Regrets—Art Alexakis has had more than a few. And he’s had his share of losing, too. But the Everclear frontman has always done it his way. While far too many of his ’90s Pacific Northwest brethren (Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, Andrew Wood, et al) ended up six feet under, Alexakis has been a survivor, enduring arrests, attempted suicide, drug abuse, divorce, depression, bankruptcy and much more. Despite being dubbed Nirvana lite by music critics, Everclear soldiered on, becoming a platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated, hit-making band, and Alexakis used this success to champion causes close to his heart. The revolving-door group’s latest release, In A Different Light (429), is a collection of (mostly) older Everclear songs reinterpreted in a stripped-down manner. Alexakis is guest editing magnetmagazine.com all this week. Read our Q&A with him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UofdWQG346k
Alexakis: Nothing in my life excites me like rock ‘n’ roll. It’s better than all the drugs and a lot of the sex I have had. My mom used to tell this story about when I was a toddler. The family took a trip up to northern California to go camping and I was sitting between my mom and my dad in the front seat of the Buick (no car seats yet!) and “Wipe Out” came on and I started dancing so hard that I almost made my dad crash. When they turned it off, I freaked out so bad that they put the song back on and had to pull over until the song was over. I will be playing loud rock ‘n’ roll until the day I die.
For a good cause, check out Dear Companion (Sub Pop), an album written and performed by 
MGMT and Weezer will be co-headlining New Jersey’s Bamboozle Festival at the Meadowland’s Sports Complex on May 1 and May 2. Tickets are on sale now … My Morning Jacket’s Jim James (or Yim Yames, depending who you ask) and his cousin/collaborator Johnny Quaid are creating a new online label, Removador Recordings And Solutions, which will allow James and Quaid to share some of the musicians they admire with the world … Iggy Pop has joined the lineup for the 20th Annual Tibet House U.S. Benefit Concert, alongside Philip Glass (the concert’s artistic director), Regina Spektor, Patti Smith, Jesse Smith, Gogol Bordello and more. The show will take place February 26 at Carnegie Hall … Country/rock legend Willie Nelson has signed to Rounder Records, which will issue his new album, Country Music, on April 13 … The White Stripes (pictured) are releasing their first-ever live album and documentary, Under Great White Northern Lights (Third Man), on March 16. The footage is taken from the duo’s 2007 tour across Canada in a quest to perform in all of the nation’s provinces and territories … Team B, a spinoff of Beirut and Arcade Fire, is releasing a free EP, available on the band’s 
Alexakis: I used to call myself a serial monogamist because I tended to go from relationship to relationship, but I really wasn’t any kind of monogamist at all. Being in my life was like being on a roller coaster—that no one really wanted to be on, not even me. I cheated on every woman I have ever been with, up until I met my current significant other Vanessa. I know if I fuck this thing up, I will regret it for the rest of my life. She is the one, and I knew it when I met her. I really love saving my sexual energy for her. She is the first person I have ever met who I trust implicitly, and I thank god that when she met me that she was under some kind of spell. I was severely chemically depressed. I was six months divorced, my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and I was 35 pounds underweight and looked like