blog Simbarashe.

I turn thirty in ten days. Which means that I was two years old when Off the Wall was released. And everybody talks about Thriller. Over the years, I’ve been on record to argue that while it was the greatest album of his career, arguably of all time, I always proposed that as a record, Bad was better. I’ve been yelled at by fellow musicians, called crazy by fellow black people, but I was just being honest. It was in Michael’s passing, however, that I was able to reflect on Thriller in a way that perhaps I never have before.

I was three years old when Thriller was released. I remember my mother bringing home the vinyl, I remember opening it up, seeing Michael in his white suit sprawled out… But what got me above all else was the tiger he was cuddling. Michael Jackson has a pet Tiger! I thought. And the first Michael Jackson song I remember listening to, now in my adult age, was “You Wanna Be Starting Something”. And like every other kid around the world who stood in front of their parent’s record players, I wanted to dance. His was probably the first music that I danced to. But Michael wasn’t the greatest entertainer who ever lived, not yet. The moonwalk wasn’t invented. At least not quite yet. So the dance moves I knew were still from Off the Wall, from “Rock with You”.

I remember my mother and her roommate sprawling all of their Jackson 5 records across the floor, my mother showing me which Jackson was hers, and which Jackson was her roommates. Her sister Greta had claimed Michael, God rest her soul. And before my exodus from being a tot, I remember the competition that had heated up. Madonna had “Like a Virgin”. Culture Club had “Karma Chameleon”. Prince had “1999”. But Michael Jackson had “Thriller”. And I was too young back then to know what “the greatest ______ of all time” meant. But I knew that that video was special. It wasn’t a video, a short film, however it is that you see it in 2009. In 1983 it was an event. You couldn’t find one person disrespecting that album. That was insane. Unthinkable.

Upon his passing, the arguments began. Was he the most famous person on the planet? Sure he was as big as Elvis ever was, as big as The Beatles ever were… But he was bigger than everybody else. Everybody else. If Madonna died tomorrow, they’re probably not going to have 1.5 million people putting in for lottery tickets to attend a sold-out memorial at Staples Center. There are so many kids now who were born after Thriller and Bad, who are very easy to say how great Michael Jackson was. And there are many people now in their 30s and 40s who casually say now upon his death that he was great.

But Michael Jackson was great. He was Princess Diana great. If the Beatles invented Beatlemania, then Michael Jackson globalized it. His image was Jesus-like; he reduced people to their knees, to tears. To spiritual awakenings. There aren’t many stadium anthems bigger than “Man in the Mirror”. Sure you have “Stairway to Heaven” and “Hey Jude” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)”… But those songs don’t make you cry when they’re performed live. They don’t tear out your heart and leave it splattered on the floor, hopeless and desperate for the angels to descend down and save it.

Michael Jackson was so big, that nobody ever cared that he lip-synched over half of his performances post-Bad. Nobody every cared that his messages seemed to be more choir-church oriented and save the world than anything else. When other artists go down this road they’re mocked and taken for granted. Which may explain why so many have started charities. It’s so much easier to talk about a cause than it is to get up on a stage and throw your entire body and soul into it.

He was so big that he couldn’t just appear on television and perform or give an interview. It had to be an event. Kissing Lisa Marie at the MTV Video Music Awards might have saved a floundering franchise. Performing at the Super Bowl saved the NFL’s halftime draw. He was so big that all of his self promo videos were shots of millions of fans around the world losing their minds. Self-indulgent? Sure, but who else had the resources to pull that off. And he was so big that he didn’t just move into a house, but an amusement park, where he would live out his life the way he wanted, whether we agreed with it or not. We can go fuck ourselves.

But all of that is just ancillary; Michael Jackson wasn’t so big because of those things. All of that about Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the moonwalker that was the golden age of the black Michael wasn’t just why he was. Michael Jackson has been big since he was ten years old. He grew up when my parents grew up. And they embraced him because he was one of them; young, full of wonder. A minority. When I was an adolescent, all of the famous prodigies flamed out. Greedy parents. Drugs and alcohol. Suicides. But they still had Michael. And he was a teenager when they were teenagers. And he had bad skin when they had bad skin. And his music matured as their musical tastes grew.

And so instead of having my own Michael Jackson to grow up with, I got Usher, and I got Justin Timberlake and some guy who used to be around called Ginuwine; artists who are really just his disciples and nothing more. Michael too was a disciple, of James Brown most notably. But he eclipsed James Brown, took his dancing and turned it into something grander. Stevie Wonder put on brilliant shows. Michael Jackson stopped shows. Prince brought the house down. But nobody could build a house like Jackson’s. Timberlake and Usher will never be able to eclipse what he did. Kanye West is way out of his league. But I digress. There will never be another Madonna or Prince, and there will probably never be another Bono. There certainly will never be another Paul McCartney. But those stratospheres I fear would be infinitely closer to catch than the territory that Michael has carved out among the cosmos. Because he became a God amongst men. And for me, for many of us, he will forever be remembered as a legend. For my mother, and many her age, he will forever be remembered as that little boy with the afro from Gary, Indiana. Maybe he wasn’t her favourite Jackson, but he is more hers than he is mine. And I suppose he is more mine than he is some of yours.

Tony Kornheiser said of Michael Jackson’s passing, “In my lifetime there were three great icons… Frank Sinatra, there’s Elvis Presley, and there’s Michael Jackson.”

Since Michael Jackson’s untimely passing this week, there have been a slew of TV and radio personalities lamenting on the loss of this generation’s greatest entertainers, and it seems as though most voices with the power of offering opinion/editorial don’t want to count Jackson’s post-Bad legacy in his greatness. And since so much as been said about his Thriller era (beyond covered), and his days as the wunderkind singer of the Jackson Five, it’s almost a shame how easy it has been for the media to discount the fact that Jackson was great for his entire life, and not just some fifteen year span from the mid-sixties through mid-eighties.

How easy it is to forget, for instance, that when Dangerous dropped in 1991 it was essentially going to be the Thriller of that decade. It was the fastest selling record of his entire career. Yes, Thriller was his greatest album; yes Dangerous was a commercial beast that somehow got panned years later for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with music. This is an album that spent more weeks in the Billboard 200 than Bad. “Black or White” was his greatest hit since “Billie Jean”. The album gave him one of (if not) the greatest music video premiers of all time when the song premiered at the end of a Simpsons episode. And his halftime performance at the halftime show of Superbowl XXVII was the first and only time the ratings of the halftime show were greater than the ratings for the game itself.

How easy it is to forget that his concert in Bucharest, Romania to support the Dangerous Tour in 1992 was not only a huge deal worldwide, it cost (according to the NY Times) almost $20 million dollars just to broadcast it. The consensus is that it was one of the finest moments in his career (and is now available on DVD).

How easy it is to forget the amount of interest in Jackson through to court trials, his one on one interview with Oprah and Diane Sawyer for 20/20 in which he sits down and discusses his much speculated marriage then to Lisa Marie Presley. In the twilight of his career, he was still a huge deal when he made special appearances on MTV’s Video Music awards. The now-lost London residency that he was to take up at the O2 Arena on the heels of the success of similar stints by Prince and Led Zeppelin sold out instantly. More shows were reportedly being scheduled to accommodate demand.

For those people under 25, this is the Michael Jackson that they will have grown up with, not the “ABC” or “Man in the Mirror” Jackson, but so much in his life during these years kept the media in such a slant towards him that the only Jackson they really know is the “Wacko-Jacko” coined and personified by the National Inquirer. There are so many young people (and some older people) out there who are quick to say in his passing that the man was a genius, but that the genius was 66-82 Michael. There is so much evidence out there to suggest otherwise; just look at the Chris Browns and Justin Timberlakes of the world. Beethoven never stopped being a genius, and neither did Michael Jackson. Because if he was truly a genius, which he absolutely, positively was, then maybe people simply need to be reminded of what they think they already know. Because they have no idea.

Dear Slim,

I’m writing this on behalf of many fans, who once upon a time believed that you were it—the Man.

In 99’ I heard “My Name Is” for the very first time, and instantly believed it was the most entertaining rhyme,

That I’d heard since Busta Rhymes, back in 97’, but I leap-frogged you ahead of a ton of rappers to maybe top eleven.

I was so friggin sure that you were the genuine article, that I jammed out to your album way more than Wyclef’s Carnival.

Gimmicks aside (and forget the potty humour), whenever your name was mentioned I would proclaim that He’s Arrived.

The Great White Hope, the Incomparable Slim Shady? You were gonna revolutionize the game like Michael in the 80s!

And boy, when your second LP dropped, it was over! Top eleven? Now the debate was ‘you? or Hova?’

Top three emcees alive? Nas, Hov… wait… Eminem?

Rakim still had a lot of votes back then, but to us, you were in.

“Kill You” was an all-time gangbuster of an opener, and then you kept going on about Kim when you were choking her…

And “Criminal”, while that track was just as good as “F tha Police”,

Everybody in their right mind considered “Stan” a masterpiece. A MASTERPIECE! An classic opus genius work of art!

And then you rocked with Elton John at the Grammy’s and showed your heart.

That’s the way I remember Slim: ferocious, genius and hungry,

Even though “8-Mile” was “Purple Rain” remade, that’s still an on-me!

Why? Cos’ I saw it; opening night. Paid my money, middle seat, and enjoyed it all right…

But then something happened. I can’t put my finger on it.

Wait—actually I can! You started to double-track your vocals and used it as a stamp.

“Lose Yourself”, all right, that was a pretty hot track. But then it turned into your recipe for everything else and you never looked back.

And while it’s hard for a fan like me to every call an artist’s work that I look up to as whack (see: PRINCE),

I gotta say, Slim, some of your later records “is whack.”

In every album cycle the formula’s been largely the same, a mad-funny single followed by an album that put the rest to shame.

First was The Eminem Show¸ and it was… eh, it was cool. Compared to the last one though it didn’t quite break any new rules.

But you sold a whole bunch of copies, and well, I guess that’s okay too,

Actually still a bit of an accomplishment in light of what Napster tried to do to you,

But Encore? Come on, man, you basically phoned in half the tracks!

It was the first time it had occurred to me that you might have put out something that was whack.

God! I was so annoyed that I gave you thirteen dollars! Outside of “Toy Soldiers” I was convinced that you were a robber.

You robbed me! In a hip-hop way I felt superiorly violated. I can’t even explain it—it was like… The Blueprint II—violated!

You were supposed to be that rapper who didn’t put out any crap albums. But because your pedigree was fantastic it wasn’t a critical problem,

And something that could certainly be salvaged…

Until of course the second D-12 album dropped; top-eleven worst hip-hop album of all time

The amount of disgust that I had at that album can’t even be properly articulated in a rhyme

Cos’ I only listened to it one time!

With frown because you were legally committing crimes!

Crimes against your fans for letting people like Bizarre rap on an album with your name on it.

Bucket!

Curtain Call? The Re-Up? OMG Slim!

Even longtime Shady haters were going like, “What’s wrong with him?”

“I hated him before because he was about violence and hating gays,”

“Now he raps like he doesn’t care and I’m super duper amazed…”

Slim, I know I’ve written a whole bunch of negative,

But as a fan, I only do it because your people want a return of the positive

So let me tell you what I want for Relapse 2,

Whatever rhymes you got, trash ‘em.

Lock yourself in the closet until you get really pissed off,

Then come out and hit the mic like it’s your last chance to show off

I want that simple, single-tracked vocal that was just you back when you were raw,

Forget the money, and bring back the days when you put the whole world in awe

I want you to LYRICALLY MURDER fools—chop me up if you have to!

Just bring back the Shady who was crazy before the after.

So I can take your name off the top twenty list and pin you back in the top five,

Er—top three. My bad.

Show the rest of the world what I still see.

Sincerely yours,

This is Sim

For the 2009 Grammy Awards, Starpulse.com contributing writer Simbarashe keeps a blog as everything happens live!

Okay guys, time for this year’s Grammys. Since I’m doing this live I’ll have no choice but to post only my initial gut-reactions as things happen, so hopefully this will be to your reading benefit. If someone is hot, I’ll let you know. If someone is not, I’ll let you know that too. I’m just wondering if anything I blog can or would be used against me.

8:00pm - I’m excited! The Grammys have started!

8:00pm - U2 kick things off with their new single “Get On Your Boots”. It’s like ZooTV Lite! It’s amazing that Bono’s voice  holds up after all these years of screaming and singing stadium anthems. The Edge looks well rested.

8:00pm - That Bono sure knows how to strut…

8:02pm - Is this the second or third straight time that they’ve appeared on the Grammy’s by opening for it? I think that’s a bad way to go. If I’m a top 3 band in the world I do not want the opening slot. People are still settling in, they haven’t got their vocal chords warmed up to scream properly…the whole thing is just awkward. If I were Paul McGuiness, I’d have something to say about that.

8:04 - Whitney Houston! NO WAY! Look at that wig! Ridiculous! She needs to thank her plastic surgeon and personal trainer…

8:05 - And the Best R&B album goes to…

8:05 - Oh wait…Whitney has to make a speech… not surprised… she’s so loaded… somebody give her a glass of water and an aspirin.

8:06 - The award goes o Jennifer Hudson! Well if you remember what I said in my <a href=”http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/01/30/2009_grammy_award_predictions”>Predictions Column</a>…

8:08 - The Rock–er, Dwayne Johnson–apparently he kissed a girl and LIKED it.

8:10 - Justin Timberlake on stage. That’s an awesome suit–where an I get an American flag in bronze?

8:11 - Boyz II Men, Keith Urban and the Rev. Al Green performing together onstage…Al Green’s hair is so perfectly manicured–there’s not a stray hair anywhere. Justin sings a verse from Green’s classic, “Let’s Stay Together”.

8:13 - I love Timberlake, but He shouldn’t be singing more of Green’s song than Green; that man is on FIRE. Best falsetto in the business (sorry, Prince).

8:15 - THIS JUST IN… Chris Brown and Rihanna pull out of the Grammys due to a ‘domestic incident’ involving a battered woman. I don’t have all the details, but I have a Chris Brown story of my own when I was living in Hollywood that would surprise people.

8:21 - Simon Baker presents Coldplay. Nice suit.

8:21 - Chris Martin plays “Lost” solo on piano. His piano and microphone are all colorful and artsy. That Chris Martin is real vibrant for a straight guy.

8:23 - Jay-Z joins Martin onstage to rap to piano. Haunting stuff.

8:24 - Now the full band is in effect! “Viva La Vida”! Will Champion is banging a church bell??? Now that’s innovative stuff for an awards show. Joe Satriani must be bugging out right now. I can see him throwing his guitar at his 60″ plasma and yelling obscenities.

8:29 - Okay, let’s officially add Carrie Underwood to the “Women Who Look Hot In Anything”  club.

8:31 - Wow. Underwood’s chick guitarist is totally shredding. And she’s hot too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before. Throw in a towel it’s over!

8:42 - All right, Song of the Year time! If you remember, I voted for “Amerian Boy”. The winner is… Coldplay! Coldplay! COLDPLAY!!! Man! Quick - somebody call Satriani’s house and make sure he’s still sane..

8:45 - Kid Rock starts off with one of his and goes into”Sweet Home Alabama”. I gotta say, his transformation is on par with Madonna, if only in a purely musical way.

8:46 - I’m telling you, everybody’s in a dope suit this year. Even Kid Rock is GQ tonight. Talk about raising the bar.

8:48 - John Mayer is a completely different lookingguy with short hair.  He doesn’t look like a rock star. In fact, he looks like just the type of guy Jennifer Anniston should be dating. They’re perfect together. I bet you she actually wanted to do Playboy and he talked her out of it.

8:53 - Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift! OMG! OMG! OMG!!!! I’m like, SOOOOO excited! They’re SO cute!

8:54 - Wait, are they even legal yet?

8:55 - Miley sure does have something sparkly on the wedding finger of her left hand. That special bling is blinding me.

8:55 - That Taylor Swift sure has me sold. Girl can sing.

8:57 - Sixteen and Nineteen? Oh well, so I guess I can go on about how I like Taylor Swift some more…

8:58 - Plant and Krauss just won Best Pop Callabo. I smell a sweep…

9:00 - Jennifer Hudson takes the stage. She came out like an old school Anita Baker.

9:01 - Why are her vocals mixed to the background? Somebody in the sound department is FIRED! This is just as bad as TV on the Radio’s performance last night on SNL. At least Hudson’s in tune…

9:03 - Man, when a great performance on TV is ruined by a horrible sound mix, that’s..just..terrible..

9:04 - Two words to describe Heidi Klum playing Guitar Hero in her house clothes: oh yes.

9:09 - Jason Mraz needs to tell me where he buys his hats..

9:10 - The Jonas Brothers! And 710 teenyboppers faint in bedrooms across America.

9:10 - Stevie Wonder’s microphone is turned down! Damn it!

9:11 - The Jonas Brothers sure do put their all into their performances. They remind me of the cheerleaders at Sea World who get you all ready for Shamu…

9:13 - This microphone problem is irritating.

9:14 - Question: So, do the Jonas Brothers qualify as “rockers”? They play guitar, they rock out…but there’s something very “Rock Band” about it. Lip synchers? Maybe not, but do they guitar synch? I really wonder about this…

9:14 - Blink 182! Back together again! Maybe because– oh you know what? Travis is in a sling. They’ll get a pass.

9:16 - Coldplay win best rock album. Really. Martin is definitely on the money by saying the least rock of the rock albums. Pfff.

9:22 - Ladies and gentlemen, Craig Ferguson!

9:23 - “Ladies and gentlemen, the beautifully bi-curious Katy Perry!”

9:24 - Kids, here’s an example of how to successfully spill out of a dress…

9:24 - BTW, did you see the photos that leaked of her actually spilling out of her dress??

9:25 - BTW, the vocal leveling for this entire show has been ghastly.

9:27 - American’s favorite well-mannered son Kanye “Jesus” West comes on stage, and he looks like a “Billie Jean” era Michael Jackson circa 1982.

9:28 - Estelle and Kanye are SHINY! Look at Kayne Jackson’s hair! Ohh that’s just wrong on so many levels.

9:30 - Adele wins best new artist. Well deserved. I bet this is the first time America has seen her face.

9:34 - Speaking of 1982, there’s a LOT of people walking around NY these days like it’s 1982. They even got boomboxes. What the hell? Are these still sold in stores? If the Jheri curl comes back I’m moving to France.

9:36 - Morgan Freeman is in the house! Whew! I was worried that his woman might’ve strangled him after what happened…

9:37 - Kenny Chesney holding it down with his guitar. Looks like they fixed the vocal mics problem.  Actually, the vocal mics worked for Swift and Cyrus too. Makes me wonder if the engineers are the reverse of all those “I love everything but Country Music” people…

9:40 - Natalie Cole! Also known as Whitney’s temporary roommate for a while, if you know what I mean…

9:41 - Record of the Year. Probably will go to Coldplay again, the way things have been going (there’s always a sweep)

9:41 - Plant and Krauss again! It’s shaping up to be a two horse race!

9:42 - I’m so surprised that Plant wins a Grammy and people only marginally clap. Do they not know who this man is?? LED FRIGGIN ZEPPLIN! See? That’s what happens when you give a Grammy to an old timer in front of a bunch of people signed up to the Jonas Abstinence Club.

9:44 - I mean, can you take the sex and drugs out of rock an roll? Oh, wait. The Jonas Brothers are giving their list of 500 newly signed petitioners to Coldplay. It all makes sense now…

9:48 - Queen Latifah has the most godly compexion ever.

9:49 - Jay-Z, Kanye, Lil Wayne, and T.I. together on stage!  But wait! M.I.A.! Preggo!

9:50 - Every time I see T.I. I’m just happy this cat isn’t in jail.

9:50 - The Rat Pack! I mean the Black Pack!

9:51 - M.I.A. is on her own planet with the “swagga”. Good Lord she’s on Mars. I don’t even know if this is an insult…no…definitely not an insult…

9:52 - T.I. just got served on his own track. But if there was a Mt. Rushmore for current rappers, you’re looking at them.

9:54 - BTW, are Jigga and Chris Martin still BFFs?

9:55 - Kate Beckinsale! I need a drink…

9:55 - Sounds like Paul McCartney is about to come out. Back to Beckinsale–her hair is phenomenal.

9:55 - I’m sorry, it’s Sir Paul McCartney.

9:56 - With Dave Grohl on drums, they’re doing “I Saw Her Standing There”. Grohl looks like he seriously just rolled out of bed.

9:57 - BTW, how come every time Paul–Sir Paul plays in front of a nationally televised audience, he’s playing songs from thirty-five years ago? He and Stevie. I mean can you imagine Madonna coming on next to perform “Holiday” or “Like a Virgin”? Let’s hope Radiohead plays “Creep”…

9:59 - Time out: I just saw a bunch of pictures of Speidi doing really stupid workout moves and forms of PDA online. Talk about cheesetastic. I’m convinced Spencer Pratt has taken the Art of Smug to a whole new legendary level.

10:05 - Best Male Pop Vocal - and Kid Rock somehow is nominated. But the award goes to, John Mayer!

10:06 - OH COME ON! Where’s Jen!

10:06 - He’s always so sincere when he speaks publicly. He’s always so irritated when he speaks to TMZ and other assorted paparazzi.

10:07 - What’s up with Jay Mohr’s hair?

10:09 - Another superb vocal performance by a country singer. They’re killin’ em softly this year. Why does the bottom half  of her blouse look like a lampshade?

10:11 - Adele performs “Chasing Pavements”. Her voice is amazing. Why couldn’t CBS give Jennifer Hudson this kind of love so we could hear her? Utterly unacceptable.

10:13 - BTW, what’s up with all these rappers performing twice?

10:19 - Gwenyth Paltrow is so leggy. What’s up with that dress?

10:20 - Radiohead! (YAY!) With the marching band from USC! (BOO!)

10:20 - Thom Yorke is looking like old Thom Yorke. Like Thom York when Radiohead first came out. Very retro.

10:21 - this performance is hot! The marching band is hot too, I regret to advise!  (I kid about hating on USC! Sort of…)

10:22 - It’s official, Radiohead have turned in the best performance of the night. Standing O’s all round.

10:29 - Justin and T.I. on stage (again). Justin’s mic is in the background. So is T.I.’s. Conspiracy? I think so!

10:31 - But hey, at least T.I.’s not in jail…

10:35 - Obama’s won Grammys? Wow. Proof #1,586,304 we have a black president!

10:37 - I don’t, it’s weird having someone giving a “Yes We Can” speech who isn’t Obama. He should trademark that speech or something.

10:37 - They really like to show McCartney and his chick a lot.

10:39 - I want a full Congressional hearing into this “Mic Malfunctions for Non-Country Stars” thing.

10:40 - Jamie Foxx, Smokey Robinson and co. did a bang-up job.

10:43 - So apparently, Justin performed twice because he was the one replacing Chris Brown and Rihanna. Not lookin’ too good for our boy Chris.

10:47 - Neil Diamond! And he looks quite rested! And a little scared. He’s totally putting on a Nixon face. Hide your children.

10:49 - But sweet Caroline is a timeless song… BAH-BAH-BAAAAH!

10:49 - The microphone problems haven’t been fixed three hours into this thing. Astounding. Am I missing something? Should I be listening to this in Dolby 5.1?

10:53 - Chef!

10:55 - We got a blues battle on stage and the guitars are turned down like the mics. I give up.

11:04 - Lil Wayne on stage (again) with Robin Thicke. Very low-key performance.  Can’t hear Thicke.

11:09 - I see empty seats!

11:10 - Best Rap Album goes to…

11:11 - Tha Carter III!

11:11 - Lil Wayne brings his entire family onstage! There’s about to be a Carter ho-down backstage. BBQ, ribs, crab legs, jambalaya …

11:18 - Plant and Krauss are performing. It’s almost 11:30, which means if they’re last performers to go they may likely win the Grammy for Album of the Year…

11:21 - Robert Plant is smiling like he knows he’s gonna win the big one.

11:22 - It’s amazing that no one got cut off on their acceptance speech this year.

11:23 - Green Day are up to present the Album of the Year…

11:23 - Was Ne-Yo’s album Album of the Year good??

11:24 - And the winner goes to…. (they won’t give it to Wayne…rap haters…)

11:24 - Plant & Krauss!

11:25 - And the people file out of Staples Center faster than you can say “robbed!”

11:26 - Well…looks like they finally cut someone off…

11:27 - And it’s Stevie Wonder! AGAIN!!!!

“Did they have any good stuff over there?

“Yeah! I snagged this coat for forty-five dollars…”

I’m still reaching for my ink pen, barely making eye contact with bassist Chris Knight, who sports a dapper grayish-blue Nehru style jacket for the occasion.

“How much does it normally cost?” I ask.

“About two hundred and fifty dollars,” he replies with cool gratification.

This was in fact, my first exchange with three of the members of Lemon Sun, the indie rock outfit at the Mesa restaurant in Silverlake, near downtown Los Angeles. Knight had earlier been to a retail warehouse to check out a sale that apparently was closed to the public. As singer Robert Kolar and guitarist Melissa Dougherty listen on with great enthusiasm, I became jealous that I myself wasn’t there to scoop up the deals. He had a knack for making ordinary things sound incredibly titillating. And aside from the fact that Dougherty was valiantly fighting off a cold, it was the sort of relaxed atmosphere you’d expect from a band that had been together for a while, and after almost three years, they certainly fit the part. Enamoring fans with some of the catchiest concoctions of British and Southern Rock, it’s no wonder that they, along with guitarist/keyboardist Michael Shapiro and drummer Nick Rucker, are one of the best and brightest bands that Southern California has produced in recent years. With their upcoming debut LP, Tales of Uncertainty due out in June 2008, the band takes time out of their schedule to reflect on their career from simple musings to playing with The Killers.

Lemon Sun has been around for a few years now, but a few of you have known each other for quite a long time. How did you first meet?

Kolar: I met Chris first. It was geometry class; I was fifteen years old, and I remember this kid sitting in the corner by himself. I didn’t really know anybody at school, and I wanted to meet people.

Did the two of you hit it off right away?

Kolar: No, I thought he was an asshole.

Knight: [laughs] I was real standoffish back then. I’d bounce around from clique to clique and come and go as I pleased. Eventually I found a group of long-haired alternative kids who shared the same musical interests as me. I had a friend, Armen, who brought Rob by one day, and since we both realized that we had a mutual friend in common, the two of us were able to click.

What kind of music were you into back in those days?

Kolar: Growing up, my dad played Leonard Cohen records. My mom is from Jamaica, and she mostly played reggae; you know, Marley, The Wailers, stuff like that. Later on I fell in love with bands like Caroline and the Violent Femmes. I loved their self-titled album.

Knight: My parents listened to classical music all the time, but I was into punk mostly. Operation Ivy, Strung Out, Lagwagon… [pause] They were supportive.

Dougherty: I’d say that MTV in general had the big influence on me, but when I saw U2’s Live from Red Rocks, that did it for me. When they performed “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, I knew I wanted to be a guitarist.

How did the rest of the band come together?

Kolar: Well, with Mikey…when I was in high school I tutored him on guitar. He was maybe eleven or twelve at the time. Then his family moved away to Dallas, but we managed to keep in touch. About three years ago he moved back to California, so for us that was a natural fit. We met Melissa through Craigslist soon after that. Mikey and I went to her house in Koreatown to meet her and thought she was great.

Knight: And then we met Nick through a friend who was trying to play matchmaker for the band. He was like, “I’ve got the perfect drummer for you…”

You’ve played some notable shows in your career. How was it opening for The Killers?

Dougherty: I think that was one of the easiest shows we’ve ever played.

Kolar: Yeah, it’s definitely easier to play in a room full of thousands of people than an empty room. The crazy thing about The Killers’ gig was that, I think that was only our seventh show. I had strep throat; it could’ve really been bad. But when we came out to do our sound check, people rushed to the stage.

They thought you were The Killers?

Kolar: [grins] We got some new fans.

Dougherty: It’s really funny how those things work themselves out. I remember we played at a fair a few weeks before that and there were maybe eight people on the lawn. We go from that to opening for The Killers. Go figure.

You also played SXSW last year. How was that experience?

Dougherty: Oh, we have stories about that…

Kolar: We drove from LA all the way to Austin for twenty-five hours nonstop because couldn’t afford to lodge anywhere. So we’re in this huge van, and Chris is sleeping in this spot in the back that we called the crevice; we made it so that one of us at a time could lay out flat and sleep. Anyway, Chris had been sleeping for a while, and all of a sudden he jumps up and goes, “something’s wrong—why did the road get all bumpy?” We’re looking back at him, telling him to go to back to sleep. About a minute later, one of the tires blow out. It was nine in the morning and we’re in the middle of the desert just outside El Paso, so we hung out with the snakes until AAA arrived.

Knight: Yeah, the guy’s tow truck service was called “Camel Tow.” Hilarious.

Kolar: That was great! But all in all, I’d say that bands romanticize too much over the thought of playing there. In reality, it turns out to be quite stressful. There are literally thousands of bands, and you suddenly feel like a needle on a conveyer. It’s certainly beneficial for bands that already have a lot of hype, but because there are just so many bands, I think a lot of acts go out there thinking they’re going to get discovered and end up greatly disappointed.

What did you think of Austin as a whole?

Dougherty: I liked Austin, I’d go back. Very cool town.

You seem to have a lot of fun with everything that comes your way. For example, there was a negative show review in which the journalist seemed turned off by how you played to the crowd. You responded by posting it on your Myspace page.

Kolar: To be honest, I’m excited for more bad reviews! [grins] I’m looking for maybe five or six terrible quotes…

Knight: We just have a good time with it.

Kolar: It’s a performance. David Bowie, Queen…you know, we’re not like The Strokes—we’re not an anti-performance kind of band. With artists like Justin Timberlake or Britney, people assume it’s pop and suddenly you don’t have integrity.

Dougherty: We have a big sound. Hendrix, he was a real performer. We strive to be like that. We get on stage and do our best to put on a show for people in the audience.

Kolar: We understand that if we act a certain way on stage we risk losing ultra-hipsters, but there are a lot of people who really appreciate it. There used to be a place for real indie rock, but nowadays it seems like there’s not so much anymore.

Knight: I would say that musically, we like it when people have their own slant on their view of the band. We love it when people like you come at it with their own perspective.

Kolar: Within reason! [laughs]

Melissa, as the lone girl in the band, do you view yourself as a role model to other girls?

Dougherty: [long pause] I don’t know… [pause] I mean, I don’t think I feel pressure or anything like that but… [pause] I don’t know, I can’t say.

Kolar: I’ve noticed. Girls respond to her like she’s a hero, which is great.

Dougherty: I think that I can relate in being an outsider, female, interracial…I know what it does to people. In teaching guitar to younger girls, I try to empower them. I try to share that light with other people.

Knight: I think she does a great job.

Your new album, Tales of Uncertainty was produced by Dave Schiffman, whose past credits include engineering for Rick Rubin on the final Johnny Cash albums, as well as Janet Jackson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and System of a Down. How did you guys hook up, and how was it working with him?

Dougherty: We met Schiffman through a mutual friend. Our friend’s label didn’t want to use him for their recording sessions, and during that time, he became a fan of our band and came out to our shows for a whole year. After a while he didn’t have time to wait on the other project and agreed to produce us.

Knight: It was probably the most painless recording process we’ve been a part of. He was really keen about the preparation of the band. He kept it real.

Kolar: He was definitely out to get us the sound we wanted.

How did that differ from the recording process of your previous two EPs?

Kolar: With the first EP, we had to record that in a practice space that was right next door to this other band. So there was a lot of competing going on, racing against time. We’d have to wait for them to finish playing a song and go, “All right, hurry up and record!” We had to get most of the takes right rather quickly. And then with the second EP, well that was just different…

Dougherty: Everything was weird about those sessions. We had this weird producer who would have people over all the time.

Knight: Yeah, random people would just come in and do weird shit; turn knobs and press buttons for the hell of it. That was pretty surreal.

Kolar: With Dave, it was definitely a welcomed change. We were in the studio from noon till midnight for eleven days.

So how does Tales of Uncertainty sound in comparison with those two EPs?

Kolar: There’s definitely more direction and continuity. This album is a lot more rootsy than those two EPs. It’s very American, organic, bluesy. It’s more Creedance Clearwater than it is British rock, as it was in the past.

Knight: Yes, and I think that has to do with our influences with other genres as well as our influences with each other. Since we arrange songs as a band, everybody puts their own ingredients into the mix. For me, these guys are my biggest influences. The album resembles the band as whole.

“Telephones” and “Stranger” are two popular Lemon Sun songs that are set to be on the new album. What are those songs about?

Kolar: “Stranger” is about a friend—a bizarre character, really, and I wrote the song after observing him for a while. It’s about the road to self-destruction, but sort of in a funny way. I hoped subconsciously that if he heard the song, he’d like it. Luckily he did. With “Telephone”, my sister was in London during the 2005 bombings. I remember trying to call her up and wondering if she was alive. So that became the chorus, though the song isn’t necessarily about that situation. The verses deal more with social commentary than anything else.

And the video for “Telephones”?

Kolar: Jason [Argyropoulos, the director] was great. I threw a lot of shit at him. Some of it stuck, some of it slid down the walls. He was great.

Beyond the new album, what’s next for Lemon Sun?

Knight: Keep playing, keep making more fans. Maybe for all of us, we couldn’t not do this, you know? Musicians are musicians; that’s all we know how to do. Doing this keeps me sane at the end of the day, so the goal is to take it as far as we can. If I was a member of another band, I wouldn’t be half the musician that I am. That’s how much they inspire and motivate me.

Dougherty: I agree with Chris. We want to take Lemon Sun as far as we possibly can; be successful, but not egomaniacs. [pause] A cooler U2.

Kolar: Yeah, it would be awesome if we could have cultural effect on music some day. I know this probably sounds cheesy and all, but I think it would be cool to be a soundtrack in someone’s life. It would be great for somebody one day to say, “that song reminds me of this one time in my life…” At the end of the day, we’re all gonna die. Might as well leave something behind.