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Volume 2
Thanks to a warm opening reception that now also brings my
writing to Australia and the U.K., Moving In Stereo
is back for Round 2. Although still jobless and having
celebrated my not-awaited 22nd Birthday by the time you’re
reading this, there still remain many reasons to get your
calendar book out and be optimistic; and hopefully you’ll
find dozens of them down below. |
…From The Island
A lot has happened on my home turf of Long Island over the past
month that’s gone unreported. It’s been published
that Taking Back Sunday has completed
the demos for the second album it will shortly be recording, and
that Brand New turned down a Summer
arena tour with Incubus in favor of
writing its third album, but where was the mention of Blood
Red? The band, featuring former Silent
Majority vocalist (and MerchDirect
artist) Tommy Corrigan, is
said to be playing its last show in the coming weeks, and two
legendary area bands are rumored to be reuniting for that occasion…Greyscale,
a Warped Tour-playing quintet that
interestingly blends Metal, Funk, Dub and Pop, is said to be moving
out to the West Coast to pursue music full-time, while the Loren
Israel-managed The Kites will
be going back to L.A. in May for recording; their half-recorded
album was lost due to a faulty hard-drive…Something from
these parts that has been getting a lot of mention, however, is
the Long Island Music Hall Of Fame,
which is being championed by corporations, local government and
L.I.-bred artists like Eddie Money
and Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider alike…Two
bands that could eventually wind up part of the LIMHOF if the
hype keeps up are Nightmare Of You,
featuring Brandon Reilly of the recently-disbanded
Drive-Thru Records act The Movielife,
and Dearly Departed, which just put
out its excellent debut disc -- titled Believing In Ghosts
– on One Day Savior Recordings.
The two will be playing together, alongside Orange
Island, for Nightmare’s first-ever gig on March 6th.
…From The Studio
While tribute albums are generally over-hyped and disappointing,
Epic Records is currently assembling
one for Sly Stone for a Summer 2004
release. Being assembled by Chic
songwriter and overall studio guru Nile Rodgers,
Sly 2K is currently counting on contributions from Beck,
Moby, John Mayer,
Lenny Kravitz, The
Black Eyed Peas, The Roots,
Maroon 5 (anybody remember when four
out of the “5” were called Kara’s
Flowers?) and Buddy Guy.
Audioslave and Aerosmith
remain rumored participants as of press time…Armed Love,
the third full-length from The (International)
Noise Conspiracy, is currently finished and in the midst
of post-production with A-List producer Rick
Rubin, who is also helming the forthcoming Weezer
disc…Foo Fighters visionary
Dave Grohl does have the Probot
album to hawk, beyond his sessions with Killing
Joke, but that hasn’t stopped from him drumming on
the upcoming Garbage album, which
was recorded in the same Wisconsin location as the latest from
As Tall As Lions…Speaking of
the almighty Grohlness, Ash’s
new disc had Dave’s right-hand man Nick
Raskulinecz behind the boards in L.A., and his Queens
Of The Stone Age buddy Josh Homme
will be looking to record another QOTSA collection, despite the
recent lineup departures of Mark Lanegan
and bassist Nick Oliveri…Mr.
Grohl could probably be used in Oasis,
who currently lack a full-time person behind the kit and have
Noel Gallagher playing on the demos
for the band’s sixth studio album. Also in the works
for that Manchester band is a DVD, for which early to mid-1990’s
fan-taken footage is needed by producer Dick
Carruthers.
…From The Side
Side-projects generally lack substance, but one that makes me
laugh is The Forces Of Evil.
Not to be confused with the Euro-Metal band of nearly the same
name, this band features Reel Big Fish’s
Aaron Barrett and members of Jeffries
Fan Club and The Scholars playing
“evil Ska.” The album is out through
Jive/Interscope and includes covers of Van
Halen and Suburban Rhythm anthems…Glassjaw
may not be touring or recording at the moment, but three of its
members have been keeping active. Frontman Daryl
Palumbo has a collaboration with Dan
The Automator titled Head Automatica,
which looks to be coming out on Warner Brothers
Records. Head recently played a high-profile live
show in L.A., also featuring Glassjaw drummer Larry
Gorman (ex-Orange 9MM) and
former Movielife singer Vinny
Caruana. Meanwhile, guitarist Todd
Weinstock is part of the well-hyped Easy
Tiger project with The Reunion Show’s
Skully, Descendre’s T.J. Penzone
and the aforementioned Brandon Reilly, while also spottable
in the latest Brand New video…Maplewood,
the 70’s Rock-inspired quartet led by Champale’s
Mark Rozzo and with Nada Surf’s
Ira Elliot on drums, currently has its debut album in the
can and a showcase gig at SXSW forthcoming. Apologies
for being outdated go out to Nada Surf, who it turns out not only
finished three weeks of recording with Death
Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla, but have a live CD and
DVD coming out beyond a tour diary from vocalist/guitarist Matthew
Caws in Magnet Magazine, and a song soon appearing
in an episode of The O.C.
…From The Ex’s
With 3⁄4 of the band coming from Errortype:
11 and the other 1⁄4 having been the guitarist of
Quicksand, it is with good reason
that Instruction signed a deal with Geffen
Records after less than a year of playing together.
The band recorded its heavily-awaited debut with Bob
Ezrin (Pink Floyd, KISS,
Aerosmith) – and Instruction
already has a rave review in NME to brag of…Further
Seems Forever, a band mostly known because of its former
singer forming Dashboard Confessional,
has announced its break-up after the departure of replacement
frontman Jason Gleason. It appears
that FSF will be splitting into two separate groups…The
Fire Theft is a powerful trio comprised of Sunny
Day Real Estate founders Jeremy Enigk
and William Goldsmith and Foo
Fighters' bassist Nate Mendel.
The act’s worthwhile self-titled is now out on Rykodisc
and will be out on an amazing-sounding tour with Grandaddy,
Hey Mercedes and Saves
The Day in the coming weeks.
…From The Stage
Speaking of Hey Mercedes, I was fortunate
enough to catch the quartet’s recent sold-out gig at The
Mercury Lounge. Alternating between selections from
their two Vagrant-released full-lengths,
the band played with extreme intensity on “Quality Revenge
At Last.” The songs slightly faster in a live setting,
it constantly remained a wonder how drummer
Damon Atkinson was able to keep up with the time-signature
changes and sudden breaks of such poppy-yet-complex songs.
While the overly-sweetness of co-headliner Wheat
was a bit much for me to take, the eclectic openers known as The
Honorary Title played sincere Indie-Rock that definitely
blew more than a few spectators away – myself included…During
the week-long trip to Tokyo, Japan that I was fortunate enough
to take last month, I caught two diametrically-opposed shows at
the same venue (Shibuya Kokkaido)
on consecutive nights. First was Glasgow, Scotland’s
Belle & Sebastian, who had a charismatic
solo-acoustic warm-up performer in Eugene
Kelly. Mixing up rarely-performed tracks and extended
versions of favorites, there isn’t any possible way that
an open-minded person could have walked away from the Belle show
uninspired. With each of the core band members a multi-instrumentalist,
auxiliary horns and strings being added to some songs and lead
vocal duties being shared amongst three members, this was ethereal
unpredictability. However, my personal highlight was a lively
version of “You’re Just A Baby,” which was a
duet between Sarah Martin and the
aforementioned Kelly. On the contrary, David
Lee Roth stuck to the hits, opting to play only one selection
from his latest release, Diamond Dave. Peppering
wall-to-wall classics – every Van Halen and solo favorite,
minus “Janie’s Cryin’” -- with the banter
that makes DLR everyone’s favorite Rock personality, this
was the sort of eventful concert experience that rarely exists
anymore. Giving the crowd tunes from the first two VH albums
that hadn’t been performed in many years, die-hards and
casual listeners alike should have been pleased. While most
of what Dave said probably went over the proverbial heads of most
audience members – it’s a wonder that he didn’t
use Japan-born rhythm guitarist Toshi Hiketa
as a translator – especially at the point where he spoke
“en Español,” we are talking about a man who
still does all of the high-kicks and mid-song gymnastics that
he was doing 30 years ago! And his four-piece backing band?
Well, all the harmonies are there and “Lightning”
Ray Luzier certainly works circles around Alex
Van Halen. If you see that Diamond Dave is coming
to your town, you must be there.
…From The Tube
Besides the Yoshinoya chain, something
else of great quality being brought to us from Japan is Iron
Chef America. The Food Network
has acquired the U.S.-format rights to the Iron Chef program
and aims to be airing this new version by the Spring with Wolfgang
Puck and Bobby Flay on-board…Amongst
the many programs that came into fruition during pilot season,
ABC has picked up what sounds like
the most appealing sit-com of them all. Colin
Hanks – Tom’s son, yes, from Orange
County – will be play writer Joel
Stein, who hit notoriety in being the youngest columnist
at Time Magazine. Although details
are sketchy, word is circulating that Macaulay
Culkin will star in a new show being produced by Conan
O’Brien…Also in the “strange but true”
column, the Long Island-bred Stuttering John
Melendez, best known for his work with Howard
Stern, will be soon joining the cast of The Tonight
Show With Jay Leno as the program’s announcer.
Edd Hall, Leno’s announcer of
12 years, is leaving to pursue a career in the movies.
…From The Stereo
Sometimes the best music you can find comes to you for free, and
recently such happened to me when I received a sampler CD from
Jonny Polonsky. A former wunderkind
discovered by Frank Black and praised
by Jeff Buckley, before undergoing
two troubling major-label situations, he’s been offering
a free EP of new material to those who visit his website at www.jonnypolonsky.com.
My favorite of the batch is “Even The Oxen,” which
features Polonsky on all instruments, and just may be one of my
favorite songs ever…After nearly a year of waiting, the
latest album from The Cardigans --
Long Gone Before Daylight – is due for a U.S. release
in late May. For those who had shelled out for the import,
re-buying it here means getting a bonus track and a DVD containing
three songs from the Rosklide Festival
and two music videos…Have you heard A Beautiful Extended
EP from Clem Snide? Whether
or not the band is usually up your alley, the lead-off track –
a cover of Christina Aguilera’s
“Beautiful” – is a pleasant surprise.
Same goes for Grandaddy’s Sumday
and Bagheera’s Twelves;
two discs that are poppy yet experimental and well-produced…As
for a Rock singer-songwriter that’s destined for bigger
and better things, there’s Charlie
Mars. His fourth full-length overall, Mars is backed
up by producer Rick Beato and Darren
Dodd, both of whom you may recall from a should’ve-been-big
band from Atlanta named Billionaire.
And speaking of long-deserved due, Rocket
From The Tombs – a band responsible for the formations
of Pere Ubu and The
Dead Boys -- has finally released its first disc on Smog
Veil Records, and it surely is interesting to hear early
versions of “Sonic Reducer” and “Ain’t
It Fun.”
…From The Future
For those who see musical-theater as to-be-avoided entertainment,
perhaps they should reconsider what’s currently titled as
Spamelot. Intended to be a Broadway version of
Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Eric
Idle – who recently put out his as-alter-ego Rutland
Isles solo disc – has penned new songs for this forthcoming
production, which looks as if it’ll be directed by
Mike Nichols. However, it is not expected that any
members from the Monty Python troupe will be involved onstage.
If you have news to report for the next edition
of Moving In Stereo, press releases and all other correspondence
for Darren should be sent to ASellOut@aol.com.
© 2004 – Column used with permission from Darren Paltrowitz.
All right reserved.
