My anticipation for the release of this set doubled late last year with the release of The Light in Darkness, Lawrence Kirsch's excellent chronicle of the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour.  Told from the fan's perspective, by the fans themselves, Kirsch took the numerous fan story submissions, combined them with over 200+ classic photographs from the tour, and delivered an amazing gift to Bruce fans.  With time travel via DeLorean still unlikely, The Light in Darkness is the closest that you'll ever come to attending a show on the Darkness tour.

After finishing the book (my review is posted here), I had some further questions and wanted take a look under the hood at the assembly process behind releasing something like The Light in Darkness, one that is most certainly mammoth.  Kirsch was more than happy to answer a few questions, and I'm glad that I took the time to inquire, because he certainly had plenty to say, and I think that all music fans will enjoy reading the story of how The Light in Darkness (and Kirsch's previous book For You) moved from a concept to the actual release.

To start off, let's talk a little bit about your early background professionally - from what I read, you spent about 20+ years as a professional photographer with Springsteen being among the many famous names that you photographed.

I started shooting concerts as a hobby in 1972, The Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street tour was the first concert I photographed. I worked professionally from 1977 (first gig was Elvis Costello for CBS records) until 1989. Before 1977 I worked on a freelance basis photographing many major rock acts of the 70s, including David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, The Ramones and Elton John.

Based in Montreal, I traveled throughout Canada and the US for photo sessions commissioned by WEA, CBS, Capitol, MCA, RCA and other major record labels. My photographs have appeared in more than 100 magazines, as well as CDs, record label web sites, books, posters, concert programs, gallery showings, and on record sleeves.

"I was in the right place at the right time. People ask me how did you choose to be a rock & roll photographer? Well, I never did, really. It chose me. I was attending music concerts since 1970 and wanted to linger on long after the concert was over. So I picked up a camera and starting shooting photographs for friends and myself. In university I met a friend who had connections to CBS Records. She got me an interview and ultimately my first professional gig in 1977." You can view some of my work here.

I just got my hands on For You, your first Springsteen book from a couple of years ago, and it's amazing. Had you done any other books prior to For You?

I had contributed photographs to quite a few books focusing on different music artists, and came up with the concept for a book on Bruce Springsteen published in England called Bruce Springsteen: Blinded by the Light, but had never worked on a book of my own.

Where did you come up with the idea to do a book about Springsteen, and what kind of legwork was involved in making it happen, legally?

Having attended so many Springsteen concerts since 1975 I kept meeting fans that all had this incredible sense of shared community. Whether I met them in person at concerts, through written correspondence or later via emails, we all had the same thing in common, this undeniable love and appreciation of Bruce Springsteen’s music. What I thought was missing was a touchstone that fans could contribute to and ultimately turn to understand that they were not alone in this passion for this great songwriter and human being.
From a legal perspective I asked everyone that submitted a story to sign a document stating that the words they sent were there own, and that we could use them in the book and for publicity. I also asked all the photographers to sign a photo release form stating the images belonged to them and that they were granting us permission to reproduce them in the Springsteen book For You, Original Stories and Photographs by Bruce Springsteen’s Legendary Fans. Another legal aspect that I was very conscious of was that many fans quoted Bruce’s lyrics in their story submissions and I was not 100% clear on the legality of that. To make certain that we did not break any legal rules I had my editor remove all lyric quotations from the final selected stories. It certainly took away some of the flavour and nuance of the some stories, but I could not take the chance.

Your two books are also self-published, assembled with a small team of editors and layout professionals. What are the pros and cons to this approach?

Well, I guess the first and most important benefit to self-publishing is that you have total control; you are the final decision maker. However, I did surround myself with artistic and passionate professionals who helped me produce excellent quality work. I could not have done these two books without the unbelievable generosity of the Springsteen community at large. They provided me with fantastic material to work with, original stories, photographs and scans of memorabilia came pouring in, all contributors interested in making the tribute volumes as great as they could be.
As I found out, even with many of the contributions being offered gratis, self-publishing is a very expensive proposition. Design, editing, scanning and printing are costly tasks that need to be addressed. Especially for the first book For You, which was a hard cover book. But possibly the most difficult and tedious task of the whole experience is the actual distribution of the book. Anyone can print a book, but then you have to sell it and get it into the hands of your buyers.
This is no easy task and I have dealt with at least 4 different methods of shipping both books. Being situated in Canada, my options are considerably less and more expensive then shipping out of the US (yes, this is one of the options I tried) and the time delay is longer. Fans are for the most part forgiving, and I understand their impatience, after all they paid good money for a product they do not take delivery of sometimes up to 9 weeks. But after the book leaves my office the delivery is out of my control, even if I have a tracking number.

What sort of learning experience did you have based on any mistakes that you might have made during the assembly and promotion of For You?

I have to say that the overall learning experience was phenomenal on both books. As I previously mentioned the outpouring of responses from fans was overwhelming.
For For You, I asked for story contributions of no longer than 300 words, on The Light in Darkness I increased that to 400 words, and permitted contributors to include 3-4 lines of lyrics from any one song. I had a clearer more focused idea of the chronological order of the way we were going to sequence the material in the second book.

Both books are unique - in that, the story is told completely from the fan's perspective - written by the fans, which is a ballsy move. And yet with Springsteen, I'd argue that there's nobody better to tell the story.

Agreed. The cliché I read many times is “For the fans, by the fans”. But is there a more qualified fan base to write about their hero? Since the very beginning, Bruce’s personal interaction with his fans is legendary, both during his concerts and his down time, when he walks the streets as a normal citizen of where ever he may be.

Unlike For You, which focuses on Springsteen's entire career of touring, your new book The Light in Darkness focuses exclusively on the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour. Why Darkness?

The songs on Darkness spoke to me personally. Yes, the mood is darker than previous albums, but not entirely without hope. Darkness on the Edge of Town is pure, energetic rock and roll and one of the best works that Springsteen would create.

Live in concert, The Music, The Music, The Music.

The Darkness tour was distinguished for the now-legendary two-plus hour sound checks, where Springsteen himself would tour the arena while the E Street Band played in order to judge the sound. Much of this practice was no doubt a vestige of his initial reluctance to play hockey arena-sized venues in light of his audience intimacy and sound concerns, but in truth, the sound on that tour was great - it had to be, as the spoken song intros and stories played a major role in that tour's message. You had to be able to understand what was being said. And there was a lot spoken, in setting up songs and connecting with the audience. Bruce was thankful to be back where he belonged, on stage, and thankful that his loyal audience was there-and he let us know it.

The best way to describe what you felt when the band walked out onto the boards and ripped into the opening number (whether it was 'Good Rockin' Tonight', 'Summertime Blues', 'High School Confidential', or 'Badlands') is to harken back to the old Maxell tape ads, where the guy puts a Maxell tape into his stereo and the sound that comes out of the speakers blows his hair and his scarf back, and sends his drink skidding across the table through the sheer force and power of its volume and energy. Much has been written and said over the years about the sense of desperation and emotion driving Springsteen on that tour - it's all true, and then some. Trying to explain it can sometimes seem as daunting a prospect as the challenge put forth by John Sebastian in the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic?" in that "It's like trying to tell a stranger about rock and roll." Bruce and the E Street Band, compared to now, played fast. And they played loud. Not "The Who loud", but loud enough to trash your ears for a day after the show, regardless of your rock show-going experience. The opening set was heavy on Darkness album material, and the songs were augmented, enhanced, and accessorized in a way that doesn't happen these days. The organ/piano intro to the title track, the extended harmonica/piano intro to 'Promised Land', the now-legendary piano/guitar intro to 'Prove It All Night', the extended piano coda to 'Racing in the Street', the 'Not Fade Away'/'Mona'/'Gloria' lead-in to 'She's the One', along with the instrumental break in the middle of it - these flourishes made the songs even more special, and these types of reworkings are not seen much anymore. By the time 'Jungleland' closed the first set, some first-timers in the crowd thought the show was over, such was the quality and quantity of what was delivered in just the opening set!

The Darkness tour also marked the last time many would get to see The Boss in small concert halls, as Bruce's exploding popularity forced him to trade up to hockey arenas during several stops on the tour. Stadiums would soon follow. Today, many fans lucky enough to have attended the Darkness tour are glad they did whatever it took to land a ticket, a memory they can still cherish as they now watch Bruce from the nosebleeds. As many fans have noted, a Springsteen concert is something akin to a big tent revival meeting: the energy, the enthusiasm, and most importantly, the healing.

Many performers can entertain a crowd, and put on a great show. But at a Bruce show, he doesn't just entertain, he brings the audience together. Those around you aren't just strangers in the seats, they become family, if only for a few hours.

On the way out the concert hall, theater or arena, one was left with an uncanny mix of exhaustion and exhilaration that comes at the end of a Springsteen concert, a feeling that comes because the marathon shows both drained you entirely of energy, while somehow also replenishing with a new strength. In both books that I worked on, people struggled to describe what this feels like, and how the feeling differs from all the other rock concerts they've been too. I don't pretend to have an explanation. But at best, what I can offer is that through some strange magic, Bruce, in his pure enthusiasm for what he does, and his unpretentious ability to connect with a crowd, he was able to elevate that mass of people from a mere rock and roll crowd into a rock and roll community.

As fan Lou Carlozo wrote:

"But Bruce - a bus driver's son wielding all the determination of a blue-collar man sweating to the last paycheck dime - shared his best with his fans again and again and again. Is it any wonder, then, that magic permeates every Bruce Springsteen concert and touches the people who pack his shows to capacity? Yes, Bruce was one of us: The only real difference was that he wrote and sang amazing songs, though he thrived whenever we joined him and sang along. He fed us, we fed him back. The circle was joined. And it remains unbroken.

As a fan, you had the dream ticket being in attendance for the opening night of the Darkness tour.

I had first witnessed Bruce in concert in Montreal, December 1975 on the Born to Run Tour. I saw it with my cousin from New York. After that, Bruce disappeared, at least for me, with no new album and no concert dates in my area for three years. So when I received a call from the same cousin now living in Buffalo to attend Bruce’s premiere show to showcase his new album, I was psyched.
I was there Bruce broke out of creative jail. The night Bruce was able to perform new songs how and when he wanted to. What I remember most was the raw emotion that Bruce presented on stage. I would even say he was a bit nervous and tentative. But by the time he launched into “Something in the Night” and screamed so his body shook, we knew he was going to take no prisoners, even if it killed him, and us. I had been anticipating this show for close the three years. The audience and atmosphere were electric, we had no idea what to expect, as the new album Darkness on The Edge of Town had not been released yet. I remember the thick smell of marijuana in when I walked into the grand old theater, and the humid heat of the air. I remember superfan Obie and photographer/girlfriend Lynn Goldsmith hanging out in the first row waiting with anticipation like the rest of us for the lights to go down.
And then it started.

How many shows did you end up seeing on the Darkness tour?

I saw nine shows on the tour, including the opening show in Buffalo and the last two in Cleveland. I have photos I took from six of the shows reproduced in The Light in Darkness.

How did you first come across Springsteen's music, and what is that moment that you can point to that officially made you a fan?

I discovered Bruce’s first two albums in 1974 by hearing them on the radio. I liked the albums, can’t say I loved them.
The defining moment for me was December 19, 1975 when I saw Bruce in an 800 seat theatre in Montreal.

What do you remember about your first Springsteen show?

I remember that the night was freezing and that Bruce commented on the temperature during the show, more than once. He wore his customary wool hat on stage and unbelievably he would fling it at his mike stand from various locations on the stage and nail it on the stand!
I remember having tickets in the balcony and feeling that Bruce was playing to us all night. Oh yeah, and I remember the music. I remember Bruce coming on stage in the dark to start the show, one blue spotlight on Roy Bittan while he played the introduction to Thunder Road. I had seen and photographed many shows before then, but nothing as dramatic as that. His interaction with the audience, the stories, and the musicianship all were new experiences for me.

It's often hard for a non-Springsteen fan to understand the typical Springsteen fanaticism - How many Springsteen gigs have you been to over the years, and what is it that keeps you coming back for more?

I don’t really feel compelled to try to convince anyone to see a Bruce Springsteen concert. Many music fans in my hometown do not appreciate him, and I can understand that. I have seen close to ninety shows, which amazes me to this day. But whenever I think that this is a large number, I think about fans that have season tickets to baseball, basketball or hockey teams-how many games do they see a year, year after year? It is all about the passion, the passion of the music and sharing it with 10,000, 20,000 or 50,000 like-minded fans.

Have you gotten any reaction from the Springsteen camp about the books?

When I launched the first book, For You, I had met Bruce’s security person in Boston in November of 2007 and had given him a book to show to Bruce. It was returned to me about a month later from Denmark, signed.
Then Bruce announced a concert in my home city of Montreal.
From the time I got the call around 6.20 Sunday night, March 2, until 23 seconds before Bruce took the stage, I was backstage.
Along with Humphrey Kadaner president of HMV Canada, I was the personal guest of Bruce's co-managers in their suite.
There we were offered wine and cheese in a very relaxing atmosphere. Prior to this I had to go through 2 security checks and have 2 wrist bands applied, a backstage pass and given a ticket to the "pit" area.
I chatted to Bruce's managers for close to 90 minutes and during that time was given a handwritten set list for the Montreal show...
And then it happened, I met Bruce.
We chatted; I presented him a copy of the book and told him it was on behalf of his fans worldwide who appreciate his great music and the enjoyment he has brought to us over all these years.
He signed a copy of the book for me. While all of this was going on Miami Steve and one or 2 other E-Streeters were rehearsing the harmonies on “Because the Night” a capella not 10 feet away.
Bruce posed for photos with me, and then I walked with him as he joined the other members of the E-Street band literally 23 seconds before he took the stage.
Then I took my spot in the pit and had the time of my life.

Like the first book, The Light in Darkness also is a limited pressing of 2000 copies - What's the next project on tap for you after this one is done?

Well, I am contemplating several ideas for books right now.

Subjects include The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and a book on meal planning for vegetarians. Also, a short illustrated story written by a Springsteen fan who grew up in Bruce’s neighbourhood and came in contact with several of the same people he did on a daily basis. He spent some time with Bruce; the time period covers the early 1970’s to around 1976/1977.
Of course if this becomes a reality it will have some classic never seen before photos. I know if fans had their way they would like to see a book on The River. I don’t think that is in the cards for me, but never say never.

Thanks to Lawrence for a great interview! The Light in Darkness is a limited pressing of only 2000 copies, so if you don't already have your copy, you're going to want to move quickly before the book is sold out.  Purchase your copy directly from Lawrence via The Light in Darkness website.

Photos used in this story are sourced from The Light in Darkness website, and all copyrights are retained by the original photographers.

Here's the vid for your viewing pleasure!

]]> http://addictedtovinyl.com/blog/2009/12/12/video-cracker-in-iraq/feed/ 4 http://addictedtovinyl.com/blog/2009/11/11/bill-stone-of-paranoid-lovesick-the-atv-interview/ http://addictedtovinyl.com/blog/2009/11/11/bill-stone-of-paranoid-lovesick-the-atv-interview/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:57:42 +0000 Matt Wardlaw http://addictedtovinyl.com/blog/?p=1950 This weekend will bring a multitude of glorious events, all happening right here in Cleveland.  Now, I can already hear you out-of-town types starting to snicker a bit - knock it off!  Cleveland IS cool - say it with me, and you'll start to understand!  The world renowned International Pop Overthrow festival will make what I believe to be its Cleveland debut on Friday and Saturday night at the Beachland Ballroom.  A mecca for power pop fans and lovers of music in general, IPO has come as close as Youngstown, OH in recent past.   With the CLE debut, Ohio music fans that missed the Youngstown IPO, can finally stop kicking themselves - second chances do sometimes come around!

The IPO lineup is largely a showcase of some of Cleveland's finest - from veteran Bill Fox (The Mice) to relative newcomers Pale Hollow, peppered with a few bands from outside the zip code, including two bands - Triggers and The Jellybricks from PA  -  plus Colin Gawel and the Lonely Bones from Columbus, OH.

Perhaps the most exciting part of IPO for me personally, will be the reunion/farewell show from Cleveland's personal slice of power pop goodness from the 90's,  Paranoid Lovesick, who will release TWO CDs of "new" material for the first time at IPO.  Suburban Pop Allegro, the band's long overdue never-released second album, will be released for the first time, accompanied by Tuxedo Avenue Breakdown, the band's unreleased third album.

The tale of Paranoid Lovesick is lengthy and complicated, both critically acclaimed and yet at times, universally and criminally ignored.  The story had an unplanned premature ending with the sudden death of guitarist Rick McBrien in 2003.

I can't recall when I first saw Paranoid Lovesick, but I remember the feeling that I got from hearing them on-stage.  My ears perked at the sound of something that was finally different from the rest of the Cleveland music scene, which had gotten a bit stale.  I signed up for the Paranoid Lovesick mailing list, unaware that I was opting into the greatest band mailing list ever - my ticket to receive their "newsletter", the Subterrestrial Glamorous Pop Hymnal - made up nearly 100 percent of satire, un-truths, and inside jokes/not-so-subtle jabs at members of the local Cleveland music scene.

And oh yeah, the road.  Touring.  Lots of things going wrong.  Thank God, we had the internet in its infancy to read their numerous tales of highway-related woe.  The PL "road stories" were legendary good reading back in the day, via the band's AOL message board - an area that deserves its own separate hall of fame.  We caught up with PL frontman Bill Stone to swap a few more stories, talk about Saturday's IPO show and about the mysterious series of events that led to the release of Suburban Pop Allegro and Tuxedo Avenue Breakdown.

I'd like to congratulate you on continuing to be a trendsetter. This weekend, Paranoid Lovesick will play a reunion show, CD release show, and farewell show, all wrapped into one tightly scheduled 40 minute set. To your knowledge, has this ever been attempted by a band before?

I'm sure it's happened, but perhaps the bands didn't know it at the time, at least the farewell part.

Will there be pyro, a laser light show, or at the very least, 8-Tracks?

I think the 8-track supply has dried up. I suppose we could toss VHS tapes, but it might not be the same. As for lights, it's just what the Beachland has, which I assume is a few cans hung on the ceiling that don't really point at anything specific. There is pyro at the rehearsals- don't ask me why, but Kurt, our bassist, has a smoke machine that operates via a foot pedal. He's been using it a lot. We've already discussed ending the show by channeling the smoke to our amps to make it appear like we've had an across the board equipment failure, but logistics may end that idea.

The Beachland gig will mark the release of two Paranoid Lovesick albums, one of which is Suburban Pop Allegro, the long awaited follow-up to PL's classic debut EP, Molly. The album's been on the shelf for about 10 years now - how much work did you have to do on the material to get a finished product that you're happy with?

Well, the first one, Suburban Pop Allegro was started in 1995 as our Molly follow up. Gerard Dominick, who was then our bass player (we had fired Kurt because he wouldn't go to New Orleans for a show) introduced us to engineer Bill Korecky at Mars Recording. That was one of the best things that ever happened to us. Bill has been our mentor, quality control, and general good times guy since. So, we start recording, and things go badly. We're a bit aimless in the studio, and Korecky is a pro, used to working on real records etc, but because he thinks we're funny, I assume, he doesn't toss us out- or at least he lets us come back after being tossed out.

The grinding goes on for 5 years. We think it's our Sgt. Pepper. Record labels are banging at the doors for more music, but we thought we had to have it perfect first (a big mistake on our part). So, when it's finished, Kurt's back in the band, and we're not too hopped up on the record anymore. We decide to use what cash we have to record a batch of new songs that we feel are stronger than those on Suburban Pop Allegro. In the meantime, we still have it mastered, by Jerry Tubbs in Austin. That sort of puts a new shine on it and we decide to release it- sooner or later.

The new sessions go effortlessly. It's like we were in training on Suburban Pop. Korecky is impressed, and he's a hard guy to impress, so we're jumping up and down at that. I think we had about three weekend sessions, none too long, maybe 8 hours a day, and that included the goofing off (we do a lot of goofing off). This happens over the course of a year or so, so now it's maybe 2001. Rick McBrien, our guitarist, and his wife are expecting their first child, so we did a few more shows in 2001/early 2002 and then, for the first time, took about 6 months off. Rick died in February of 2003. At that time, the record that would become Tuxedo Avenue Breakdown was almost done- it just needed some polishing, and a few of Rick's leads were missing.

A few years after he died, we resumed work to complete the record. We turned to friends of the band to complete his work- a fitting tribute. I might forget somebody, but Colin Gawel of Watershed, Larry Kennedy of the Jellybricks, Adam Marsland, PL alum Nick Perry, Susan Rasch, Jim Koch of The Big Creak, Tom Dannery of Medicine Show, and a cast of others came in over a weekend and we nailed the missing work. It was a blast, and very fitting to have them on the record.

So, a long answer to a short question. It's been a lot of work, but more fun than work. There are very few things in life that are as fun as hanging out at Mars with Bill Korecky. Drummer John Potwora and I think we need to do a new recording project just so the party's not over.

There are new vocals on a couple of tracks, courtesy of Lisa Mychols - what's her story?

John found Lisa. I thought he was a bit nuts, spending some serious cash to have this girl sing over our track on a song that was already mastered and included on Suburban Pop Allegro. At most it would only be an expensive "bonus".  But.....she was amazing. I immediately had John ask her if she'd do another song for us, one I just couldn't get the singing right on. Another big win.  Lisa is out in LA, John never met her before, and did most of his communication via email. She's been in several power pop bands, and people have heard of them (I hadn't), The Masticators among them. I believe she's also worked with that LA crowd that is currently working with Brian Wilson. I encourage people to seek her out. She's a very talented person with an amazing voice.

Your old pal Adam Marsland of Cockeyed Ghost also makes an appearance of sorts...

Adam almost didn't make it on. He happened to be on tour with a stop in Ohio on literally one of the last days of tracking. We used him for some vocals on a re-mix of "Universe Boat" from Molly. The next day, still on layover, his road band recorded an album in a day with Korecky. I invited myself to hang out and they let me, and in the end I sang backgrounds on a bunch of songs. Adam's record is called Hello Cleveland and will be out in the spring. Very, very cool.

Tuxedo Avenue Breakdown is the other CD being released, and it looks like quite possibly the highest quality odds n' sods compilation to ever be released.

It's really a full length, with a couple of extras tossed in like they're not extras, because in the end, the quality of the extras was too good to just put them at the end. We re-mixed "Big Star," "Universe Boat" and "Velvet" from our Molly EP, and Bill Korecky says "these are some of your best songs, I love these mixes, you can't put them on the end- go for satellite play!", so as usual, we listened. When we got down to track placement, we did the old "let's put our best songs on a list" and that list had 9 songs on it! We had 10 others that were good too. So, hopefully, when you listen to Tuxedo Avenue Breakdown, you'll enjoy all 19! It's not one of those records with two good songs and filler; at least that's our humble opinion.

Paranoid Lovesick - Velvet (original Molly version)

What's the timeline for the stuff on Tuxedo Avenue Breakdown - when was that stuff recorded?

Probably around 2001-2002. We spent very little time in the studio for it. Bill Korecky kept saying, "This is how it's supposed to be!”

You're releasing some of the various tracks that you did for tribute albums over the years too, right?

That's the extra stuff on Suburban Pop Allegro. We covered "Icicles" by Badfinger for a Badfinger tribute that came out around 1998. It's a great record, very rare now, and we were quite proud to be among the artists on it- Aimee Mann, The Posies, the Knack, lots of others that are mainstays of Little Steven's Underground Garage today. The other record was a tribute to the Who's Sell Out, titled The New Sell Out. It was never released, although it's still talked about and rumors swirl around it from time to time. We covered "Armenia City In the Sky," the opening track. The artists on it were again amazing- The Shazam, the Posies again - I believe, people submitted all the little commercial parts between songs too, and there's a voice over by Roger Mcguinn doing a station ID. They had so much good stuff, they were going to have an additional CD of updated fake commercials. It's a shame this never came out.

There are two very different versions of Alright To Drive - one on Suburban, and one on Tuxedo - What's the story on the evolution of that song?

Well, somewhere along the line, we just did a fast version of what was a slow song, and said "the fast one is better". We had already recorded the slow one and put in on Suburban Pop Allegro, so we just recorded it again to see what would happen. We liked it, so now there are two!

I saw quite a few PL shows in the 90's - the sold-out show opening for Weezer (on the "Blue" album tour) was a favorite of mine. I was both in awe of the 8-tracks being thrown into the crowd, and happy that I didn't get a concussion from one of them. What's your personal favorite/most memorable Cleveland gig experience?

There's a lot, and those Peabody's shows were all great, but I remember pulling up to the Agora for a show, and there was a huge line outside because the doors hadn't opened yet- and we were the headliner. That was about as cool as it gets. But just having the electricity of a packed room, that's the stuff you dream of when you're 14 years old playing air guitar in your room, and we got to experience the real deal.

You recently told me a great PL road story involving the world famous Arch in St. Louis. Can you share that again so that we can officially preserve it on the world wide web?

Of course, and it's one of our few "kid friendly" stories, but I'll add offensive parts too- I mean it is a PL story. So we're in St. Louis, and decide to take in the sights. We go up the Arch in one of those little pods. Gerard is elsewhere, we haven’t seen him since he left the club with some convicts to do God knows what in some hotel room. On the way up, we decide to have a photo op by doing one of those collage photos (this is circa 1995, no digital) so we all contort ourselves upside down etc. in this little round pod. Well, there is a sign that says "don't move" for a reason. The tram to the top stops midway up. It instantly gets hotter than hell. A ranger has to climb up the inside of the Arch and check on everybody through a little window in the pod. We can hear his voice while we argue whether or not to admit we did it. We don't, and when we get to the top, we are rewarded with a view of pretty much nothing. St. Louis is one boring city from the air, but the ride in the pod is cool.

On a side note, under the Arch is a museum. There's a display of buffalo, and John is pointing at the buffalo doing a Corky from Life Goes On imitation when an entire group of similar kids come up to the display behind him. We all drift away while John continues his bantering thinking we're behind him. Lots of St. Louis road stories.

There's finally a PL website again - notably featuring EVERY single issue of the Subterrestrial Glamorous Pop Hymnal, digitized for the world to enjoy. This might be the single greatest contribution any one band has ever made to the internet.

People loved it. We did about a thousand at a time, and put a stamp on each one- no bulk permit for us! I still like reading them. We used to get A&R departments requesting one CD and 40 newsletters. We'll probably have a few lying around at the gig.

What can fans expect from the Beachland gig?

A short but sweet set of about 40 minutes. It will be a best of. Tom Dannery of Medicine Show is filling in for Rick. Kurt and I played in Medicine Show with Tom in the early 90's, PL practiced at a studio where Tom worked, and he recorded our first tracks. I think it might be a well-attended show, so I'd advise advance tickets; the Beachland Tavern isn't too big.

Now that Suburban Pop Allegro and Tuxedo Avenue Breakdown are being released - is this the final word on Paranoid Lovesick?

Yes and no. John and I are going to try to get some satellite airplay for Tuxedo Avenue Breakdown. Everyone who's been involved in it likes it- we had it mastered in Nashville by Jim DeMain, a former Clevelander. Jim masters for all the country stars, along with Shazam, Brad Jones, John Hiatt etc. He said he was humming "Big Star" all week. When you hear that stuff, it makes you want to go for the brass ring, you know? It's all icing on the cake now, just to release them was the main goal, but who knows.

I do know we won't ever be together as Paranoid Lovesick again. We're lucky to have Kurt for this one show. John and I have already discussed keeping the party going with some sort of collaboration on a new project, we might try to write some songs and have Lisa Mychols sing on them for us. Just a project thing, but in this new world of music, and with none of us wanting to get beat up on the road anymore, it's very appealing.

How about a quick update on what the various PL members are up to these days? Any plans for further music?

Well, I just spoke for John Potwora and I in the last question. As for Kurt Maracz, I can't say. He's a mysterious guy. John and I would love to use him on whatever we do, but I don't think there will be that band thing again. I do play with Kurt and Tom Dannery in a band, along with Pat Kirchner (New Snyders of Berlin), but we mostly goof off and play covers. If we did play a gig, it would probably be in somebody's bar, and we'd be doing Teenage Fanclub and Replacements covers until the patrons booed us out.

As for PL alumni, Gerard Dominick is with the Colin John Band, and they travel the world from time to time. Lucky bastard. And Nick Perry, who was in when John quit for a year or so is in Pale Hollow. They're playing a lot of gigs in the Cleveland area.

So, I don't think it's the end of the road, but I don't have a map at the moment.

Thanks to Bill for taking time to answer a few questions!  International Pop Overthrow happens in Cleveland this weekend on Friday and Saturday at the Beachland Ballroom - purchase your advance tickets via this link.  Paranoid Lovesick will perform on Saturday night at 10:30pm.

Related Links:

Visit the official Paranoid Lovesick website

Hear more music via Paranoid Lovesick's Myspace page

Coming soon:  Purchase Suburban Pop Allegro and Tuxedo Avenue Breakdown online via the fine folks at Not Lame

During my early years as a music fan, I came across albums that would be important mile markers in my continuing musical education. Chicago 17 was an important album that introduced me to the production of David Foster, and perhaps more importantly, the vocals of Peter Cetera and Bill Champlin. Champlin was a recent addition to Chicago, having joined during the songwriting sessions for Chicago 16, the band's first album for their new label, Full Moon/Warner Brothers, after a career length stint recording for Columbia. The winning combination of Foster + Champlin + Chicago led to platinum selling results, and the band's second #1 single with "Hard to Say I'm Sorry."

Chicago 17 delivered even greater results, and remains the best selling album in the Chicago catalog with over six million copies sold to date. Notably, Champlin would grab the spotlight two albums later on Chicago 19, singing lead on three out of the four hit singles from the album, including "Look Away," which put another notch in Chicago's belt of #1 singles.

After I finished exploring the complete Chicago catalog of releases that I had missed prior to Chicago 17 (i.e. their entire 70s output,) it was time to investigate the solo work that Chicago members Robert Lamm, Cetera, and Champlin had done through the years. Of the three, I knew the least about Champlin, and as I would come to discover, Champlin had amassed a formidable catalog of work both solo and with Sons of Champlin, prior to joining Chicago in 1982.

I bought my first Champlin solo disc in the early 90s - while browsing in a local record store, I saw a copy of Burn Down The Night, the latest solo album from Champlin, and his first full-length solo release since Runaway in 1981.  When I got home and started to read the liner notes, I read the following words that continue to inspire me to this day:

To all the musicians who went way deep with us and gave all they had.
Equation:  Good Friends=Good Music
To those who've inspired us.
To those we may touch.
Turn up the Light
Burn down the night.

Bill Champlin was unquestionably a very cool cat - this was clear to me after reading the above in the liner notes.  On a side note,  if there is an argument that still needs to be made as to why liner notes should still be relevant to us as music fans, please re-read the above.  It's these little literary gifts within the liners that help us find that bond as music fans with our favorite artists and bands, hidden within the lyrics and credits of each album that we buy.

The 90s were a prolific time for Champlin, who would release two more solo albums (Through It All and He Started To Sing,) and a live album (Mayday) in addition to doing plenty of session work, and the occasional collaborative project (ex. West Coast All-Stars.) All of this while maintaining a full time "day job" recording and touring with Chicago - one could easily wonder how Champlin found the time for it all, but when you dig into Champlin as a person, you discover an individual that lives and breathes music 24/7.

So it's a bit surprising that it's been over 10 years since Champlin's last solo release, a drought that came to an end recently with the release of No Place Left To Fall, Champlin's latest solo release. No Place Left To Fall proves that some things are worth the wait - the 13 tracks on the album represent in my opinion, Champlin's finest work to date. I own everything that Champlin has put to tape - both solo and with Sons of Champlin, and for my money, No Place Left To Fall is the first album from Champlin that completely hits the mark. It really and truly is "all killer, and no filler."

We had the chance recently to grab some interview time with Champlin to talk about the new album - ATV friend and fellow Champlin/Chicago fan Wendell Neeley connected with Champlin to discuss not only the new project, the upcoming November tour to support the album, and also his work with Chicago through the years. And that's just scratching the surface on a few of the many topics that came up during the conversation with Champlin. What we didn't know though, was that Champlin would announce his departure from Chicago after 28 years, less than a week after this interview was conducted. Champlin's departure from Chicago means more time for recording, more time for touring, and hopefully a tour date for Cleveland - I'm down with all of that!

You've been in the business since the 60s. You've been touring with the band Chicago for 28 years, and of course you have your own band Sons of Champlin, but you're not a household name.

A lot of what I am probably best known for in the 80s and 90s was doing sessions with other musicians. It was right around the time in LA when there was just millions of sessions being done so I ended up doing a lot of background vocals for a million artists that you've never heard of and a few that you have.

Well, the first time that I heard of you as a solo artist, was while working at Camelot Records in Lima, OH, and your album Runaway had come out. Of course you joined Chicago shortly after that.

It was weird, I did the Runaway album and the day that it was released, Joe Smith, the guy who had signed me to Elektra Records left the company. Two days later, I got a call from Chicago asking me to join the band.. I went “they're (Elektra Records) going to lose this album, I could see it coming from a million miles away. So I thought I'd better go for the rent, you know what I mean? It was one of those situations, it's like what Lee Ritenour used to call “war stories.”

Chicago was floundering in the late 70s and early 80s – when you were asked to join, what was the focus with you joining the band. Were you hired on as a vocalist/keyboardist? Or were you expected to fill in the guitar position and vocals? What was the premise there?

Right after Terry (Kath) passed away, within a few days I got a call to maybe replace him as their guitarist. The manager could see that the guys were probably going to keep going. He called me about it and I said “look, I do play guitar, but guitar-wise, that's a pair of shoes that I'm never going to fill.”

I didn't realize that they already had Chris Pinnick in line as an on-stage guitar player (a few years later when Champlin finally joined the band.) I do play some guitar with Chicago, but what the gig ended up being to start with, was we did a couple of albums with David Foster. I had been working with David for quite a while. What David brings to the ballgame is this piano stuff, and I kind of had a little bit of an eyeball – although I'm nowhere near the piano player that David is. But I could learn what he played – I couldn't necessarily come up with it, but I could definitely learn what he played. I'd watched his hands long enough to know what his moves are about.

When we started getting hits on that level with Chicago that were David Foster driven, I think my piano playing came more into play. One of the reasons that I probably joined the band is that Peter and I had done some background vocals for a mutual friend of ours on a demo that he was doing. Everybody in the booth, the minute that we sang together said “Whoa, that's a blend, that's a mean sound.” And Peter and I did too, we said “that's a pretty cool blend,” something in our voices blended pretty well together. So we did a couple of years of that. I think a lot of what brought Chicago out of the doldrums - I'd love to take credit for that, but I think a lot of that was David Foster. And even more than that, I think a lot of that was David Foster writing with the guys in the band, mostly Peter.

Moving on to your solo career, what surprises me is what a prolific writer you are – how many solo albums do you have at this point, 8?

7 or 8, I've lost count...I've got a great memory, I just don't remember where I've put it! *laughs*

What is amazing to me – even though you do heavy duty time touring with Chicago, you still have time to work on your solo material, and have a unique element to that material. How do you separate the two?

A lot of my fans, real BC fans have a tendency to call Chicago the “day gig,” and I don't want to say that necessarily. Chicago is a “play the hits” band, and there's only so much room and then there are guys that have been standing in line (to get their material on the project) when there is a new project. I'm usually the last guy to be asked about material, so at some point in the game, I've just been trying to do solo albums to keep from going crazy, because I write pretty much all of the time. I've got probably an album full of stuff now to do the next record.

When you're writing your own stuff, do you ever write music that makes more sense for a Chicago album that gets rejected, so you end up deciding to keep it for yourself?

That's usually what happens. There's a song on the new album called “Never Been Afraid” that I've submitted that everyone says “that's an obvious Chicago song.” I've submitted it once or twice over the years, and that kind of song isn't expected from me. What's expected from me with Chicago is the filler stuff. Why don't you do the R&B stuff so that we can get Jason or Peter or somebody to come up with the real pop stuff. And yes, I write pop music – I've got a couple of Grammy Awards on the wall that say I do. With that band, a lot of times there's a pecking order and I'm kind of at the end of that line. After a while, you don't want to start submitting stuff to somebody who's basically just going to turn it down by the fact that you wrote it. That's one of the reasons why solo albums is good for me, I can get that stuff out of my system.

Peter Cetera shows up on “Never Been Afraid.”

He does some backgrounds on the song. We were going to go a little bit further and then realized people aren't going to listen to the rest of the record, it's going to be all about this, especially with Chicago fans. You can hear him in there, and there's a little bit of that really awesome blend that he and I have always had whenever we sing together. I actually ended up doing that duet with Michael English, who is just an awesome singer. Michael's been in the contemporary Christian scene for years, and I've worked on a couple of his records. I went “I need a little bit of duet action on this song, I'm calling Michael,” and he was over there in like five minutes. We had a really good time doing that.

Obviously with Peter on this album, your relations with him didn't suffer when he left Chicago?

I think the guys that he grew up with may have issues, and I don't particularly have any issues with Peter. I never wanted to get involved with “hey, you're not supposed to like that person,” that kind of crap. I always looked at that as childish and kind of high school. I've always gotten along with Peter pretty well – we've had a moment here and there, but we played together for three years, and it was a pretty intense three years. 16 had really caught some air, and 17 really caught some air, so we were on the road a lot together. I think he's one of the major voices of our time. I remember years before I saw these guys or knew how great of a singer Cetera was, I was driving along right by the Oakland auditorium and two songs came on, one after the other. One was “Living For The Love of You” by the Isley Brothers and the other was “If You Leave Me Now” by Chicago. Here's maybe the two best tenors on the Earth, and I don't know the names of either of them. Because they were under a band name. I know that one of them is probably named Isley, I just don't know what his first name is. Obviously, I dug in and found out it was Ronnie Isley and Peter Cetera. I just listen to it and I don't particularly like the team thing – hey we're on this team and you're on that team and we're all in competition. Baloney. I think we're all together. I always look at all of these musicians I know as being part of a big piece of pie, and it was someone else that cut them into slices. For the most part, we're all born and raised in the same pie plate.

Regarding the solo tour that you just announced,

We're going to get two shows in San Juan Capistrano and San Diego, and then we're going to aim up and do some stuff around the Bay Area, and then head up in to Oregon and Washington. It should be kind of fun, and I'm using the guys that I used on the Mayday album, and this band's really going to be about singing, because all of these guys are not only great players, but they're awesome singers. I guess I could have flown the vocals (in) that I put on the record, but I've always looked at that as being kind of cheap and tawdry. That sounds like an awful lot of Bill up there. On a record it's one thing, but live it's another thing. The guys that I've got playing for me are all from a group called Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns based out of Las Vegas. I've known Jerry, the guitar player for years. These guys are the top of the food chain, as good as it gets.

When was the last time you did a solo tour in the U.S.?

Never. I've done plenty of Sons gigs over the years. I worked several years solo in Europe in Scandanavia and Japan. That's why the clubs here are going “Who are you? We know the Sons, but who are you?” They might not be offering me much, but they are hiring me, so if I can figure out a way to get people into the building, that will settle things up a little bit.

Talking a bit about your recording method, your stacked background vocals are legendary – has this gotten easier in the age of Pro-Tools, or do you still prefer to do things in analog?

I think Pro-Tools, it's so much easier to go to the next track and hit the down arrow, and boom you're there. A friend of mine said Pro-Tools, really what it is is like a multi-track tape recorder without having to have three guys carry it in the door. If you think of it as a sound destination, this is where it ends up, which is the same thing as a tape recorder. I try to use Pro-Tools as a tape machine, more so than a trickster. A lot of people play all kinds of tricks with them. I don't use tuners that much – occasionally if I want to keep a performance and something's a little out of tune, I'll fix a note here and there. That's using it as a tool, that's not using it as a crutch.

Anyone who has seen your live performances with Chicago knows that you don't need a studio to cover up anything at all.

I try to. You know, it's weird, I've been using in-ear monitors for the first time ever in the past year. I'm realizing that I've got to be really careful with these, because it's really easy to sing out of tune and think that you're in tune.

Wow.

I finally went with in-ear monitors, more than anything maybe just to keep my gig. I was doing cans, and then occasionally I'd put up a wedge. These guys, especially a band with horn players, they don't want any sound on the stage at all. Our bass player (Jason Scheff) uses a POD, he doesn't even use an amplifier. It's all going through the cans or house anyway.

For years, I didn't want to have a sound source that close to my ear drums. And everybody says to me “well, you know they've got limiters to keep you from hurting,” and I said yeah, I've got limiters at home – they broke! Almost blew my speakers. Well, blowing speakers is one thing, blowing your eardrums out is another thing altogether. I was very scared of them. Finally, they've improved them so much since I first tried them, that I decided to go with these things. I have to play some major games to try to keep myself in tune with these things – I take one of them almost all of the way out so I can hear a little bit. A lot of people tune inside their head, I learned to tune outside, hear the note coming out of my mouth. As a player, you want to hear them a little bit louder to get some groove, and that's where your pitch goes right out the window. So I have to remind myself to go down about three cents.

You've got the new CD No Place Left To Fall, which came out first as a digital download about a year ago. What do you think about dual-release dates, putting something out digitally first, and then physically later. Do you experience a loss of sales with illegal downloading?

There's a certain new kind of listener that likes downloads, so we released it first on Rhapsody, Itunes and Amazon about a year ago. There's a lot of older people that grew up on liner notes...

Like myself.

I've had a joke lately – can you see two teenage kids sitting around talking to each other, “I wonder who's going to play bass on the next Lady GaGa album?” I don't think they care!  *Laughs*

I think we're in the last generation that cared about that kind of stuff.

Yes, even special thanks and who plays what kind of instrument – who's playing Yamaha keyboards, and who's playing Korg keyboards. To a lot of people, that's interesting, and to other people that's useless information. I have a tendency to look at everything, break out a magnifying glass and look who's playing on what. Also, with this album release there is an hour long making-of DVD that talks about the songs, talks about the players, how we put it together, and generally where we were going with it. And there's actually a bit of Sons live footage on it as well.

You've made good use of Youtube – what are your thoughts on Youtube? Is it a good tool to promote a new release for you?

I think that Youtube is pretty cool. Anything to promote the release at this point in the game. The hardest thing to do is getting the word out, if you're not under 12 years old. What I've always said, when the Beatles were coming out, Hendrix, and different people like that, they'd get an artist and they'd wrap a sales campaign around the artist. And now they seem to wrap the artist around the sales campaign.

Speaking of kids, your son Will is very active musically as well. He's already got a couple of albums out on his own, that's got to make you proud.

Oh, he's a monster! He's a Berkeley grad and can go anywhere from playing, writing, programming, singing, engineering, unbelievable pop and R&B stuff. And then he can turn around on the piano and play Bill Evans. I have one jazz-ish tune on the album and I had Will play piano on the basic.

Did he always have an interest in following in your footsteps?

No, I don't think he was following in anyone's footsteps, he's just got that music in his bones. Once I hooked him up with a really good teacher, Terry Trotter, who's a great piano teacher, and got him involved in all of this other stuff, he passed me up like I was standing still, which of course I was.

Do you think that musical talent is hereditary?

I think so. My mother was a songwriter.

And your wife..

My wife Tamara is an awesome songwriter. She co-wrote the title tune on this album, and sang all over this record. There's one song on there called “Tuggin' On Your Sleeve,” that I wrote with Will and Michael Caruso, and we did it kind of as a trio. I sang a verse, Will sang a verse, bridge, and a chorus, and Tamara sang a verse. We just threw it around a little bit.

You've been living in Nashville – what's going on there that makes Nashville such a draw for a songwriter?

When I worked in San Francisco, everybody was at everybody else's house, writing songs all of the time. And then that kind of stopped, I found myself moving to LA where everybody was at everybody else's house, writing songs all of the time. That stopped, and now I'm in Nashville, where everybody is at everybody else's house, writing songs all of the time. Even that's starting to go away. For me, Nashville is living in the country and staying away from town. For Will, it's been great, it's been working good for him – he's been working both Nashville and LA and kicking butt. I don't think I'm that much of a Nashville guy – I'm not that much of a networker, and I'm not that much of a guy that's going to go hang out with stars and all of that crap. It just doesn't appeal to me.

As I'm sure you are aware, FM commercial radio isn't the powerhouse that it used to be...

There's very little business when you think about it. All of the downloading has really hurt the record business. What's hurt the record business more than anything else is a bunch of lawyers telling musicians what to play. I think that musicians have been listening to these business guys, who have no ears. I could see it coming the minute video started – Uh oh, here we go, now we've got to have pretty people. So now they've got a bunch of actors with record deals, and the producers are making the records. I saw Paris Hilton one time talking to Leno or somebody, and she said “I've just made an album,” and he said “really, what's it like?” She said “I don't know, I just heard it yesterday!” Things are changing, and everybody is doing everything they can to come up with different models of promotion. There's a lot of different ways to do it, and here I am talking to you. I think it's kind of like the original rock and roll when I first started, going after one station at a time, one newspaper at a time, talking to people one by one, rather than the big full run. Justin Timberlake still gets it. I think most of the really “big artists” there's so much paparazzi and it's just celebrity for celebrity's sake. That's nice clothes that you're wearing, but can you sing? Do you have anything to say? You hear albums that have three good songs on it, and the rest are obvious fillers, and I think it's one of the reasons that album sales are down. What I am trying to do, is do what we did in the era that I grew up in, and try to make interesting albums that you play from top to bottom. I think that's really important.

Bill Champlin's No Place Left To Fall is available now in record stores and online.  Catch Bill on the road this fall - click here for a list of tour dates to find out if Bill is coming to your area!

Visit Bill's official website

The disc hit stores this past Tuesday (2/24) and I had the pleasure of running a radio tour that same morning with Lofgren in which he spoke to radio stations in Boston, Buffalo, Denver, Miami, Seattle, and Philadelphia.

Lucky for us, Springsteen decided to schedule rehearsal gigs in Asbury Park for Monday and Tuesday night (long after the radio tour had originally been booked,) so we got the nice surprise of having Nils on the line, fresh from the first semi-official airing of lots of new material from the Working On A Dream album.

Thanks to the modern world of podcasts and website audio, you can check out audio of the interviews from Boston and Buffalo. Big props to Boston for throwing in a song request for "Chimes of Freedom" at the Boston shows. I'd love to hear that one!

Unfortunately, Nils put a slight damper on the possibility of that request (and others being fulfilled,) yet offered one major helpful tip (that us hardcore Bruce fans are well aware of) on how to get your song request played!

"I've learned that unless you have a cute little five year old kid in your arms with a sign, it's kind of wasted energy.."

Speaking of Bruce:

Pete at Blogness on the Edge of Town has some song samples from the first night, and also hipped me to the following video footage, which I actually enjoyed quite a bit, of NJ.com critic Jay Lustig discussing the Monday night gig. What can I say, I love fellow music nerds on camera!

Rolling Stone has a nice behind-the-curtain look at how Jay Weinberg scored the fill-in drummer gig for the upcoming tour, where he'll play at least 6-7 of the European dates, and potentially other shows. 18 years old.....started playing drums at age 14? That's crazy. I'd actually like to see one of the gigs with Jay behind the kit - he's got the goods, judging by the tunes I heard from Monday night's show!

Finally - I think all of us really enjoyed Ben's post over at Deeper Shade of Soul, offering some helpful setlist tips to Bruce for the upcoming tour. I really like the suggested Human Touch/Lucky Town cuts, particularly "Cross My Heart," which was always a favorite of mine. I'd also like to add "My Beautiful Reward" to that list. I get chills just thinking about hearing "Better Days" and "Lucky Town" again. Granted, the Human Touch/Lucky Town tour was my first Bruce show, but I really enjoyed both albums as well, and I've even softened up on cuts like "Man's Job" for example, that I really couldn't stand at the time.

Speaking of Human Touch and Lucky Town, they celebrated a birthday this past week.

The tour begins on Wednesday night in San Jose, CA. You're ready, right?

Can't wait to start tracking setlists!

Thought I would spotlight briefly, a couple of things that have been in my ears this past week.

First, a few links of interest for your enjoyment:

Leading up to the Rock Hall induction ceremonies, I've been talking Metallica with my former radio comrade Chris Akin and Cleveland Scene's D.X. Ferris. The first installment can be found on Scene's newly re-born C-Notes Music Blog here.

Also on the Scene site, Anastasia Pantsios shares details from the opening night of Blue Arrow Records and Books. As one that doesn't really enjoy the opening night crush, (unless it is Van Halen or Springsteen,) I haven't been yet myself, but it's on the schedule for this week!

My buddy Ryan has a chance for you to win the new live CD and DVD from Stevie Nicks. Get your name in the hopper by going here! Smashing!

The Lemonheads covers record that was scheduled for release late last year, is finally scheduled for June.

Michael Penn talks about a lot of things during a SXSW interview, including a total flashback to the days of Hypercard!

Locally, Don Henley spent 20 minutes on the phone with Bill Lewis/WNCX, the day before the Eagles concert at Quicken Loans Arena. After the show, my good pal Bear posted a great recap on his Cleveland Rock and Roll website.

Finally, I'm quite stoked to read about a two CD "legacy" edition that is on the way for the classic Lenny Kravitz album Let Love Rule. I want one.

Cracker have more than just a little bit of sneaky nature bundled inside the works of the Cracker machine. They have this knack for dropping new Cracker albums on the unsuspecting music fan, seemingly from out of nowhere. Such is the case with Sunrise in the Land of Milke and Honey (pre-order from Amazon,) the new Cracker album that will be released on May 5th. I believe Cracker have at least one more great album in the tank, and while this isn't it, it is DAMN good.

Continuing the solid groundwork laid by Greenland (2006) (purchase), Sunrise is the no-bullshit straight up rock record that music fans have been waiting for. Blasting through 11 tracks in under 40 minutes, Lowery spits out rapid-fire lyrics that are signature Lowery.

From the album opening "Yalla Yalla" (I had a girl, Nantucket Massachusetts. She had a lisp, but man her ass was perfect,) to "I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right" (Don't you look down in that hole, cause the devil come out, and keep you for his own,) Lowery really brought his A-game on this album. Cracker axeman Johnny Hickman spreads his unmistakable guitar licks all over Sunrise, and grabs a solo writing credit with "Friends" (Well, I'd never sleep with your ex-girlfriend, even if she starts to flirt with me again,) one of the finer tracks on the album.

Cracker reeled in a ton of special guests for this album, including John Doe (vocals on "Shine a Light,") and a slew of special guests for "Darling One," which features Kevn Kinney (Drivin' n' Cryin',) Adam Duritz and David Immergluck (Counting Crows,) and singer-songwriter Shannon Worrell, to name a few. Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey is the band's first album for new label 429 Records, and hopefully we'll get to see some full-band shows supporting the new album, if we're lucky.

BEST TRACKS:

"Yalla Yalla"
"Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out With Me" (the first single) (download)
"Friends"
"I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right"
"Hand Me My Inhaler"

BONUS LISTENING:

"Something You Ain't Got" (download) from Greenland

ADDITIONAL HOMEWORK:

Greenland (2006) (purchase)
Gentleman's Blues (1998) (purchase)
The Golden Age (1996) (purchase)
Kerosene Hat (1993) (purchase)

Cracker official website

Cracker on the Live Music Archive

My apparent love for potty-mouth female singers led me to the music of Jenny Owen Youngs via "F*ck Was I" from Batten The Hatches, an album I bought via Itunes on a whim, after hearing the track from a friend. Youngs' Nelly cover of "Hot in Herre" was an additional purchase I had to make while hanging out at Itunes. Some of you might be familiar with Youngs, from hearing "F*ck Was I" on the hit television program (just wanted to use those three words to sound like "announcer guy nerd") Weeds, a spotlight slot that ultimately helped score Youngs a record deal with Nettwerk. If you missed all of that stuff....well, that's a shame - but now's a great time to catch up!

New Jersey-born Youngs is about to release her second album Transmitter Failure on May 26th, produced by Dan Romer (Ingrid Michaelson, April Smith, The Woes.) Her earlier work is more acoustic-based, and Transmitter Failure will flesh that sound out for the first time with a multitude of instruments including keys, horns, digital drum tracks, flute, glockenspiel, and even a full string section on some tracks. For those that are anxious to hear the new album, (me! me! me!) Youngs will preview the new album with an EP release, Led To The Sea on April 7th.

Youngs shares the following info regarding the new album:

“I wanted to make something that would move people emotionally, but also move them physically. I did not want to end up touring for another three years on a record that wouldn't offer people the opportunity to move. So. Dan and I set out to make something that was, quite simply, more fun to play live. In the process, my writing took turns I didn't expect.”

Dig that. Jenny Owen Youngs will hit the road for a tour with Jukebox The Ghost that goes all over the place with sadly, no tour date for me here in Cleveland. But for the rest of you, check here to see if Jenny is coming to your neck of the woods!

Here's the title track from Led To The Sea, for your enjoyment. Hope you enjoy it - it's my favorite thing that I've heard this week!

Jenny Owen Youngs - Led To The Sea

BONUS LISTENING:

(video)

ADDITIONAL HOMEWORK:

Purchase Batten The Hatches from Amazon - CD or MP3

Jenny Owen Youngs on Twitter

Jenny Owen Youngs on Myspace

What sounds like a recipe for trouble has become a lot worse, and Ferris chronicles the downfall, with several big reveals, including this:

Since Lara's team took over, the Agora has bounced checks for big shows, including a December concert by Dragonforce and a sold-out, two-night stand by Akron's Black Keys, with tickets at $28.50 a pop. "I don't think we will ever play there again," says Keys drummer Patrick Carney.

and this:

Lara declines to guess how many checks his clubs have bounced. Laeng, the former Jigsaw GM, estimates the number around 500. He says he's never knowingly written a bad one. One of his last loyal soldiers says that's possible.

I'm not going to comment on this much, except to say that it makes me sick to have a lot of friends that have lost employment as a result of this mess, during the current economic times where finding employment is already challenging. Some of my worst fears regarding the business practices of the Jigsaw Entertainment Group have come true, with the potential loss of The Jigsaw Saloon and Stage, a Parma staple and landmark for over 30 years, and the amount of damage that has been done financially, and credibility-wise, to the Cleveland Agora.

I'm disappointed but not surprised to read the quote from Patrick Carney. I would have expected to read a quote like that from a national band, but not from a "hometown" group like The Black Keys. I can understand why they would be pissed about getting screwed on payment for two completely sold out shows, but in the context of this article, which is about an individual, Carney's statement is a heavy quote that has little to do with Phil Lara, and one that will go far beyond the Scene article and ultimately hurt the Agora's ability to get shows.

Read the complete article here.

And in other news.....

On a much lighter note......let's continue onward with some musical stuff!

In less than a year, my good pal Brian from Broken Headphones has turned out some pretty cool interviews with folks that you don't hear a lot about these days, including Stompbox (one of my personal faves,) Face to Face frontman Trevor Keith, and his most recent interview with Todd Kowalski of Propaghandi.

Propaghandi is one of those bands that make me think of high school, and my friends Casey and Steve, who were both fans of the band. Thanks to them, I knew plenty about them, and they also introduced me to bands like Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, All, Season to Risk, and so many more.

That's probably one good reason why Brian and I are such good friends - he writes about a lot of music that I'm not personally familiar with, but thanks to Brian, I've learned a little bit more after I read his stuff. Broken Headphones also has a review of the new NOFX DVD Backstage Passport. Check that out right here.

Sound The Alarm!

Good ol' Swap over at TheFrontloader.Com takes a look at one of my favorite bands, The Alarm, and their Strength release. Life for me got a little bit better the first time that I heard The Alarm and "Sold Me Down The River" from the Change album. As compilations go, The Alarm Standards package is one that pops up fairly often in my musical listening travels. "Devolution Workin' Man Blues," "The Stand," "The Road," and of course, "Sixty-Eight Guns" - love 'em all! I'd love to see a show from Mike Peters and crew in my neck of the woods someday soon!

The Alarm - Sold Me Down The River

Swap also has some tunage for you from John Mayer, someone that I've become a big fan of in the past few years. Standing in Illinois at Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2007, I finally paid attention to John Mayer, and quickly became a convert.

Bruce and Bono = Paradise

Pete at Blogness had a bit of fun churning up the rumor mill with this post, and what I really enjoyed about it all was the tasty video rendition of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" that was at the end of the post. Taken from U2's 2005 Rock Hall induction, how did I miss this one? I must have been sleeping during all of the coverage pre/post, and during the ceremonies!

The Ultimate Drinking Mixtape!

I almost left this one out! Popdose made sure that St. Paddy's Day 2009 went down in style with a mixtape featuring "116 minutes of pure malt goodness" featuring tunes from Social D, The Hold Steady (Hey Jason, Hey Narm!) The Replacements, my man Willie Nelson, and many, many more. Even if you're drinking nothing stronger than Dr. Pepper (the officially endorsed drink of Addicted to Vinyl,) you'll enjoy the heck out of this one.

Drink up and be merry! Welcome to the China Club!

Nine Inch Nails are currently on tour in Australia, and NIN mainman Trent Reznor gave a rare in-person interview yesterday (2/22) to Triple J Radio. Reznor discusses the upcoming planned hiatus for NIN, the tour with Jane's Addiction, and a wealth of other subjects. The interview runs 16 minutes and includes some cool memories of Reznor's first Jane's Addiction concert here in Cleveland.

Listen now (audio courtesy of ninblogs.wordpress.com)

PS - I can't confirm, but I do believe that my good friend Burgo helped hold the microphone for this interview. I kid, I kid.

This past Saturday, Richard Patrick brought the Filter rock and roll machine back to C-town for a hometown show to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Cleveland location of the Hard Rock Cafe.

On Saturday afternoon, good friend/comrade Pat The Producer had Richard in studio at 92.3 K-Rock for what we figured would be a 10-15 minute interview.

Instead, Richard spent a relaxed hour with Pat recording an interview that ended up being an extremely open discussion of Richard's career with Filter, Nine Inch Nails, and his formative years growing up in the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village.

Filter frontman Richard Patrick with Pat the Producer at 92.3 K-Rock

After the interview, Richard made note that this interview was the first time he's really spoken in-depth about his time in Nine Inch Nails, a subject he usually doesn't discuss.

The interview also includes dirt on an upcoming Filter greatest hits compilation, and the first details on the new Filter studio album currently in the works.

I thought it was a really great interview, and asked Pat for permission to post the entire unedited interview here, and he agreed.

Here is the unedited version of Pat's interview with Richard Patrick, which aired Sunday, November 2nd on Inner Sanctum, the weekly local music show on 92.3 K-Rock. Check out the Inner Sanctum Sunday nights from 10pm-Midnight EST on 92.3 K-Rock, and on the web at www.krockcleveland.com.

Leave a comment here, or drop Pat an email directly if you dig the interview!

(P.S. - Filter fans can get their hands on Remixes For The Damned, a new album of remixes for songs from the most recent Filter album Anthems For The Damned. The remix project is available as a digital download TODAY - The purchase link is at the end of this post.

Pat and I had the opportunity to hear the KILLER remix for "What's Next," and we're both itching to get our hands on the new disc!)

Richard Patrick interview - part one - part two - part three

Filter @ Hard Rock Cafe - Setlist:

(The Hard Rock show was Filter show #3 for me this year....yay!! Pat, Brian from Broken Headphones, and myself, were there to witness another great Filter show!)

Welcome To The Fold
American Cliche
Dose
(Can't You) Trip Like I Do
It's Gonna Kill Me
So I Quit
Jurassitol
Cancer
Hey Man Nice Shot

encore

The Take
Take A Picture

Relevant Links:

Purchase the new Filter album Remixes For The Damned from Amazon - MP3 Download

Filter's official website

On the heels of their recent live DVD release, Tesla are set to release Forever More, their first new studio album in four years on October 7th.

My compadre Chris Akin caught up with Tesla guitarist Dave Rude for an interview on last night's edition of The Classic Metal Show. The interview covers a lot of ground and includes of course, discussion about the live DVD, and plenty of dirt on the upcoming studio album, which finds the band reuniting with producer Terry Thomas (Bad Company, etc.) who produced the 1994 Tesla release Bust A Nut. Engineer Michael Rosen, who engineered the band's last studio release Into The Now, returns for engineering duties on Forever More.

Download the interview

Stream the first single

Tesla guitarist Frank Hannon spoke about the new CD recently on the band's official site:

We started writing new songs for this album the first week of January, while simultaneously planning a mid-West tour of America in February and recording our COMIN’ ATCHA LIVE! 2008 DVD while we were on the road. Coming home in March, we hired Terry to jump back into writing and recording music with us while we edited the DVD and routed a summer tour of Europe. We’re riding a wave of energy that doesn’t come easy for a band of rookies much less a band whose been doing this for over 20 years - and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Read more

Tesla hits the road in October for a series of tour dates launching in Salt Lake City, with additional dates in Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland (!), and more!

Relevant Links:

Tesla official website