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A few weeks ago I posted a blog asking for Girlicious fans to send in emails explaining why they love GLG and why they should get the chance to interview the group. Well, we were swamped with entries, but Wilber’s email stood out above the rest! Here’s what happened when he sat down with Nic, Nat, Tiff and Chrys!

Holy eff you guys, just over a week ago I spent 13 minutes interviewing Nat, Nic, Chrys and Tiff (yeah, I use their short names, we’re tight like that), aka My Fave Group Of ‘08, aka Girlicious, and FINALLY (after some terrifying technical difficulties), here it is! I cut it into parts for your selective viewing pleasure.

And OMG, just wait for the part where Natalie calls me out on my Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious blogs… and I’m like, “a-blah duhh mlah mlah buh”, and she’s all, “it’s cool, it’s cool”. Aaaaah!!!!!

PART 1
My “Like Me” ringtone goes off (people at work love my ringtone, let me tell you), then they talk about the new album a bit… (camera a little shaky to start because I think my hands were a bit shaky)

(YouTube link)

PART 2
Talking about “Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious” a little bit …

(YouTube link)

PART 3
The ladehs show us their self-created SNL skit, we ask if they were portrayed fairly on the show, and then - OH NOES - Nat calls me out for being a snarky blogger!! Omagawwww.

(YouTube link)

PART 4
Tiffanie talks about her portrayal on the show and I couldn’t help but wonder… have they ever had to explain “Like Me” lyrics to any older/younger relatives?

Yessssssssss!

Georg, Bill, Tom & Gustav of Tokio Hotel

Bill, Tom, Gustav & Georg of TOKIO HOTEL were back in the MuchMusic building today, and so naturally, since it worked so well last time, I had to pull them aside for a couple of minutes to ask them a few of your fan questions. The guys were in good spirits and once again I was amazed at how relaxed, grounded and fun they were. Here’s how it all went down with the German rockers…

First off, welcome back to Canada! You just performed at the Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey. How was it?

Bill: It was really, really cool. It was the first time really performing after my surgery. We played three songs and there were a lot of fans and then after that we traveled to LA and in LA we had one concert and now we are here in Toronto.

So what do you prefer? Playing in festivals or your own concerts?

Bill: I prefer doing our own concerts.

Tom: Yeah, doing your own concerts are great. You have your own production team and your own crew and your own stage and stuff. It’s great.

Bill: You know, festivals are always hard because there are so many bands and then it’s just crazy backstage. Everyone is talking and there are so many people.

Georg: And you don’t really get a sound check.

Tom: You always have sound problems in festivals, but I think at Bamboozle it was cool.

Bill: Yeah, it was good.

Did you get a chance to see any of the other bands perform?

Bill: Unfortunately, no. We had a really, really tight schedule.

Tom: Yeah, we had a lot of interviews to do and stuff like that and yeah, not much time.

What are some of your most embarrassing ‘guilty pleasures’?

Tom: [laughs] I wouldn’t admit to them. But Georg, he’s a David Hasselhoff fan.

How “German” of you…

Georg: Oh, come on - not again. He’s told this joke, like, 10 times now.

Tom: It’s not a joke. It’s the truth, but it’s embarrassing.

Georg: [rolls eyes]

Bill: I love dogs, but that’s not embarrassing. I just really love dogs. You know, if I see a dog I just go crazy.

Any kind in particular?

Bill: No, any dog. When I see a dog, it’s like, “Oh my God, come here, come here!”

Tom: And Georg really likes to surf videos on YouPorn, and that’s also embarassing. [Laughs] I’m joking.

Georg, is it true that you like Nickelback?

Georg: Yeah, I love Nickelback.

Tom: I really like the video for Rockstar because there’s Kendra and, uh, from the Playboy Mansion - the three Bunnies. So that’s a great video.

Are there any other Canadian bands that you know of and like?

Gustav: Is King’s X from Canada?

No, don’t think so.

Bill: Billy Talent are cool.

Nice. Hey Georg, does it bother you when people call you “George”?

Georg: Um, people can call me whatever they want - Georg or George.

Tom: Or you know, on his case where he stores his bass, he wrote “David Listing.” [laughs] He likes the name David because of Hasselhoff. George Hasslehoff!

Georg: [groans]

[all laugh]

So last time you were in Toronto, you went up the CN Tower and went shopping at the Eaton Centre and went a bit unnoticed. Do you like that? Was it refreshing not to be attacked by throngs of fans for once?

Bill: That’s always the goal, to go into a city and at first no one recognizes you, but we really want people to see us and to have fans. And now it’s really cool that we have Canadian fans and that we’re playing a concert tomorrow night. So I think it’s better when people recognize you. That’s good for a band.

Tom: It’s always the goal that people recognize you on the street.

Bill: But of course, sometimes when you have free time, it’s nice when no one recognizes you and you can just chill.

Tom: But that’s boring.

Well, your fanbase is growing in Canada and now people know you are here for the night - they’ll be looking for you.

Bill: Yeah, I think there will be some fans at the hotel tonight, but our schedule is so tight so that we are doing a lot of photoshoots and interviews during the day, so we don’t have as much time this time to go out and check out things in the city.

Well, is there anything about fame that you find annoying?

Bill: I hate paparazzi, I really hate paparazzi.

Tom: Especially when we’re on holidays.

Bill: Yeah, especially on holidays, it’s just terrible. I hate them in Europe. In America there are also paparazzi, but not as as bad as in Europe. It’s very terrible, I hate it.

So are you constantly on edge when you’re walking around? Do you always notice them? Are they hiding behind corners or in bushes…?

Tom: Well, yeah, it depends. Sometimes on holidays, they hide. But, you know, on the street they just attack us.

Bill: Yeah, you know, it’s OK to, I dunno, when it’s at a concert or whatever, but in free time or when you’re in private, I think it’s just annoying.

So we all know how you got your name, but how did you come up with your band’s symbol/logo?

Tom: You know, the idea was that in this logo we had a lot of T’s and a lot of H’s. And, yeah, that’s what it is - it wasn’t meant to be a big deal.

Bill: We just wanted something that was very simple. And, like, everyone can draw it and that was the idea so you can paint it on walls –

Tom: — or windows –

Bill: — or my neck. [laughs]

Who designed it?

Bill: We did it together with a guy –

Tom: I think it was my idea.

[all groan]

Have you ever actually worn traditional German clothing like lederhosen for Oktoberfest?

Tom: No, never. Sometimes Georg does, when he’s dancing to David Hasselhoff.

Bill: We’ve never even been to Oktoberfest so far.

Tom: No, I hate Oktoberfest.

Do you drink beer?

Tom: Yeah, we drink a lot of beer, but not at Oktoberfest.

Well, I read this study that states the average German drinks 120 liters of beer per year.

Tom: We drink that in one month.

[all laugh]

Bill: No, we drink a lot of beer, but in America it’s really hard because you have to be 21 to drink alcohol.

Tom: But not in Canada, right?

No, here in Ontario it’s 19.

Tom: 19?

Gustav: [throws hands up into the air] YES!

[all laugh]

But in Montreal, it’s 18.

Georg: We LOVE Montreal!

Bill: It’s hard, because in Germany you have to be 18 and we were always, like, “Oh, c’mon - 18, 18, 18…” and now we are 18 and we come to America.

Tom: And you have to be 21.

Do you have any favourite kinds of beer?

Bill: Um, Heineken. Heineken is a nice beer.

Tom: I don’t care.

Georg: I prefer German beer.

Gustav: I like the Czech Budweiser.

Nice, I’ll have to try it. Enough about beer - back to the music. Do you have any plans to do any future collaborations with any other bands?

Tom: There’s nothing planned yet, but we would love to do some collaborations.

Is there anyone in particular you’d love to work with?

Bill: Yeah, I dunno - I think there are some dreams for every band to do something with, like, the Rolling Stones or whatever, but I think, yeah, let’s see.

Tom: In the summer we go back into the studio to record some songs, and I say, let’s see what happens.

Bill: And then we can talk to other people, but I’m not sure, I don’t have anyone in mind yet.

David Hasselhoff?

Tom: Yeah, David Hasselhoff! That would be great for Georg. Maybe a dancing project with Georg and David Hasselhoff. [laughs]

Speaking of dancing, a fan wanted to know if you, Tom, knew the Soulja Boy dance.

Tom: Yeah, I know the Soulja Boy dance, but I’m not a good dancer. No, Georg can do it, he’s a very good dancer.

Can we video you doing it and put it up on YouTube?

Tom: Yeah, Georg can. He was doing the dance in the hotel room [laughs]. Yeah, Georg can do it. [laughs] No, I’m not a dancer. I’m a shy guy.

Georg: Oh, c’mon. You showed it to me this morning!

Tom: No, that was you!

Bill: I don’t know this dance.

Tom: I’ve seen the video and the personal videos that people have uploaded to YouTube who do the dance, but you know, I’m not a dancer - I’m more a sexy guitar player [laughs].

Tomorrow night at the concert, we want to see the dance.

Tom: Yeah, maybe at the show. Together with David Hasselhoff and Georg.

It’s a little known fact that Nada Surf were recently in town (and will be again in April for a proper show!) to do an exclusive in-store performance in support of their (then unreleased) new album Lucky. We had a chance to talk to Matthew Caws (vocals) and Ira Elliot (drums) about a bunch of things that we were dying to know, and here’s what the lads had to say!

Do you have any current fixations? Like TV?

Matthew: You know, the only show I’ve watched first episode to last - and I mean, glued, like, had to be home to watch it was The White Rapper Show. It was flippin’ fantastic. I was thrilled.

Ira: I’m a really fan of The Whitest Kids You Know. They showed it I think on Fuse. It’s five young kids doing sketch comedy, kind of like Kids In The Hall - really irreverent and super funny. I’m kind of in love with those guys.

What was the first record you bought with your own money?

Matthew: My first record was a Jackson Five triple set - it wasn’t gatefold or anything, just three records crammed into one sleeve. They were wearing nudie suits! It was a white cover and they were wearing white nudie suits with clouds and sheep and fences. Bill Cosby narrated one song called “The Day That Basketball Died”.

Ira: Mine was a double album - 1975. Kiss Alive. Not Kiss Alive 2 - that was crap. Kiss Alive is a proper rock album. I was obsessed with Kiss for about two years.

And…what word makes you cringe when you hear it?

Matthew: Well, I like the concept, but I don’t like the word “fantasy”. It’s the T and S - so close to each other, and yet, making such a ruckus. I’m not fond of that word at all. There’s a word in French that I really don’t like. It’s the word for spoon - cuilliere. It’s queasy. It’s got queasy built right into it!

What’s the most confusing trend that you’ve seen develop in the last few years? Crocs, Ugg boots, you tell me.

Ira: Those are very good examples right there!

Matthew: There’s a new trend in Europe that was being described to us, called Techtonic. I went online and checked it out. It’s a lot of arm jive, hand jive with oversized neon t-shirts. But a LOT of jive. A lot.

Ira: And the soundtrack to it is classic Euro disco really fast. It’s sort of modern rave. Some weird French subculture.

Matthew [pondering]: I mean…Ugg boots in summer. ARE they comfortable?

Well, I don’t subscribe to that particular fashion phenomenon.

Ira: Yeah, why would SHE know? That’s just terrible.

Do you have any favourite recent music videos? Do you still watch videos?

Matthew: I guess I watch them on YouTube. A friend of mine, BA Miale, she won the Les Savy Fav contest to do a cheap video for them and she just did another one.

Ira: I haven’t been watching videos at all, and if I do, I turn on one of those retro classic channels.

What about your own videos?

Matthew: We just did a video for Whose Authority. It follows a bike messenger’s day. We play little cameos and at one point he almost runs two businessmen over and that’s me and Ira. Daniel wasn’t in town at the time so they made posters for his fictitious solo album and Ira and I walked to rehearsal past this wall of posters in the video. And then you see someone sitting under a tree reading a magazine and it’s got Daniel on the cover. It’s super low budget except for at the end where there’s a helicopter shot that pulls back to show the whole city.

What do you consider your career high & low?

Matthew: One of our career highs was having Joey Ramone join us on stage for six or seven songs that we’d learned ahead of time, because we played a record release party for this Iggy Pop tribute record that we were all on. It was suggested that we be his backup band, which we were. So we did “I Wanna Be Sedated” and “1970″ which was The Stooges song that he covered. And he apparently really enjoyed it and he said next time you have a show, learn your six or seven favourite Ramones songs and I’ll get up on stage and sing with you. And that was unbelievable!

Ira: Yeah, that was pretty mind-blowing.

Matthew: It was so surreal. I mean I still have the setlist and it makes no sense that we actually got to that and it was great.

Ira: There’s a video recording of it, that I saw. We sound pretty authentic. I have to say, we did a great job.

Matthew: As for career low? Hmm…oh, actually, opening up for INXS. That was SO lame. That was in Paris in 1997 or so. And clearly the whole audience was NOT having it. What were we even doing there? Ira is not Michael Hutchence, and neither am I, and neither is Daniel for that matter. And for anybody to be on stage who’s not Michael Hutchence is just…bring on the main course. So that was a lousy half hour

Your songs have been in a lot of TV shows - do you ever watch the shows?

Matthew: Well, the ones we’re in! I saw ten minutes of The O.C. But I don’t watch One Tree Hill. I do watch Six Feet Under when I can…and I like Heroes a lot!

I mentioned to a few people the song If You Leave and they said “yeah, by Nada Surf” - they didn’t know it was a cover!

Matthew: That’s hilarious! I find that disturbing.

Ira: Our version’s a lot different. We took out about sixteen of the key changes. The original one changes keys about every eight seconds. We took out about half of them.

Matthew: That song by King Missile called “Detachable Penis” was credited to us SO many times!

Ira: There’s talking in it, so people thought it was us.

Matthew: When I was first fooling around on Napster, I was searching to see if our own songs were there. And Detachable Penis kept popping up all over the place as being by us! At first I took it upon myself to actually write to these people one by one to say “that’s not our song. Please change the name of the artist!”

How often do people still talk to you about Popular in interviews?

Matthew: Pretty often, and it’s always like “score one for me!” We’re fine with it.

Ira: They always start with an apology - “now I don’t really want to dwell on this, but…”

Matthew: That was an albatross around our neck for about two years…and since then it’s kinda fun.

Ira: …but now it’s just a little canary in a cage.

What are your favourite chocolate bars?

Ira: Fallback for me is always a Twix bar. You’ve got the crunchy, and the chocolate…I’ve always liked those.

Matthew: Oh, I like Bounty. I think it’s pretty tasty. I think it’s more interesting than Almond Joy. I don’t really think you need that almond in there. I just wanna go right for the coconut.

Ira: Some people are really against nuts in chocolate. Raisins…

Matthew: I really like the Fruit & Nut bar, kind of kooky. I really like super dark chocolate and seeking out the 77%.

Ira: Dark chocolate M&Ms. Mm.

Matthew: I know this is a con, because it’s white chocolate, but I love white chocolate covered pretzels. The salt and the crunch, and the white….ooh.

Ira: Ben & Jerry’s made an ice cream that was peanut butter, chocolate, and then white chocolate pretzels IN the ice cream. They weren’t kidding around man - that was a stoner treat.

Matthew: Oof. Wow. I saw someone with chocolate Altoids - that was a LITTLE weird.

Saved By The Bell or 90210?

Matthew: 90210!

Ira: See I have to agree, because I’ve been compared to Screech enough times that I can’t even go there…and it was just once.

Pretty In Pink or Sixteen Candles?

Matthew: I’d probably say Pretty In Pink for plot, but Sixteen Candles because I was in a pilot that somebody put together for VH1 and it didn’t make it in the end. But it was a theatre rock thing and then it would cut to the band. I sang the Thompson Twins song “If You Were Here”.

Hillary or Obama?

Matthew: I feel like Hillary is probably better qualified and might in the nuts and bolts of it do a better job, but Obama will do more globally in terms of having a new ‘face’ on the country. And having other countries that we’ve lost as friends being more likely to imagine that we can redeem ourselves by having a fresh direction.

Ira: I have to agree. I’ve been vasillating between the two, because I think they’re both really good candidates but that does bother me - the Bush/Clinton thing. She’s very divisive that way - people still equate her with Bill. And Bill’s gonna be sitting there saying “You know, I don’t think you oughtta do that, honey.” I would probably lean toward Obama!

So I just sat down with Dallas Green for a good 25 minutes to talk about his new album “Bring Me Your Love” and some other stuff that we like to ask pretty much everybody we meet. Stay tuned for part two of the interview, which I’ll post next week - where we actually get to the nitty gritty of talking about his album!

THIS JUST IN! Read on to the end of the interview to find out how you can win tickets to see City & Colour perform at a very exclusive concert!

And now, the fun stuff. Ahem:

What was the first album you bought with your own money?

I bought Alice In Chains’ “Dirt” when I was in grade 7 with my allowance. I bought it on cassette. And then my mom later on bought the CD for me.

Did that album have a big impact on you?

It did. That album really shaped the way I look at rock music. I was like eleven, and I had already been playing guitar and I remember listening to it intently and learning how to play it. I figured out how to play all the songs. I would just sit and put my CD player right in front of my face and my amp on the floor, and I would just play along to it all day and sing to it. So, that’s how I built up my singing and playing when I was young. A lot of people give me flak, cause they were like the goth-y band of grunge. Also, I don’t have any guilty pleasures. I feel like, whatever I like, I like. Not everyone should listen to the same type of music and if I wanna listen to Alice In Chains, I’m gonna listen to Alice In Chains. I don’t care if you don’t think I’m cool because of it. Nardwuar gave me shit because of it - he was like, “what about Nirvana?!” and I said, “no, I like Alice In Chains better!” And he was mad at me because of it.

What word makes you cringe?

That’s a good one. The other day I was with my friend Allison and apparently the word “moist” makes her cringe.

(Cringing) I think a lot of girls are like that.

Yeah, I can imagine! But it doesn’t make me! I don’t know if I have one. You know what’s a bad word, the “c” word. You know what the “c” word is - I don’t want to say it. Whenever anyone says that word I’m like, “oooookay, come on.” Even if a girl’s not around, it’s still just not a good word.

You know, I don’t mind that word, but I will not say the “f” word.

Really?! I say the “f” word A LOT. Like, a whole lot. You know what? I grew up not hearing it a lot because my father would never say it in front of me, or my mom or my sister. He would say all the other ones but he would never say the “f” word cause it was like, the big one. Now that I’m older, I hear it every once in awhile from him and I’m like, (acts shocked).

What’s the most confusing trend you’ve seen develop in the past few years?

I think guys wearing lots of make-up. Like, I’m cool with it - for me it’s weird because it’s like hair metal all over again. The guys onstage were dressing a lot like girls, and the girls in the audience really liked them a lot - they thought they were heart throbs even though they dressed more like girls than the girls in the audience - and the guys in the audience wanted to be like the guys onstage even though they were dressing like girls. And nowadays it’s kind of like that again - little guys onstage onstage that are being more like girls, and the girls really like it and the guys really like it. It’s weird.

And the floofy hair, too.

Yeah. I mean, I had the long hair for a little while too, but then I was just like, “this is annoy-ying.” It’s fun onstage to have hair to headbang, but after awhile I was like, get outta my face.

Or maybe the trend of not needing to sing, like lip-syncing isn’t a big deal anymore. I brought this up in an interview the other day, but Milli Vanilli were CRUCIFIED when people found out they were lip-syncing. But Ashlee Simpson’s career got bigger. Like, one of the guys in Milli Vanilli killed himself - he got so down in the dumps about it that he killed himself. And Ashlee Simpson is flourishing, and it didn’t matter that she’s lip syncing. It didn’t hinder her at all.

I wonder if it all has to do with publicity.

That’s what I mean, I think the trend is that it’s become more about publicity than it is about the song, or musicianship. It doesn’t matter if you can play or sing anymore, it just matters if you have the right publicist. It’s a bummer.

What’s your favourite music video?

Of all time? I don’t know, there’s so many! You know what I liked, remember the Peter Gabriel “Sledgehammer” video? I like that a lot. I don’t know if it’s my favourite, but it’s a good video.

What are your current fixations?

I’m really into Miss Vickie’s chips. Every flavour they do is amazing. Roasted Red Pepper? Holy jeez. They have these other ones that are like, sweet chili and sour cream? Unbelievable.

And very crunchy!

Awesome, though. Kettle cooked. I’ve been a Dorito guy since I could eat Doritos, and up until 6 months ago, all of a sudden I turned into a huge Miss Vickie’s guy.

What would you consider to be a career high?

Alexis, we just played Brixton Academy in London, England a couple months ago. That was a big deal. Cause that’s the venue that you always hear about. A lot of people say - in England, you sort of judge if you’ve made it or not if you play Brixton Academy. I would say that, or also I got to play right before Bob Dylan played in the summer, at the Bluesfest in Ottawa. I got to say, “ladies and gentlemen, up next, Bob Dylan!” Even though he was playing a mile away on the other stage across from me, I still got to say it. That was pretty neat. You never think things like that will happen.

What are some pop songs that are “earworms” for you (get stuck in your head)?

“Toxic” was one of those songs. It’s a good song, too. “Umbrella”! That one just stuck forever. I would say those two in the last 5 years were super stuck in my head.

What are your favourite chocolate bars?

(whistles) Crunchie and Butterfinger. I don’t like a lot of chocolate cause I’m lactose intolerant. So the real milk chocolatey ones, I can’t handle. They make my throat itchy and I can’t itch it. Those two have just the right amount of chocolate and wonderfulness. There’s this chocolate called Ritter Sport, and if that’s considered a chocolate bar, I’ll put that in there - the coconut one. Bounty! I like Bounty a lot.

Reality TV or drama?

Drama. Like Dexter. It’s really good. Reality TV shows are really good but at the same time I feel guilty watching them. I think the appeal is - people who have no talent, it’s more fun to watch them make fools of themself than it is to watch someone who’s really good at acting. And it’s kind of a bummer.

*****

Answer Dallas’ Questions And WIN!

So, City & Colour will be performing at a very exclusive concert at the Music Gallery in Toronto, which is pretty much invite only. But we’ve got ONE PAIR OF TICKETS to give away to the fan who can answer these three questions, which Dallas came up with himself.

1. What do his knuckle tattoos say?
2. What kind of guitar does he play?
3. Who is his favourite singer of all time?

Email your name, age and answers to redhot@muchmusic.com - you have until February 7 to enter!

Don’t forget to read the Rules and Regs!