2014 Quotes of Note

Carrie Akre with Goodness last January in Seattle. (Cat Rose photo)

Lots of interviews again this year and loads of insightful and humorous quotes.
Here's a few of our favorites:


Goodness' Carrie Akre about returning to the stage to sing a tune with Candlebox (who were on tour together in the '90s) in front of some guys who heckled her earlier that night:

I feel like it was extremely cathartic. And that's the thing about being in music, too, is you kind of gotta love a little bit of that crazy and conquering. You gotta love it as your experience and your war stories. You gotta put it somewhere in your heart.


Bad Religion bassist Jay Bentley discusses Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister:

He's just a badass. Everyone from Gene Simmons to Sid Vicious were just wet puppets compared to Lemmy. Not the best, but the loudest, not the most technical, but will smash your face with sheer brute force. The epitome of a rock and roll bass player. Untouchable and unfabricated, unapologetic and quite frankly one of my ideal role models.


The Muffs' Kim Shattuck about conquering on-stage nervousness:

Is it worth it to get this nervous about something that's fun? I wrapped my head around the fact that I'm just not gonna get nervous ever again... never ever, ever, ever, ever again. I couldn't take it anymore. And it worked out well when I was doing the whole Pixies thing because the manager kept trying to make me nervous, just saying things to me that were really obnoxious, like, 'Oh, billions of people are going to be watching you, so you better be perfect.' And I'd be like, 'Good thing I don't get nervous then' ... whatever.


Corrosion of Conformity's Woodroe Weatherman on writing songs:

You gotta put those twists in there. When you're learning it, some of it seems a little hard to grasp sometimes, but once you get it in your head, it's like, 'OK, I'm in the groove now.' Especially some of Mike's riffs, man, he tosses some doozies out there that can be hard for me to get a hold of sometimes. But that's part of the challenge -- if everything was 4-4 and the same three chords, I guess we would have already gave up a long time ago.


Orange Goblin guitarist Joe Hoare about his musical guilty pleasures:

I really, really love early Elton John -- you can't get much better than that for the time. I love The Beatles, I love anything that's got a good musical hook. I draw the line at Katy Perry, but I'm a real sucker for a good sing-along song, whether it be acoustic or whatever. There's quite a few there. I probably wouldn't mention a lot of them because I don't want to get lynched. For me anyway, I can't constantly listen to real heavy rock all the time -- it will drive me mad. I even had classic FM in the car today, it's just classical music. It was one of those days, the kids were screaming. I enjoy (music) like that, as well -- real calming, relaxing music.


Necros/Laughing Hyenas' Todd Swalla drums up these thoughts about the Who's Keith Moon:

It’s hard to describe in words the epic proportions that come to mind when one talks about the drumming of Keith Moon. You can talk about the manic prankster and chemical intake, but what really stands apart is his playing. Pete Townsend always made a point of describing his playing as going forward as opposed to left and right like most drummers, and this is oh so true.  Many have tried and no one really comes close if you think about it, not even myself, Ginger Baker or Dave Grohl.


Steve Miller of The Fix on playing gigs in the early '80s:

It had to be loud, it had to hurt, and we loved the volume in our own ears.


Zero Boys' Paul Mahern on the band's recent album "Monkey":

I hope that fans of the old stuff will like this record. It is certainly coming from the same place -- it's just 2014 and not 1982. I think the melodies are tight and poppy, the guitars are full of hooks and the rhythm section is spot-on amazing.


The Adolescents' Tony Reflex about Little Richard:

From the moment I heard the wail of Little Richard and saw that crazy hair, I was in. Little Richard’s voice,  the catchiness and double entendres and the wild, over-the-top performances appealed to me as much when I first heard him as it does right now. I think he’s one of the greatest rock and roll singers of all time.


Stiff Little Fingers' drummer Steve Grantley about playing with Jake Burns:

Jake and I are first and foremost friends. We are mates and would seek out each other's company whether we were in a band together or not. We go right back -- through good times and bad. Playing with Jake is a pleasure because he's serious, but not pretentious. We work hard and then have fun. He's a lazy git when he writes, but it's always worth the wait.