Paul Banks is full of shit
 

Paul Banks, from Interpol (or, that one band that felt like it might be something around the time Trail of Dead felt like they might be something but ultimately became nothing other than makers of a single college soundtrack album that isn’t actually hat good) was recently interviewed for Pitchfork’s 5-10-15-20.

He said that when he was a junior in high school, he was introduced to a band — Nirvana — “in a New Jersey subdivision” before becoming obsessed with them.

Thing is, Banks was born in 1978. He couldn’t have been a junior in high school until 1994.

He saw what was then the biggest and most talked about band in the world in a subdivision in the last year of that band’s existence?

I call bullshit, but if someone remembers their Nirvana dates and trivia better than I do, please feel free to correct me.


Granted, he doesn’t explicitly say, “I saw Nirvana at a Jersey house party,” but that’s the implication. And in 1994? Fuck that shit.

Fuck.
That.
Shit.

Nirvana historians, help me out. Prove me wrong so I don’t have to throw out my “Turn on the Bright Lights.” (Every five years or so I get nostalgic for “PDA.” Sue me.)

If it was 94 for sure they were playing stadiums. I can't see the math making sense.

If he was like me with a very sheltered upbringing and controlling parents, I didn't hear cool music until high school. Just didn't know it was happening

Yeah, but my dog my dog — read the quote. He’s saying he saw Nirvana and became obsessed with them when he was a junior in high school. He’s only a few years older than I am — a junior in ‘94 at the *earliest.* Was Nirvana playing fucking house parties in 1994, after dropping Bleach, Nevermind, Incesticide and In Utero? The same year they dropped Unplugged In New York?! The same year Kurt died?!!?

For fuck’s sake, Kurt only lived through the first quarter of 1994. He was in and out of rehab and on tour in fucking ITALY and FRANCE and elsewhere for be brunt of those months.

By this time, Nirvana may have been behind Pearl Jam in record sales, but in terms of the cultural discussion, they were the fucking Beatles by a year *before* when Banks said (or, rather, heavily implied) that he saw them.
It’s not about whether he was sheltered or not... he’s saying this happened, and it sounds like he’s telling someone else’s story and getting the details wrong.

Man, no way. No fucking way. That’s the same year I saw Nirvana — something I honesty don’t remember well enough to count among my concert conquests (shit) — and they were only in the states for a minute in 1994. They certainly weren’t playing any goddamn Jersey subdivisions.

I call bullshit on this fucker. Bull fucking shit.

Unless I am reading it wrong. Unless it’s super obvious to everyone but me that he is talking about some other band he doesn’t name, and said he became obsessed with just before mentioning Nevermind, under the section of the article devoted to what he was listening to when he was 15 (Young for a junior), with “Nirvana - ‘Nevermind’” as the heading.

Maybe I’m just reading it sideways and upside down, but damn well sounds like he’s saying he saw the biggest band in the world at a house party when he was a junior in high school (which he really should have been in 1995-96 when he was 16-17 years old).

But yeah. I could just be being a total dockhole.

Stadiums... *arenas.* Yes.

Hey, did you even clear your goddamn PMs? I have wanted to chat with you for a spell.

He doesn't say tbe band he saw was Nirvana

Just read the quote properly. I don't think he's implying the cool band he saw was Nirvana.

Side note... Heinrich Maneuver is a greeeeat song. I'd love to have written it

... he definitely doesn’t make it clear that it’s not.

Maybe it’s just sloppy editing or dumb phrasing , but under the Nirvana heading, he says, when I was a junior I met this cool girl? She took me to see a band at a subdivision. I became obsessed. I found “Nevermind” and fell in love with it.

Shit I dunno.

Eh. Their good songs were done by ‘04. I don’t even remember that one. Is that from Our Love to Admire? Jesus.

Same paragraph, next sentence, after saying how he became obsessed with the band, he’s talking about Nevermind. Doesn’t name the “them,” so it really feels like he’s talking about Nirvana.

But yeah whatever I dunno. Probably still full of shit

As far as I can tell, this thread is about nothing.
Carry on.

This whole thread feels like a manic episode. Take care everyone

Nah, it’s about Paul Banks being full of shit, or at the very least unnecessarily unclear

That’s totally possible.

You guys are dicks. Didn’t realize you all loved Paul Banks so much, rushing to his defense like a buncha cowboys. Jeeeeeezus.

That album he did wrk RZA is what you deserve for being such dicks.

This could have been fun

I mostly just think you misread an article that included an awkwardly worded quote, but that's me. I've done the same.

so how is the new album? do not bothered to give it a try. first album rules though.

He saw some crappy high school band doing Nirvana covers and got hooked on Nevermind, ya twits!

Believe we have a winner!!!

I read it as total separate thoughts, just poorly edited. I think that paragraph simply refers to "them" because they are talking about Nirvana in that section. I don't think it's associated with the band he saw in the paragraph before. I saw that as him simply saying how that girl had an influence on him in general.


Just shitty writing/editing, imo...

LOL. Yeah, that’s what happened.

He should have said that, though, right?

Obviously I don’t think he intentionally lied in a nationally published interview, but what is up with the phrasing? It’s just a really weird way to say what you just said.

Surely I’m not the only one who thinks this could have been written more clearly.

THANK YOU.

I haven’t listened to an Interpol album all the way through since 2007. Maybe it’s amazing! Likely it’s not.

I have checked out a couple of tracks, and they sound better than a lot of what the band has done in the years since they mattered.

I think more than anything “Turn on the Bright Lights” was an accident. Like “Source Tags & Codes.” They’re capable enough at making bouncy rock, but I think it was a fluke that they made an album that channeled a mood and sound so well. Upon reinspection the lyrics to TOTBL are really quite bad. It’s the atmospherics that make it great. And it is pretty great.

Come on, Interpol just is Joy Division for Coldplay fans

Ummmmm, we have another winner!!!

You really get angry at this stuff? Man, seriously, hit me up with a pm. I'm a much more friendly person than you'd think. Take the chill pill and enjoy your Nirvana records. I was listening to them last night after a very long time. Great band.

Yeah that was pretty good.

But they sound not very much like Joy Division. They’re more like ... Joy Division for people who’ve never heard Joy Division, and the Killers for everyone else.

I am making a suspicious face right now. Just trust me on that. Very incredulous. Skeptical.

I do like Nirvana though. And no, this didn’t make me mad. I just thought it was stupid. Just imagining that dude with the shades from Interpol trying to subtly suggest that he’d seen Nirvana when he probably didn’t. Even if it’s not what happened, the thought was funny.

I was being serious. I don't really know much about Interpol nor do I care about their music or what they do in their spare time.

Neither do I. I know their first album becaue I was colleging super hard when it came out. Never bought their second.

Also my incredulity has more to do with your niceness.