: mike flemming

City Paper: What is it about you that Brits find so alluring?

Brian Christinzio: I don't know exactly.Usually I get done playing a show there and people say, "Holy shit, I see bands here all the time that are bollocks but you were like holy shit." Or I get, "Thank you so much for putting a record out that doesn't sound like Editors or Interpol." So I guess they like me because I enable them to imagine a musical world Sanz Ferdinand.

CP: Should America be embarrassed that the limeys caught on to you before we did?

BC: Nah. It just gets so much more exposure there because the BBC loves the record. The more people hear it, the more people get it. I won't start on the standard "Clear Channel are a bunch of talentless assholes who fear promoting inventive music because they're fucking weak" speech because that would be mean. Nor will I entertain the notion that certain area station managers won't play me because they think I'm a drunk and my lyrics are too offensive for their paying customers. Let's just say if you aren't a hardcore new music seeker or you don't live on the West Coast or in Mexico, you have no reason to have heard this record.

CP: Once you become a superstar, will you return to have your revenge on your cold-shouldered hometown?

BC: No hard feelings. Plus, I don't want to jinx myself. Who knows, five years from now I could be singing the national anthem at cockfights.

CP: Compare Philly to the U.K.

BC: Philadelphia will always be the only place where I feel comfortable. I actually don't like the U.K. that much. No baseball, American football, or turkey meat. Everything has mayo on it. Beans for breakfast. Plus I think they are trying to get back at us for stealing all the names of their cities by blatantly ripping off all of our TV shows. We have Desperate Housewives and they have No Angels. We have The View and they have, um, something like Viewing the World. We have The Apprentice they have You're Fired. Ridiculous.

CP: Tell me the Christian Slater story.

BC: I did a BBC radio show called Loose Ends that brings together all walks of life for a roundtable discussion. My particular show was B.C. Camplight, the director of The Who's Tommy, the Pope's biographer, some famous British comedy troupe from the '60s, Gogol Bordello and Christian Slater. What the fuck am I supposed to talk about with Christian Slater? So we played a song and he said—with a cocked head, one eyebrow up, doing his best Jack—"Man, really enjoyed it." So I responded with, "Loved you in Heathers." For a good 10 seconds I thought, "Oh no, he wasn't in Heathers." But it all worked out, which is good because CS can make or break ya.

B.C. Camplight plays Fri., March 24, 9 p.m., $8, with MJ Project and Looner, North Star Bar, 2639 Poplar St., 866-468-7619, www.northstarbar.com.