SHELLEY: Maybe every other night (Every one laughs).

RANALDO: (Laughing) Exactly!

An Underground Band

STARPOLISH: When I was doing some research for the interview I came across a New York Times article in which they referred to you as a 22-year-old underground band, which I thought was funny, because there's almost something oxymoronic about calling a 22-year-old group an underground band. At the same time, it does seem apt. Do you still see yourselves as an underground band?

SHELLEY: I love being an underground band. I wouldn't have it any other way.

RANALDO: I think it's what we are to a large degree. It's an incongruity because we're on a major label, and yet we have our own indie label as well. But for the larger music-buying population, for people buying Britney and Outkast records, we're an underground band, because we don't exist in that world. We're in this totally other world and we're really happy there. We love the music we make there and we love the community

SHELLEY: And we're glad they didn't kick us out

Touring

STARPOLISH: I see you're doing a Lollapalooza tour, and then you're touring in Australia and New Zealand with J Mascis. Is Watt playing with him?

RANALDO: I think it's a solo tour. We've seen [Watt] a lot in the last year, though.

STARPOLISH: [Watt] has been a really good friend of ours; he helped us launch the site. He was the first person on our advisory board and he's just an awesome guy, so I was curious. But doing these kinds of tours — as you get older, and you have families and responsibilities, does that change being on tour? Are you still a live band that loves to play?

RANALDO: I think we are. I mean I don't think we've changed too much about that except that we have to just work a little harder on getting the schedules to work out, with school schedules and things like that. We love making records, but we really love playing live as well. It's definitely one of the things we do that keeps us energized and that we totally live and love to do. It's always been one of the biggest turn-ons and it remains that.

SHELLEY: There's something about when a live show is going well, that's sort of why you got into a band. Because you're so in the moment, and it's not the same moment as when you're having fun in the recording studio or making a record, but it's got all that sort of glory going on that you dreamt of when you were 12 or 13.

STARPOLISH: So that still exists?

RANALDO: Oh, yeah, of course it still exists for us. But that's why people go to live shows, because it's a unique thing, you know? It's not like listening to a record. It's a group experience. It's not just about the band on the stage, because on a good night it's about everything that's happening in the room. The audience is a synergistic part of it and it's something that happens in this moment and then it's gone. It's got this evanescent quality to it, you know? And it's really just a remarkable thing. It continues to be something that moves people to go out in numbers to see live events, whether it's rock n' roll or theatre or whatever. A live show is something that's happening in the moment. It's not reproducible. It's not something you're watching on a tape that you can say, "Oh let's watch it tomorrow night." It's still this magical thing.