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Friday, May 29, 2020

Rufus Wainwright documentary debuts today

The premiere of RUFUS WAINWRIGHT: UNMAKING UNFOLLOW THE RULES, a behind-the-scenes documentary chronicling the creation of the artist's next album. The short film debuts, directed by Jeff Richter of Earthquake Productions (Guns N Roses, Lenny Kravitz, De La Soul) today at 1 pm ET, exclusively from WXPN's World Cafe via NPR Live Sessions HERE.

In addition, today's premiere will be accompanied by a special Q&A with Wainwright.

UNFOLLOW THE RULES arrives via BMG on Friday, July 10; pre-orders are available now HERE.


Wainwright's ninth studio LP and first new pop album since 2012, UNFOLLOW THE RULES was produced by Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Paul McCartney) at a variety of legendary Los Angeles studios - including Sound City Studios, United Recording, and EastWest Studios.

It serves as both bookend to Act I of a career which, like UNFOLLOW THE RULES, began in the studios of Los Angeles, but also now as the first lines of a new chapter. Inspired by middle age, married life, fatherhood, friends, loss, London, and Laurel Canyon, songs like the single, "Damsel In Distress" and album-closing "Alone Time" find the gifted singer-songwriter ready to tackle new challenges, yet compelled to confront his past by making sense of how he has grown both as a musician and the contended family man he has become.

UNFOLLOW THE RULES has already been met with remarkable praise from some of Wainwright's friends, fans, and fellow artists. "This is pop music on a grand scale; sweeping, symphonic, unabashedly emotional and fearlessly agnostic in style and delivery," says Sting, while Cyndi Lauper described the album as "Rufus' PET SOUNDS. It sounds like a culmination of everything he has done. It's a great album, catchy and intelligent."

Wainwright hopes to see his fans soon on his UNFOLLOW THE RULES Tour.

For scheduled dates and other information, please visit rufuswainwright.com/tour.

Out now: 'Wild World' by Kip Moore

Country singer/songwriter Kip Moore’s fourth studio album WILD WORLD is in stores today.

To mark the release, Moore shifted gears in the midst of the current landscape and invited an intimate group of industry and fans to a unique Drive-In album release event at the Stardust Drive-In in Watertown, TN last night. Attendees enjoyed a screening of Moore’s just-released documentary 7 DAYS AT THE ROCK available to watch here, followed by a conversation with Moore and host Storme Warren, who were also joined by director and longtime collaborator PJ Brown.

Continuing the celebrations tonight, Moore will perform songs taken from the record as part of a special livestream event from Analog in Nashville, TN where Moore will also be joined by some of his band for a power acoustic performance.

The first time Moore will play some of the songs from WILD WORLD live, fans can tune in tonight (5/29) at 8pm CT to Moore’s Facebook and Youtube pages to watch the livestream benefiting MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund. Spotify will match donations to MusiCares via their COVID-19 Music Relief project.

This week, Moore will delve deeper into WILD WORLD with a stacked schedule of interviews and virtual live performances including Paste’s “The Happiest Hour” on Monday 6/1 at 4pm CT on Youtube, Amazon Music’s "Live Q+A” on Tuesday 6/2 at 11am CT on Facebook, an interview with GRAMMY Museum’s “Programs at Home” and a Facebook Live performance for American Songwriter “Behind The Mic” on Wednesday 6/3 at 7pm CT, as well as a Billboard Session on Facebook Live on 6/4 at 12pm CT.

“I truly hope the fans are able to enjoy this body of work,” said Moore. "A lot of people put countless hours and heart into this project. Cheers to all the fans that have been with us every step of the way.”

Kip Moore first gained attention with the double-PLATINUM single “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck” in 2012, then followed up with three more best selling country chart toppers (“Hey Pretty Girl,” “Beer Money” and “More Girls Like You”), a trio of critically-praised albums and two EPs that landed Moore on multiple “Best Of” lists.

For more information visit kipmoore.net.

Orville Peck duets with Shania Twain on forthcoming EP

Columbia Records will release Show Pony, the new EP from alt-country artist and songwriter Orville Peck. The self-produced 6 track effort follows Peck’s debut album Pony, which was released in March 2019. It features all new songs and a duet with Shania Twain, as well as a cover of Bobbie Gentry’s “Fancy”.

Show Pony will be available globally on June 12; pre-order here.

Says Peck, “I loved my experience with Pony. However, Show Pony is a more confident perspective and allows me to share even more both lyrically and musically. Like all country albums, Show Pony is a little collection of stories – some sad, some happy – and I am excited for people to hear it. Working with Shania was a dream come true, her music made me feel empowered as a kid and was a huge influence on me.”

Peck celebrates the news of Show Pony with the release of a new track and video, “No Glory in the West”. Directed by Isaiah Seret with narrative and creative direction by Peck and his creative director Carlos Santolalla, the video finds Orville and his horse traversing across a darkened, frozen landscape. The miles are endless, the nights are longer than the days and the silence hangs heavy.

Listen to the song here and watch the video here.

Prior to “No Glory in the West” Peck released the Show Pony track “Summertime”. Whereas “Summertime” explores hope and the belief of perseverance and patience, “No Glory in the West” examines how exhausting that can be. Listen to “Summertime” here and watch the video here.

Track list:

1 Summertime
2 No Glory in the West
3 Drive Me, Crazy
4 Kids
5 Legends Never Die (duet with Shania Twain)
6 Fancy

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Southern California musician Chris Thayer announces forthcoming album; pre-order now

Redlands-based musician Chris Thayer, who leads the blues band Chris Thayer and the TCB, has announced his upcoming album project "The Other Side of the Pillow."

Tentatively scheduled for this summer, it is credited to C.W. Thayer and Friends. The collaborative effort features what he calls "a who's who of Southern California musicians," including Derek Smith, Gordon Campbell, Benny Cortez, Adam Elmore, Jeff Ellwood, Matt Springer, Yasha Philips, Frank Wilson, Marques Crews, Maurice Oliva II, Chad Patrick, Matt Coleman, Spiridon Nicolopoulos, Kelly McGuire, James Donaldson, Barbara Paul, Joe Bull, Kevin Swan, Caleb Roseberry, Mia Mercado, Laura Vermillion, Jason Weber, John Miladelaroca and Phoebe Thayer.

Track List:

1. Coffee
2. Granola Girl
3. Gotta Get It Right
4. Lottery
5. I'm Doing All Right
6. Constant
7. Home Soon
8. Sunrise
9. Replaced
10. Someone Else's Song
11. Every Day
12. Right Here
13. Creation
14. Revolution
15. Safety In Numbers

The song "Safety in Numbers" features all the singers on the album. Each singer sang a version of the song.

Pre-orders are available now at www.cwthayer.com.

Choose from:

$15 CD and digital download (plus shipping) - 15 tracks on both formats; unreleased solo version from each vocalist who sang on "Safety in Numbers" (10 different versions of the song plus the album track).

$10 download only - all the above included

Pre-orders will help fund the album mastering by Grammy-winning engineer Robert Hadley (Ray Charles, Diana Krall, Dixie Chicks) and cost of production.

Matthew Sweet news

Matthew Sweet, the veteran power pop best known for '90s rock radio hits like “Girlfriend,” "The Ugly Truth" and "Sick of Myself" - plus several well-received duet albums with The Bangles' Susanna Hoffs - has paired with the current lineup of rock band Badfinger for a new take on “Baby Blue." The 1972 Pete Ham-penned and Todd Rundgren-produced tune originally appeared on Badfinger’s Straight Up album.

The band’s guitarist and vocalist at the time, Joey Molland, continues as the only surviving member of the original line-up today. “Baby Blue” was a top 10 US/UK hit at the time of its release but gained new popularity during the series finale of Breaking Bad.

Former Kajagoogoo singer Limahl re-emerges with new single

“I’m blaming American audiences,” Eighties icon LIMAHL says with a laugh, about his recent resurgence in popularity. “After my music was featured in three popular US TV shows last year, my Spotify monthly streams jumped from 300,000 to 1.5 million!”

Half jokingly, Limahl never really left pop culture prominence. His worldwide smashes “Neverending Story” and “Too Shy” (with band Kajagoogoo) have withstood the test of time and even went through a rejuvenation in 2019 after being featured on hit television series Black Mirror (Episode: “Bandersnatch”), American Horror Story (Season Nine: “1984”) and Stranger Things (Season Three).

But instead of resting on these laurels, he’s re-entering a pop culture renaissance with the release of “STILL IN LOVE” on June 5, his first new solo release in eight years (he re-released his 2012 holiday single “London for Christmas” last winter).

Pre-save "Still In Love" on Spotify here: http://ffm.to/stillinlove.

“I thought I might dip my toes in the creative waters again so to speak,” he says about his new song. A certified pop single that highlights his soulful and crisp voice, “Still In Love” is a bittersweet love song that tackles the hardships of being in a relationship and sticking with it.

“The song doesn’t beat about the bush,” he explains about the meaning of the song. “It deals head on with that painful, dark side of love that most of us have experienced. Working with German producer Miro Markus, Limahl sympathizes with his protagonist though he doesn’t currently relate. “Dark days, unable to get out of bed with curtains staying closed… I have definitely been in the same place emotionally with the protagonist though I don't currently relate,” he explains. “However, what a great feeling it is to have when you get through to the other side and start learning to love yourself again.”

The accompanying video features Limahl singing in an artfully lit home telling the story, while a couple (professional dancers Cameron Anthony and Eliza Simonelli) act out their passionate and emotional story through modern dance. “In the video, I play a sort of narrator character telling this story of unrequited love,” he says of the video. “I love dancing as an art form… ballet, contemporary, tap, etc. and Cam and Eliza communicate the story physically, energetically, and sexually so beautifully. If song lyrics rhyme, dance too can be poetry in motion.”

Unlike the troubled couple in the song, Limahl is celebrating over two and half euphoric decades with the love of his life. “I have been blissfully happy with my lovely partner Steve for 26 years and in our ‘Civil Partnership’ for 11 years,” he says. “I think when you’re young, it’s almost inevitable to go through relationship dramas and make the typical mistakes. Let’s face it, we’ve all had great night of passion and thought, ‘Ooh, is this the one?’ But surprise surprise! After the one hour of hanky panky wears off, there are still 23 more hours in the day,” he adds with a laugh.

As lead singer of British band Kajagoogoo, Limahl hit the upper reaches of the US and UK charts with their debut single "Too Shy" It was followed by two more Top 20 hits "Ooh To Be Ah" and "Hang On Now" (all of which he co-wrote). Limahl struck out on his own and soon re-emerged in the charts again with his first solo single "Only For Love." That was quickly followed with the Giorgio Moroder–produced worldwide smash "Neverending Story," the theme song from the hit film of the same name.

With a new single and video and with more music planned in the near future, Limahl is looking forward to his re-entry into the mainstream. But first, we need to get beyond quarantining.

“I’m trying but failing miserably to stay away from the chocolate,” he laughs, trying to keep positive in the age of social distancing. While the lure of sweets is a relatively harmless threat, the real threat lies in one of the things that made him famous in the first place: his hair. “I’m also trying but failing miserably to cut my own hair. Beware! A dodgy haircut from your partner can lead to the start of divorce proceedings LOL.”

The song and video “Still In Love” will be released on June 5, 2020.

Joe Grushecky and his Iron City Houserockers release expanded 'Have a Good Time (But Get Out Alive)'

An expanded 40th anniversary deluxe reissue of Have a Good Time (But Get Out Alive), the sophomore album from Pittsburgh rocker Joe Grushecky and his Iron City Houserockers, is out now digitally via Cleveland International Records. 

The remastered two-CD set includes a bonus disc with 16 previously unreleased tracks of demos and other rarities. The new vinyl edition will include a download card of those same 16 tracks to go with a vinyl replica of the original album. Street date for physical formats is June 19. Preorder the vinyl and physical CD here. Order the exclusive Iron City Houserockers Bundle Pack at www.clevelandinternational.com.

Mick Ronson (David Bowie), Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople) and Steven Van Zandt (Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny) combined with co-producers Steve Popovich Sr. & Marty Mooney and the Iron City Houserockers to create the album.

“Pumping Iron,” an anthem Grushecky penned as a tribute to his home city, is one he still usually plays with Bruce Springsteen when they perform together.

As Hunter fondly remembers: “Joe and the Houserockers were and are an actual rock and roll band. So many 'rock and roll' bands are not real − they just look and act like they are − and fool people most of the time. These guys are for real − and what a lovely man Joe is.”

In the liner notes, Grushecky offers a remarkably concise analysis of the record that emerged: “We had great songs and the band was smoking,” he writes. “We all knew something special was happening. The results were a mixture of Pittsburgh rock and roll, Jersey Shore savvy and soul, and English mystic and muscle. Add a dash of Cleveland moxie and an anything goes attitude and a legendary album was born.”

Track Listing:

1. Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive)
2. Don’t Let Them Push You Around
3. Pumping Iron
4. Hypnotized
5. Price of Love
6. Angela
7. We’re Not Dead Yet
8. Blondie
9. Old Man Bar
10. Junior’s Bar
11. Runnin’ Scared
12. Rock Ola

BONUS TRACKS (Disc 2):

1. Have A Good Time…But Get Out Alive (demo)
2. Don’t Let Them Push You Around (demo)
3. Pumping Iron (demo)
4. Don’t Stop the Music (demo)
5. Angela (demo)
6. Price of Love (demo)
7. Hold Out (demo)
8. Rock Ola (demo)
9. Struggle & Die (demo)
10. Rock Ola (extended)
11. Charlena/Blondie
12. Runnin’ Scared
13. Runnin’ Scared #2
14. Hypnotized (A Work In Progress)
15. Rooster Blues
16. Do Wah Diddy

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Bonus Q&A with Mikel Jollett of Airborne Toxic Event about his new album and memoir, 'Hollywood Park'

Since "Hollywood Park," the new memoir by Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett, is available in stores, I thought I'd share some bonus material from our interview earlier this month about it and the band's album that didn't make my original feature.


Q: How have you been managing the quarantine over the past couple months? I'll bet you are anxious to perform a real concert again.

A: Yeah, that’s one of the disappointing things about all of this right now. People have it much worse than we do, so you can’t really complain about it. But it really would have been nice to tour right now.

Q: You’ve been really active with social media events lately. Has that helped take the place of live performances for you?

A: I guess, a little. It’s just a way to try and stay connected. There’s no perfect way. It’s the world we’re living in right now to try and find a way to remain connected to people. Just by the fact that we’re living through this crazy pandemic. Yeah, I’d say so.

Q: Many musicians who previously weren’t too active on social media are putting themselves out there more now because they can’t tour. From the fans’ perspective, there’s even more of a personal connection now.

A: I’ve heard people say that. It feels like less of a connection. There’s nothing like getting in a room with people for those of us performing. You’re still in your own room with your computer and a camera. And when it’s over, you’re like, ‘Well...[that’s it].’ There’s something about meeting and gathering in a live setting. I feel like there’s something instinctual for human beings about using music as a celebration, a meeting point for groups of people. I think it has something to do with traditional storytelling and the fact that the human voice works in song. That’s how we understand emotion: the sound of our voices. I think getting together in these mass gatherings is really rejuvenating. It really is for me - whether I’m going to a show or performing at a show. There’s just nothing like being in a room of people singing a song.

Q: The memoir was a compelling read. I read past interviews where you said you’d always wanted to write a book even before the band started. Despite the intensely personal subject matter, will the book’s release serve as the culmination of a dream for you?

A: Absolutely. The book took three years to write and the album, which is the soundtrack to the book, took two years to make. I just locked myself in a room and I started writing. I didn’t have any sense of how long it was going to take. It ended up taking much longer.

I knew I wanted to read about people like me. I wanted to read about people who had buried histories and people who had to slowly discover their truths over time after being fed a false narrative. I think memoir is [too] often [strictly] autobiography, which is really dry. The irony is that all the numbing effects of dates and degrees and jobs and awards make it inaccurate because it fails to capture the character of the people or the time it concerns itself with.

On the other hand, there’s this notion of memoir as being emotional disaster porn with all the fucked up things that happen. I wanted to challenge that. I was interested in a narrator who was unreliable. I was interested in a narrator who said things that were patently untrue because he was told things that were patently untrue. Because that’s what it means to live in the world of emotionally traumatized children.

Then I wanted to watch the perspective change as the child got older and he started to unpack the lies that he once believed. Because that’s also what happens as emotionally traumatized children get older. We slowly learn we were told a lie and then there’s the process of unpacking of imagination and perspective that doing that would better capture the reality of the journey and the way it felt as opposed to just describing it.

Q: You went through therapy years ago to try and resolve many of these issues. When it came to writing the book, did that process make it easier to remember some details from when you were a child?

A: Yeah, I think writing ordered the chaos I was living through. The death of family, grief, depression - that’s all attempts at making sense of the past. Communing with people that I had lost. Yeah, I think therapy helped with that and the writing helped order it.

The book concerns itself a lot with ghosts. Therapy is a way of unearthing all your ghosts. For me, there were the initial ghosts of our parents, because they came and went from our lives when we were in the orphanage. This was a type of haunting, like an intermittent intimacy. They were sort of familiar and far away at the same time. Then they left and came back like ghosts do. In their absence, we deepened our impressions of them. The same way you do with ghosts. I think with therapy, what you’re doing is getting to know your ghosts.

Q: Did you have an goals in writing the book?

A: It’s a memoir, but I also wanted there to be some mystery - to be mystical and vexing. To leave questions unanswered, to not be so straight. I think things that involve symbolism and metaphor happen in fiction, but they don’t generally happen in memoir. I think people have this sense that somehow complex novels are that way because fiction is more multi-varied than we are when in fact it’s the opposite. We write complex novels in an attempt to capture the multitudes of emotion and the universal ideas we can as people. It’s an imperfect way. I think memoir can be that at its best. The only thing that it removes is the invention of events. You can’t invent anything. You still live your life with mystery. You live your life with confusion. You live your life with symbolism and metaphor. Sometimes metaphors rule the world.

We’re kind of living through a crazy metaphor right now. We’re living in a world where a bunch of people believe in something symbolic which isn’t true at all in the Trump presidency. I feel like to act like that shouldn’t also be the province of a lived event, of true events, is silly. So I wanted to write a book that understood and thought about and dealt in, dwelled in this idea of the world as metaphorical, symbolic, mysterious and not just ‘this happened and this happened.’ Although that was important too: getting the details right.

Q: The new album "Hollywood Park" is quite different than your last one, the more experimental "Dope Machines."

A: I’d say it is kind of a return to our first record - the way we went about it, which was done in a similar way, where we were just like, ‘Let’s just rehearse the hell out of it and play it live.’

Q: Producer Mark Needham had mixed some songs for the last album, but handled all the production this time. What did he bring to the process?

A: He’s an auteur and great at empowering artists’ ideas. Some producers come in with a really strong idea of what they want and it ends up being a fight between them and the artist. I’ve had that experience in the past. Or they just let the artist run everything, which is not a good idea, because producers are better at making records.

Generally speaking, there are some exceptions to that. Finneas O’Connell is a genius producer in his own right. For me, Mark really empowered the vision we had and ran with it. We started off saying, ‘Here’s what we want to do’ and he said, 'OK.' He wanted us to rehearse and change arrangements and he wanted us to play live and get into the weeds. In the studio, everything with that guy was about capturing energy. He’s amazing. I’m really grateful to him.

Q: Looking at the new album credits, I noticed that you got your wife and brother in to do backing vocals on a couple songs. How did that come about?

A: My wife can sing her ass off. I was demoing the songs and I needed a female vocalist. Anna [Bulbrook, previous violinist/backing vocalist] had already left the band. I was like, ‘Babe, can you come here and sing?’ She would sing on the demo and then I was like, ‘That sounded great. Why don’t we just have you do it for the record?’ My brother: That song is about the death of my father and the confusion and bafflement and grief we felt was created in his absence. It was a really sacred thing. I wanted him to be involved in that. Almost like two brothers in this primal scream of losing something.

Friday, May 22, 2020

Pink Floyd news

With singer/bassist Roger Waters posting a quarantine version of a Pink Floyd classic this past week and telling a publication that tensions still run high between the surviving members (especially curmudgeon Dave Gilmour), here is some other news about the band...

Pink Floyd just launched a brand-new daily evolving playlist. Entitled ‘Syd, Roger, Richard, Nick and David – An Evolving Pink Floyd Playlist’, this new and exciting way to rediscover and immerse in Pink Floyd’s music will kick off with the currently unavailable track Us & Them (Live at The Empire Pool, Wembley, London 1974) from the 2011 Immersion box set of ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’.

With specially curated album tracks added daily and appearing at the top of the playlist, the selection will gradually evolve with the addition of the band’s best-known classics to deeper album tracks. ‘Syd, Roger, Richard, Nick and David – An Evolving Pink Floyd Playlist’ highlights the band’s contribution to music over the last 60 years. Every Friday, the playlist will feature rare tracks (via streaming or download) originally available on the Immersion boxsets.

Tracks include for the following four Fridays:

May 29 – Have A Cigar (Alternate Version) - ‘Wish You Were Here’ Immersion
June 5 - Any Colour You Like (Live at Wembley 1974) – ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ Immersion
June 12 – Run Like Hell (The Wall WIP pt2 Band Demo) – ‘The Wall’ Immersion
June 19 – Money (Early Mix 1972) – ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ Immersion

More currently unavailable tracks will be scheduled and announced soon….

‘Syd, Roger, Richard, Nick and David – An Evolving Pink Floyd Playlist’ will be live and updated daily on Spotify and YouTube. In addition, the currently unavailable tracks will also be released to download or stream on Amazon, Apple Music and other digital retailers.

Eric Clapton & B.B. King album gets expanded release for 20th anniversary next month

Two guitar legends - Eric Clapton and B.B. King - first performed together in NYC in 1967. Over 30 years later, in 1999, the two longtime friends joined forces to create a collection of all new studio recordings of blues classics and contemporary songs. The resulting album Riding with the King would be released in June 2000 and go onto sell over 2 million copies in the U.S. and win the 2000 Grammy Award © for Best Traditional Blues Album.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of this classic album, two additional previously unreleased tracks have been added: The blues standard “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and B.B. King’s “Let Me Love You.” Both tracks were recorded during the original sessions and were produced and mixed especially for this release by Simon Climie, who produced the original album with Clapton. The original tapes have been remastered by Bob Ludwig for release on June 26 via Reprise Records.

The 14-track collection will be available in all formats including a 180-gram black double vinyl package. A limited edition 180-gram blue vinyl double LP set will available exclusively in Eric Clapton’s official online store and at indie retailers. The vinyl was mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles. Pre-order the album now and receive an instant download of album track “Rollin’ and Tumblin.’” Click here to pre-order black vinyl, and here for blue vinyl. Click here to view and share the visualizer.

The original album features four B.B. King originals, plus a selection of covers from writers as diverse as Isaac Hayes & David Porter (“Hold On I’m Coming”), Johnny Mercer & Harold Arlen (“Come Rain Or Come Shine”) and William Broonzy & Charles Seger (“Key To The Highway”). John Hiatt wrote the album’s title track.

The album features an all-star line-up of musicians, including: Andy Fairweather Low, Steve Gadd, Nathan East, Joe Sample, Doyle Bramhall II, Susannah and Wendy Melvoin, and Jim Keltner. The celebrated producer and arranger Arif Martin contributed string arrangements and orchestration to two tracks.

Track Listing:

1. Riding with the King
2. Ten Long Years
3. Key To The Highway
4. Marry You
5. Three O’Clock Blues
6. Help The Poor
7. I Wanna Be
8. Worried Life Blues
9. Days of Old
10. When My Heart Beats Like A Hammer
11. Hold On I’m Coming
12. Come Rain Or Come Shine

20th Anniversary Bonus Tracks:

13. Rollin’ and Tumblin’
14. Let Me Love You

Out today: A new studio album from The Airborne Toxic Event and interview with frontman Mikel Jollett about the music and his new memoir

photo by Dove Shore, courtesy Celadon Books
Mikel Jollett and his father had their most memorable bonding experiences at the old Hollywood Park horse racing track in Inglewood, Calif.

It wasn’t exactly an ideal hangout for youngsters, but little about Jollett’s early life could be considered normal. His parents were members of Synanon, a California rehab center-turned-cult, where babies were considered “children of the universe” and placed in an orphanage.

The gambling venue and Jollett’s unorthodox upbringing are at the heart of the musician-writer’s compelling “Hollywood Park: A Memoir,” encompassing what he calls a life-changing journey that took 40 years. The book is out next Tuesday, with a companion album of the same name by Jollett’s alt-rock band The Airborne Toxic Event in stores now.

Both the album and book projects stemmed from the death of Jollett’s father. To prepare, he read various biographies and other books (Toni Morrison was a major influence) and wanted to tell his story from four perspectives; two of them being children.

“To probe the interior world of the child, it was important to give him a voice, said Jollett, 45, about structuring the book, during a recent phone interview from home in Silverlake. “The imagination of orphans and the dangerous world of children felt really close to me. I’d never seen it written and wanted to write about it.”

When the pervasive atmosphere at Synanon turned violent, Jollett’s mother escaped with him and an older brother to Oakland. Jollett learned the meaning of family and to appreciate such mundane activities as going to a restaurant, riding in a car and hearing his mother’s Bob Dylan and Joan Baez LP records. There were frequent moves around the west coast to evade dangerous Synanon personnel before finding a safe home in Salem, Oregon.

A few years later, Jollett forged a relationship with his father - an ex-con who overcame a heroin addiction at Synanon, but left before it got really bad - in Southern California during summer vacations and eventually relocated there.

“My dad had been kind of a wild child when he was young; then he cleaned up,” Jollett explained. “The day he got out of Chino prison, he took a bus to Hollywood Park and won $14.

“I asked him why he put everything on one horse and he said, ‘What’s the point of going if you can’t walk out, maybe owning the place?’ He went there at different points in his life and then all through growing up, we would go every Saturday. That’s where I learned fractions - from trying to figure out the odds.”

Having lacked a dominant, positive male figure in his life, young Mikel’s frequent trips to the racetrack were eye-openers.

“For boys with single mothers, men are like these rare beasts; these magical creatures,” he said. “You’re wondering, ‘Who are these things with muscles, beards, old trucks and gruff voices?’ We only knew the world of our mom: emotions, discussions, sewing threads and pinochle. Here were these men that burped, played poker and bet on horses. To me, Hollywood Park represented that and symbolized my learning to become a man.”

Jollett’s mother worked long hours at an Oregon hospital and battled mental health issues. So he had to mature fast. Around other adults, Jollett would make astute observations considered wise beyond his years. School administrators even suggested Mikel skip a grade, but his mother disagreed.

“I don’t think I was a genius or anything,” related Jollett, “Some traumatized kids try to act like little adults because they’re dealing with an inappropriate amount of emotional strain. The adults turn them into a caretaker.

“Suddenly, I was eight years old, trying to hold together a household with an alcoholic [stepfather], a depressed mother and an angry brother. We’re broke, on food stamps, I’m trying to kill rabbits for dinner and wake up early to make sure the house doesn’t freeze over. Then I had to go to school, come home and do chores, make sure everything’s clean, that he’s not off drunk and she’s not off somewhere crying. Meanwhile, you never stop to think about taking care of yourself.”

All those burdens probably contributed to Jollett smoking weed, drinking alcohol, ditching classes and getting poor grades as a pre-teen.

“Some kids become scapegoats, some become mascots and some become super children. I think I tried to become some sort of super child - inadequately. Then you grow up and wonder why you’re so focused on trying to attain the approval of others which isn’t necessarily the best way to approach life.”

After becoming a model student at Westchester High School in Los Angeles, Jollett attended Stanford University. Upon graduation, he briefly taught high school English, served as a YMCA program director and a ranch hand.

Yet Jollett always penned songs. Throughout the pages of “Hollywood Park,” he references songs and albums by David Bowie, The Cure, The Smiths and others that made an impact on his life.

“I wanted music to populate the book,” he said.

Jollett moved onto fiction and music writing and became the managing editor at music magazine Filter. One entertaining chapter in the book finds the budding musician seeking input from his idols Bowie and Cure leader Robert Smith on songwriting techniques.

“I was a really bad music journalist,” admitted Jollett. He would speed through some standard questions and then “we’d spend 90 percent of the time talking about songwriting because I was trying to learn from them. I got great advice through the years from them and Lou Reed, Tom Waits and [Pavement’s] Stephen Malkmus. I really tried to take it all to heart.”

Everything came to fruition in 2006 when Jollett formed The Airborne Toxic Event and found success two years later with the alt-rock radio hit “Sometime Around Midnight” and self-titled debut album.

Before recording the new “Hollywood Park” studio release, the band road tested the material during a series of 2017 gigs at LA’s El Rey Theatre.

The Airborne Toxic Event, courtesy Big Hassle PR
“We wanted it to be a real performance. If you turn the record on, [imagine] you’re standing in the front row watching a band that’s been on tour for nine months just get up there and slay it.”

TATE took its cues from Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” and tried to create a big sound where the listener feels “like you’re in the room with us, you can hear the energy and feel us,” said Jollett.

Speaking of acts that came to prominence in the 1970s, Jollett’s father was a major fan of the Allman Brothers and Jackson Browne.

When he passed away, the latter artist provided a full circle moment for Jollett in a poignant “Hollywood Park” chapter. While blaring “The Pretender,” he drives a car they restored together to Santa Anita racetrack, bets on a horse and secretly scatters his father’s ashes.

A version of this interview originally appeared in The Press-Enterprise, Orange County Register and other Southern California News Group publications.

Out today: A new studio album from Dennis DeYoung of Styx and interview


courtesy: Frontiers Records
When Dennis DeYoung performed “The Best of Times” recently from home on piano and posted it to YouTube, it didn’t take long for his 1981 top 10 hit with Styx to garner 900K+ views. No surprise there. One of the Chicago rock band’s more enduring tunes, lyrics like “I know you feel these are the worst of times/I do believe it’s true/When people lock their doors and hide inside/Rumor has it/It’s the end of paradise” have obviously struck a chord during the Covid-19 crisis. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVzx-VO0RpI

Dennis DeYoung and the Music of Styx: Live in Los Angeles, a spirited concert 2014 film shot at the El Rey Theatre and released on DVD+2CD, also amassed a similar number of views on the platform. As a result of the renewed popularity, DeYoung just launched his own YouTube channel and did a new home quarantine video of Styx’s “Show Me the Way.”

Now the singer has returned with the excellent 26 East, Vol. 1, his first studio release in more than a decade. Named after the address where DeYoung grew up in the Roseland area of Chicago, the album includes major contributions from old friend Jim Peterik (Survivor, The Ides of March) and features a poignant duet with Julian Lennon. I caught up with a sardonic DeYoung from his home in Illinois right as stay at home orders took hold across the country.

Q: With songs like the dynamic, attention-grabbing opener “East of Midnight” and “Damn That Dream,” I think the new album should definitely appeal to longtime Styx fans who came along during the band’s mid-1970s-80s heyday. Are you looking forward to seeing all the reactions?

A: I am. The problem is my music has always been eclectic and there isn’t anything called ‘rock radio’ anymore - particularly for someone like me. It’s so non-existent that I didn’t create this like a singles record. At first, I said it was a concept album and the concept is ‘don’t suck.’ That was my goal. I wanted to make this album into a listening experience where the sum is every bit as important as the parts.

Q: The album really takes the listener on a journey.

A: That’s what I was trying to do. I even called Steve Perry to see if he would sing on the journey, but he said ‘no.’

Q: Had you even considered making another studio album before Jim Peterik convinced you to do one?

A: Absolutely not. Because the people who could have changed the destiny of the music business just stood by and let the idea of music being free happen and become a mantra to so many people. There is no way anyone can compete with free. You just cannot. So I thought, ‘It’s a fool’s errand to try to make this music.’ And not because there’s no money involved. Money’s not an issue with me and never was. I only [became a musician] to hear myself on the radio and get a pat on the head from my parents.

We want to be appreciated, we want to be approved of and we want to be loved. That’s it. For me, [the draw] was music; for you, it was writing. We’re all the same. Like I said in ‘The Grand Illusion’: ‘Deep inside we’re all the same.’ If anything, the pandemic right now is proving that it doesn't matter what your accomplishments are, it doesn’t matter how much or little money you have - we’re all in this universe together. Maybe there will be a positive when all of this is over with, but the unfortunate thing is humans have a bad habit of not learning from their own lessons.

Q: The new album will be available on vinyl. The cover art features three locomotives representing yourself as well as bassist Chuck and drummer John Panozzo, the childhood friends that formed Styx with you in 1972. Since the band often put out elaborate album designs with gatefold LPs back then, have you been pleased to see the resurgence in vinyl popularity lately?

A: No. Why should I be? It’s silly. Because it ain’t coming back. It'll come back for a small group of people who are purists. In my mind, analog is better than digital. Digital will catch up, but analog is still better. What we forget is that LPs, after you play them the first time, they degrade. That’s a fact. And they're so much more fragile. Do I think a small group of people have nostalgically jumped on that bandwagon? Yeah. But the future has already been told to us. It's some sort of transmission of digital data. It has overwhelmingly done enormous damage to musicians and has only helped people, as far as I can tell, who had nothing to do with the initial investments or belief in the musicians who created it. Not enough people can call it out. This is not about me. I’ve made my money. I’m ok. But all the young people who had the dream I had? They're in trouble trying to make a living.

Q: You had previously done a few songs for Jim Peterik projects including last year’s “Proof of Heaven” for his World Stage project. What was the experience like collaborating with him on this album?

A: Jim is the biggest pain in the ass on the planet. He’s also on my label Frontiers Records and he started in on me, saying, ‘The world needs your music.’ I said, ‘Jim, have the world text me.’ When he sent me a song that he’d started writing called ‘Run for the Roses,’ I said, ‘That’s good; let’s see if we can finish it.’ So we did and then we had eight songs before we knew it. He’s a great guy. I tell people, ‘If you hate this album, blame Jim Peterik. If you love it, it’s all my doing.’ He was right there with me in the trenches...it took a lot of work and I'm glad I did it. I timed it perfectly to be released in the middle of a pandemic.

Q: The title track, where you sing about what music has meant to you, is a testament to the power of music. As a young kid, did you really sneak and listen to a transistor radio in your bed as mentioned in the lyrics?

A: Sure. I had an earplug in one ear, because everything was mono, underneath the pillow. My parents didn't know it was on. The song is a tribute to radio. There was only mono [sound] when I first started listening. The windows and doors flew wide open when you heard a world in stereo. You were swept away into the possibilities of a life beyond what you knew. I know that’s true because all my fans that have a chance to meet me [at shows] or go to my Facebook page, always tell me what an incredible impact the music had on their lives. It’s not just me - a lot of musicians from that era hear those stories. Radio was central to everyone's lives. Young people were looking for direction and [Styx] were the guys in the tight pants that they looked at, like ‘Who are those guys? What are they saying with all that hair and those loud amplifiers?’ That was us! [For the new song], I just took what people told me and said, ‘Yeah, I get it. Back when I was doing it, I was just trying to beat Queen or Foreigner.

Q: “A Kingdom Ablaze” has an ominous tone and a dramatic choral chant in Latin. Musically, it reminds me of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2.” Was that the vibe you were after?

A: Yes. Throughout my life, I’ve tried to be clever, stealing from all the people I like musically and incorporating it into my music. I’ve gotten away with it so far. I guess it is Pink Floyd-like, but in the same way that ‘Castle Walls’ from ‘The Grand Illusion’ album is in that vein. This track is a little more modern sounding. The reason for the song is simple. The subject matter is ‘What the hell are we doing?’ Did greed and need become the same? If they’re the same, as I say, everyone is going to bleed because the planet is finite. We’re finite.

Q: Was “With All Due Respect” meant to be a blatant rebuke of cable TV pundits?

A: It's the media in general that I'm railing against. They have figured out that putting opposites - protagonist and antagonist - on a TV or radio talk show and letting them go at each other, gets clicks and views and people listen because it’s theater. It’s entertainment. Remember when CNN was news? It’s just a political arm now and creating drama. You see ‘Breaking News’ and everyone goes, ‘Oh my God.’ Remember, there was a time when, if they interrupted a program, something happened. Who runs these networks now? Chicken Little? They're ruining democracy. When someone says ‘with all due respect,’ they’re really saying, ‘eat me!’ I got tired of looking at it. I’m screaming at the TV. It’s not about Democrats or Republicans. They are both doing it. As metaphorical as ‘A Kingdom Ablaze’ is medieval, this is literally saying, ‘you're an asshole!’

Q: A few of the new songs are quite uplifting. “The Promise of This Land” has a gospel-type feel, while “To The Good Old Days” is nostalgic. Was it important for you to also put some comforting songs out during these divisive times?

A: We need joy. People have looked to me to bring them respite from the chaos and the unpredictability of life. I used to think I had a frivolous job, like ‘Here’s the guy with the lampshade on his head, dancing around. Isn’t he funny?’ Now I know from my audience telling me what an effect I had on their lives.

It can't all be doom and gloom. With ‘The Promise of This Land,’ I knew this wasn't about radio or I’d have come up with a hook that was banging at you from the very beginning. It’s almost exactly five separate sections of music based around a theme that never repeats itself. It was risky. When it was done, I listened to it and thought, ‘mission accomplished.’ That’s what I wanted to do. The beginning is what the dream of America is and I start to examine the dream. The last sentence says it all: ‘there ain't no guarantee. It’s up to you and me to keep the promise of this land.’ There has never been a promised land. It’s only about the people in it who can live up to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Commonwealth, the common good.

courtesy: Frontiers Records
Q: What was it like to sing with Julian Lennon on “To The Good Old Days?”

A: His dad’s band is the reason I'm talking to you. Jules is a talent in his own right. We stood in the control room and just started singing. I thought, ‘This is gonna be good!’ I wrote it specifically for Jules and I to sing. I was pretty confident and thought, ‘If this doesn't work, I'll be surprised.’ I was only pleasantly surprised. I love that song. I didn't produce it to copy the Beatles, but you feel the Beatles in there. They’re in the back of the auditorium. I didn't over produce it. Even with the guitar solo, I told the guy no heroics. [From early responses], people are floating with the nostalgia of it all. It's not boom crash bang. I wanted it to unfold on them so they’d have time to reflect on what's being said.

[With the new album], my heart and soul is in there. It will be good for music lovers to hear it. I'm thinking of running a campaign: Download this record and you're guaranteed not to get a virus.

Q: Touching briefly on Styx, “Mr Roboto,” the band’s second gold-selling single from 1983, led to much friction within the band, but it has had staying power over the years. It was recently featured in the series finale of USA’s “Mr Robot” and the current illustrators of the “Dick Tracy” comic strip used Roboto as a character. You were prescient with the lyrics about technology.

A: I really believe with my heart, if I were that prescient, you should vote for me for president. It was me responding to the beginnings of robotics being used in factories to replace human beings. Everyone I knew where I grew up and Styx was formed were factory workers. I knew those people. I saw the danger and destruction robotics would do to the fabric of communities where I grew up. It has played itself out perfectly in the opioid crisis, alcoholism, suicide and divorce because of the ability for people to feel dignity in what they do.

Being proud of their small part in the big wheel is so valuable. I was looking at it and thought, ‘This is a danger. We have to be careful of the machines we create.’ That’s not to say I knew the internet was coming. I thought, ‘They’re only going to get better with these machines.’ I glamorized them by putting them in the shape of an actual human robot and making them the character in a story. I think I was certainly at the forefront of saying that.

Rock critics were dismissive of us no matter what we did. If some other person that they liked had [come up with the song], it would be considered genius, but it was, ‘These clowns in Styx. How dare they put it in such a clever hook?’ The hook, ‘Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,’ became everything. It was dismissed. One rock critic said, ‘These guys Styx are down to putting in gibberish phrases just to rhyme with robots and not even knowing it was Japanese.’

If the messenger is the messenger you want, you’ll pay attention to it. Let's face it, our dear president, if he should say something that’s brilliant and prescient, there will be a large segment of the population that will dismiss it. By the same token, whatever [Joe Biden says], a large group will not listen to it. Human beings are becoming complete idiots. You've gotta recognize the idea and not the person.

Go listen to Journey, Foreigner, Queen, REO, Boston - any of those bands that we get lumped in with. Who's the band that said something over and over again in their music? Whether it was ‘The Grand Illusion,’ ‘Pieces of Eight,’ all the stuff we talked about - none of those bands did that. The thing I’m most proud of is we stood for something.

Q: Other Styx tunes have also made their way into pop culture over the past decade. What did you think of Jimmy Fallon and Paul Rudd’s painstakingly accurate recreation of the band’s video for “Too Much Time on My Hands” for “The Tonight Show” in 2016?

A: God bless Jimmy Fallon. That thing almost fooled me. I was watching TV and didn't even know it was coming. I had to listen and say, ‘Is that our track?’ I didn't know what was going on. People think that we knew what we were doing in Styx, but we just made shit up. Some of it was pretty good. If it lasts, you gotta be happy about it.

Check out rockcellarmagazine.com for more interviews like this.

Out today: Steve Earle & The Dukes' album Ghosts of West Virginia

Steve Earle & The Dukes released Ghosts of West Virginia via New West Records. The album centers on the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion that killed twenty-nine men in that state in 2010, making it one of the worst mining disasters in American history.

Its first seven songs were written for and performed by Earle in Coal Country, a play with music about the disaster. That opened in March at the Public Theater in NYC, the production was postponed after only two weeks due to COVID-19.

Despite its abbreviated run, Earle has received a nomination in the “Outstanding Music in a Play” category for the 65th Annual Drama Desk Awards.

In the 10 songs, Earle explores the historical role of coal in rural communities. With Ghosts of West Virginia, he says that he was interested in exploring a new approach to his songwriting. “I’ve already made the preaching-to-the-choir album,” he says, specifically alluding to his 2004 Grammy Award winning The Revolution Starts...Now. '

As anyone politically attuned as Earle understands, there are times when the faithful need music that will raise their spirits and toughen their resolve. But he came to believe that our times might also benefit from something that addresses a different audience, songs written from a point of view that he is particularly capable of rendering.

“You can’t begin communicating with people unless you understand the texture of their lives, the realities that provide significance to their days. That is the entire point of Ghosts of West Virginia. I thought that, given the way things are now, it was maybe my responsibility to make a record that spoke to and for people who didn’t vote the way that I did but that doesn’t mean we don’t have anything in common. We need to learn how to communicate with each other. My involvement in this project is my little contribution to that effort. And the way to do that — and to do it impeccably — is simply to honor those guys who died at Upper Big Branch,” says Earle.

Steve Earle’s Ghosts of West Virginia is available across digital retailers, on compact disc, and standard black vinyl. A limited Yellow & Blue West Virginia Swirl colored LP edition is available at Independent Retailers. An extremely limited to 500 Smoke/Coal Colored Vinyl Edition autographed by Steve Earle is available for now via NEW WEST RECORDS. 

Track Listing: 

1. Heaven Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
2. Union, God and Country
3. Devil Put The Coal In The Ground
4. John Henry Was A Steel Drivin’ Man
5. Time Is Never On Our Side
6. It’s About Blood
7. If I Could See Your Face Again (featuring Eleanor Whitmore)
8. Black Lung
9. Fastest Man Alive
10. The Mine