Tinted Windows Talk Pop and Irony

To call the lineup in Tinted Windows diverse would be putting it mildly. But for the band -- Hanson's Taylor Hanson, former Smashing Pumpkins' guitarist James Iha, Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger and Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos -- who made you go "huh?" it's just another project.

"These songs aren't meant to be ironic, you know? They're just pop songs," Schlesinger tells Spinner at the band's Interface taping.

"They're so unironic that they're ironic," Hanson jokes. Of his new frontman status, he says, "In some ways it's almost too easy -- I'm just out there singing. It's been a great chance to sort of stretch different muscles."

The band's name, while about as loaded as the songs themselves, does have a dash of humor, however. Iha mentions the "Big Guys" as an original name contender, and Hanson jokes that "Winter Shutters" was taken, but Schlesinger sets the record straight.

"Tinted Windows is a little bit of an intentionally cheesy name, and it kind of started out as a joke when we were working on this and it just stuck," Schlesinger says. "It kind of does sound a little bit like a bad cover band or something. Like, 'For a great time and great wings, come see Tinted Windows, Monday, 7PM.'"