(no subject)

because sometimes i need to be reminded of how intelligent and articulate pete is.

music snobs

Roy: Do you have a favorite Ramones song and why?
Pete: Kkk Took My Baby Away – just cos it's not I Wanna Be Sedated.
[...]
Pete: It's an artistic challenge to do that, but the thing that's even harder to master is what guys like Bono or Dylan do. And that's writing a narrative about one street in one small town that is as applicable to a 14-year-old girl as it is to a 60-year-old man. It's hard. That's what I aspire to – but I am far off.
[...]
Pete: I like to have all of my words picked apart in an intellectual manner but for the most part I would rather be remembered for the songs rather than our bone structure or who we're dating.
[...]
Roy: Bud and I were saying there are a lot of Kinks-like elements in your sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek view of life.
Pete: Patrick loves the Kinks – I just remember watching their live videos and seeing this thing that seemed a lot closer to the vanguard of a new movement than anything else.
[...]
Pete: It's interesting I put more weight in "Welcome To The Jungle" for relevancy and winds of change within rock – historically speaking – than "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
[...]
Pete: We pattern ourselves after U2 and Bob Marley – artists that have this amazing pop sensibility fused with some kind of intellectual agenda
[...]
Bud: What quality about Green Day do you admire?
Pete: I think that band went to the edge of losing it and came back stronger and better than anyone out there right now. It's the perfect story and the perfect band to have it happen to. I admire their drive above all – they have maintained their ideals and forced the mainstream to bend to them. I mean they recorded a rock opera!

absolutepunk.net

Q: Why do you feel bands like Fall Out Boy or My Chemical Romance have had success, but other bands like Midtown have not reached the same level (yet)?
A: I think to an extent with Fall Out Boy there is an intangible there that you can’t put your finger on. To me, it’s always been about how we interact with the kids. If I were to lump it in with My Chem, why did Thursday and Dashboard go to here and My Chem and Fall Out go to here? I think the press kind of labeled Dashboard and Thursday as the next Nirvana. That’s a lot of pressure and I think anyone would buckle under that. I think that’s one of the reasons Fall Out and My Chem were under the radar before we sold a certain amount of records. The other aspect is that both of our bands are a bit more theatrical and sexual on the stage. A lot of other bands didn’t allow so much wiggle room, and wanted to be portrayed in a certain way.
[...]
Q: Why was one of your least favorite tracks, "Champagne," put on the record instead of being left off as a b-side?
A: I guess it’s because our band is a compromise and some of us were really into it. I feel like the band and management talked Patrick and me out of it. They also kept on "Dark Alley" and I didn’t want that on the record either. Patrick and I would both agree that we wish "Music or the Misery" had been on the record. The reason why we didn’t put "Snitches" on the record is because when it was done I felt that it reminded me too much of My Chem and I didn’t want to throw it on and have people think we wrote a My Chem song.
[...]
Q: Do you believe that whatever allowed you to relate your lyrics to regular people was a product of living as a regular person? Now that you’re successful, will it be more difficult?
A: No, I think I don’t feel safe in my own skin whether it be sitting around in Wilmette, IL or sitting around in Hollywood. I’m that kind of person who probably has a bit too much anxiety and over works things in his head. I’ve never ever tried to write down to people. I’ve never sat there and been like, "We should write songs about lunch room and high school." I don’t think I could ever write like that. It’s always been kind of how my own head works and I think that I appreciate that people kind of relate to it. But at the same time, it boggles my mind, because I kind of think that everybody thinks that no one understands how they work, but the truth is, a lot of people do.

Q: Knowing the people and age group of your audience, does it ever stop you from writing about anything in particular?
A: I think one of my biggest problems is that there isn’t much of a filter over my mouth. I think people appreciate it because you get what I really think, but on the other hand I talk myself into corners all the time that I can’t write my way out of. I don’t worry about that much; I worry about getting stuck and only being able to write certain kind of songs. That’s why we have some love songs on the new record and I want to write from other areas. I think that, I guess I said it in another interview, in my head I’m always thinking about how I’m a disturbed genius, Ian Curtis or whatever, but I think in reality I’m closer to a messed up kid, Holden Caulfield. I think a lot of people go through that. There’s never a point where I think I shouldn’t write a song about strippers and coke, because there aren’t strippers and coke; so, I don’t need to filter it. It has been problematic recently, but if you sat there and unpacked the lyrics I think that I’m not a very likeable person.
[...]
Q: Do you really enjoy the songs you write? If you weren’t in the band, would you listen to the music?
A: You’re asking the wrong dude. I listen to a lot of bands we play with. I’m a big fan of My Chem and bands like that. I wouldn’t play in a band or type of music I didn’t like. I think it’s ridiculous to think that everybody in these bands listen to all the bands they sound like. We all have a very wide kind of appreciation of different kinds of music. Fall Out Boy never really changed. I think we’ve gotten a little bit better at our instruments; some of us, not all of us [Laughing]. I think that we never really changed and thought we had to make ourselves appealing or whatever. People want to have it both ways. The want to be able to say, "You guys never change, you fucking suck," and on the other side they want to say, "You guys fucking changed." It’s so weird, you can’t have it both ways. I do enjoy the music we play.

Q: Why did you quit playing hardcore music? Do you miss it? Is there ever a chance Fall Out Boy will write a hardcore album?
A: I don’t think there’s ever a chance Fall Out Boy will, but who ever really knows? But I say it’s a pretty safe bet we won’t ever write a hardcore record. I think the problem with so many bands is that they change things so much and kick out so many people and just want to hold on to the name, which I think is stupid. I think that the reason we stopped doing hardcore was because we got sick of the scene. It was cool when there was a voice and it was more about just music and mosh. That stuff is awesome, but I think we were bummed when we would go to shows and people would be like, "Mosh, you ***gots." That’s something your redneck uncle would say. Why would you want to go to a show that’s suppose to be this counterculture thing and put up with that? We got sick of it and started Fall Out Boy. There’s a lot of bands from this scene, or pop bands in general, who go on and go, "We’re going to spice up our music with hardcore parts." We do the opposite where we are hardcore kids writing pop music. That’s how we structure our songs and play. That’s probably why we don’t sound great live.

mtvnews

"I used to hear bands talk about this, and I used to think it's the most clichéd thing ever, but now I realize that it's not — and I really mean it when I say that if I don't get away for a bit, if I don't get some time off, then there's going to be an implosion," he says wearily. "I'm not going to try and kill myself or anything like that, but I just can't go at this rate. But I can't put my cell phone away, and I can't shut my brain off. I'm like a shark: I have to keep moving or else I'll drown."

This sounds really ominous, until he notes later that he's paraphrasing a line from the truly awful 1999 thriller "Eye of the Beholder" that was delivered by none other than Jason Priestley.

Wentz has always been one for dramatics. As a teenager, he took piano lessons and played soccer before he succumbed to his inner misanthrope and realized that he wanted to be in a punk band. He started fooling around on the guitar and gave himself a pen-and-India-ink tattoo. ("It's like the worst thing ever," he laughs, pointing to the tiny X on his right ankle. "Kids, do not do this.") He cut off his shoulder-length hair and transformed himself from a sweetly naïve suburban kid into a socially aware (and slightly goofy) straight-edge. He logged time in Chicago acts like xfirstbornx and 7 Angels of the Apocalypse, bringing the rage of suburbia to the big city.
[...]
"This is the one place in my entire life that doesn't change anymore. It's the only place I can call my own. Everything is exactly as it was when I was 14, and I think about this place all the time because I have this crazy Peter Pan complex going on," he laughs. "I feel emotionally sheltered, because at the end of the day, when things are going really wrong in my life, this is the only place I want to go. I want to talk to my mom or lie on my old bed. I mean, I'd like to try and move out of here, but I don't necessarily think that I should."
[...]
"I feel like there's part of me that in my head is like, 'This is the person you have to work it out with,' [because] I don't know if I can write any new songs if she's not a part of my life. And I think on some subconscious level I'm attracted to that turbulence in my head, which is why I keep going back to her," Wentz sighs. "But it's definitely like something that I consciously realize is bad and makes me extremely unhappy 50-60 percent of the time. Somewhere I just want to find someone that's going to love me forever no matter what; I want someone to show the inside of my head to. That thought keeps me going."

splendid

You've just been elected to the US senate (if you're not a US citizen, please either pretend you are or move forward on the assumption that you've taken a similar government-type position in your own country). What's on your agenda legislation-wise?
Pete Wentz: Redistribution of wealth -- dismantling what has become the state/media connection. I dunno, lots of stuff. Senators can't really do shit. Committees bar too much change and make it slow, so none of this would happen anyway.
[...]
You can go back in time and kill one person without disrupting the space/time continuum, creating a paradox and causing the universe to collapse upon itself. Who would it be?
Pete Wentz: Hahaha. Jesus. Tell me how that's not gonna disrupt the spacetime continuum.

the georgia straight

By the time FOB finished touring for Take This to Your Grave, its fan base had mushroomed into a devoted cult. And that explains why Wentz had mixed feelings when last year's From Under the Cork Tree started to look like it would be something more than a tax write-off for Island Records. Before Fall Out Boy, the bassist did time in a string of Chicago hardcore bands. Most notable was Racetraitor, which eventually landed on the cover of punk bible Maximumrocknroll. Although Stump is more likely to sing the praises of Ornette Coleman than Articles of Faith, hardcore vets Wentz, Hurley, and Trohman haven't forgotten where they came from. (When the creators of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland asked FOB to contribute a Ramones song for the video game's soundtrack last year, the band instead demanded to do "Start Today" by obscure NYC hardcore act Gorilla Biscuits.) Still, Wentz admits he eventually got tired of screaming about how everyone sucks, especially whoever happens to be in the White House.

"It's interesting that hardcore in America can kind of be a microcosm of America in general," he offers. "When America slid right with Bush, I feel that hardcore—at least in the Chicago scene—did as well. It went from being really thought-provoking to bands getting on-stage and going, 'We don't want to talk about all that shit anymore. Now mosh, you faggots.' So it became something that I didn't love anymore."
[...]
"You end up in this position where all these people who threw footballs at your head while you were growing up, and who called you a fruit or a fag every four seconds, all of a sudden are coming out to your shows. They are singing every word and crowd surfing. Your first urge is like, 'Fuck you—you don't even get what's going on.' But what's maybe more important is reaching that kid who's throwing footballs at people's heads in high school right now. If you can reach out to that person and change them, they could end up on-stage a couple of years from now."

If Wentz has no interest in judging others, it's because he's not convinced he has a right to. And there's a good reason for that. Scratch a hypersensitive person and you'll find someone with a heightened sense of self-awareness. And one of the curses of self-awareness is that you know exactly who you are. A less psychobabble way of explaining things is this: when Wentz was younger he had something of an obsession with the video for Gun'N'Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle". In the clip, Axl Rose steps off a Midwest-to-L.A. bus looking like he just escaped an Indiana corn field. By the end of the video, he's transformed into a wild-eyed rock'n'roll terminator who, amazingly, manages to make poofed-out hair look cool. Wentz realizes that today, kids see him as Axl at the end of "Welcome to the Jungle". When he looks in the mirror, though, that's not who's looking back.

"It's interesting that any time you end up on that little box that is the TV, you become this larger-than-life figure," Wentz says. "But in the world of rock, we're pretty much dorks. When we go to the Grammys, we bring cameras with us because we're like, 'All right, we're going to see some real famous people.' I'm 26 and I still live with my parents. We're maybe Axl Rose when he pulls up and gets off the bus. We're never Axl Rose with the teased hair—the guy that he becomes later in the video. We're just not that cool."

he amazes me.