Incubus
New compilation encapsulates Incubus’ career

By Andy Argyrakis

Time flies when there’s creativity in the air, which is the case with durable alternative rockers Incubus. The radio regulars are known for a slew of shifting sounds. They started off in the nu-metal scene and then graduated to the pop/rock airwaves, turning in more experimental musings across recent projects. These days, all of those varied reflections are chronicled on Monuments and Melodies, a double disc greatest hits/rarities recording that’s backed by a summer tour with the same theme.

“It’s really amazing and so cool, but it’s also kind of scary that much time has passed and we’re that much older,” co-founder/drummer José Pasillas lets out with a laugh. “It’s amazing to have hits and this [greatest hits disc] doesn’t just have three or four singles, but it’s truly packed out with 13 singles and a couple new songs. It’s a big moment in our career that’s really hard to grasp.”

For those needing a quick refresher course, the sing-a-longs packed therein include the pummeling rap/rocker “Pardon Me,” the pensive acoustic popper “Drive,” the full-throttled “Nice To Know You,” and the psychedelic-tipped “Megalomaniac.” It’s been an unpredictable evolution indeed, but one that’s allowed the band to hang with both the underground heavy hitters and mainstream MTV scene.

“We were definitely clumped in [the nu-metal scene at first], and there’s a heavy side to our music, but we’ve never been all heavy or all soft or all mid-tempo,” contends Pasillas. “That’s what made it so easy for us to adapt to playing shows with Ozzy [Osbourne] and Pantera on the heavier side and then playing with Sugar Ray or Save Ferris and fitting in over there too. We’ve always stayed true to ourselves and this collection shows all different genres.”
The first disc in the hits collection is packed with plenty of familiarity, along with the two new tunes “Black Heart Inertia” and “Midnight Swim.” The second round unlocks a treasure trove of rarities, B-sides and even a cover of Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy,” all of which were a little trickier to unearth than the conventional singles.

“That was a little more difficult because we had to sift through a bunch of stuff,” the beat keeper says of the latter disc. “‘Anything’ is a song I just had the MP3 for with no master or mix or anything. What you’re hearing is basically the demo from my computer that’s been mastered and there’s a bunch of stuff like that. We thought, ‘Why not?’ and it’s us putting all 18 years of what we’ve done on the table. Like any record, you choose what you like and don’t like. We’re not ashamed of what we’ve done and it will be interesting to see what people will think of these songs.”

Even more appealing to longtime listeners is a special section of the Incubus Web site dedicated to even more obscure items. “We’re putting together a new section called the Incubus Vault, which is basically a vault of memorabilia: visual, audio and just about everything,” he continues. “It’s stuff I haven’t even seen in ten years! There are pictures from the road, videos for all our singles, behind the scenes footage, everything we’ve done for MTV, old tour posters and pretty much everything we’ve done.”

The reflective spirit surrounding Incubus’ camp has also made planning this summer’s set list an enormous undertaking. While there are plenty of obligatory singles from which to choose, rehearsals have thus far found the fivesome practicing every single song they’ve ever recorded.

“When we practice for a tour, we play everything, which is like 80 songs, and then we have to narrow that down to a 20 or 25 song list,” says Pasillas. “There’s always a handful of singles you have to do, then some songs that work really well live and some that let us jam a bit. Those elements all shape the set list, but we’ll have to see what happens. We’ll be playing something from every record and it will be cool to see how it all comes together.”

That free flowing spirit also shapes Incubus’ attitude towards the future, which is likely to be just as unpredictable as its past. At this very moment, supporting Monuments and Melodies is its main priority, but by no means does the career retrospective mean the band is ready to retire.