Earlier today, I chatted with Cribs front man, Gary Jarman. Here’s our dialog:

1. Are you excited to return to the US later this year?

Totally! Unfortunately, we don’t get to play as much in the US as we’d like. In England, we just play small places and then bigger places thanks to word of mouth. You can’t do that in America because it’s so big compared to England. Also, it costs so much each time you fly over. But we don’t ever like to be away for too long. It’s a shame that we’re only playing a couple of shows in November but a full-fledged US tour is planned for 2010. Touring America is fun – long drives, late nights. Sometimes you play a show in NY for a thousand people and it’s really fun. Later on in the tour, you play in Denver at a tiny little sweatbox. I love that it’s always different from city to city.

2. Is working with Johnny Marr a total dream come true?

It’s a great situation. We get along well with him. I thought that it’d be odd to work with someone who is not your brother. When I work with my brothers, I know their instincts. Johnny definitely fits in nicely. All of us are big Smiths fans. We’re lucky. He’s the ideal person to work with.

Read the rest of this interview & enjoy a Cribs tune AFTER THE JUMP…

3. How does Ignore The Ignorant compare to your earlier albums?

When I look back on the first album – that’s such a pop record. The second one was less poppy. The third record was more well rounded – even less poppy. At the time I couldn’t see that. It’s kinda the same with this one. My overriding feeling is that it’s just more complete. It’s not just a collection of songs. All of the elements connect and I’m really proud of that. ‘Mature’ is such a contentious word but it definitely feels like a more completed, more crafted, more organic, more raw record than the previous one.

4. What are you currently listening to?

England is going very mainstream pop, I don’t know how I feel about that. My brother likes The Strange Boys. Obviously, the new Sonic Youth album is good. I just went to go see them in Portland and it was really great.

5. One of my favorite remixes of all time is CSS’s take on ‘Men’s Needs’. Do you have any plans to team up with them again?

I dunno, maybe. Remixes are something that I don’t know that much about. ‘Men’s Needs’ was a quick track. When we laid it down, we knew that it worked well for a remix. I was pleased with what CSS did. It sounded poppy, disco & pretty cute. It was something that was fun to try.

6. Whom else would you like to collaborate with in the future?

We’ve been lucky. We’ve had really good collaborations in the past. Right now, I’m really happy with the situation we’ve got. Most of the people that we’ve wanted to work with, we already have. We have it good.

7. What’s in store for The Cribs before year’s end?

Lots of touring. A small UK tour in September & October. Some bigger UK shows in December. Japan in October. US in November. Oh, also, in November, we’ll do a couple of UK shows with Franz Ferdinand.

8. Are there any misconceptions that you’d like to clear up?

I was thinking about this when I was walking my dogs earlier today. There have been a million shitty British bands that have come out since 2005. Each one has made one record that was radio friendly, then got big quickly, and then faded away. We got lumped in with that. Our last album was the first one that the mainstream paid any attention to. We’ve come a long way. We also get a bad reputation for putting bands down. We’re just giving our honest opinion. We have a reputation as being angry & cynical which is not true. We never want to align ourselves with that. It’s strange. Also, people see us as a nihilistic punk band which is false. It won’t stop!

MP3: The Cribs – We Were Aborted