AP: She also wanted me to ask you Marissa about your fake MTV show?

MP: MTV12 is the first television network video countdown show on the Internet where we count down our favorite top 12 videos in alphabetical order. I’m VJ Misty and I do the show with my co-VJ Dawn Riddle. We just hack music videos off of YouTube and film it on the internal camera on my laptop and make it an iMovie. *laughs*

JD: It’s expanding past the countdown now.

MP: Yeah, we have some other segments. An interview segment called “Q&A with K&K” with our two new VJs, VJ Kristina and VJ Kush. And we’re working on an on-scene reporting live from the rock show segment with a new VJ, VJ Boo Boo. We’ll see, maybe one day we’ll get a real camera and a microphone, but I don’t see why we should do that.

AP: I didn’t even know about it until she brought it up with me. It’s kind of ironic, because the first time I heard about you guys was when you were featured on Last Call with Carson Daly.

MP: I kinda miss when TV would actually play videos. When I was watching TV a lot, MTV2 just started and they would play videos all day, which was awesome. And then it abruptly ended and hasn’t really come back since. I know they have a million channels now but I don’t know what they play.

KM: Yeah, now they have mtvU and MTV Jams…

AP: VH1’s still around too, I think.

MP: I always thought of VH1 as the video network for old people as a kid. I was like “Peter Gabriel, ew.” *laughs*

JD: And they would always take the 90’s R&B songs and edit out the rapper’s verse. Like with Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” and they would edit out Ol’ Dirty Bastard. I was like this song is just like The Tom Tom Club without Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

AP: You have obviously been touring for a good number of years now. More of a veteran live band, I’d say. What would you say is an aspect of the live show that the new bands you’re seeing miss out on or don’t quite get yet?

KM: When you say we’re a veteran live band, it makes it seem like we’re nearing retirement.

MP: Do you think we should be on VH1 or something? *laughs*

KM: Yeah, we’re fresh young guns. *laughs*

JD: I’d say that watching new bands is usually exciting, because it’s usually weird and they’re trying to figure out what they’re doing. I think there’s a place you get when you’ve been playing a little longer than that where it’s like scripted and way less interesting. So it’s less advice to brand new bands and more advice to bands that have been playing a little while. I feel like most fans of music don’t want to see you play the same way all the time. I know a bunch of bands that when they get together and they practice their set and then it’s set. That’s it. A lot of hardcore bands do that. The songs are done in the same order with the same amount of time in between them. Every single time.

KM: Yeah, you gotta change things up a bit. Especially when people start yelling out requests and it’s a wild night. You start trying to fulfill those requests.

AP: So it’s like being able to improvise a little bit.

KM: Yeah, so it’s like say I broke my D string. Let’s play something where I don’t have to use that string. There ya go. You gotta know the entire catalog.

MP: That’s so many songs.

JD: We gotta take that advice. I was thinking that when I get home, I might just do some practice sessions myself where I go through all the songs and make sure I know them all.

MP: Damn.

AP: Have you guys had any really random requests that you had no idea how to play?

MP: People ask for songs we don’t know how to play all the time.

JD: There’s a song “Arm Over Arm”, it’s one of our oldest songs. On the beginning of this tour, like six different people asked me to play that song. I’m like “Are you kidding me? I didn’t even know that song even exists. It’s so old.”

AP: I feel like it’s really weird for fans because a lot of them have that one song from that one single they really like and they want to hear that one song.

KM: I think today, if you asked us to, we could play 85% of our catalog. That’s pretty impressive.

AP: I’d say so.

JD: I’d say that’s something as a band that we never worried about too much. Displeasing people because we don’t play the one song that the most viewed on YouTube or something. I think that our live show is interesting enough and engaging enough that even if you don’t come and hear that one song you were looking to hear, you’ll leave pretty happy about what we did and be pretty excited about it. The times I’ve seen bands play and they didn’t play their hit was actually kind of exciting. It’s pretty gnarly to go up there and be like I know people want to hear this song, not doing it.

AP: Yeah, it’s pretty rare nowadays. All the time they save the hit for the encore.

MP: When my friend played with Lit in the early 00’s, he said they played “My Own Worst Enemy” five times.

JD: So that’d be my advice to bands. Don’t get locked into a box.