September 29, 2009

Paramore Get Intimate On 'MTV Unplugged'

By James Montgomery (MTV.com)

Paramore's Brand New Eyes is a full-tilt rollercoaster of an album, snarling and booming one minute, hushed and fragile the next. And while the blaring side is what the band is known for - check current hit single "Ignorance" for proof (and older staples like "Misery Business" and "Crushcrushcrush," for that matter) - it's the quiet stuff that Paramore has really fallen in love with over the past year.

Which is why they agreed to do MTV Unplugged in the first place: They wanted to showcase their softer sides.

"There's a lot of stuff on the new album that's quieter, and we'd like to think we've grown a bit, so we wanted a place to show that new side of us off," frontwoman Hayley Williams told MTV News. "And so this was really awesome. It felt like we were doing an in-store performance, a real intimate one, and not a TV show or something."

And now, you can get a front-row seat to all that intimacy (watch the performances here). Paramore's MTV Unplugged session features them working their way through five very stripped-down songs. It's a side of the band you probably haven't seen (or heard) just yet ... but you will be hearing more of it soon: Brand New Eyes hits stores Tuesday, and Paramore kick off their tour in support of the album that same night in Pomona, California.

So consider "Unplugged" a primer for things to come ... after all, that's the main reason Paramore played it. Everything else that goes along with the show - the legacy, the legendary performances - they're too young to remember.

"I remember watching Korn 'Unplugged,' and Dashboard Confessional 'Unplugged,' too. I stayed up really late when I was babysitting to watch it," Williams laughed. "I only sort of remember the Nirvana one, though, and I don't remember the LL Cool J [performance], which was apparently legendary, too. We were, like, 6 when that happened."