Tunnel of Love have been rocking the NYC downtown scene for some time now. They’re filthy raw gladiators hitting you like a vial of pure adrenachrome. Guitarist/Singer Anthony stopped by the NYCTACO offices and we reminisced over you (my god).

Hola Anthony.  Does it sometimes scare you how much Tunnel of Love rocks?

Nah, it doesn’t scare me too much.  I think it might scare other people, but really any danger felt by audience members is purely theatrical.  It doesn’t seem like it at all but we’re actually pretty careful about not hurting anyone, or ourselves while rocking.  Sometimes we might damage the venue we’re playing, but chairs and light fixtures don’t feel pain.  And in fact, we never even had anyone yell at us for breaking these things.

At an early stage Tunnel of Love ditched the bass guitar and replaced it with extra angst.  What prompted this move?

Our bass player moved to San Francisco to become a hairdresser in 2001.  He was a life long friend of ours and had a pivotal role in forming the band and getting us our first gigs.  I don’t think the rest of us would have had the confidence to do this on our own.  But he is one of those people that when he becomes the best at something he turns his back on it because it’s not a challenge any more.  I think he felt that way about music, not Tunnel of Love specifically, but just music in general.  When he left, Andy took over the reigns and became the main creative force in the band.  And that dude is all angst.

Tunnel of Love audiences should steel themselves from the occasional attack or dry-humping.  Was there any audience member that attacked back?

I remember one time a guy in the audience pushed back on me so hard I went flying across the room, literally.  But after the show his buddies came to apologize saying that the guy is a sweetheart and just didn’t know his own strength.  Shit happens sometimes, and we have a tendency to attract crazy people.  But this is a very rare instance in many years of invading people’s personal space while we play.  The vast majority of people really love being fucked with, and on many occasions I’ve had people beg me to take advantage of them during the show.  Fans have also come up to me afterwards to say that they they were sad we didn’t grope them.

The spiritual home of Tunnel of Love: Brookline, Massachusetts or Brooklyn, New York?

It is and always will be Brookline, Massachusetts.  It’s still our home base, even though I’ve been living in Brooklyn for over 10 years (the other two members of TOL live in New England).  My brother and I as well as our ex-bassist all grew up in Brookline.  And at one point our drummer was living in a room in my parents house with us.  I also just think its cool to give a shout out to a pretty lame town near Boston that few people have heard about.  Brookline, is also the birthplace of JFK, Conan O’Brien, and Mike Wallace.

Where’s your favorite place to get a taco in NYC?

It’s a little joint in my neighborhood of Prospect Heights called Chavella’s.  At one point I was eating at this place 4 times a week.  It’s THAT good.

www.tunneloflove666.com

For the past few years Gillian Telling has been telling it like it is as sex columnist for Maxim and a ton of other magazines and websites.  She exposes the mysteries of women, and teaches guys how not to f it all up.  (Dudes – her “20 Things Men Don’t Know About Women” on thefrisky.com drops the knowledge like a library card.)

Gillian dropped by the NYCTACO party van with a pitcher of sangria and we talked about her new book “Dirty Girls: The Naked Truth About Our Dirty Secrets”.

Hola Gillian!  In “Dirty Girls” you lay it all out there, and that filthy honesty has shined like a smelly beacon for girls throughout the country.  While writing it, did you ever cross something out and go, “No that is TOO gross”?

Not really.  If you look at the chapter “Everybody Poops, Even Gisele Bundchen” I talked about a friend of mine having the runs so badly she’d gotten some on the walls and painted what we called a “Jackson Poolock”.  (Or a Poocasso.)  If I didn’t keep that one a secret, then… But I didn’t talk about women cheating.  Some do, some don’t, it’s just not a hilarious topic.  Guys can keep that one.

Readers can also look at the no holds barred accounts of your friends’ lives and say, “Yes, I too have gotten strep throat from going down on a dirty dick.”  Have these friends come up to you after reading the book and been like, “Yo Gill, WTF?”

Actually most of them were seriously proud to get a mention!  These are the same friends who once tried to convince me I had throat AIDS when I had tonsillitis, and sent me all sorts of links saying a prominent doctor had warned them about sexually transmitted herpes of the throat and actually had me concerned for a while.  That is just the nature of the beasts I know.

NYCTACO remembers your days as a Rolling Stone correspondent.  Do you still rock out or are you strictly DVD and Thai take out nowadays?  Who is your favorite artist today?

I’m actually so unhip these days that I have just embraced my formerly bad taste in music and listen to a lot of Chicago – both the 70s band and the musical soundtrack.  That said, I really dislike both Animal Collective and that weedy Taylor Swift.  When in doubt, I usually listen to Pulp.  I am old.

NYCTACO has a ladyfriend that wants to be a writer too, but she’s afraid she doesn’t have anything exciting in her life to talk about.  What piece of advice could you bestow on this timid miss?

I would never tell someone to do something wacky just to get a good story out of it – good stories have to happen organically.  Basically, don’t travel to India alone thinking you’ll be inspired to write Eat, Pray, Love 2.  You’ll probably just be really lonely and get traveler’s diarrhea.  She should get her crazier friends drunk and see what they’ll admit to.  That’s what I did!

Where’s your favorite place to get a taco in NYC?

Mercadito’s shrimp tacos are the best!  And now I am craving them and I’m all the way out in Brooklyn.  Brooklyn needs better tacos.  I’m open to suggestions, NYCTaco.

Suggest we will, Gillian,  Suggest we will.