"I'm going to write songs about fucking blowing my head off and giving in to apathy," says Filter founder and frontman Richard Patrick during our interview. It's not that he's going to do either, it's just that he understands what anger combined with a sense of hopeless can... more

"I'm going to write songs about fucking blowing my head off and giving in to apathy," says Filter founder and frontman Richard Patrick during our interview. It's not that he's going to do either, it's just that he understands what anger combined with a sense of hopeless can do to a person's psyche.

In 2008 he released Anthems For The Damned, which served both as a protest against the Iraq war and a tribute to a friend it had claimed. (Anti-war, but very much pro-troops, Patrick has traveled to the Middle East twice to play concerts for those who risk their lives to serve our country.) Two years on, though our president may have changed, the status quo (or lack thereof) remains the same in the Middle East. After too many years listening to grim reports from the frontlines of a war that was misguided from the start, both the troops on the ground and the masses here at home are suffering from a severe case of fuck up fatigue. With dissent now largely falling on deaf ears, and, even worse, serving to remind the proletariat of their powerlessness, Patrick gets why it's therapeutic to embrace indifference, shrug your shoulders and say "fuck it" to the world.

Thus, at least on the surface, the latest Filter release, The Trouble With Angels, channels the middle finger up attitude of Patrick's drug and alcohol dependant youth - and of his band's 1995 breakthrough debut, Short Bus. Featuring songs with titles such as "Down With Me," "Drug Boy" and "The Inevitable Relapse," the new Filter full-length – which is undoubtedly one of the band’s best – explores topics such as addiction, murder and suicide. Inspired by the music, but puzzled by the message, SG checked in with Patrick to find out where his head was at.

NP: I have to say I fucking love this album. I really, honesty do. I was blown away by it.

RP: That's awesome. I'm really happy about that. Thank you.

NP: Last time we spoke was a few months after the release of Anthems for the Damned. Even back then, you spoke about how this album was going to go in a very different direction. What was the overall inspiration for this album?

RP: The overall inspiration for this album was the meaning behind the title, The Trouble With Angels. It just seems that religion has kind of left its mark on the land. [For example], a guy like Galileo - you know the guy who invented the telescope and discovered [the four largest satellites of] Jupiter and Saturn - 400 years ago they imprisoned him because he was going against the teachings of the church...Superstition imprisoned a man because he made an incredible scientific discovery. [Galileo challenged the belief rigidly held by the church that all heavenly bodies circled the earth.] He was answering questions about the universe, and doing us a favor, and he was imprisoned for it.

I don't think it's as overt as "end the Iraq war, my friend's dead." It's not as on-the-nose, but yet, if I'm going to put out music, I'm going to always try to have a statement. That's my one little scream in the night that I'm allowed to do. I just kind of drew attention to the imprisonment of Galileo, and I pay tribute to him a little bit.

I'm just leaving hidden messages all over the record - and maybe some not so hidden. I got to say the packaging on our record is absolutely amazing. It's so cool. You open it up and there's this pop up angel that's either swimming or drowning, just kind of symbolically surrounded by science. There's enough [left] to the imagination that most people wouldn't get it, which is cool, because I don't want to smack them in the face, I just want them to be inspired to think about things.

NP: Right. On a surface level the tracks are totally satisfying. They're raging, with monster choruses.

RP: Yeah, I'm kind of famous for my choruses. I really want them soaring.

NP: Which is interesting because there are others in that circle where you came from roots-wise, Nine Inch Nails and that industrial camp, that are almost anti-melody.

RP: I cut my teeth in industrial. I was more inspired by the Ministry end of things, beyond the Skinny Puppy end of things, and that's exactly what Trent did. Trent went for the sound design kind of craziness of Skinny Puppy and I went for the more guitar-driven stuff of Ministry. But after the first record, Short Bus, I was fully, OK, I'm going more rock. That's where this record picks up because it's definitely more of just a rock record. This is actually the record I probably should have made ten years ago, but, you know, it comes out now. It comes out when it comes out.

NP: I understand on "Fades Like A Photograph" you worked with your old Short Bus collaborator Brian Liesegang.

RP: He did a little sound design. He colors things. He puts some textures on things. I kind of [enlisted] some of these guys because I really didn't want it to be the Richard Patrick band, because I felt like I really wanted to distance myself from my former boss. But the reality is, I've been the only main original member the whole time. So as much as I love Brian, he didn't write anything. He never wrote anything. He just added some keyboard type stuff on the top of the songs that I'd written. I don't mean to diminish what he is, because he's really great - he's got a great band called Ashtar Command. Truth be told it was actually [screenwriter and producer] Harald Kloser [and] his friend [film composer] Tom [Wander] who was working on the movie 2012, they called me and wanted to work on this song. I grabbed their music and rearranged it, and then I wrote vocals and put it on top. I pretty much did the melody and wrote most of the lyrics with a couple of little changes from Harold. This is the song I wrote for 2012 and I just reworked it [for the album].

NP: Another track that really stands out is "No Love." That has some interesting lyrics: "Twenty years ago you tried to take my eyes..."

RP: Yeah, "Twenty years ago you tried to take my eyes. Thought you loved the world, and I believed your lies." Very specific. [laughs]

NP: It's very specific, twenty years...

RP: Twenty years, I wonder what I'm talking about? I mean, I had a lot of amazing things [happen to me back then]. We were so young, and there's so many great things when you're younger. It's tough looking back sometimes because hindsight is obviously 20/20. It's kind of sad, you know, we should have had more fun. As twenty-year olds, we should have had more fun.

NP: I was talking with Steven Adler from Guns N' Roses recently, and he was talking about that same thing. How you don't realize what you have until you don't have it anymore. Especially because when you're that age, and it comes so easily, you don't stop and smell the roses because you don't even realize there's anything special to stop and smell.

RP: Yeah. It's bizarre. Like all my twenties were drenched with alcohol and drugs, and it made things just so hard. You just go through life and you're like, well, I made pretty much every mistake I could make, and you just start writing lyrics: You crossed a million miles, and you lost a million times, and the disrespect you've earned is the disrespect you've learned. I really love that song. Mitch Marlowe really brought his A-game. Mitch is the Asian kid that was in my live band a couple of years ago. He brought such an amazing originality and he just really brought his A-game on that song. It was the first song that [producer] Bob Marlette and I and Mitch really wrote together, and I got to say, if I'm allowed to make another record, I would love to have Mitch come out for a month or two and just write with me and Bob, because I think it would be insane. I think it'd be really great. I hope I get that next chance.

NP: Were there any other tracks on the album that Mitch and you collaborated on?

RP: Yeah, he wrote the music to "Clouds" with Bob.

NP: That's another track I have written down to talk about. I loved that one too.

RP: Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm really diggin' it. This record, to be honest, it wrote itself. Bob Marlette just accentuated everything that was good and just really helped to finish it properly, and re-wrote stuff. I call him "The Finisher." Mitch wrote the chorus to "Drug Boy," Mitch wrote the beginnings of "Down With Me" - I love the lyrics on that. It's like it literally just paints a scene, a crime scene, and you find out it was a murder suicide. The last thing you hear, he goes, I found a note and it said "If I can't have her, then no one will." It just sounds like a short story come to life or something.

NP: And we should talk about the first single, "The Inevitable Relapse."

RP: I really struck a nerve with "Drug Boy," and I've struck a nerve with "The Inevitable Relapse." I think a lot of people are confused. I think they think I'm saying I'm going down, and I'm going down in a ball of flames. People don't understand it's a song. It can be fiction. There's no method behind it other than the phenomenon. It's like, "Hey Man, Nice Shot." A guy held a press conference, blew his head off, I wrote a song, and there's no judgment. It is what it is. It's a song describing a suicide scene.

So "The Inevitable Relapse," before I got sober this last seven years, this last time I got sober, I relapsed every other day. Like I quit drinking, and then a day later I was out getting wasted. When you're in the disease of alcoholism or drug dependency, it's a fight. The song is about losing that battle. And the video, I'm so proud of that video. It summed it up perfectly. Have you seen the video?

NP: Yes.

RP: You see this guy getting his ass kicked by someone beautiful and hot. He escapes and then he comes back for more abuse. That's it. That's drug addiction. In that case it's like a love addiction. Again, I was really not trying to make this huge message. I mean, I used to chant, "Drink it, drink it, snort it, smoke it. Drink it, drink it..." At my studio back in Chicago, I'd call a drug dealer and I'd get in touch with him, and he would be like, "I'm on my way." And I'm like, "Yes!" That was the best I was going to feel all month, knowing that the drug dealer was on his way...I'd binge for an entire three or four days. It was terrible. It was horrible. But in that song, I'm not saying I'm relapsing, come and join me. I'm just talking about the phenomenon of losing - losing the battle, fucking up, that kind of thing.

NP: I know you have "September 28th, 2002" tattooed on your arm, which is the day you finally got sober. What changed for you?

RP: When I went into rehab I knew in my heart and soul that I am just incapable of drinking. I just can't do it. I was so obvious. I cancelled a tour, I lost hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars - there was just no getting around it. I couldn't go on stage and sing anymore, it was horrible. So when I walked into rehab, I was done. I was like, take a good look around, because this is the first and last time you're ever going to go to a place like this and check yourself in.

On the confines of my record, in the imaginary world of lyrics on my record, some of the people relapse and some of the people are still on drugs. "Drug Boy," it's all based on the early years of my life. I used to drop acid and run around the streets of Cleveland with this pack, I don't want to say gang, but a pack of twenty-year olds [who were] totally disenfranchised, loser, falling through the cracks [types]. Some of them died, some of them got arrested, but no one ended up doing anything really great except for what happened with my career.

We would break into an abandoned jail, and go into the basement and read the files of criminals that had lived entire criminal lives in the 1920s. And there was this whole thing where we went into a cemetery and inevitably someone would break into a mausoleum and grab a skull and just walk out with it - just bizarre behavior.

Bob Marlette, our producer, was just like, "You really should talk about that stuff." Because you know, on Army of Anyone I talk about growing up, and I became kind of mature. He was like, "You know what dude? That's cool. I'm glad you're growing up and you're maturing, but at the same time, we all miss that knucklehead, that crazy man from your youth - you as a youngster." And he goes, "Remember that, let's talk about that, and then let's put that into these songs, these first couple of songs on the record so that it really embodies our original work, Short Bus." So we did that, and people are freaking out because they're like, "Wow! Is Richard back on drugs?"

I just don't want to be the guy that's mellowing with age. Because I don't feel mellow. I mean Anthems was this big tribute record to a friend of ours that had been killed in the Iraq War Part Deux, and I just was like, I really want to make sure that I tap into my craziness as well because that was a fun thing to listen to...I kind of wanted to sound reckless again. I wanted to not try and do anything with my record. I didn't want my record to have an agenda. I wanted my record to reflect the darkness in life. It sounds cheesy, but at the end day we walk around and it's so confusing. The world is so confusing and it's so insane. It's fucking insane.

Sarah Palin and the conservative right wing is just [Richard puts on his best crazy Palin voice], "This country should be way more Christian. We can't have a mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero. And we got to build a wall up between us and all them Mexicans." It's so far away from what Jesus Christ was teaching, and it's just so astounding that someone would impose their beliefs. And at the same time they're like, "I ain't got no charity for no Mexicans." It's unbelievable.

NP: Right, the level of hate they spew in the name of Jesus is spectacularly inappropriate to what he would have wanted, and they have no concept of the irony.

RP: You just walk around and you're like, am I the only one who gets this? So as opposed to trying to do anything, it's almost like I am recognizing the chaos, and, without any judgment, I'm just going, I understand that chaos. I understand wanting entertainment.

When I went to Iraq I was shocked. The soldiers were like, "Hey, we really appreciate you saying what you want to say about the war. We really appreciate you coming out here and we really appreciate that your friend has been killed out here. Same with us. Let's fucking rock. Let's have a fucking great time and sing that song about that guy fucking killing himself."

And it's kind of like, I guess you're right. 'Cause honestly, if you take a broom and you try and sweep back the ocean, it's impossible. So as well as the confusion and the chaos, there's a certain amount of apathy on this record. At some points in this record I'm literally like, "Oh well, whatever, nevermind" - straight out of Kurt Cobain's mouth. It's literally at that point with me in so many ways, so I am throwing up my hands in the air and going, "You're right! Fuck it! There's nothing that can be done. I'm going to write songs about fucking blowing my head off and giving in to apathy, and who gives a shit. Let's turn up the amps and fucking play loud rock music." There has to be that too.

NP: I completely get that. If I think about things too much I get so angry at the world, and trying to change it is like pissing in the wind, so sometimes you've just got to say "fuck it."

RP: Yeah. I mean, I think what people loved about Filter in the early days, and that's literally what I'm figuring out, is they were like, "Please take yourself seriously but at the same time just try and break it. Just try and destroy it. Have fun destroying it." And I get that. I understand that...Sometimes it's better to just destroy a guitar and fucking trash a stage and fucking break shit and not care so much about something because that's exactly how the audience feels.

When we played in Corpus Christi [see video from Filter's July 25th, 2010 show], we were literally over it and we kind of tore down the stage and threw shit around, and broke cymbals and laughed. It was funny because the audience had never seen anything like that. Nowadays musicians don't have gobs of money. They're like, "That guitar cost five hundred dollars." Most bands, they see it in terms of you have to sell 500 CDs to pay for that guitar - and selling 500 CDs is a fucking hard task these days. Back in the day they'd give us $500,000 checks every couple of months. But we destroyed the stage and we were throwing shit around and the audience was like, I understand that. I'm in my cubicle and in my construction worker job, and we hate the world too.

So I've kind of come full circle. I'm like, "Yeah I've relapsed, and yeah, I fucking don't care, and yeah, I fucking want to blow my head off, and yeah, I fucking hate god. I'm with you. Fuck this world. Fuck this shit." It's come back to that. I'm with you. Fuck reality.

And it's fun to have that again. On "Absentee Father" I play a 32 bar solo and there's not even one approach at trying to play a guitar with any musical rules or whatever. I literally took a screwdriver and fucking started breaking strings. It was the most amazing thing I had done in ten years. It was the most fun I ever had, and it's way up at the beginning of the record. The third song on the record is my avant-garde guitar solo that fucking flips off every guitar hero on the planet because I'm totally just taking a shit on the guitar and handing it to the public like, "What do you think of that?"

I just had so much fun on this record destroying and being crazy and being a nut. And, within the lyrics, relapsing and killing people. That's what rock & roll was all about, and that's what I realized I needed to get back to.

NP: Well that's a basic function of music. It helps people escape from their daily lives.

RP: That's the thing, there's my hidden meaning in the record. If you get it - great. If you don't - I don't care either. Fuck it. Who cares? Let's smash a fucking guitar, and, at the end of the day, let's have that cathartic release that we need.


The Trouble With Angels is available now via Rocket Science Ventures. For more information go to OfficialFilter.com.

by AJ Focht An interesting change from the comic to the film adaption of Scott Pilgrim VS. The World was the use of the “Power of Self-Respect” sword at the end of the film. In the comics Scott ended up with the “Power of Understanding” sword, which he used to defeat Gideon. In the movie, Scott... more

by AJ Focht

An interesting change from the comic to the film adaption of Scott Pilgrim VS. The World was the use of the “Power of Self-Respect” sword at the end of the film. In the comics Scott ended up with the “Power of Understanding” sword, which he used to defeat Gideon. In the movie, Scott realizes that he needs to fight Gideon for himself and not for Ramona. This grants him the “Power of Self-Respect” that helps him in his defeat.



While the movie risked fan-boy rage to make the change, I think they made the right decision. The message that it delivers to the viewers is much more powerful and meaningful, than the original message in the comic books. Self-respect is something that is clearly lacking in the geek world.



Most geeks don’t have much trouble with supplying the romance portion of the relationship. Enough video games and movies have taught us how to treat our “princesses” well. The sad part is a good portion of our romance is affected by our self-respect. Many geeks are overly romantic, on the way to full on clingy, because they fear losing their love. We could attribute this one back to video games, and the fact that Mario and Peach have not had an uninterrupted moment since 1981, but more realistically it is because we are afraid if we lose our love we may never find them again.

Truth of the matter is, most all geeks have large self-respect issues, often going back to high school. We all remember a time when it was not cool to be a geek. We were ridiculed and picked on throughout high school and for some college. Being a geek was hard and the idea of getting the girl (or boy) was a far off fantasy.

For many this changes after high school. In college geeks are given a lot more reign, especially in today’s society. In most cases this is where most geeks get their first taste of the “Power of Love.” This is also where all those nasty self-respect issues kick in. We start to remember every time we were turned down in high school, bullied, picked on, and laughed at. This causes us to try harder to please our lover and often times can lead to suffocating the relationship. Once that happens you are right back at square one with no “Power of Love” and lots more self-respect issues.



The key is to do as Scott Pilgrim did and find your self-respect. You can’t expect it to happen in a perfect movie instant but it is something to work on. If you don’t have the “Power of Self-Respect” to back up that “Power of Love” you will always end up drowning. There are a lot of ways to help build your self-respect but a key one you need to remember is: do things for yourself.

Just like in the movie, you need to make sure that you are doing things for you. Don’t expect your love to overcome all obstacles if you can’t overcome your own personal obstacles. You need to make sure that you are focusing on fulfilling your own needs and not always fulfilling the needs of others. Focus on your own needs and then help other out where you can. Do what you need to in order to be happy with yourself. I know this sounds really cliché but how can you expect to win the heart of your Ramona Flowers if you don’t even like the heart you’re offering her in return.

by Luisa Mateus There is an island, high above the reef. The corals glisten, radiant in the opulence of iridescent sunlight. The waves crash softly, against the rocks, lulling you into a mesmerising trance. Looking down at the boats, cruising gently towards the land line, three beautiful women await the... more

by Luisa Mateus

There is an island, high above the reef. The corals glisten, radiant in the opulence of iridescent sunlight. The waves crash softly, against the rocks, lulling you into a mesmerising trance. Looking down at the boats, cruising gently towards the land line, three beautiful women await the arrival of the sailors to shore. Soft supple skin, long flowing hair, luminous eyes, these heavenly creatures sing a sweet sultry song to call the mariners to their untimely demise.





[Left-right: Helen, Regan & Lora (Photo credit: Mark Eilbeck)]

Flash forward, oh ten thousand years or so, and the mythology seems obsolete. How did anyone ever believe a group of scheming sea-nymphs could, or would, lure some unkempt, unwashed drunken sailors’ no-good asses in from the putrid sea, only for said sailors to listen to them sing in a field, until they died? Come on! Even Brothers Grimm could, and have, come up with better fairytales than that!

However, such legends have their legacies….

The Sirens are a three strong group of lusciousness, so named by Motorhead’s Lemmy (uhuh that Lemmy!) after those mythological ladies of yesteryear. They joined together out of the not-quite ashes of the Fuel Girls; and Helen, Lora and Regan bonded in their travelling sexy pants to form a group that make their performances about who they are and what they love. They’re British; they love heavy metal and can be found on stage, fire breathing, angle grinding, champagne jizzing and strip teasing.

We spoke to flame haired temptress, Regan, about the group.

The Sirens have been busy bunnies of late, shooting the show-reel for Halloween, when “The Sirens is really going to take off”. Featuring her own beautiful Vintage Capri V8 (pause for jealous thought!), Regan says the show-reel has become more a mini-film to showcase the girls’ personalities and bring their “mad ideas to life”.

The Sirens is an organic project that Lora, Helen and Regan embarked on when they set fuel to fire their bags and headed off into the sunset with big ideas, determined to follow through. Unlike many other girl dance tribes, they were all part of the original troupe that set hearts a blazing; and have enough notches on their Girl Guide patches to knock any man into submission. There’s no jack of all trades, hiding in the shadows, pulling the strings, shafting it up the back door, and pocketing the cash. The Sirens push their own buttons, proving empowerment can often depend on women choosing their own destiny, and not being at he mercy of some nameless male puppeteer.

[Regan in action]

Recently, a performance at a UK Festival (yes, Ghostfest, you!) was cancelled due to a Women’s Liberal group kicking off about their performance, essentially discriminating against them due to the sexualization of their ‘heavenly’ bodies. How did The Sirens feel about other women wanting to disqualify them from performing at a male-dominated festival, simply because of the sexual nature of their performance?

It’s very easy for us, as women, and as “feminists”, to sit and judge others and what they do; to say what is right and wrong, based upon our own set of values and morals. But should so-called “feminists” prevent other women from doing what they want to do, because we take offence to an act which sexualizes the female form?

I don’t need to preach to SG lovers that the female body is beautiful in all its forms. But should we not celebrate women who have the guts and the follow-through, to get up on stage and stand up for every single tattooed or “other” woman out there? When I originally spoke to The Sirens about doing this interview, we talked about how none of these stunning, beautiful, awesome women fitted the cookie-cutter standards of beauty, we see in mainstream magazines. As every one of them is covered in tattoos, with mad (awesome) hair and a variety of piercings – something highly celebrated on this here website.

With the exception of SG, there are perhaps far less representations of curvier or tattooed women than anorexic six stone model types (And believe me, I’m not getting at skinny people who actually eat). Surely, it’s nice for those of us who don’t fit that “standard” of beauty to see “other” representations of femininity doing the rounds in our media?

Like a knife that cuts deep through the wound, and pisses blood all over the floor, there is that engaging argument that permeates many “feminist” discourses, regarding the sexualization and objectification of the female form. Some argue that such objectification is more to men’s benefit than to the women who are performing and/or being objectified. Laura Mulvey wrote a very famous essay, that film scholars amongst us will be familiar with, regarding the “male gaze”. Her theory was that women exist in film so the viewer can identify with the male protagonist, and that they are of not of any importance in themselves, apart from as a sexual object to satisfy a (male) wish for “pleasurable (voyeuristic) looking”. How do The Sirens feel about such “feminist” notions?

[Left to right: Lora & Helen in action]

The girls recently toured with Steel Panther on the UK leg of their worldwide tour, providing the only support to the band on a tour filled with guys rocking out in 80s hair metal wigs, leopard print leggings and mouths full of crude, sexist jokes about strippers. How did they feel about performing on such a tour?

Isn’t that the nature of performance, as a whole? The opportunity to act out your inner desires and bring life to your creative ideas and produce something of value that entertains, or brings pleasure to others and to yourself. I don’t need to tell those of you that frequent SG that women’s bodies are beautiful; I probably don’t even need to tell you that we should celebrate women of all shapes and sizes and discover the awesomeness that often gets overlooked by such a dominating and, often, monolithic media that can, and does, provide the same “ideal” standard of beauty that is acceptable to the masses. That is what I love about SG and about performers such as The Sirens; these women are strong women with ideas and opinions, and their beauty is celebrated as much as their personalities are.

Shouldn’t we as “feminists”, be supporting women to perform in male dominated scenes? Are they not the ones who are going break the cookie-cutter “ideal” mould? Are they not the women, who are going to rip apart this outdated mythology from the inside – out? If they take men on, in male dominated scenes such as motor sport and metal music and command respect from those men objectifying them, are they not doing the rest of us a huge favour? Making it known that their beauty, and “legend”, is also testament to the personalities that drive this lust for success – that drive the ambition to succeed!

Getting their own back then, on the men who sexualize them, are the girls bigger fans of tattooed men, or “virgin blood”?

FYI boys, Regan is taken. And her boyfriend is probably way cooler than you! Never mind the fact, he could kick yo’ ass.

[Regan]

Oh and Regan, Can I, er…. borrow your car?

by Desiree Marsau I get this question a lot in my line of work. Over the past 10 years that I’ve spent buying and re-selling vintage I’ve come up with a very simple answer to this question: Why limit yourself? A wise woman once said, “There are some questions that should be answered with a counter-question.”... more

by Desiree Marsau

I get this question a lot in my line of work. Over the past 10 years that I’ve spent buying and re-selling vintage I’ve come up with a very simple answer to this question: Why limit yourself? A wise woman once said, “There are some questions that should be answered with a counter-question.” This is definitely one of those questions.

Why limit yourself to what? A number of things. Why limit yourself to mass produced mall clothing? Why limit yourself to current trends? Why limit yourself to one look? One decade? One style? With vintage clothing, the possibilities are totally endless. My personal closet is as varied as it comes. One day I can be a sweet 70’s flower child, the next a sexy Russian spy. One day I’ll dress 50’s, the next; 20’s. Most often I just go for a sort of modern eclectic look by incorporating vintage pieces in with contemporary ones. Sky’s the limit, innit.





Vintage clothing puts fashion and trends that may seem out of reach right at your fingertips. See that fluttering printed silk chiffon dress in the latest Vogue editorial? You want it, right? But Chloé or Givenchy wants $1,200 for it. All is not lost. Don’t get depressed, give up, and go to Hot Topic. Go to a vintage store and search their selection of 1920’s or 30’s dresses. You are absolutely bound to find printed silk chiffon. See those shiny over-the-knee leather boots by Prada? Find a similar pair made in the 70’s or 80’s at 1/100 the price by typing “vintage OTK boots” into your search engine.

It’s no secret that today’s fashion designers, even (especially) the highest end designers, are inspired by vintage styles and prints. Most fashion houses, even the mundane, uninspired ones like Abercrombie and Fitch, have warehouses full of collectible vintage for study and inspiration. So why sit idly by and let them have all the fun? It makes me to sad to think of all the girls out there who mindlessly go to the mall and pick up their mass produced vintage inspired garments (though I must admit…. I have been shamelessly guilty from time to time). Basically what I’m trying to say is that almost anything you find in a current fashion magazine, almost anything at all, is easily accessible via the world of vintage clothing because it was inspired by vintage clothing in the first place!



So why wear vintage? I really think it’s all about the freedom and the options, and the doors that open in your wardrobe that you may not have previously thought possible!

Your last glimpse of Michelle Rodriguez was probably in the third act of Avatar, when, as heroic marine pilot Trudy Chacon, she turned on her colonial military bosses and went down with her ship, fighting for the rights of the native Na’vi cat people. It was a typically badass finish for an actress... more

Your last glimpse of Michelle Rodriguez was probably in the third act of Avatar, when, as heroic marine pilot Trudy Chacon, she turned on her colonial military bosses and went down with her ship, fighting for the rights of the native Na’vi cat people. It was a typically badass finish for an actress who has garnered a reputation for both kicking much on-screen ass and almost always biting it in the end. (See her roles in Resident Evil, Fast & Furious, and BloodRayne for other examples of this now familiar formula). Whether or not the formula will be repeated in her latest film, the hard-R Mexploitation film Machete, remains to be seen. Co-directed by filmmaking tornado Robert Rodriguez and his long-time editor Ethan Maniquis, Machete is the long-delayed feature about a Mexican assassin posing as a day laborer (Danny Trejo) that was promised in one of the four “fake trailers” in 2007’s cult hit Grindhouse. Ms. Rodriguez recently called up SuicideGirls to talk about strapping on the big guns once again and the off-screen passions that drive her.




Ryan Stewart: I hope there’s a moment in this film where you get to pull up that eye patch and gross us out.

Michelle Rodriguez: [laughs] Ah, you didn’t see it yet, did you? Well, no, I’m sorry to have to disappoint you!

RS: From what I’ve seen, the whole outfit is a little sexier than you usually go for. Was that your idea?

MR: Yeah, me and Nina, in the costume department, basically hooked up and came up with the concept of a bra ...[laughs]…she took my La Perla bra, which does the boobies some justice, and put some leather over it, and then I grabbed some Genetic jeans that fit me like a glove, and I grabbed these Prada boots that I have that are like superhero boots that they don’t make anymore – I’ve tried to get them to, but they won’t – and then we went over to the props department and started gearing it up. We were hooking up straps, and the next thing you know… I’m a cowgirl, man. All I need is my steed. You know when you’re working with Robert that you’re not gonna be in one of his movies and not be hot. It’s just not gonna happen. He wouldn’t hire you, I don’t think. Unless your whole purpose was to be a mutant! Then you might still get a gig with him.

RS: Been there, done that, in Resident Evil, right?

MR: Yeah, that was a minute ago!

RS: What kind of weapons do you heft in this one? Are we talking major firepower?

MR: Dude...there’s this makeshift weapon that they created, I think it’s like an M4. It’s an AR-M4. That sucker is huge, and it was a makeshift thing by the props and weapons department. Those guys are so cool! And it’s uber-heavy. I’ve got, like, marks on my shoulder from just holding it for like a half-hour to take photos.

RS: Did they train you on that?

MR: No, but I decided to go shooting on my own, like a dumbass, and I thought I was all cocky shooting this shotgun, and you know what? I’ve had this cracking noise in my shoulder ever since. That was a bad idea.

RS: Ouch. But you grew up in Texas, right? They probably send you guns in the mail.

MR: Oh yeah, honey. I’ve got that whole thing down pat. All the gun and NRA stuff is within me, for sure. I am definitely a believer in the right to carry.

RS: Do you pack?

MR: No, I don’t, but I do believe in it. I have at home. And I’m not allowed to carry -- you have to be either a cop or a marshal or something, to have the right to carry a weapon around. But I ain’t worried, honey. Nobody wants to hurt me. I haven’t done anything to anybody. I’m chill.

RS: I interviewed Ethan Hawke once and we talked about how actors are good marksmen because they spend so much time shooting guns. Does that apply to you?

MR: Again I have to disappoint you! [laughs] It’s not true for me, I’m a horrible shot.

RS: So, how much of this film did Robert actually direct? Was it like a 50/50 split with Ethan Maniquis?

MR: Well, the thing is that I wasn’t there long enough to make that determination. I know that he directed me in most of my scenes, but Ethan had a lot to do with the job as well. He was there and he was planning everything along with Robert – it was really a collaboration between the two of them.

RS: It must have been wild to go from the biggest production of all time to this little do-it-yourself Troublemaker Studios movie.

MR: But that’s the whole thing – working with Robert is never a little thing, and you always consider it a blessing. He is so much fun, first of all. He may not make the hugest movies on the planet, but boy, does he make some interesting stuff, and it’s like, you will watch it. There are scenes in his movies that you will never forget as long as you live. I mean, Desperado? Come on. From Dusk Till Dawn? Dude, come on. I could go on forever. Sin City? That was the first time I had ever seen that texture, that kind of art, on screen before. That kind of comic book-esque thing was so awesome, so classic, that it was almost surreal. Robert always makes things look really amazing and unforgettable, really. If you want to be immortalized, you should go work with him. It’s a guarantee that there will be scenes in his movies that people never forget, and along with the scenes are the actors in them. So, it’s a privilege. I can almost promise you that there are at least three scenes in this film that you will never forget as long as you walk this planet, if only because of the shock factor and the way things are shot. You’ll be amazed by how all of these very familiar elements are used, the context that they are used in. It’s pop culture-esque, but it’s done in an exploitative fashion, so you’re like ‘Is this pop culture, is this pulp culture, what is this culture?’ [laughs] You know what I mean? You can’t really tag it, but it’s definitely shock value-enhanced.

RS: Once Robert hires you, does he pretty much leave you alone, or is he giving you notes, saying ‘Let’s try it this way, or that way…’

MR: It’s definitely collaborative, I’d say it’s about 65 to….whatever is left. [laugh] I suck at math. What is left, like 45?

RS: Something like that.

MR: Right, anyway, what I mean is that he is collaborative and one thing that’s for certain is that when you walk onto his set you know that this man knows what he wants and is very sure of what he wants before you even come on board. That’s what I find amazing, and then he gives you that extra 45 percent at the end to kind of be open to other options, which is great. But at the end of the day a director without a vision isn’t a director, to me, so I just love the fact that he knows what he wants, because it makes everything work so fast and smooth. You’re in and you’re out, and the next thing you know you’re sitting in the movie theater and going ‘Whoa!’

RS: You don’t do a ton of movies, in general. Battle: Los Angeles is the only upcoming credit on your IMDB page. Are you just very choosy?

MR: Yeah, honey, I’m really picky. I didn’t really get into the business to be an actress, I got into the business to be a writer, and because of that I feel like when I act it should be something that’s pleasing to me. It shouldn’t be a labor. Some people become actors because they love the chameleon aspect to it, they love interchanging and taking on different lives, and I can understand that appeal, but personally, for me, I would prefer to play characters that I would respect and that I would admire, as opposed to playing any character just because it’s, like, an interpretation of life. Should I be open to that? No, because I’m not! [laugh] I honestly just want to kick ass and take names.

RS: So if someone was about to send you Sleepless in Seattle: Part 2, don’t bother?

MR: Not unless it is incredibly funny! I do like comedy, I’ll flip my script for a comedy, as long as it’s really, really funny. I just wanna play, you know? I like to play, I like things to be light-hearted. Don’t send me a script that compromises me in any way, because I won’t have fun doing it. Why do you need to compromise me as a woman, or as an integrity-carrying individual? I just can’t drop that for anybody, especially to millions of people around the world – what am I saying to them? What is the point? What message is behind it? ‘I understand your pain?’ Great. Big whoopty-doo, you know? I don’t want to understand anybody’s pain. I just want to share joy and revel in victory.

RS: Did Machete become a less lighthearted thing for you when it got tied into the whole immigration debate?

MR: Well, it is called Troublemaker Studios, so you know for sure that there’s going to be some trouble.

RS: What did you think of Robert putting that Special Message to Arizona trailer out on Cinco de Mayo?

MR: I thought it was funny, and I thought it was neutral. At the end of the day, it’s just a voice. And it’s not just one side talking to the other side, both sides are represented in the film, so I think it’s fine. At the end of the day, it’s like, are you going to beat up the guys who make South Park? Are you going to beat up the creators of The Simpsons? Are you going to beat up the guys from SNLor Family Guy? They all make fun of current events and news and sometimes they’re incredibly controversial in their content, but nobody ever really attacks them hard core, and why? Because you can get away with that stuff when it comes to comedy -- that’s the venue to do it in. The minute you start to take things seriously people will come after you with hatchets. They’ll try to destroy your career and stuff, but this isn’t that kind of situation. It’s just lighthearted and fun.

RS: Can you write your own funny stuff? Is that your passion?

MR: No, no. For that I have to partner with people, for sure. But I’m all about networking and finding the people who are all about tomorrow, the youth, mostly. I’m slowly starting to learn about what’s going on out there within the community. I want to make connections with the young people and try to understand what’s going on. The social networking systems like Twitter help me out a lot, and my website helps me out a lot, and slowly but surely I’m going to start doing webcams. I really want to just feel what people want, and then from there I’ll assess what I can provide. But I really am all about the youth, I want to see what’s on their minds, and then I want to take the ideas that I’ve had since I was fifteen years old and start collaborating.

RS: I heard you’re off to Antarctica soon. That’s crazy.

MR: I know! Isn’t it insane? But you know what? I’ve had this script idea in my mind since I was a little girl, since I was about fifteen, and it’s about these little kids who undergo this crazy adventure. It’s kind of like The Goonies meets Jumanji. It’s this amazing story about these little kids who are kind of eco-warriors. The Avatar green event used the term eco-warriors, so I’ve taken that name, and I really need to learn about that world. So far, all I’ve done is appreciate activism from the outside, I haven’t really gone in on a nitty-gritty level and found out what the troubles are and what the real issues are in the world with animals, and with the planet. It all kind of started with Battle in Seattle, when I got to meet a bunch of activists and learn from them first hand: guys from Green Peace, Global Green guys, all of these sort of different experts, and I slowly started to grow fond of them. My heart goes out to them now, but I also realize that there is something blocking them from success, so what is it? Is it conscious capitalism? Do they need to adapt to the environment that we live in today? What is the issue? So, I’m going to go out there, to Antarctica, on the ship, and help save some whales, and learn from a man who helped start Green Peace, Paul Watson, because I admire him. I think if there’s anyone who can be a teacher it’s this guy who’s been around since the freakin’ 60s. He’s been hooting, hollering, and fighting about this same subject for the last forty fucking years. I’m so excited about it. I don’t even care about the cold weather or anything.

RS: Jim Cameron has totally rubbed off on you.

MR: Oh yeah. Jim walks around with his heart out. He’s just that kind of guy. He could inspire anybody.

RS: We never technically saw you die in Avatar, by the way. I have a hunch your character did a last-second bailout.

MR: Dude, could you please tell him that? I would love to come back aboard.





Machete opens in theaters everywhere on September 3rd.

by Alana Joy If you’re an art lover in the greater Portland area, be sure to not miss this amazing art show! Idealistically Hypocritical: A mash Up of Art work by Ryuichi Ogino and Over 20 artists (image) If you’re a fan of SuicideGirls, you’ve already seen Ryuichi’s work: he designed one of... more

by Alana Joy

If you’re an art lover in the greater Portland area, be sure to not miss this amazing art show!

Idealistically Hypocritical:

A mash Up of Art work by Ryuichi Ogino and Over 20 artists





If you’re a fan of SuicideGirls, you’ve already seen Ryuichi’s work: he designed one of our logos! The one we use the most, in fact.


Look familiar?

“Idealistically Hypocritical” will be featuring the art of more than 20 artists, some of which are listed here, curated by Matt Wagner.

The show is running from September 2nd through October 2nd, but you definitely want to show up for the opening reception on September 2nd at 7pm. There is an after party following the reception at Yes and No which begins after 11pm.

Jason Schwartzman loves the Suicide Girls. He called out his favorite by name and even mentioned another one by her signature tattoo. It makes sense that he’d be so cultured, coming from the Coppola family. They have high class tastes in film, music and even fine wine (try the Coppola shiraz. It’s... more

Jason Schwartzman loves the Suicide Girls. He called out his favorite by name and even mentioned another one by her signature tattoo. It makes sense that he’d be so cultured, coming from the Coppola family. They have high class tastes in film, music and even fine wine (try the Coppola shiraz. It’s delightful.)

Alternative beauty is especially relevant to Schwartzman’s latest movie. In Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Scott (Michael Cera) has to fight his new girlfriend’s seven evil exes. Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) expresses a lot of Suicide Girls qualities, the way she dresses and her different hair colors (three hair changes in the film), though no visible tats. We’ll assume the tats are in the director’s cut.

Schwartzman plays Gideon Gordon Graves, the evilest of Ramona Flowers’ seven evil exes. He’s the final battle for Scott. How cool is that? A Hollywood movie about two guys battling it out over a Suicide Girl? It’s based on the comic book by Bryan Lee O’Malley and directed by Edgar Shaun of the Dead Wright, full of martial arts battles and video game style.

When Schwartzman debuted as Max Fischer in Rushmore, kung fu action wouldn’t have been anyone’s prediction for his future. Everyone grows up though. Now a 30-year-old man, Schwartzman sports a moustache as he makes the press rounds for Scott Pilgrim. He seemed happiest to talk about Suicide Girls though, exclaiming “No shit!” when he heard we were at the table.

Fred Topel: So Ramona Flowers has some Suicide Girls qualities.

Jason Schwartzman: I love the Suicide Girls. I like the girl Radeo. I like Radeo, that’s her name.

FT: Radeo will be happy to hear that. So you’re really familiar with the Girls?

JS: I was just talking to my publicist, Matt Labov, because he  represents Will Ferrell and I was telling him that one of the Suicide Girls got a tattoo on her thigh that says “Milk was a bad choice” from Anchorman. She [James] has that tattooed on her thigh, because he drinks milk on a really hot day and he goes, "Argh, milk was a bad choice," and that’s what she got tattooed on her thigh.

FT: Do you go for the Suicide Girls type?

JS: I went with my girlfriend in high school to get her first tattoo ever when she turned 18. That was the thing she did right when she turned 18. She went and got a tattoo.

FT: What was it?

JS: A star, right here [on her thigh], real original.

FT: How do you like it rockin the ‘stache? Is that just your own thing or for a film?

JS: I’m doing that for me, for my wife, for us. She said she liked it.

FT: Do you do a lot of gaming yourself?

JS: When I was a kid I played a lot of Super Nintendo and Nintendo NES and stuff, but not recently. I want to now. I’m afraid though. I know on some levels it would be addictive for someone like me because I spend a lot of time alone, and that would be so much fun I can’t think about it.

FT: What were the top five video game you really liked as a kid?

JS: Breakthrough was my favorite one. There was Double Dribble, Metroid, MegaMan and Mario Brothers.

FT: With all the video game influence in the film, do you think it plays to non gamers?

JS: I’ll tell you tomorrow because my mom has never played a video game in her life and she’s coming tonight to see the movie. I’m curious to see it. I’m pretty sure the reaction will be that she will be happy. The best case is that she will be happy, but I think it will be mesmerizing to her. People also love to see stuff that they don’t know anything about, new worlds. I think that people that don’t know a lot about video games will be just like, "What is that?" I think it will be a sense of wonder or something.  I think that’s very interesting.

FT: How about comic books?

JS: One thing I really love is the R. Crumb's Kafka book. He kind of illustrates the life of Kafka. It's great. Also The Beats. He does a little autobiography of the beat poets [with Harvey Pekar.]
I hate to admit it but I wish all my books in high school were comic books. I mean like textbooks. I can learn and retain it so much easier for some reason when words and pictures, showing it to me at the same time. I mean, it sounds so silly to say but a page of words is daunting when we’re reading about the beats. "Oh, Kerouac?" Now it all makes sense if it's so well done. It’s like right in between a movie and a book.

FT: How much fun did you have playing the bad guy?

JS: It was really fun. It was really scary because when I showed up I guess they shot the Katayanagi twins after I shot my big sword-fighting scene. But, for the most part they had shot all the exes, I think, in chronological order so I kind of showed up toward the end. It was really scary for me because Edgar was showing me a bunch of stuff they had edited together and it was like, "Look at this!" and it was all so great. It was just kind of like a thing I was thinking to myself, "This is a really great opportunity for me to ruin his movie." It’s like I’m coming in at the end and what if I f*ck this up, and I didn’t want to be too much. I didn’t want to be cliché, you know? These things were floating around in my head. So I was just asking so many questions like, "What do you want? Where do you want Gideon?" Edgar and Bryan were so helpful to me, and one thing Bryan said was great was, "Just remember this whole movie is through Scott Pilgrim’s eyes, so you don’t play Gideon Graves as if this was in the real world. Don’t think like that. Approach it as you play how Scott sees Gideon. Be his idea of the worst nightmare ex-boyfriend." So that’s really where I was coming from, like who would I hate to meet if my ex-girlfriend was like, "This is my ex!" I would hate someone saying like, "Hey!" and being nice, trying to help me, and being really sweet.

FT: What was Edgar's direction?

JS: Edgar said he saw Gideon as passive-aggressive. Well, to me that’s a tricky thing to play because there are some passive-aggressive people where you can tell they are passive-aggressive instantly, and then there are other passive-aggressive people where you don’t realize it until it's too late. I asked Edgar about that. "How overt do you want his douchey-ness?"  I hate to say it. It was tricky, because it’s not like you're going to meet him and go, "Oh, he’s a great guy. Obviously you know he’s got to fill this role of the seventh evil ex. He’s got to be that, but where do you want it?" He came up with this great thing which was kind of like 10 is evil Satan, one is just a great person, a wonderfully sweet guy with really no evil at all and then we would do different takes of different levels of it just so he had it. Then in the editing room he could kind of put them together. Although I don’t like to watch myself, one thing I can see that Edgar did was take one take where I’m a real cocksucker asshole and another where I’m sincerely nice and it makes Gideon seem unstable, which I like.

FT: What was the average number you ended up at? Were you more of an 8 or a 2?

JS: I would think I was more like a six, six or seven.

FT: Was it difficult being a musician in a movie with music and not actually drawing on that talent at all?

JS: Did I want to run in there and play in the scenes?

FT: Did you ever have that impulse watching everyone else having a good time?

JS: Totally! I’m glad that I wasn’t because it’s very hard, as you’ll find with any musician, to just make them stop playing. Alison Pill was sitting at the drum set for so many hours and I was like, "That is the exact person who should be behind that drum set for 12 hours." If I had a guitar in my hand it would be so distracting. Anytime there was an instrument around, it’s not like you want to show off. It's fun. You want to get your hands on them. It's fun. It’s hard to be around instruments and not play them.

FT: There was a big Scott Pilgrim experience at Comic-Con. What was it like to be amongst your fans, and be there without your publicists and manager and just be in the middle?

JS: I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about that. When I was in my band, you play and then you take your instruments off stage and then go hang out in the bar and drink with everybody. It never seemed like there was much of a difference. I just went and got a bunch of shirts made and people were like, "Can I take your picture?"  I think it’s a different thing for someone like Robert Pattinson because I heard people will try to grab him and really try to hold him and rips his clothes. I’ve never experienced anything like that, except at home.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World opens August 13.

by Edward Kelly First, I’m going to take you back—all the way back to the not-so-halcyon days of 2003. Reality TV was just starting to become a truly viable market. Its tropes and clichés were already well worn. Into this scene steps a little show with grand artistic ambitions: Spike TV’s “reality... more

by Edward Kelly

First, I’m going to take you back—all the way back to the not-so-halcyon days of 2003. Reality TV was just starting to become a truly viable market. Its tropes and clichés were already well worn. Into this scene steps a little show with grand artistic ambitions: Spike TV’s “reality parody”, The Joe Schmo Show.

The Joe Schmo Show was entirely fake, save for one aspect. Each cast member (all of whom were up-and-coming improv comedians, including a pre-SNL Kristen Wiig) played a stereotypical reality TV contestant type (the catty gay man, the house slut, the grizzled former military guy). The “schmo” of the title was Matt Kennedy Gould, an average person who believed he was part of an actual reality show called Lap of Luxury. Gould didn’t find out the truth until the last episode. He was, understandably, shocked and pleaded with the rest of the cast, “What is going on?!?”



Reality TV is known to be mean-spirited and voyeuristic. While the creative forces behind The Joe Schmo Show may have been trying to reveal the artificiality of so-called “real” programming, they actually ended up revealing the producers, cast, and even audience to be a big bunch of jerks.

Joe Schmo is one of the few reality TV shows that I watched every episode as they aired. The more I became invested in the con, the more I felt like an ass for enjoying the elaborate trick played on Gould. I hoped he would figure it out. He didn’t and “What is going on?!?” became the symbol of everything wrong with reality TV—here was a nice dude who had been totally duped and (I think) hurt.

In other words, reality TV is no place for decent folks.

I stayed away from reality TV after that and decreed it was bad and exploitative and a detriment to the American people.

And then Jersey Shore aired.



It took one terribly campy 1960s television series, one arguably brilliant animated series, and five movies (three of which were good and the other two were directed by Joel Schumacher) until fans got the Batman movie they deserved: The Dark Knight. Likewise, it may have taken years of awful, disgusting, downright amoral reality TV series to bring us to Jersey Shore but, thankfully, we’re there now and we can enjoy it.

You see Joe Schmo had been trying to change the game, holding a mirror up to the genre and hoping that audiences would get how they were playing with the format. But the reason Joe Schmo wasn’t a huge hit (though it was successful enough to warrant a second season) was because reality TV is not a worthy satirical target and, despite its goals, Schmo ended up coming across as another cruel exercise in “look at this sucker.”

Jersey Shore, on the other hand, isn’t as ambitious with its meta-conceptuality as Schmo was. In fact, Shore is nothing if not a delightful embrace reality TV standards and a full-throated appreciation of all things trashy. And in that non-pretentiousness lies its genius.

The brilliance of Jersey Shore stems from the fact that everyone behind it knows exactly what kind of show they are making and are reveling in it. From the casting to the producing to the editing, everything is put in place for optimal immersion in this fantastical far-off land called “New Jersey”.

Now, rationally, I should feel bad about liking Jersey Shore. After all, I felt bad about being part of the swindle surrounding Matt Kennedy Gould. So, I should feel guilty about laughing my head off every time The Situation tells me the robbery is in progress or when Snooki strikes out time and time again with one of her “gorilla juiceheads.”

But I don’t. In fact, I delight in the schadenfreude provided by the shenanigans on Shore. And when I stop and think about it, I realize that the show is accomplishing everything The Joe Schmo Show tried and failed at.

If The Joe Schmo Show was trying its damnedest to hold up a mirror to the genre, Jersey Shore steps it up one level by holding up a mirror to the audience watching at home.

The show covers its cast in the same way that Jane Goodall covers apes: it offers up them up without much commentary and allows the audience to choose whether we will accept, reject, celebrate, or scorn. The response has been all of the above.

Simultaneously loved and derided, the kids (and The Situation, who, at 27, doesn’t count as a “kid” anymore) have become walking punch lines and symbols of the ADD generation. Are they really that way? Probably not, but who cares? They’re on TV, they say funny things, and embarrass themselves.

And therein lies the brilliance of the show. If The Sopranos can be seen as both a thrilling crime epic and a treatise on the dissolution of the American Dream, then Jersey Shore can be seen as both a ribald, never-ending party and an exploration of an American subculture that serves as a microcosm of a generation. The cast is identifiable, if only because everyone knows what is it like to be young, dumb and full of… well, you get the point. It’s snapshot of life that we don’t often get to see and, yeah, sometimes that snapshot is of an orange oompa-loompa downing Jägermeister and getting in catfights.

And if that ain’t art, then I don’t know what is.

"I'm going to write songs about fucking blowing my head off and giving in to apathy," says Filter founder and frontman Richard Patrick during our interview. It's not that he's going to do either, it's just that he understands what anger combined with a sense of hopeless can... more

"I'm going to write songs about fucking blowing my head off and giving in to apathy," says Filter founder and frontman Richard Patrick during our interview. It's not that he's going to do either, it's just that he understands what anger combined with a sense of hopeless can do to a person's psyche.

In 2008 he released Anthems For The Damned, which served both as a protest against the Iraq war and a tribute to a friend it had claimed. (Anti-war, but very much pro-troops, Patrick has traveled to the Middle East twice to play concerts for those who risk their lives to serve our country.) Two years on, though our president may have changed, the status quo (or lack thereof) remains the same in the Middle East. After too many years listening to grim reports from the frontlines of a war that was misguided from the start, both the troops on the ground and the masses here at home are suffering from a severe case of fuck up fatigue. With dissent now largely falling on deaf ears, and, even worse, serving to remind the proletariat of their powerlessness, Patrick gets why it's therapeutic to embrace indifference, shrug your shoulders and say "fuck it" to the world.

Thus, at least on the surface, the latest Filter release, The Trouble With Angels, channels the middle finger up attitude of Patrick's drug and alcohol dependant youth - and of his band's 1995 breakthrough debut, Short Bus. Featuring songs with titles such as "Down With Me," "Drug Boy" and "The Inevitable Relapse," the new Filter full-length – which is undoubtedly one of the band’s best – explores topics such as addiction, murder and suicide. Inspired by the music, but puzzled by the message, SG checked in with Patrick to find out where his head was at.

NP: I have to say I fucking love this album. I really, honesty do. I was blown away by it.

RP: That's awesome. I'm really happy about that. Thank you.

NP: Last time we spoke was a few months after the release of Anthems for the Damned. Even back then, you spoke about how this album was going to go in a very different direction. What was the overall inspiration for this album?

RP: The overall inspiration for this album was the meaning behind the title, The Trouble With Angels. It just seems that religion has kind of left its mark on the land. [For example], a guy like Galileo - you know the guy who invented the telescope and discovered [the four largest satellites of] Jupiter and Saturn - 400 years ago they imprisoned him because he was going against the teachings of the church...Superstition imprisoned a man because he made an incredible scientific discovery. [Galileo challenged the belief rigidly held by the church that all heavenly bodies circled the earth.] He was answering questions about the universe, and doing us a favor, and he was imprisoned for it.

I don't think it's as overt as "end the Iraq war, my friend's dead." It's not as on-the-nose, but yet, if I'm going to put out music, I'm going to always try to have a statement. That's my one little scream in the night that I'm allowed to do. I just kind of drew attention to the imprisonment of Galileo, and I pay tribute to him a little bit.

I'm just leaving hidden messages all over the record - and maybe some not so hidden. I got to say the packaging on our record is absolutely amazing. It's so cool. You open it up and there's this pop up angel that's either swimming or drowning, just kind of symbolically surrounded by science. There's enough [left] to the imagination that most people wouldn't get it, which is cool, because I don't want to smack them in the face, I just want them to be inspired to think about things.

NP: Right. On a surface level the tracks are totally satisfying. They're raging, with monster choruses.

RP: Yeah, I'm kind of famous for my choruses. I really want them soaring.

NP: Which is interesting because there are others in that circle where you came from roots-wise, Nine Inch Nails and that industrial camp, that are almost anti-melody.

RP: I cut my teeth in industrial. I was more inspired by the Ministry end of things, beyond the Skinny Puppy end of things, and that's exactly what Trent did. Trent went for the sound design kind of craziness of Skinny Puppy and I went for the more guitar-driven stuff of Ministry. But after the first record, Short Bus, I was fully, OK, I'm going more rock. That's where this record picks up because it's definitely more of just a rock record. This is actually the record I probably should have made ten years ago, but, you know, it comes out now. It comes out when it comes out.

NP: I understand on "Fades Like A Photograph" you worked with your old Short Bus collaborator Brian Liesegang.

RP: He did a little sound design. He colors things. He puts some textures on things. I kind of [enlisted] some of these guys because I really didn't want it to be the Richard Patrick band, because I felt like I really wanted to distance myself from my former boss. But the reality is, I've been the only main original member the whole time. So as much as I love Brian, he didn't write anything. He never wrote anything. He just added some keyboard type stuff on the top of the songs that I'd written. I don't mean to diminish what he is, because he's really great - he's got a great band called Ashtar Command. Truth be told it was actually [screenwriter and producer] Harald Kloser [and] his friend [film composer] Tom [Wander] who was working on the movie 2012, they called me and wanted to work on this song. I grabbed their music and rearranged it, and then I wrote vocals and put it on top. I pretty much did the melody and wrote most of the lyrics with a couple of little changes from Harold. This is the song I wrote for 2012 and I just reworked it [for the album].

NP: Another track that really stands out is "No Love." That has some interesting lyrics: "Twenty years ago you tried to take my eyes..."

RP: Yeah, "Twenty years ago you tried to take my eyes. Thought you loved the world, and I believed your lies." Very specific. [laughs]

NP: It's very specific, twenty years...

RP: Twenty years, I wonder what I'm talking about? I mean, I had a lot of amazing things [happen to me back then]. We were so young, and there's so many great things when you're younger. It's tough looking back sometimes because hindsight is obviously 20/20. It's kind of sad, you know, we should have had more fun. As twenty-year olds, we should have had more fun.

NP: I was talking with Steven Adler from Guns N' Roses recently, and he was talking about that same thing. How you don't realize what you have until you don't have it anymore. Especially because when you're that age, and it comes so easily, you don't stop and smell the roses because you don't even realize there's anything special to stop and smell.

RP: Yeah. It's bizarre. Like all my twenties were drenched with alcohol and drugs, and it made things just so hard. You just go through life and you're like, well, I made pretty much every mistake I could make, and you just start writing lyrics: You crossed a million miles, and you lost a million times, and the disrespect you've earned is the disrespect you've learned. I really love that song. Mitch Marlowe really brought his A-game. Mitch is the Asian kid that was in my live band a couple of years ago. He brought such an amazing originality and he just really brought his A-game on that song. It was the first song that [producer] Bob Marlette and I and Mitch really wrote together, and I got to say, if I'm allowed to make another record, I would love to have Mitch come out for a month or two and just write with me and Bob, because I think it would be insane. I think it'd be really great. I hope I get that next chance.

NP: Were there any other tracks on the album that Mitch and you collaborated on?

RP: Yeah, he wrote the music to "Clouds" with Bob.

NP: That's another track I have written down to talk about. I loved that one too.

RP: Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm really diggin' it. This record, to be honest, it wrote itself. Bob Marlette just accentuated everything that was good and just really helped to finish it properly, and re-wrote stuff. I call him "The Finisher." Mitch wrote the chorus to "Drug Boy," Mitch wrote the beginnings of "Down With Me" - I love the lyrics on that. It's like it literally just paints a scene, a crime scene, and you find out it was a murder suicide. The last thing you hear, he goes, I found a note and it said "If I can't have her, then no one will." It just sounds like a short story come to life or something.

NP: And we should talk about the first single, "The Inevitable Relapse."

RP: I really struck a nerve with "Drug Boy," and I've struck a nerve with "The Inevitable Relapse." I think a lot of people are confused. I think they think I'm saying I'm going down, and I'm going down in a ball of flames. People don't understand it's a song. It can be fiction. There's no method behind it other than the phenomenon. It's like, "Hey Man, Nice Shot." A guy held a press conference, blew his head off, I wrote a song, and there's no judgment. It is what it is. It's a song describing a suicide scene.

So "The Inevitable Relapse," before I got sober this last seven years, this last time I got sober, I relapsed every other day. Like I quit drinking, and then a day later I was out getting wasted. When you're in the disease of alcoholism or drug dependency, it's a fight. The song is about losing that battle. And the video, I'm so proud of that video. It summed it up perfectly. Have you seen the video?

NP: Yes.

RP: You see this guy getting his ass kicked by someone beautiful and hot. He escapes and then he comes back for more abuse. That's it. That's drug addiction. In that case it's like a love addiction. Again, I was really not trying to make this huge message. I mean, I used to chant, "Drink it, drink it, snort it, smoke it. Drink it, drink it..." At my studio back in Chicago, I'd call a drug dealer and I'd get in touch with him, and he would be like, "I'm on my way." And I'm like, "Yes!" That was the best I was going to feel all month, knowing that the drug dealer was on his way...I'd binge for an entire three or four days. It was terrible. It was horrible. But in that song, I'm not saying I'm relapsing, come and join me. I'm just talking about the phenomenon of losing - losing the battle, fucking up, that kind of thing.

NP: I know you have "September 28th, 2002" tattooed on your arm, which is the day you finally got sober. What changed for you?

RP: When I went into rehab I knew in my heart and soul that I am just incapable of drinking. I just can't do it. I was so obvious. I cancelled a tour, I lost hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars - there was just no getting around it. I couldn't go on stage and sing anymore, it was horrible. So when I walked into rehab, I was done. I was like, take a good look around, because this is the first and last time you're ever going to go to a place like this and check yourself in.

On the confines of my record, in the imaginary world of lyrics on my record, some of the people relapse and some of the people are still on drugs. "Drug Boy," it's all based on the early years of my life. I used to drop acid and run around the streets of Cleveland with this pack, I don't want to say gang, but a pack of twenty-year olds [who were] totally disenfranchised, loser, falling through the cracks [types]. Some of them died, some of them got arrested, but no one ended up doing anything really great except for what happened with my career.

We would break into an abandoned jail, and go into the basement and read the files of criminals that had lived entire criminal lives in the 1920s. And there was this whole thing where we went into a cemetery and inevitably someone would break into a mausoleum and grab a skull and just walk out with it - just bizarre behavior.

Bob Marlette, our producer, was just like, "You really should talk about that stuff." Because you know, on Army of Anyone I talk about growing up, and I became kind of mature. He was like, "You know what dude? That's cool. I'm glad you're growing up and you're maturing, but at the same time, we all miss that knucklehead, that crazy man from your youth - you as a youngster." And he goes, "Remember that, let's talk about that, and then let's put that into these songs, these first couple of songs on the record so that it really embodies our original work, Short Bus." So we did that, and people are freaking out because they're like, "Wow! Is Richard back on drugs?"

I just don't want to be the guy that's mellowing with age. Because I don't feel mellow. I mean Anthems was this big tribute record to a friend of ours that had been killed in the Iraq War Part Deux, and I just was like, I really want to make sure that I tap into my craziness as well because that was a fun thing to listen to...I kind of wanted to sound reckless again. I wanted to not try and do anything with my record. I didn't want my record to have an agenda. I wanted my record to reflect the darkness in life. It sounds cheesy, but at the end day we walk around and it's so confusing. The world is so confusing and it's so insane. It's fucking insane.

Sarah Palin and the conservative right wing is just [Richard puts on his best crazy Palin voice], "This country should be way more Christian. We can't have a mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero. And we got to build a wall up between us and all them Mexicans." It's so far away from what Jesus Christ was teaching, and it's just so astounding that someone would impose their beliefs. And at the same time they're like, "I ain't got no charity for no Mexicans." It's unbelievable.

NP: Right, the level of hate they spew in the name of Jesus is spectacularly inappropriate to what he would have wanted, and they have no concept of the irony.

RP: You just walk around and you're like, am I the only one who gets this? So as opposed to trying to do anything, it's almost like I am recognizing the chaos, and, without any judgment, I'm just going, I understand that chaos. I understand wanting entertainment.

When I went to Iraq I was shocked. The soldiers were like, "Hey, we really appreciate you saying what you want to say about the war. We really appreciate you coming out here and we really appreciate that your friend has been killed out here. Same with us. Let's fucking rock. Let's have a fucking great time and sing that song about that guy fucking killing himself."

And it's kind of like, I guess you're right. 'Cause honestly, if you take a broom and you try and sweep back the ocean, it's impossible. So as well as the confusion and the chaos, there's a certain amount of apathy on this record. At some points in this record I'm literally like, "Oh well, whatever, nevermind" - straight out of Kurt Cobain's mouth. It's literally at that point with me in so many ways, so I am throwing up my hands in the air and going, "You're right! Fuck it! There's nothing that can be done. I'm going to write songs about fucking blowing my head off and giving in to apathy, and who gives a shit. Let's turn up the amps and fucking play loud rock music." There has to be that too.

NP: I completely get that. If I think about things too much I get so angry at the world, and trying to change it is like pissing in the wind, so sometimes you've just got to say "fuck it."

RP: Yeah. I mean, I think what people loved about Filter in the early days, and that's literally what I'm figuring out, is they were like, "Please take yourself seriously but at the same time just try and break it. Just try and destroy it. Have fun destroying it." And I get that. I understand that...Sometimes it's better to just destroy a guitar and fucking trash a stage and fucking break shit and not care so much about something because that's exactly how the audience feels.

When we played in Corpus Christi [see video from Filter's July 25th, 2010 show], we were literally over it and we kind of tore down the stage and threw shit around, and broke cymbals and laughed. It was funny because the audience had never seen anything like that. Nowadays musicians don't have gobs of money. They're like, "That guitar cost five hundred dollars." Most bands, they see it in terms of you have to sell 500 CDs to pay for that guitar - and selling 500 CDs is a fucking hard task these days. Back in the day they'd give us $500,000 checks every couple of months. But we destroyed the stage and we were throwing shit around and the audience was like, I understand that. I'm in my cubicle and in my construction worker job, and we hate the world too.

So I've kind of come full circle. I'm like, "Yeah I've relapsed, and yeah, I fucking don't care, and yeah, I fucking want to blow my head off, and yeah, I fucking hate god. I'm with you. Fuck this world. Fuck this shit." It's come back to that. I'm with you. Fuck reality.

And it's fun to have that again. On "Absentee Father" I play a 32 bar solo and there's not even one approach at trying to play a guitar with any musical rules or whatever. I literally took a screwdriver and fucking started breaking strings. It was the most amazing thing I had done in ten years. It was the most fun I ever had, and it's way up at the beginning of the record. The third song on the record is my avant-garde guitar solo that fucking flips off every guitar hero on the planet because I'm totally just taking a shit on the guitar and handing it to the public like, "What do you think of that?"

I just had so much fun on this record destroying and being crazy and being a nut. And, within the lyrics, relapsing and killing people. That's what rock & roll was all about, and that's what I realized I needed to get back to.

NP: Well that's a basic function of music. It helps people escape from their daily lives.

RP: That's the thing, there's my hidden meaning in the record. If you get it - great. If you don't - I don't care either. Fuck it. Who cares? Let's smash a fucking guitar, and, at the end of the day, let's have that cathartic release that we need.


The Trouble With Angels is available now via Rocket Science Ventures. For more information go to OfficialFilter.com.

Eyes Set to Kill: Are Eyes Set to Kill sisters, Alexia and Anissa Rodriguez still the two hottest girls in metal? That’s what the media was saying about them last year. BlankTV had a fun little chat with them and the rest of the group about being banned from Finland and their plans after Warped Tour. more

Eyes Set to Kill:

Are Eyes Set to Kill sisters, Alexia and Anissa Rodriguez still the two hottest girls in metal? That’s what the media was saying about them last year. BlankTV had a fun little chat with them and the rest of the group about being banned from Finland and their plans after Warped Tour.





We got a pretty good taping of “Liar in a Glass” at the Pomona Warped show too.



The Casualties:

We caught up with The Casualties guitarist Jake Kolatis and talked about the Casualties Encounters documentary, Warped Tour, New Jersey, some Casualties history and assorted nonsense until Jake was forced to take a phone call about the latest in punk rock accessories.



Angel City Outcasts:

Also this week, we got the latest video premiere from L.A. punk/blues/roots rocknrollers Angel City Outcasts with their new clip for “Doghouse Blues” out now on Sailor’s Grave Records.

by Tara Diane So this post is all about making dairy products out of… other dairy products. When I was younger my mom taught my brother and me how to make ice cream in a bag and butter in a jar, so I figured I’d share it with you! I found some great videos on YouTube, much better than I could make... more

by Tara Diane

So this post is all about making dairy products out of… other dairy products. When I was younger my mom taught my brother and me how to make ice cream in a bag and butter in a jar, so I figured I’d share it with you! I found some great videos on YouTube, much better than I could make myself, so I’m just going to direct you to them (plus I’ve been out of town most of the week).

Oh and then I’ll tell you how to make chocolate whipped cream.



Here is a video on how to make butter using simply a jar, whipping cream, and a touch of salt. It turns out delicious and is just plain neat, in my opinion.



Here is a video on how to make ice cream in a bag. It turns out great, definitely doesn’t taste like it was made in a bag in five minutes. I think this would be really fun to make after a date, and a great way to get a girl back to your place, but uh… maybe that’s just me, heh.



Finally, to make chocolate whipped cream, all you need is heavy cream and cocoa powder to taste (and a tablespoon or two of powdered sugar, if you want to sweeten it). You can make whipped cream in a mixer by pouring the ingredients into the mixer and mixing until it’s nice and fluffy. You can also make it in a jar, as per the butter video above. To make it in a jar, pour the ingredients in, seal the lid, and watch until it gets nice and frothy. If it turns into butter, then you’re too late, so watch closely! The whipped cream in the picture below was made in a jar.



I went with the chocolate ice cream recipe. It was super yummy and I’d highly recommend it! If you choose to do chocolate, remember that you have to thoroughly mix it, as cocoa powder doesn’t absorb very well into the milk.



I made up some waffles and spread my butter on them, topped it with some syrup, then finished it off with the chocolate whipped cream. I pretty much popped a boner when I tasted it; seriously amazing. The chocolate whipped cream isn’t sweet on its own, but when it was mixed with the syrup it was just perfection. Mmmmmm.



Have a good week, guys :]

Joëlle Jones made a splash in the comics world when she illustrated “12 Reasons Why I Love Her” for Oni Press in 2006. Besides being the first book for the young artist, it was also her first collaboration with writer Jamie S. Rich, with whom she’s worked on short stories, including a contribution... more

Joëlle Jones made a splash in the comics world when she illustrated “12 Reasons Why I Love Her” for Oni Press in 2006. Besides being the first book for the young artist, it was also her first collaboration with writer Jamie S. Rich, with whom she’s worked on short stories, including a contribution to the prose anthology “Portland Noir” about their neighborhood, the book “Spellcheckers” and their finest collaboration, last year’s noir tale “You Have Killed Me.” She’s also illustrated two issues of “Madame Xanadu” written by Matt Wagner for Vertigo. She collaborated with Zack Whedon on a spin-off of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” drew the very striking cover for the recent roller derby anthology “Jam!” and has contributed to the anthologies Popgun, Sexy Chix, and Noir.

Her new book is “Troublemaker, Book 1” written by Janet and Alex Evanovich. And yes, that’s the same Janet Evanovich who happens to be one of the best selling writers in America. The result is a book that’s a little more cartoony and light-hearted than many of Jones’ other comics, but the style is uniquely hers.

Interviewing Joëlle is always a lot of fun, though we spent less time talking about gambling and drinking than we did in the last interview I did with her, but it was fun anyway. We spoke by e-mail just before and then just after she finished drawing the second “Troublemaker” book which is due out in November.


ALEX DUEBEN: So how did you end up drawing Troublemaker?

JOELLE JONES: I knew Sierra Hahn when we worked on Dr. Horrible together and I guess I must not have been that terrible to work with so she asked me to work with her again on this project.

AD: Were you a Janet Evanovich fan before this?

JJ: To be honest I had never heard of her before, but I realized pretty quick that maybe I was the only one who hadn’t. After Sierra told me about the project I googled her name and found a ton of stuff. Even my dad has read her books.

AD: I know you’re a mystery fan. Is she just not hard boiled enough to be on your radar?
 
JJ: You know I would like to consider myself well read  but sometimes I just keep reading books in the genres I love.  Romance and adventure books were never really something that interested me too much.  This book really challenged me to work in a genre that I am not too familiar with. 

AD: Did you go and read the two Alex Barnaby books to get a feel for things before starting work on the comic?

JJ: I sort of tried to. I can be a bit of an airhead sometimes and when Sierra told me about the project I started in on the Stephanie Plum series and did the character sketches for them.  For some reason I kept getting feedback that the feeling for the characters were all wrong. Eventually I figured out it was the completely wrong book. No big loss though. I just read a couple of extra books I wouldn't have picked up otherwise. 

AD: How complicated was it getting down the main characters and their designs?

JJ: It was a struggle at first, nailing down someone else’s vision that they had spent way more time with was difficult, but hopefully the fans of Evanovich won’t be too disappointed with the portrayal.

AD: How has it been working with inker Andy Owens and colorist Dan Jackson on the book and how do you like the way it turned out? I know you worked with Dan before on the Dr. Horrible one-shot.

JJ: It was wonderful! I was lucky to have a great team of people to create with, Andy’s inks elevated the art so much, and it was so exciting to see everything Dan did. I also have to mention Ben Dewey; He came on the book a little later and did some spectacular backgrounds!

AD: Ben Dewey is the background artist as you mentioned. Why was he brought in and at what stage of the process?

JJ: Ben was brought in about halfway through the book.  This was a really fast paced project and I fell behind.  The script was written rather slim on descriptions and the Evanovichs were not entirely clear on their ideas for the book until after pages were done, so a lot of corrections needed to be made until things were able to go a little smoother.  We eventually made it all come together, but I would probably still be working on it now if Ben was not brought in.   

AD: Did the Miami setting require a lot of reference?

JJ: I actually already had a ton of reference from when I did a book from the Minx line called Token, that also takes place in Miami, and even though I have never been there, I feel like I know Miami pretty well at this point.

AD: Was it odd giving up control of the backgrounds, especially having done so much research on Miami and being familiar with the city?

JJ: I was really strange at first and I started to miss drawing the backgrounds but Ben is so great I think he made my art look really good and I can't imagine doing a better job than him. 

AD: Was the comedy aspect of the book a challenge?

JJ: It kinda was, I have never really done such over the top comedy, and my sense of humor runs pretty dry. Now I am almost finished with the second book and I feel like it is only now that I am getting the hang of it. I feel like it was a good challenge for me though.

AD: The style you used for Troublemaker felt a little more cartoony than how you usually work. Was it a struggle to work in this cartoony style and tone and still make it your own?

JJ: I felt like from the beginning that this was something the Evanovich’s wanted so I tried to accommodate. I don’t know if the book would have worked any other way, sometimes it was a struggle though. I tend to really love angular lines, and deep blacks, and I had to be more aware of my tendencies toward them. I learned a lot, however, and I was still able to give a few touches here and there of myself.

AD: What do you think of the decision to break the book up into pieces, serializing it but not in monthly installments. How satisfying do you think it is? And is it just two parts or are there more?

JJ: I know that some people would disagree with me but I love a good cliffhanger (even though every week when I watch True Blood it infuriates me). There is always such a payoff when the next episode is on, or you are holding the next issue in your hand! As far as any more Troublemaker, I am not sure, as far as I know it is only two parts.

AD: I know you’re finishing the second book now. How has the process changed or been streamlined now that you’ve been working together?

JJ: I am almost done, right now; I am only ten pages away! The process became much smoother this time around, I feel like I know what the Evanovichs are looking for. Mostly it is really nice to look back on all the pages and see a progression and I am looking forward to when the books are out.

AD: So if these do well are you up for another pair of books?

JJ: Probably not, I would like jump into a new project and draw different characters and try something a little darker, maybe a little more masculine. 

AD: You seem to really enjoy jumping from one book and one genre to the next. Is this something you’ve really intentionally sought in your career or did it just work out that way?

JJ: I think maybe a little of both.  I feel like my style is still developing and I would like to get a chance to draw as many things as I possible and learn from the experiences I can get out of them.

AD: Any genres or something you really have an itch to try?

JJ: I think maybe something with a super hero or science fiction, or western or really anything I haven't done yet. 

AD: So what else are you working on? I know you’re working a big project at Vertigo. Are you allowed to say anything?

JJ: I am not sure what I am able to talk about but it is a new genre for me and I am really getting a chance to go a little abstract and flex my creative muscles, I am loving working on it and I hope when it is finished that they joy I am getting out of it will come through in the work. 

AD: Even if you aren’t allowed, why don’t you say something about it?

JJ: I think it might be out next year. That's it, I guess. 

by Carlovely I scour the web so you don’t have to! (video) Your Grandma ain’t got squat on this break dancing granny! Check out the video above to see Grandma Tracy breakdancing at Mad Decent NYC block party, fanny pack and all. It’s safe to say that this 60-something Grandma shows us all that there’s... more

by Carlovely

I scour the web so you don’t have to!



Your Grandma ain’t got squat on this break dancing granny! Check out the video above to see Grandma Tracy breakdancing at Mad Decent NYC block party, fanny pack and all. It’s safe to say that this 60-something Grandma shows us all that there’s more to aging than prunes and crosswords. YOU GO GRANNY! (via: baratunde.com)





Speaking of old ladies dancing, the video above, which I found on caprice crane’s tumblr, features some pretty stellar moves of a lady at a listening kiosk in Wall*Mart.



Hold on to your controllers nerds. DeviantArt user, PluckyLump, has made the wet dreams of Nintendo freaks everywhere come true. Check out this AWESOME pin-up princess peach art. ”I suppose it’s a comment on finding video game characters sexually arousing. Mostly I wanted to draw a sexy lady which I’ve never attempted before.” says PluckyLump. To see more of his work, check out his DeviantArt portfolio here. (via: carlovely.com)



Ever wonder how Will Smith ended up at his Auntie & Uncle in Bel Air? Wonder no more. Check out more song lyrics as google map driving directions here.



Last, but certainly not least, I leave you with a ladybug orgy. (See more ladybug porn here, you sick freak).

Each week I will be bringing you the best of the internet, from new memes to classic videos.

have a hot tip? Send it over to carlovely@gmail.com!

Your last glimpse of Michelle Rodriguez was probably in the third act of Avatar, when, as heroic marine pilot Trudy Chacon, she turned on her colonial military bosses and went down with her ship, fighting for the rights of the native Na’vi cat people. It was a typically badass finish for an actress... more

Your last glimpse of Michelle Rodriguez was probably in the third act of Avatar, when, as heroic marine pilot Trudy Chacon, she turned on her colonial military bosses and went down with her ship, fighting for the rights of the native Na’vi cat people. It was a typically badass finish for an actress who has garnered a reputation for both kicking much on-screen ass and almost always biting it in the end. (See her roles in Resident Evil, Fast & Furious, and BloodRayne for other examples of this now familiar formula). Whether or not the formula will be repeated in her latest film, the hard-R Mexploitation film Machete, remains to be seen. Co-directed by filmmaking tornado Robert Rodriguez and his long-time editor Ethan Maniquis, Machete is the long-delayed feature about a Mexican assassin posing as a day laborer (Danny Trejo) that was promised in one of the four “fake trailers” in 2007’s cult hit Grindhouse. Ms. Rodriguez recently called up SuicideGirls to talk about strapping on the big guns once again and the off-screen passions that drive her.




Ryan Stewart: I hope there’s a moment in this film where you get to pull up that eye patch and gross us out.

Michelle Rodriguez: [laughs] Ah, you didn’t see it yet, did you? Well, no, I’m sorry to have to disappoint you!

RS: From what I’ve seen, the whole outfit is a little sexier than you usually go for. Was that your idea?

MR: Yeah, me and Nina, in the costume department, basically hooked up and came up with the concept of a bra ...[laughs]…she took my La Perla bra, which does the boobies some justice, and put some leather over it, and then I grabbed some Genetic jeans that fit me like a glove, and I grabbed these Prada boots that I have that are like superhero boots that they don’t make anymore – I’ve tried to get them to, but they won’t – and then we went over to the props department and started gearing it up. We were hooking up straps, and the next thing you know… I’m a cowgirl, man. All I need is my steed. You know when you’re working with Robert that you’re not gonna be in one of his movies and not be hot. It’s just not gonna happen. He wouldn’t hire you, I don’t think. Unless your whole purpose was to be a mutant! Then you might still get a gig with him.

RS: Been there, done that, in Resident Evil, right?

MR: Yeah, that was a minute ago!

RS: What kind of weapons do you heft in this one? Are we talking major firepower?

MR: Dude...there’s this makeshift weapon that they created, I think it’s like an M4. It’s an AR-M4. That sucker is huge, and it was a makeshift thing by the props and weapons department. Those guys are so cool! And it’s uber-heavy. I’ve got, like, marks on my shoulder from just holding it for like a half-hour to take photos.

RS: Did they train you on that?

MR: No, but I decided to go shooting on my own, like a dumbass, and I thought I was all cocky shooting this shotgun, and you know what? I’ve had this cracking noise in my shoulder ever since. That was a bad idea.

RS: Ouch. But you grew up in Texas, right? They probably send you guns in the mail.

MR: Oh yeah, honey. I’ve got that whole thing down pat. All the gun and NRA stuff is within me, for sure. I am definitely a believer in the right to carry.

RS: Do you pack?

MR: No, I don’t, but I do believe in it. I have at home. And I’m not allowed to carry -- you have to be either a cop or a marshal or something, to have the right to carry a weapon around. But I ain’t worried, honey. Nobody wants to hurt me. I haven’t done anything to anybody. I’m chill.

RS: I interviewed Ethan Hawke once and we talked about how actors are good marksmen because they spend so much time shooting guns. Does that apply to you?

MR: Again I have to disappoint you! [laughs] It’s not true for me, I’m a horrible shot.

RS: So, how much of this film did Robert actually direct? Was it like a 50/50 split with Ethan Maniquis?

MR: Well, the thing is that I wasn’t there long enough to make that determination. I know that he directed me in most of my scenes, but Ethan had a lot to do with the job as well. He was there and he was planning everything along with Robert – it was really a collaboration between the two of them.

RS: It must have been wild to go from the biggest production of all time to this little do-it-yourself Troublemaker Studios movie.

MR: But that’s the whole thing – working with Robert is never a little thing, and you always consider it a blessing. He is so much fun, first of all. He may not make the hugest movies on the planet, but boy, does he make some interesting stuff, and it’s like, you will watch it. There are scenes in his movies that you will never forget as long as you live. I mean, Desperado? Come on. From Dusk Till Dawn? Dude, come on. I could go on forever. Sin City? That was the first time I had ever seen that texture, that kind of art, on screen before. That kind of comic book-esque thing was so awesome, so classic, that it was almost surreal. Robert always makes things look really amazing and unforgettable, really. If you want to be immortalized, you should go work with him. It’s a guarantee that there will be scenes in his movies that people never forget, and along with the scenes are the actors in them. So, it’s a privilege. I can almost promise you that there are at least three scenes in this film that you will never forget as long as you walk this planet, if only because of the shock factor and the way things are shot. You’ll be amazed by how all of these very familiar elements are used, the context that they are used in. It’s pop culture-esque, but it’s done in an exploitative fashion, so you’re like ‘Is this pop culture, is this pulp culture, what is this culture?’ [laughs] You know what I mean? You can’t really tag it, but it’s definitely shock value-enhanced.

RS: Once Robert hires you, does he pretty much leave you alone, or is he giving you notes, saying ‘Let’s try it this way, or that way…’

MR: It’s definitely collaborative, I’d say it’s about 65 to….whatever is left. [laugh] I suck at math. What is left, like 45?

RS: Something like that.

MR: Right, anyway, what I mean is that he is collaborative and one thing that’s for certain is that when you walk onto his set you know that this man knows what he wants and is very sure of what he wants before you even come on board. That’s what I find amazing, and then he gives you that extra 45 percent at the end to kind of be open to other options, which is great. But at the end of the day a director without a vision isn’t a director, to me, so I just love the fact that he knows what he wants, because it makes everything work so fast and smooth. You’re in and you’re out, and the next thing you know you’re sitting in the movie theater and going ‘Whoa!’

RS: You don’t do a ton of movies, in general. Battle: Los Angeles is the only upcoming credit on your IMDB page. Are you just very choosy?

MR: Yeah, honey, I’m really picky. I didn’t really get into the business to be an actress, I got into the business to be a writer, and because of that I feel like when I act it should be something that’s pleasing to me. It shouldn’t be a labor. Some people become actors because they love the chameleon aspect to it, they love interchanging and taking on different lives, and I can understand that appeal, but personally, for me, I would prefer to play characters that I would respect and that I would admire, as opposed to playing any character just because it’s, like, an interpretation of life. Should I be open to that? No, because I’m not! [laugh] I honestly just want to kick ass and take names.

RS: So if someone was about to send you Sleepless in Seattle: Part 2, don’t bother?

MR: Not unless it is incredibly funny! I do like comedy, I’ll flip my script for a comedy, as long as it’s really, really funny. I just wanna play, you know? I like to play, I like things to be light-hearted. Don’t send me a script that compromises me in any way, because I won’t have fun doing it. Why do you need to compromise me as a woman, or as an integrity-carrying individual? I just can’t drop that for anybody, especially to millions of people around the world – what am I saying to them? What is the point? What message is behind it? ‘I understand your pain?’ Great. Big whoopty-doo, you know? I don’t want to understand anybody’s pain. I just want to share joy and revel in victory.

RS: Did Machete become a less lighthearted thing for you when it got tied into the whole immigration debate?

MR: Well, it is called Troublemaker Studios, so you know for sure that there’s going to be some trouble.

RS: What did you think of Robert putting that Special Message to Arizona trailer out on Cinco de Mayo?

MR: I thought it was funny, and I thought it was neutral. At the end of the day, it’s just a voice. And it’s not just one side talking to the other side, both sides are represented in the film, so I think it’s fine. At the end of the day, it’s like, are you going to beat up the guys who make South Park? Are you going to beat up the creators of The Simpsons? Are you going to beat up the guys from SNLor Family Guy? They all make fun of current events and news and sometimes they’re incredibly controversial in their content, but nobody ever really attacks them hard core, and why? Because you can get away with that stuff when it comes to comedy -- that’s the venue to do it in. The minute you start to take things seriously people will come after you with hatchets. They’ll try to destroy your career and stuff, but this isn’t that kind of situation. It’s just lighthearted and fun.

RS: Can you write your own funny stuff? Is that your passion?

MR: No, no. For that I have to partner with people, for sure. But I’m all about networking and finding the people who are all about tomorrow, the youth, mostly. I’m slowly starting to learn about what’s going on out there within the community. I want to make connections with the young people and try to understand what’s going on. The social networking systems like Twitter help me out a lot, and my website helps me out a lot, and slowly but surely I’m going to start doing webcams. I really want to just feel what people want, and then from there I’ll assess what I can provide. But I really am all about the youth, I want to see what’s on their minds, and then I want to take the ideas that I’ve had since I was fifteen years old and start collaborating.

RS: I heard you’re off to Antarctica soon. That’s crazy.

MR: I know! Isn’t it insane? But you know what? I’ve had this script idea in my mind since I was a little girl, since I was about fifteen, and it’s about these little kids who undergo this crazy adventure. It’s kind of like The Goonies meets Jumanji. It’s this amazing story about these little kids who are kind of eco-warriors. The Avatar green event used the term eco-warriors, so I’ve taken that name, and I really need to learn about that world. So far, all I’ve done is appreciate activism from the outside, I haven’t really gone in on a nitty-gritty level and found out what the troubles are and what the real issues are in the world with animals, and with the planet. It all kind of started with Battle in Seattle, when I got to meet a bunch of activists and learn from them first hand: guys from Green Peace, Global Green guys, all of these sort of different experts, and I slowly started to grow fond of them. My heart goes out to them now, but I also realize that there is something blocking them from success, so what is it? Is it conscious capitalism? Do they need to adapt to the environment that we live in today? What is the issue? So, I’m going to go out there, to Antarctica, on the ship, and help save some whales, and learn from a man who helped start Green Peace, Paul Watson, because I admire him. I think if there’s anyone who can be a teacher it’s this guy who’s been around since the freakin’ 60s. He’s been hooting, hollering, and fighting about this same subject for the last forty fucking years. I’m so excited about it. I don’t even care about the cold weather or anything.

RS: Jim Cameron has totally rubbed off on you.

MR: Oh yeah. Jim walks around with his heart out. He’s just that kind of guy. He could inspire anybody.

RS: We never technically saw you die in Avatar, by the way. I have a hunch your character did a last-second bailout.

MR: Dude, could you please tell him that? I would love to come back aboard.





Machete opens in theaters everywhere on September 3rd.

by Nahp Suicide Have you ever wondered why you feel attracted to some things, products or people? There is a famous quote by Leonardo da Vinci: “Nothing fools us more than our own judgement”. Can this be true? Let’s see… If McDonald’s were to ask customers what they prefer to eat, maybe they’ll... more

by Nahp Suicide

Have you ever wondered why you feel attracted to some things, products or people? There is a famous quote by Leonardo da Vinci: “Nothing fools us more than our own judgement”. Can this be true? Let’s see…



If McDonald’s were to ask customers what they prefer to eat, maybe they’ll say salad or healthy food; that was what this fast food restaurant did here in Colombia, and after those kind of answers they introduced a new line of healthy and delicious salads. Meanwhile Burger King makes a new Whopper with extra cheese and extra bacon and guess what… McDonalds decreased its sales 30% after asking customers directly and Burger King doubled its sales… proving people really don’t know what they want, and is proven by studies that most of our decisions are taken not by reason but by two parts of our brains (emotional and “animal” sides).

The human Brain is divided in 3 parts:

• 1. it’s named “Cortex Brain”, it refers to the functional, logical and analytical and it is what makes you give answers as an example of the salad.


• 2. it’s named “Limbic Brain”, and some people says this is the women’s brain because it refers to the emotional and sensations. When you take decisions based on your heart, you are really using this part of your brain.


• 3. “Reptilian Brain”, Man’s brain and it refers to survival, reproduction, domination, defend and protect, that’s why we believe guys are thinking about sex all the time, they are just using this part of his brain!… did you remember Zinedine Zidane and the last game on the final World’s Cup before his retire?? he just gave a headbutt to Materazzi, because he said some very harsh words against his family and at that moment Zidane used his “Reptilian Brain” protecting his family, maybe if he had used his “Cortex Brain” using the reason and thinking about final game, he shouldn’t have done.

All our decisions are based on symbol codes and we use some parts of the brain depending on the situation, so next time you see ads think about it, because brands are taking advantage of your subconscious to reach those parts of your brain that make you choose and buy them!!

by Jay Hathaway If you had told me in the early 2000s — when I was still in high school and saving my summer job money to buy new CDs — that indie bands would one day pay fans to listen to their music, I would have thought you were crazy. Bands make music, and we spend our hard-earned scratch to listen... more

by Jay Hathaway

If you had told me in the early 2000s — when I was still in high school and saving my summer job money to buy new CDs — that indie bands would one day pay fans to listen to their music, I would have thought you were crazy. Bands make music, and we spend our hard-earned scratch to listen to it, not the other way around … right?

Well, it’s 2010, and artists are so desperate to squeeze their product through the ear buds of trendy scene influencers that they’re actually paying the cool kids to check out their new tracks. A UK pop duo called The Reclusive Barclay Brothers has put their first single “We Could Be Lonely Together” on iTunes, and downloading it enters you to win £27. That’s like 40 bucks (or two and a half CDs, if you’re a high school-er in the year 2000).

[Sinthia Suicide in Strummer]

So, for around $4,000 — there are 100 winners — The Reclusive Barclay Brothers have bought a considerable number of listens, and a good chance to get signed by a label. Will their gamble pay off? I guess that depends on whether the kids who want an opportunity to win some quick cash actually like the song. If the band sells 3,500 downloads, they’ll break even and still wind up with a bunch of free press coverage. This just goes to show that it doesn’t take a major label, or any label at all, to sell out.

In just a few short years, bands have gone from charging for music, to giving it away for free, to paying people to listen. Anybody who’s been paying attention knows that music industry is in bad shape. It’s a big, slow machine that has almost fully rusted. But this stunt shows that music itself might be in dire straits, too. It’s a sad state of affairs if we’ve become so indifferent to new songs that we won’t check them out unless there’s a prize inside.

So, is this is the new artist model, or is it (as the Barclays self-deprecatingly claim) a new low for music? I think that once the novelty of a stunt like this wears off, it’ll come down to whether the music is any good. For now, though, the fact that I’m writing this column proves that The Reclusive Barclay Brothers have already won.



… and hey, the song’s actually pretty catchy.

April 11, 1983 was the definitive day in Dave Mustaine's professional life. As lead guitarist and contributing songwriter for an up-and-coming thrash metal band called Metallica, he had been living out his dream of making a living at playing metal for over a year and a half. Like many at the time,... more

April 11, 1983 was the definitive day in Dave Mustaine's professional life. As lead guitarist and contributing songwriter for an up-and-coming thrash metal band called Metallica, he had been living out his dream of making a living at playing metal for over a year and a half. Like many at the time, he was also beginning to sense that his band was something truly special, a ferociously talented foursome that had the potential to go where no metal band had gone before. A musical virtuoso with unlimited ambition, Mustaine's eyes were fixed on the future, but he was badly neglecting the present. A problem with drinking and drugs, owed in part to a rootless childhood, had plagued him for years, and as success drew closer his reckless behavior increased and lines were crossed. No one knows what the final straw really was, but on the morning of April 11, while Metallica was in N.Y.C. on business, Mustaine was awoken by singer James Hetfield and unceremoniously handed a Greyhound ticket home to L.A. He was out of Metallica, without so much as a warning.

He spent the next four days in hell, traveling from N.Y.C. to L.A. by bus without a dollar to his name, bumming bags of chips off of seatmates and wondering how his dreams had vanished into smoke. Despair and heartbreak couldn't stifle his talent, though. Reading a handbill about nuclear war he picked up in a Greyhound station, he noticed a catchy phrase: "The arsenal of megadeath…” He began scribbling lyrics on the back of a muffin wrapper, and by the time he was deposited in L.A., he had a new mission: to rise from the ashes and form the fastest, most savage metal band of all time. Twenty-seven years later, Megadeth has earned its reputation as a pioneering metal band, one with landmark platinum records like Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction, and Youthanasia and one that can (and frequently has) shared a bill with those other metal godfathers, Metallica. SuicideGirls recently called up Mustaine to discuss his new autobiography Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir, and discovered that age, success, and a newfound devotion to Christianity haven't mellowed him in the slightest.



Ryan Stewart: I like your hotel's answering machine. It told me to have an inspired day.

Dave Mustaine: An inspired day? It should say to have an infused morning!

RS: I thought maybe we could start with something fun, instead of the dark stuff. Can you talk a little about Megadeth groupies, back in the day? What they were like in terms of quality and supply?

DM: Well, I'm not really sure that I want to go too deep into that question. We all had relationships with people when Megadeth started. You can't really speak for what's in the audience, and as far as what was backstage, I didn't really keep track of what was going on with the other guys. I had a girlfriend named Diana for a long time and I've been married to Pam for twenty years. I'm sure that there was a lot to choose from, but my whole thing was really playing music and being loud and obnoxious and I wasn't really the big romantic type.

RS: There's a passage in the book, though, where you talk about how bandmates can sometimes bond through the sharing of groupies.

DM: That was way, way back when Nick (Menza) was in the band. That was back when we were all single. That particular story that you're referring to was at a time period when we were the Rust in Peace lineup and we were all single still.

RS: It's hard for me to even keep track of the lineup, so many changes over the years. Do you feel like you've missed out on anything by not keeping a consistent lineup, even if it's just the camaraderie of long-time collaborators?

DM: Nope. Go ask any athlete if they liked having somebody who didn't give 100 percent to the game on their team. If they have a different vision than you, then they obviously can't give 100 percent because their vision is going to be looking elsewhere. And I'm not saying anything about the band members that have been with us in the past; if they've had a change in their vision where they don't want to go where we want to go, then obviously we're going in two different directions and it's not going to work. It's my band, I'm the leader, and that's what this whole thing is based off of. It wasn't based on "Let's all get together and see what the common thread is that we all have.” It was something I wanted to do and these guys joined me. And I've been really fortunate to have some really talented people playing with us. And when Marty [Friedman] got in the band he wanted us to become a pop band and we turned ourselves inside out to make that little dude happy, but in the long run, even after Cryptic Writings, even after Risk, as melodic as Risk was, he wanted it to still be more alternative. And I said "I can't do this.” It's not inside of me, Ryan, to write a record that's more melodic than Risk. That one was as deep-reaching as I could go. Believe it or not, it's easier to write songs that are less melodic than songs that are more melodic. When you're writing something that's melodic, you've got to have something that resonates with a lot of people and it's a lot harder to find that simpler melody that's gonna make people say "Oh yeah, I like that melody.” So, there were people in the past that would have different visions, and we just went different ways. It doesn't mean we don't care about each other. Some of us are still friends, some of us ain't. That's the way the cookie crumbles.

RS: Do you feel like, particularly in recent years, you've sort of let new bandmates know up front that it's your thing and they need to be on board with that?

DM: (long pause) Hmmm…I hope I can get you to recalibrate, because it's really not about me pushing people around. I want to help you have a good interview, and the thing with me telling people whose band it is and stuff like that…that's all unnecessary when you have people who you treat with dignity and respect. Everybody knows who the quarterback is, and I'm not like that. Unfortunately, a lot of people have this perception of who I am that's the same as who I think you think you're talking to. But that's not how I do business. The point about the musical direction is that if you're going in two different directions, you're gonna rip in the middle. We've tried to the best of our ability to accommodate everybody. The biggest culprit out of everything has been me needing to say no when I should've, and I didn't. We even had the record company telling us "Change your logo, cut your hair, wear flannel, and grow facial hair.” And we're like "Whaaaat?” You wouldn't really know all those things unless you were there, and if I say, "Hey, Ryan, this is what was going on” you might say "Well, you were Megadeth, so why couldn't you say anything?” and it's because we couldn't. It doesn't matter. Even if you are Megadeth, they don't give a shit. You'd have to be Guns n' Roses! (laughs)

RS: Has it ever threatened to become more business than pleasure?

DM: Yeah, that's why I did the MD.45 project, because it was becoming all about songwriting and percentages and publishing. If you saw in the beginning how we did songwriting splits, you wrote the music or you wrote the lyrics. If you co-wrote the music you would get 25 percent and the other guy would get 25 percent and then whoever wrote the lyrics would get the other 50 percent. And then melody came into play, and it started getting divided from quarters into eights and sixteenths, and it was like, ugh, God. Yeah, it lost its fun. And that's when we parted ways with everybody and I just figured that I would go solo, but then EMI told me "We love the fact that you're going to go solo, but until you give us this last Megadeth record we own you.” So, the record that was called The System Has Failed was actually supposed to have been my first solo record, and during the middle of the record I found out I couldn't release it as a solo record, so I went "Okay, it's a Megadeth record.” And I called up the guys and asked if they wanted to get back together and play and it didn't work out. Of course, Nick (Menza) came and tried out with us, but he made a pretty bad mistake. We had Shawn Drover on the phone because we had called him up as a drum tech for Nick – this is a funny story – and Glen, Shawn's little brother was playing guitar for us, and Nick doesn't think about what he's saying. So, Shawn's on the phone and we say "Hey, Shawn, we want to talk to you about being a drum tech” and remember that Nick got Chuck Behler's position by being the drum tech and Chuck got Gar Samuelson's position by being a drum tech, and Shawn was gonna be Nick's drum tech! And he ended up getting Nick's gig, and here's how: He goes "I want to fucking know your name!” I'm sorry for swearing. But anyway, I was like "Oh my God, are you kidding me?" And I looked at Glen and Glen took me outside and he goes "I can't play with this guy” and I said "I know, I've already fired him once before myself.”

RS: It seems like you run a tight, no-nonsense ship all around, business-wise. The band's official website is very sophisticated. In the book you talk about understanding the power of the Internet early on, and getting a presence on there.

DM: We tried to, we wanted to make sure the fans had a fun place to come to. A lot of our fans were younger and we wanted them to go to a place where they would have a sense of community. That's one of the things that was really great about the heavy metal business in the beginning: you would go somewhere and meet up and everybody would hang out together and there was a sense of community. And I really like the way the Internet has been able to transcend the state lines, you know? You can hang with people from different cities. I don't know how old you are, but when I started we were still using cassettes and shit like that, and when you wanted to talk to people it was by mail or telephone, certainly not by email.

RS: I'm 32, and my few-years-older brother and uncle were big Megadeth fans back in the day, as well as just angry young kids. Do you still connect to kids like that, who are in trouble, or just angry at their parents and/or the world?

DM: Yeah, I can say that I totally identify with them. It's like that Steve Martin movie from a long time ago where he was a pastor and he says: "Who better to talk to someone struggling with pornography, addiction, prostitutes,”…whatever it was that he was naming off. The point is I've been down all of those roads and I know the ups and downs of every one of those things. It's easier for me to go up to someone who is struggling and say "Dude, look, I know” as opposed to saying "Well, I've never done that myself, but…” It's like explaining an orgasm to a virgin. You can't tell someone who has never gotten loaded what it's like to stay sober. Unless you've been strung out and you've experienced how hard it is to stay sober, you won't know. It's the same thing with any kind of disease or any kind of addiction problems.

RS: Did your drug use develop out of a genuine need to self-medicate, or was it partially borne out of a desire to live up to a metal image?

DM: Well, I didn't have a lot of emotional pain in the beginning – what I felt was a lot of emotional relief. There was a lot of feeling like an outsider and just feeling like you didn't quite fit in. I went to a school in Huntington Beach called Green High School and there were two ways in and out of the high school – there were two bridges that went around this water aqueduct around the school, which we called the moat – and there was a third way to get into the school, but you couldn't take a car across, it was just a walkway that we called the bridge, and that was where all the stoners went. And I could go up to that bridge and fit in, no matter what I was wearing or what I looked like. It was just the way of life there, and I remember thinking: ‘Wow, this is so pressure-free.' With my mom and dad's divorce struggles and us moving so much, it was always another school, another school, another school, you know? I had to figure out a quick way to meet people and get past that initial barrier, or else I was going to spend the rest of my life being a loner and I didn't want to do that. So, I learned some fast and hard rules of how to meet people.

RS: Michael Jackson's parents were also Jehovah's Witnesses, like yours, and he sort of escaped into music. Did you ever feel a kinship with him because of that?

DM: [laughs] You fucker. Oh my God. No! I guess I can tell you this much: when I found out that they were practicing Jehovah's Witnesses I felt the same thing that I felt when I heard that Prince was, which was just sadness, kind of, knowing what I went through. But to each his own, you know? If you're cool having a little kid who goes out and knocks on doors and taking them away from sleeping in and watching cartoons to try to push magazines, then more power to you. I hated it. Unless your kid really has, like, a calling to do that…I mean, I know that we're supposed to bring up our own children and stuff like that, but you have to think about the serial killer in all of us, you know what I mean? [laughs] And going back to what you said earlier about being able to identify with angry people, if you go up to anybody and piss them off enough, they are going to retaliate. That's just human nature: it's all about ‘What is your breaking point?' And I've been able to galvanize myself to a degree, from what I was before. A lot of people got off on me going crazy on people. It's like that poor bastard Riki Rachtman -- in a weird way I think even he liked it when I used to make fun of him. And it wasn't that I liked making fun of people, it was just kind of a shtick, you know? But the problem is that I wasn't a comedian, I was a musician, and it came off as very believable. I didn't have any ill will towards that guy, I barely even know him.

RS: Did you ever lose anything important that you attribute to drugs?

DM: Yes, a lot of things. My job in Metallica. I also died once. I've had a lot of friends that I've lost. And there's a lot of credibility that you lose in the face of doing that. I also lost a lot of respect with my son. I remember one day when that Behind the Music thing came out – you don't really think about this when you're doing it, but when that Behind the Music came out some kids cornered my son on the bus and started saying "Your dad's a crackhead, your dad's a crackhead!” And I was like "Yeah, and I'm gonna crack your dad's head!” You know? [laughs] And I hadn't thought about that, but it made me start to really reflect on my behavior and how it was affecting my son. I don't think that a lot of parents' behavior really out-and-out affects their kids, unless they're celebrities. My son said something to me one time, Ryan, about having to live up to me, and I was like ‘Oh, Justis, son, you don't ever have to live up to me, please don't think that.'

RS: Do you feel like Megadeth fans have been generally supportive of not only your sobriety, but also your newfound faith?

DM: Yeah. There are some people that don't like it, but they are the ones who haven't kept an open mind to things. I play better than I did before I became a Christian. I think our music is just as pertinent and relevant, and we just got done recording Rust in Peace live. I mean, hello? For anybody who thought we couldn't do it, we just did it. And I did like being unpredictable and all of that, but I think that if anybody needed to have a life-changing experience like that, it was me. I mean, do you know what you get when you sober up a drunk fucking horse thief?

RS: A horse thief?

DM: You've got a horse thief. And I was just sitting there thinking ‘Now what?' And fortunately for me I still had my guitar, I still had my sense of humor, and I still had a pretty incredible work ethic that I wasn't going to give up, and I think that's probably what's kept us successful to the degree that we've been successful. I want the absolute best for myself, for my family, and for our fans.

RS: Has your faith realigned any of the political views you used to espouse? Do you still rock the vote? Do you still worry about war and peace?

DM: Yeah, to a degree. There has been some moving of the goalposts and stuff that you change your opinion on as you grow a little bit older. As far as me being a Democrat or a Republican, I've never been either. I've always been somebody who is in the middle. I vote for the lesser of two evils, basically. And when I did the Rock the Vote thing for MTV, I went there to represent the youth of America. I didn't go there representing Democrats, I went there to ask questions. We unfortunately don't have a lot of people who can be spokespeople for us and go and ask those hard questions and talk with these people. I mean, you'd go up and talk with some of these people and their skill is in speaking -- you'd ask them a question and they'd answer you and you wouldn't have the faintest idea what they just said.

RS: When you go out on the road these days, do you try to surround yourself with like-minded people?

DM: Well, I don't care what people do on their own. One of the work policies we have with our staff is that you can do what you want after the show, that's your business, though of course we don't tolerate any hard drug use. We have our band meetings and our band dinners and stuff like that and there is no chocolate milk being served, you know? If someone wants to drink, that's fine. We're not the sobriety police, and looking at our fan base, you know, young people like to throw back a cold one in the summertime. I used to be an alcoholic, and when I got saved I was totally set free from that whole thing. I can have a couple of glasses of wine now, but I can't handle hard liquor. I just stopped. It was a thing for me where every single day I drank Vodka or Cognac like it was going out of style. Now, the only time I drink is before I perform; I'll have a glass of wine before I go on stage, and maybe one while I'm on stage, and that's it. It's really weird to think ‘Oh my God, I've been completely set free from this incredible bondage of drinking like this.' You know, when all you can think about is drinking, that just sucks.

RS: Is there still temptation?

DM: There's still temptation, but I know what it looks like now. It's sort of like, whose fault is it if you walk between a dog and a fire hydrant?

RS: You recently did those "Big Four” shows with Metallica. Did that meet your expectations, sharing a stage and jamming with them?

DM: Well, we only did it that one day, where we jammed with them. But to be on the same venue and the same lineup and to play like that, I thought it was really rewarding on a lot of different fronts. For once, so many people there were really cognizant of the whole scene and how it started and who the players were and what their roles were. And that was great, to be able to go back in time and tell the whole story of how the West was won, basically. And it was a great feeling. I'd love to do it again. I don't know that it's in the cards, but I'm certainly open to it.

RS: What was the extent of your interaction with Lars and James? Did you share a meal?

DM: We did. That was the first night of the tour. All the bands got together and had dinner, and it was fine. And just about every night that we played, Lars would come over and visit or James would come visit, or the guys in my band would go over and visit those guys. So, yeah, we did a lot of hanging out and it was really cool.

RS: Don't take this as a combative question, like before, but in the book you sort of end on a very detailed explanation for why you declined to attend Metallica's Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Basically, you feel that your contribution was enough to be inducted with them. Did that event sort of reopen the wound?

DM: [long pause] That pregnant pause probably worried you, didn't it?

RS: Yes.

DM: I was just kidding. I think that if you really look at things for what they are, and what my role was in that band….I know what it was. And I think that the way it went down was exactly how it was supposed to take place, in order for me to go through this…season…and just handle myself in as respectful a way as possible. It didn't feel great. I wanted to be there. I couldn't, under those circumstances. And also we were really busy at the time. And I told those guys how I felt – I was proud of them. And I think that's all that really needs to be said about that.

RS: Do you think Megadeth's time will come?

DM: I would expect that it's probably going to happen, I hope so, but then again there have been things that I expected in this business that I haven't gotten. And there's been a lot of stuff that I never expected, that I have.

RS: Would you be cool with having everyone who's played with Megadeth up there?

DM: Well, unfortunately one of them is deceased so that couldn't happen. And that's a question left up to the other guys. I have nothing against them. There's been a lot of stuff that's been resolved over the years and there's been a lot of growth on a lot of people's parts, but I can't be responsible for the resentment that other people still have. I've obviously been a part of it, but if you clean up your side of the street and someone else is still sitting in their debris, you can't really do anything about that. But yeah, I think it would be fun and fine, but I don't know that there would be a lovey-dovey feeling for everybody. I certainly know that other guys in the band, Chris [Broderick] and Junior [David Ellefson] and Shawn, would love to see a lot of those guys. And I get the feeling there would be a couple of people there who would be rotten apples, but that would be okay by me because I'm willing to forgive and forget. God knows I'm not without fault for some of the stuff that happened.

RS: The Hall of Fame is pretty lenient about letting in blues artists and other distant branches of rock; do you think they'll be equally lenient in recognizing metal in years to come?

DM: I don't really know enough about the organization. I know that when it comes to metal none of the organizations in our fine country could be quite as inept as the Grammys, which gave Jethro Tull a metal award. As long as that is in the annals of history, I think the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is pretty safe to do whatever they want.

RS: The book doesn't really dwell on the competing strands of rock that were sprouting up in the early 90s. Grunge is barely touched on, for example, even though it ultimately eclipsed metal in the popular culture.

DM: It certainly did, that's an accurate statement, but there were a lot of things that eclipsed metal! One of the cyclical things about the music business is that it's all about what it is now. There are people who want the flavor of the month and will go whichever way the wind blows, and then there's the loyal fanbase, which is usually about one tenth of whatever someone's biggest record sales are ever going to be. Unfortunately for us, with the advent of P2P file transferring and stuff like that and our fanbase being so computer savvy, we – myself included – do a lot of interacting on the net and trading stuff back and forth, and in some circumstances when left in the wrong hands it's been used against us, which has been unfortunate. We've figured out how to survive and continue playing music and travel and do our live performances, but sadly that's the last bastion of hope for bands, because once a fan gets their music and puts it online, the only other chance they have to survive is off of live performances and t-shirts.

RS: Your life story would be good grist for a movie, don't you think?

DM: I don't really think like that, because I know where all the bodies are buried, Ryan. [laughs] You know, I look in the mirror and I still think ‘God, Dave, you're not living up to your potential. You could do so much better, you could help people out so much more and you're just…not living up to your potential!' I guess that's just the perfectionist in me. And there are times when I'm standing out on stage and I'll think for one split second that I'm okay and I'll crack a smile. The little boy in me will surface and he'll say that this is pretty damn cool. And I know this isn't possible, but if there was a chance that you could stand right next to me during one of those moments it would pretty damn cool for you too, because there's nothing quite the same as the feeling of having people losing their minds and screaming bloody murder for you. And there are a lot of opportunities to be able to do good things for people now, and that's what I want to do with all of this new interest and popularity. I want to take the opportunity, right now, to do something for the younger bands that didn't have a Dave type of guy who was hanging around and wanting to help people. I don't know what that's going to be, but I have a studio out in San Diego, where I live, and we're talking about putting a school in there for helping underprivileged kids, and so on and so forth. The sky is still the limit for me.





Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir is available in bookstores everywhere.