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The perfect marriage of style and substance, New York's City's Semi Precious Weapons are an explosion on the underage circuit. Underage in that they bring their music and frenetic live show to the 16-and-older clubs, turning an entire generation of kids into beautiful brats. Front man Justin Tranter is a vision in platform boots and faux fur, and their performance at the 2008 Joey Ramone Birthday Bash left me fully enamored. And I'm not the only one - Miss Kate Moss herself is a fan.
I caught up with the guys at a very special homecoming show in Chicago. Justin was born and raised in the city, and the night's performance saw him singing straight to childhood friends and family alike. His mom stood front row in a packed house of glammed-up fans, who stayed long after to party and dance with the front man.
Thirsty: Is this your first time in Chicago?
Justin: No, I grew up here! I went to high school at the Chicago Academy for the Arts. So I lived at Chicago and Ogden for four years ... Then I moved to Boston at 18 so I didn't really, my time in Chicago was very... people would say, "oh, did you go to this club?" No, I left before that was legal!
Thirsty: When did you guys get together?
Justin: Two years ago. We all met... well, actually - me, Dan, and Cole met in college at Boston. (Aaron comes in). He's much younger, but he ended up going to the same school which is how we all became friends and met. We all met in Boston and then moved to New York kind of on our own. But we all knew each other and started a band after we'd been there for awhile. We've been in New York for six, seven years.
Thirsty: Where do you all live in New York?
Justin: I live in Green Point (Brooklyn). Well, actually, we all lived in Green Point but we just got evicted from our loft! I'm moving to the Hasidic part (of Williamsburg) to try to avoid the trendy, annoyingness. Hasidic Jews are really nice to me. They're all tranny chasers at heart.
Thirsty: They've got great style.
Justin: Yeah! And they're so dedicated to their style and fashion. They have really great clothes. And the women wear wigs every day! That's dedication. So glamorous.
Thirsty: Everything seems to be happening very quickly for you at this point. Since the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash, you've been selling out shows and I saw pictures of you with Kate Moss!
Justin: You know, it's so funny, everyone keeps saying that to us, but to us it needs to be so much more. So it's good to hear that! It's a good thing to hear that a lot of people think that we're everywhere, because to us we feel like we're nowhere and we aren't getting getting booked on the shows we want to get booked on and all that stuff. But it's definitely going... We've been a band for two years, and since the minute we started it's been full force working as hard as we possibly can. So I think we'll definitely be one of those bands where if it really breaks, people will be like, "they just came out of nowhere!" But this is like our sixth time playing Chicago. Which is still nothing.
Thirsty: What other stops are you making on this tour?
Justin: We just did St. Louis and we're doing Columbus tomorrow. Just a quick little one. We randomly do well in those cities. We do really well in St. Louis. So we wanted to play those cities before our record came out. We're trying to get on somebody else's tour that'll just go on for months and months and months. Much less planning.
Thirsty: Who would you like to tour with?
Justin: All the bands we like are really old bands so that's not really going to help. I mean, it's great to play - the Joey Ramone audience was amazing and they loved us and they were so receptive but a bunch of 50-year-olds loving your band isn't really going to make a career out of it! You need teenagers. So we would be willing to play with any audience of young people that want to hear rock n' roll. I sometimes even think opening for somebody like Kelis would help us, cause the kids who like Kelis I think would like us, cause she's dangerous and she's edgy. And I think the kids that like the All American Rejects, which they think is a rock band, would hate us! Cause they're so, cause it's so vanilla and so plain. So we're wiling to play with anybody who has an audience of exciting people in front of them.
Thirsty: You are obviously influenced by the old glam bands. Do you think these kids who listen to bands like All American Rejects need to know those influences? Do you think they need to know where that's coming from?
Justin: Yeah, I mean, for us, we really just love old rock bands like AC/DC and Zeppelin are like our favorites and honestly the way I look there's obviously that glam element to it. But musical, we don't - it's hard to say what was glam. It was such a widespread thing. So I definitely think kids need to - whether they know where it came from or not I don't think really matters, but I think they want something dangerous. They want something exciting. That's why kids all love Jeffrey Star. He's not a musician, really, but he's just dangerous. He's just doing something different that they can grab onto. So hopefully we can be the Jeffrey Star with great songs!
Thirsty: Growing up in Chicago, who was your style icon? Has this always been your look?
Justin: I mean, I look much better now. I went through some bad trials and tribulations. But like Courtney Love was a huge influence and the female rappers that came out in the late 1990s are loved. Like the Foxy Browns and the Little Kims. Just cause they're so cunty and rebellious and things like that. But then musically I mean, Aaron and I wrote most of the songs together and it's kind of just rock n' roll to us.
Thirsty: One of my great friends in New York is Jimmy Webb from Trash and Vaudeville -
Justin: Amazing.
Thirsty: Do you guys get your clothes there?
Justin: We get some clothes there. Aaron has a bunch of pants from there. And we actually had never met Jimmy until the Ramone thing. He lost his mind for us! And we have people who will like go into Trash and Vaudeville, and Jimmy doesn't know that they know us, he'll be talking to a group of kids and telling them about us! And they'll be texting me like, "Trash and Vaudeville guy is talking about you again!" And it's amazing and he's - I mean, even though you think in New York there should be a hundred stores like his, there isn't. So he has such - he can plug in directly to the kids, which is amazing.
Thirsty: How was the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash for you guys?
Aaron: We had a blast that night. It was like, it was our first time playing at Irving Plaza obviously and, you know, 600 or 700 people who've never heard us, never seen our show and being part of anything Ramones is awesome. Justin: And a bunch of his nieces and nephews and other family members came up to me and said, "Your music isn't punk but you are the most punk rock people here. And we're so glad that you came to play." And that, I mean, you don't really need to hear anything else!
Thirsty: What has been the highlight of this tour so far?
Aaron: Last night was pretty fucking magical. St. Louis. It's always wild, really wild. I don't know what it is about that place but maybe there's just nothing else going on so when something cool comes through kids lose their minds. Justin: The whole fifty people up front (are) all dressed up and whether they succeeded or not they tried their little fucking hearts out and it was amazing. It's really fun.
Thirsty: Don't you love that you're a band that people will dress up for?
Justin: I do. I want our fans to look as crazy - whatever it means to them. I want them to just go for it. Our show is a place where they feel safe to. When I was a kid I would envision myself looking like things and certain times I would feel comfortable doing it and certain times I wouldn't, you know. Our show is a place that can happen. And I also think it's amazing like in St. Louis they're girls dressed up but there's also dudes in white baseball caps and tshirts having just as much fun. I really hope we keep that as it goes and gets bigger. Cause I'm sure we'll get a lot more younger and freaky kids, that's what I hope. But I hope we don't lose the 25-year-old dudes that just love the fact that we're playing real rock n' roll riffs.
Thirsty: Tell me about the style of Semi Precious Weapons.
Justin: Well, Dan and Neil kind of have the same look going on. Aaron: Justin started making his own clothes and developing his style and as the band went on he kind of inspired us to look cooler and just not care anymore, you know. I mean, it's garage glam so some of it's some of it's high fashion and some of it's dirty. Justin: Some of my like really elaborate costumes are made by this company called This Old Thing in Brooklyn. It's all like reconstructed vintage. So they help me with that. I guess when we first started we all were trying to look a certain way and now it's just, I think the four of us have found different things. Aaron's look changes month to month. It all kind of fits in whether musically or visually it's all just about dangerous and exciting.
I love all of the big fashion houses like McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, which I mean, they all started with punk rock in the UK but now they've turned into these avant garde icons. Love them. I wear panty hose most of the time. Wolford. I love a Wolford panty! I'm a classy gal.
