Named after singer and founder Glen Hansard's trade of fixing bicycle frames, Irish rockers The Frames are an unknown gem, mostly because past labels Island and ZTT dropped the band without ever releasing their albums in the States. Thanks to their signing with Overcoat Recordings and work with Steve Albini, the Frames last record, For the Birds, created a buzz. Their opening slot for the New Pornographers last February was the band's first Madison show and quite an introduction. This time around they are in support of their live album, Breadcrumb Trail. The Daily Cardinal caught up with Hansard in the tour van while leaving the Badlands.
I saw you last year when you were opening for the New Pornographers. Any memorable stories from that tour?
Not really. Just 20 people walking around like zombies going to thrift stores. Basically trying to kill time in the best way possible. There was one good night in Athens, GA., where we met Moe Tucker and Merle Haggard. Merle was playing up the street and myself and Neko Case just sort of wandered into sound check looking like we knew what we were doing and then we met Moe Tucker later on that night. That was lovely. This tour has had some interesting stories. Did you heard about the Coldplay incident?
No, I haven't.
We were in Atlanta and Coldplay was playing some big open-air thing. We were just playing the Echo Lounge and the lads had cancelled their gig and came to see us by chance. I don't know them at all, don't know their music, know nothing about them, but Chris the singer was up in the front watching the gig and really enjoying it. I got off stage and someone said, \That's Chris from Coldplay"" and he came in the side and said, ""Man, that was great. Do you want to do a song together?,"" and we ended up playing for two hours singing Hank Williams covers. Everybody was like ""This is amazing, this is legendary"" because Coldplay was like one of the top bands in America.
Is there anything we should expect now that you are headlining the show?
A slightly longer set, maybe some new songs.
You have a live album out there now?
There is a live record that was put out by a small Czech label that seems to have taken off. We wouldn't exactly call that a new live Frames release, it's more like a bootleg that has a good cover and is distributed well. We recorded it in an afternoon in this small venue in Brno in the Czech Republic. It was a very strange gig because they just had recording equipment there and when we arrived they asked if we would mind them recording it and we said ""sure,"" because we never mind people recording a gig. But then when they came to us with it, it was like ""that sounds pretty good, do you mind if we put it out on a small label?"" And it seems to have sold quite a few.
Will your other albums ever be released in the States?
I don't know. If the band has any sort of success, it would be foolish for the record company to ignore that because basically all the records have been deleted. [Laughs.] It's a desperate situation to have made a bunch of records and none of them are available. But in Europe the old record label (ZZT) has saw sense in making copies of Fitzcarraldo and Dance the Devil and maybe one day if Island sees that the band is doing well they'll probably rerelease Another Love Song. It's very sad to say it's not in our department.
What do you think of U2 getting all the Irish credit in music?
I think for the first time in a long time in Ireland we don't care. The younger generation of bands don't really look at U2 as someone to aspire to anymore because those are old school rock 'n' roll stories. U2 in Ireland is almost like the Catholic Church'they are so big. We respect them and fear them. If you don't go to church you're going to hell, if you say something wrong against them you're going to hell. You know, musical hell. And at the same time, you don't really go to church often, if you don't care that much. It's kind of funny.
U2 doesn't really play any part in Irish music. They don't help people out. They're not one of those bands that care what's going on except for other bands at their level. Which is OK, we're not crying about it. We don't need them. It would be really nice if Bono put his hand down to the younger bands and say, 'Come on up and give you a shot,' but he doesn't and there is no point waiting around until he does.
When I saw you last year, you performed ""Star, Star,"" and we were wondering why the line ""Everybody's out to get you, motherfucker"" wasn't on the album version?
Well, actually that was a Beck reference. It's from the Beck record Mellow Gold. Sometimes we throw in things that aren't ours to make things better for ourselves. I remember that night we were just having fun.
Do you guys ever play ""Motherfucker"" in concert?
Well we never actually played the whole song. But that pretty much is the whole song. Every so often if we're digging something we're listening to on the stereo, during the gig we'll fire a bit in and everybody in the band will get the joke and play it out.
Well I know a few people that would like to hear it again.
Oh yeah? Well, I'll say something to the lads and maybe we'll lash into it during the night.
Sounds good.
