No question about it – Justin Tranter and the Semi Precious Weapons will revive an anesthetized genre of music: rock n’ roll.

The garage glam band was voted Best Band in NYC in The Village Voice readers’ poll, and was called “the most important band in America” and “the band bringing rock back from the dead” by British rock n’ roll mogul Alan McGee.

Tranter, who, along with his Semi Precious band mates Cole Whittle, Aaron Tashjian and Dan Crean, makes the trek to the San Diego Indie Music Fest IV, Saturday, skipped out on radio edits of the band’s forthcoming album to bring us up to speed on the group’s new record deal, why no one knows what rock n’ roll is anymore, and why Jessica Simpson kicks Ashanti’s ass.

The blond glam frontman in nylon stockings and ferocious high-heeled boots wasn’t worried about the radio edits, though it may pose a problem with the band’s track “That’s Kunt.” Tranter and the band just want to bring rock n’ roll to the masses and pack live shows.

“At this point, I’m all for the radio edit,” says Tranter. “People really need to hear rock n’ roll again. You bleep out a bunch of the words, I’m fine with that. And everyone still knows what you’re saying. When Gwen Stefani said, ‘That’s my sh— … That’s my sh— …’ on the radio, everyone knew what she was saying, so it doesn’t really fuckin’ matter, ya’ know?”

I suppose it doesn’t really fuckin’ matter – a muted “kunt” here or there (or in every other line) certainly won’t derail Semi Precious Weapons from resurrecting rock.

Gay & Lesbian Times: What is garage glam rock?

Justin Tranter: We knew that just because of the way that I look we’d be called a glam band – even though we do not sound like a David Bowie “Ziggy Stardust” record or a T.Rex record. We knew everyone was going to call it glam, because you’ve gotta’ call it something, can’t just call it rock n’ roll – it isn’t enough for people, they need more of a category, which, whatever, who cares? So I just started calling it garage glam. It’s a little rougher, a little tougher, but with glam elements. And then it kind of evolved into a description of my style which is very glamorous, but none of it really costs much. It just takes determination to look this good, not money. You can look this glamorous in your garage was the method to the madness there.

GLT: You’ve said there isn’t much of a rock n’ roll scene in New York. What do you mean by that? What’s missing?

JT: I think one of the problems with New York is geography. When there was a huge punk scene, everyone lived Downtown, and for the most part everyone lived on the East Side, because everyone could afford it. Now most of us live in Brooklyn and Brooklyn is so fucking huge, that there is no scene. There was an electro clash scene in the early 2000s in Williamsburg, and I don’t really like electro music, but when I showed up it was a blast. At least you’d go to clubs and see the same people, and the bands that were doing well were all superstars in that community, and all the important elements of starting a music scene were there. And then Williamsburg got to be too expensive, so people moved out to Bed-Stuy and Bushwick and Greenpoint and Fort Greene and then everyone lived everywhere. And, the other problem is, the bands that are popular out of New York, no one wants to go see because their shows are so fucking boring.

GLT: Any examples?

JT: Um … no, I’ll stay off the record on specific bands on that one. I’ve gotten myself in trouble in the past. It won’t be fun for you, it won’t be fun for me. [Laughing]

But you know, it’s funny, we were named the Best Band in New York by The Village Voice readers’ poll. That happened in October, but until mid-January, most other bands didn’t know who we were. Other people in New York knew us. But because there isn’t really a scene in New York, no other band knew us. Ten years ago, if you were named Best Band in New York by The Village Voice, every band in the city knew who you were. It’s because the bands in these cliques, no one wants to see their shows, because they stand around and stare at their shoes.

GLT: So it’s disjointed?

JT: It’s very disjointed.

GLT: Why stay?

We talk about that all of the time. We’re going and playing in other cities, and we have a blast in St. Louis, we have a blast in L.A. But the general spirit of New York still feels like this is the place you come to make something happen. You definitely feel it. I love New York, and in some of my songs, I talk about walking over bridges at 2 a.m. looking at the skyline. It’s a very glamorous thing to do. So we’re all staying in New York for now. This is where we live, it’s where our friends are. We’ve formed an awesome little mini scene for ourselves in Greenpoint, and we know everyone here and we know all the people who own stores in the neighborhood. We’re not ready to leave yet.

GLT: So it’s difficult to find a rock n’ roll scene in New York?

JT: People don’t really know what rock n’ roll is anymore. The Arcade Fire is not rock n’ roll; The Fray is not rock n’ roll; the Black Kids, who I think are awesome, the band is great, they’re a blog sensation, they’re not rock n’ roll. It’s hard to find a rock n’ roll band anywhere in the country, except maybe in the Midwest. The Midwest still loves rock n’ roll and will not let go of it, and god bless ’em for it.

GLT: So Semi Precious Weapons recently signed with Razor & Tie records. Did you have any reservations about signing to a label?

JT: Well, we had been through the beginnings of a demo deal with Interscope and we were courted by Columbia for quite a few months, but we were very careful in those situations; one, because their businesses are all failing, so that’s always … ya’ know, you don’t want to take a job in a failing business, it doesn’t matter what industry; and two, we had heard so many horror stories. We figured we’d just put the record out for free instead of deal with distribution or any of it. We wanted to get as many people to know who we are as soon as possible so our shows would grow because all we really love to do is play shows. We figured, “Well, really, at this point, we’re not going to make much money off the record so just give the fucking thing away.”

With Razor & Tie, Michael Caplan, the A&R guy who brought us there, who was the A&R guy with Columbia, said, “Please come and meet the people here [at Razor & Tie], they’re so much different than the people at Columbia … they have souls. Please meet them, I promise you they have souls.” So we just said, “Fine, bring whoever you want to bring to our loft and we’ll play,” and within five minutes of meeting these people, it was like night and day. They’ve found great ways to make money, a lot of it through children’s music, a lot of it through world music, which are two genres that people will still buy physical CDs. Now, it’s time for them to have rock stars, and hopefully we’ll be those rock stars. They’re so excited to work with a new band, ya’ know, that isn’t Alvin and the Chipmunks, not to demean Alvin and Chipmunks. But they’re excited, and the deal was really generous from the first offer. They started at a friendly point so we could finish at even friendlier point

GLT: So until now, you were giving the record away for free. Are you disappointed you won’t be giving the music away now?

JT: No – we’re trying to figure out what we are going to give away for free. We’re doing a show at Studio B in Brooklyn, and we might give half of the tickets to that live show away for free, or we’ll give live versions of songs away. But it’s just time, and a lot of our fans, at this point, are just really excited that our CD is going to be in stores in August. We’ll always try to find ways to give something away, but the fans we have are really excited for us.

GLT: You were featured on PerezHilton.com, the pantheon of online celebrity blogs. Did you see a boom in attendance at shows or in EP sales?

JT: Perez Hilton is a god. It’s amazing, we saw a boom in our shows all over the world, every show we play – even last Saturday at a college in Pennsylvania. There were 30 girls in the audience – ya’ know it was spring break, the night before Easter, not the best time to invite us to play, but whatever, they were paying us – and two of those girls knew who we were because of Perez Hilton.

In between shows in San Diego and L.A., we spent two hours in Newport Beach and a group of girls approached us because they’d seen us on Perez Hilton. Something like 57,000 people watched our video in eight hours because of that guy. Even Pink is the New Blog is a really big fan of the band. We were on the Vogue and Glamour Web sites when Kate Moss came to our show, but the only e-mails we got were from people who read about us on Pink is the New Blog. Ya’ know, the 10 biggest bloggers in the country have more power than any publication, maybe with the exception of Entertainment Weekly or the television tabloids, “Entertainment Tonight” or “Inside Edition” or that shit.

GLT: So do you follow Perez Hilton?

JT: I love a celebrity. I love an Olsen, I love a Lohan, I love Britney – well not so much Britney – but the Olsens and Lohan, they’re rock stars. They don’t make rock n’ roll but they have huge personalities and they have extreme senses of personal style. Tabloids are all about the last few people in pop culture who actually have personality. Rock stars used to have personalities, but nobody wants to see what the hell Chris Daughtry is doing at the grocery store, because he looks just like everyone else you met that day. Who the fuck cares? But everyone wants to see the Olsen twins in the grocery store because they look fuckin’ ridiculous … they have personalities, they’re fashion icons, and they’re buying a cantaloupe.

All the personalities got sucked out of rock n’ roll music because the labels got scared it wouldn’t sell. Our famous story is that the reason the Interscope deal didn’t happen was that Tony Ferguson, the legendary A&R guy who signed No Doubt and other just awesome bands, introduced us to Jimmy Iovine, and Jimmy Iovine said, “That’s a drag queen, I cant sell a drag queen.” Jimmy Iovine would rather try and sell the solo Pussycat Doll and nobody wants it. Nobody wants it because she’s a fucking bore.

Jessica Simpson is a much better artist than Ashanti, because Jessica Simpson is an amazing celebrity – she may not be a good musician, she may be a horrible actress, but the art form of celebrity, she has down to a tee. And you know what? I’ll take it. I’ll take it. She needs to be good at something. Well, and her shoes are gorgeous.

GLT: Do you own a pair?

JT: No, they’re fantastic, but they don’t make them in my size. I wear a women’s size 13. I have to buy my shoes in sex shops.

GLT: So who are some of the great rock personalities?

JT: Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain, Stevie Knicks, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Plant, they had fucking huge personalities. Even the ’80s pop stars, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, had huge personalities and that’s what record labels looked for. Now, they’re looking for The Fray and Rhianna, who I actually really like, but you know someone, some A&R guy is telling these people in interviews to say, “I’m just like everybody else.” They’re encouraging their artists to convince people of it. You hear it all the time but why would you want to watch someone who is just like everyone else? Even Madonna went out and got a Justin Timberlake/Timbaland song, and it’s like, “You’re Madonna! You don’t have to do that.” But, instead of putting her foot down and trying to do something really, really different, even our icons are giving up.

You see it happening. They did it with emo bands. You saw it in the hair metal factory in the ’80s – you couldn’t really distinguish what hair metal band was what hair metal band, but the greats would always come out ahead. Everyone has just been hoping for the last 10 years in music that the other shoe was going to drop.