Barenaked Ladies Talk Fast-Food Video

Warner Music Australia, September 21st 2000.

MTV — Canadian musical hucksters the Barenaked Ladies have returned to the charts in a big way, as the group's new album, "Maroon," will debut on next week's "Billboard" charts at number five after selling more than 127,000 copies during its first week in stores.

The Barenaked Ladies are slated to embark on an American tour this week. While making the rounds at European festivals over the summer, the band chatted with our cohorts in MTV Europe about the video for its new single, "Pinch Me."

'Pinch Me' is about feeling numb and sleepwalking through life," explained guitarist Steven Page. "In the video, we have [frontman] Ed [Robertson], who plays every employee of this hamburger restaurant. One of the Eds we call 'Rebel Ed' —"

"And he cries, 'More! More! More!'" Robertson interjected, referring to the chorus of Billy Idol's early '80s hit, "Rebel Yell."

"When our 'Rebel Ed' gets angry," Page resumed. "He wants to break out of the mold of just the waking up, going to work, eating and sleeping kind of routine over and over again. So he rebels in this restaurant and causes a big food fight.

"Meanwhile, I play the mascot for the restaurant, and I come down and I break up the fight," Page continued. "I say, 'Look, folks, there's nothing to worry about. Let's all go outside and dance.' So that's what we do. Everybody goes outside, and it ends in a very glorious dance routine."

"And much like the great actors of our time who [have] researched their roles," Robertson joked, "I also [had] done a little research into my role for this video. Realizing that I'd [one day] have to be playing the role of a person in a fast-food restaurant, when I was 15, I took a job at Wendy's and actually worked my way up to employee of the month for July 1985."

In other Barenaked Ladies news, "Barenaked In America," the documentary chronicling the group's 1998 U.S. tour and the making of its "Stunt" LP, is scheduled to open in select theaters nationwide on September 29.