The Last Vegas

WWAD: Your 2007 release, High Class Trash, sold out. What do you attribute that to? TLV: Racketeering, S&M, and the fine variety of fresh meats captured in the album cover photo…could be that plus Europeans and all the kids who bought Guitar Hero II.  Our fan base took a rapid leap in 2007, when we parted ways with our previous label, put High Class Trash for sale ourselves on our website and the thing sold out within a month.  The Internet is insane.

WWAD: How much do you think touring the European market has helped in accelerating your careers?
TLV: Europe has consistently been the highlight of our career in the 3 tours we’ve done throughout.  The fans are true blue die-hards who appreciate a good thrashing and feed off the live energy and give every bit of it back. The scenery is killer, the food amazing, the drinks are free and you can go visit castles.

WWAD: How did you get involved with the “Be a Guitar Hero 2” competition and how did you feel when you found out you had won? Obviously it has helped you reach a much larger audience, have your record / merch sales reflected that? Has it opened up many other opportunities as well?
TLV: Basically we won a competition that a band member’s little cousin entered us into.  Their development dept. kept sending us notifications that our song passed this and that, was included in a test versions, we may win this contest and be on some game called Guitar Hero II (which none of us had ever heard of).  Anyone that’s been around the r’n’r block knows talk is cheap, so we thought the whole thing was a joke until we flew into Gibson Studios in NYC for 3 days of press conferences.  The Red Octane crew was super cool, and we had a blast getting to know them.   They kept saying more kids were going to buy that game than the top 10 albums of 2007 combined, so to be a part of that definitely helped our ‘career’.  Now we play punk trash shows in addition to corporate events. 

WWAD: I know TLV has been in the studio since Jan. of this year, and was wondering when we can expect the new album and on what label?
TLV: Hmmm. We had about 20-25 songs in Dec. 2007 that we wanted to do something with, so we went into Chicago’s Raxx Traxx with a friend engineer and recorded whatever had the immediate energy and we deemed cool.   We’re doing one pressing of the resulting 13 songs to sell out of the back of the van and we’ll see where it goes from there.

WWAD: How much has the addition of charismatic vocalist, Chad Cherry, influenced your overall sound and live show reception?
TLV: Well now we have a crop of chicks at the shows in addition to the long-haired hesher dudes who just want to get you high (not that we have a problem with that).  Chad gets people’s juices going.  He puts on one mean rock show and we provide the soundtrack.

WWAD: How did you hook up the signing endorsement deal with Kyle Busch’s Nascar racing team and what does it entail?
TLV: Kyle has handed over Sunday racing duties to drummer Nate ‘Animal’ Arling which is exciting to watch.  Plus, Kyle is a fan of the band, licensed some music for his race days and on his website (his intro music ironically is LV’s “Well Drink 3”), and he’s gotten us Pit Passes to some Nascar races which none of us ever had been to before.  Those things are insane parties.

WWAD: Biggest influences?
TLV: Wolf coats, head-banging, Nightrocker, barbeques, Wendy-kicks, and a whole shit-load of Slade.

WWAD: What is your definition of success in rock-n-roll?
TLV: Having a good time….all the time. 

WWAD: When are you playing during SXSW?
TLV:
Tuesday, March 11 @ Emos Outside Stage (11pm)
Thursday, March 13 @ Lovejoys (4pm)
Friday, March 14 @ Trophys Outside (4pm)
Saturday, March 15 @ Dizzy Rooster (11pm)

WWAD: Parting words of wisdom to your ever growing legions of minions of fans?
TLV: Reality TV is not real.  Get off the couch and make something, write something, say something, do something to push people’s buttons, scare ‘em and fuck shit up.