After more than 20 years of fame, former Oasis bloke Noel Gallagher still hasn't learned how to bite his tongue in interviews. Most recently, he's singled out Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, Jessie J and Ed Sheeran while discussing his belief that modern rock stars are boring.
"There doesn't seem to be any characters any more," he told the London Evening Standard. "When you have proper characters, the music sort of becomes secondary — it looks after itself. Look at bands like the Smiths and the Jam — all great characters."
That's when he turned his crosshairs on Turner. He said, "I would rather drink petrol straight from the nozzle at a garage than listen to an interview with Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys. Wouldn't you? Alternative thinking is on its way out. They just don't make for great copy."
Gallagher said that "things have started to get boring," and blamed the phenomenon on major labels buying up indies. These days, he says, musicians are more willing to tow the label line.
"I remember the Brits in 1994 — we were all shit-faced on drugs," he remembered. "The new names like James Blunt, Ed Sheeran and Jessie J — they defer to the [record] labels. The bands that I grew up with had a healthy dose of indifference and contempt towards their labels. That has gone."
Meanwhile, Gallagher and his project High Flying Birds will release their album Chasing Yesterday on March 2 through Sour Mash.
"There doesn't seem to be any characters any more," he told the London Evening Standard. "When you have proper characters, the music sort of becomes secondary — it looks after itself. Look at bands like the Smiths and the Jam — all great characters."
That's when he turned his crosshairs on Turner. He said, "I would rather drink petrol straight from the nozzle at a garage than listen to an interview with Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys. Wouldn't you? Alternative thinking is on its way out. They just don't make for great copy."
Gallagher said that "things have started to get boring," and blamed the phenomenon on major labels buying up indies. These days, he says, musicians are more willing to tow the label line.
"I remember the Brits in 1994 — we were all shit-faced on drugs," he remembered. "The new names like James Blunt, Ed Sheeran and Jessie J — they defer to the [record] labels. The bands that I grew up with had a healthy dose of indifference and contempt towards their labels. That has gone."
Meanwhile, Gallagher and his project High Flying Birds will release their album Chasing Yesterday on March 2 through Sour Mash.