By Nicole Breanne

The Stones, Bowie, Elvis, Hendrix, The Beatles, they all played on vinyl throughout my formative years. These guys are the soundtrack of my childhood. I was also intrigued by photographs from that era. Candid shots of the rock stars were my favorite. I would also notice the beautiful girls that were with them. I didn’t know who they were or what they did, but one in particular stood out. As I grew older and the internet came into play, I did my research, Pamela Des Barres was the name.

Pamela Des Barres – known as Miss Pamela, Queen of the Groupies – is world famous, mostly for the company she’s kept. But after reading her books, watching her documentaries, and being part of the music scene myself, I realized she was so much more. And as I got into journalism (I started as rock writer), my desire to meet and know Pamela grew and grew. Finally, I got the balls to shoot her an email and ask her for an interview…

Nicole Breanne: I grew up in a very musical household, not only did we have vinyl, but we had a lot of candid shots of rock stars. Those were my favorite. I always saw these really beautiful girls, you in particular, and I would think to myself, “I want to be those girls.” Now I look at groupies and I’m like, “Ugh, really?”

Pamela Des Barres PDB: You can’t use groupie in a negative way like you just did, I forbid it

NB: Well, that’s kind of my point, I don’t see them as groupies like I see you as one. I just didn’t know if I could call them star fuckers in your living room.

PDB: [laughs] I don’t call them that, I don’t call them anything. That wasn’t what we were about. I didn’t have sex for a long time, I wanted it to be special and I wanted to really love the person and have them really love me. But I did give oral sex – I really wanted to show my appreciation.

NB: Exactly! You weren’t there to just screw rock stars. You were these beautiful girls that were there for the band, you appreciated the music. I really feel like you guys did so much more.

PDB: I’m glad you feel that way because a lot of the bands felt that way. It wasn’t us just trying to be with them, they wanted us there. The super groupies got to be up on stage, we felt what they were feeling. It was thrilling beyond words to be up on stage when The Who was doing Tommy, The Stones with “Gimme Shelter.” I’ve been in some pretty amazing places.

NB: You’re so good about giving details, and not giving too much. You don’t go into who’s big and who’s not.

PDB: People ask that all the time! Who was the best? Who was the biggest? The funniest question I get asked, and I get asked it a lot, is, “What is jimmy pages dick like?” [laughs] So many people want to know that! It’s like wow, sorry, if you can’t find out for yourself, I’m not gonna go that far. They don’t ask about Jim Morrison or Jagger. I guess everyone saw Jagger, but Jimmy is the one they ask about.

NB: You really loved these guys, was it hard to watch them live that extreme lifestyle?

PDB: Yeah, I had to walk away sometimes. I was scared for them, sure I was. I saw them doing more and more, and the drugs got harder, it wasn’t just hash. I won’t lie, I did it too. I did it all. I never shot up though. I guess I’m lucky that I’m not an addictive person, I could walk away. But there were a few times when I had to leave because I couldn’t watch.

NB: Again, you really cared about these guys — but you weren’t the only girl that was around. When I watched the documentary based on your second book, Let’s Spend The Night Together: Confessions of Rock’s Greatest Groupies, I was struck by how there was no jealousy. Was there any of that?

PDB: No. We all really liked each other and we were careful not to step on each other’s toes. When the scene changed and some younger girls came in — that’s a different story. They just wanted us out, and there was name-calling and that kind of thing. Not all of them. There are a few good girls that I still keep in touch with. But the original girls weren’t like that. I loved doing that documentary because I got to spend double time with the girls. They’re still some of my best friends.

NB: What’s it like when you listen to the music of that time – do you still feel that same?

PDB: Some of it is way too emotional. It brings back way too many emotional things. I get very heady. I can’t even listen to “Stairway.” It brings back way too many memories. When it’s on the radio I can’t wait to turn it off, especially if I’m driving. I still listen to Graham Parsons. I was moved by him and his voice and his intense desire to share what he was doing with music. He was so dedicate and I’m obsessed with him still. There was a girl from France who was interviewing me because she’s doing a comic book series on the GTO’s and I asked if she knew him and she said no [so] I gave her CDs. I’m like that, because if someone really loves music, they need to know Graham. That’s what he was about, spreading music.

NB: In your second book you talk about your divorce, your son — it’s a very personal book. Did you just decide that you were going to go balls out with this and tell it all?

PDB: I did that with all my books. But my second book…it’s a different book, its my favorite one. It’s not as well read as the first one, the first one was a bestseller for a long time. I have fans, they’re reading them, but I wish more people knew about the sequel.

NB: You’re working on your fifth book now…

PDB: Yeah, my fifth book will be about my spiritual journey. My agent is having a hard time selling it because I am perceived as a “groupie” and a “groupie” shouldn’t have spirituality I guess. But we have interest from a smaller house.

NB: You teach a writing class – how did that start?

PDB: I would periodically go take a refresher creative writing course throughout my life. Moon Zappa said, “I’ve got this really cool writing teacher you may want to check it out.” So, I went and half-way through the class I thought – I should be teaching this, I could be teaching this! So I thought about it for a year, then I decided to take the plunge and just go for it. I advertised on MySpace, because that’s what was happening at the time. My first group met right here, about 10-12 girls, and they loved it. It’s just great groups of women who are all like-minded, and they have these amazing stories, so life long friendships are made. It’s worked out. I’ve been doing it for 12 years now. I’ve been traveling and now I teach all over and I’m doing my first European trip too.

NB: How do you feel about music today?

PDB: There’s a lot of things I like, nothing like the renaissance I lived though where every thing was great – The Stones, The Byrds, The Doors. I had to choose between The Stones and The Burrito’s. I remember Mercy invited me to Monterrey and I said, “I can’t go I can’t miss The Burrito Brothers!” Now that is one of the few things I regret. But I love Lucinda Williams. She’s the only singer that has moved me like that in decades. I liked Ryan Adams for a while. He went off the rails for a bit, but his new album is good. My boyfriend Mike Stinson is the greatest songwriter. I still go to see Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Dylan always, always. I set my alarm to make sure I get up to get the best seats. Paul McCartney. Mainly the bands I liked then I’ll go see now.

NB: Do you feel like it could happen again? That someone can come along and just revolutionize music?

PDB: It happened in rap, Eminem is a real big favorite of mine because he took that whole other part of music and created it for himself. That was amazing. He’s the last person that has moved me in that kind of way, in the way that I was like, “Wow, this guy is doing something.” Not since Kurt Cobain. Kurt Cobain was the dude.

I left Pamela’s house completely elated. She was more than I had ever dreamed she could be. She was poised and kind, and still insanely beautiful. Part of me hoped that meeting her would quell my thirst for that time. Maybe it wouldn’t be as great as I thought it was, maybe she wouldn’t be. But, alas, I’m left with even more of a longing – so much so, that I’ll be at her January writing class. If, like me, you can’t get enough of Pamela, be sure to sign up for one of her creative writing workshops. Alternatively, you can join one of her Rock Tours, during which she takes groups around Hollywood to her old haunts and reads excerpts from her book. It’s a pretty kick ass trip down memory lane!

by Daniel Robert Epstein

I remember the first time I saw Alice Cooper. It was some bizarre commercial on MTV. It was some janitor picking up an Alice Cooper album and commenting on how scary he was. Then he turned around and it was Alice yelling into the camera. I nearly shit myself and I went to sleep crying. Alice Cooper has that kind of impression on people. Once you see him, you never forget him.

Now you can see the tour that was Alice at his height of his powers on the Billion Dollar Babies Tour. Shout Factory has just released the DVD Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper – Live 1973 – Billion Dollar Babies Tour. Besides having Alice sing some of his classics such as “I’m Eighteen,” “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and “School’s Out,” it also sports some great extras like an Alice Cooper commentary, deleted scene and outtakes.

Read our exclusive interview with Alice Cooper on SuicideGirls.com.

by Blogbot

SuicideGirls’ team of Bloggers and Agony Aunts share their suggestions on how you can give 2012 a kick-ass kick start.

1. There’s someone you haven’t spoken to in a long time. Too long. You fear by now you’ve procrastinated so long that it’s lame to reach out, so you’ve effectively paralyzed a valuable friendship that could easily re-blossom with a single call. You’re not paralyzed, it’s just a head trip. Guilt is useless. Make that call. Say Hi. Apologize. Laugh. Love. Life’s too short. Do it right now. “Happy New Year! I suck” is a great way to start a conversation! – Steve Altman

2. Cut off deadwood! Start by defriending, hiding or blocking the toxic individuals from your Facebook and Twitter feeds. – Dalila Suicide

3. Spend time with people that make you feel taller, brighter, and more capable than you did before. – Darrah de jour

4. Try dating someone you wouldn’t ordinarily date. Like, say, maybe an introverted writer-type that contributes to your favorite alt-beauty blog. Or an evangelical Christian. Those are your only two choices though: the writer or the evangelical. Choose wisely. – Matt Dunbar

5. Spend some time with a niece, nephew or cousin who are growing up and could use your advice. – Atlea Suicide

6. Talk to someone from your Facebook list face-to-face. – CoyoteMike

7. Come to terms with the fact that you mom has a Facebook. – Shotgun Suicide

8. Eating vegetarian style meals reduces the green house gas production. Try to incorporate this in to your lifestyle one day a week. It’s good for you and the earth. – Aadie Suicide

9. Eat lots and lots of cupcakes!!!! What? They’re epic and always put a smile on my face! – Kraven Suicide

10. Unfuck your habitat! There’s nothing like vastly improving your quality of life by having a clean, organized living space. Need tips and/or motivation? Visit unfuckyourhabitat.tumblr.com/, because “no matter what our situations are, we deserve better than to live in filth.” – Perdita Suicide

11. Clean your car and your house through and through. – Atlea Suicide

12. Rearrange a room to get a fresh perspective on life. – Rambo Suicide

13. Go through all your clothes and decide if someone could make better use of some of them. Drop the excess baggage off at a shelter or contributing organization in your area. – Atlea Suicide

14. Donate those holiday presents that you don’t like. – Shotgun Suicide

15. Shop local whenever possible. – Salome Suicide

16. Eat at your favorite mom & pop restaurant, before it goes bankrupt too. – Shotgun Suicide

17. Set up a computer backup plan. Be ready for World Backup Day. – Bob Suicide

18. Start and finish a project you’ve had in mind for a long time. Renovations, painting a vase, knitting, really anything. – Atlea Suicide

19. Set a stupid goal and accomplish it, to prove to yourself that you can. – Darrah de jour

20. Quit saying you will do something and actually do it. When tasks, errands, and commitments are followed through with you feel much more productive. – Kraven Suicide

21. Take a risk. – Darrah de jour

22. Spend an hour with a happy dog, scratching his or her ears. – CoyoteMike

23. Try to go outside each day. Go for a walk. Make sure you have at least 20 minutes of “me” time. This way you’re incorporating self-thought and exercise. It’s very important to get to know yourself. You could be pleasantly surprised. – Aadie Suicide

24. Learn a new skill: baking, crocheting, taxidermy, etc. – Rambo Suicide

25. Take a college class that you want to take, not one that you need. – Shotgun Suicide

26. Find a hobby you can dedicate some time to. Something you love and have passion for. It keeps us young at heart and sane when we can lose our selves in something. – Kraven Suicide

27. Splurge on some really fancy underwear. – Rambo Suicide

28. Add a little color to your life however you see fit. A colorful world is so much better than a black and white one. – Kraven Suicide

29. Make time for yourself. Seriously. Put it in your calendar. Whether it is daily, weekly or monthly, schedule some time and don’t cut out on it for anyone. You’re the only one looking out for you. – Smythe Suicide

30. Treat yourself to an energy renewal weekend, be it at the spa or simply just by unplugging the phone and reading a book. – Atlea Suicide

31. Set up an automatic transfer of money into a savings account each month. – Salome Suicide

32. Watch Fight Club. – Darrah de jour

33. Listen to Valleyheart by She Wants Revenge – Nicole Powers

34. Read Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (snag a free copy here) – EisMC2 and JackalAnon

35. See more live comedy and live music. – Squee Suicide

36. Support non-profit journalism – American Independent News Network, Truthout, GregPalast.com, BradBlog.com are all 501c3’s – donate to support the news that you read for free. Oh, and it’s tax deductible. – ZDRoberts

37. Protest the NDAA, unless you don’t care to plead the 5th. – Shotgun Suicide

38. Join the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) if you care about stopping SOPA. If you spend any time online, you should do. (For that matter, if you’re breathing, you should do!) – Nicole Powers

39. Protect your vote. The election is less than a year away, and you’ll need to start working now to make sure your vote actually counts. Find out why and how by downloading Steal Back Your Vote for free. SuicideGirls helped promote the project so you know it’s awesome and worth a read. – ZDRoberts

40. Get to know your presidential candidates. Look beyond the big social issues like abortion, and research their tax plans, health care ideas, and how they’ve voted in the past. You might find out they aren’t who you thought they were based on a few Facebook posts and Twitter campaigns. The election is coming soon. – Damon Martin

41. Stop by and say hi to your local Occupy. Shake someone’s hand and say “Thank you.” You’d be surprised how much it means to them. Oh, and give them a pair of mittens, it gets cold out there. – ZDRoberts

42. Write “Thank You” notes and post them to people who have helped you get through 2011. – Atlea Suicide

43. Send a letter to a friend, the kind with a stamp. – Shotgun Suicide

44. Create good karma. Treat others as you would want to be treated. In this day in age too many people are being hurtful towards one another in many forms. From anonymous hating via the internet, to being rude to a stranger just because your day didn’t go so well, to physical acts of hate out of spite, jealousy or lack of confidence. Think about how you can be a positive impact on others around you, from your family, friends, neighbors and strangers. Small gestures of kindness can go a long ways and karma will make its way back to you. – Dorsal Suicide

45. Pay for the next person in line at the coffee shop. – CoyoteMike

46. Find joy in the small things. It will help you appreciate the big things so much more. – Kraven Suicide

47. Make today count, because one day you will be nostalgic for it. – Shotgun Suicide

48. Spend more time living in the moment, and less time worrying about the past and the future. Neither of these exist – so live in the present! – Fabrizia Suicide

49. The past is over. Now move your ass. Welcome to 2012. – Darrah de jour

50. Have no regrets. It’s a New Year and that means progress. Do not look back, only forward to the happiness ahead! – Kraven Suicide

by Auren Suicde

She Wants Revenge: is clearly the type of dancy, sexy music that modern rock was hungry for. DJ Adam 12, the jack-of-all-trades who plays bass, keys, does the programming and co-founded the band, spoke with me about his impending stardom and love of SG. Who knew?

Read our exclusive interview with She Wants Revenge on SuicideGirls.com.

By Justin Beckner

The dawn of another brutal election year is upon us and the majority of the country has developed a feeling of distain for politics all together. Still, masses of protesters have flocked to the streets to speak out against corporate greed and corrupt government practices. Never has there been a better time for a band like Anti-Flag to make new record and gear up for another world tour.

Anti-Flag frontman, Justin Sane has relentlessly spoken out against injustice since he and his friends formed the band back in 1988. Sane has long been hailed as one of the most intelligent songwriters of our generation. While musically, Anti-Flag is a direct descendent of classic punk rock bands, lyrically they ring reminiscent of a Woody Guthrie or Billy Bragg. Anti-Flag had a few minor hits with songs like “Protest Song” and “Turncoat” which could be heard being played at almost any protest demonstration during the Bush Administration. It is rather common to find Anti-Flag playing shows at protests. They recently played at an Occupy Wall Street Demonstration. Sane draws a lot of his songwriting topics from his experiences playing at and marching in these kinds of events.

Aside from his rigorous touring schedule with Anti-Flag, Sane has also put out three solo records (one full length and two EPs) and is in the process of putting together another album. In these solo records, he has found a freedom to pursue different musical directions – often this means falling back into acoustic music and dabbling in different genres. The light-hearted solo albums are a glimpse at the other side of the charismatic frontman.

In the following interview, Sane and I discuss the roots of his love of music and activism, the causes and effects of the Occupy Wall Street Protests, and the new Anti-Flag album due out this spring.

Justin Beckner: It seems to me that there are a lot of ideological similarities between traditional Irish music and punk rock music. You came from an Irish household, is that where your passion for music and social justice came from?

Justin Sane: Yeah, it really did. My dad is from Ireland and both of my mother’s parents are from Ireland so I am 110% Irish. My parents were both really involved in activism as a result of their Catholic upbringing. In Catholicism, there’s something called “Liberation Theology” and that’s the kind of theology that Jesus preached – that you should help out in your community and work with the poor and stand up for people who can’t stand up for themselves or give a voice to those who don’t have a voice in the world. With the British occupation of Ireland for hundreds and hundreds of years, there’s always been that drive in the Irish people to work for their own liberation. I think that the idea of fighting for people who are oppressed was carried along with those who left Ireland. Those ideas have been well documented in Irish folk music which is something I grew up listening to and playing. My parents had nine kids because Catholics don’t use birth control. I was the youngest of the nine and we all played instruments. It was like our own version of The Pogues or Flogging Molly within our own family. I’m not Catholic myself, I’m not really religious, but I think that I was influenced by that Liberation Theology that my parents were so profoundly influenced by. They fought for civil rights and fought to make the environment clean for their kids.

JB: Were there any non-political bands that you were influenced by on a more technical level?

JS: Yeah, I mean I’ve always loved KISS. I thought they were really cool. I’m sure there were others – I listened to Jackson Browne a lot. I listened to much of the same music my older brothers and sisters listened to and a lot of it wasn’t political. The Beatles were a band that was unanimously liked by everyone in my family and they had their political songs and their non-political songs. So there was a lot of non-political music that I drew influence from.

JB: You’ve spent a fair amount of time at the Occupy Wall Street Protests. Do you think the message that is being sent by the protesters is getting through to those who need to hear it?

JS: I think it’s definitely getting through because the protesters are being addressed quite often with brutal physical force by a police force that has traditionally been used to work for the elite. I think what we have now is a police force that is propping up a corporatocracy. Let’s look at it from this perspective – if there were protests in North Korea where protesters were trying to make a statement by occupying a square in North Korea and the police came in a brutally beat people up and pepper sprayed them and hit them with non-lethal weapons, the State Department here in the US would be on Fox news decrying the authoritarian rulers of North Korea. But we have that exact same thing happening right here in a democracy where we supposedly have the right to free speech. We have peaceful protesters making a peaceful statement and they’re being beat down by police. I think that says something about the state of our nation and it says something about the concern that those in power have about a message like that being freely spoken. If they didn’t think that message was dangerous, they wouldn’t be sending the police out there to shut those people up. There’s a very clear and directed initiative to suppress that speech and I think that’s really tragic. I’m really proud of the people who are out there making that statement because it obviously needs to be made. People are waking up and realizing that the rich in this country have been taking advantage of the poor for a very long time. So, they’re waking up and making the statement that things in this country are very out of balance – in that respect I think it’s very important that statement be made.

JB: That sense of injustice and imbalance has certainly been getting much harder for people to ignore in recent years. The top 1% of Americans control 42% of the country’s wealth and assets. That’s a pretty staggering figure.

JS: Yeah it is and I think in America there’s a sense of fairness – that everybody has an opportunity to get ahead and that’s based on an assumption that there’s a level playing field that we all start out on. Now people are looking around and seeing that there isn’t a level playing field, things are vastly out of balance, and people with a lot of money are actually breaking the law in many cases and doing things that should be illegal to make more money – all this while the rest of us are just trying to scrape by. I think Americans are pretty fair minded – most people are just saying that they want a level playing field and that’s why we see a lot of protests popping up recently.

JB: Over the past couple weeks I’ve noticed major news networks belittling the protesters on Wall Street. How do you feel when you hear people say that the Occupy Protesters don’t know what they want?

JS: I think a lot of people have a hard time verbalizing it, but in their gut they know there’s something out of whack. That’s where I think the media does a really great disservice by putting out things like, “There’s these occupiers out there but they don’t know what they want.” Because the reality is that if you spent five minutes at any of the Occupy events and walked around and talked to some of the protesters, you’d very quickly find out that there are incredibly articulate people who can tell you exactly what they think the problem is, what should change, and they’d give you statistics to back it up. They’d tell you that the corporations have bought and paid for our politicians to the point that they don’t represent us anymore, they represent corporations, and we want corporate money out of politics so we can have our politicians back. Those are the messages that we don’t see on Fox or CNN. When I go to Occupy Wall Street, as I have a number of times in several different cities, I talk to people who are really articulate, and then I turn on the news and they’re interviewing some guy who can hardly talk and doesn’t seem to know why he’s there. It makes me wonder why the hell aren’t they running interviews with the people I talked to when I was there. But those people at the top of the food chain at Fox news and places like that don’t want a clear message coming out of there. They’re doing their best to make people look stupid but the amount of knowledgeable people down at these protests is unbelievable. I just wonder why we’re not hearing those voices on the news.

JB: With the dawn of another election year upon us I’ve got to ask, how do you think these protests are going to influence the elections in 2012?

JS: One thing that was really clever about the way the Occupy movement was structured was that there is no figurehead leading the movement. That’s a good thing because leaders can be coopted, they can be bought, they can be bribed, they can be stroked in different ways. The Occupy movement is a true democratic process and a true movement of the people. I think that politicians today are just too corrupt to bring this country back to some degree or normalcy. However they will do what they need to do to get reelected and in that sense the Occupy movement is a message of what the people want. It’s not a message of what the corporations want. Ultimately politicians have to bow to the will of the people, and little by little, as a result of the Occupy movement, we see that happening. So it’s a step in the right direction. I think that what the Occupy movement is going to do is change things on a broad scale and politicians in turn will be pulled in and forced to think about what the people want if they want to get elected.

It’s going to take time and it’s going to happen as a result of attitudes and ideas changing. One of those ideas that has to change is that we can have corporate money in politics – we just can’t. There are huge payoffs for these politicians. Say I get elected to the senate and I vote with a chemical company in my area even though I know it’s really bad for my constituents. I know that even if I get voted out of office the next term, I’ll still have a cushy job at that chemical company where I can use the friends I made in Washington to benefit my company. This is what happens over and over again. Our former senator or Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum, who is running for president right now, is a poster child for this type of thing. Dick Cheney is another stellar example – he was with Halliburton, then in the Senate, went back to Halliburton, and then was vice president. That is how these corporations use their influence – what we have right now is not a democracy, it’s a corporatocracy and it needs to change. The Occupy movement gives me a lot of hope. I think people went to the ballot box expecting change from Barack Obama and they didn’t get it. They’re realizing that change isn’t going to come from the ballot box and they’re going to find a new way to move the country in a different direction – it’s really exciting and I feel optimistic for the first time in twelve years!

JB: Switching gears back to music, I’ve been told the new Anti-Flag album is in the mixing process right now. Do you have a title or a release date?

JS: Yeah we’re tentatively titling it The General Strike. A general strike is generally where a city or a country is shut down to make a point that progress will not move forward without the people’s labor. The UK had a massive general strike which wasn’t even mentioned in this country’s news. They shut the entire country down. The idea behind calling the new album The General Strike is that it’s a worldwide general strike and Anti-Flag is a band that is talking about unity between all people. I think there really is a group of people who have unified in this world around the idea of equality for all people – and that’s the concept that the title came from.

JB: A lot has happened in the world since your last album; is there any certain subject matter that you focused on with the writing of the new record?

JS: After going to a number of Occupy Wall Street Demonstrations and witnessing the recurring theme of police oppression and the masses of cops working as a tools for what I refer to as the corporate state, that was certainly on my mind when I was writing for the new album. Because I’ll tell you what, when you’ve had a billy club shoved in your face or been pepper sprayed or witnessed innocent people being beat down for absolutely no reason – the videos are on The Daily Show so you don’t have to look very hard to see it – it makes you angry. Especially when it happens to an old lady or people you know, and when you see this happening day after day to peaceful people who are just expressing their democratic right to free speech. So writing about police oppression was something that happened on this record as a result of that. I’ve been having a really hard time looking at police and feeling good about them. It’s really unfortunate because I have police officers in my family and when police do their job and serve their community and protect people, it’s really nice to see them. But we keep seeing over and over again police acting outside what their role is. It’s really enraging and it’s something I’ve been putting pen to paper about because that’s my way of dealing with it.

We’ve also been writing about the exciting events that have been happening around the world like the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the ousting of Moammar Gaddafi, and the changes happening in Saudi Arabia. And then we’ve got a song about skateboarding (laughs). There’s a general theme that the songs are about what’s going on in the world, but we like to have some fun too. It should be out sometime in the spring of 2012.

JB: There will be a tour ensuing the release of that album I’d imagine?

JS: Yeah, we’re looking at starting in Australia and then playing Indonesia for the first time which we’re pretty excited about. Then we’ll definitely be doing our dates in the states and the Europe. After that we’ll see what happens, were always looking forward to meeting new people, seeing new places, and experiencing new things.

JB: I also understand you’ve been writing some songs for a solo record. What do you get out of writing songs for a solo album that you don’t get from writing Anti-Flag songs?

JS: We had an idea when we started Anti-Flag that we wanted it to be a political punk rock band and when people started to follow the band that was the impression they got as well. When we stray from that formula people don’t accept it very well, some react pretty viscerally to it. On the record Bright Lights of America, which we released a few years back, we really tried to expand and go in some different directions and people either liked that about it or they hated it. [Instead of] trying to force people [to hear[ something that they don’t want from Anti-Flag, I write solo albums. With my solo albums, if I want to write about my cat or my girlfriend I can do that. With Anti-Flag I don’t feel free to write songs like that. Another thing is the ability to write different types of music. In my family we listened to so much music and it was so diverse that it almost makes more sense to come across me playing an acoustic guitar in an Irish pub than playing electric guitar in a punk rock band.

The solo albums give me a chance to do something else and that freedom is really exciting. It’s an opportunity for people to know the personal side of me. Sometimes in Anti-Flag people get to thinking that we’re just these serious political robots all the time – it’s kind of funny. Anyways, I’m hoping to get a solo album together in 2012.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

Gary Numan is best known to American audiences as the creator of the classic song “Cars” back in the 1980’s. But Numan has never stopped making his unique brand of electronic music. Powerful, deep, hot and cold at the same time, Numan revolutionizes music with every new album. His latest is Jagged which is produced by one of the best hard techno producers out there, Ade Fenton.

Read our exclusive interview with Gary Numan on SuicideGirls.com.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

It seems that it is hard to be an extremely popular musician but still be a revolutionary at the same time. Certainly Wyclef Jean disproves that. After The Fugees became a monstrous music phenomenon they stopped making music and they all went on to solo projects with Wyclef being the most successful. Now he’’s breaking into movies as the drug dealer in the cop film Dirty and reuniting with The Fugees in Dave Chappelle’’s Block Party.

Read our exclusive interview with Wyclef Jean on SuicideGirls.com.