The Used want you to know they're not like the other new bands whose name starts with the. "On the count of three, everyone scream, 'Fuck the Vines!' " frontman Bert McCracken commands his more-than-willing New York audience. Days later, he's standing his ground. "I just think their music is really awful, contrived and dishonest," he says. "It's bad for rock & roll."

McCracken's not spiteful -- he's just extremely passionate about his own band. Thanks to successful jaunts on the Warped Tour and Ozzfest (where the singer met his current girlfriend, Kelly Osbourne), the Used have seen their surprisingly melodic metal-emo hybrid connect with fans of heavy music. The group's single "The Taste of Ink" references McCracken's drug-addled teen years outside Salt Lake City, where he drifted between crack houses, friends' couches and jail while trying to get people to hear his band. "We were writing fucking amazing songs and didn't have the opportunity for anyone to hear them," he says. Goldfinger's John Feldmann loved the Used's unsolicited demo and helped them get a record deal. Now they're poised to be Utah's biggest music success since Donny Osmond. "I once had a metal band with Donny's son," McCracken says. "He had this pool party, and I showed up completely wasted, dressed in a miniskirt and halter top. Donny was like, 'Whoa.' But he's a cool guy. Real chill."

KIRK MILLER
(November 20, 2002)