last time Paul Simon closed a show by jumping around on stage like a wounded flamingo singing, "I haven't read a single book all year and the only film I saw I didn't like it at all." Feist, the smoky-voiced Canadian singer who opened the show, shared a similarly twisted charisma. The languid, lovelorn torch songs that make up her major label premiere, "Let It Die," spell crossover success so huge that in a year from now she could, in all probability, be arriving to these shows in her own private helicopter. She met the crowd as a complete unknown but by the third song had them singing along to a number about a one-night stand, encouraging them with commands like, "Give it everything this time!" Her confidence was startling considering the vulnerable music she makes -- until you find out she got her start in a Calgary punk band, she used to share a flat with X-rated electro singer Peaches and she made a living rapping under the name Bitch Lap-Lap. Like Kings of Convenience, weirdness is her secret weapon.

Live Review: Duran Duran

Live Review: Duran Duran

Duran Duran: Aidin Vaziri | Crucially, Duran Duran look and sound amazing. In contrast to most bands, which grit their teeth and do these reunion tours as a way of squaring things with the IRS, you get the feeling that singer Simon LeBon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor, guitarist Andy Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor have reunited because they actually enjoy doing this for a living. Yes, the new tracks sound as if they need a shot of caffeine, but the band charges through the classic material with obvious lust. LeBon turns "Save a Prayer," an intimate song looking back on a one-night stand, into a massive audience sing-along. He drives the scratchy funk of "Notorious" into a car- crash chorus of "We Are Family," which he punctuates with improvised karate moves. And, best of all, he sings "The Chauffeur" dressed as a chauffeur. The later it gets, the bigger his smile grows. By the time the band barrels into a spasmodic encore of "White Lines," "Girls On Film" and "Rio," leaving the crowd breathlessly reaching for the stage, it becomes obvious Duran Duran shouldn't worry so much about getting respect when it's already getting worshiped.

Pop Quiz: Tommy Chong

Pop Quiz: Tommy Chong

Aidin Vaziri | When Tommy Chong, 66, got sentenced to nine months in jail last year it wasn't just for conspiring to sell bongs on the Internet, he says, but because he had made millions playing a career pot smoker, most famously in Cheech & Chong films and on "That '70s Show." Oh, and probably because he said the only weapons of mass destruction George Bush found were his bongs. After a successful New York run, Chong was to bring his three-man act, the Marijuana- Logues, to the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre for a pair of shows this week, but they've been postponed until October -- when he'll be off probation.



Tommy Chong
Q: Let me get this straight. They sent you to jail for selling bongs online?
A: No, no, no. The thing is, I never really committed a crime. The only crime I committed was going against the Bush government and their policies. This was their payback.
Q: Every corner store in San Francisco sells bongs.
A: Sure, but that's San Francisco. Actually, in a way, I'm taking the rap for places like San Francisco and Humboldt County and other liberal, live-and- let-live places.
Q: Thanks for all that.
A: Sure.
Q: So what was jail like?
A: Jail was actually quite nice. It was a Martha Stewart-type jail. In fact, we even wore the same outfit.