There's a difference, obviously, between being child-like and childish. Undoubtedly, Elizabeth & The Catapults are more the former than the latter.

Propelled by the bouncy piano stylings and classic pop sensibilities of Elizabeth Abby Lynn Ziman, Elizabeth & The Catapults — rounded out by guitarist Pete Lalish and drummer Danny Molad — find common ground between the Ben Folds Five and Feist on their hotly anticipated debut Taller Children, scheduled for release June 9 on Verve Forecast.

A product of New York City's Greenwich Village, Elizabeth & The Catapults combine jazzy sophistication and joyous, bouncy pop melodies for an irresistably catchy sound that's as carefree and playful as the last day of school on the title track and the hand-clapped powered "Race You." In a flash, however, Elizabeth & The Catapults can change course and immerse themselves in the rich, neo-soul grooves of "Right Next To You" or drape a curtain of lush melancholy over the gorgeous, string-laden "Rainiest Day Of Summer." And they're not afraid to tackle Leonard Cohen, doing their own swooning, almost orchestral version of Cohen's "Everybody Knows" (a more stripped-down and raw live version is included below).






Refreshingly open lyrically, Taller Children takes the occasional dark turn, but as Ziman says, " ... Taller Children is an ode to all of the adults who just never quite figure out how to grow up." For some, that means a life full of whimsy and the feeling that there's nothing that needs to be taken so seriously that it affects your ability to appreciate the lighter side of things. Then there's the other side of the coin, the people who never mature enough to take responsibility for their own actions. Perhaps Taller Children would make sense for either party.

Ziman talks about the group's new album and her Greenwich Village roots in this recent interview. And for more on Elizabeth & The Catapults, visit www.verveforecast.com or  www.elizabethandthecatapult.com.

The title of the record, of course, alludes to that extended adolescence that some — make that almost all of us — never grow out of, but the record doesn't sound like a condemnation, or a celebration, of that. Rather, it seems to explore all of the issues that come with being caught between youth and maturity. Would you agree?
Elizabeth Abby Lynn Ziman: Yes, there are just the inner struggles that occur naturally. Despite trying to come to terms with adulthood, I still always want to return to the simplicity and naivite of my former years.

You grew up in Greenwich Village. To us who haven't lived there, and who probably mythologize the place to the point of absurdity, it almost seems you would be an oddball there if you didn't do something artistic. What is it about the place that encourages artistic expression?
EALZ: I grew up down the street from The Fat Black Pussycat (now a kind of seedy/touristy Mexican restaurant) and Cafe Wha. These were the places that Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Richard Prior, Woody Allen, and Joan Baez all had their start at open mics in the 60's — that's pretty heavy. I felt Bob's presence always.

Did audiences in the clubs there take to your music right away?
EALZ: New York has a pretty eclectic open minded audience, obviously. It was a good place to have our start.

Your heroes are Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, and you can hear that on a song like "Complimentary Me," but you certainly move away from those influences in short order. What do you admire about the both of them as artists and where do you think you deviate from them?
EALZ: They are unbelievably imaginative storytellers. And they have a fearlessness with form; they let the lyrics guide the music. Some of my songs call for that, others are guided by the melody. Sometimes I'm more moved by the concept behind the song--other times I'm caught in the hands of the music.

Two kiss-off songs, "Momma's Boy" and the title track, start out the record. Do these stem from any personal experiences?
EALZ: Of course, I've been in multiple relationships where I've been expected to be the responsible one. I'm taking cooking classes this summer — but for now I can hardly make a decent omelotte.

There's a push-pull dynamic that seems to be going on with Taller Children, where you've got a song as playful as "Race You" and something so sophisticated and graceful as "Rainiest Day Of Summer." Did you want the record to reflect those two aspects of the band's personality?
EALZ: Definitely, we're proud of the sheer range of the songs---that's something we have no control over.

There's nothing guarded about the lyrics on Taller Children. All the cards are on the table. You're wearing your emotions — be they sadness or joy or anger — on your sleeves. Is that just how you are, that girl with " ... the demons in her head who refuses to make a deal yet?"
EALZ: No comment.

Belief and loss of faith seem to be at the core of "The Hang Up." And there's sort of a resigned feeling to the music and vocals at the end, and a sense of c'est la vie — that everything will be alright in the end. Is that what you wanted to convey with that song?
EALZ: I didn't want the ultimate "break up" song on the album to be to sound like the ultimate break up song! It's upbeat and lighthearted for a reason. It's always good not to take yourself too seriously.

"Right Next To You" is, perhaps, the jazziest song on the record. You've got all this great, bouncy pop stuff going on, and then you hit us with this real soulful, late-night thing. It's probably my favorite song on the album, because it's so different from your usual indie-rock thing and your vocals are really nuanced. How did this song take shape and how did you approach the song from a vocalist perspective?
EALZ: That's one of the only love songs on the album, I wanted to be as direct and simple as possible with the performance — just think about the words and go for it.

How complicated are the arrangements on this record? You hear something like "Everybody Knows," and some of the more theatrical pieces here, and they're so well-crafted they seem as if they took a lot of hours to construct.
EALZ: I worked on the string arrangements for "Everybody Knows" for a week straight. I first wrote them for a show we had at Joe's Pub a year ago, and then I fleshed them out a bit for the record. That's definitely one of the most rewarding experiences I had during the process of the record. I'm quite happy with how that one came out. Hopefully Mr. Cohen would agree.

Released last September, Mark Wilkerson's "Who Are You: The Life Of Pete Townshend" is, as Mojo magazine described it, " ... extraordinarily detailed ... the best Townshend research tool ever."

Don't be quick to dismiss that as the hyperbole of an over-zealous critic. At 680 pages, with a forward by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Wilkerson leaves no stone unturned in chronicling the life and times of a man whose restless creativity, rebellious energy and powerful guitar playing has propelled The Who to its status as rock deity.

The June 19 issue of Goldmine features a good portion of our interview with Wilkerson. The rest of the talk is included below, along with a clip of The Who playing live at the Isle Of Wight festival in the U.K. in 1970 that's included on an Eagle Rock DVD of the event titled "The Who — Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970":







Pete seemed to encapsulate the feelings of The Who in the aftermath of Keith Moon's death [in the statement he issued]. How did Pete handle the tragedy?
Mark Wilkerson: Since he was the band’s leader and chief spokesman, it’s not surprising that it was Pete’s words that comprised The Who’s statement which was released to the media soon after Moon’s death. But Pete — who had to call Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and even Moon’s mother to break the bad news — was understandably devastated.

Moon’s death in September 1978 was the first of three major traumas in Pete’s life during this period, the other two being the deaths of 11 fans at a concert in Cincinnati in 1979, and the third being the death of Pete’s mentor Kit Lambert in early 1981. These three events combined wrought a devastating toll on Pete. By 1981, numbing the pain by abusing drugs and alcohol, he too came close to losing his life.
 
The whole Lifehouse project has been the subject of what debate. I think it was really interesting the quote he had in the Richmond Review, where he said, "I felt like a jungle explorer who had stumbled upon an Inca temple of solid gold and become impeded by roots and vines in a knot of undergrowth, only yards from civilization." Do you think that Lifehouse is, perhaps, his greatest regret?
MW: It’s possible. Pete certainly regretted that his enormously ambitious early-'70s Lifehouse multimedia venture failed, but he has repeatedly mined the project for ideas.  Lifehouse has fueled a great deal of Pete’s post-Who’s Next work, including a sizeable chunk of the Who Are You album, his solo album Psychoderelict, his novella "The Boy Who Heard Music" and The Who’s most recent studio effort, Endless Wire. “I will never tire of exploring the notions behind Lifehouse, of audience congregation synthesizing magic from music, and how much more powerful that might be one day if we can ‘congregate’ using the web,” Pete told me in an interview for the book.

As for the project itself, there were a couple of attempts to revive it in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s. Pete did finally wrap up the fictional side of Lifehouse in a 1999 BBC radio play and further pushed the envelope on the project’s reality with his Lifehouse Method web-project in 2007. Whether or not we’ll see Pete realize his long-held dream of a live Method event remains to be seen.
 
You go back to his comments about how he said that punk freed him, and yet, in the next breath, he talks about "steering The Who in the direction of doing grandiose projects of some sort." Has he always been conflicted in this regard in that he's always striving to do these huge conceptual pieces and yet there's a part of him that's drawn toward keeping things simple and not muting the emotional impact of the music?
MW: I think that while Pete’s concepts have historically been complicated, the music that these stories have helped generate is quite simple.

Pete has often said that he needs a ‘brief’ in order to write songs. He needs a story to facilitate the songwriting process, but as the songs develop, the story loses its importance, having served its purpose. The plots of Tommy, Quadrophenia and Lifehouse are not simple and leave many observers confused. “ … I use concepts mainly to keep myself interested or inspired,” Pete said in 2006, while explaining the complex and blurry plot of his Wire & Glass mini-opera. “ … Wire & Glass has a plot of sorts, but it is not what is most important. What the music and the idea touch on is what matters: the proposition that something metaphysical happens when thousands of people gather to hear great music.”

But I think that one of the strengths of Pete’s music is its simplicity. I can’t think of a Townshend composition that Pete couldn’t do justice to simply sitting with either a piano or an acoustic guitar on his own.
 
What are his feelings now about his solo work?
MW: I’m not sure. I know that Psychoderelict’s poor sales proved discouraging. I’d be surprised to see another solo album. I hope I’m wrong. I’d love to see a new Townshend solo album, or some kind of joint effort with another artist. What about a collaboration with his brother Simon, or with Eddie Vedder? Pete’s a notoriously difficult collaborator, so I’m not holding my breath.

As far as collections, such as an addition to his Scoop series, I asked Pete about this.  His reply:  “Scoops I could knock out by the dozen, but I have no desire to trawl through all those thousands of tapes again — at least for a while longer.”
 
There's always been that concern about his hearing. How has he dealt with that over the years? It seems he's so addicted to playing live that he just can't keep himself away from it.
MW: Pete’s hearing became a major concern in the late '70s and was a major reason he stayed off the road for a protracted period. When the band toured from ’79 to ’81 he numbed the pain by drinking and abusing drugs. In ’82, for the "Farewell Tour," he tolerated it with the knowledge that this was the band’s last go-around.

Pete’s hearing remained a concern when The Who regrouped for the 1989 "Kids Are Alright" tour — he played a great deal of acoustic guitar and went to the trouble of having a Plexiglas "booth" installed onstage to try to cut down the noise level. Finally, in the late ‘90s he was able to find an acceptable stage set-up that kept the onstage volume at a low enough level to protect his ears.
 
What is it do you think that he's most proud of regarding his work with The Who?
MW: I asked Pete this same question during an interview for the book. His answer:  “Quadrophenia. This drew together all my skills, long before I had the affirmation of my creative roles in either the movie or the Broadway shows of Tommy. I am still pleased with its spiritual common sense. A boy has a bad day, goes off to the beach, takes drugs, his day gets worse, he rows out to a rock, it rains.”

To learn more about the book, visit www.townshendbio.com

U2
The Rebirth Of Cool: In The Third Millennium
Sexy Intellectual (SIDVD542)

If you are of the opinion that U2 has righted the ship, and that the band has washed away all the glitzy, style-over-substance sins of the disastrous Pop with All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, then “The Rebirth Of Cool: U2 In The Third Millennium” is going to be the feel-good story of the year.

There are those, however, who would argue that while there’s little doubt U2 has rehabilitated itself after what essentially was a lost weekend that lasted from 1997 to 2000, neither album — for all their radiant, heart-bursting glory, deeply resonant melodies and jet-powered riffs — is The Joshua Tree.




At least one of a handful of music journalists who provide the overwhelming majority of the commentary here would beg to differ in the case of All That You Can’t Leave Behind. And perhaps he’s right. Still, the way he and everybody else here gushes about U2’s new-millennium work, you’d think that because of it the band that is “ ... re-applying for the job of best band in the world,” as Bono said in 2001, had already earned their angels’ wings in heaven.

A little one-sided, “The Rebirth of Cool” isn’t the most objective assessment of U2’s recent renaissance. The DVD does go overboard in trying to establish a case it has already decided, but it’s also pretty persuasive. And because it mostly deals with the hits off both of those albums, it's not as "in-depth" a study as you'd want or expect.

By the end, however, you just might buy their supposition that these albums are not merely really good but are, in fact, godhead. Rest assured, the wealth of U2 footage, from concerts and videos to news clips, will entertain those not interested in debate, and there's enough interview material cobbled together to gain an understanding of just how U2 went about plotting the revival of its brand. An uplifting story to be sure, "Rebirth Of Cool" is well-edited and the narration is strong and full of interesting history. It's not perfect, but for U2 fans who haven't lost the faith, it will confirm your belief that U2 is the most important band in the world.

Growing ever wilder and more daring with each release, upstate New York's Hopewell has managed to traverse celestial worlds and the vast terrain of the imagination with its mix of powerful psychedelia and symphonic space-rock.

Hugely influenced by The Beatles, Hopewell has a new album out called Good Good Desperation, and the brothers Russo, Jason and Justin, also the driving force behind The Silent League, took time out of their very busy schedules these days to provide their thoughts on Abbey Road. But before we get into that, check out the video for "Monolith," the second video from Hopewell's Beautiful Targets album.





Jason Russo:

Growing up The Beatles were like uncles to us. My mom saw them at Shea Stadium when they first came to the U.S. Abbey Road was a record that I loved in different stages. As a kid I loved the more childlike songs and later on I became more enamored with John’s contributions. The lyrics to “Come Together” have remained some of my favorite rock lyrics to this day. Between that and “I Am the Walrus” the gauntlet has been thrown for generations. The medley at the end was something that Justin and I have referenced every time we write music together. When we got the opportunity to do some work at Abbey Road’s Studio’s early in Hopewell’s career we refrained from taking the requisite “walking across the crosswalk” photo. But we were (literally) like kids in a candy store, peering through open doors as if expecting to see George or Paul sharing a smoke.

Justin Russo:

The Beatles are like history's musical wallpaper at this point, but how can you not love them? Everybody's influenced by them. It's unavoidable ... and Abbey Road, in my opinion, is one of their true gems. (Well they all were, but you know what I mean). Every song on that album is hands down amazing, and, well, anyone who says that second half didn't change their life is lying or lives under a rock. When people tell me Abbey Road is their favorite Beatles album, I know they know what they are talking about.

For more on Hopewell, check out www.hopewell.tv/ or go to www.teepeerecords.com

Randy Chalbot is the driving force behind the Detroit electro-pop band Deastro, whose absolutely gorgeous video pastiche for "The Shaded Forests" — with its bittersweet, wonderfully crafted melody borne on mushrooming, heavenly synths and driving guitars — is included below. Deastro will be releasing its upcoming album, Moondagger, on Ghostly International June 22.





For our cover story on the making of Abbey Road for the June 5 edition of Goldmine, we asked a few of today's artists to share their thoughts about one of The Beatles' greatest albums. Chalbot took time to weigh in on the impact Abbey Road had on him as an artist:

"My earliest memory of Abbey Road was sitting at a pizza place with my grandparents when I was about 12. It was a grimy sports-bar type of an establishment. Dark with blue running lights, billiards and a thick haze of cigarette smoke, but probably some of the best pizza around. 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' was playing on the radio, and for the first time the topic of the song broke through those jangled Beatles melodies. I sat there stunned. Who knew you could write a song about a serial head smasher. My pre-teen mind was racing. At first I felt a little guilty for enjoying it, like the first time you said the 'f word' before you realized what it meant and got your mouth washed out 'cause the kid next to you already knew what it meant from his older brother and told the teacher. After awhile though I caught onto the humor of it all and the possibilities that exist within a song. Plus the use of Moog synths throughout the album — even to play lead lines — were really important to the development of pop music and are the great granddad of what I try to do with my own music."

For more on Deastro and its beguiling brand of psychedelic synth-pop wonderment, visit www.myspace.com/deastro

[Editor's note: This blog seemed to have gotten lost in a recent computer snafu, so I'm reprinting it with the hope that this time, you'll all be able to read it — unfortunately, sans photo, but now with a YouTube clip of the Dex Romweber Duo's furious performance of "Jungle Drums"]

One thing you can say about The White Stripes' Jack White: He's never forgotten his roots.

Many will remember what the blues-rock guitar mangler did to help revive Loretta Lynn's career a few years ago. Now, in a partnership that's been a long time in coming, White has recorded two songs for a special 7-inch vinyl-only record with that two-headed monster of gothic rockabilly The Dex Romweber Duo, a Bloodshot Records act whose namesake used to lay down scorching riffs in The Flat Duo Jets.

For the uninitiated, the Flat Duo Jets was a red-hot garage guitar/drums combo — much like The White Stripes — that played a bare-knuckled brand of surf and rockabilly that burned like punk. White, for his part, champions the Flat Duo Jets as an influence any chance he gets in interviews, and Romweber happily accepts the compliments.

"Well, you know, Jack, he always mentions me in articles and stuff, and he might be on 'Charlie Rose' and mention the Flat Duo Jets or doing an interview for Rolling Stone, he'll talk about how much he dug my records," says Romweber. "And I'm always very touched, and there are artists that influenced me that came before, [like] a fella named Benny Joy out of Tampa, Fla., that not many people know, except collectors about him. And you know, Benny influenced me a whole lot, so I take it all in stride, and I wish Jack the best. I think he gets good sounds out of what he has. It's very nice of him to include us in his influences."





As to the particulars of the Dex Romweber Duo's collaboration with White, the new release will be put out in late May on White's Nashville-based label, Third Man Records. It's the latest installment of Third Man's vinyl-only "Blue Series," a set that features a photo of the artist on a blue cover and not a lick of text. Romweber's "The Wind Did Move" is on one side, with bass and saw playing and vocals by White, while "Last Kind Word Blues," a song initially recorded in 1930 by forgotten blues-legend Geeshie Wiley, takes up the other.

Sara Romweber, Dex's sister and the drummer in the Dex Romweber Duo, described the session work by saying, "At one point during the process, Dex was in the main room playing his guitar and Jack was behind the control board. Jack had the biggest smile on his face, and he turned to me and said, 'You have no idea how long I've waited to hear that guitar tone in my studio.'"

White's hero worship is genuine. White made this comment in the 2006 Romweber documentary "Two Headed Cow": "Dex was and is a huge influence on my music, his attitude towards music is remarkable. His songwriting, along with his love of classic American music from the South, be it rockabilly, country or R&B, is one of the best-kept secrets of the rock 'n' roll underground."

Going further, White again cites Romweber as an influence in the 2009 documentary "It Might Get Loud," an in-depth study of the work of guitar greats Jimmy Page, The Edge and White. The Sony Pictures film is due out this summer, and live footage and recordings by the Flat Duo Jets will be included.

Getting ready to head out on tour with the Detroit Cobras, the Dex Romweber Duo is about to support its latest release, Ruins Of Berlin, an album with a number of indie A-listers, including Neko Case, Cat Power, Exene Cervenka and Southern Culture On The Skids' Rick Miller, with a slew of dates. For more about Romweber and all that's going on in the Dex Romweber Duo, visit bloodshotrecords.com

More details about the White-Dex Romweber Duo release, spawned from sessions that only took place last week at White's studio in Nashville, are listed below:

Tracklisting and liner notes for the 7":
Side A: "Last Kind Word Blues" by Geeshie Wiley
Dex plays guitar, piano and sings the lead vocal
Jack White plays acoustic guitar, lead guitar and sings a harmony lead vocal
Sara Romweber plays drums

Side B: "The Wind Did Move" by Dex Romweber
Dex plays guitar, organ and sings the lead vocal
Jack White plays bass sings and plays the saw
Sara played drums and tambourine
---
Dex Romweber Duo/Detroit Cobras tour 2009:
05.06.09 - Chicago, IL - Double Door  
05.07.09 - Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater  
05.09.09 - Fargo, ND - The Aquarium
05.10.09 - Des Moines, IA- Vaudeville Mews
05.11.09 - Kansas City, MO - The Riot Room
05.13.09 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
05.14.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
05.16.09 - Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan
05.17.09 - Seattle, WA - Neumo's
05.19.09 - San Francisco, CA - Slim's
05.20.09 - West Hollywood, CA - Troubador
05.23.09 - Costa Mesa, CA - The Detroit Bar
05.24.09 - San Diego, CA - The Casbah
05.26.09 - Tucson, AZ - Plush
05.27.09 - Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room
05.29.09 - Austin, TX - Emo's
05.30.09 - Houston, TX - Rudyard's
06.01.09 - Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
06.02.09 - Little Rock, AR - Sticky Fingerz Chicken Shack
06.03.09 - Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone
06.04.09 - Nashville, TN - The End
06.05.09 - Birmingham, AL - The Bottle Tree
06.06.09 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl
06.08.09 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
06.09.09 - Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel
06.10.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
06.11.09 - Cambridge, MA - TT the Bear's
06.12.09 - Brooklyn, NY - Southpaw
06.13.09 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
06.17.09 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern
06.18.09 - Indianapolis, IN - Birdie's
06.19.09 - Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon
06.20.09 - Detroit, MI - Magic Stick

Nobody really thinks of Baltimore, Md., as once having a "scene." That is a music scene, with a handful of bands working on rewriting the rock rule book and challenging convention and all that.

At least that's how Baltimore of the mid-'90s was perceived nationally, if anyone thought of it at all. Maybe, just maybe, the rest of world was missing out. If Roman Kuebler of The Oranges Band has his way, the group's new album, The Oranges Band Are Invisible, will turn at least the indie world onto what was a vibrant, fertile farm that yielded a fine crop of bands.

Regarding the title of said album, a series of gutsy, guitar-based power-pop bursts that explode with strong melodies, driving guitars and sure-fire hooks, Kuebler doesn't play coy. It refers to the low-profile of not only Baltimore music, but that of other neglected scenes as well.

"Yeah, the whole concept does refer to 'unheard' music," says Kuebler. "Whether it be ours or of these other bands as well. One thing that is significant in talking about those bands of the mid-'90s is that since the Internet did not really exist, certainly not as much of a marketing tool, the bands who did not follow themselves into the new millenium and post their own information really have become 'invisible' and hard to track. There really is no information available about Runway Model, who were a very popular band in Baltimore in about '97. Now, if you don’t own the vinyl-only LP, then you have no access to this incredible music. It is also worth mentioning that that is not always a negative."

Of course, some bands probably deserve to be forgotten. Hence Kuebler's last remark. Still, it is sad that for some acts hardly any record of their existence is available. to those John and Jane Does of Baltimore bands from the mid-'90s, Kuebler offers a tip of the hat to them on The Oranges Band Are Invisible.

"What I took from these bands, in some cases, was very literal," he explains. "In the song 'Ottobar Afterhours,' I just lifted a couple lines from a Lee Harvey Keitel Band song called 'Any Five Workers.' Also in the song 'Do You Remember Memory Lane' I referenced a Runway Model song called 'Last Night on Earth.' These were the literal references and the direct influences on the music. There are a couple more but maybe more importantly was that during this time and from these bands I felt the importance of a localized music scene that challenges the people to participate. This music and this scene was important to me and aside from the music that people in the rest of the country missed out on, there is a legacy that is now all but forgotten that, in my opinion, would have been valuable in the context of what people’s impression of Baltimore music is now. That really motivated me to write music about these bands and about this time period in Baltimore music history."

Look for more on The Oranges Band in the blog and on the Goldmine Web site. To learn more about the group and its latest release, which features former Guided By Voices guitarist Doug Gillard as card-carrying member of the group, visit www.theorangesband.com.