Were Bangles frontwoman Susanna Hoffs and '90s alt-rock darling Matthew Sweet destined to work together? Who knows… but there was definitely something written in the tea leaves with this duo.
Ming Tea Leaves, that is.
Hit the pause button at any given Austin Powers musical interlude, and you'll find a paisley-clad Hoffs and bell-bottomed Sweet backing up Mike Myers in the made-for-the-movie band Ming Tea Leaves. Considering that both Hoffs and Sweet are multi-platinum-selling artists and Hoffs was even the lead in a major motion pic release (1987's The Allnighter), it's quite possible they each landed the gig on their own merits.
But it probably didn't hurt that Hoffs' husband, Jay Roach, directed the Austin Powers flicks, and that she had introduced Meyers to Sweet previously.
In recent years, the ex-Tea twosome has performed under the moniker Sid & Susie, recording a collection of covers in Sweet's L.A. studio, then hitting the road in support of said effort. Your friendly neighborhood Crawler had the opportunity to chat with the woman responsible for making an entire generation try to "Walk Like An Egyptian" (admit it—you know the photos are out there, and it's only a matter of time before somebody posts one on Facebook) days prior to her Iron Horse appearance Nov. 14 in support of Sid & Susie's Under The Covers, Vol. 2—a re-working of 16 chestnuts from the 1970s.
Here are a choice few exchanges.
Nightcrawler: The first thing I thought when I saw a second album entirely comprised of covers was, "Wow, I wonder if that's a logistical nightmare, with publishing and all?" I have some personal experience trying to cover songs, and I talked to Weird Al Yankovic about this extensively.
Susanna Hoffs: Weird Al has such a great voice, by the way. I love him. And I think what he does is much more involved from a business standpoint than what we do. It's a completely different animal when you are trying to get permission to change lyrics as opposed to a straight cover.
So the business of publishing permissions, etc., was really a non-issue for Under The Covers Vol. 2?
I am not too involved in the business side, thankfully, but, no, not in terms of not being able to get permission or cover what we wanted. It is cost-prohibitive, though. In fact, our initial plan was to make this huge double album—like the old days… and we recorded 40 songs. But because of the costs, publishing and that… we did only end up releasing 16.
Aside from it being a glorious musical era, why did you decide to tackle songs of the 1970s?
Well, of course, we did the 1960s on volume one. But really, for Matthew and I, the '70s was our coming of age soundtrack… and we were surprised to discover just how many songs and bands from that decade were big influences on us. For example, you may never know it from listening to our older stuff, but we both consider Yes to be big personal influences.
Speaking of decades and influences, it seems more and more artists are citing the '80s music of The Bangles as one. I know the girls in Antigone Rising, for example, who opened for you recently in Northampton—the gig was just a dream come true for them.
It is very nice and flattering. We played this huge show with The Police—whom we are friends with as we share a manager—recently, and KT Tunstall got up and said all these nice things about us. So to think that we played even the smallest role in someone's career or are appreciated really makes me feel great.
In other news, the Mass Mutual Center plays host to the fifth installment of Rock The Sound (rockthesound.com) this Saturday, Nov. 15. The 2009 line-up features Third Day, the David Crowder Band and a host of other inspirational/Christian rockers.
Send correspondence to: Nightcrawler, P.O. Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to: (860) 698-9373 or email: Garycarra@aol.com.
