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\nFrom leading the various Palace projects (Palace, Palace Brothers, Palace Music) to his current stint performing under the Bonnie \u201cPrince\u201d Billy persona, Will Oldham never seemed to compromise his challenging music or disparate lyrics. For this reason (or, perhaps in contrast to this reason) his new Bonnie Billy album comes as such a surprise. Sings Greatest Palace Music<\/em> finds Oldham revisiting some of his fan\u2019s favorite compositions and reinterpreting them as Bonnie Billy. For newer fans it\u2019s a slew of new songs and for older fans it\u2019s Palace completely recontextualized into commercial country music. Like all of his projects, it\u2019s a drastic leap from his past. And Oldham isn\u2019t apologizing.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Though one of the most renowned artists performing in the indie music scene, Oldham looks obtusely out of place in the luxurious suite at Los Angeles\u2019 Chateau Marmont, where he is currently conducting interviews. As a hotel employee brings in several platters for dinner, Oldham is confronted with the bill for the evening\u2019s meal. \u201cWhat do I do with this?\u201d he asks perplexed.
\nAlmost too snidely, the young attendant answers, \u201cYou can sign your name.\u201d
\n-\u201cAnd give it to you?\u201d
\n-\u201cUh, Yeah.\u201d
\nNo tip appears to have been signed over, and the employee belligerently takes his leave.
\nAs Oldham\u2019s dinner slowly cools, the musician discusses not only his current album \u2013 Bonnie confronting the Palace repertoire \u2013 but also the state of independent music, working with Johnny Cash, and his aversion for empty chairs.<\/p>\n
Antero Garcia<\/strong>: So you\u2019ve gotten over your aversion to interviews?<\/p>\n Will Oldham<\/strong>: Everyone is a challenge. Everyone is different and we have different conversations. I got here yesterday and it was a good time to just decompress because New York was really really harsh. So many people and the time change and flying. Today I didn\u2019t start until three and we\u2019ll do interviews until 11 or 11:30. And then tomorrow I\u2019m at KXLU and one other interview. Thursday I\u2019m flying to Las Vegas to meet my girlfriend at a fashion convention \u2013 she sells clothes.<\/p>\n AG<\/strong>: Sounds busy, do you have any time to do some surfing while you\u2019re out here? AG<\/strong>: No, I kinda got this problem with swimming\u2026 I can\u2019t do it. AG<\/strong>: Nope, I\u2019m like a lead pipe in the water. AG<\/strong>: Yeah, it just isn\u2019t going to happen. AG<\/strong>: Speaking of great records and movies, any fairly recent material you\u2019ve been enjoying? AG<\/strong>: Hmm, I liked Heartbreaking Work<\/em> more. I also really like the McSweeney\u2019s stuff that Eggers has helped publish. Design-wise they all look solid. AG<\/strong>: Have you been to Eggers\u2019 pirate store in San Francisco? AG<\/strong>: I know you\u2019re a film buff too, anything you could recommend? AG<\/strong>: It\u2019s not too gimmicky? Like would the movie work if it weren\u2019t told backwards? AG<\/strong>: \u2026 or just an empty chair! AG<\/strong>: Did you get caught up in any of the Oscar nominated movies? AG<\/strong>: Do books and movies have a big influence on your music? AG: <\/strong>How did you end up touring with Bjork on your last tour? Your music sounds different, but I think both of you share a similar aesthetic. AG<\/strong>: Yeah, actually I was going to ask you about him. I was talking with David Pajo (Papa M) recently and Harmony Korine played your new album for him and was confused about what you did. Have you played him the album? AG<\/strong>: Would you want to record something with here sometime? AG<\/strong>: Do you ever try to work in a genre completely different from what you\u2019re doing as Bonnie Billy? AG<\/strong>: As far as the songs you recorded for Greatest Palace Music<\/em>, how will you be performing these in a live setting? AG<\/strong>: So did you arrange these songs in this new way? AG<\/strong>: Besides the new Bonnie \u201cPrince\u201d Billy record you also released the Seafarers Music<\/em> EP. How did you end up doing that? AG<\/strong>: This is one of the few releases you\u2019ve done under your own name. AG<\/strong>: The EP reminds me a lot of John Fahey\u2019s later recordings, were you a fan? AG<\/strong>: Speaking of Mick Turner, how did you and he get involved in doing Get on Jolly<\/em>? Had you read Tagore\u2019s work before the project? AG<\/strong>: Are you conscious of your audience when writing out songs? AG<\/strong>: When I was talking with David Pajo, he said you were one of the main reasons he decided to record Papa M songs where he sings. AG<\/strong>: I think so. As much as I like Whatever, Mortal<\/em> it\u2019s not my favorite Papa M release. AG<\/strong>: It was a pretty big shift from Live from a Shark Cage<\/em>, which got him the most attention for Papa M. AG<\/strong>: David said he\u2019s planning on doing another record. Would you work with him again for the next Papa M full length? AG<\/strong>: Did Johnny Cash\u2019s cover of your song \u201cI see a Darkness\u201d have an influence on you going back to the Palace songs? AG<\/strong>: How did the cover come about? AG<\/strong>: What really interested me about the cover is how Cash took a song not necessarily about death and made it sounds like it could be about nothing else but death. It\u2019s kind of the same thing he did with \u201cHurt,\u201d which was such a big hit for him on his last album. AG<\/strong>: How\u2019d you land a room at the Chateau Marmont? AG<\/strong>: That must be kind of a trip to see someone like Liv Tyler in the lobby. AG<\/strong>: I found an interview online with John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats in which he says, \u201cI think that Will Oldham should be asked \u2018Why have you assumed this Southern persona? Why this kind of music for you? Why do you write these songs that are laden with these profanities -which seem to insult people from an entire region of the country?\u2019 You know?\u201d AG<\/strong>: I see \u2026 I was – AG<\/strong>: Besides Palace, are there any other artists you would go back and record as Bonnie Billy? AG<\/strong>: Bonnie plays the Boss! AG<\/strong>: You\u2019ve said you grew up listening to the \u201880s underground, stuff like Husker Du. Does that still have an influence on your music? AG<\/strong>: I recently talked with Ian Svenonius of Weird War he talked about how much the music scene has changed since \u201880s. Like the whole underground network isn\u2019t really there anymore. AG<\/strong>: So you feel a close connection with the \u201880s punk movement. What about your contemporaries that play in the alt-country genre? Will Oldham profile [SORRY, I LOST THE ORIGINAL HEADLINE. I BET IT WAS GREAT]<\/strong><\/p>\n By Antero Garcia<\/p>\n Will Oldham helped convince me to swim. A southern California native for my entire life, I feared water like the plague. I sank like a lead pipe in friend\u2019s swimming pools and stayed as far away from the beach as possible. This time around, Oldham\u2019s staying with friends and living a more modest Angeleno experience than room service and B-movie star watching. He\u2019s decided to unveil his songs to a small audience at McCabe\u2019s Guitar Shop, a venue he became enamored with earlier this year after seeing folk artists Espers play a knockout set at the quirky locale. For most of Oldham\u2019s latest recordings, he writes under the persona of Bonnie Billy, apparently deemed a \u201cPrince\u201d somewhere down the line.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easier to write,\u201d Oldham explains about releasing music as Bonnie. \u201cIt makes it less limited because I don\u2019t have to answer for it.\u201d<\/p>\n For his latest \u201cBonnie Billy\u201d album, Oldham worked along side guitarists (and former member of Zwan) Matt Sweeny. Oldham would write lyrics that Sweeny fit to music. The result is an oceanic opus; Superwolf<\/em> finds Oldham\u2019s haunting voice guiding a relationship between dangerous curves. The album is a travel-weary vessel not likely to reach its destination. At one point Oldham sings, \u201cThere is no God but God. God in your body, which is mine.\u201d In addition to Bonnie\u2019s interpretation of Oldham\u2019s past recordings, last year found Oldham acting in the upcoming film The Guatemalan Handshake<\/em>, tour extensively with label mate Joanna Newsom, and even non-ironically cover a Mariah Carey song (\u201cCan\u2019t Take That Away\u201d \u201cI like that song a lot,\u201d he explained). \u201cWhen people write on their records this was all recorded live or all recorded using analog equipment it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s not really very interesting. I don\u2019t really give a shit,\u2019\u201d he says matter of factly. \u201cAre you making an excuse for the record? Who gives a shit? You should make the record you want to make.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, nothing is ever cut and dry in Oldham\u2019s (or Bonnie\u2019s) world:<\/p>\n \u201cAt the same time, I have done concepts. I know that for me there are those kinds of concepts behind most of my recordings. We make the record the way we make them and then we present the song to you and the audience. The concept is nothing that we would want to share.\u201d<\/p>\n Even keeping aspects of his music private, Oldham seems the opposite of pushing any kind of agenda. His songs don\u2019t directly address current events, and the songwriter carefully considers what kind of a role his art inhabits in such tenacious times.<\/p>\n \u201cGosh, it seems like a good thing for people to encourage education and community,\u201d he stresses as carefully as possible. \u201cTo the extent to which those things fall under advocacy, I think that\u2019s important: just being sure your friend, your family, your neighbor is educated because you care about them and that the communication lines are open between people.\u201d<\/p>\n And do either Oldham or Bonnie \u201cPrince\u201d Billy think those communication lines are open?<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a good question. I think there are a lot of people trying really really hard and that is so inspiring. \u201c<\/p>\n Oldham\u2019s sincerity and ability to instill meaning into even the smallest couplet is what makes his prolific catalog also sincerely profound. It\u2019s also what weaned me into a water lover. After his McCabe\u2019s performance, Oldham congratulates me for the third time on my swimming accomplishment; a firm handshake from the man behind the Bonnie moniker.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Yesterday wasn\u2019t a very good day, it was cold and rainy and I heard tomorrow is a big storm. My friend gets back and he\u2019s a good guy to go surfing with, so ideally tomorrow will be the storm and the next day we\u2019ll go surfing all day. You surf?<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Really, you don\u2019t swim?<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Wow. Where were you raised?
\nAG<\/strong>: In San Diego.
\nWO<\/strong>: Interesting. There\u2019re nice beaches there. You like to put your feet in the water? Have you tried to swim?<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: It WILL happen. You may not like it but you could make it happen. Someone should throw you in the ocean sometime… Because being in the water is one of the best things in the world. There are great things like a good nights sleep and great things like eating well and great things like records and movies, but swimming is above all of those things. That\u2019s why I go surfing.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: I like that first Cat Power record and the last one. Dave Eggers \u2026 I didn\u2019t like Heartbreaking Work [of Staggering Genius]<\/em> but liked the other one\u2026<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Yeah, the books look great and I didn\u2019t know it was Eggers leading the ship\u2026. It\u2019s got that chair logo and it\u2019s weird. A lot of people use chairs in art and it doesn\u2019t mean anything to me, but so many people use it that it must mean something. Bill Callahan [(smog)] has used chairs on his records for years. Lots of people use empty chairs and I just don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Uh-huh. It was such a fun store to go into. There was one drawer that said \u201cworries\u201d\u2026 and it didn\u2019t open.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Irreversible<\/em>. It\u2019s such a good movie \u2013 there\u2019re some movies like Todd Solondz\u2019s but they\u2019re not good enough to merit being that dark. Irreversible<\/em> is exciting as a movie.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: It might still work, but that\u2019s part of the form. It\u2019s like would the Lincoln Memorial look good if Jerry Seinfeld was sitting there? It would still be kinda cool, but it wouldn\u2019t be the same.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Yeah that would be my nightmare!<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Really liked the Lord of the Rings<\/em> movies. They showed the extended versions of the movie in the theaters, and I really liked the extended first one, but I fucked up and missed the second one, so I went and rented it.\u00a0 The second one was a million times better extended. It was just a more satisfying movie. And then on the dvd they had a making of Gollum feature and watching that helped realize why the movie was so great: everybody giving credit to everybody else. It was a very team effort thing. Everybody complementing everyone else.\u00a0 And it\u2019s amazing how many people are into this. I went to see Return of the King<\/em> like three weeks after it had come out in Baltimore at like one in the afternoon \u2013 and it\u2019s packed! [laughs] All different ages and kinds of people. Nothing wrong with that, it\u2019s great.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Movies do yeah, books not as much \u2013 the similarity between music and film being a time thing that the reader cant really control. Ideally you\u2019re there until the end of it and the amount of people involved in the making of a record or movie and how important it is for everybody to contribute to what is going on is similar.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Do you know the filmmaker Harmony Korine?<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: I did briefly, but he was probably just being polite. We\u2019ve been friends for a while and he\u2019s made a bunch of films and has known Bjork for a while and introduced the two of us during the time she was in Lars von Trier\u2019s Dancer in the Dark<\/em>. At one point he was like, \u201cYou should call Bjork.\u201d We kept up correspondence and asked if I wanted to go on this trip. I agree; it\u2019s a similar aesthetic if different genre.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: I would like to and we talk about it\u2026 maybe we will.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: It depends on how you identify things as \u201ccompletely different\u201d \u2013 I see us [Bjork} as similar. Have you heard of Tweaker? It\u2019s this guy, Chris Vrenna, who was a drummer and programmer for Nine Inch Nails and now he\u2019s doing this solo thing as Tweaker. I wrote lyrics and sang on one song on his first album as well as on the one that\u2019s coming out. And people would say that\u2019s more like Bjork, it\u2019s electronic.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: I don\u2019t know what they\u2019ll sound like the next time we take them on the road. I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll sound like this record, but in the spring we\u2019ll have a big band, and my cousin who\u2019s a piano prodigy will be there and maybe he can play some these piano parts.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: I made demos and sent them to one guy and he wrote these charts that Nashville players play. I\u2019d heard of it before but had never seen it. We play them all the time live so it wasn\u2019t anything different for me \u2013 it was different with these guys but something I was familiar with.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: The guy wrote me and edited in some music for a movie I had done a long time ago. He wanted permission but I couldn\u2019t, since it was for another movie. The music worked, but he still couldn\u2019t use it, so I said maybe I could make new music for it. He was excited and I knew what he was going for so we did the music for it.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: The guy asked me. He asked Will to do it. If he asked Bonnie to do it Bonnie would have recorded it.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Not as much of the later things\u2026 even some of the middle stuff. In terms of approach, it was coming from Mick Turner\u2019s music.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: I bought the book Gitanjali<\/em> because it looked good \u2013 like a great looking book I had found for 25 cents and started reading it and really liked it. Mick and I had talked about making music and he\u2019d send me sketches and I thought what kind of words can go with this. It\u2019s gotta be something kind of looped. So what else is looped and repeated? Well devotional kinds of things but you don\u2019t want it strictly religious. The Tagore poems are pretty earthy and skip around. We changed it around so it\u2019s not completely referential to Tagore.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: I always have been, just because the songs are made for the audience. But usually only so much as I can call myself a part of that audience. I can make any sort of judgment call, but its worthless without the audience. I hope people like it<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: I think he should sing less. I do think that David is unparalleled at putting together intricate instrumental things. And singing, he\u2019s still at a point where he\u2019s paralleled. Know what I mean?<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: He has done some of the best records ever made and then these new records are not as good as the old records because he\u2019s 30 something years old and still learning to sing. When he was playing with Stereolab and King Kong it was a time I told him he shouldn\u2019t play with so many people. It makes me angry. Why is he spending so much time with these bands \u2013 and God knows about Zwan? It was before he was Papa M. Later I was glad when he did the \u201cLast Caress\u201d cover and the Papa M Sings!<\/em> EP, but the last album \u2026 I just feel like he wasn\u2019t challenging himself \u2013 he\u2019s hard on himself and for him making records can be a difficult process. Sometimes he does things that are easier and they\u2019re not as great. I think parts of Whatever, Mortal<\/em> are really great and some parts I thought he should have been harder on himself because it would have been fucking stellar.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Completely shifted, yeah. When you talk to him he hears what he wants to hear. I\u2019ll say that sounds good and he\u2019ll feel like I\u2019m telling him to do just that.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: I never talk about this much. It depends. With Ease Down the Road<\/em> it was good, we worked really hard. Whatever, Mortal<\/em> it was like, \u2018You want to come and help me work on this?\u2019 I came and played some stuff, did a few overdubs and some mixing and I left. He said we produced a record together and I was like, \u201cDude, we didn\u2019t. I was just there for a little bit. It\u2019s cool but not true.\u201d I feel like I\u2019d have to put my foot down a little harder if we do something else. There\u2019s no reason he isn\u2019t releasing the best music ever made. He\u2019s got it inside him musically and emotionally. It\u2019s about control. There were times with this record that were very difficult and times that were a pleasure because I was surrounded by such talented people with great musical ideas inside.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Maybe to some extent everything has an influence. I do know especially in the recording process. We recorded \u201cI See a Darkness\u201d at Rick Rubins\u2019 house a couple of blocks from here. But the main engineer had been an engineer who\u2019s worked with Johnny Cash for years. He\u2019s probably in his 60s. Seeing how all these guys were approaching the music and the session was different from anything else I had done before. Just as it was with the first Tweaker session. When we did Master and Everyone<\/em> we used a Nashville guy. He said we could make a record in the classic style on the musician and arranging level in this super streamlined level, without sacrificing expression or fun.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: My friend Matt Sweeney met Rick Rubin at a show and they said they had already cut it. Rick came to a show and asked if I wanted to play on it, and I asked if I could meet Johnny Cash. Rick introduced me as the guy who wrote \u201cthat song\u201d and Johnny said, \u201cI don\u2019t know, I wasn\u2019t happy with my vocal performance on that song, lets do that again.\u201d And that\u2019s probably one of the reasons it made it on the record, since there\u2019s so many fucking outtakes.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Not to blow my own crotch too much, but it was cool cause Rick Rubin was like, \u201cIt\u2019s too bad you named your record \u201cI See a Darkness\u201d because it would have a made a good title for this one. And it\u2019s true. What was that album called? \u201cSolitary Man\u201d? You know that is weird it\u2019s a song about all these women.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: I have a friend who is friends with the manager. I thought it would be fun and fairly cheap. I have it for the night but I\u2019m not going to stay here. I\u2019m house sitting for a friend with three dogs. But that\u2019s part of this. It\u2019s fun. It\u2019s like making this record with these Nashville dudes and bringing family and friends to meet them, and now you\u2019ve never seen the Chateau and so you can come on up. I saw Liv Tyler and Leiv Schrieber. They were just in the lobby while I was checking in. I listened to Leiv Schrieber say what room he was in so maybe I\u2019ll put my record by his door.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: I was just thinking, \u201cShe doesn\u2019t t look so fat\u201d\u00a0 – all the gossip magazines have been saying she looks fat. I saw pictures where she was headed toward Kirstie Alley-land, but she looked healthy.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: [Long pause] I don\u2019t know \u2026 after the first record people said I had this country sound and perpetually saying it was like old country. And with those older records we thought that was bizarre. It wasn\u2019t anything weird I don\u2019t feel kinship with the south or southern literature or film anymore than I would Armenian music or films. It\u2019d be like\u2026 I\u2019m not sure\u2026 who does he think he is? A fucking rain cloud? That\u2019s what he is, a fucking gray rain cloud with rain cloud shoes. You can\u2019t say anything to it because it doesn\u2019t make any sense.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: He impresses me as a man with a lot of energy and has to say something about everything. Does he write a lot? Have a web diary or something?
\nAG<\/strong>: Yeah, he has his own blog that is updated pretty frequently, www.lastplanetojakarta.com<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Hmmm\u2026.Phil Ochs or Glen Danzig or Bob Marley, or Bruce Springsteen.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: Yeah! fucking A. \u2026 I like to play my older brothers songs too\u2026<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: I think they were a huge influence. That whole time was a huge influence. Not only that music then, but being able to have a lot of human contact with those people and seeing how they developed. The way the underground functioned and matured. Where is Bob Mould now? Where is Paul Westerberg now? Where is Steve Albini now? Where is Ian Mckaye now? Where is my brother now?<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: He\u2019s another big talker, but sounds like he has more to say than the Mountain Goats guy. He wrote this fucking great article in Index on how Paul McCartney is a great Beatle. I\u2019ll never buy a McCartney CD but I\u2019ll never think ill of him again. I don\u2019t know if Ian is the same age as me or older or younger but we\u2019re getting old. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s an underground. It\u2019s not the same but I think its similar and he\u2019s still an active part of it. I don\u2019t know if he or I could be anything else. There are certain people in the \u201880s who were so great in the underground they could never be anything else.<\/p>\n
\nWO<\/strong>: No, I don\u2019t. I feel like I\u2019m more comfortable in the room with or listening to Ian\u2019s records or Bjork records. I don\u2019t know if a style makes a record.
\nAND THE SEQUEL!<\/p>\n
\nIt was Oldham\u2019s bursts of enthusiasm for the water that helped me put my qualms at ease and mildly learned to doggy-paddle. He told me: \u201cSomeone should throw you in the ocean sometime… Because being in the water is one of the best things in the world. There are great things like a good nights sleep and great things like eating well and great things like records and movies, but swimming is above all of those things. That’s why I go surfing.\u201d
\nThat was a year ago when Oldham was staying at the posh Chateau Marmont in promotion for his then latest record\u2013 a lavishly created concoction of the songwriter\u2019s songs from the early \u201890s under the Palace moniker. Currently, Oldham is waiting out the rain-sullied waters to hit the Los Angeles beaches before debuting songs from his latest album, Superwolf<\/em>, out on January 25.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s a largely accepted fact among Oldham fans that he is a difficult man to talk to.\u00a0 Although he seemed loquacious when discussing the ocean, he\u2019s much more cautious when strangers try to broach other subjects or poke holes into his quiet past. In many ways, Oldham tries to let his music speak for him, but even that can be a clattering, difficult experience. Enter Bonnie Billy.<\/p>\n
\nAnd is Oldham a religious person?
\n\u201cWhat do you mean? Do I believe in Jesus?\u201d Oldham asks carefully. \u201cNo, I don\u2019t believe in Jesus, no.\u201d
\nHe dodges specifics about feelings of spirituality and hesitant to make any firm political stance. And yet, the concrete specifics and lingering ambiguity is exactly what imbues Oldham\u2019s folk songs with so much emotional depth. The songs\u2019 alacrity led to a tribute album to the songwriter released last year helmed by artists like Iron & Wine and Calexico.
\n\u201cOh yeah,\u201d Oldham quips, as if he had forgotten of the release, titled I am a Cold Rock. I am Dull Grass<\/em>. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I had an interest in listening to it and the label sent me some copies so I listened to it. I thought it sounded really good. I wasn\u2019t expecting to like it, but I did.\u201d
\nTechnically, the album is the second tribute to Oldham\u2019s extensive discography. Last year\u2019s album found Bonnie revisiting Oldham\u2019s catalog of songs under the Palace name. Bonnie reinterpreted the stripped down and bleak songs into lusciously arranged commercially viable country standards.<\/p>\n
\nAs for continuing to make music, Oldham explains that his main goal is to make something sincere, at least from Bonnie\u2019s perspective. He\u2019s often frustrated with artists that rely on gimmicks to promote their albums.<\/p>\nTell people this is awesome:<\/h3>