Now, personally, I always took the Panic At the Disco song “That Green Gentleman” to be more about the, um, 4:20 club than the Sierra Club, if ykwim. The band, however, wouldn’t cop to that when I talked to them yesterday…Whatever.

But Panic did want to talk about the environmental consciousness of their current trek, the 2008 Honda Civic Tour. Before each night’s show, singer Brendan Urie appears in a video, encouraging fans to take part in an “eco-contest” to decide how a large chunk of change raised on the tour will be used to help the planet. (For more info on that, go here.)

Brendan also explained to me that the band is working on the tour with two non-profit eco organizations: Reverb, which facilitates environmentally friendly touring; and Global Inheritance, which seeks to inspire more eco-activism. “Plus, at each show there’s a few things to get kids involved,” he told me. “Honda have a bike setup where you can charge your phone, and there’s pamphlets and information. Lots of good stuff.”

Ryan Ross said the band has been doing good things as well, from traveling on a biodiesel bus, to re-using plastics, and recycling more backstage. “It’s been cool for us because we’re young guys — we’re still learning about what’s going on, too. So it’s been personal,” he said. “I think it’s been good for everybody to try and do a little something.”

Now fellas, back to this “Green Gentleman”? “Green can be so many things,” Brendan said with a smile. “You’re new to something…You’re jealous…It could be my favorite color…” But Ryan stopped me in my tracks: “You’ll never know, John. You’ll never know!”

LA’s No Age are one of the most exciting bands around — for evidence, look no further than their newly released album Nouns. I’m also happy to say they are committed, resolute vegans, and have been so for years — Dean Spunt since he was 15, with Randy Randall jumping on board a few years after that.

As a vegan myself, I often tell people that the move from meat-eating to vegetarian is much easier than the one from vegetarian to vegan. If you’re willing to make a steady diet out of pasta and pizza, no matter where you are, you can pretty much avoid meat. Avoiding pasta, cheese, eggs, and all animal products is another matter. It ain’t easy — especially if you spend much time, oh, say, anywhere between NY’s East Village and Berkeley, CA.

No Age spend much of their time on the road, where dining options often range from McDonald’s to KFC, and somehow manage to stick to a vegan diet all the time. When I spoke to them a few weeks back, they were having none of the bitching about how “difficult” that choice is. Said Dean, “People always ask us, ‘Isn’t it hard to be vegan on the road?’ and we’re always like, ‘No, not at all.’ I mean, sometimes you have to go to a grocery store and buy some fruits and vegetables, but other than that….no.”

As for “cheating” with the occasional bite of cheese, Randy doesn’t stand for it. “I mean, who am I cheating?” he asked. “It’s a choice I made, and it’s something that I enjoy doing and I find value in it.”

It’s the “enjoy doing” part that meat eaters have a huge problem wrapping their heads around. I constantly encounter the assumption that I must be miserable not eating meat, since I am “denying myself” so much gastronomic pleasure. “Right,” Randy agreed, “like you’re depriving yourself of something. And it’s like, ‘No, I’m actually enjoying the best parts of food…’”

And honestly, Dean said, often it’s non-animal consumers who are more adventurous. “When I decided to go vegan, food opened up a whole new world,” he told me. “It was like, Thai food, Ethiopian food, Indian food — I didn’t even know about those things before, you know?”

“The choices in food being vegan are so much more infinite than being a close-minded, suburban meat eater,” Randy chimed in. “Leaving fast food behind and exploring new cultures in food was a lot more interesting.”

So that’s it, brother. You had to know it was coming after Tuesday night…

But let me say this about Tuesday: it may not have been your finest moment, but “I Shot the Sheriff” was a way more interesting choice from the Hall of Fame songbook than the umpteenth version of “Stand By Me” and “Proud Mary.” And for Simon to have suggested “you don’t touch that song”? Huh? As if anything is inviolable on “American Idol” — please. A sanitized version of “Imagine” is OK, stripped of its atheist, socialist teeth, but a “karaoke” version of Marley’s fight-the-power anthem is not? Spare me the double standard.

Not that I am making excuses for the performance, JC — not great. And then Dylan — fine choice, I’d rather hear it than that old classic rock radio wheezer “Baba O’Riley.” But you can’t go up on the lyrics. You said you were “thinking too much” and not just letting it flow. Bad time for that to happen. We all know that you weren’t the first one to do it this season, still…

And the outrage in the blogoverse about Jason’s eye-widening, his supposedly “flippant” reaction to the judges, his lack of appropriate remorse over his blown performances, his ever-present smile. WTF do you people think this is? It’s a singing contest! If you ask me, he took it as seriously as “American Idol” ought to be taken. So, let’s see — when Simon told him to pack his bags, should he have had a “Brooke moment” and broken down? Should he have been shaken to the core? Please. He acknowledged that he “screwed up” two songs he knew and loved, and that’s it. No more penance is needed.

I have to believe at some point — maybe between Mariah Carey week and Andrew Lloyd Webber week? — this kid from Texas realized he was in a club that he didn’t really belong, or feel all that comfortable in. Oh well. So much for a little dose of realness in “Idol.” It was refreshing while it lasted.

Congrats, viewers. Now you’re back to the show just the way you like it: polished, scrubbed, respectful, and boring. A future Broadway star, another Daughtry and…(cough) I don’t even know what to call that study in arrested development.

Jason, sorry you got the boot. I doubt you really thought you were gonna win this thing, but thanks for a good run, some nice song choices, and exactly the right attitude. Good luck, dude. It will be a less interesting show without you.

When you see MTV News producer CJ Smith’s report on the burgeoning lo-fi punk movement (clip above), you’ll notice that the phenom is spreading out around the country. From LA’s No Age and The Smell, to Portland’s Eat Skull and Little Claw, to Memphis’s Jay Reatard, the artists are from all over the place. But key to the movement — in fact, it wouldn’t be the same without it — is a zone in the USA known as the Rust Belt. That’s right, the same Rust Belt that Barack and Hillary have been courting in recent weeks, whose economy is largely in the dumps, is home to some of our most exciting music.

From Philadelphia’s Clockcleaner and the venerable Siltbreeze label, all the way west to Lafayette, Indiana’s TV Ghost, I-70 seems to be ground zero for lo-fi punk. The unexpected ground zero seems to be Ohio’s capital, Columbus. That city’s home to the most prominent of these bands, Times New Viking, whose two-minute-long offerings of fuzzed-out pop punk, on full display on this year’s “Rip It Off,” earn them frequent comparisons to those other Ohio icons, Dayton’s Guided By Voices. “We definitely came of age with that kind of stuff,” said Beth Murphy.

Less fuzzy but no less rowdy and raucous, is fellow Columbus band Psychedelic Horses***. They’re also a trio that doesn’t shy away from button-pushing — take for example what they had to say about a much-lauded Brooklyn band that inspired their song “New Wave Hippies.” “It’s about Yeasayer,” said Matt Whitehurst. “These bands aren’t pushing boundaries, they’re not passionate, not original, and aren’t saying anything to their audience. They’re wasting their talent.”

Head north from Columbus and you hit Toledo, and beyond that Detroit — both hometowns to members of urgent band, Detroit-based Tyvek, who told us that it could be the perpetually struggling economies of the Rust Belt states that contribute to a sound that is so raw and relentless. As Kevin Boyer told us, “People have given up on trying to get a real job in Michigan. Everyone’s like, ‘Let’s just start a band.’”

So as Clinton and Obama wrestle for votes in their next battleground, Indiana, spare a thought for how hard times make for good music. That seems to be the case right now in the lo-fi punk hotbed of the Rust Belt.

Now let’s figure out a way to let Michigan’s voice be counted, please?

A few weeks back, Zach Condon posted a rather cryptic message announcing the cancellation of a European summer tour, along with the suggestion that all the success and acclaim and attention heaped on Beirut over the last couple of years has taken its toll. Who could blame some from thinking all bets regarding the future of the band were off? Although Zach did end his letter promising “we’ll be back, in some form”…

Well, maybe, just maybe…that form will be…a mariachi band?

As you can see in these photos, Condon the globe-trotting savant has made his way South of the border — to Teotilian De Valle, Mexico, to be exact — where he’s been playing with a seventeen-piece local village band.

Meantime, Beirut do have a handful of North American dates coming up, including the Sasquatch Festival on May 24th.

Ole!

“We’ve never been the sort of band that follows fashions and goes along with the pack. It’s more about following our own style, doing our own thing.”

So says Luke Ford, guitarist for Brit-rock five-piece The Duke Spirit. To be fair, I thought they looked perfectly stylish when I spoke to them a couple of weeks back, on the very day their second album, Neptune, was released: four dapper gents and their rather stunning frontwoman, Leila Moss.

Of course, Ford meant they eschew musical fashion, and as Moss told me, that sometimes puts The Duke Spirit at odds with the oh-so-trendy UK pop scene — as you can hear in the clip above.

Still, The Duke Spirit feel like fans on both sides of the Atlantic are coming around, with the help of what Leila calls the “richer sound” of their sophomore album, the nautically themed Neptune. It was written in soggy ol’ maritime England, but was recorded in — of all places — the desert.

More on their Joshua Tree recording sessions — and the My Bloody Valentine reunion talk — after the jump. Read more…

Wading into the old school soul-friendly waters that have proved welcoming to Gnarls Barkley, Sharon Jones, and Amy Winehouse of late are some of Wino’s countrymen, The Heavy. The funked-out fivesome hail from Bath, England — heretofore probably best known musically as the home of 80’s synth-pop duos Tears for Fears and Naked Eyes, and the adopted home of Peter Gabriel. But when I met them last month, it could not have been in a more American setting.

We were on the grounds of Austin, Texas music vet Hank Sinatra’s house, in front of which they played a sweltering afternoon set surrounded by sheep and chickens, beer and BBQ. The night before, it was bunnies for the Brits at the heavily attended Playboy “Rock the Rabbit” party, then they spent the early part of the day in true Texas fashion…shooting guns.

“Yeah, we feel acclimatized to Texas now, man. Magnums and M16’s,” said guitarist Dan Taylor. (They’re not all that Bush/Cheney: the “shoot” was actually for a web magazine.) “Hey, Playboy parties and guns,” Taylor added. “Welcome to Texas.”

Firearms aside, Taylor maintained that the band “feels more at home here in the States than we do in England, actually.” Maybe that’s because as eclectic as The Heavy are — their new album Great Vengeance and Furious Fire can sound like a different band from track to track — it’s all rooted in a classic American sound. “It’s all rhythm and blues basically,” singer Kelvin Swaby said. “But our thing is we can throw in some rock and throw in some hip-hop. It’s all about the bottom end, just very bass-heavy kind of music that will always have a sound-system vibe to it — even if it’s a country song.”

After some banter about the merits of Taylor’s “bottom end” (um, ha), he added, “We’ve always maintained that each song’s got to be different, to keep things interesting. We’d get bored just playing one style.”

Not unlike the philosophy Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse subscribe to.

I’m telling you: The Heavy and Gnarls Barkley. Could make quite a pair, when Gnarls tours behind their new album — right? Meantime, catch The Heavy when they kick off their own US tour in two weeks, a trek that will include a few more Playboy parties. Just to, you know, keep connected to American culture.

So I am sitting here at my always cluttered desk and on it, oddly and appropriately sitting next to one another, are “Peace: The Biography of a Symbol” (a book marking the 50th anniversary of the peace symbol), and a press release from Columbia Records touting the fact that their breakout band MGMT will be playing the Big Three US festivals this summer: Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza. Plus, in June, they’ll play Glastonbury and open for a little band by the name of Radiohead. But I digress. Back to the peace symbol book being next to MGMT —

“Hippie” is, I think, a much-maligned and none-too-fashionable word — one that probably has never applied to me, but I wouldn’t mind if it were. And it’s a term that’s been thrown liberally about in describing Ben and Andrew of MGMT, as well as folks like their erstwhile tourmates Yeasayer. (Ohio punk band Psychedelic Horses— even dedicated a not-so-flattering song to Yeasayer called “New Wave Hippies.” But more on that indie beef another time…)

Now, certainly there are psychedelic elements to MGMT, and certainly they have politically lefty roots (Wesleyan U, plus Andrew’s dad Bruce VanWyngarden is the editor of Memphis alt paper The Memphis Flyer). The press release calls MGMT “mind-bending” and “futurist” -– OK, but what about the “h” word?

How does the band feel about the term? Find out after the jump. Read more…

VIVA CASTRO!!

That’s pretty much all I have to say about Brother Jason’s cover of Bruddah Iz’s version of Sister Judy’s classic “Over the Rainbow.” (Check out Chris Harris’s article on the story behind the song.) Just know that as long as JC keeps delivering the goods like he did last night he is gonna be hard to beat, and the ranks of pro-Castro demonstrators will continue to swell.

Hopefully they won’t have Jason wade too heavily into the cheese tonight, as we all know “Idol Gives Back” has a tendency to approach the line between tastefully touching and treacly…and then cross it. JC doesn’t seem to have much patience for the maudlin, unlike certain other “Idol’”hopefuls.

And one other JC defense: a couple weeks back, Simon suggested that the dreadlocked one didn’t seem to really “care” about the competition. I don’t get that. What I get is that he wants to win, but knows that at the end of the day only one person will. He’s gonna do what he feels, be true to himself, and let the chips fall.

El “Nuevo Comandante” — Jason Castro. If he wins this thing, for bringing such honor to the Castro name, his namesakes Fidel and Raul should invite him to visit Havana — one of those “cultural exchange” deals to bypass the long arm of the travel embargo-ing feds. GO, JC!

Wow. Dreadheads unite!! With the recent announcement of the comeback of NKOTB I have been remembering the unbridled passion of the “Blockheads” — those kids who went nuts for the New Kids back in the day.

But apparently, “American Idol”’s Jason Castro has inspired his own equally enthusiastic following — at least judging by the reaction I have gotten to my wearing a “Jason Is My Idol” t-shirt on the news last week. I am glad you guys liked it — and to answer a few questions: Mary, I got it from the site Café Press; and Tori and Kristen, yeah I have seen the “Dreadhead” t-shirt — it’s great as well. Hopefully if Jason stays in (and we know he will, right?) I can wear it too…

So, why Jason? Apart from a great voice, he’s just more…real. Truth be told, I can’t really get into “Idol” until it gets down to the top 10 or 12 — it’s just too much of an investment before that. And when I started watching it this year, I thought JC just stood out. He seems incapable of doing anything forced or unauthentic. And on that show, that’s saying a lot. And his “Hallelujah”? Damn. In its own way, that is as revered and iconic a song as “Imagine,” and to do it that kind of justice — only a couple of weeks, I might add, before Leonard Cohen was inducted into the Rock Hall — well, that was it. Jeff Buckley was smiling.

This week, it’s “inspirational songs” – what will Jason sing? See my suggestions after the jump. Read more…