Sinners.<\/em><\/p>\nMore from Spin:<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that movie so much. I saw it five times. I wanted to show it to other people,\u201d Aubert admitted of the breakaway horror\/blues origin story film, created by Ryan Coogler. To his point, the movie currently has 16 Academy Award nominations, the most of any motion picture in history.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe took the whole band crew to see it,\u201d Monninger piped in with a twinge of derision. \u201cHe tries to take us to movies when we\u2019re on tour.\u201d<\/p>\n
This dynamic has existed since the two were roommates in the early 2000s in L.A.\u2019s Silver Lake neighborhood, at a time the Silversun Pickups were just getting their footing. Aubert and Monninger would host movie nights for friends, including eventual bandmates Christopher Guanlao and Joe Lester. But Monninger admittedly would always fall asleep. \u201cIt was basically her ASMR,\u201d Aubert joked, adding, \u201cAt one point, I wanted to make a compilation of all the movie endings she missed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aubert\u2019s Ebert-like passion still comes out nowadays as he logs regular appearances on the \u201cBreakfast All Day\u201d podcast where he shares \u201cout of the theater reactions\u201d to various releases. He\u2019s also proud to admit he\u2019s won Oscar movie polls at watch parties each of the last seven years. Naturally, he predicts Sinners<\/em> will win big this year.<\/p>\nMore than the film\u2019s obvious merit, though, Aubert\u2019s proclivity towards the flick may have to do with the fact that he just may be a vampire, too.<\/p>\n\nDuring the making of Tenterhooks<\/em>, the frontman and guitarist ended up in the hospital due a severe ear infection that eventually required blood transfusions. \u201cIt started to hurt so bad, I was taking ibuprofen, but I wasn\u2019t eating, and it cut a hole in my stomach. I started losing blood and was in the hospital for like five days,\u201d Aubert shared of the terrifying medical event, before cutting the recollection with his sense of humor. \u201cIt was interesting because I could taste someone else\u2019s blood behind my mouth. And it made me wonder if, like, vampires think this person tastes like shit. This person tastes great.\u201d<\/p>\nIt took six months for Aubert\u2019s ear to fully heal and thankfully he didn\u2019t have any permanent hearing damage. \u201cI had to take a hearing test, and I don\u2019t know why, but my hearing is not that bad,\u201d he said with a shrug. \u201cI thought, wow, I\u2019ve really worked hard over the years for that not to be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
The worst part of it all was that he wasn\u2019t able to really listen to the band\u2019s new album as it was actively in production with the legendary Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage) behind the boards. Silversun Pickups has continually worked with Vig since 2019\u2019s Widow\u2019s Weeds<\/em>, calling him \u201cfamily\u201d at this point.<\/p>\n\u201cThe thing I love the most about making records is all the stuff before it\u2019s finished, when things aren\u2019t cemented in and it\u2019s still got wanderlust because you\u2019re still working on it and you still have an imagination with it. I love that experience with an album, but I just didn\u2019t get to have that this time,\u201d Aubert shared, \u201cso I really relied on my bandmates and Butch.\u201d<\/p>\n
They delivered. What resulted on Tenterhooks<\/em> (released February 6 on the band\u2019s own label, New Machine) is an evolved collection of songs that continue Silversun Pickups\u2019 commitment to never play by a rule book or stick to formulaic slop. The album opens with the emo-like wails of \u201cNew Wave\u201d and follows with the bass-heavy rock churn of \u201cThe Wreckage\u201d before dipping its psychedelic toes into the Monninger-led \u201cAu Revoir Reservoir.\u201d Other standouts include the \u201990s alt-rock stamp of \u201cInterrobang\u201d and the down-tuned cinematic splendor of \u201cRunning Out of Sounds,\u201d which is a bold-faced lie as far as the band is concerned. Silversun Pickups will tour on the album through May, coming off Aubert\u2019s winter acoustic solo trek where, he said, \u201cI\u2019ve been less shy with my instrument than I have in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n(Credit: Claire Marie Vogel)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The new album name is an interesting one, even if it\u2019s not in everyone\u2019s vocabulary. \u201cI was really surprised people haven\u2019t heard the expression \u2018on tenterhooks,\u2019\u201d Aubert admitted, noting this is not the first time this has happened. \u201cThe other one that always threw me for a loop is that we have a record called Neck of the Woods<\/em>. And I was like, that is as fundamental as it gets but there were still so many people who were like, so what is that about? I had to wonder, are these too old-timey?\u201d As he speaks, he does so with the conviction of a dad to a 10-year-old, his son Nico, who recently shamed him with the whole \u201c6-7\u201d meme.<\/p>\nBut, I remind Aubert, the Tenterhooks<\/em> title seemingly falls in a long line of rock records and songs that have introduced other young people to new words, i.e. Helmet\u2019s \u201cMilquetoast,\u201d Local H\u2019s love of \u201ccopacetic\u201d on \u201cBound for the Floor\u201d and Seven Mary Three\u2019s \u201cCumbersome.\u201d After using the excuse to break out into a passionate sing-along of the latter, Aubert regained his composure and shed more light on the purposeful intention behind the album name.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s like anxiety or nail biting, like you\u2019re apprehensively awaiting something \u2026 and who doesn\u2019t feel that right now,\u201d he admitted before quickly taking a more vocal political stance. \u201cThere\u2019s always plenty of people who say, stay in your lane. And I\u2019m like, what are you talking about? You mean we can\u2019t talk about the things that are literally affecting our lives? They\u2019re not staying out of our lanes. They\u2019re mucking with our worlds. This is Gestapo shit. This is the craziest stuff I\u2019ve ever seen, like only in movies,\u201d he added, tying it back into his cinematic worldview. \u201cAnd so to cowardly say you can\u2019t speak about that is wild.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a recent Q&A event in L.A. with Vig, the band put those thoughts into action, giving all proceeds to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights L.A. that\u2019s been around since 1986 with a mission to advance the rights of immigrants and refugees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey could use everyone\u2019s help,\u201d Monninger shared of partnering with the nonprofit organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing we\u2019ve learned is that it\u2019s always up to us to fix everything,\u201d Aubert added, clarifying, \u201cI mean society. Humans. People. The towns. It\u2019s literally up to us. And we\u2019re very lucky people to be able to have a world that we get to do this for a living and express ourselves. And part of it is giving back to our world as much as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tenterhooks <\/em>and its wider messaging also comes at an interesting personal time for the band as 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of their debut album, Carnavas<\/em>, which produced the early hit \u201cLazy Eye\u201d and sent Silversun Pickups into its quick rise. \u201cIt\u2019s weird because it still feels fresh to us,\u201d said Monninger before Aubert quickly jumped in with a rebuttal. \u201cBut we don\u2019t have the same nostalgia for it,\u201d he said, referencing fans who will often come up to the band after gigs and share how they\u2019ve listened to \u201cLazy Eye\u201d since high school.<\/p>\n\u201cThis sounds so stupid to say, but because we don\u2019t take ourselves seriously, I\u2019ve had to learn to respect our band in front of those people and learn to say thank you,\u201d he admitted. If it sounds gruff, his stance is better understood with some context of the random and unassuming way the band was started in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone likes to talk about how I saw her on the plane stealing alcohol,\u201d Aubert joked, referencing when he and Monninger, in college in the \u201990s, were both on a plane from L.A. to London to embark on an exchange program with Cambridge University and she pilfered goods from the bar cart. \u201cBut actually, I remember Nikki from the very first meeting about the trip. Her mom was so intense and I was like, wow, that woman is not letting that girl speak,\u201d he joked. \u201cSo when I saw her stealing the alcohol, I thought, I judged her wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was that natural confidence he saw in Monninger that has been a backbone of the band ever since, even as sexism reared its head in the early days. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be able to go backstage because no girlfriends were allowed. Or they would think I was the publicist and would let my husband through and not me. I\u2019m like, what?\u201d the bassist and vocalist recalled. \u201cWe came up from playing at Spaceland and the Silverlake Lounge on the East side of L.A. where there was a girl in every band, so that was so odd to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monninger, too, played a key role in those early London days, choosing the small club shows she took Aubert to, shows which would eventually shape the band\u2019s musical path.. \u201cWe saw Green Day in like a 200-person club. Radiohead, too. I initially said no to that,\u201d Aubert shamefully admitted. \u201cI was like the \u2018Creep\u2019 band? I didn\u2019t know it at the time but it changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n(Credit: Claire Marie Vogel)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Silversun Pickups recently had another blast from the past when making the wackadoo video for their new single \u201cThe Wreckage,\u201d in which an alien takes over an unsuspecting woman\u2019s body in a bathroom stall at a dive bar. It features a cameo from one of the band\u2019s other favorite movie stars, Jack Black. The actor is married to the band\u2019s longtime friend, cellist Tanya Hayden, who used to play onstage with Silversun Pickups many eons ago. The band takes partial credit for bringing her and Black together.<\/p>\n
\u201cTanya was an unofficial fifth member that would come on stage sometimes. This before we were signed, years before we made a record,\u201d Aubert explained. \u201cA friend of mine wanted us to be a part of this Doctors Without Borders benefit in Los Angeles with Tenacious D. Jack saw Tanya and remembered her from the high school that they used to go together, and he always liked her. And so they rekindled and got married and had kids from that very stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Hollywood speak, they\u2019d call that a happy ending. It\u2019s one of the beauties of living and working in Tinsel Town, according to the band. \u201cBecause the thing about L.A. is it\u2019s a thousand small towns,\u201d explained Aubert, comparing the atmosphere to, of course, a movie. \u201cIf you\u2019ve seen the movie Licorice Pizza, <\/em>as an Angeleno, that was very right on the money. It\u2019s where things feel dreamlike and a little out of reach,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s just how it functions, to the chagrin of some people, but also to the delight of adventurers that still have a lot to explore.\u201d<\/p>\nTo see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On an afternoon when Brian Aubert and Nikki Monninger are supposed to be talking with me about Silversun Pickups\u2019 new album Tenterhooks, Aubert can\u2019t help but steer the conversation towards his other love: movies. He just drove a couple hours from his home in Los Angeles to attend the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2295609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[336027,415714],"class_list":["post-2295608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-ryan-coogler","tag-silversun-pickups"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Silversun-Pickups-Will-Never-Stick-to-the-Script.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2295608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2295610,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295608\/revisions\/2295610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2295609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2295608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2295608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2295608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}