Paying Tribute

Think back to this past summer. Go on, it wasn't all that long ago. Whatever you were doing, no matter how much fun you had, it couldn't have been any better than what Glassjaw was up to. Comprised of Daryl Palumbo, vocals; Todd Weinstock and Justin Beck, guitars; Dave Allen, bass; and Larry Gorman, drums, this five-piece band from Long Island, NY enjoyed successful stints on both of the summer's grandiose traveling rock 'n' roll circuses, the Vans Warped Tour and Ozzfest. They also released their major label debut, Worship and Tribute on Warner Brothers Records. The Synthesis was lucky enough to catch up with guitarist Todd Weinstock a while back on Glassjaw's tour bus when this year's Ozzfest rolled through the AutoWest Amphitheater. During our brief conversation we spoke about the differences between the Warped Tour and Ozzfest, life at Warner Brothers, and why their producer has dubbed Glassjaw the "post-millenial destroyers of 'Adidas Rock.'"

This summer, you've been on the Warped Tour and now Ozzfest. What would you say are the differences between the two tours?
I guess the main difference in our case…when we played at 9:30 in the morning on our first day on Ozzfest when we first jumped on the tour, we played for more kids then [than we did during the entire Warped Tour]. We played on another side stage at the Warped Tour also - I don't know if it's comparable - but that's the main difference. We don't fit on both tours, I think. We're that sort of in-between band; whatever tour we do, we never really fit. But we played in front of a lot of new kids on both tours. They were both really fun. We had a lot more friends on the Warped Tour - it's kinda more like the place we're from. On Warped Tour, there were 10 stages going on at once. It's cool like that because kids have a lot to choose from, but here [at Ozzfest] it's more like a show.

Worship and Tribute came out on July 9th on Warner Brothers. How are things going being at such a large label?
Warner Brothers is actually crushing every myth of what you think a major label would be. Warner Brothers has been amazing for us - no complaints.

Are you getting a lot of personal attention, and does that surprise you a little bit?
Yeah, absolutely. We're getting so much attention. Everyone is just so behind us, and everything is run by us. There's no "the label says this is what has to be done." Nothing like that. We pretty much say what's going to happen, and they have the money to carry it out. It's amazing.

When your first album, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence, came out, your producer, Ross Robinson [who produced Worship and Tribute also], said that the goal at the time was to destroy "Adidas Rock." What is "Adidas Rock" exactly?
"Adidas Rock" is really what Ross Robinson created in the first place - Limp Bizkit, Korn - those bands were cool at the time. We're not from that school. I didn't grow up with those bands, I never really liked them, but Ross is famous - for anyone who doesn't know - for starting that whole thing. At the time, those bands were something new, but now there's 18 billion bands who sound exactly like that, so watered down, and it's like that's what heavy music is, rap-metal - Adidas Rock. He deemed us the post-millennial destroyers of Adidas Rock. I don't know if we've done that, but we're definitely a different thing than that - we don't come from that place.

If that was the goal back then, how has the goal changed with the latest album?
It's still our goal, because we still hate that shit. Being on Ozzfest, we're kind of surrounded by it. I don't know, our main goal is to make music that we like. Especially on this last record, even more than the first record, just making music - whatever comes out comes out. It's just music. If someone asks me how to describe us, I just say "music."

How did you guys get hooked up with Vincent Gallo [actor / director / writer for Buffalo 66] for the "Cosmopolitan Blood Loss" video, and what was the concept behind the video?
It was pretty funny how we got [Vincent Gallo].We were at the label talking about making a video. At first we didn't want to be in it that much - not like the regular MTV2 video, y'know, band playing, skateboards, mosh pit. We were trying to do something a little different. And that day we'd all just watched Buffalo 66, and we were all on this big Vincent Gallo kick. So they asked us who we would like to be in the video, if we had any ideas, and we said as a joke, "How about Vincent Gallo?" and the video guy at Warner was like, "Oh, we know him. We'll call him up right now. He'll totally do it, he knows who you guys are." They called him up.
Then a few weeks later, because like I said, we didn't really want to be in it, the guy at Warner came up with a concept with a truck driving, and we would be at the end of it playing our instruments. We wouldn't be in it till the end of the video. That kind of evolved into what the video is now. We had Vincent Gallo walk and find us in the alley. It just came together like that. Even though it was the most awkward thing in the world to play to your own track and not play. It's really hard…you know what I mean? I'd rather be playing - even if it's playing to the music. It's just really weird.

I read that you were kicked off a bill in Kentucky for perceived misogyny in your lyrics. What was it exactly that got misconstrued?
That was the only time that ever happened. The first record was about a specific relationship that Daryl had that went bad. There was a lot of him calling the girl names and bashing her, but most people realized that it was directed as a certain girl and about a certain relationship. That was obviously misconstrued, and [the show promoters] took it as being misogynist, directed at the whole female gender. The show was with some punk rock collective at a church - the church group saw the lyrics and said that we couldn't come through… If you read the lyrics, you can see where they're coming from, but if you know anything about the band, you'll know that it's directed at just one girl.

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