The Money Shot 10.27.05

Will the Arctic Monkeys really quit before they've begun? Clap Your Hands Say Yeah too full of themselves? Read on...

Arctic Monkeys Diss Kaiser Chiefs
The Money Shot: "I think if we're next year's Kaiser Chiefs, we'll quit. I don't like being associated with them. I don't think they had the same following as us last year. I suppose they've sold a lot of records, but I don't like them. They're a bit annoying."

Hollywood's Cash Tribute
The Money Shot: Like his friend Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis has measured the dark side of life, which adds shadows to his voice when he sings something like "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." On Tuesday night, there was even more poignancy when Lewis sang that grand old spiritual because he did so in tribute to Cash.The only problem was that, a few bars into the song, Lewis was awkwardly cut off so that movie stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon could come on stage, smile into the television camera and properly introduce the singer. Lewis looked a bit bewildered for a moment but then gamely relaunched the song.

Ben Folds' Aussie DVD
The Money Shot: Due Dec. 6 via Epic, "Ben Folds and WASO Live in Perth" finds the artist and the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra running through 13 selections, including "Brick," "The Ascent of Stan" and "Rock This B*tch."

New Neko Case CD
The Money Shot: Says Case about Fox: "I recorded the album intermittently over the past couple years. With each record, you think you've figured it out, but once you get into the studio, you realize there's always more to learn. But I feel like we managed to get all my ideas to tape."

Vanderslice's Demons
The Money Shot: I was a little afraid of what I was gonna do," he admits. "I was having these unhealthy, supremely morbid thoughts, and I'm already a morbid guy, so if I can shock myself, then that's really something! And [Mountain Goats leader] John Darnielle, who I was working on new material with at the time, was like, 'Man, I'm really worried about you.' When friends who are as crazy as you are are worried about you, that's a sign."

Paste Disses Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The Money Shot: With all the hype—from blogs, webzines and the like—surrounding Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, you might wonder if the attention will go to the band’s collective head. After discovering lead singer Alec Ounsworth prefers email interviews, you might even wonder if he’s become too big for his indie-rock britches.

Franz Ferdinand Talks Songwriting
The Money Shot: "That's where the best characters come from, the people that surround you," he said. "And then taking them and sort of combining them with all sorts of other things that happen to be flinging through your head at that particular time."