Robert Jon & The Wreck have an excellent new single out, with the upbeat rockin’ “Stone Cold Killer” . Check out the video directed & animated by Marco Pavone, or the single HERE
A teaser from their forthcoming album slated for release next year, “Stone Cold Killer” showcases the unique blend of rock, blues, and country that has garnered Robert Jon & The Wreck widespread acclaim. The single emerged organically from a rehearsal jam, and, as guitarist Henry James Schneekluth remarked, was recorded “without too much fuss and pretty minimal adjustments” at The Village Studios in Los Angeles with esteemed producer Kevin Shirley in April.
the California band is touring the US soon, see dates below:
US FALL TOUR 2023 11/16/23 – MONTEREY, CA – Golden State Theatre* 11/17/23 – EL CAJON, CA – The Magnolia* 11/18/23 – SCOTTSDALE, AZ – Scottsdale Center For The Performing Arts* 11/19/23 – ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Isleta Resort & Casino* 11/25/23 – Boca Raton, FL – Funky Biscuit 11/26/23 – Jacksonville, FL – Underbelly 11/28/23 – Charleston, SC – Charleston Pour House 11/30/23 – Greenville, SC – The Radio Room 12/1/23 – Cornelius, NC – Boatyard 12/2/23 – Elkin, NC – The Reeves Theater & Cafe 12/3/23 – Richmond, VA – The Tin Pan 12/5/23 – Baltimore, MD – The 8×10 12/6/23 – Warrendale, PA – Jergel’s Rhythm Grille 12/7/23 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom 12/8/23 – Westland, MI – The Token Lounge 12/9/23 – Aurora, IL – The Venue 12/10/23 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th St Entry *SUPPORTING THE MAVERICKS
Britain’s latter-day Ramones – BAD NERVES have a new single ahead of their first trip to North America. The track, “U.S.A.”, clocks in under 2 minutes, and is full of energy. Check out the video below, as well as links & tour dates.
Liam Lynch’s ‘United States of Whatever’ and Sham 69’s ‘Borstal Breakout’ fuel inspiration for Bad Nerves’ highly anticipated new single, ‘USA’ – stream ‘USA’ here. Shortly after recording ‘USA’ (which was mastered at the famous Abbey Road Studios), the band were invited to America to support Royal Blood which presented a perfect opportunity to introduce the song to an American audience. The single release also comes ahead of them joining The Darkness across their sold-out UK tour in December- buy tickets to the UK, US and EU tours here.
While the quintet initially wanted to see if they could write a track using only the words “United States of America” on repeat, speaking of the track lyricist and band frontman Bobby Bird says, “It’s strangely satisfying yelling ‘United States of America’ over and over. You can feel it stick to the back of your throat. The unparalleled superpower of the West. Yosemite and the green mountains of BlackRock! The American dream and the mighty Super Bowl! But perhaps it’s just the phonetics. After all, Papua New Guinea didn’t have quite the same ring, although it did look beautiful through my computer screen”
“How can you not like this band? They’re so fucking cool”, Justin Hawkins (The Darkness)
Bad Nerves North American Tour Dates (w/Royal Blood): Sep 18 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore Sep 19 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theatre Sep 22 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant Sep 23 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre Sep 25 – Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth Theatre Sep 26 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS Sep 27 – Boston, MA – Roadrunner Sep 29 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall Sep 30 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore Oct 2 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel Oct 3 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
LUCID SINS will release their third album next month. The song is very reminiscent of that more haunting, laid-back Blue Oyster Cult sound of the 70s. Dig more into this band and the BOC influence comes up more, as does that organ style psych rock of The Doors. Great songs, playing, vocals and harmonies. Check out the new single. Awesome album art by David V. D’Andrea as well! Read the press info below, as well as check out the band’s links at the bottom!
Scotland’s 70s occult rock goldsmiths LUCID SINS return with their third full-length “Dancing In the Dark” this October 27th on Totem Cat Records with a first single premiering exclusively on It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine. The band also just announced a string of UK fall dates including shows with Nebula and Hey Colossus.
From the moment Glasgow’s own 70s rock masters LUCID SINS catch your ear, you know you are in for a long-haul adventure: driven by their own wizardry and prodigious mastery of all instruments, the duo of Ruaraidh Sanachan and Andreas Johnsson bewitches you from the get-go. While their 2021 sophomore album “Cursed” presented an intoxicating and unwaveringly prog-oriented brew of proto-rock that sat firmly between Blue Öyster Cult and The Doors, their third album flips a brand new page of their sonic grimoire.
A collaborative effort of interconnected souls, “Dancing In The Dark” summons the talents of various guest musicians to form a fluid and melody-driven story where occult rock meets folk and proto-doom in a hypnotic swirl of riffs and keys carried by Jonsson’s compelling poetry. Firmly rooted in the 60s and 70s sound, LUCID SINS manages to uplift spirits while dragging you once again in the occult, meeting the boundary-free creativity of their contemporaries Witchcraft, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats to the more seamless lightheartedness of Fairport Convention.
The story goes as follows… You stumble through the forest. Alone and far from home. All paths have returned you to this place. Lost in a world of green. Hidden in the dark. As the light fades you glimpse flickering flame and catch the scent of smoke. In a tiny clearing, shadows cast by a dying fire take human-esque forms. Leaning in for warmth, they share ten tales of hope and betrayal, magic and madness, love and death. Whispered words mingle with distant memories, and as the fire grows higher, your sense of self is scorched and burned. One by one now, the figures begin to dance and spin as occult psychedelic sounds drift through the trees. Caught in the maelstrom, suspended high in a swirling mesh of leaves and perception, you release your grip on space and time… On the forest floor, stirred by dawn, you try to make sense of the mist within your mind. To recall where you have been. To know who you once were. Around a glowing fire, deep in the woods, LUCID SINS are Dancing In The Dark… Will you dance with them?
LUCID SINS on tour: October 14th – Aberdeen, The Rusty Nail October 15th – Glasgow, Ivory Blacks (w/ Nebula) October 18th – Leeds, Fox and Newt October 19th – London, Helgi’s October 20th – Sheffield, Lughole (w/ Heavy Sentence, Parish) October 21st – Newcastle, Lubber Fiend (w/ Hey Colossus)
LUCID SINS : Andreas Jonsson – Vocals, guitars, bass, organ, synthesizer Ruaraidh Sanachan – Drums, bass, percussion, organ, mellotron, recorder, backing vocals + Album guests: Espen Andersen, Stuart Coleman, Hanna Tuulikki, Alex Ward
Joanne Shaw Taylor has an excellent new single out. Check out the info below, as well as US tour dates (coming up soon!), And watch the new video!
After almost a year since the release of her last album “Nobody’s Fool”, the #1 selling blues guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor launches her electrifying new single, “Sweet ‘Lil Lies,” available now on all streaming platforms. Produced by Kevin Shirley (Aerosmith, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, The Black Crowes) at the illustrious RCA Studio A in Nashville, TN, this song witnesses the magnificent collaboration of top musicians including Rob McNelly (Carrie Underwood, Luke Combs, Buddy Guy) on guitar, Doug Lancio (John Hiatt, Bob Dylan) on rhythm guitar, Alison Prestwood (Blake Shelton, Olivia Newton-John, George Benson) on bass, Jimmy Wallace (Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Gavin DeGraw) on keys, and Anton Fig (David Letterman, Kiss, Joe Bonamassa) on drums & percussion. Released by Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records, the song stands testament to Joanne’s relentless creativity and musical brilliance.
“Sweet ‘Lil Lies” holds a special place for Joanne. “It was the first song I wrote just for this new album,” she recalls. “I’d been messing around with the lead piano part and built the rest of the song around that melody. As soon as I had that main melody, ‘I got sweet little lies, all the time’ stuck in my head on a loop. It probably took me less than an hour to finish it; some songs work like that.” The song delves deep, reflecting the emotional journey of realizing a loved one’s immutable nature and the heart-wrenching decision to walk away.
Having graced us with albums that consistently top the charts, such as her 2019 release ‘Reckless Heart’, 2021’s ‘The Blues Album, and ‘Nobody’s Fool’ in 2022, Joanne shows no signs of slowing down. She’s currently working on her next studio album, promising a mix of evocative guitar riffs, soulful vocals, and ingenious songwriting. Following the release of her anticipated new single, this fall’s 33-date tour promises to be an unmissable journey through both her classic hits and new material. Kicking off at The Rialto Theatre in Tucson, AZ and culminating at the historic Buckhead Theatre in Atlanta, GA, it’s set to be a musical spectacle that underscores why she remains one of the most exciting blues-rock guitarists of the last decade.
Monday, September 25 – The Rialto Theatre – Tucson, AZ Tuesday, September 26 – The Orpheum Theater – Flagstaff, AZ Wednesday, September 27 – National Hispanic Cultural Center – Albuquerque, NM Saturday, September 30 – Gillioz Theatre – Springfield, MO Sunday, October 1 – The Cotillion – Wichita, KS Monday, October 2 – The Vanguard – Tulsa, OK Wednesday, October 4 – Revolution Music Room – Little Rock, AR Thursday, October 5 – Duling Hall – Jackson, MS Friday, October 6 – Montgomery Performing Arts Centre – Montgomery, AL Monday, October 9 – Lafayette’s Music Room – Memphis, TN Wednesday, October 11 – Barrymore Theatre – Madison, WI Thursday, October 12 – Eagles Theatre – Wabash, IN Friday, October 13 – The Castle Theatre – Bloomington, IL Sunday, October 15 – Memorial Hall – Cincinnati, OH Tuesday, October 17 – Georgia Theatre – Athens, GA Wednesday, October 18 – District Live at Plant Riverside – Savannah, GA Friday, October 20 – Arts Bonita, Center for Performing Arts – Bonita Springs, FL Saturday, October 21 – Kravis Center – West Palm Beach, FL Sunday, October 22 – Ponte Vedra Concert Hall – Ponte Vedra Beach, FL Friday, November 10 – Davidson Theatre at the Riffe Center – Columbus, OH Saturday, November 11 – The Kentucky Center – Louisville, KY Sunday, November 12 – Playhouse Square – Cleveland, OH Tuesday, November 14 – Riviera Theatre – North Tonawanda, NY Thursday, November 16 – The Flynn – Burlington, VT Saturday, November 18 – Smith Opera House – Geneva, NY Sunday, November 19 – The Egg – Albany, NY Tuesday, November 21 – Keswick Theatre – Glenside, PA Wednesday, November 22 – The Cabot – Beverly, MA Friday, November 24 – Capitol Center for the Arts – Concord, NH Saturday, November 25 – Capital One Hall – Tysons, VA Sunday, November 26 – The Beacon Theatre – Hopewell, VA Tuesday, November 28 – Carolina Theatre of Durham – Durham, NC Wednesday, November 29 – Buckhead Theatre – Atlanta, GA
One-man band RISING WINGS releases their first full album on September 22 via Pride & Joy Music, titled Reach. The ‘band’ is multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Florian Bauer, who’s used a few drummers on Reach as well. A solid 10 track set of hard-rock and AOR. There are 3 videos released so far, the latest being the ballad “Remember”. Favorites include the lead off rocker “Ride On”, as well as “Whatever It Takes”, “Keep Going On”, and “Reach The Sky”. An excellent 10-track melodic hard-rock album that’ll appeal to fans of Giant, Harem Scarem, Coney Hatch, H.E.A.T., Bonfire, and Eclipse . Reach will be out on CD and Vinyl LP (in gatefold) *Check out the clips below, as well as the bio, and links.
Rising Wings was founded in 2006 by Florian “Flo” Bauer in Schrobenhausen in the Ingolstadt region, as a melodic rock one-man-band. Florian Bauer has been playing in various rock formations for years, such as the AOR band Youringa and the hard rock cover band Saviors Cry.
In 2006 the first steps were taken with the 3-track EP “Rising Wings”. The second 5-track EP “Higher” followed in 2008. Both releases received consistently positive feedback. Since then, various singles have been released.
In autumn 2023 Rising Wings will release the first full-length album “Reach” via Pride & Joy Music. The album features Florian Bauer on vocals, guitars, bass and keyboards and Franz Raßhofer (Joe Leila), Falco Münch (Reload), Markus Herzinger (2nd East) and Bobby Santiago (Bloodwork) on drums.
The album was recorded by Ray Balconis at Studio Ray Recording in Queens, New York, by Rolf Beyer and Peter Hillinger at Klangwasserstudios Halsbach, Germany and by Chris Lausmann at MS Productions Studio in Poing, Munich.
“Reach” was produced by Florian Bauer with Chris Lausmann (Bonfire, Voices Of Rock) co-producing and mixing the album at MS Production Studio. The album was mastered by Rolf Beyer (CD & digital) and Ludwig Maier (Vinyl).
Boston heavy metal unit BLOOD LIGHTNING present their new video “The Dying Starts”. Their self-titled debut album will be issued on October 20th through Ripple Music.
Comprising members of GOZU, Sam Black Church, Worshipper and We’re All Gonna Die, the band was formed with one thing in mind: get back to the real essence of heavy metal. No pretense. No subgenres to fit into. Only badass, straightforward, hard-hitting heavy metal with a nod to old-school NWOBHM with contemporary firepower. They teamed up with award-winning producer and engineer Benny Grotto (Rolling Stones, Aerosmith), and mastering legend Alan Douches (Motörhead, Mastodon, High On Fire) to record five original songs and one Black Sabbath cover, for what would become their thunderous self-titled debut album.
Formed in December 2020, Blood Lightning brings together the talents of vocalist Jim Healey (We’re All Gonna Die), guitarist Doug Sherman (GOZU), bassist Bob Maloney (Worshipper) and drummer J.R. Roach (Sam Black Church). What began as a 2019 Halloween show playing the entire Black Sabbath “Born Again” album just for fun has culminated in the release of original material by four veterans of the Boston metal/hardcore community. The band recently signed with acclaimed stoner/doom/metal label Ripple Music for the release of their self-titled debut album this fall.
BLOOD LIGHTNING: Jim Healey – Vocals Doug Sherman – Guitars Bob Maloney – Bass J.R. Roach – Drums
Legendary rock drummer Neal Smith (Alice Cooper) released his latest album in the spring. Killsmith Goes West is the fourth album under the Killsmith name, and is different to past Killsmith releases with a somewhat country & western influence throughout many of the songs, and is perhaps, Smith’s finest and most album to date with songs like “Shaughnessy Highway”, ” Evil Wind”, and “Pull It Out Smokin”. *Check out the interview, as well as the links below!
What inspired this whole idea of putting together a country & western styled album?
I’ve been writing songs since the original Alice Cooper group was together, and even before that – in other bands, so when you write songs sometimes the songs come out of nowhere, and they don’t really fit anything, any project that you’re working on, and you just set them aside, and over time I had them and they weren’t really in the style, the real heavy rock – that I would do, and then Killsmith came along, and that was real heavy metal, you know the first couple of Killsmith albums, and even the third one – The Green Fire Empire. And I just had the scope of songs, and I just wanted to try something a little bit different. There’s still some songs – “Pull It Out Smokin”, “Evil Wind” – that still have a real rough edge to them. I had written about 15 songs for this album, and then there were 5 that I pulled off because they were just over-the-top normal heavy rock, so I pulled those off and I wrote a few more and then I had a total of 10 new songs on the album. Some of the songs are brand new, and some of the songs are brand new in the last year or so. It took 3 years to record the album through the pandemic, but there’s one song on there “Coffee, Beer, and Borrowed Time” – that song was actually written in 1980. And that’s one of those songs that just sort of happened, and then there was no place for it. It has sort of a country vibe to it, and that along with the Killsmith normal vide of being edgy and heavier, I call it ‘outlaw rock’. And it does have more of a western feel to it than country. And all of a sudden the songs started taking on a mood of their own , and I followed that – we’re from Arizona, and Arizona is the 48th state, so it was really the last of the wild country. So, even the Alice Cooper we had a song like “Desperado”, and “Raped And Freezin” – a couple of songs that were influenced by the area of the United States that we were from. So this is sort of expanding on that idea, there’s references to Mexico, references to Townsend, Arizona, and New Mexico. It’s all about places I’ve lived, and even when I was growing up in the mid-west, in the Akron area of Ohio, central Ohio, part of my upbringing, my mother liked live music, and there was a place called Fixler’s Ballroom near Sharon Center, Ohio, where we used to go, and they had a live band. So, I was influenced not only by the rock of the late ’50s and early ’60s, but I was influenced by the big bands, like swing – because my mother loved the Glen Miller Band, and also the live country music. So I was exposed to that with live bands, so that’s all been part of what’s influenced me over the years – as a drummer, and a musician, and a songwriter. So these songs just came to me, I wanted to go that extra mile. What’s does that mean? That means A- I wanted to get a fantastic country guitar player – Arlen Roth, who has done many country albums over the years, and was gracious enough to play on 4 or 5 of the songs. Gary Oleyar who is a fiddle player also played great country and western fiddle on several songs – which gave it that extra push over the top for what I was looking for, and that mixed with what I already had, and storytelling – country and western always has a story with it to begin with , but I like the classic novelty 16 Tines, Big Bad John, Raw Hide, back in the 50s and 60s there was some songwriters like Johnny Cash, Frank Lane, Johnny Horton, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Hank Williams, – they were great storytellers as well as great songwriters. And I wanted to try and get that element into the music too, so it all came together, 10 songs that fans enjoy. And very different for me to try something like that. So far it’s been very successful.
Can you recall any other specific bands or albums, bands you might’ve seen or albums your mom might’ve had around the house!?
Well, even on Hee-Haw, some of the best guitarists that were ever in country (I can’t think of all the names right now), but man – Chet Atkins was on there occasionally, and they were just phenomenal guitar players. And I’m a big fan of Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, but I mean it’s all rock, blues, jazz, and country roots – that’s what all this music is. And Roy Clark was another amazing guitar player from that era, and (of course) Waylon Jennings, who was also from Phoenix. So a lot of these great players were from the south-west, where we were from and I was aware of them, and I saw them mostly, I didn’t really buy the music, but I’d hear them on the radio occasionally, those novelty western songs that stood out, but actually seeing them on TV – live on TV, some of the greatest guitar players – I mean Roy Clark, Glen Campbell, when these guys got up on stage and played (and it’s all over youtube, and thank goodness for youtube), that was all part of. And Rick Tedesco, a guitar player that I write and work with on the latest Killsmith albums, he’s sort of a soak-sponge, and he soaks this all in, and he as some really fine country & western licks that he plays on the album too. So that was something, a direction I was trying to go, but a little harder, so it’s got more of a country-outlaw kind of feel to it. So there was plenty to took at and watch and be inspired by back in the day, that’s for sure.
That’s interesting because some of the guys you mention like Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell were country stars, but they almost kind of cross over to a lot of rock fans as well.
Oh they did cross over, they had a lot of cross-over hits, but I went the other way – I went from rock over to more of that outlaw-country kind of feel to it, but with a harder edge and harder story lines on it, with a lot of the subject matter in the songs. that’s a good perspective.
Can you tell me what inspired some of the songs, some of the stories, because there’s lots of great song titles alone, which when you look at it, it makes it interesting to get started!?
There’s some songs that I thought of in the middle of the night, like “Shaughnessy Highway”, “Shaughnessy Highway” is about a guitar player, and it could’ve been about any of the guitar players we just talked about, but it’s a fantasy band and he’s a big superstar, his band’s superstars, and unfortunately this has happened a lot over time, people like Glenn Miller are lost to airplane crashes and other disasters, and the principal person in the story is killed in an airplane crash and he’s a guitar player in one of the biggest bands in the world, and his wife gives directions to her house, and if you park out front of her house she plays his music all the time keeping his music alive, because she’s kept alive and happy, though he’s gone, listening to his music. So it’s kind of a taboo subject to talk about, but Killsmith and Alice Cooper we always touched on subjects that normal people would think were a little taboo – like “Dead Babies” . Things that you really had to dig in and find out what that meant, it wasn’t anything other than child abuse and not protecting your baby against poison. So, that particular song I thought of in the middle of the night, “Sunsets Of Gold” is another I thought of in the middle of the night, it just kind of comes to you and pretty much the song writes itself . A song like “Evil Wind” was inspired not by the early spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood, but like Pale Rider , where it’s a mystery as to who this character really is. Is he alive? Is he a ghost? And “Evil Wind” that’s kinda inspired by those thoughts of the wild west. And “Tequila, Tamales & A Woman”, that’s another – like Hang ‘Em High, that’s another Clint Eastwood movie. That’s the inspiration, but the story is different, there’s a card game in Nogales, Arizona, and somebody cheats at cards, and the subject person shoots the person and kills him when the person draws a gun on him for calling him a cheat, but the hanging judge doesn’t look at it that way so he sentences the guy to be hung in the morning and he gives him a last wish, and his last wish is for tequila, tamales, and a woman. So he’ll die a happy man in the morning, but that’s his last wish. And again it’s from the late 1800s, and the wild west. So if you listen to any of the songs, I have one “Tattooed Cowgirl”, that’s kinda like a Thelma and Louise or somebody from Kevin Costner’s tv show Yellowstone, you know – a bad ass chick that you don’t want to mess with, but you’re drawn to. So, just things that are a little bit different for me to work with. And always an inspiration to go in a new direction, but always keep the attitude very strong and keep the subject matter very strong; always like paint a picture and tell a story.
In preparing for this did you revisit some of that old music ?
No, not really, because songs just come to you. And I’ve listened to enough music in my 75 years here on this planet that I know what influenced me, and once I write the song – it’s basically done, so how do I put the sweetening on the song to give it more of a country, more of a western flare. I always listen to what the song wants, and the players that I have come in and add to, like the country and western guitar, or the harmonica where that’s needed, or fiddle – they pretty much are on their own’ I may give some slight direction, but it’s all about what is just very organic as the song grows, and natural for the song. And I think that’s the best way for me to do it, I found. So it’s not anything that I think about, it’s just listening to the song and saying ‘you know, this here this needs a little fiddle part, this needs a little country guitar part, just a little like d-tune.’ and that’s how it comes about. It sort of happens after the bed-tracks are laid down, the arrangement is there, just ‘what does the song need to finish it off’. It’s like the icing on the cake.
You mentioned Arlen Roth and Gary Oleyar. Can you tell me a bit about where you met those guys and if you’ve used them before?
No. Actually Rick Tedesco – the engineer and guitar player that I’ve worked with in his studios, Guitar Hangar Studio here in Connecticut; he found those 2 gentlemen and invited them to the studio. So he knew them. Rick is a great resource for me. He’s helped me – with Glen Buxton’s guitar from Love It To Death through School’s Out, the SG Custom that I found the body stripped down without a neck , he helped me rebuild it into an amazing guitar. It took about 2 years to rebuild it. So he has a lot of great resources. He has a great guitar store in the Danbury area of Connecticut called The GuitarHangar, and the studio called The Guitar Hangar. So he knows a lot of people, great guitar players, and he’s a great guitar player too. And Stu Daye, he’s an old friend of mine; he actually played on my Platinum God album. He played the slide guitar. He lives in London, and we sent the tracks to him and he polished them off and put the slide guitar on “Tattooed Cowgirl”. So, I had a lot of great guitar players that helped me out. And Stu is an old friend of mine, so that was through me, but Rick Tedesco found Arlen and Gary.
I remember Stu’s name from your Platinum God album, and you’d mentioned him previously. I actually picked up an album of his, he had done with Corky Lang from the early ’80s…
The band was The Mix, right!?
Yeah. And they did one of the Billion Dollar Babies’ (Battle Axe) songs.
Yeah, there was a song I was writing one time, and Stu was around, and he loved the song, and put it on one of his albums.
Do you plan on going out and playing any of this stuff live?
I have a couple of songs on YouTube right now, and I may do a video or 2, but right now I have no plans to tour. If I do anything it’ll be on youtube or on NealSmithRocks.com – that’s my website. This is also the 50th anniversary of the Billion Dollar Babies album, and they have a deluxe special edition that’ll be out next year. But this year you’ve probably already heard Killer deluxe edition or the School’s Out deluxe, which have come out. So there’s a lot of good stuff going on, and I’m excited about it. I have another, like I mentioned my next Killsmith project will be my fifth Killsmith album; there were songs I took off the Killsmith Goes West album – which I also thought was a great title because I do spend the winters in Arizona, You know the band got together there in the mid ’60s; I moved out there from the mid-west in the early ’60s. So I’ve been going out there every year for almost the last 50 years. So about 5 or 6 years ago I bought a winter home out there in Mesa, Arizona, so I love it out there. I go out and play golf. And of course, Alice and Michael Bruce are out there and I get together with them a lot, and a lot of the writing that I do, and a lot of the writing that has been on Alice’s last 3 albums we’ve written out there.
Do you think that doing something so different this time around with Killsmith that it kinda gives you the opportunity to do something further afield, or something you haven’t done before?
Yeah, I don’t know. Like I said, the songs that I had on there they kinda fit, they were a little more hard-rock. But because I have some ideas for the next title, and it’s not going to be Killsmith Goes West 2, that’s for sure , but I do find something very creative about that, and also it’s a testimonial to our roots, which are in Phoenix, Arizona, and the south-west, and that’s a good thing. Too many people don’t look at their..- especially in rock, they have roots; I mean with the Alice Cooper group, we were very different – our roots were in horror movies, horror films, and movies from the past. But you never know where your inspiration is going to come from. But no matter what I do I want to feel excited about it, I want to feel refreshed. But what I really want to do is to do all I can to get as many people as possible to listen to it, I’m very very happy about the album, and very happy about the feedback I’m getting. And a lot of solid rock fans were turned off by the idea but it’s not a country record by any sense of the imagination; it’s definitely a Killsmith album, but it has, as I said – like on the Killer album we had “Desperado”, and on the Billion Dollar Babies album we had “Raped And Freezin”, and these are those songs that talk a little bit about the south-west, where we’re from geographically, but Goes West is a little more – it was like our influences on steroids. I took it a little further. And that will always be around. I may have one of those songs that I took off the album to keep it at 10 songs that really fit well. But let’s see what happens. I’m pretty happy. Some of the songs I went back and listened to them, and I’m always doing tributes to… like Billion Dollar Babies 2023, that’s a big deal, and I wrote a song for the next album called “Party Never Ending” – That’s the Alice Cooper group! And it’s like people have said over the years about the band breaking up, well the band never really broke up, we took a year off, everybody stayed friends, and encouraged each other on solo projects, and that was a big deal. In no way, I mean we were best friends and we weren’t going to get in any bog lawsuits about Alice going out solo. Anybody coudd’ve gone out solo, but he was very fortunate, and he did a great job. And I’m proud of everybody in the band, you know – Michael Bruce and Dennis Dunaway, they have great solo projects – they’re great songwriters; Glen Buxton, unfortunately we lost him way too soon in 1997, But the ghost of GB is always around, he will always be a part of no matter what we do. So I’m excited to do new music, and keep writing as long as I can.
GODS OF SOMETIMES have released their debut album. The duo is Brad Davis (Fu Manchu) and Andrew Giacumakis (Moab), who are accompanied by a number of friends and guests on this 9 track collection of somewhat laid back, almost folky, psychedelic, pop, and melodic album. Below Brad and Andrew answer questions pertaining to the making of the album, their influences, and other projects on the go. For more on Gods Of Sometimes and/or to order the album- check out the links below!
Can you guys tell me a bit about how this project came together, and your connections in previous bands?
Andrew:Brad and I had worked together on multiple Fu Manchu related projects over the last decade or so, me as an engineer/producer. We developed a friendship based on shared musical influences, love of records, love of movies, and vans (the shoes). Haha. We were both itching to do something outside of the heavy music genre we were associated with, just as a change of pace. We started writing songs together and it slowly morphed into a real project.
Where did the band name come from? (other than the song)
Andrew: Lyrics to a song. I think I was improvising lyrics and it came out and I thought “that’s an odd thing to say”. It’s got layers to it, which I like. So it stuck.
Gods Of Sometimes isn’t the ‘heavy doom’ rock that previous bands were labelled, but a very more laid back, melodic album, I get vibes of the Beatles, Neil Young, etc .. Can you detail what influenced everything overall (songs, production and sound) and how it differs from previous things you’ve done?
Andrew: The sound/vibe of the album was definitely influenced by our shared tastes and a desire to try something different. I’d also lost my Dad and wasn’t much in the mood for writing heavy music at the time. The mellower direction of the record was sort of a cathartic thing for me in that way. I mean, I don’t think we were specifically trying to NOT be heavy, but more along the lines of trying to create an album that’s more about mood and vibe, and melody. Or at least strive for that. It took a while to sort out exactly what that was, but we got there, eventually.
Can you give me a few antidotes/stories on some of the songs (musically, lyrically) – “In The End”, “Gods of Sometimes” (dig the guitar riff, reminds me of a Genesis song…), “Hand On the Hide” (a very quiet psych feel to this), “Watching For Satellites” … any that stand out for you guys(?)
Andrew:
“In The End” came about really fast. We knew it was a pretty catchy song from the get go. Then Brad put bass on the song and it was like, another level up. Then we luckily got J Mascis to add a guitar solo at the end of the song, and it was exactly what the song needed.
“Stilted Low” seems to be Brad and my favorite song on the album. It’s a slow burner but gets to these really nice moments. We were graced with Joel Robinow’s (Once and Future Band) piano and bkg vocals on this one, which was a total treat. Check out this band if you don’t know them!
“Watching For Satellites” features another guest that we were extremely stoked to have. Steven Drozd from The Flaming Lips blessed us with all the keyboards we could ask for. We sent him a rough sketch of the song and he sent back a zillion keyboard options to pick from. Really cool of him. We were extremely stoked.
Did you have much input in the album cover art, as far as ideas, and can you tell me a bit about it?
Andrew: Our input was that we saw this really cool piece of art by Chad Yenney and bought it! It lended itself perfectly to a cover. Chad’s a really talented artist who does these layered photo pieces that are just really cool visually. He also did the video for Gods Of Sometimes and the rest of the layout for the album art. Brad liked the moon theme so he did direct Chad on the back cover concept and Chad did the rest. So no, we didn’t have much to do with the art other than recognizing Chad’s gnarly work and getting him involved.
You’re basically a duo, but the album includes a lot of guests. How did many of those guests involvement come about, and might you enlist many of them (or others) for live shows?
Brad: A number of the guests I crossed paths with playing in my band Fu Manchu. Bob, the guitarist in Fu Manchu interviewed J Mascis for his playthisriff website and I in turn had contacted him about my guitar pedal company many years ago. Like the other guests on the album, they were lured in by promises of free fuzz pedals haha. I’ve known Steven Drozd since the 90’s. Mostly from me being a huge Flaming Lips fan and having friends in the music business in common with him. We were able to work with Joel Robinow because of our friend Eli who also plays in “Once And Future Band”. Eli also plays in a band named Drunkhorse with whom Fu Manchu has shared the stage with back in the day. We were blown away by the opportunity to collaborate with all of them. We’re still figuring out how we can play out live. Hopefully at some point the stars will align and we’ll be able to have one of them join us onstage!
What else do you guys have going on at this time (w/ other bands), and is there any songwriting or plans for a follow-up to the Gods of Sometimes album?
Brad: Right now, Fu Manchu is wrapping up the writing part of our new record. Recording very soon. Me and Andrew have already gotten together and started laying the groundwork for a new Gods Of Sometimes full length.
Can you each drop us a few of your main musical influences, as well as a ‘top 10’ list of fave albums from your youth?
Andrew: Pretty standard stuff for me, in no particular order:
– Artists – Beatles, Bread, Floyd, Neil Young, Bowie, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Lips, War, Carpenters, Zombies, ELO, Supertramp, Beethoven.
– Albums – Sgt Peppers, Revolver, Meddle, Harvest, Soft Bulletin, Physical Graffiti, Paranoid, Breakfast in America, Odessey and Oracle
Brad: As far as influences that make their way into Gods Of Sometimes I would say: Beatles, Pink Floyd, Flaming Lips, Neil Young, Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Steely Dan, Crosby Stills Nash, Jimi Hendrix
Albums that made a big impact on me…
Zaireeka (Flaming Lips), Electric Ladyland (Hendrix), Vol 4 (Sabbath), Abbey Road (Beatles), After The Goldrush (Neil Young), Desperado (Eagles), Gluey Porch Treatments (The Melvins)
Norwegian metal band ROZARIO (name from singer David Rozario) have issued the anthem “Heavy Metal Rider”. It’s the 2nd single & video from their debut album – To The Gods We Swear, coming out on October 20. So far – 2 great singles; killer riffs, big guitar and big choruses.. check these guys out. Looking forward to the album. Produced & mixed by Trond Holter. *Check out the video below with bio and lyrics in the description, and the links below.
Finland’s Erja Lyytinen has released a new single from her upcoming live album – Diamonds On The Road-Live 2023. The track is a awesome version of the Hendrix classic “Crosstown Traffic”. To check it out > STREAM SINGLE , or check out the new video!
DIAMONDS ON THE ROAD – LIVE 2023 TO BE RELEASED 6TH OCTOBER 2023
Outsider Rock 