B-Sides

In celebration of Glide’s second anniversary, what better way to reflect, than revisiting the words of the past year from our various interviews and features. From Zach Braff, M Night Shyamalan, Steve Kimock, G Love, PJ Harvey and more, you'll be sure to get a kick out of these famous Glide words.

“I spent two months in the studio with John Lennon and I’ll tell you what – it was all there! It was all there in a way that I’ve seen very few people be there. One of them who happens to be my fucking current boss.”

I’d probably be playing Professional Longhair in blues festivals in Europe. I was about to go to Europe and move over there and just become a New Orleans piano player on the streets and subways of Paris. I was a month away from doing that and then Panic called me. So I’d probably be over there just wasting away in bars in Europe.”

"Nah man, just girl’s panties.”

"As far as advice for struggling artists, I'd say separating your art from struggle is the worst mistake you can make. If you really want to be an artist, expect to be struggling forever. You'll struggle to get recognition and once you get recognition you'll have to struggle to change people's opinion when you want to do something slightly different. You have to love exactly what it is your doing. You have to love the work in order to get by. If you do love it, it doesn't matter what the rest of the world thinks, which is the greatest part."

“Yeah, the irony is that I don’t put a lot of stock into money and materials; they aren’t that important. If that stuff went away I wouldn’t give a shit. If those things are your motivators in life, I guarantee crash and burn. “

“In the U.S., there’s a lot of awful shit bands out there getting play and it's tough for a band like us to break through. We are in a battle against this god awful music.”

“I know that a lot of people are slaved to the whole religious angle and things. Somehow, they’ve been brainwashed into thinking Jesus was a Republican or something, which I don’t think there were Republicans then.”

"I’m lucky I have such a great band, that they hold it down. But my rules are to never ever ask the crowd to dance. I like to address the crowd sometimes during a show about a song and bring them into “my world” or whatever, but never ever try and ask the people, ‘oh come up front and dance.’ That’s like half cheese.”

"And so, yes, you do know when a song is finished because it moves you in some way - it makes you excited or it makes you laugh or it makes you feel like you've gone right inside yourself. A song is finished when it stands up on its own as well, when it stands outside of you and it becomes something in its own right. It doesn't have to be attached to you anymore, it doesn't need an umbilical cord to you, it just suddenly floats off on its own and “oh, there it is, it's done, it's a thing and it's finished.”

“I think people are looking for a category, but I do love a lot of 80’s bands. But there is also a lot of 90’s influence in there. I love the Smashing Pumpkins. No one ever says, “You have a lot of Pumpkins influence in your guitar playing.”

“Oh, I don’t know, I guess it resembles like a broken down crane or something.”

“I think that they will get out there, that’s for sure. And then eventually we’ll all be dead and they’ll play everything! The stuff we didn’t want anybody to hear, no matter how much we try to make it so that won’t happen, I am sure that will still happen.”

“When I was a kid I was very closed minded up to the age of 19, in which I only listened to hip-hop, I didn’t even listen to R &B. I saw all those guys as really cool, definitely getting the girls, but definitely different from the whole uniformed culture that I was part of it. They could be black and be totally different."

“It’s a fact that I’ve never had any kind of proper training or anything, I’m sure that doesn’t help either. I’m sure I’m doing all kinds of damage to my throat. I don’t wear any protection near enough, so I’m doing damage to my ears. But I love every second of the playing and the rock and while I’m doing it, it makes me feel 20, 30 years younger. But I feel like hell when it’s over though.”

“I’ve met Jerry Casale from Devo, but it wasn’t through The Black Keys. I met Mark Mothersbaugh too, but that was when I was in high school. I went to his parent’s house and stalked him. “

"It’s like when you’re a kid and you’re dad’s a policeman, you want to be able to wear a cop’s uniform. This is the same thing, but it’s rock and roll. You know what I mean? You get to play fucking dress up. You get to live in another world, it’s all part of my personality that gets up on stage and does that every night.”

“It's not more special because David Fricke is in the audience. The biggest thing that we do when we see that David Fricke is in the audience is that we say, ‘God, let the sound be good, let the crowd get it and I just hope that there is no feedback and that the power doesn't go out.”

“I can only assume that our poor record sales figures, are due to the fact that people say, ‘ah, you got to hear this and I’ll burn you off a copy.’ And then they pass it off and say “yeah, you’re right that’s awesome…brilliant. And then they burn off a copy for someone else.”

"And everybody coming to your show has seen all of the jambands. They know it all. I mean, they know what Umphrey’s latest cover is, and if we happen to be playing [the same cover] just ‘cause we decided to play it or whatever, people will come up afterwards and say, “dude, Umphrey’s just played that last week” So it’s tough.”

“So for some reason just off the top of my head, I just thought up of the name Spymob. And then we kind of did think, you know, that it doesn’t really sound like us, but sometimes it’s kind of a cool thing. I think it’s kind of cool how the Grateful Dead doesn’t really sound as heavy and ominous as the name sounds.”

“Tons of bands do the hiatus thing. Life is funny--you never know what is going to happen. For now I felt the best thing to do was to close this door."

"These fans have invested a lot of time and a lot of money into my band…a lot of energy, a lot of CD burning, a lot of promoting. These kids have given their whole life to us. People will say, “The band doesn’t owe you anything,” but we owe them everything. We owe everything to the fans. This is about the fans in the biggest way possible…without the fans we are nothing. You can sit around and say, "Without us there is no fan base, without music." But the truth of the matter is that we wrote the music and those are the people that decided that they liked it. It’s an open invitation to our concerts, we don’t have control over who comes, you buy a ticket, you get in. I would say to anybody that’s bought a single ticket to see the Disco Biscuits over the last nine years: I owe you my life."

“I didn’t even have Elton John in there. I had piano music, but I prefer Carole King. I even love Bob Dylan, and I like Cat Power’s piano playing. Even Neil, when he plays the piano, but I’m just not into Billy Joel. I’m really not that much of a piano player as I am a rock artist.”

“We are in our 40’s and we grew up with vinyl, so I think we still think in those terms, but not consciously, you know, to think, “this is Side A and this is Side B”—we don’t really do it that way. And when we’re thinking of the length, we’re still thinking in terms of vinyl. You know, anything that is longer than 10 songs is too many songs.”

"Let me tell you something, straight up here, no bullshit. I cannot play funky music and will never be able to. And I’m now too old to learn to. So I love it, but for me to do that sort of thing would not make any sense.”

“I have this theory that your body goes through puberty in its teens, and the mind goes through puberty in your twenties. [Largeman] is dealing with issues that you are going through all the time going into your thirties. He’s lost and lonesome which is something I definitely felt in my twenties. I mean it only takes a six-week press tour to feel lost and lonesome.”

“I hope it never gets called retro. I hate that term. It’s such a diminishing term. It’s like specifically saying we are looking for sounds and ideas from a certain time period, without looking beyond it in any way, shape, or form. “

“Oh my god, am I aware of being recorded? I don’t care about the microphones, there’s been mics on stage there for 30 years, but cameras, man, it was the most nervous I think I ever was in my entire life, including anything! It was ridiculous, I had no idea. I was so pumped up to do it and when I got there it was like, “aaaaaghh!” So, you know, it was not my bravest moment.”

"I’ve felt the way I’ve always felt – if we got something fresh to say, which is a whole reason to do this, then lets continue to do this. If not, we’re pulling the plug. I still feel that way.”

“So a lot of the shows I saw as a teenager were B level arena shows. You know, Zeppelin and the Stones didn’t come close to where I lived, so we’d go see the Molly Hatchets and the kind of B-level and C-level acts. I saw Kansas five times and hated them, but it was something to do.”

“I like good music and I like being surprised, and the best thing that could happen on a tour like that or a festival like Bonnaroo is you surprise people and they go, “whoa, I only listen to The Dead and Widespread Panic, Gov’t Mule,” and now suddenly Sonic Youth is in their palate of desire.’

“Having a producer is having someone to bounce off of, so if you are unsure of something you can really ask their opinion, or if you are tired one day, you can lean on them, just say, “Look, can you steer the ship today because I'm exhausted and I can't think straight.”

“Well, you can call it fairy wings or flowers, or you know, San Francisco hippie stuff, whatever, but I think that what its all about for us is just keeping a positive message in our music, and keeping a positive outlook on life. And if more people did that, what could that hurt?”

“I wouldn’t know what would have happened though if I had gone through this and was 24 and stupid or something. You can see how…we’re not famous, but I can see where people, particularly when they are younger, can get really taken in by taking in the wrong aspects of it all and lose sight and end up really fucking themselves up. At the same time, I sure wish I had the energy of someone who’s 25 than someone who is 40. Because I do feel at times, god damn I’m getting too old for this shit.”