"Weird Al" Yankovic dares to be honest about Straight Outta Lynwood and his songwriting process, while Andrew McMahon of Jack’s Mannequin takes B-Sides on a ride with his new album, The Glass Passenger

B-Sides: The album's release date was pushed back a few times. Was it due to resequencing? Is "Suicide Blonde" or "Swim" the single?

Andrew McMahon: Neither. "The Resolution" is. I sort of had gotten to the point with that, it's like...this record's done. I have no perspective on it anymore. I've got vertigo as far as this record's concerned. [Laughs] We've worked on it for so long, it's just kind of like...it's time to just let it go. The vibe on "The Resolution" was huge, the radio dudes are all fired up. We're just going to go out and play the record and hope people dig it.

Passenger is so lush and orchestrated. What is the biggest challenge you think you're going to face translating the songs live?

That's how I felt on the last record, too, I was like, How am I going to do this? And we just did it. It's funny, the way instruments take up space in a big room versus the way they take up space in your speakers. It's so different...I tend to find, we just go out there and dress it up as a four-man arrangement. It ends up actually sounding just as big, but we just translate things in certain different ways. I'll probably have a couple more keyboards out with me, and I'll probably play some extra stuff on keyboards. Other than that, I'm hoping we just go in there and go practice them, and they sound rad and we just go play them.

Is there anything on the record you wanted to add but didn't get a chance to, or couldn't?

There is, and there will eternally be. I've just come to accept it, because I've tortured these people [at the label] over here so much over the release of this thing. I always wanted to do this super-disco string idea in the chorus of "American Love." Like "Billie Jean" or something, really big string glissandos or something real silly and over the top. Some ideas you just let slide by, and that was one of them. Maybe I'll never forgive myself, but it's sounding OK to me right now, so I'll deal.
— Annie Zaleski

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