William Beckett, singer for The Academy Is, is a star. What separates him from the morass of whiny pee-pant, post-hardcore singers isn’t just strange lithe beauty. He’s a guy unafraid to take chances; he climbs out on musical limbs and sometimes tumbles because he’s curious about life, its characters and the inherent experiences. We need confliction from our songwriters, particularly those properly mining pop’s mother lode. Here are Beckett’s monomanias this week:
5. Steve Buscemi dreaming? I had a dream the other night in which I was a director starring in my own film. Look out Zack Braff and Clint Eastwood ...
4. No sleep ’til Chicago: Sleep has always been a problem for me, and it gets no easier on tour. Even when I’m dead tired, I’ll find some excuse to stay up. And I won’t get into the party nights.
3. OK, those party nights: We were at a hotel with the other bands on our tour. I was on the second-floor balcony with a bottle of whiskey, and one of the boys in Days Away called up asking for a pull. Knowing it was a bad idea, I dropped the bottle down to him. He caught it. When he jumped to hand it back to me, the bottle smashed, and broken glass and whiskey showered down. He gashed his hand pretty bad. I felt responsible for about 2.5 seconds.
2. ipod truffle shuffle: It seems the aesthetic value of music has changed dramatically. A disc with album artwork and lyrics beats the hell out of an mp3 on a small white box. But that’s just me.
1. Wilder or Depp? Though the two actors had different direction for the role, and both performances were stellar, I can’t accept a new Wonka. Gene Wilder was and always will be Willy Wonka.
Van’s Warped Tour, Sunday, July 31, at the Pontiac Silverdome.
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