Ashlee Simpson spoof controversy
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 Ashlee Simpson. |
A Calgary rocker is causing quite the controversy with a tongue-in-cheek tune he penned about a lipsyncing Simpson sister.
Jason Darr, songwriter and front man for Neurosonic, a Canadian hardcore punk band, is reported to be in hot water with Ashlee Simpson and her beau Pete Wentz, bassist for Fall Out Boy.
Darr wrote Neurosonic's acid-tongued single, So Many People, mocking Simpson's now notoriously embarrassing Saturday Night Live performance in which she started lipsyncing the words to the wrong song.
"I meant every word of it... I'm a sarcastic little feller sometimes and the song just wrote its self," Darr told Sun Media. "But it was in good fun -- it's not meant to be malicious."
"Everything under the sun going to hell in an episode of SNL/watch it on the TV you ugly girl you cannot sing, can't even lip sync," shouts Darr during the song about Simpson (sister to infamous blond bomb shell, Jessica Simpson).
During a performance of the tune at New York City's Knitting Factory club last week, Darr told the crowd Wentz had a "cease and desist" order out against Neurosonic, banning them from playing the song.
The comment caused an avalanche of media coverage, starting with reports in the New York Post and NME Magazine, as well as numerous online music sources saying Wentz was considering legal action against the Calgary-bred rocker.
"I recall making a comment on stage about it one night. We're always up for a good for a laugh," says Darr, who grew up in Strathmore, just outside of Calgary.
Wentz responded to the comment on Fall Out Boy's web site, stating he had "never heard of that band or ever sent a cease and desist in (his) life."
Wentz added he, "hopes it works out for (them).
"I'm still not gonna have a fight in the press.... If your songs are good then sleep easy and have fun playing them -- just don't attach me to them."
Darr says the song and music video, which spoofs blond-haired celebritants, plastic surgery and Hollywood's redcarpet culture, was meant in jest, and brushed the incident with Wentz off with a good hearted laugh.
"I was in the same room with him (Wentz) at the Chainsaw Awards (held in L.A. in October), but he hadn't heard the song yet. We didn't speak -- I'm pretty sure he doesn't know who we are," said Darr.
Darr is the sole songwriter and main creative force behind the band. He moved from Calgary to Vancouver a little over two years ago, where he wrote and recorded Neurosonic's debut album, Drama Queen.
Darr was previously lead singer of Calgary's Out of Your Mouth. When the band broke up, he decided to move to B.C. for a change of pace.
He wrote and recorded Drama Queen by himself.
Other members of the band, including fellow-Calgarian Jacen Ekstrom, were added later.
Neurosonic has been on tour in the U.S. and Europe for most of 2007, with plans to return to Canada soon.
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