Starsailor

All the Plans

(Virgin; US: 17 Mar 2009; UK: 9 Mar 2009)

 Amazon

 Lala

1. The latest book or movie that made you cry?
The last book that made me cry was My Friend Leonard by James Frey. It’s the follow up to Million Little Pieces. I really don’t care how much is fact and how much is fiction, it’s just an emotional read.

2. The fictional character most like you?
Barney Rubble from The Flintstones.

3. The greatest album, ever?
Revolver by The Beatles. You could pick any album really. Anyone who thinks they are not the best band ever is just being contrary.

4. Star Trek or Star Wars?
I prefer Star Wars to Star Trek.

—PopMatters Staff

Bell X1

Blue Lights on the Runway

(Yep Roc; US: 3 Mar 2009; UK: 2 Mar 2009)

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 Lala

1. The latest book or movie that made you cry?
I tend to be moved to tears by movies or TV shows a lot more easily in the last couple of years than I used to. I’ve only recently watched The West Wing, at which I cried a lot at the moving speeches -– it was practice for the real thing I suppose. I cried at a recent movie about the hunger strikes in northern Ireland called Hunger. And I cried at The Wrestler.

2. The fictional character most like you?
Oh man, I dunno… maybe a little Ignatius J. Reilly, mostly because I love his name.

3. The greatest album, ever?
Is not Sgt. Pepper’s... In fact, this record killed music. Before this, bands knew what they were doing before going into the studio, and laid it down quick, bish bash bosh. These upstarts decided “to use the studio as an instrument” and spawned decades of bands fluting around, sticking microphones in toilets…and no songs. Ergo, the Beatles killed music.

4. Star Trek or Star Wars?
My only interest in Star Trek is for those armpit-hugging tops. I enjoyed Star Wars pre ’84, as they were an integral part of my early cinema going and all the joy that this has brought. I had an audio tape of The Empire Strikes back, as it was apparently “too scary” for me to see.

—PopMatters Staff

Elliott Yamin

Fight for Love

(Hickroy; US: 5 May 2009)

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 Lala

1. The latest book or movie that made you cry?
Tuesdays With Morrie.  It’s a great story about finding yourself and what really matters in life.

2. The fictional character most like you?
Don’t really know any fictional characters, or at least followed any. So I don’t really know what each one does or stands for.  Never really got into any animated shows or cartoons.

3. The greatest album, ever?
Donny Hathaway’s i>These Song For You Live!’. Stevie Wonders’ Signed, Sealed and Delivered and Marvin Gayes’ I Want You album are tied for a close second place!

—PopMatters Staff

Jon Hopkins

Insides

(Domino; US: 5 May 2009)

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 Lala

1. The latest book or movie that made you cry?
Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. And when I saw Mulholland Drive for the second time.

2. The fictional character most like you?
Popeye.

3. The greatest album, ever?
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel. Ridiculously beautiful psychadelic monster.

4. Star Trek or Star Wars?
Neither actually. I quite liked Quantum Leap though.

—PopMatters Staff

The Disciplines

Smoking Kills

(Second Motion; US: 28 Apr 2009)

 Amazon

 Lala

1. The latest book or movie that made you cry?
ALL Movies make me cry. I am that kind of guy. From The Terminator to soft porn to, of course, It’s a Wonderful Life, I start crying during the damn previews, for fuck sake.

2. The fictional character most like you?
Pretty much was feeling like Randy the Ram in The Wrestler when I saw that film… old, fucked up never-has-been, “he’s a loser but he still keeps on trying” as the Little River Band would say.

3. The greatest album, ever?
Hard to call. The Shaggs album? It’s really a tough call. The Shaggs is perhaps the most extraordinary. Greatest, maybe Farewell to Kings by Rush.

—PopMatters Staff

1. The latest book or movie that made you cry?
That would be Math Without Tears, by Roy Hartkopf. I was boning up on math, because I think it’s so important to be able to add and subtract when I’m on tour. Math is so painful to me; it’s like pulling teeth. But math is also so important to all of our lives. I also saw a commercial on TV several years ago for the Humane Society. It was about what a dog dreams of at night. It dreams of its owner, a very old man. Then you find out that the old man is dead and the dog is now in a cage at a dog shelter. It is very sad.

2. The fictional character most like you?
I would have to say Taras Bulba from that famous story by Gogol. I feel like the members of my band are like Taras Bulba’s sons. And he would do anything for them, just as I would do anything for my sons. If I had any.

—PopMatters Staff