There was a time when it was incumbant on bands to turn out albums in short order to please record-label executives on high with a thirst for fresh, new profits. As the music industry has crumbled, such demands, at least for many artists, have gone by the wayside.






With that in mind, Ricky Byrd, guitarist for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, has taken his own sweet time finishing a solo album he's been working on for like ... forever.

"I've been working on a CD for freaking ages!" reveals Byrd. "But I started it in Nashville with a guy named Ray Kennedy, who co-produces Steve Earle records. And so that's the guy that I wanted to produce my record. And I started it ... I literally started it back in 2001, and just time goes by. I wrote some new songs and you just get distracted by this and that. It's kind of cool. It's like rock 'n' roll but it's got a soul vibe to it, because my influences are everything from the Stones to Albert King to Smokey Robinson, you know what I mean? That's where my stuff comes from, and you know, in the Blackhearts, Joan came from the glitter stuff an that kind of stuff, punk stuff a little bit. And my stuff came from the other side. I mean, I grew up on the Stones and I kind of read magazines and saw what they were into, and then that took me back to all the other stuff."

One project that sidetracked Byrd actually wound up giving him more material for that long-awaiting solo effort. "It's okay that it's taken this long because I did a little stint with Southside Johnny about a year and a half ago, when Bobby Bandiera when out with Bon Jovi as the second guitar player," he says. "So, me and South, we wrote three more songs for my record and you know, if I had finished it, I wouldn't have those songs. It's all good. My meter's not running, you know? (laughs) I'm only doing this because I wanna do it, you know? There's no record business to speak of anyways, you know (laughs)?"

In a way, that's been freeing for artists like Byrd, who've found other ways of making money.

"Besides that I do these fun, great corporate gigs with like Jeff Carlise from .38 Special and Will Lee and Liberty DeVitto," says Byrd. "I mean, it's certainly slowed down because of the economy, but that's the kind of gigs I do, going out, flying around the country. No big touring or anything like that. And finally, I have this really fun band called NYC Hit Squad and ... they're part of the corporate thing, too. It's like I pull them in and we play in the city. It's like an anything-goes band, like we just have a giant list of tunes, anything from 'Hang On Sloopy' to 'You Don't Know What I Know' and I just call them out, and I've got Libs in that band, Liberty DeVito, we've got the Asbury Juke horns ... various people."

Playing covers is a blast for Byrd, who is also raising an 8-year-old daughter these days, but the death of Les Paul has left him in a contemplative mood. An avowed Gibson guitars guy, Byrd played Les Pauls in a couple of huge Joan Jett and the Blackhearts hits. Though he's played other guitars over the years, he's always returned to Les Pauls.

"I've got to say, very quickly, the first guitar I ever had, there was an electronic store called Lafayette Electronics here in New York," says Byrd. "Maybe it was country-wide, but I just know it was here in New York. They had this nice booklet, this color booklet of stereo stuff, and they had a guitar section. So I somehow conned my mom into getting me this kind of trashy, red Lafayette guitar, with a matching amp, of course. And that was pretty much my first guitar, but from there, I went very quickly into Les Paul Juniors, because me and my friends used to come into the city and hang out in front of Manny's Music, which is now defunct. And, you know, whenever a band would come into town, that's where they would go. Back in those days, the bands would actually go in there and try out the guitars and stuff, as opposed to sending their roadies. So, you know, I would hear Leslie West and Mountain were playing in town, so my friends and I would go hang out and wait for Leslie to come in. So because of Leslie West, I wound up getting a '56 Les Paul Junior at the bargain 1974 price ... it couldn't have been more than $250. A little Sunburst, three-quarter scale Leslie West, right off the Mountain records, Les Paul Jr. I'm going to say that was my first real guitar, and then I got into this band, we got a record deal in '77 on RCA called Susan, the band was called. And I bought my first Les Paul in 1977 Les Paul Pro Deluxe, I believe, which became ... I nicknamed it 'Pappy,' P-A-P-P-Y, and that was the 'I Love Rock 'N' Roll Guitar.'"

To keep up on what Byrd is up to these days, go to www.rickybyrd.com or www.myspace.com/rickybyrd

How close did garage-rock barn burners Jet come to crashing? It seems that it was touch and go there for a while.

But, having formed a new record label and taking on co-producing duties themselves, the Australian foursome is back and stronger than ever, with an ultra-modern, riff-heavy new LP called Shaka Rock in tow that shows the band is intent on reinventing themselves in surprising ways.





Still bloody and wet with afterbirth, Shaka Rock is being released today on the band's new Real Horrorshow Records, but already, with the publicity machinery working at full capacity on their latest offering, drummer/vocalist Chris Cester is thinking ahead.

One of the four songwriters in Jet, known far and wide for their massive radio hit "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" and the 2003 album Get Born, Cester has been writing new material.

"Yeah, yeah, actually I've got a new song called 'Cocaine,'" says Cester. "It's funny. I don't mess around too much with that stuff anymore, but we definitely have in our lifetime gone down that road and so we've got a new song that's sort of ... it's got a really sort of lowdown [feel] ... it's got an old-school sort of funk feel to it. And that's really interesting, and beat drums and stuff, and so I've started work on some stuff myself. I don't know about the other guys. We haven't had a minute to talk about it. We've just been really busy with Shaka Rock."

If Cester has his way, Jet won't be resting in the hanger for very long. "I really wanna push another one out really fast just because I want to use this momentum we have to keep going," says Cester.

There's a reason why Cester is so anxious to, in essence, have another child. Shine On, the band's difficult 2006 LP, an album of cathartic, torn-and-frayed rock 'n' roll, was made with heavy hearts as brothers Nic and Chris Cester mourned the loss of their father. The emotional toll of working on that record left Jet in tatters.

"That really railroaded us, that experience," says Chris. "Nic and I lost our father just around that time, and we weren't really talking to each other, and it was a really difficult time. It really fractionalized the band, that whole experience. And so we just went away to lick our wounds I suppose, and we live in four corners of the globe. I live in L.A., and Nic's in Italy, Cam's (Muncey) in London, and Mark's (Wilson) still in Australia, so we just went away for a while and just tried to live our lives like normal people and then the music just started coming back."

The future of Jet was, to put it mildly, uncertain. "It was to the point where I didn't really know what was going on in Jet world and I didn't want to know," says Chris.

All the while, Chris and the boys kept writing on their own. In time, they felt the need to get Jet back up and running.

'We just started writing and then I guess a few months passed and we decided to get curious about the Jet situation," says Chris. "And I got a call from Cam. He was in London, and he said, 'Man, I am f**king bored.' And I'm like, 'Hell yes. Let's get together.' So we met up in New York and we wrote the first song for the record, which was actually a song called 'Walk.' I mean, it set the tone, you know."

As the short-lived garage-rock revival was gathering strength in the early part of this decade, Jet's Rolling Stones'-like swagger and meaty, rock-solid riffs, reminiscent of their Australian countrymen AC/DC, led the charge. Now, however, Jet is a little more difficult to pigeonhole. Cester, for one, had been listening to different stuff, like Primal Scream, and if you listen to "Walk," you can hear Jet taking those rolling beats and Scream's drugged-out British blues-rock stroll and incorporating its own vintage vibe to create something wholly different for listeners.

"This time, I found it more difficult to explain where the influences come from," says Chris of the new record. "We listen to a lot of Daft Punk and Primal Scream, and believe it or not, INXS and things like that, which were really sort of different. And we got into the scope of using the influences in a more spiritual way, and in a less direct way."

We'll have more on Jet's Shaka Rock, being distributed in the U.S. by EMI, in this space and in Goldmine. So watch for it. In the meantime, check out jettheband.ning.com/ to get updates on what Jet is up to.

Before Little Richard came along and gave him a job drumming for his band The Upsetters, Charles Connor was in a bad way. He had no home, very little food and no drums to play. Away from his New Orleans home, trying to make it as a musician, he was just trying to survive in Nashville.






"I was a starving, ornery, poor, broke musician," recalls Connor, the pioneering drummer. "Around Nashville, I was suffering for about a month and a half or two months ... suffering, begging for money and stuff like that. And my drums were in the pawn shop in order to buy food. And they kicked me out of the hotel ... a small hotel but they kicked me out of the hotel because I was a little behind in my rent."

Meeting Little Richard was the break he needed. It was like winning the lottery. But at first, when he started talking to Little Richard, Connor didn't know what the rock 'n' roll legend had in mind for him. Little Richard was talking about taking Connor, and a friend, Lee Diamond, back to Macon, Ga., with him. There, they would form the band that would become one of the hottest backing bands in the business. But at the time, Connor wasn't sure what Little Richard had in mind.

"I told Richard, I said, 'Yeah, man, I wouldn't mind going back with you, but I don't have no drums. I have to get my drums out of the pawn shop,'" says Connor. "And that's a little embarrassing, you know? And then my shoes only got half soles and things like that. I had big holes in my shoes and everything. And it was really tough, but I said, 'The first thing before we hold this conversation' — 'cause I didn't know what Richard wanted from us; maybe it was just a conversation — I said, 'Could you feed us, please?' 'Cause we hadn't had a decent meal in about three weeks. And that's true. We were paying our dues. So he got my drums out of the pawn shop and everything like that, and he paid my back hotel rent and everything. So that's how I went back to Macon, Ga., with Little Richard."

Stories like that are included in Connor's inspirational new book "Don't Give Up Your Dreams: You Can Be A Winner, Too." In it, Connor offers "Connor Sense" advice on how to improve your standing in life and overcoming adversity. These are life lessons on humility and creating positive relationships. Connor has been to rock bottom, and he ended up on top of the world, playing drums for not only Little Richard, but also other high-profile acts like James Brown, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and The Coasters, among others.

He never gave up, and in the end, Connor, one of the very few lefthanded drummers in rock history, became a pioneer, establishing the "choo-choo train"-style of drumming, with its dependence on eighth notes, and his distinctive style can be heard on such classics as  "Keep-A-Knockin'" and "She's Got It" and "Ooh! My Soul." And, as you can see by the Nike clip included above, Connor hasn't lost the touch. That's him drumming in the commercial.

To order the book, you can go through the publisher by going to www.authorshouse.com and ordering it by calling 888-280-7715. Or you can order it through such Internet sites as www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com or borders.com.

Look for more from Charles Connor in a future issue of Goldmine. And visit www.legendarydrummer.tv to learn more about Connor and his fascinating life story.

 

The history of the American South is ... well, complicated. In many respects, it's stained with blood and scarred by racial strife. But the past is the past and we should all move on, right?

With its latest Bloodshot Records release, Novel Sounds Of The Nouveau South, Springfield, Mo.'s Ha Ha Tonka pick at that scab until those old wounds open and the pain throbs again. Not ones to avoid prickly issues, the rootsy Southern-rock outfit often compared to Kings Of Leon addresses head on the violence that once blackened the soul of their homeland — and still crops up from time to time — in richly evocative, highly literate lyrics that honestly deal with the former sins of a region with a dark, often troubling, story to tell.





As the ghosts of the South were brought back to life, Ha Ha Tonka looked inward to find reasons as to why it all happened and delved into hard questions of morality and responsiblity. Lead singer/guitarist Brian Roberts explains how they went about it.

"We posed the following questions to ourselves and then did a relatively weak job of answering them: How do we explain history and the shifts in cultural reality that come to pass in our lifetimes? Are we simply victim to forces beyond our control — economics, religion … etc.? Or are we important players in history, are we also complicit, are we powerful and autonomous actors in our own right? Are we what moves history? How do we reconcile our own roles? Can an individual take responsibility for the actions of the mob? I fully believe that the South is chalked full of some of the best people to be found anywhere. I continually find it fascinating that the South can be as equally renowned for its gory past as well as for its storied hospitality."

Littered with literary references, Novel Sounds Of The Nouveau South owes much to the 1907 novel "The Shepherd of the Hills" by Harold Bell Wright. "I believe my mother first read the book to me and my brother when we were young boys," says Roberts. "I've re-read it several times over the years. It's an incredible story and a very detailed look into the history of the Ozarks ... reading 'The Shepherd of the Hills' conjures a deep sense of nostalgia for me. However, nostalgia can be a very dangerous thing as it tends to portray the past in a rosier light than it should be portrayed in. Hopefully, someone listening to our record can be honestly retro/introspective without feeling terrible about the whole enterprise. It's a delicate thing dealing with the past."

The haunting menace of the track "What Shepherds Of These Hills" provides a particularly honest, no-holds-barred look at that past. Cast against a dingy, rumpled, white-sheeted backdrop of beautifully harmonized vocals — Ha Ha Tonka's four-part blends shine like silver — are shadows of bleak acoustic guitar figures, and the dragging of chains can be heard.

"They basically depict the last lynching that occurred in Springfield, Mo., in 1906," says Roberts, explaining the lyrics of the song. "Three young black men were hung in the court square by a mob estimated to number 5,000. The album artwork ties in with this song closely, depicting different shots of the Springfield Square and most notably the Gottfried Tower (where the hangings actually took place)."

Breaking the contemplative silence that must follow a song of such powerful emotions is the surging, tumultuous rocker "The Horse In Motion." Heavy on guitars, minor-chord piano and clattering percussion, the song is indicative of an album where guitars and drums take centerstage. "I really think that we wound up making a record dominated by Lennon (Bone, the drummer) and Brett (Anderson, guitarist)," says Roberts. "They definitely stole the show!"

And while much of the album focuses its attention on the thorny issues Ha Ha Tonka has with the South's crimes against humanity, it also celebrates all that's good about the people they know as neighbors and revels in the salvation many of them seek as they reconcile themselves with those affronts. "World Climbing," "Surrounded" and "Giant Strides," in particular, let a little more light let in the shuttered room, sounding triumphant and full of hope for a brighter future thanks to bold electric and golden acoustic guitars, a full range of percussive touches, ever-building piano and Roberts' weathered voice.
 
"Hopefully that's conveyed with these tunes," says Roberts. "We set out to touch upon the whole spectrum of emotions and create a vibe with the record that would invite people to return to it at different times and in different moods. Hopefully we accomplished that."
 
To learn more about Ha Ha Tonka, visit www.bloodshotrecords.com.

By Greg Bump

[Ed. note: Because it's my birthday and I'm planning on taking a little time off this afternoon, I decided to bring in a guest blogger today, my good friend and Goldmine contributor Greg Bump. Greg attended The Breeders' concert a little over a week ago. I was supposed to go to, but unfortunately, I couldn't and believe me, I wanted to be there badly. Here is Greg's review:]

The Breeders
Aug. 12, 2009
Majestic Theater, Madison, Wis.

The Breeders have forged a relationship with roller derby teams during this tour, including featuring a St. Louis outfit in the video for song “Fate to Fatal,” off their recent self-released EP of the same name.

The marriage is fitting. Like the sport, the Breeders are sweet on the surface but capable of delivering bruising blows. And also like roller derby, the Breeders are in the midst of a renaissance, undertaking an extensive tour, releasing the above-mentioned EP and just the fifth full-length of its 20-year existence, Battle Mountains, last year.






Unassuming in an untucked button-down and blue jeans, lead singer Kim Deal’s trademark delicate coo rose above the din laid out by ace rhythm section Jose Medeles on drums and Mando Lopez on bass. Few rock bands make music as dynamic as the Breeders, and that starts with the juxtaposition of the sweet vocals of Kim and her twin sister, and sometime harmonizer, Kelley, floating above the crazy rhythms they ride in their songs. Medeles and Lopez, the latest duo to tackle the bottom duties for the band, provided expert accompaniment for this joyful noise.

Of course the other part of that dynamism is the buzzsaw, feedback-laden guitars that supply the melodic sturm und drang in the best Breeders songs. Kim and Kelley are as natural at mingling their six-string mayhem as they are at intertwining their sisterly voices. Add into the mix third guitarist Cheryl Lyndsey, who provided many moments of stunning shredding through the hour-long, 22-song set, and you have a perfect indie rock stew.

With the Deal sisters beaming their beautiful smiles from above, the joy was infectious as the adoring crowd packing the smallish theater returned the love with raucous applause. They were treated to a set that spanned the band’s career, including generous selections from the platinum-selling 1993 breakthrough Last Splash like “Cannonball,” “Saints” and “No Aloha.”

But it was the deeper cuts that kept the band enthralled, like the opener “Hoverin’,” a relatively obscure song that first appeared as a b-side to “Divine Hammer” but was later beefed up by Kim Deal’s mid-'90s side project The Amps.

The set closed with the hook-laden “Safari” that threatened to shake the theater to its foundations. The crowd wasn’t nearly ready to let the band slip away just yet, so Kim took over the drum kit for the encore tune “The She.” Kelley pulled out a fiddle for the wistful set closer “Drivin’ on 9,” another gem from the Last Splash era that sent the fans home with heads full of buzz and dreams of Deal sisters rolling through their heads.

Set list:
Hoverin’
Little Fury
I am decided
Walk it off
Divine Hammer
Night of joy
No aloha
Do you love me now
New year
Cannonball
Saints
Happiness is a warm gun
Iris
We’re gonna rise
Flipside
Fate to fatal
Huffer
Bang on
Safari

Encore:
The she
Overglazed
Drivin’ on 9

Read more about The Breeders in this space — as Kim expands on the band's relationship with roller derby in a previous blog — and in a future Goldmine print edition.

So, here I was, all of maybe 10 or 11 years old ... I don't remember. And I'm in the bedroom of this older teenage girl whose name I don't remember either and who I had never met before that day. All I know is, she was really pretty and I was young and awkward and in awe of her.

For some reason, my parents had dragged me along to her house. They were meeting with her parents about something and so, we were left alone together. To pass the time, mostly in painful silence, we played 45s on her phonograph. But what I remember most were all the teen magazines — including 16 magazine — she had in her room, and all the pull-out posters of teen idols she had on her wall that she'd pulled out of them.





Is it any wonder then that news of Backstage Auction's upcoming 16 Magazine Pop Culture Auction sent me spiraling back in time to that day when I spent an afternoon at what's her name's house.

Scheduled to be held Sunday, Sept. 27 through Oct. 4, the online auction features fantastic stuff from the personal collections of two of the magazine's former editors, Danny Fields and Randi Reisfeld. The bulk of the offerings center around never-before-published photos, and other photographic material taken for the magazine of stars of stage and screen.

As Jacques van Gool of Backstage Auctions says, "They would take easily 30, 40, 50 photos of someone and use only one in the magazine. It's absolutely overwhelming the amount of never-published material."

To illustrate van Gool's point, there are almost 700 photos alone of the Jackson 5 from their 1973 tour of Japan. "It's something like 20 rolls of film," says van Gool, who estimates the sale will feature about 600 lots. And that's just a sampling. Around 2,500 photos and negatives of the Jackson 5, dated between 1970 and 1974, will be up for auction. According to van Gool, it is the " ... single-most comprehensive Jackson 5 photo archive you will ever see."

Bidders, however, will not only be competing for the photos themselves, but also the full transfer of rights that comes along with them. And the Jackson 5 isn't the only act featured in the sale. There are also unpublished photos of The Beatles and a big selection of images of The Bay City Rollers.

With regard to The Beatles, there are 500 images taken from six different photo sessions from 1964-1966 — some taken from the Fab Four's trip to the Bahamas for the filming of the movie "Help!"

Basically, auction items break down into three categories: photographic material, which also includes negatives, chromes, 8x10s, black-and-white images and contact sheets; press ephemera, including press releases, press kits, interview notes and letters and business correspondence; and signed material, as "16 magazine was really, really good about getting who they covered to sit down and write notes," says van Gool. Among the highlights are between 200 and 300 interview tapes from the '80s.

The auction preview starts Sept. 20. For more information on the sale and its consignors, visit www.backstageauctions.com. Read the Sept. 11 issue of Goldmine for more on the sale and a sneak peak at a few of the photos that'll be included in the auction.

Being compared to the Velvet Underground isn't such a bad thing. That is unless it keeps cropping up in interview after interview until you just want to take your copy of Loaded and smash it against a rock.






For New Zealand's drone-pop pioneers The Clean, there is no escape, especially when the dreamy, fog-shrouded merry-go-'round that is "Are You Really On Drugs," a hypnotic track off the group's upcoming release Mister Pop, emerges from the late '60s in a beautifully disoriented daze.

"Hmmm ... the old 'V' word," muses Robert Scott. "I guess there are similarities in our approach, although they did have more members."

Acknowledging the common ground the two groups share, Scott doesn't hide his admiration for Lou Reed and company. It's just that The Clean have expanded on the VU template in such a way that their unique, and often much brighter, spin on it has influenced a slew of indie luminaries, like Yo La Tengo, Pavement and Sonic Youth. Still, VU pretty much started it all, and Scott remains utterly fascinated by how revolutionary they were.

"We both do long drone-y kind of things, and concise pop songs, too — noise, ballads, etc.," says Scott. "We have always enjoyed listening to them. For me, I always like the chords and structures they go for; it's to my taste, and the solos, too. They are not over the top. The organ/keyboard sound, too, is what we go for. I think they were way ahead of their time trying the things they did back then — no light onstage, confronting the crowd with walls of feedback. I guess the singing has something in common, too. The drawl, almost-spoken delivery and someone said I sound like John Cale the other day. I'm not sure if I do, but it's interesting."

And it's not the last time Scott or The Clean will receive that kind of compliment, if indeed it was presented as such. Critics have long raved about their ability to synthesize Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd psychedelia with kraut-rock experimentalism, a touch of noise and a keen, sometimes dark, pop sensibility that keeps it all from coming apart at the seams. Mister Pop may just be the band's crowning achievement.

From the jangle-pop innocence of "In The Dreamlife U Need A Rubber Soul" to acid-trip instrumental "Moon Jumper" and beyond to the sparkling melodic simplicity of "Factory Man" and the colorful blend of natural sounds, tinkling piano and tight acoustic-guitar knots that is "Simple Fix," The Clean's Scott and David and Hammish Kilgour have concocted a wonderfully diverse and ear-catching love potion of pop styles and instrumentation.

And while it's not as gleefully noisy or stridently lo-fi as the material The Clean used to drop back in the late 1970s — captured on the wild and brash Anthology the band uncorked on Merge in 2003 — when they were at the vanguard of a burgeoning New Zealand punk scene and the lifeblood of the country's celebrated Flying Nun record label, it isn't as far removed as you might think.

"I guess it shares our sense of adventure, fun love of songs, chances taken, themes explored, instruments tried," says Scott. "In some ways, it is more for the listener to draw those conclusions. I guess our playing has changed a little since then, too, and our singing for that matter. It has our love of instrumentals and jam-style pieces and our continuing struggle with the pop-song format."

"Struggle" isn't a word that would come to mind with the effortless, always interesting Mister Pop, due out Sept. 8 — again on the stalwart indie label Merge. Watch for more on The Clean with Goldmine. Check out www.mergerecords.com for more on The Clean and other offerings from the label. As it so happens, the label is having an interesting pre-order contest. Details are here:   www.mergerecords.com/blog/2009/08/win-a-free-score-box-set/

Trying to predict what Yoko Ono is going to do next is almost impossible. Always on the cutting edge, whether it be music or performance art, Ono always seems up for the challenge of attempting something new. As Ono herself says, "If you're just repeating what you have done, that is not the job of an artist. That's the job of an artisan."

And so it goes with her upcoming album, Between My Head And The Sky, which drops Sept. 22. Ono is reviving the Plastic Ono Band concept for this record, which promises an orgy of genre mixing that, when combined, creates something beautiful, engrossing and utterly surprising.





Interestingly, purely by accident, sessions for the new LP took place at New York City's Sear Sound, which used to be home to the Hit Factory, the same studio where, in 1980, Ono, now 76, and her famous hubby, John Lennon, made Double Fantasy.

"It wasn't like I thought we should do it where we created Double Fantasy," says Ono. "Actually, [her son] Sean [Lennon, who served as music director for the new record and co-produced it with his mother] said Sear Sound is the best, so let's go with that. I said, 'Okay.' I hadn't realized that was Double Fantasy's time at the Hit Factory, because the [place] is so different now, and their machines are very good, very funky. It's an incredibly intelligent kind of studio, and I'm comfortable, so I love it now."

The proper followup to 2007's Yes, I'm A Witch, a daring collection of collaborations with some of today's biggest indie acts — among them Cat Power, Peaches, Porcupine Tree, the Flaming Lips and others — and a set of remixes gathered together in that same year's Open Your Box, Between My Head And The Sky has moments that recall the original Plastic Ono Band ("Waiting For The D Train"). It also features the late-night feel of "Ask An Elephant" and the warm electronica, not to mention Yoko's vocal exuberance, of "The Sun Is Down!" A remix by her electronic-music playmate Cornelius is out now on iTunes.

Lately, it's been Ono's dance music that has captured the attention of the indie world, not to mention the dance charts. And she's still excited about the possibilities that style of music presents her.

"Isn't it great all this dance music?" she enthuses. "It just went on and on and on and on. I mean, it is going on ... we always thought that dance was an important part of life. I always say, 'Dance instead of marching.'"

Still dancing after all these years, Ono marches on, and the making of Between My Head And The Sky saw Yoko experiencing one of her most prolific bursts of creativity, as she wrote 16 songs in six days.

Asked for an explanation, Ono replied, "Well, maybe it's the fact that I haven't made an album for a while. It was sitting in my brai ... well, I was going to say brain, but yeah, it was sitting in my brain, so to speak. And I didn't know that. I didn't know that until I went to the studio and said, 'Oh, some very interesting things are coming out.'"

To check out more on Yoko Ono, go to www.myspace.com/officialyokoono

Needing a fresh start, David Gray did what had to be done.

Coming off the road in 2006 after touring in support of his 2005 release, Life In Slow Motion, the British folk artist, whose blend of electronica and acoustic guitar captivated the listening public in 2000 with the surprising hit "Babylon," began the renovation work that would yield his upcoming LP, Draw The Line.






A long time in coming — Gray started writing material for Draw The Line in 2007, two years after putting out Life In Slow Motion — the new LP is a lush, uplifting set of songs that showcase Gray's uniquely emotional vocals and evocative lyrics. Tearing it all down and building it back up was invigorating for Gray.

"I knew I needed to change things," says Gray, "so I basically got rid of my old band, and then I had to build a new one, so that took a little bit of time."

Stumbling blocks would arise that slowed progress on Draw The Line — due out Sept. 22 on the new label Mercer Street that was recently launched by indie Downtown Records — but Gray was experiencing a burst of creativity that was nothing short of magical.

"The process was going well, but then we had a greatest-hits record come out [in 2007], so that took about six months out of it," explains Gray. "But, basically I didn't have a record deal or anything, so when it really started to come together, I didn't want to make it stop. There seemed to be more and more good stuff going on. So we recorded and recorded. We amassed a huge amount of material, which this is sort of just the first chunk, I suppose. So, it was quite a long and involved process."

The global economic meltdown that occurred in the fall of 2008 further complicated matters. "We got slowed down a bit by this sort of paralysis that seemed to grip the world, with what they call the 'credit crisis,'" says Gray. "We finished this record probably in November, barring the duet with Annie Lennox, which was done this year. So, we were trying to find the right way to put it out, and it just basically took a lot longer than we thought, and everything seemed to slow down for a while ... it could have easily come out this spring, but that wasn't to be, so we've waited, we've been patient."

Gray used the down time well, finishing that duet with Lennox that he mentioned. Titled "Full Steam Ahead," the bombastic epic, beautifully constructed with a mass of strings and surging piano, that closes out the album, is one of two songs on Draw The Line that feature guest vocals. The other, a tender story carried on turbulent piano and light acoustic-guitar strum called "Kathleen," gets a boost from multi-dimensional chanteuse Jolie Holland.

To Gray, such pairings and the strong backing of his new band has driven his writing to new heights.

"It's basically given me a new lease on life," says Gray. "You just can't help but repeat yourself when you're working with the same people all the time, unless everybody shares the same sort of obsessive appetite for reinvention. It's inevitable that I'll be creating a song of a certain type ... to start afresh and really see the music forging a completely new identity was inspiring. I mean, I was totally inspired and I chose to write in the studio a lot sort of with the band, so we'd get an idea going and then we'd write the lyrics for it and then we'd record it there ... yeah, it's basically, it's given me a complete lift."

Gray will soon embark on a world tour, starting in the U.S. in the fall. For more information, visit www.davidgray.com.

As it is with all great songwriters, Marshall Crenshaw pays very close attention to detail. It's that craftsmanship, that honing of this part or that one 'til it's absolutely perfect, that has won Crenshaw the respect of his peers and critics.





So, when it came to choosing musicians for his latest LP, the smartly arranged, worldly-wise Jaggedland, Crenshaw, of course, recruited some of the best session players in the business, including drummer Jim Keltner, Sebastian Steinberg, Greg Leisz and guitarist Wayne Kramer, of MC5 fame. And Crenshaw made sure they were a good fit with his vision for the record.

"Well, none of them were random choices, let’s put it that way," says Crenshaw. "Every musician I know is a fan of Jim Keltner. I know his style and feel, especially over the last few years, and knew that he’d get where my stuff was coming from and take it to a higher level. Greg is an old friend; he’s played on all of my records since 1991, and I just love what he does; he really plays from his soul. When I knew that I was going to work in Los Angeles, and that Jim was onboard, I asked Greg to recommend a bass player, knowing that he’d come up with somebody great, which he did. I prefer standup bass in a rock-and-roll band and Sebastian just nailed everything. I’ve known Wayne for years. I wanted to get him to play on my first album back in 1982 (the self-titled release that gave him his biggest hit, "Someday, Someway"), but he was on the road at the time … and another really great player who got involved with the record was the engineer, Jerry Boys (R.E.M., Richard Thompson, Buena Vista Social Club)."

Lending the record a sophisticated, and eminently classic, pop sensibility was the ace Crenshaw had up his sleeve: veteran vibraphonist/percussionist Emil Richards, who has played with some of the greats, like Frank Sinatra, Brian Wilson, Judee Sill and others.   

"I love the vibraphone. It’s such a cool instrument; to me it seems to add a sort of mystique to the sound," explains Crenshaw. "On my last album I had a couple of New York guys, Bill Ware and Tom Beckham on vibes. There was only one name that came up over and over again when I asked people in L.A. about vibes players and that was Emil."

Richards' warm, rippling pools of vibraphone give songs like "Passing Through" and "Never Coming Down" a wonderful watery feel, adding to the palette of warm, lipid tones that make Jaggedland such a beguiling record — softening the blow of the serious subject matter of some of the tracks, which touch on life and death and matters of the heart, as well as the current troubles of this old world (see "Eventually").

"Bringing someone like Emil into the proceedings, someone who’s played music all his life and, again, and who plays from his soul, is a good thing," says Crenshaw. "And again, I like the vibraphone; it’s got this pulsating thing with the vibrato that makes the music shimmer."

The languid guitar and brilliantly understated hooks of "Passing Through" make the song one of the true shining gems of  Jaggedland.

"I wrote it with a woman named Kelley Ryan," says Crenshaw. "She came up with some of the most vivid lines, like, 'shadows in the curtains on the second floor,' which rhymes with, 'I used to have a key to that front door.' It’s a real emotional song about love, mortality, etc. It says ‘honor the fact that you’re alive while you can.'"

Two other standouts are "Long Hard Road" and "Sunday Blues," both prime examples of a real pop tunesmith at work. Crenshaw takes pride in being thought of as a craftsman.

"There’s a lot of crafting involved in the way I write this stuff, a lot of care taken with the details," says Crenshaw. "If you’re crafting something, in order to make it worth doing you’ve got to get emotionally involved in the process, and these days I always do. Hopefully someone can feel that when it’s all said and done. I really appreciate it when people write about my music and I can tell that they really love it, and that it got to them. Who wouldn’t feel good about that?"

In many ways, Crenshaw is feeling as good about his abilities as he ever has — with one exception.

"Honestly, I think I can do everything I do better and smarter now than at any other time, and I think I know myself really well at this point in my life," says Crenshaw. "My only complaint about being the age that I am now is hearing loss; it makes me sad sometimes that I wasn’t more careful as a younger person."

Throwing caution to the wind, Crenshaw does crank it up on Jaggedland with strong, bluesy numbers like "Stormy River" and "Gasoline Baby" that show another side of Crenshaw. And it chaps Crenshaw's hide to be pigeonholed as this clean and tidy pop tunesmith who doesn't get his hands dirty with the hard stuff.

"These days I yell at people when they use the term 'pop' to describe my stuff: first of all, I can’t accept having it put in a sub-category, under a sub-heading," says Crenshaw. "And second, sometimes people use the term 'pop' to describe something that’s to be taken lightly, and I won’t accept that either." And he considers "Someday, Someway" to be pretty bluesy, so don't go thinking that he's doing anything outside of his comfort zone with "Stormy River" and "Gasoline Baby."

Speaking of thinking, and performing, outside the box, Crenshaw, as many know, has done some acting in his time. When he was just getting started, Crenshaw won a role playing John Lennon in the touring company of Beatlemania. And he appeared as Buddy Holly, a legend Crenshaw is constantly being compared to, in 1987's "La Bamba."

Will he be doing any acting in the near future? "Not that I know of ...  I wouldn’t say, 'No,' but it’s not something I’ve ever pursued and I don’t expect to be asked," says Crenshaw, who also wrote "Walk Hard," the theme song to the 2007 film of the same name that scored him a Golden Globe for Best Original Song. "Then again, I didn’t expect to be asked when people were asking, so you never know ... "

Visit www.429records.com to read more about Marshall Crenshaws latest release, put out June 2.

If he had to do it all over again, George Lynch, one of the finest guitarists heavy metal has ever produced, would have followed up Lynch Mob's debut, Wicked Sensation, with something more like the group's upcoming release, Smoke And Mirrors.






A hard-hitting, edgy amalgam of blues-oriented rock that swerves from the Southern-tinged mix of soul and country that is the title track to the heavy, metallic crunch of "21st Century Man" and the complex guitar exploration and classic, melodic metal sounds of "We Will Remain," the explosive, gritty Smoke And Mirrors goes off in all directions — sort of like shrapnel. And Lynch wishes he'd gone in that direction for the much tamer, and more slick, 1992 self-titled release. But it's easy to see that now.

"In the clarity of hindsight it is," says Lynch. "But you know, when we were kind in the middle of the maelstrom at the time, when we were making these records in the '90s, it wasn't so clear to us that's the direction we should be taking. I think — in fact, I know — mine and our thought processes were more along the lines of we really need to step up from Wicked Sensation and become more ubiquitous and appeal to a wider audience. And so we went with a very well-known producer that was, I would say, somewhat generic and really played it safe."

Smoke And Mirrors doesn't play it safe. And on September 18, you'll be able to hear just how edgy the record is. That's when Frontiers Record will unleash it.

When he set about assembling the lineup for what would be his new "dream band" — at least one comprised of the best musicians playing today — Eddie Jobson didn't hold hours and hours of in-person auditions. Neither did the king of the electric violin go from club to club to see what wizardry they could perform live.





No, Jobson, the violin prodigy and keyboardist extraordinaire for such progressive-rock luminaries as Curved Air, Roxy Music, U.K. and Jethro Tull, did what a lot of us when we're goofing around at work — he went on YouTube.

"My idea was to try to find the best players in the world, but a new generation of them," says Jobson. And so, UKZ — which includes Aaron Lippert (vocals), Trey Gunn (10-string touch guitar), Alex Machacek (guitar) and Marco Minnemann (drums) — was born.

Their impressive chops can be found on the new EP from UKZ called Radiation, a four-song appetizer of punishing postindustrial noise, heavy metal rhythms and virtuoso prog-rock that sounds like Nine Inch Nails attacking King Crimson in a dark, garbage-strewn alley — especially on the terrifying title track and "Tu-95," which alternates between skittering, bare-knuckled metal savagery and wondrous instrumental beauty.

"More of a concern for me was to make the music contemporary — not just a rehashing of '70s prog-rock but something truly progressive that would appeal to younger listeners as well as older fans," says Jobson.

As he went forward, Jobson says, "It became obvious to make this an extension of U.K."

U.K. was the supergroup of sorts that culled its members from bands like King Crimson, Yes, Soft Machine, Roxy Music and Yes. It originally featured such dynamic prog-rock heavyweights as drummer Bill Bruford, bassist/vocalist John Wetton and, at that time, unheralded guitarist Allan Holdsworth, who would later become a prog-rock superstar in his own right.

In a way, UKZ might be more like jazz-fusion pioneers Mahavishnu Orchestra, at least in its worldly citizenship — Gunn is from Texas; Machacek is a guitar prodigy from Vienna, Austria; Minnemann is from Hannover, Germany; and Lippert is a citizen of Belgium, though he was born and raised in New York City.

"It's interesting because all five people are citizens of different countries," says Jobson. "Not since Mahavishnu Orchestra has that happened, and I do like the idea of being like Mahavishnu Orchestra."

Of course, Mahavishnu never used distortion like Nine Inch Nails. "That's part of that contemporary voice I've been looking for," says Jobson. "I quite liked that direction in music. Looking back at the music we were making in the '70s, you can view albums like King Crimson's Red as being industrial, and that's probably why it's held up so well. It's held up better than the keyboard-based prog of that time."

Just like with Nine Inch Nails, the keyboard sounds of the more industrial tracks on the Radiation EP aren't so obvious, and that's just how Jobson wanted it. They're less melodious and more harrowing than what you might expect.

"Many of the keyboard sounds you tend not to notice them," says Jobson. "Like with Nine Inch Nails, you don't think of it as all keyboards because it's not Rick Wakeman."

For his part, Jobson recognizes that he himself was partly responsible for the keyboard sounds of the 1970s progressive-rock movement. But for UKZ, he was " ... looking for a new approach so I didn't end up being the one who dates the record," Jobson laughs.

Along with UKZ, Jobson also has a new live group that he's taking out on the road this month. For those keeping track, it's been 27 years since Jobson went out on tour. This live project is called U-Z. In essence, it's a solo project, but with a revolving cast of musicians he's recruiting for an upcoming series of concerts that will see Jobson hit Washington D.C. (Aug. 17, Jammin' Java), New York (Aug. 18, B.B. Kings), Boston (Aug. 19, Regent Theatre), Philadelphia (Aug. 20, North Star), Cleveland (Aug. 21, Beachland Ballroom) and Chicago (Aug. 22, Martyrs').

With Jobson taking center stage with his trademark Plexiglas electric violins, U-Z will perform rarities from U.K. and other material Jobson has helped create over the years. Read www.ukzband.com and www.eddiejobson.com for more on the tour and the two projects.

One way to get an idea of what UKZ is all about is by going to — what else? — YouTube to watch their video for "Radiation." Interestingly, just as Jobson started laying the groundwork for the Radiation EP by e-mail and the Internet with the rest of the far-flung band, Jobson also used different means to gather video footage for it. Jobson had all the UKZ band members play their parts before green screens. When he got the footage back, Jobson was able to piece it together for what amounts to a homemade video.

"We're living in a video age," says Jobson. "And things have to be done differently than we used to do them. You don't have the support structure of a record label supporting you on tour or giving you a couple hundred grand to do a video. This is more cost-effective and creative."

Look for more on UKZ and Jobson in this space down the line.

In their time, Big Star was largely ignored by anybody who wasn't a rock critic. In time, however, the cult around these power-pop legends, led by songwriters Chris Bell and, of course, Alex Chilton, grew and grew, and they influenced a whole generation of pop-oriented alternative-rockers such as The Posies and Teenage Fanclub.






For the barely initiated, though, their first taste of Big Star might have come through the theme song for the somewhat funny TV program "That '70s Show." Cheap Trick's version of Big Star's "In The Streets" is the song those crazy, mixed-up kids are singing in the car before the show starts.

That song, so well-known now, first made an appearance on Big Star's debut album, #1 Record, which has been remastered and reissued, along with the group's second LP, Radio City, as a two-fer on one CD by Ardent/Stax. A previously unreleased single mix of the song is also included on the reissue. Also, the two LPs are being reissued on two separate vinyl LPs.

Asked which version he likes better, Big Star drummer Jody Stephens replied, "The album version, but I think the B-side version is fun … more of a jam. It includes Richard Rosebrough on a second drum kit and Bill Phillips (Cargoe) on organ."

Regarding the songs on Radio City, the album which saw Chilton take over control of the band after Bell left, Stephens had these comments:

I want to get your impressions of a few songs off Radio City, starting with "O My Soul." Love “O My Soul.”
Jody Stephens: I had just learned “the art of the flam” from Terry Hewlett, a kind of percussion teacher at Memphis State. That beat came automatically … I have always played off the guitar.

"Back Of A Car" 
JS: I can remember Alex suggesting that I ride the bell of my cymbal for the intro … like an emergency bell …. ding, ding, ding.

"Mod Lang"
JS: Richard Rosebrough played drums on this one…..I couldn’t top that feel.

"Life is White"
JS: "Life Is White," a true three-piece rock-and-roll song. Great sounds, in part due to John Fry's engineering, and... well... a primal feel.

The Aug. 28 print issue of Goldmine has a story on Big Star. Look for a review of Rhino Records' new Big Star box set, Keep An Eye On The Sky, in the Sept. 11 print issue, along with a short, vintage interview with Chilton on Big Star.

For more information on the Ardent/Stax reissues, done through Concord Music Group, visit www.concordmusicgroup.com.