First Posted: 1/26/2015

In an interview on “Ralphie Tonight” that is scheduled to air Wednesday evening, Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz took aim at an Australian retailer for what he believes is a negligence on their part to value other people’s art.

“Music is just not important to them,” Wentz said initially, when the topic of the band’s most recent leaked album was brought up. American Beauty/American Psycho came out January 20 and as of press time, is slated to be the band’s third number one LP on the Billboard 200. The album hit the Internet early, and it is believed that is the fault of Australian retailer JB Hi-Fi. “The proof of it is, stuff like (leaked albums) is just, ‘Oh, we put it up by accident.’”

“They wouldn’t ‘oops’ the new iPhone for them, because it would be a nightmare for them.”

Fall Out Boy did trace its most recent leak to an Australian music streaming service. But for Wentz, the experiences have him rethinking the way the quartet will promote its music ahead of release dates.

“Maybe next time, the only people we go and work with are people who are in the business of caring about music,” he said. “It’s not a big deal; once it was out, it’s just like, ‘Let’s put out high-quality versions ourselves.’”

And on that particular point, Wentz went out of his way to deliver a message for the band’s supporters.

“There is a misnomer out there that I’m upset with our fans for listening to the record when it was leaked. I’m not in any way upset with our fans about that at all,” he clarified. “That was never a bummer.”

But the situation of the leaked album and other struggles surrounding the release compelled Wentz to tweet, “If they keep f—-ing around I might leak the rest of it myself.” He later deleted the post.

What has worked for Fall Out Boy: Placements on TV, specifically ESPN, which used the band’s lead single “Centuries” as its main theme for its college football playoff coverage. The fact that as a rock band they are still able to produce up-tempo, catchy songs that radio latches on to doesn’t hurt either.

Following in the foot-steps of “Centuries” is “Uma Thurman.” Like the former, “Uma” features a sample, something in itself a rarity for a rock band. The fact that Fall Out Boy was able to turn “The Munsters” TV theme in to a fun, 3-and-a-half minute track is an accomplishment in itself.

But the guys also got a kick out of the fact that Ms. Thurman herself gave her approval for the use of her name.

“The whole song was an elaborate ruse to get her phone number,” lead singer Patrick Stump joked.

“We had our people reach out I guess ostensibly to her people and she said that was cool,” Wentz clarified. The band is unaware if she actually listened to the track. I asked if she was aware that the song would probably be single number two from “AB/AP,” to which Wentz replied, “Andy’s the only one who is single.”

Aware we were taping this for radio, Stump added a “WINK” sound effect in to the microphone. But why are the guys elusive on confirming something that seems like a foregone conclusion? If I were to guess, I’d say because “Centuries” still has plenty of life in it on the pop radio charts. The anthemic, “Tom’s Diner” sample-infused track moved up a spot to crack the top 15 this week.