The debut EP from The Pretty Reckless is available now. It features their single “Make Me Wanna Die,” two new digital tracks and bonus song “Zombie” available only on the physical version sold at Warped Tour and Hot Topic stores.

With these four songs, Taylor Momsen and her band give fans a preview of what’s to come on their forthcoming full-length album, Light Me Up — an unflinchingly honest chronicle of Momsen’s experiences, filtered through her unique point of view. The songs, all written by Momsen and Ben Phillips with their producer Kato Khandwala, run the gamut of emotions, alternating at times between seething rage and a bruised vulnerability.

The songs tackle everything from romantic insecurity (the full-throttle rager “Make Me Wanna Die,” which also appears on the soundtrack to the film Kick-Ass), to despair (“You”), to how working non-stop can you make you feel like one of the un-dead (“Zombie”). Momsen pushes back against the haters on “Light Me Up” and asks how far you have to go to get forgiveness on “Going Down.” With her growly, world-weary alto, Momsen can do it all: garage-rock rave-ups (“Miss Nothing”), punchy blues-rock stompers (“My Medicine,” “Since You’re Gone”), as well as emotional power ballads (“Just Tonight”) and lovely acoustic guitar and string-driven numbers (“You”).

Visit ThePrettyReckless.com for more info and stay tuned for the full-length release coming later this year. The band is about to head out on Warped Tour, and they are giving fans the chance to design their tour poster on Buzznet.

Thanks to Veronica @ totalassault.com

Are there any bands that you haven’t worked with that you’re looking forward to playing with on the Warped Tour?
[…] The Pretty Reckless with Taylor Momsen. She’s got a really unique voice. Like a lot of people who are actresses try to make albums and they all don’t have good voices. But her voice is really unique, and it’s got this really cool tone and rasp to it, so I’m looking forward to see what she does.

I wonder how she has time between doing all of that and doing Gossip Girl.
I think she’s focusing on music right now for the summer. I heard she’s doing a U.K. tour after Warped, so she’s really focusing on her band.

Have you worked with her before?
No. Never met her. Looking forward to. I hope so.

Thanks Taylor Momsen Source for the headsup.

The limits of control.

Hello, upper east siders! Spotted: Little J releasing a record with her band, The Pretty Reckless. The biggest surprise? It’s actually good. Xoxo.

IN A CORNER booth at Remedy Diner on New York City’s Lower East Side, the same place we met six months ago for her NYLON Japan cover story, Taylor Momsen sips from a steaming skim latte, her long, center-parted blond hair shrouding most of her face. The first time, we shared cheese fries while she talked candidly about her acting career and bubbled over with excitement when the conversation turned toward her band, the Pretty Reckless, and their forthcoming record, which was still very much “in the works”. Now the as-yet-untitled album is set to come out this summer, and it’s the reason that we’re meeting again in the same booth, at the same diner, with another order of cheese fries.

This time, Momsen, Who says she has “absolutely” fulfilled the hopes she had for the album, is joined by her guitarist, Ben Phillips (bassist Mark Damon and drummer Jamie Perkins are absent). “She was completely in charge from one end to the other”, says Phillips, who co-wrote the record with her. “She’s very diligent – one might use the word pedantic at points. We could spend 18 hours editing a track. She truly doesn’t know the meaning of downtime”. At this, Momsen smirks contentedly.

Lots of thing – big and small – have changed since our last meeting: In addition to finishing the recording, Momsen just shot her first music video and assembled a permanent band that will accompany her on this summer’s Warped Tour. Also new are her “fucking cool John Lennon sunglasses”, behind which her heavily lined and shadowed lids are barely visible. She says they were her dad’s and that she likes them a lot, and I believe her because she opts to wear them for the entirety of our conversation.

“[The album is about] sex and drugs and religion and politics and arguments”, explains Momsen, dipping a fry in ketchup and popping it into her mouth. “But whatever I felt when I was writing it isn’t what I need people to get out of it, exactly. Whatever they want to take from it is what the songs are about. My intention doesn’t really matter”: Momsen cities Oasis, the Beatles, and Audioslave as longtime musical influences but adds that her producer introduces her to Marilyn Manson during the recording process. After announcing this, she chants a string of lyrics from Manson’s “This Is The New Shit” and falls back into the booth, giggling.

On the album’s first single, “You Make Me Wanna Die”, Momsen’s voice growls over dense guitars (“Take me, I’m alive / Never was a girl with a wicked mind”) but switches to a haunting purr for the bridge: “I can see your eyes / Your eyes”. “This is he first time ever that I’ve been able to choose the people I’m working with”, she says. “When you’re an actress, you’re chosen for a role. It’s hard to find people who can reflect your vision and make it come to life”. For Momsen, it was essential that she be able to pick her producers and have creative control of her videos. “Otherwise I wouldn’t do it”, she explains. “I’d rather put it out myself than have people (at a label) dictate what my songs are going to sound like. Fuck that: I’m the artist”.

It’s been a painstaking process for Momsen, but she says the long hours were nothing new and ultimately satisfying. “It just feels like a success to finish it”, she says. “Past that, it’s all really kind of bullshit. If you’re in this for record sales and fame, then you don’t really like music”. So how did Momsen celebrate once the album was finished? “Those are things”, she answers coyly, “that I don’t say in magazines”.

Thanks so much to Septimiu for the magazine scans.

GALLERY LINK
Magazine Scans » Nylon June / July 2010

THE TRANSITION from actor to musician is extrmely hit and miss. You could be looking at the next Jared Leto or you could, Gof forbid, be witnessing the next incarnation of Dogstar, the ill-fated bar band fronted by Matrix actor Keanu Reves. Tonight, this dingle West London venue is at mazimum capacity as three quarters of The Pretty Reckless make their way onto the stage. The young, mostly female crowd barely een acknowledge their presence, thouh, as many of them fiddle nervously with their cameras and wait with bated breath. It’s clear who they’ve come to see tonight and when TV’s Gossip Girl actress-turned-frontwoman Tayor Momsen finally charges onto her first ever UK stage, she’s greeted with cheers, screams and a lightning story of camera flashes.

Within the very first song any doubts about whether or not she can convincingly fron a band are dead and buried. She is physically and vocally everything that a frontwoman could wish to be. Her voice alone demands attention – the perfect balance of radio-friendly harmony and husky grunge-growl echoes that of a young Courtney Love – and while the other members of the band are awesome musicians, competing with Taylor’s presence and charisma is pointless. Heavy riffs and wailing solos rock the ting room and the crowd are at the Gossip-Girl-gone-grunge’s mercy as tehy shut along with the choruses of Make Me Wanna Die and Zombie.

Armed with superb voice and some killer tunes, tonight Taylor has proved beyong doubt that she’s much more than just an actress playing the part of a rock star.

Source: Thank you so much to ninjarawr.

GALLERY LINK
Magazine Scans » Kerrang Magazine – June 2010

The guys spoke to ATP about how the band got together, their forthcoming debut album, signing to Interscope records, playing this year’s Warped Tour, Taylor juggling around the band with her acting career and more.

How did the band come together?
Ben: My song-writing partner and I (Kato Khandwala,) met Taylor about a year and a half ago; we then started working on writing songs together. He produced the record and my musicians play on the record; it became the band. Taylor has been writing and playing since she was a kid, and was getting to the point where she wanted to release a record; luckily we caught her on her “upswing” of artistic movements.

Taylor: It was a good fit.

How did the two of you meet?
Taylor: Through Kato. I was looking for producers to work with and I got hooked up with him, who was also Ben’s partner. I met with Kato, we were working together; then met Ben, ended up writing the whole record together, and here we are now.

Everyone knows you in the public eye from your role in TV’s ‘Gossip Girl.’ What are people’s reactions, when seeing you in The Pretty Reckless?
Taylor: It’s been cool, once people can get past that I play a character, on a TV show, named Jenny Humphrey, and that I’m a real person outside of that. I’m an actress who’s also in a rock band.

Ben: The fans of Gossip Girl are great and very supportive.

Taylor: They are very supportive; it’s just crossing over to people who are pretty judgmental, because I’m on a TV show.

Is it hard to juggle around your acting career with the band?
Taylor: It’s pretty good; you just don’t sleep.

(to Ben) It must have been hard, for you to work round Taylor’s acting schedule, to work on the band?
Ben: The record took, probably, the same amount of time as it would for a regular record but, with her schedule, we were doing 8pm-4am or 12am-7am. She never slept; she just went with it. Taylor had the hardest job but, it was tedious.

Before you met Taylor, were you in a different band?
Ben: We’re all in a band together, and have been playing together since we were twelve, we’re part of a band called ‘Famous’.

What made you want to sign with Interscope records?
Taylor: Jimmy Iovine, he’s awesome. He’s signed so many great acts; he is Interscope. It seemed like a great fit.

Ben: They are a fantastically supportive label, they really support our vision; it’s amazing.

At the end of 2009, you put the song ‘Make Me Wanna Die’ online. Why did you choose this as your first single?
Taylor: It was the first song we wrote for the record, it was the start of the record, and so it seemed like a great first single as it sets the vibe for the record.

Ben: I think the guys involved definitely created a buzz, so it became the swan song for the rest of the record, and everyone liked it. We just wanted to make an epic song with lots of parts and movements and things.

Taylor: No one thought of this as a single. I thought it was a cool track, but never thought they would want to use it as a single. But they did and we’re ecstatic.

How did it end up on the soundtrack to ‘Kick Ass’?
Taylor: Lionsgate Entertainment was working with some people at Interscope; they heard the track and knew it was going to be our first single. Lionsgate liked it and wanted to put it in the film and we were like, totally!

Ben: We’re all big comic book fans.

Taylor: It was a cool partnership.

Have you seen the movie?
Taylor: Yes, a couple of times. It’s a lot of fun.

You just played this year’s Bamboozle Festival. How was it?
Taylor: We had technical problems, and I almost threw up during one of the songs because I got heat stroke on stage. I seem to have bad luck with health and technicalities, but besides that, it was great! We met a bunch of fans at the merch booth, and the crowd was a lot of fun. It was super hot and people were under the weather because of the heat, but it was a great show.

Did you get a chance to watch any of the other bands?
Taylor: No, we were too busy meeting and talking to fans, and doing press.

You’re doing this year’s Warped Tour. With it being a skate/punk-rock festival, what are your expectations of how it’ll go?
Ben: We don’t know. We are a straight up rock band so we’ll see how they dig it, but it should be fun. We are a regular, touring, grimy band; so we should fit in pretty easily. They can throw things, as long as they miss the instruments so we can keep playing.

Taylor: Or my face, but bruises are badass, so that’s cool.

But there have been a lot of crossover over the years, bands like Jeffree Star, Brokencyde and even Katy Perry, joining the tour.
Taylor: We’re a lot louder than electro! We blew the speakers at the last three shows we played!

Were you asked to play?
Taylor: Yeah, they heard some of the songs and liked it. They asked us to be a part of the tour and we’re psyched.

Let’s talk about the album. Is there a title yet?
Taylor: No, there’s no title yet, it hasn’t been decided. We haven’t announced it because we are still debating over a couple of names.

How would you describe it, in your own words?
Taylor: A very song driven, rock record. It’s a record about life, so it covers everything: death, love, sex, rock and roll, religion, politics; it’s got a bit of everything. It definitely focuses on the gritty, grimy, aspects of those things, not necessarily the happy side of things.

Ben: It’s heavily influenced by classic rock. To have a female front, to a trident, true, rock band, is a novel thing.

Taylor: Because most of our influences are pretty much male rock bands, to translate that with a female singer, and not have a Joan Jett record, means we have to base it more on attitude than melody. It’s not packaged; it’s a very dimensional record.

Ben: A singer/songwriter record, Alanis Morisette would be a person to compare it to, someone who wrote their own songs uniquely, but heavier for sure.

When is the release date?
Taylor: I heard August 24th.

You mentioned earlier, that the record was already written when you put the single out last year. What made you want to sit on the record for so long?
Taylor: We wrote it and recorded it and, only now, is it in the process of being mixed and mastered. It’s still not packaged; there’s no album cover, there’s no title but the writing side is finished. We’ve finished the hardest part, which was writing and recording it.

Ben: The whole thing’s pretty fresh; we’ve recorded it as we’ve written it. The last song we recorded was written a month ago.

Taylor: We write the song and then record the song over and over. It wasn’t done in the traditional way a record is usually done.

What are plans after Warped Tour?
Taylor: Touring, more touring and writing the next record. Ben: Writing the next record while touring.

Do you have plans for UK dates in the future?
Ben: We want to stay and play the UK; I don’t know what the deal is because we are only doing one show.

Taylor: I want to play everywhere, I said we just want to play but we’re told, “No, you’re doing this photo shoot,” and that’s fucking bullshit. I just want to play shows, just come and take pictures of them. We just want to meet the fans and play shows.

Ben: If that volcano keeps going, we’ll play some shows! But I think we are coming back after Warped Tour, we might be playing Reading and Leeds, it’s tentative. We don’t know what we’re doing, but we are coming back.

Anything else you would like to add?
Taylor: Buy the single on May 17th and stay tuned for the record.

Ben: Steal this single.

Source: alterthepress.com

There are many faces of Taylor Momsen.
There’s Taylor the fashion icon: The gum-chewing, torn-stockings wearing Maryland-born 16-year-old splashed over the British and Americian glossies.

There’s Taylor the actress: Playing the squeaky-clean-gone-bad-girl Jenny Humphrey in American drama Gossip Girl alongside heart-throbs Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick.

And finally there’s Taylor the rock star: The Courtney Love-esque sneering frontwoman of metal-pop band The Pretty Reckless.

Music priority
In her mind, she’s pretty sure on which of the above she prefers.

I love acting and I’m doing it forever but music is my heart,” she says.

“It’s what I live for, to say the least – it’s kept me alive. Music is who I am. It’s the priority at the moment – it’s the focus.

“It’s not a pop record – I’m sure people were expecting one.”

Indeed, producers of the LA-based glamour series have given Momsen time off to concentrate on her new band The Pretty Reckless. Their single Make Me Wanna Die has already featured in blockbuster Kick-Ass, and they’re readying their debut album.

“I’m finishing,” she says cryptically, without giving much away. “They’re being very supportive with my music career.”

With the conclusion of the third series fast approaching – it’s not entirely sure whether this will be the last fans of the show will see of her character, socialite Jenny Humphrey.

“I’m not allowed to say much, but I can tell you it’s very dramatic,” she says of the season’s finale. “Particularly with Jenny’s character – there’s a very dramatic ending, which I think will shock many people.”

She says everyone has been “super supportive” of her desire to follow her music career full-time with a few members of the cast coming to see her shows.

Tabloid darling
She is though, less enamoured with the coverage she receives in the American tabloids and glossy magazines – obsessing over her weight and style choices.

In the UK she’s also currently the face of a large high street outlet’s spring/summer range.

“I don’t read them,” she says over her tabloid presence. “I don’t even care, at all. If you read them and you care then it’ll just destroy you. It’s stupid to care about any of it.

“My whole thing is feel free to hate me – I so don’t care if you hate me, but meet me, and listen to my record, and know me before you hate me.

“Don’t hate me for what tabloids write about me, because I guarantee it’s a lie.”

‘Lazy’ style
She’s also become an unlikely fashion icon, snapped up by New York based modelling agency IMG (home of Kate Moss) a couple of years ago. She’s nonchalant about her new found status though.

“I really just put on what’s clean,” she shrugs. “The easiest thing to find in the morning because I’m usually running late.

“It’s just turned into style – I just don’t bother, I’m just too lazy.”

Constantly balancing her career in music, fashion and acting means Momsen hasn’t really experienced the ‘normal’ lifestyle of a girl her age growing up.

“I’ve done a lot but I’m still a teenager,” she says finally. “I still chew gum in interviews.”

Source: bbc.co.uk

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey — Taylor Momsen is quickly learning that making the transition from TV star to snarling rock princess isn’t as easy as she’d imagined.

In addition to having to win over fickle audiences on this summer’s Warped Tour — the type of crowds that don’t exactly take kindly to “actor-slash-musicians” — and make it clear to “Gossip Girl” fans that her band, the Pretty Reckless, isn’t just another cookie-cutter pop project, she’s already having to undo the damage from a quote she gave last month to Entertainment Weekly, in which she stated: “I don’t wanna be Courtney Love — I wanna be Kurt Cobain.” It hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing, to be honest.

So really, at this point, all she wants to do is get the Pretty Reckless’ debut album in stores — and then, well, she’ll just let the chips fall where they may.

“I want the record out so people can hear it. I’m not a pop artist. It’s absolutely a rock record, and I get that people probably aren’t expecting that, but, buy the record and check it out,” Momsen told MTV News on Saturday at the Bamboozle festival. “If you like loud music, you’ll like it. Hopefully. It’s very loud. If you’re not scared of guitars screaming at you and a 16-year-old girl yelling at you, then you’ll like the record.”

According to Momsen, the yet-untitled album (which she co-wrote with Pretty Reckless guitarist Ben Phillips) will finally see the light of day “sometime this summer.” And, to be quite honest, that date can’t come soon enough — because she really wants to stop talking about what it will sound like and let the songs speak for themselves.

“It’s a record about life. It focuses on all the negatives — and the positives — of life, but it’s not ‘Go to a club and dance.’ It’s not an escape record,” she said. “It’s absolutely a record to confront your problems and get over them. … It’s death, love, rock and roll, sex, drugs and religion; it covers all bases of life. It’s not a concept record, unless you consider life a concept.”

Momsen said some of her favorite tracks on the album include “Century Gone,” “My Medicine,” “Light Me Up” and “Since You’re Gone,” not to mention the first single, “Make Me Wanna Die” (which was released on the “Kick-Ass” soundtrack). The Reckless have even shot a video for the song, directed by Meiert Avis, who’s worked with everyone from U2 to Paramore. And according to Momsen, it’s a pretty, uh, “cheery” affair.

“It’s for the song ‘Make Me Wanna Die,’ so to try and emulate kind of an epic-y song that’s almost like a film, it was a challenge to come up with a treatment,” she said. “So I guess we sort of decided to make it like a death march. You can’t live anymore in this world, and you’re on your way to your death, and you’re seeing everything you’re passing, and stripping yourself of your belongings on your way to your grave.”

Momsen said the video will be released before the Reckless hit the road on the Warped Tour, which kicks off June 25 in Carson, California. And, yes, she’s looking forward to facing the crowds — and changing them from cynics into believers. If she doesn’t pass out from the heat, that is.

“I’ll remember not to wear a leather jacket onstage next time,” she laughed. “I learned that today [at the Bamboozle], because it was so hot that I almost puked onstage.”

Source: mtv.com

“All of my influences are male influences,” Taylor told Access Hollywood on Monday in New York. “So to translate that into a female vocal and to have a female rock singer that isn’t someone like Joan Jett or Courtney Love… They’re great, but it’s not based on melody and range as much as it is attitude and cool and well written songs.

“Our record is based on the melodies and the lyrics and the detail to it, so to translate to you, it’s more like Robert Plant with a chick,” Taylor added.

The actress will be departing The CW show that made her a household name for a number of episodes of the show’s fourth season, due to what has been described as creative reasons.

However, Taylor chalked it up to more of a scheduling conflict, as she will instead be promoting her album in place of filming, including on the Warped Tour.

“The show’s been really great and I’m going to be missing from a little bit of it because I am finishing the Warped Tour,” Taylor explained. “I’m on tour this summer and the show starts back up during the middle of the tour.”

While she will be leaving her character, Jenny Humphrey, behind this summer, Taylor said she’s enjoyed playing the Upper East Side teen queen.

“It was a really great arc. I’ve had such a great time playing Jenny because she is the most transformational character,” Taylor said. “She’s the one who transforms the most and is constantly kind of reinventing herself from figuring out who she is… This season, she kind of hits a peak of insanity and loses her mind a little bit and I think the audience will be very shocked and surprised to see where the story goes.”

As for Taylor’s own story, it will follow a musical line.

“Music is a really big part of my life,” she said. “Honestly, I would be nowhere without music. It saved my life and I want to share that with other people.”

Taylor — who is also working with the organization NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) and their music education “Wanna Play Music?” campaign — said she’d like to collaborate too – her dream being with Chris Cornell and his grunge outfit Soundgarden.

“Soundgarden just got back together — I’d love to play with them. That’s something I could do,” she said. “Collaboration is a weird process and it’s gonna be based on vibes and how everything works, not just strictly musical tastes. But I can tell you I would absolutely die to play with Soundgarden. That would be awesome.”

Source: accesshollywood.com

Piaget, one of the world’s most prestigious watchmaker and jeweler, provided various pieces for ‘The Pretty Reckless’ debut music video “Make Me Wanna Die” from their upcoming debut album.

“Make Me Wanna Die” introduces The Pretty Reckless to the world. In the video, lead singer Taylor Momsen finds herself in the middle of a chaotic, cold and mysterious New York City after leaving a performance. The 18-carat yellow gold Piaget Polo watch and new Possession Celebration rings adorn Momsen during the video. Multiple other Possession rings and necklaces as well as the Piaget Polo watch, one of Piaget’s iconic timepiece, accentuate Momsen’s rock-star look and help define her glamorous yet edgy appeal.

“Make Me Wanna Die” will be available on broadcast and on-line outlets in early May. The Pretty Reckless will be joining US rock music festivals– The Warp Tour in 2010– and plans to release their debut album in Summer 2010.

All pieces featured in the new video are available at Piaget boutiques and select retailers nationwide. The Possession Celebration rings were specifically launched this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the line.

Source: events.piaget.com

Having made a name for himself back in the ’90s in U.S. teen drama My So Called Life, Jared Leto is now ranked among the most iconic rock stars of our era. So while you may not have heard of The Pretty Reckless yet, the band’s 16-year-old singer Taylor Momsen could well be set to follow in the 30 Seconds To Mars frontman’s footsteps.

In case you’ve been living on another plane for the past three years, Taylor is one of the stars of hit U.S. TV show Gossip Girl. However,like Jared, her true passion has always been music.
“Making a record is more than a dream of mine, it’s a need and necessity” she states with disarming sincerity. “I’ve been writing songs since I was five, and no matter how big our record becomes, I just want to play and sing and write.”

Listing their influences as Courtney Love, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin, The Pretty Reckless completed by guitarist Ben Phillips, bassist Mark Damon and drummer Jamie Perkins – recorded their forthcoming debut album last year with producer Kato Khandwala, who has previously worked with All Time Low, Paramore and Madina Lake. With the prontwoman’s filming commitments taking up a lot of her time, the record became a true labour of love.

“I’d be shooting all day and the going to work on the record starting at midnight until five in the morning,” says Taylor. “It was spread out over a year, and when we finished it really was a case of ‘Wow, the record’s done, finally!’.”

The World’s first taster of The Pretty Reckless takes the form of their gritty, snarling new single Make Me Wanna Die, taken from the recent Kick-Ass soundtrack.
Having racked up an impressive number of plays on big name radio stations around the globe, the band are determined to make their dream of rock stardom a reality.

“We’re playing the whole of the Warped Tour, and I’m going to work around my filming schedule so we can tour as much as is physically possible”, Taylor enthuses. “We want to play to the UK so badly, I cannot tell you! Our favourite bands are English so we can’t wait to come over!”

Thank so much to Ray for the magazine scan :)

GALLERY LINK
Magazine Scans » Kerrang Magazine – May 2010