Bareilles, a UCLA alumna, spoke with the Daily Bruin’s Marjorie Yan about her time as an undergraduate, her musical writing process and what it’s like being a judge on “The Sing-Off.”

Daily Bruin: What was your music life like on campus as a student?

Sara Bareilles: I was in Awaken A Capella and we did Spring Sing, but I also did (Spring Sing) independently. I think I auditioned for Spring Sing (during my freshman year) and I didn’t get in so I was part of Company, which is the group who does the skits in between the shows. I think that was about the majority of my singing on campus. I didn’t have any instruments with me or anything, but I remember that I would sneak into the music rooms in Schoenberg, and I would play for hours.

DB: How would you say your life has changed since you’ve gained fame?

SB: The journey has been slowly unfolding. I never felt like there was an overnight change in my life. … I’m very proud that the fundamentals of my life haven’t changed. My friends are the same, they treat me the same and my family is the same. My job is amazing and I’m very blessed and … I’ve put in my time. My life has changed and it’s grown into something I’m really inspired by and I’m hoping it will continue to do so.

DB: What is your musical writing process like?

SB: Usually I’m alone, and I like writing at my house. I live in (Los Angeles). I’m usually by myself and I write on piano for a majority of my songs. The music comes first and the lyrics come second. Every song comes from different places from an autobiographical standpoint. I put my life stories into these songs.

DB: You said your song “Uncharted” holds a special place in your heart. Why is that?

SB: “Uncharted” for me was sort of the song that got me through my writer’s block as I was getting ready for my second record. For quite some time, I just had a hard time finishing ideas and I was really worried about putting together something I’d be proud of. (“Uncharted”) was the song that broke the barrier and everything kind of opened up after that song was written.

DB: Are you putting out a new album anytime soon?

SB: I’m currently working on a new EP with Ben Folds.

DB: Ben Folds is also a judge on “The Sing-Off” with you. What is working with him like?

SB: It’s great. He’s been one of my music heroes for as long as I can remember. It’s amazing to kind of get to know somebody in that capacity and he’s super, super smart and really has this totally different way of approaching recording and just being part of the industry. He’s really punk rock and he’s really inspiring to me in that way.

DB: How did you become a judge on “The Sing-Off”? So far, what’s it like?

SB: They approached my management company and they asked if I was available or interested in being a judge and I just said, “Yes. Of course.” So far it’s been great. I mean TV is a very different medium for me.

I’m used to live performance so it’s tricky to feel like everything you do is permanent on camera but it’s been awesome. I’ve learned so much from doing a show and it’s opened up a lot of doors for me. It’s really expanded my experience.

DB: Who would you say are some of your musical inspirations?

SB: I have a lot of different people. Growing up I listened to a lot of Billy Joel and Elton John.

Ben Folds is a big person for me, Fiona Apple, all of these are piano players. Then, I got into Radiohead, Bob Marley, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell. They’re all over the place.

DB: What is your favorite part about being a judge?

SB: Just being able to see these awesome performances. These people are so good. My jaw is on the floor half the time and I’m amazed at what they always have to bring.

DB: Tell me a little about your headlining show in December.

SB: Yeah, that’s at the Hollywood Palladium on Dec. 9 and we will have (Joshua) Radin on. It will be one of the final … shows we play for the “Kaleidoscope Heart” album. It’s going to be bittersweet, because we’ll be hanging up our instruments for awhile.

DB: What’s one thing you’d say you miss most about being a student at UCLA?

SB: (There are) so many things. I mean, being on that campus is very nostalgic. I go back and I always know memories will start rushing back. I miss the cranberry muffins at Kerckhoff a lot, too. I don’t know if they still have those.

Daily Bruin: What is it like going solo and not having your brothers around all the time?
Joe Jonas: It’s definitely different. There are times when I miss them a lot. I get to see them quite a bit but at the same time … there are occasions that I just wish I could get on stage and be with them and play songs we’ve written together these past few years. … It can also be a very lonely experience. When you’re on tour traveling, you don’t realize how fun it is to be with your brothers both onstage and hanging out. Because you go from the stage to the hotel, spend time at the hotel all day, and now on days off, you’re just by yourself. Luckily, this time I have my friends out on tour with me.

DB: Your brother Nick has also tested the waters of going solo. Has he given you any advice?
JJ: Yeah, he gave me really great advice. I remember going to write my record and he said, “Listen, I want you to be able to go and find the sound you want to go with.” A lot of times, it’s easy for other artists to pinpoint where they want to go musically … I just needed to find that time for myself and find that sound I wanted to go with. (My brothers) both said to have fun, so they let me take that path by myself and … have a good time with it.

DB: How would you exactly describe your sound?
JJ: I would say it’s dance, pop and electronic music with a little hip-hop and R&B undertone to things. I think that’s a lot to say that. Those genres are the inspirations that producers have been working on to help me cultivate that sound from my pop-rock standpoint, from where I was with my brothers. We also made it a little bit more mature musically and lyrically.

DB: What is it like writing music without your brothers?
JJ: It’s as if I were to write my journal and hand it over to you guys. It could be a scary situation and … I really wanted to do be able to do that and be honest in a way that people can really relate (to). I want the audience to go, “I’ve been there, I’ve been through that situation. I know what you’ve gone through,” and I’ve been able to do that. Luckily, I found a place in my heart and mind to be able to let go of those worries and write songs.

DB: What song would you say means to most to you?
JJ: “All This Time” and “I’m Sorry.” “All This Time” is this song that I took two approaches to. One approach is (that) it’s a message to somebody else, that you’ve waited all this time, and now it’s your time to shine. Another approach is looking outside the box. It’s a third person looking at (me) and … telling (me), “This is your time and this is what you’ve been waiting for. You can go out and do it.” So I’m kind of singing to the audience and singing to myself at the same time. “I’m Sorry” is a song I wrote about asking for forgiveness, which is a scary thing, too, to be able to go to somebody and say, “I messed up” and say, “Please forgive me.”

DB: If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
JJ: I love Swedish House Mafia and DJs. I’m also a fan of Deadmau5 and, along with that, there are beautiful vocalists like Adele and, I think, even Kanye West. I’d want to work with people that others wouldn’t expect me to work with. I’m lucky to be able to work with a couple of artists that are really cool people. I’m excited for the world to see that they’re supporting me and to hear the songs.

DB: Is there a special meaning behind your album title, “FastLife”?
JJ: It was one of the first ideas for the album name. There’s a song I wrote, called “Fast Life,” and it’s about going out , having a good time and enjoying life to the fullest. That’s how I look at life all the time. You might have speed bumps along the way, but you are just able to continue and have a great time and realize that there are so many people out there – to have this opportunity … I’m lucky to be able to do this every day.

DB: What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started as an artist?
JJ: Probably that once you have success, don’t expect it to be there forever. Not that I’m saying like I feel like I’m starting over completely. I’m lucky to have lots of fans, and a lot of time, people assume that if I’m a superstar, I’ll be a superstar for life. It doesn’t work like that, and not every record is going to be as successful as the last one. My father always put us in a mindset of living like you’re at the bottom even if you’re at the top, and that goes with everything.

At 35, he is stout, boyish and remarkably candid. He is at once calm and fidgety, constantly tossing his head to and fro as if he’s looking for someone nearby. He looks more like a record store clerk.

It’s the second day of the Pitchfork Music Festival and the man who founded the Pitchfork media giant is sitting backstage, behind where Sun Airway is scheduled to perform.

“I think when festivals get to a certain size you lose a lot of what makes them fun,” Schreiber says as he takes a drag from his Parliament.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Schreiber is the founder and head of what is arguably the most influential music startup of this generation. When it launched in 1995 — shortly after Schreiber graduated from Hopkins High School — Pitchfork was nothing but a microscopic blip lost in an endless sea of zines, alt-weeklies and commercial magazines.

But at the turn of the century, everything started to change. The emergence of the Internet had paved the way for an industry revolution of sorts. While the advent of file-sharing sent record labels and their once-lucrative empires spiraling into financial oblivion, big-name magazines saw their popularity waning as blogs and online publishing grew rampant. For once, consumers had both power and an alternative. And somewhere in the midst of it all, Schreiber’s little-known home project was starting to find an audience.

“I wanted more people to hear about these bands that were amazingly great and didn’t get any kind of exposure from conventional channels like commercial radio or anything like that,” Schreiber said.

Before the music festivals, before Schreiber was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the world, Pitchfork was just another heavyweight in an ever-widening arena. But Schreiber had a vision. The site had carved out a niche for itself as an online hub for independent music; championing bands it felt had been dismissed or overlooked by mainstream bigwigs like Rolling Stone and Spin.

And as the site’s readership grew, so did its influence.

By the mid-aughts, the publication had earned a reputation for single-handedly “making” bands, occasionally turning what were once underground nobodies into indie sensations almost overnight. One of the most cited examples is writer David Moore’s 9.7 review of Arcade Fire’s debut album “Funeral.” Shortly after the review was published in 2004, the band’s label, Merge Records, received so many order requests that “Funeral” went out of print for nearly a week.

But according to Schreiber, being influential wasn’t ever a goal. He insists the result was simply incidental.

“I think people who kept coming back to our site just found our reviews trustworthy. It’s not something we strove for. We’re not trying to make or break bands, it’s just a byproduct,” Schreiber said.

Of course it’s hard to say definitively just how much clout Pitchfork actually has. While staff writer Marc Masters acknowledged the site’s influence, he’s more skeptical, chalking some of the “make-or-break” claims up to hyperbole.

“Certain bands get brought up as if Pitchfork made them. But almost all those times you can trace it back and see that other people were talking about them too,” Masters said. “The idea that Pitchfork has ever been that single-handed with anything is a little bit of a myth.”

Strong readership and influence aside, not everyone has always been so laudatory when it comes to Pitchfork. The publication, infamous for its verbose writing style and meticulous decimal-specific rating system (0.0-10.0), has also endured its fair share of mockery.

In 2007, the Onion published a piece in which Schreiber rates music as a whole, giving it a 6.8 out of 10. Even alt-comic David Cross took a shot in 2005. After being asked to submit a list of his favorite albums, Cross responded with a satirical piece titled “Albums to Listen to While Reading Overwrought Pitchfork Reviews,” wherein he lavished sarcastic praise upon a litany of fictional indie bands.

Others have some more serious qualms. Jim DeRogatis, a Chicago-based music journalist and the author of “Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs,” has followed Pitchfork from its inception. DeRogatis, who has worked as a music critic for more than two decades, has never been all that reserved about his sentiments regarding the publication. He has interviewed Schreiber twice before, and while he commends Pitchfork for its passion, he sometimes questions its legitimacy as a reliable source of sincere music criticism.

“I think Ryan, from the beginning, has had a vision and he’s been very, very good at crafting a brand,” DeRogatis said. “But it bothers me. It bothers me to see any spouter of opinion be that monolithic.”

But DeRogatis’ criticism doesn’t stop there. When Pitchfork.tv — an online channel that features original video content from indie rock’s rising stars — launched in 2008, DeRogatis interviewed Schreiber, addressing concerns about the site’s promotional slant and the potential conflicts of interest that could arise.

“I have some problems with Pitchfork going to a band and saying, ‘Will you give us free video content or will you play this free concert for us?’”**** DeRogatis said. “Journalists should know that the appearance of a conflict of interest is as troublesome as an actual conflict of interest.”

DeRogatis has similar concerns about Pitchfork’s annual three-day festival, which, for its sixth consecutive year, took place last weekend in Chicago’s Grant Park.

“It’s like, does [Pitchfork] love Bon Iver because Bon Iver is headlining Pitchfork in Paris? Or do they love Bon Iver because they love Bon Iver?” DeRogatis said. “To me, journalism and criticism are sacred but there’s a separation of church and state.”

When asked to comment, Schreiber needed little time to sort out his thoughts on the matter. He explained that while he understands the argument, he doesn’t feel as if it makes all that much sense.

“We booked [the bands] because we like them. We’re not going to book them if we don’t like them. It would be so insanely unethical and gross and there’s not even any point to it,” Schreiber said. “I don’t think it would result in any significant difference in what our bills look like. It’s like any other music festival. You pay them to play. That’s what it is,” Schreiber said.

While Pitchfork may be the premier music publication of our generation, it is still fragile. If there’s anything we can learn from Schreiber’s indie empire, it’s that no industry, no matter how old or strong, is immune to the incomparable reach of the World Wide Web.

As record label goliaths collapse beneath their own weight and the fine line between indie and the mainstream continues to be blurred, an entirely new generation of bright-eyed Ryan Schreibers and Mark Zuckerbergs are waiting on the other end.

Whether they’re toiling away in their parents’ basement or writing algorithms on their dorm-room window doesn’t matter. What matters is — like their predecessors — they’re full of ideas. And that, along with a little passion and luck, is all it really seems to take.

McClusky said she got the deal through her father, Jeff McClusky, a Chicago-based music promoter and entrepreneur who has worked with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Madonna and Paul McCartney.

“My dad is in the music business, and he’s my manager,” McClusky said. “He and the president of Disney music started talking about my music and how I could get more involved with Disney, and they offered me the opportunity to write about prom.”

McClusky, who graduated high school early last November, said “Secret Crush” was the culmination of high school experiences with a boyfriend while secretly crushing on another guy.

“I wrote this song my freshman year in high school, and it was about this boyfriend I had and we were just kind of disconnected, but I still liked him,” she said. “And then there was this other guy, and we were so similar and I really liked him, but I didn’t want to let go of the boyfriend, so I had to keep it a secret crush.”

When McClusky first started talking to Disney music executives back in March, she was not always positive her song would make it into the movie. After being denied placement in the two scenes she applied for, she received good news just before the movie was wrapping up production, she said.

“They called me back like a week later and told me they found a spot for it,” McClusky said. “I was really grateful because it was about a week before the movie was actually going to be finished, so I felt really lucky to have that spot.”

Disney flew McClusky out to L.A. for the premiere of “Prom,” which took place April 21 at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood.

“It was a really great experience,” McClusky said. “I was so excited, I didn’t know where in the movie it (“Secret Crush”) was gonna be played, and so just hearing it when I was totally not even expecting it was just such an awesome experience. I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the movie.”

McClusky describes her music as “pretty mainstream pop” and typical of what you would hear on the pop radio waves.

“I would say lyrically I’m similar to Taylor Swift where I like to write about love and relationships and family,” she said. “And then sound-wise, I would probably say I’m similar to Katy Perry.”

McClusky is currently working on her album, “Beleave Me,” set for release in June or July. She is also scheduling live shows, including one at the Cornerstone Festival on July 3 in Bushnell, Ill..

“I would love to become more involved with Disney as time goes on, but right now I’m trying to finish my album, and we’re pretty close to being done,” McClusky said. “We’re all really pumped about it.”

Yes, those treasured golden gramophones are getting doled out Sunday night, sure to return to the usual clutches of the undeserving and profit-minded: once-talented megastars (Eminem, Kings of Leon), teen sensations (Katy Perry, the cast of “Glee”, Justin Bieber), dinosaurs of rock (Robert Plant, Neil Young) and John Mayer (seriously, John Mayer is like the evil Lord Sauron of the Grammys— it’s like they’re trying to return to their master).

The academy is resistant to modernity, bent upon spectacle and a general menace to any “product” unlikely to rise above the bottom line. In a time when buzz bands are discovered, emerge and flare out online in mere months, the academy just sits back and judges “excellence” by the profits that roll in when they ought to be in search of an original band or sound.

Here are a few brief examples of their ineptitude before we dive into my predictions for this year’s winners.

Resistant to modernity

Had Kanye West chosen to unveil his “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” two months later, Big Boi’s progressive production “Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty” would’ve claimed the honor of Best Rap Album of 2010 in my book. It would’ve achieved the same feat in any of the three years preceding 2010 as well, during which Jive Records (owned by Sony Music Entertainment) refused to promote the record on the grounds that it wasn’t radio-friendly.

The collaboration with OutKast band mate André 3000 and Raekwon, “Royal Flush,” was torpedoed as an ‘Internet single’ and the whole project was delayed for years, denying people the joy of listening to “Shutterbugg” (which charted at No. 20 in this country) and the smooth Gucci Mane collaboration’s “Shine Blockas.”

Bent upon spectacle

It only took eight years and a sold-out Madison Square Garden show before the academy invited Arcade Fire, who have been performing the hell out of “Wake Up” in tiny clubs since 2003, to play the Grammys this year alongside Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and others.

They’re the biggest spectacle in popular music right now, regardless of their relation to the mainstream. Their music is certainly substantive, though the same can’t be said for Katy Perry, whose catalogue of music glistens and shines like a lollipop wrapper that, when removed and tasted, proves to be a confection so rotten with clichés that you can’t help but reach for the nearest bristled object to scrape it off your tongue. Strip her of her makeup, elaborate stage setups and choreography and she’ll resemble any college girl who rolled out of bed, as comedian Russell Brand recently proved by tweeting an unflattering wake-up shot of her.

Menace to art

“I’ve got reservations about so many things, but not about you,” Jeff Tweedy sang on “Reservations,” from on Wilco’s 2002 aching opus “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” Other lyrical masterstrokes on “Foxtrot” are similes that belong with the best in modern American literature (“let’s undress just like cross-eyed strangers”) and wonderful wordplay (“I’m not gonna get caught callin’ the pot, kettle black”).

Tweedy struggled with depression and drugs recording “Foxtrot” but his greatest conflict was with Reprise Records (owned by Warner Music Group), which refused to release the record on grounds that it was just too bizarre, eventually signing the rights over to the band to ward off the enormous amount of negative press they received for it.

Tweedy signed with the smaller Nonesuch Records and subsequently achieved universal acclaim, as well as a Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. What would’ve happened if Reprise had just sat on “Foxtrot?”

All right, so there’s my gripe about the recording industry. Now we may continue to their annual self-laudatory wank-fest, the Grammy Awards. Let it be known that our opinion on “Who Should Win” part is (obviously) limited to those nominated.

Record of the Year nominees
“Nothin’ On You” – B.o.B. featuring Bruno Marsthe
“Love The Way You Lie” – Eminem featuring Rihanna
“F*** You” – Cee Lo Green
“Empire State of Mind” – Jay-Z and Alicia Keys
“Need You Now” – Lady Antebellum

Going to win: Lady Antebellum

Should win: Jay-Z and Alicia Keys

Sorry Cee Lo, but your totally awesome kiss-off is too much of a novelty and too much fun to win. Nobody believes angry Eminem anymore and “Nothin’ On You” lacks Lady Antebellum’s mid-song confession to breakdown to triumphant end-of-song reunion structure. Jigga’s too-long ode to New York is powered by an original beat and Alicia Keys’ best chorus in years. It’s the best of a bad category.

Album of the Year nominees:
“The Suburbs” – Arcade Fire
“Recovery” – Eminem
“Need You Now” – Lady Antebellum
“The Fame Monster” – Lady Gaga
“Teenage Dream” – Katy Perry

Going to win: Arcade Fire

Should win: Arcade Fire

Nobody’s worked harder in the last couple of years than Arcade Fire, who will earn their meaningless trophy by the sweat of their formerly indie brows. Upstart Lady Gaga’s been huge, but her aesthetic’s best expressed through video, Katy Perry isn’t even the best album of that title this year (see Beach House’s “Teen Dream”), Lady Antebellum are super-repetitive and, like I said earlier, Eminem’s schtick is as worn out as Neil Young’s face.

Song of the Year nominees:
“Beg Steal Or Borrow” – Ray LaMontagne
“F*** You” – Cee Lo Green
“The House That Built Me” – Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin (Miranda Lambert)
“Love the Way You Lie” – Alexander Grant, Skylar Grey and Eminem (with Rihanna)
“Need You Now” – Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott

Going to win: Cee Lo

Should win: Cee Lo

The record and song of the year gets awarded to the same song about half the time, but “F*** You” is far too likeable to get snubbed by both honors. Sassy Oklahoma native Miranda Lambert is a clear-cut dark horse though, damaging her “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” cred with a tender if boring country ballad.

Best New Artist nominees:
Justin Bieber
Drake
Florence + The Machine
Mumford & Sons
Esperanza Spalding

Going to win: Justin Bieber

Should win: Florence + The Machine

The best new artist category is a regular display of how the senile the music industry is. Usually the nominees have been around for close to half a decade and this year’s batch is no different. Nothing’s unexpectedly generated more money and attention in the last two years than Bieber Fever, so I guess that trumps the much older and more talented Esperanza Spalding and Florence Welch.

Best Pop Vocal Album nominees:
“My World 2.0” – Justin Bieber
“I Dreamed A Dream” – Susan Boyle
“The Fame Monster” – Lady Gaga
“Battle Studies” – John Mayer
“Teenage Dream” – Katy Perry

Going to win: John Mayer

Should win: No one.

This is a loathsome category. Somehow the award went to The Black Eyed Peas last year, so it’s literally impossible to pick or redeem. I give the advantage to the Dark Lord Sauron since he won the 2006 award for “Continuum”.

Best Dance Recording nominees:
“Rocket” – Goldfrapp
“In For The Kill” – La Roux
“Dance In The Dark” – Lady Gaga
“Only Girl (In The World)” – Rihanna
“Dancing On My Own” – Robyn

Going to win: Lady Gaga

Should win: Robyn

The 80s are back in fashion in modern dance music, so it only makes sense that the award goes to the most retro-sounding song. Unfortunately, “In For The Kill” is nearly two years old and “Rocket” literally sounds like it was recorded in 1986. In a perfect world, Robyn would be rewarded for crafting a terrific record (“Body Talk”) with a top-notch single in “Dancing On My Own”, the kind of thing that makes straight men say “I can’t help but dance, I just love this song.” I would know, because I am one.

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals nominees:
“Ready To Start” – Arcade Fire
“I Put A Spell On You” – Jeff Beck and Joss Stone
“Tighten Up” – The Black Keys
“Radioactive” – Kings of Leon
“Resistance” – Muse

Going to win: Arcade Fire

Should win: Arcade Fire

In case you missed me gushing about them earlier, Arcade Fire are the hardest-working band around these days. The only problem is that they were nominated for a song into which their secret weapon, Régine Chassagne, factors less prominently. I’d have gone with “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” which beautifully stomps and circles “The Suburbs” to its wistful, nostalgic close.

Best Alternative Music Album nominees:
The Suburbs – Arcade Fire
Infinite Arms – Band of Horses
Brothers – The Black Keys
Broken Bells – Broken Bells
Contra – Vampire Weekend

Going to win: Arcade Fire

Should win: Vampire Weekend

Band of Horses’ third record was the year’s biggest disappointment, Broken Bells is a snooze and The Black Keys benefited from a blitz of promotion and praise from classic-adoring “Rolling Stone”. That leaves kalimba-plinking “Contra” against my album of the year pick; it’s a no-brainer. Short, catchy, original and lovely, “Contra” is the best in this category.

Best Rap Album nominees:
“The Adventures of Bobby Ray” – B.o.B.
“Thank Me Later” – Drake
“Recovery” – Eminem
“The Blueprint 3” – Jay-Z
“How I Got Over” – The Roots

Going to win: Drake

Should win: The Roots (but seriously, Big Boi)

The severe lack of Big Boi completely invalidates this category (“My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” wasn’t released on time to be counted in this year’s race). Therefore, The Roots deserve it for allowing the awesome trio of lady singers from Norman Music Festival 3 headliners Dirty Projectors to open “How I Got Over” with their beautiful harmonic cooing. But seriously, it ought to be Big Boi.

But where exactly did Cali Swag District, the four-man rap group from Inglewood, Calif., find inspiration for their hit song “Teach Me How to Dougie”?

“The idea came from one of our friends we went to high school with and he graduated and went to school in Texas,” rapper/DJ C-Smoove said in an interview with The Miami Hurricane. “He said we should do a song about the Dougie and we took the idea and ran with it. We made it happen.”

Naturally, the next question on many people’s minds is what exactly is a “Dougie”?

According to C-Smoove, “Dougie” comes from Doug E. Fresh, who was also known as the “Human Beat Box.”

“It’s the hand movement when he used to put his hand over his head to wipe his head,” C-Smoove said. “That’s where Dougie came from and people just turned it into a dance.”

The dance originated in Dallas (WHEN?) where it would go on to be called the D-Town Boogie.

The first time C-Smoove, Yung, Jay-Are and M-Bone heard their song on the radio, they were in the studio.

“We got on the phone calling people, jumping up and down and recording everything,” C-Smoove said.

They never expected it to become so huge; their music video has currently received more than 26 million views on YouTube. It has even sparked popular parodies.

“We just were making a song. We had made songs individually before,” C-Smoove said. “This song, we were like, ‘Let’s see what happens’ basically.”

Checkmate Music Group co-owners Big Wy and Dairold Potts, along with Checkmate executive Poly Rob, brought the four together.

The name CSD came from a “visionary” named Tony Dillard because “We like to get fly our own way,” C-Smoove said.

In a few weeks, Cali Swag District will be announcing a tour to promote songs off their album, “The Kickback,” which comes out Feb. 15.

“It’s for ladies, of course, because we’re a group of dudes. It’s a lot of music you can move to, some of it you can groove to,” C-Smoove said. “We’ve got slow songs for the females and we’ve got our party music and club bangers and we have a couple of fist pump and rock ‘n’ roll stuff. It’s real diverse. I can’t wait for it to come out.”

Since “Teach Me How to Dougie” went platinum, CSD has had the chance to meet Kardashian and Wall. The rapper 50 Cent, someone C-Smoove would like to work with in the future, struck him as being a humble guy.

“It’s crazy. It’s like you don’t really think about how much you’re these people’s peers now. We went from watching these people, and admiring them, to actually being one of them,” C-Smoove said. “It’s a good feeling at the end of the day.”

As CSD make TV appearances on George Lopez’s show in Los Angeles and prepare for a cross-country tour, the busy lifestyle seems like a dream.

“Our lives right now, it’s like a movie. Everything is just fun,” C-Smoove said. “We’re living out our dreams and it’s real crazy when people come up to us all over the place and want to take pictures with us when we’re eating and all that. It’s what we love to do, so we do it.”

Tell me about the tour you’re on.

It’s actually one of the coolest tours I’ve done since the early Guns days. It’s one of those things I had no expectations for. I put together this record, and it’s really cool and everything, and I wanted to put together a tour on it. We put together a fantastic backup band with all guys who aren’t from L.A. and I’d never met before, and it’s been kickass ever since.

You mentioned they’re not from L.A. Does that make a difference?

Apparently. I live in L.A. — I’m a fixture in Los Angeles. I’ve been working within that community for a long time. I know everybody. I know all the players. It’s very predictable at this point, at least for me. When I was making this record, before I even thought about the tour, I started working with people I had never worked with before. It took me out of my comfort zone, and I was working with people who don’t necessarily follow the rules of the people in Los Angeles.

Has this tour brought out a different crowd?

It’s a mixture of really young kids when they can get into the venue … Like people in their 18s to 25s. And then people who come from the old school. It’s a hardcore rock audience. They’re real energetic and real educated. They’re not part of what you call the millennium new guard, like 30 Seconds to Mars and others.

There’s been a lot of argument that rock ‘n’ roll as a movement is dead. What do you think?

It’s not even a [expletive] movement, are you kidding me? The whole spirit of what rock ‘n’ roll is, the sort of risk factor in all that kind of stuff, that hard edge of what rock ‘n’ roll is, is almost completely nonexistent in the industry. Even though there’s a lot of rock bands out there, and people are into the concept, I hate to sound cliché, that there’s a lifestyle to it, but there is definitely an attitude — a freewheeling energy that rock has. It’s so dead in the industry that nobody can gain a foothold and start a movement.

Well, what does it take then? You’re somebody who has defined that sort of lifestyle.

I sort of didn’t want to use that term, because it’s such a general term. I guess it’s a willingness to think outside the box. One of the great things is the old expression, “Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.” I don’t think it’s necessarily about how you have sex or if you do drugs, but it’s just like staying loose and taking life as it comes and doing things your own way.

But that just sounds so cliché.

It is now. It’s acceptable as [expletive]. Originally what it was supposed to embody was actually pretty cool back in the day.

What will it take for rock ‘n’ roll to come back?

Whatever it will be, it will have to break the established pattern. There’s a certain way this industry has become and it’s going to have to go against that and break a lot of barriers. In order to do that it’s going to be really unacceptable. Once one band does that, they’ll gain a following and start a movement. It will be short lived, of course, but maybe it’ll work.

Have you talked to Axl at all lately?

I haven’t talked to Axl since 1996, man.

What did you think of Chinese Democracy?

It’s definitely an album that continues down the road that Axl was traveling. I think it’s [expletive] good. For all that has been said, I think Axl is a really [expletive] awesome guy and extremely talented.

Q: How’s the process of recording the new record going?

A: I’ve been in the studio for about two months. I have three lead vocals to sing and a few guitar parts to lay down, and then we’ll start mixing — probably about three more weeks of work. I’m getting so excited about it. It’s really shaping up.

Q: What’s the concept behind the new record?

A: It’s called “Go Fly a Kite.” It’s kind of [makes you think of] “Go f*** yourself,” I guess. [laughing] It’s really electric — a lot of electric guitars and pianos and acoustic guitars and harmonies. It’s like a lot of electricity in the music. It’s upbeat, uptempo. But it deals with some darker stuff. Some of the songs I wrote as I was leaving New York three years ago. One of my best friends got this new girlfriend who just didn’t want him to have anything to do with any of his friends or anybody that had loved him before her. So there’s a song called “Jealous Girl” and “Gossip.” It’s pretty fiery. But there’s still my optimistic outlook throughout the record.

Q: What about the alt-country sound you explored on your last album, “Changing Horses?” Are you moving away from that here?

A: It always depends on what songs I write. That stuff’s always in me. All these different types of music live in me, and sometimes they choose to come out and sometimes they don’t. On “Go Fly a Kite,” there [are] a few songs that have definitely a rootsy element. I think fans that discover me through “Changing Horses” will still be able to get me through this record and find something that they’ll dig. In particular, there’s a song called “Full Circle” and one called “I Miss You.”

Q: Where do you see yourself on the spectrum between pop and country/Americana music?

A: I approach all my songwriting the same, in a lot of ways. I’m such a fan of hooks and melody and just old-fashioned songcraft. I love a catchy chorus. What makes it country or blues or punk rock or whatever is really just kind of [the] presentation. You could re-record “Changing Horses” as a piano-pop record. It would just be a different attitude. It’s whatever vibe I’m wanting to work with that day.

Q: Do you ever feel like an old pro at this? You’re not even 30, but you’ve been making music for a long time.

A: I know, I know. I do. I feel like I’ve been around as long as I have and I know what I like and I know what I don’t like. I know what I want to achieve. Experience, there’s something really cool about it. But there’s also something really cool about not knowing what the f*** you’re doing too, like when I was 18, moving to New York. I didn’t know anybody and just had raw passion. I know what I’m doing at this point. But I’m also a father; I have two boys and I have family to support. It’s definitely a family business. We tour together as much as possible. My wife’s really involved.

Q: Is it hard to maintain that youthful spontaneity and optimism because you’ve been doing this so long?

A: I know what you’re saying. I find myself asking myself more these days, “I wonder why I’m not really jaded?” Even today, I was hopping in the car and I was about to run some errands and I was just thinking about all that and thinking about my outlook on life and everything. You know, I have a lot to be thankful for. I would never want to take anything for granted. That’s really important: to remember the important things in life and not take life too seriously because it can be over in the blink of an eye.

Q: You’ve played at OU three times in the last five years. Any specific memories or thoughts about playing in Oklahoma?

A: Oklahoma is a fun time for me. As a Texan, when I first started playing music and started traveling regionally, Oklahoma and Arkansas are the first states you go outside of Texas. Some of my first shows outside of Texas were in Oklahoma. I have some good friends there — the whole Followill family, all the Kings of Leon.

Q: Will you play any songs from the new record at the show?

A: You know, I kind of stopped doing that. I used to write a song and put it on stage that night. But once I got privy to the way this music business works and how it takes so long for records to come out. I know when my new record comes out, I’m going to be on the road for two years, so I don’t really want to get sick of [the new songs] now. I want to keep it fresh.

Thank god for people like Jim Lauderdale, a veteran of the Nashville scene who’s been a longtime collaborator with such revered titans as (among others) George Jones, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson and Elvis Costello. Lauderdale takes his country/Americana/bluegrass amalgam to Minnesota’s State Fair later this month, toting a true sense of country music in his gee-tar case.

“When I think of country music I still think of George Jones, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris,” Lauderdale said. “ … And think that’s still what country music is.”

With seemingly every worthwhile artist a few bottles past his or her prime, the genre is entering “endangered” status. As we know, when a language dies not only is the language lost, but a unique way of thinking about the world goes with it. In a way, we are not losing country music, it is losing us. Lauderdale, however, believes in the hardiness of the craft.

“I don’t think it will [die]. It’ll keep having revivals,” Lauderdale said. “ … It’ll keep evolving or changing as a genre. But it won’t die.”

Aiding Lauderdale with the preservation effort is adept lyric scribe Robert Hunter, best known for his work with the Grateful Dead. Hunter and Lauderdale just released their second collaboration, “Patchwork River,” with the latter laying down melodies and the former filling in words. Lauderdale said Hunter’s Grateful Dead roots are still alive, and that they thrive well under his genre, which requires hardy storytelling and pastoral witticisms.

“[Hunter’s] roots are deep, I tell you. His range is so broad,” Lauderdale said. “He’s just such a totally realized artist. It’s perfect, what he does for country and bluegrass.”

As for the future, Lauderdale said he plans to continue recording, continue collaborating and never veer from the ol’ dusty road of country music.

“I don’t think [I’ll ever retire]. Some of my heroes like [George] Jones, he’s still touring, Willie Nelson, too. T-Bone Burnett, those guys,” he said. “I hope to keep singin’ when I’m old.”

But mid-way through the ’90s, front man Scott Weiland’s devastating and well-publicized spiral into heroin addiction derailed the band’s commercial success and acted as a catalyst for an endless string of near-break-ups until eventually leading to the group’s official dissolution in 2003.

The members veered off, toiling in their own respective projects that included Weiland’s short-lived role in the not-so-super supergroup Velvet Revolver. But by 2008 the band announced a reunion and set their emotional baggage aside to record a new self-titled album that was released in May.

“What brought us back together was actually going out and doing other things,” bassist Robert DeLeo said. “I think it was just getting reacquainted with each other and the best way to do that was to get in a room and start playing some songs we’re used to and that kind of brings you back because there’s a long-enough history there now.”

While the new album is certainly a step up from STP’s more recent efforts, it does little to catapult the band back to superstar status. Clocking in at 40 minutes, the end result is rife with over-polished mediocrity and sounds more like a diluted, half-baked cash-grab than a sincere comeback album.

Perhaps it’s the band’s lack of cohesion that accounts for the album’s shortcomings.

Weiland, who wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals separately, seems utterly detached and exhausted as he sings, “You always were my favorite drug / Even when we used to take drugs.”

Even on the road Weiland operates solo, touring on his own bus with an assistant. But DeLeo explains that the behavior isn’t anything out of the ordinary.

“That’s the way we operate; it’s nothing really new. It’s just the way we prefer to do things,” DeLeo said. “We’ve been elbow-to-elbow, shoulder-to-shoulder for many, many years. I think we’re all entitled to that and you know that’s everybody’s preference to do that and if that’s what makes it work and keeps it together then so be it, man.”

To this day, the band’s fate still seems tied to Weiland’s tumultuous battle with addiction. Earlier this year Weiland — appearing lost — prompted the rest of the band to leave in the middle of their set after slurring and forgetting lyrics to their 1992 hit “Dead and Bloated.”

In a recent cover story published by Spin Magazine, DeLeo was quoted suggesting that, while Weiland had kicked heroin years ago, he suspected him of resorting to prescription pills as a substitute.

Cynics might have scoffed at the mere mention of a STP reunion, but even after almost two decades the band retains a large following, playing sold-out arenas across the country. While they might never be ushered into the pantheon of rock ’n’ roll, they’re a band who had greatness within arm’s reach and — in the end — stuck together, despite their frayed relationships. That’s much more than many of their grunge counterparts could attest to.

Bridging the gap between rock and jam band, Gill and his band mates in ALO began playing together Saratoga High School. Gill first met Johnson when the two were attending college at University of California, Santa Barbara.

“We were in rival bands, then we ended the rivalry and eventually started playing together,” Gill said. “I moved up to the Bay area to do stuff with ALO, and he stayed in Santa Barbara and did gigs in L.A. Years later he was really popular. He picked ALO up on his label and eventually I joined his band. It all kind of happened gradually.”

ALO re-released their first album “Fly Between Falls” on Johnson’s Brushfire Records in 2006 and recorded “Roses & Clover” in 2007 after opening for Johnson across Europe in 2005.

“He had a trio for the longest time,” Gill said. “The first time I ever sat in was at the end of the night on accordion. It was a pretty good vibe. Then it was ‘why don’t you come out and play piano on a couple songs and we’ll see how that works.’ At first it was just going to be a couple songs, then it was a few more, then all of a sudden it was the whole night. I don’t think he had in mind that I’d become a member of the band.”

Gill became a member of the band on Johnson’s “In Between Dreams” playing piano, accordion and melodica.

“That was my first tour,” Gill said. “I was still the new guy. It was a pretty good time to come on board. I skipped a lot of the mini-van touring. My first gig was Saturday Night Live when David Spade was the host.”

The biggest adjustment for Gill was the size of crowds at Johnson’s shows and the adjustments required musically.

“When I first started playing in Jack’s band, it was a whole new experience to play for crowds that big,” Gill said. “ALO is a band that does well in the small clubs. We just have that kind of energy. I had no idea it would sound so different on the stage. Being in a small room you feed off the room itself. You hear and see so much of the crowd. Then you’re standing on a big stage and you hear a lot of the echo coming back to you.”

Johnson has the blessing and curse of his voice sounding nearly identical from album to stage. Adding Gill’s piano accompaniment and backup vocals provided a new dynamic to the live performances and Johnson’s last three studio releases.

“There was a little bit of piano on Jack’s album before I joined the band; It wasn’t a totally foreign sound,” Gill said. “But any time you incorporate a fourth member in, it changes. I sing a lot of harmonies live. We’ve discovered a lot of things live, then when we’ve gone to the studio we’ve incorporated those things in.”

Many of those discoveries can be heard on Johnson’s latest release “To the Sea.” Johnson has influenced Gill’s band as well, producing “Man of the World,” ALO’s third studio album.

“It feels fresh and is some of my favorite music to play with ALO,” Gill said. “It got me pumped because the whole process of making it was different than our other albums. In previous albums the instruments would be isolated. This time we were all in a room together. It felt more musical and playful. It ended up being a lot more fun. Everybody is excited to go back into the studio again.”

Gill prefers the passion and imperfection of recording as a group rather than recording parts individually in the studio. “What is perfect, and what is everybody’s goal? Is it to get the perfect drum take or is it to serve the recording? When you don’t have the luxury of overdubbing, you get into a cool place where there’s a little bit of an edge. You know if you go too far you might blow it for everybody else, but your instinct is to go for it. You get into a nice zone.”

Gill’s instinct to “go for it” extends to the stage, where his number one goal is to appease the crowd.

“ALO is always caught between trying to keep the party going and getting introspective on ourselves,” he said. “Every album is a blend of those two things. When playing in front of a bunch of people, my instinct goes toward a celebration. There are all these songs that never end up getting played because you tend to gravitate toward the up-tempo ones.”

Tempo is not the only issue determining Gill’s song selection. He finds some material too inappropriate for such a large audience.

“At the time you write them they seem appropriate,” Gill said. “Some songs make you feel weird when you play them even though you kind of like them. It’s like South Park. Sometimes you watch an episode and it’s really biting satire. It’s really true but really harsh, and I just really don’t want to go there with the music. I have a song about a nudist colony. It’s pretty good, but it’s easily misconceived.”

Gill was able to incorporate his songwriting in a more family-appropriate manor when he recorded his first solo album “Stuff” in 2008.

“I was so deep in band land,” Gill said. “Bands are so much about building something together, so there’s going to be a lot of compromise. Everybody gets a little bit lost in that process sometimes. It becomes a process of self-exploration to get back to your comfort zone. I’ve been in a band since I was 12. Most people went through a time of playing by themselves, but I’ve been in a band for as long as I can remember. It was a nice break.”

The other members of ALO also stayed busy during the break with touring or recording their own material.

“If we didn’t let that space happen…you’ve seen the VH1 Behind the Music specials,” Gill said. “It’s easy when you’re young to go with the group. As you get older, your identity and ego gets more solidified. Everybody has side projects, and that really stokes the ALO fire. It’s good for us to keep a diverse palette. Part of success is being able to arrange your life in a way to keep it inspiring.”

The inspiration for Gill’s solo album came mostly from his wife Jessica and their 10-year-old daughter Jaden.

“My wife got pregnant right when I graduated college,” Gill said. “I had all these plans to start touring. I was lucky enough to keep finding work as a musician. My parents and my wife’s family and my wife are all really supportive. Family and music have always combined for me. When I finally made a solo album, I had a lot to think about.”

Johnson is also known for being a family man. He has two boys and a girl with his wife Kim. He was as supportive and excited as anyone to hear Gill was going to be a father.

“I remember calling up Jack,” Gill said. “When I would tell everyone else they sort of acted like I told them I have cancer. Jack thought it was awesome and couldn’t believe it. I never forgot that. It worked out so well in a way I never could have imagined it.”

Gill and his wife have another daughter on the way. She recently had to leave the tour with a due date in September. Johnson and Gill’s wives both tour with the bands and have developed a close friendship. Kim Johnson runs the Hawaii-based Kokua Foundation and Jessica Gill manages the mainland branch of the organization.

Gill has also received inspiration from a diverse range of musical interest.

“My first four concerts were Kenny Rogers, Huey Lewis and the News, the Grateful Dead and Billy Joel,” he said. “Between those four, that was a good foundation for me. I love the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. I always come back to those. I’ve been really into Regina Spektor lately too.”

The varied musical backgrounds in ALO led to many changes of the band in the early years. Each change was usually accompanied by a new name as well. They started at Django and settled on Animal Liberation Orchestra.

“I don’t think any of us expected to keep that name. We went with what was happening in the moment. Over time, the name got a lot of baggage because of the Animal Liberation Front and stuff. We never had any political affiliation. I realized over the years the name has a lot of loaded symbolism in it.”

While Gill never put much thought into the name, he is amused by how people overanalyze it.

“An orchestra is the ultimate in not being liberated; it’s a very structured, civilized thing,” Gill said. “The animal is wild and the orchestra is civilized. In between is this liberation. For a while we got tired of thinking about it so we went by ALO. When you’re making music, you don’t think of how the name will be perceived.”

Drained from the long summer, Miller set out into the Oregon wilderness for five weeks with little to no human contact. Coming out of the forest along McKenzie Highway near the Cougar Hot Springs, Miller noticed a distinct change in his perspectives on life. Many of these perspectives would create the foundation of a successful career performing a mix of reggae, rock and hip-hop inspired by Jewish teachings.

When Miller, now Matisyahu, takes the stage at the McDonald Theater on August 10, he will be an entirely different person than the 18-year-old who walked the same Eugene streets 11 years ago. He has two successful albums: Youth, released in 2006, topped the Billboard reggae charts and led to a Grammy nomination. His second album, Light, released last summer, debuted at 19 on the Billboard top 200 with the single “One Day” featured on an NBC commercial for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Now living in New York City, Matisyahu practices Orthodox Judaism complete with traditional black suit, full-grown payos adorn each side of his head accompanied by a full grown, curly, chest-length beard. This appearance is distinctly different from the shorthaired youth that emerged roadside along McKenzie Pass. Through all of the change and success, Matisyahu can still reflect on the time he spent in the Oregon wilderness.

“I remember that time vividly even though it was 10 or 11 years ago,” Matisyahu said in a phone interview. “When I first came back to civilization, I had really changed; I was becoming something else.”

Following Matisyahu’s transformation, he spent the rest of 1998 and most of 1999 in Bend. There he focused on performing reggae with the band Soulfori. Matisyahu, guitarist Eric Halverson, bassist Brian Woodward, saxophonist/keyboardist Aaron Kreuger and drummer Aaron Chambers played at a number of local venues around Oregon.

“I remember going to open mic at a place called Cafe Paradiso,” Matisyahu said. “It allowed me to perform reggae in front of an audience.”

Soulfori made multiple appearances in Eugene, often playing Taylor’s Bar and Grille.

“I have a lot of nostalgia for Eugene,” Matisyahu said of those days. “I remember seeing Eugene’s counterculture and hippie culture.”

In the later part of 1999, Matisyahu, still going by Matthew Miller, moved to New York City where he became increasingly spiritual and adopted his Hebrew name. There he perfected his innovative style of music, becoming the international figure he is today.

This year’s Light Tour, which passes through 33 U.S. cities over a two-month period, marks Matisyahu’s third time performing in Eugene since he left for the East Coast. Although his appearance and lifestyle are different, Matisyahu carries the influence that his time in the Northwest had on his life and career. It won’t be a homecoming, but it will be a return to a once-influential place.

“I’m looking forward to coming back to the Northwest,” Matisyahu said.

This, however, would be a mistake. Dead Confederate has been working since the early 2000s, and has spent time building up their musical repertoire and touring with bands like R.E.M. and Alberta Cross, Deer Tick and Surfer Blood.

They are bringing their own dark brand of southern rock to the Engine Room on July 30, and the FSView & Florida Flambeau caught up with bassist Brantley Senn to get the lowdown on current happenings with the band, as well as the story behind their newest album to be released on August 24, Sugar.

The band made a name for themselves with the release of their debut LP, entitled Wrecking Ball, in 2008, but before then, they had been playing together since high school, under the name “The Redbelly.” After playing sporadically during their college years, Dead Confederate came together after graduation to form the band they are today. Once the band members took on various careers, however, they ultimately realized their passion was in making music and not in the banality of a nine-to-five workday.

When asked about the origin of their band’s moniker, bassist Brantley Senn stressed the importance of not placing undue emphasis on musical aspects such as an album’s or song’s name.

“A rock critic in Atlanta had reviewed our album and said he really loved it, but he really couldn’t get past the name, The Redbelly,” Senn said. “Hardy [Morris] came up with ‘Dead Confederate’ because it fit the sound of the band—which I guess would be morbid and southern, you know? It just kind of sounded like a good rock band. There’s not a whole lot of meaning behind it—we try not to put too much meaning into things like album and song titles. We try to let the art lie within.”

This band’s influences range in variety from such well-known rock legends Neil Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd (an unlikely pair, no doubt) with early indie acts like R.E.M. and Sonic Youth as musical inspiration. They also derive much of their musical influences from the bands they tour with.

“Getting to know each other and spending a lot of time on the road—that influences people more than anything you ever listen to,” Senn said. “Bands we tour with between albums are always going to influence our next album. For our next album, Sugar, I would say that there is influence from bands we just toured with like Dinosaur Jr. and the Meat Puppets, and we have so much respect for those guys. They’re so good at what they do after all these years and have been through so much, it’s inspiring to a band like us.”

Dead Confederate’s favorite venue to play in the U.S. is the prolific club located in their hometown of Athens, The 40 Watt Club—a place collectively considered as crucial to the American music scene as CBGB’s and Whisky a Go Go, as it’s become a place where Athens and non-Athens based bands alike come to play, including of Montreal, R.E.M., the Indigo Girls and the Whigs.

When asked about their upcoming Tallahassee show, the band expressed nothing less than excitement regarding the acts they’re currently playing with.

“I remember seeing Deer Tick play before we did our showcase in South by Southwest with R.E.M,” Senn said. “I actually met John [McCauley, of Deer Tick] when he came down to Athens to hang out with us on New Years Eve, and [there’s] a mutual appreciation of each other’s music. That goes a long way when you have to spend a lot of time together on tour with someone.”

The Summer Northwestern spoke with Taylor Hanson, the second oldest brother in the band.

Excerpts:

The Summer Northwestern: First of all, congratulations on your new album. Was it still as exciting as coming out with your first album?

Taylor Hanson: There’s a part of you that’s proud and excited and it can be strange because you’ve had these songs for such a long time. There’s a sense of sending yourself to college. You’ve been with them and known every aspect of them and are now releasing them to the world.

Summer NU: Can you tell us a little about what it sounds like and what it was like recording it?

Hanson: The record is a record that was really recorded very live. We needed to get a clean headspace when we recorded it so we went to a ranch. It’s set up like a classic 1960s record. We tried to capture the essence of the songs. Going into the record, there was just a good feeling about the energy and aesthetics of the album. It’s a record that is more about where we come from and it was more pop and upbeat and a celebratory record from the beginning.

Summer NU: A lot of your fans have been with you since MMMBop came out in the 90s. How much do you keep them in mind when making and recording your music?

Hanson: I think you always keep your fans in mind in the point of view of being an honest voice and trying to be authentic. It doesn’t mean that we cater to the style. We grew up listening to music that was before our time. There’s always a sense of trying to depict who we are. You’re always hoping your fans will connect to the music, but you essentially have to make records you’re excited about.

Summer NU: I know you are all dads now. How does that affect your life on the road?

Hanson: It can be extra busy between just trying to stay connected to your family and stay connected to this. When the family’s on the road, it makes it more fun.

Summer NU: While we’re on the topic of family, what is it like being in a band with your brothers?

Hanson: Well, I think that the more accurate question is “what’s is like NOT being in a band with your brothers?” We’ve been a band together so long that you have a certain sense of connections you don’t have with other people. It goes farther than being with your brothers.

You don’t always get along, you often have strong disagreements about things—things you’re really passionate about. But there’s no question you have a lasting shared connection.

Summer NU: You’ve been nominated for three Grammy awards in the past. What else would you like to achieve with your music career in the future?

Hanson: There’s a lot of things, and honestly I don’t think you can put it on one list. We’re absolutely so proud of what we’ve done up to this point, just being able to make music as a career.

There’s a very broad goal: being able to create things people are able to connect to. It’s not a matter of just getting accolades or awards, it’s more the act of creating something and putting it out there. I think the goal is to reach as many people as possible.

Summer NU: Any advice for college-aged musicians?

Hanson: If you want to make music, it has to be something you absolutely have to do. It can’t be something that you like to do and enjoy it. I think even if you have other interests, you have to throw yourself completely at music. School is a great tool to prepare you to know your crowd, but keep in mind the thing that makes a lasting career is that drive.

When the Pitchfork 2010 lineup was unleashed, one name surged above the storms of hype surrounding Pavement’s reunion and LCD Soundsystem’s potentially career-ending victory lap. That name was Sir Lucious Left Foot, known in your living rooms as Big Boi.

The easygoing grapnel of early-oughts megaduo Oukast has been an unlikely Golden Boy in the Pitchfork circle of late. The pitbull-breeding party rhymer who used to make clubs rattle in Hotlanta is now making skinny white boys teem with unbridled admiration in their brazenly not-crunk bedrooms. His newest, most deliciously titled LP “Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty” is enjoying flattering reviews and is taking the Robin to Andre 3000′s Batman behind the wheel of the Batmobile.

A&E was invited into the ATLien’s personal trailer for a chat.

In person, Big Boi is just as you’d expect him to be: a textbook rock star. He responds to questions with routine eloquence. His eyes are sharp with fame-made confidence. He is always moving. He is the center of everyone’s vantage point. He smokes his Black-and-Mild anywhere he pleases and nobody fans the smoke.

You can see why the man comes to expect a “lotta rack showin’” on his call.

What’s it like to doing hip-hop at a primarily Indie Rock festival?

It’s good, man; it’s always a wild show. We’ve done it before throughout the years, whether it be like out in Ireland at the Cornfield Festivals, things like that. There’s a lot crowd surfin’ goin’ on, ya know, it’s all about a good time. I don’t really like the relaxed shows, so these types of shows — the outdoors, lotta people havin’ fun, spillin’ they beer, people fallin’ on the ground and shit, showin’ their tits. You can say, “Show ya rack; and they gonna show them mother [expletives].”

You gonna try that tonight?

We gonna do it. Lotta rack showin’ goin’ on.

What about your brand of hip-hop do you think appeals to the “Indie” contingent?

I think the brand of hip-hop, the kind of music we make as a squad transcends hip-hop. It’s hip-hop, but it’s also funk-bass, rock, blues, jazz, everything all rolled into one.

People gon’ respect music. It’s all about feelin’ and how music makes ya feel. It hits ya in a certain place or it makes ya move or it just makes ya feel a certain way. So I think they gon’ dig it.

How has it been different being a rock star in 2010 as compared to, say, 2002?

I guess in this day and age vs. when we started … the music has come such a long way, ya know? It’s global and it’s strong, like one of the strongest forces in music, so to be able to get out here and still rock — ’cause there’s different artists out now.

But the thing about it is, a lot of artists sound exactly the same or rap exactly the same or sing exactly the same on their records.

One thing we pride ourselves on is sounding different on every song. No two records on our album sound alike. No two verses on a record sound alike. And we take pride in that.

Canadian indie rockers The New Pornographers released their latest album, Together, in May. Following the trend set by Mass Romantic in 2000, Together was met with rave reviews. The band consists of eight members, including Neko Case, Daniel Bejar and singer A.C. Newman, each contributing his or her own talents.

The Daily Texan: How do you feel [Together] differs from or is similar to your previous work as a group?

A.C. Newman: It’s definitely more rock than our last record, but I think it ties together a lot of things we’ve done throughout the years. But I think we’ve always had a certain style, so I never worry too much about it. I don’t want to branch off and make a techno music record. I want to make a New Pornographers record.

DT: I read that you also recruited Annie Clark of St. Vincent, The Dap Kings and others. How was it to work with them?

ACN: The Dap Kings are really amazing. … We’d play the songs for them and within 10 minutes, they’d have a horn section. It was amazing to watch them work with this sense of musical spontaneity. Annie Clark was the same thing. She came in to do a guitar solo, and she nailed it. She’s like a female [Jimi] Hendrix.

DT: You have your own solo project and The New Pornographers. How do you balance work with everything and also have a personal life?

ACN: Well, it’s not that difficult. I never did that much in the way of solo touring. With both of the solo albums, I went on tour for six weeks and came home to work on New Pornographers. It’s not that hard to balance. The New Pornographers don’t do an insane amount of touring, so it’s possible to still have a life.

DT: If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?

ACN: I’ve always liked Battles. Fiery Furnaces, I really like them a lot. It would be cool to do something with them.

DT: I read that you said doing harmonies was one of your favorite parts of recording an album. What else do you enjoy?

ACN: I just love working on the arrangements. Sometimes, you are just overdubbing or subtracting and adding and just trying to figure out what vibe the song should have, and when you finally find it, it’s a great feeling. It’s sort of a eureka moment.

DT: When you record, do you guys just go in there and have fun, or do you work hard to achieve your effortless pop sound?

ACN: It’s a combination of the two. There’s definitely a craft to it. Yeah, you have to work pretty hard to make it sound effortless.

DT: Some people view music today as being very progressive, and some people say it lacks the soul and spirit of past generations. Where do you fall on this spectrum, and where do you think music is going?

ACN: There are more amazing bands now than there has been, and there’s stuff that is pretty interesting, like Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective. I think music is in a good place, and it’s easier to get music heard because of the Internet. … Because music is so much easier to find, I think more people are starting to listen to it.

Out of all the faces that emerged and survived from the quicksand of the blogosphere this past year, Best Coast — the gloomy yet endearing creative project of L.A. songstress Bethany Cosentino — might be the brightest.

With her sunny jams soundtracking summer nights and her pretty California face illuminating laptop screens, Cosentino may be the lady of 2010 and is one of the bright spots of Pitchfork’s 2010 lineup.

A&E chatted with Cosentino before her Pitchfork set to discuss malls, yahooligans and Pavement.

You are popular in Minneapolis. How’s that make you feel?

That’s cool. I’ve never been to Minneapolis and we’re coming there soon so it will be cool. The Mall of America’s there right?

That’s us. We’re very proud of that mall.

(Laughs]. I love malls, so hopefully I’ll be able to go to the Mall of America while I’m there.

How’s 2010 been for you thus far?

It’s been really amazing. We’ve done a lot of great stuff and I feel very lucky to have been able to tour Europe and do a record and do a lot of awesome stuff that I didn’t ever think would happen within the span of a year. I feel really, really lucky and privileged to be able to do what I’m doing.

More than a year ago I was living in New York and was not really enjoying myself and now I’m living back at home [in LA] and get to hang out with all my best friends and get to tour and then come home. Life has really changed but I’m really excited about it. It’s all going really well, so that’s cool.

Would you say it’s been the best year of your life?

Um … probably. Yeah I guess so. I don’t think there’s been much else that happened to me in my life that’s been as amazing and weird as this. When I say weird I just mean, ya know, it just happened so quickly that it really took me by surprise. All of a sudden we were touring all the time and shit just got really crazy and hectic.

But I probably had some good years as a kid. I think you always have good years when you’re a little kid. But [2010] has been the best year of my adult life.

How has it been getting so much buzz before even releasing an LP?

It’s definitely a little overwhelming but it’s really awesome and exciting at the same time. The thing that sucks is that in gaining popularity you gain a lot of hatred and people who don’t like you because you got bigger than they wanted you to, which is kind of silly. So it’s been a little difficult, dealing with reading things about yourself on the internet — which I don’t do any more, because I’ve learned my lesson that you can’t read that stuff because it’s stupid and I don’t care what people say anyways.

But I feel really lucky to be one of those random bands that people on the internet decided they liked.

I understand your album is leaked on the Internet. Are you cool with that?

You know what, I expected that to happen. And to be honest with you, Bobb [Bruno] and I checked. Well Bobb is more into looking at the Internet and stuff than I am. I mean we were expecting it to leak — everybody’s album leaks. Jay-Z’s records leak. You can’t really stop records from leaking anymore.

To be honest with you, I don’t really care. I download music illegally. I do that, so I can’t be a hypocrite and say people can’t do it for me. I just want be to hear the record and I want people to enjoy it. So if someone finds out about us by downloading something illegally on a blog, I don’t really care.

The day it leaked I was a little like, “Oh God,” because I wasn’t prepared. I sorta had this release date in mind and was planning on waiting until then and then it happened and I was like “Eh!” and then the Internet kinda went crazy and then I turned my computer off for a few days because I didn’t want to deal with it.

Since I’m not one of those yahooligans who downloaded illegally, how is it? Are you happy with it?

Yeah, we’re definitely happy with it. It’s definitely a record that has a story to tell. The record’s called “Crazy for You” because pretty much every song on the record is about dealing with the emotions of one specific person. I wrote a lot of the songs when I was going through a difficult time.

It’s a record that somebody that’s going through a break-up can relate to and someone who’s not going through a break-up could listen to and relate to.

I just wanna make music that’s fun and happy and that, if somebody listens to it when it’s freezing cold in the Midwest it makes them feel happy and funny and all that sorts of stuff.

So what’s it mean to be invited to Pitchfork?

It’s exciting. I feel insanely lucky to be playing the same day as Pavement because Pavement is one of my favorite bands and has been one of my favorite bands since I was in like the 8th grade.

I think there’s a lot of rad bands playing this year and I’ve never been to a P-fork fest ever.

There’s always a lot of good people-watching at festivals: people in really crazy outfits so I think it will be really fun. And Chicago’s an awesome city so I feel lucky they asked us.

What’s next for you?

We’re touring ’til the end of the year. It’s really hard to write when we’re on the road. I use the voicenotes thing on my iPhone. I’ll just record a melody, I’ll hum a melody or play it on the guitar or whatever. So hopefully we’ll be able to start working on some new songs. We don’t have anything planned yet but I’m sure we’ll do an EP or something a few months from now.

Last December Robyn Pecknold — creative honcho of the best modern folk group, Fleet Foxes — told Pitchfork “the world doesn’t need another traditional folk record.”

If this concept is valid, talented folkster Sharon Van Etten’s confusion of “being a folk singer and trying to figure out what your scene is” makes sense. Even the steadfast folky Van Etten, who spends her time listening to Joni Mitchell in the mountains of Tennessee, is allowing a rock group to back her.

But good tunes are good tunes, no matter the time or place or the state of “what the world needs.” And Van Etten can certainly provide that.

A&E caught up with the strummer at Pitchfork to discuss folk music in 2010, disobeying your parents and Modest Mouse saving the day.

Can you tell us how your set went since we got caught in traffic and missed it?

Well it was scary enough to be first and being solo and feeling like people were expecting something big to start the show. I feel like people were pretty responsive to it, but, ya know, I’m not used to a big stage and outdoor festivals or whatever.

People were pretty nice, bur then I broke a string like on the next-to-last song. But the guy from Modest Mouse brought out a guitar for me. I was afraid to touch it so I didn’t even adjust the strap so it was so low.

What did it mean to you to get invited to Pitchfork?

It was like finally being invited to the party.

Being a folk singer and trying to figure out what your scene is, it’s kind of hard.

Do you have any compass for what that is yet?

No. [Laughs]. I have no idea. Whoever likes it.

Did you stick around and watch any other acts on day one?

Um [Day 1] was kinda crazy. I got to hear some of Liars, which sounded great, but I was running around a lot. Today [Day 2] I get to hang out more.

Who are you excited to see today [Day 2]?

I’m excited to hear Panda Bear. And Titus Andronicus is playing.

I saw on your MySpace that you feel like you make “sad prairie folk music,” but you are from Brooklyn. How does that match up

A lot of the songs I wrote in Tennessee in a time where I listened to a lot of Joni Mitchell and stuff. And I wrote a couple songs in Austin, Texas, so it all felt really slow and really sad for me at the time.

What’s next for you after Pitchfork?

I just finished a new record, and it’s full-band.

Which is new to you?

So new. I’ve always been solo. There’s only one other time, I got to tour Megafaun and they back me up on one song.

How much does just having a drummer change your whole shtick?

I’m suddenly being described as “rock.” It does open up possibilities for songs and —

oh hi! [runs into Adam from Bear in Heaven and chats him up].

Advice for college students?

Always do what you love even if your parents don’t like it.

Do your parents like your music?

Yeah they do. And they’re happy with this one because it’s not as sad as the last one.

It took them awhile to take me seriously, but whose parents are gonna be like ‘yeah, pursue music.’ but after years they finally can see that I’m serious about it. I can break even on it.

But four subsequent releases and a Thom Yorke stamp of approval later, it’s clear the album barely even scratched the surface of Liars’ noisy, far-reaching sonic array. The L.A. -based musical vagrants are arguably the most inventive group in the ever-expanding bubble of indie rock and in their latest work “Sisterworld, “ the trio’s sound is more polished and murky than ever before.

On Tuesday night, Liars kicked off their North American tour with a show at First Avenue in Minneapolis. Prior to the performance, A&E got a chance to speak with front man Angus Andrew to talk about touring, “Sisterworld” and the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles.

You’ve been playing some material off of your first record for this tour. What’s it like revisiting that work after all these years?

It’s really interesting. I think one of the most interesting aspects about playing live now is the idea that throughout our career, we’ve sort of been known as drastically changing our modes of making records stylistically, and it’s great to revisit some of those albums and acknowledge the fact that, actually, they’re not really that different from each other. The idea that we’ve completely done an about-face with each record doesn’t seem quite as true when you hear songs back-to-back from each of them.

I feel like the first record was a little more raucous than your self-titled and “Sisterworld,” where some of the songs are more atmospheric. Is it hard to transition from that during performances?

No, not really. I think part of a good performance requires space, and I don’t want to do a show that’s all one gear. So it’s good to be able to draw from our catalog in a way to create a set list that works very smoothly — so there are changes in pace rather than everything being one way.

Is that how you felt about your previous tours?

No. It’s just with this record, “Sisterworld.” It was really the first time we got a good objective look at the work we’ve done in the past. For some reason, making this record was in a way a combination of everything that we’ve learned.

On past tours when we played songs from different albums, I didn’t have much of a sense of an overall idea as I do now. After making this record, it’s been a really eye-opening experience in terms of acknowledging certain aspects of our work that I maybe wasn’t as aware of as before. So putting together a live show now, I see it in a different way

How do you feel about “Sisterworld” since you’ve had some time to sit with it?

It’s kind of difficult for me to say. Each record for me is really just important in terms of development. For me, “Sisterworld” was really a big step in terms of that. The way that we made it … we turned a lot of corners in terms of how it was put together. One of the most glaring examples was that we made the record all together while living in the same city for the first time. Now as simple as it sounds, it was a really important thing to acknowledge and realize. So things like that, and the eventual sort of courage to translate melodies into strings and horns, all these things were quite a big step for us, and that’s what “Sisterworld” really is for us.

How did your experience in Los Angeles translate into the songwriting?

I’d been living in Berlin a few years before, so I was kind of blocking out culture in terms of media and TV. So for me, coming to L.A. was really like getting back into the main line of that sort of stuff.

I guess being in L.A. has a big influence in that way. Especially in terms of realizing some of the ideas that we were thinking about, like what is it like to be isolated or dislocated in your immediate environment, and I think when we came to L.A., those ideas really jumped out. Things that I think we were dealing with on past records seem to jump out when they were laid over the landscape of L.A.

What is it about the environment of L.A.?

It’s got a lot to do with the way the city is. It’s so dislocated. It’s portrayed in this image of Hollywood and celebrity and everything, but the reality of it is a lot more chaotic and disjointed, and geographically as a city, that doesn’t really have a central point anymore. The downtown is full of homeless people. These ideas are such a practical example of a lot of things we were thinking about theoretically in past records and before we made “Sisterworld.”

Judging by how you’re characterizing it, it doesn’t sound like you have a very positive perception of L.A.?

Well it just kind of depends on what you’re looking for. For me, it’s a really positive experience. I’m interested in the things that L.A. brings up. It’s such a “modern city” that seems to, in a way, pre-empt what’s going to happen in other cities. So I find it kind of endlessly fascinating. Even though there are parts that disgust me, I find I feel the same way about American culture in general. Sometimes I find it really inspiring and interesting, and sometimes I find it really crass and overwhelming, but that’s kind of what makes it an interesting relationship, and it’s why I’m here.

What was it like getting Thom Yorke involved with the remix album? Were you a big Radiohead fan?

Well I’ve definitely followed their records since basically we started the band. But then they took us on tour. It was a really interesting experience to sort of watch a band like that function. We developed a relationship over the years, so it wasn’t really a big deal to ask Thom to do a remix. There were other people on there that were scarier for us to ask. So in the end no one said no, so it was a really shocking and exciting experience for us.

“The impetus [of Sisterworld] really is acknowledging a sense of dissatisfaction or isolation and then offering the idea of what you could do about it,” Andrew explained.

He draws inspiration from literary figures like Bret Easton Ellis, even alluding to the film adaptation of Ellis’ “American Psycho” in the video for “The Overachievers.” His characters are hollow and miserable, walking on eggshells so as not to upset the natural occurrence of their lives until they liberate themselves the only way they know how—they explode.

But Liars are not the only band from California that draws direct influence from Ellis’ work. Groups like Girls and Ariel Pink also address the forgotten youth and impoverished dregs of the Golden State, but dress them up in hopeful rays of beach pop and chillwave. It’s an appealing aesthetic, but one that Andrew can’t quite stomach.

“The idea that we wanted to deal with is the sense that we don’t really connect with a lot of the music we hear coming out,” Andrew said. “I think it’s frustrating for us because there’s a lot of work being done that is in a way glassing over what I think are the real sort of meaty issues.”

This dichotomy in Cali-deranged music is symptomatic of complex topics writ large, though. The larger, more involved a topic is, the more angles there are to construe. And thus it is to Liars’ credit that their Sisterworld Remixes album was such a success. The bonus disc is a song-by-song reworking of Sisterworld by artists hand-picked by the band, and the results were everything Andrew hoped for, if only because they were nothing he could have expected.

“Just on a very personal, sort of subjective level, it’s a complete mindfuck to give someone a song that you’ve written quite specifically about something and have a certain mood to it, and to get that song back reinterpreted in a way that you never would have imagined … It’s a really interesting way of exemplifying how people can view the same thing in a completely different way,” Andrew said.

Most of those new views can be described in one descriptor that Liars will never fit: subdued. The tension becomes morose, the catharsis becomes sheer bliss. It is nothing you can expect at a Liars live show. Andrew’s sprawling presence writhes in the chaos of the band’s own creation. They manifest the inhuman harshness of a broken world in very human form, embracing the fractured insanity of their notoriously disparate albums.

The threesome are constantly challenging themselves, and their discography might be the best evidence of an eager, if not altogether, ADD group. Ranging from noise to pop-punk to art-rock, Liars seemingly create a new culture or atmosphere for the purpose of each album.

“I think in some ways we’re known for making some very stylistic jumps,” Andrew said.

But that’s to confuse an album’s theme for a narrator’s voice.

“It’s interesting when you’re able to put songs together from different records to show how there’s been a sort of constant line between things that people didn’t see before,” Andrew said.

Same message, different story. Liars’ live show is just another novel you need to read for yourself.

In their five years as a band, the pair has released just two albums (coming in at a grand total of 37 minutes), yet they’ve managed to stay at the forefront of the punk rock radar — a testament to the quality of their tunes, the insanity of their live shows and their commitment to constant touring.

With so little recorded music out on the market, one has to wonder if Birthday Suits have something against being in the studio. Guitarist and co-vocalist Hideo Takahashi says otherwise, attributing the lack of LPs to the amount of time spent on the road.

“We like touring, and we do so much of it that we don’t have time to be home and write new songs,” Takahashi said. “So, it’s like, we go tour, come home, then maybe write one or two songs and then go tour again. But it’s nothing intentional — we just don’t have time.”

It took Birthday Suits half a decade to release their 2010 sophomore album, “The Minnesota – Mouth to Mouth,” but it was worth the wait. The album paraded the band’s impeccable punk sensibilities but also showed the band moving in new directions and trying their hands at different genres.

“I used to listen to more punk and garage stuff, but the older I get, I feel I have a more open mind,” Takahashi said, detailing the influences on the last album, which he attributes partly to drummer Matthew Kazama’s broad tastes and partly to the experience of touring with so many different bands.

Despite their changing style, Takahashi sees no need to rush out and record new albums, criticizing some for putting out too much material.

“I don’t like that so many young bands make a CD, and they don’t sell, but they still make new ones. It’s like, what’s the point unless people hear your music?”

Takahashi is definitely one of those guys who plays for his fans, as his wild stage antics and 110 percent attitude appear at every single show. Onstage, he flails about and stabs at his guitar, brimming with a potency that calls back to Iggy Pop and his proto-punk contemporaries. And somehow, against all odds, he continues to survive, despite the grueling touring schedule.

“You know, I’m a music fan and I don’t like going to see bands that don’t do anything. So many young guys just stand and play music. If you’re not excited about your music, it’s hard to get other people excited,” Takahashi said. “For us, people pay to get in, and we just want it to be worth it.”

“Minneapolis is just so good to us, you know?” Grant Cutler said while sipping coffee in San Diego as he and his band mate Maggie Morrison took a break from their taxing tour.

Formed in 2008, Lookbook are a gutsy collaborative effort between singer Morrison and digital handyman Cutler. Their flashy electronic dance rock is so unabashedly cheesy it makes Lady Gaga’s shtick seem classy. If this sounds like a knock against the band, it’s not.

On their debut LP, “Wild At Heart ,” released last September, Cutler’s colossal walls of glossy digital sound and Morrison’s soaring vocals produce a pure, unapologetic homage to the long-forgotten era of glamorous ’80s discotheque. While Cutler may have been playing in a punk band before teaming up with Morrison, he insists the shift in styles wasn’t all that jarring given his musical versatility.

“Six or seven years ago I got really into electronic music and synthesizers and [expletive],” Cutler said. “But I’ve always liked so many different kinds of music it didn’t seem weird for me to go from one to another.”

Cutler said the pair never had lofty ambitions for the project from the get-go.

“It was, like, six months of just joking around and not really doing anything. Then we kind of figured that we might actually want to make a real band out of this idea, and then we got a show together and it went well,” Cutler said.

As Lookbook safely trots under the umbrella of electronic dance-rock, the band doesn’t offer anything unique or different, but that’s not to say Lookbook is all glam and no guts.

Ultimately, the end result is a sleek, finely tuned production that is as respectable as it is cheesy.

Ritter is currently on tour with his group, The Royal City Band, in support of his sixth studio album, So Runs the World Away. When asked how his latest album compares to his previous work, Ritter demonstrates ambivalence and modesty concerning his stylistic changes.

“I never compare them,” Ritter said. “They’re pretty large and complex, and I worked really hard on it. But, as records go, I find it really impossible to compare. But I’m really proud of it. I feel like it’s my first record as an adult.”

Ritter’s modesty can be linked to his slow rise as a name in American music. Despite releasing his first album in 1999, Ritter didn’t gain widespread critical acclaim until the 2006 release of his fourth album, The Animal Years. But once the album was released, Ritter garnered praise and appreciation for his creative brand of rock ‘n’ roll, folk and Americana. From being named one of Paste magazine’s “100 Greatest Living Songwriters” of 2006 to receiving public support from fan Stephen King, 2006 launched Ritter into the spotlight.

But even in the limelight, Ritter is about as unpretentious as a person can be. When asked whom he would most like to work with in the future, his response was as quirky as it was nonchalant.

“Ben Franklin,” Ritter said. “I like him. He invented electricity, which is pretty rock ‘n’ roll.”

Written and directed by Grand Valley State University alumnus Brian Miller, “Caught in the Crossfire” premiered Tuesday night at Celebration Cinema North in Grand Rapids, where a sold-out crowd excitedly greeted Miller, producer Randall Emmett and the famous Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who starred in the film as well as acting as co-producer.

The film was well received as the audience occasionally cheered throughout and met the ending with a round of applause. “Caught in the Crossfire” tells the story of the Grand Rapids Police Department seeking revenge after one of its officers is shot during what they think is a gang bust gone wrong. More people are killed and as the investigation continues, evidence shows a crooked cop may have contributed to the mayhem. The trust between the two lead partners played by Adam Rodriguez and Chris Kline is tested.

The action is divided into a series of flashbacks between an interrogation room where Rodriguez and Kline are separately giving their statements about what happened and scenes actually portraying the events they describe. From the opening scene of a shoot out between officers and their main suspect, the audience immediately gets to see a personal side of the characters and becomes emotionally invested in their reaction to the shootings.

Miller appeals to a sense of justice as the plot unfolds but does a good job of leaving the viewer to decide for him or herself who to believe among the cops, the gang members and the police informant, Jackson’s character, Tino. The characters are well developed as Rodriguez and Kline transition to acting for the big screen. The audience finds itself torn between the different definitions of justice each uses to warrant his actions.

A big selling point for the local crowd was simply seeing Grand Rapids on the big screen. Director of Photography William Eubank captured some of the landmarks of downtown Grand Rapids, including the Sixth Street Bridge, the blocks between Fulton and Pearl streets and shots over I-196 and the Grand River.

More local flavor is added to the film with recognition of the Grand Rapids Police Department, the Wealthy Street Boys gang and scenes from various neighborhoods and an old warehouse. Also, 75 percent of the crew was local hires who are again working with Jackson on his latest film in Grand Rapids, “Things Fall Apart.”

“Yes, we say you should go to Los Angeles (to pursue a film career) because that’s the natural thing to do,” Emmett said after the movie. “But at the same time, there’s tons of work here and the film community is growing every day and getting bigger and bigger for us. In large part, I want to thank 50 because he keeps bringing movie after movie here.”

The budget of less than $1 million was apparent in the amateur nature of some of the shots, but the approach worked to an extent in that it added to the “gritty, action cop thriller” feeling Miller said he wanted. The exposure for Grand Rapids and Michigan as a whole was valuable.

From someone who is not a big fan of action movies in general, the shoot out scenes seemed unnecessarily drawn out in some instances. Most of the high-action scenes were shot with a “man-on-foot” approach with the jostling of the camera and abrupt pans of the action. This style was disconcerting at times, especially when used in the opening scene when the audience is still trying to get its bearings on what is unfolding.

Despite 50 Cent’s apparent passion for the film and personal experiences tying him to his character of Tino, his acting was one of the low points of the movie. His performance fell flat and failed to truly sell the character. Tino is shot and killed in one of the face offs during the movie, and Jackson joked with the audience after the movie about basing his performance on his real-life gun wounds.

“It was pretty easy because I could draw from me,” he said, laughing. “I just had to focus and I could feel it all over again.”

Overall, “Caught in the Crossfire” was well written and executed and is a film worth seeing. The value of the exposure for Grand Rapids and Michigan alone makes it deserving of recognition as Jackson continues his commitment to bring the film industry to Michigan.

“Caught in the Crossfire” is set to go straight to DVD release on July 13, though Jackson said Lionsgate is purchasing it.

The Post: How does the band’s songwriting process work?

Kelley Darlin: Usually different ones of us will write either part of a song or a whole song, and then when we get together, we flesh it out, kind of like how the parts work on our instruments usually. We all write separately and collectively.

Post: How effective is that?

Darlin: It’s great. There’s a lot of freeness, a lot of collaboration and different ideas and I think that’s maybe why the band’s sound is what it is. It’s influenced by a lot of different things, but it’s also a very distinct sound, and that’s kind of a combination of all our tastes, aesthetics, influences and personalities.

Post: What do the band’s lyrics typically cover?

Darlin: A lot of good times – partying, drinking. There’s some sad songs on there, like “Glass to You.” That song has a lot of the same fears normal pop songs and country songs (do) … but it tends to be more day-to-day stuff. It’s definitely not heavy, conceptual pop. It’s more daily-life type of stuff.

Post: How do you react to people calling you a girl band?

Darlin: Well, it’s totally inaccurate. I guess we started out as a three-piece, but we have a male drummer. It’s also, you know, kind of . . . I don’t know. It’s like calling a band that has black people in it a black band. It’s absurd in a lot of ways, on a lot of different levels.

Post: How do you think growing up poor influenced the music?

Darlin: Well, I grew up in more of a working class, middle class background, but there’s definitely some rural country influences. When I was a kid, I would go out to my grandmother’s – my mom grew up on a farm and my grandma lived through the Great Depression and was kind of a poor farmer. But I think the ruralness and the connection to family and all of that has been a big influence. Also, being resourceful with time and resources and being creative with your time and resources has been maybe constant. Because we started out as friends and we all played music, but we did it to entertain ourselves. It wasn’t to go make a dollar; it wasn’t to impress anyone. It was just for us to get our kicks and hang out and have fun.