NOISE

Any big plans for your first time in Las Vegas?

Actually, me and my girlfriend, Louise, are gonna get married, so I’m really looking forward to that. We’ve been together nine-and-a-half years, so we figured it’s too big an opportunity to miss.

You guys are out with the original lineup, touring the U.S. for the first time in 15 years. What’s it been like being back full-time with the guys, especially frontman Shane MacGowan?

Everything is just so much easier now, because we’re not in the position of a band that’s released a record and has to tour. We’re doing it for ourselves, because we want to and it’s nice money. And I think there’s also a sense around the band that there was unfinished business, that it shouldn’t really have ended the way it did. And it’s been going really, really well, touch wood. But there was never any sort of rancor or any bad blood in the band.

How is Shane doing health-wise?

We’re all a bit older now, obviously; time takes its toll. But Shane’s been in really good form, and he’s singing great. His diction may not be all that, but the power is fantastic. And his stage presence ... he’s always been really charismatic, but now he’s transmogrified into something else entirely. It’s quite alarming [laughs].

You mentioned his poor diction ... is that a result of his deteriorated dental health?

The enunciation is a little bit more troublesome than it would be if he had a full set of mashers, but that’s not really the point, you know? It’s his performance. The sound of his voice is so strong, and people aren’t going to be listening to words anyway, not in mid-onslaught, in the heat and rush of battle.

Will the Pogues rebirth continue past 2006, possibly with a new album?

There’s certainly plans for more shows. As for recording ... we’ve kind of talked about it tentatively. I think it could be really, really good, but then who knows? I might be a complete load of cobblers. There’s only one way to find out.

Was it ever strange being a Londoner in a band playing Irish folk music, some if it with a sort of nationalistic bent?

Not really. Irish music is very accessible. And growing up in London, I lived not far away from some very Irish areas. As for the nationalist thing, we obviously get sort of painted into that corner—maybe we painted ourselves into our corner—but there was never any overt nationalism or republicanism, I don’t think. But I do think it was fairly obvious where we were coming from, that the English members of the band would have been the kind of English people who felt that Britain’s presence in the north of Ireland was an anomaly or, at the very least, that there’d been a history of really woeful injustice meted out to the Catholic population in Northern Ireland, and that that state of affairs wasn’t right. But although those views were maybe implicit in the Pogues, it was never anything that was really an issue.

What’s it like being rock’s most famous beer-tray-against-head instrumentalist?

I only did it occasionally in the beginning. I used to get these vile rashes on my forehead because I’d be sweating a lot, and I’d be using these really dirty beer trays, like a contact allergy or something. But then I started doing it again when we started doing all this, because it’s kind of fun. The only problem is that no pubs have beer trays with the correct sort of weight and timbre anymore. You’ve got to get the balance right.

Peelander-Z, a "Japanese Action Comic Punk Band," makes quite the visual impression, dressing in colorful costumes and staging games of human bowling during their shows. But what about the lyrics?

• "Mushi Mushi Mureruzo summer tour [Sweaty and steamy summer tour]/Oh my God! What a smell!/Let’s go to the laundry" ("Do the Laundry")

• "You’re a pretty girl/Prettier than Hello Kitty" ("Sue! Sue! Sue!")

• "Banana is yellow/Mustard is yellow, too/How about sunflower?" ("Y.Y.Y.")

We Want These Mother#*king Snakes on This Mother#*king Stage!

1. The Doors: "Crawling King Snake" (L.A. Woman, 1971)

"Grass is very high/Keep on crawlin’ till the day I die."

2. Duran Duran: "Union of the Snake" (Seven and the Ragged Tiger, 1983)

"The union of the snake is on the climb/It’s gonna race, it’s gonna break/Gonna move up to the borderline."

3. Paula Abdul: "Cold Hearted" (Forever Your Girl, 1988)

"He’s a cold-hearted snake, look into his eyes/He’s been tellin’ lies."

4. Throwing Muses: "Cottonmouth" (The Curse, 1992)

"The more he likes me, the more I drink/I think the more I drink, the more he likes me/I got the shakes ... You snake."

5. PJ Harvey: "Snake" (Rid of Me, 1993)

"You snake, you crawled between my legs/Said, ‘Want it all? It’s yours, you bet.’"

6. Al Wilson: "The Snake" (The Spice of Life, 2001)

"Down the path alongside the lake, a tender-hearted woman saw a poor, half-frozen snake/His pretty-colored skin had been all frosted with the dew/‘Oh well,’ she cried. ‘I’ll take you in and I’ll take care of you.’"

After 2003’s disappointing Sleeping With Ghosts, Placebo returns to form with Meds, a lyrically dark, yet musically uplifting jolt of neo-glam. The disc easily glides through 13 tracks that are loosely connected by singer-guitarist Brian Molko’s obsession with sex and drugs—well-worn ground, sure, but in Molko’s hands it’s musical ecstasy.

LUCERO


REBELS, ROGUES & SWORN BROTHERS (3 1/2 stars)

Still hoping for that Uncle Tupelo reunion? Give it up, and jump back on the No Depression train with these Memphis alt-country rockers. David Lowery (Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker) and Alan Weatherhead (Sparklehorse, Cracker) are aboard to produce this time around, but frontman Ben Nichols still drives Lucero’s engine with his gritty vocals, uneasy lyrics and twangy, windblown melodies.

LEE ROCKER


RACIN’ THE DEVIL (2 1/2 stars)