Today is interviews day, enjoy!

* Some words of wisdom from one of the most influential punk rockers ever, Ian Mac Kaye of Minor Threat/Fugazi and now The Evens.

“But I have to say that even though I am critical or judgmental of society at large, I’m not critical of people individually.”

“With Fugazi, for instance, we played a thousand shows or more, and I can tell you now that the definitive version of those songs in my mind was not on any of those records, because I played versions of those songs at some point, at some show, at some circumstance that was just incredible. There were times for a while, where hearing a Fugazi record—and I don’t listen to them hardly ever—when I thought, “Oh, the version on the record is just so not right.”

image by Bruce C. Moore
* Some more words of wisdom from Warphead Jamie Lidell, on the decadence of bling!

JL: Yeah, but even that felt a bit more—I mean, it always happens around beach resorts, a certain kind of money gravitates to the scene. The gold goes to the water. People love to wear it, show it off, roll with it. For me, I just find it disgusting. I can’t laugh at it after a while. It’s actually just decadence—it’s just fucked. And I wonder how people get to that stage where they can afford it: how do they afford all these Range Rovers and Hummers and this and that? They’re expensive things! I can’t afford shit. I haven’t got anything and I don’t really care, but if I wanted it, I couldn’t get it. Someone was telling me it’s all on credit.

* And finally some insight into the way major/indie labels work, and how the change to digital will work for the indies. An interview by Billboard with the Epitaph boss and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz.

If you get caught up in it, you can start believing that you make records. Your bands make the records. If you have a coffee mug company, you can make coffee mugs. But if you’re a record company, you sign artists, and they make records. It’s similar to an art dealer. You own a gallery and you represent a painter, and you create an environment where he can flourish and paint. In exchange for doing that, you have earned your participation.

* Comfort Music has 4 tracks selected from Gilles Peterson’s Gilles in Africa 2004, incl. artists like Letta Mbulu, Fela Kuti, Cesaria Evora and Thievery Corp. and some more tracks from Trans Am’s new album.