Issue #5 • March 2015 We only cover the best. THE GRAHAMS ARTIST OF THE YEAR 2014 Matt Turk’s Cold Revival: Album Of The Year PLUS: Luke Elliot • Eight O’ Five Jive • Jeffrey Dean Foster • Cam-Jam The Handcuffs • BJ Wilbanks • Rebelution • Lost Dog Found • Mustered Courage • Sassparilla • Charlie and the Foxtrots • FLINTface • Revolution in the Elbow • The Vaudevillains • Michael Dustin Youree • Jeremy Bass • Fred Gillen Jr. • Highbeams • Motopony • The Lost Patrol +more at rust-magazine.com Photo courtesy Louis Prima Jr and the Witnesses Jump Jive Takes Off! Sometimes music movements and stories come as a surprise. All of the sudden, there’s a scene, and this year Jive Blues turned out to be the international music story of the year. We covered bands like Louis Prima Jr and the Witnesses, Lost Dog Found and Eight O’ Five Jive, and we’re hearing from EU that Jive has become more than a music movement, blowing up as a full fashion and social theme. Everything old is new again, and this year people returned to the long-lost era of the 40’s and 50’s, finding inspiration in music that sounds just as good today as it did back in the day. Several years ago there was a resurgence of classic Americana, like Roy Orbison and Patsy Cline, which was coming out of the midwestern rustbelt region, but without a doubt the surprise of 2014 was getting great jump jive blues albums being released one after the other. Of course, these styles of music never went away, but parallels can be made to the depression of the 30’s and the activity of the 40’s. Perhaps 50’s rockabilly is next? What’s particularly interesting about the people behind the new blues is that they have chosen this form of music after - sometimes - a lifetime of music. They might have been punk, they might have been classical, they might have been bluegrass but jump jive has captivated them and they have chosen this medium to do their work. So the result is that the new bands coming up are bringing lifetimes of experience and skill to their craft. These people are doing some of the best work of their lives and they’re doing it with a diversity of backgrounds that make their music truly great. Everybody is always looking for the next big thing, and right now the next big thing has been around for about 70 years already. All the cool kids are doing it, and here at RUST Magazine we are totally digging it. So get with it, daddy-o! Jump Jive Blues is the brand new news! Eric Petersen All material ©2014 RUST Magazine www.rust-magazine.com [email protected] August 14, 2014: RUST Magazine photo shoot with BJ Wilbanks in Gainesville, Georgia. bjwilbanks.com 2 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 3 Lost Dog Found Dine On Danger June 8, 2014: Here at RUST Magazine, we’re not sure if there’s something in the water, or if there’s a celestial alignment but we’ve been getting crazy good old style swingin’ blues bands popping up like spring flowers for the last few weeks. First there was Raoul and the Big Time delivering Hollywood Blvd, an album of west coast style jump harmonica blues, then Lousi Prima Jr and the Witnesses’ Blow, a horny bayou blues masterpiece, then we had a photo and video session with Eight O’ Five Jive and now we’ve got Lost Dog Found’s new album Dine On Danger occupying our playlist. Aquatic contamination and cosmic relativity aside, there can only be one reason we’re getting so many awesome jumpin’ swingin’ albums and bands here... it’s because the old ways are sometimes the best ways and people everywhere are rediscovering, and reinventing the classic swing hall sound for a new generation. All of these bands have the same things in common. They authentically and enthusiatically put everything they’ve got into their music. They’ve learned from the old school masters, and now they take that knowledge to school a whole new generation. The lesson here is that the music that was great 50 years ago sounds just as great today. Maybe even better. Of course this music never went away, but like the flourishing of the rustbelt sound several years ago, it’s clear that swing is having a major resurgence and it’s now official, swing is back and badder than ever. And what’s doubly interesting is that these artists are putting out releases without having a major media movement to fuel the interest. There’s no Swing Idol on tv, and there hasn’t been a Macarena or anything like that putting it out for people to pick up on. Photo courtesy of Lost Dog Found RUST Magazine was so interested in these guys we just couldn’t help ourselves and struck up a conversation with Stevie Mac about the state of swing: So these artists are just doing it on their own. They’re doing it just because they find the satisfaction and delight in the living and breating and sweating of it. The just dig it. And this natural, personal enthusiasm is the magic ingredient that makes their music extra sparkly special. RUST: So you’re probably more dialed in on the state of swing than anybody, have you been surprised at the amount of new music coming out? Did you expect it to break out like it has? Lost Dog Found is based in the SF bay area and is composed of Chris Hudlow on vocals and Tenor Sax, Stevie Mac on Guitar, Kyle Pesonen on Skins, Nick Miller on Alto Sax, Craig Berletti on the Trumpet, Jeremy Greene playing the Tenor and Baritone Sax, and Andy Bergman with the Upright Bass. They’ve won several best-of’s and have been playing to ballrooms, night clubs, boardwalks and festivals while getting rave reviews all around. Like this one... SM: I’d say yes and no; mainstream music has very little (if any) blues/swing in it, but you will hear some more roots sounds (like the Lumineers or Mumford and Sons). The trend the last few years has been towards electronically based, very pop sounding music at the top of the charts. We know from our own shows and talking with people that our type of music in particular (a modern take on roots/jazz/swing) strikes an emotional chord, as if the listener had been looking to hear this again and didn’t know where to look. I’m not sure that the genre is at the full “break out” stage yet, but we’ve seen more and more bands pop up that are attempting a throwback vibe, so it’s good that we find ourselves ahead of the curve. All kidding aside, it’s refreshing and inspiring to hear an album like Dine On Danger. The musicianship is first-rate. It’s a non-stop zuit suit riot. Your feet will uncontrollably start dancing. Your frown will be turned upside down! And that’s because this music is meant to be fun. Below that fun surface there’s incredibly tight band member cooperation and teamwork. This is a big bold band that rumbles like a freight train hauling a heavy blues load down the line. Another interesting thing about the folks catching the jive fever is that they have unexpected backgrounds. When we were talking with Andy Scheinman from Eight O’ Five Jive about his background, it turned out that he had been in the NYC post punk scene for like 20 years. The other 805’ers had similarly diverse backgrounds and these people could have chosen any style of music to play but the chose swing blues. And they chose it after having full careers doing other things. This inner motivation and unity of purpose has resulted in an authentic, grassroots resurgence - and it’s suddenly everywhere. These great musicians all have a lot in common with each other and they’re making some of the most vibrant music anywhere right now. The music on Dine On Danger is like a racy love letter sent across time from one artist to another. It’s tantalizing, teasing and very pleasing. Very Highly Recommended. lostdogfound.com 4 RUST Magazine RUST: It’s breaking out, take it from us! But what about you personally, what motivated you to get swingin? How long have you been working in this style? SM: Personally, I’ve always had an affinity to 50’s and 60’s music, and any really rockin’ old swing tunes... Benny Goodman’s version of “Sing, Sing, Sing” rocks harder than anything you’ll hear on the radio still, and I wanted to try to bring that type of energy with Lost Dog Found’s songs. The swing revival of the late 90’s kind of opened my eyes to how you can pull that off with a smaller band; the first song on our last album I wrote way back in 1998... back then I was just starting my career and needed to put a roof over my new families head, and didn’t get the chance to form Lost Dog Found until 2008 or so. RUST: What about the other band guys, how much time swingin’ do they boast? SM: They all have different rock and jazz music backgrounds, but I think this is everybody’s only step into a band that plays all originals; anything previous was mostly cover material, which is an area we don’t like to delve into... you can only go so far playing somebody else’s music, and the songs that we have recorded on this album (and our first, “The Jump Start Scandal”) have been where we’ve all made our real mark. Chris, our lead singer, has always had an affinity for the 40’s and 50’s music, but we also grew up with rock, grunge, ska... with this band he gets to combine all those musical loves and it fits his voice perfectly. RUST: Before Lost Dog Found what was your musical background? SM: Most of us have music degrees of some sort, I got my degree and wanted to be a studio engineer. Back at Chico State everybody had to record/engineer/mix a song for our final project, which meant you had to sign up for studio time. I’d snag every slot I could after everyone already claimed theirs, so I spent a lot of time by myself recording my own tunes from 2am-6am during the week, and that led to my having a catalog of songs in a bunch of different genres. I quickly figured out after graduating that starting out to work in a studio is low pay, low glamour, and I’d be better off using my smarts Continued... RUST Magazine 5 Continued... elsewhere as a career. I then started a music publishing company, kept writing a bunch of different songs, and found that I kept writing a kind of contemporary swing/jazz type songs. I knew no musicians at that point, and literally started the band from scratch. To say it was a learning experience and a lesson in stick-to-itiveness is an understatement, as I almost gave up on the idea about a dozen times. RUST: How about some of the other guys, what’s their background? Any embarrasing hair band refugees? SM: Chris and I have known each other since we were kids, and in high school he had a four piece “Boyz To Men” type singing group. With a few of those guys, they started another band called “One of Many” and they toured a little. Kyle (our drummer) played with The Inciters for years, and toured all over, including Europe. Everyone in the band has stories, but not sure they are suitable for print (or that they want those stories told to a national audience.) I will say that one of them has been hit by a vehicle driven by one of their own band members during an after gig brawl with another band. RUST: Hmmm, a demolition derby after the show? Well instead of band members hitting each other with cars today we have Dine On Danger hitting the streets. Now that it’s all done, how do you feel about the record and the process and how it all turned out? SM: We were a tad worried going in to be honest; being an indie band means you are on a budget. The key to how well the recordings turned out, especially with how tight the horns sounded, was rehearsing constantly before we went in, timing the horn hits with the drums just right, and letting all that pent up nervousness and energy fly once the record button was hit... we already had the songs so ingrained in our heads that it was easier to get high energy takes. I don’t think we recorded any song more than 4 times, which is pretty rare. 6 RUST Magazine RUST: Stevie, thanks for the great music and thanks for your time here, last question, are there any folks that deserve a special thanks for their help and support getting this all done? SM: Oh my, that might take a few paragraphs... but I personally wouldn’t have been able to get this far without having an understanding and amazing support from my family; my wife puts up with a lot of my working at home constantly, either writing music, running the business end, or being gone at shows. We also have gotten some amazing financial support from my grandfather and his wife, Frank and Lynda Bjorndal along the way. My parents have been amazing supporters also, it’s nice to make them feel proud. Speaking for the rest of the band, we all want to thank our families, because this project takes us away from the ones we enjoy being with the most, and we wouldn’t be able to do that if our families didn’t understand the giant scope of what we’re aiming for. And it sounds so cliche, but our fans are pretty awesome... they voted us “Best Local Band” in the Press Democrat (Largest News Publications north of the golden gate all the way up into Oregon), and voted us in to compete for the Live 105/Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Battle of the Bands (we won). Jazz/Swing bands don’t ever win those kinds of competitions, but we have only because of the support we have gotten. It’s such a nice feeling to know that you are putting out music that people really love and you kind of connect with those people in a way that is impossible outside of music. We wouldn’t be able to play shows if people didn’t show up, and they luckily keep showing up :-) lostdogfound.com Brother Dege June 28, 2014: Brother Dege serenades us with his Dobro at Flicker Bar in Athens, Georgia. Footage from this shoot was later used in the band’s tour movie “Set It Off.” brotherdege.blogspot.com RUST Magazine 7 Cold Revival is a very special album from a critically-acclaimed musician of passion and dedication and it stands in a class by itself, or at least among the very best company. The people who have risen to the occasion to help Matt realize his aspirations have together accomplished something both very personal and individual as well as shared. As a composer, Matt Turk is simply in a class by himself. The source for his ideas are unfathomably personal, and his ability to communicate them to his peers, and to the public, puts him in a singular category of talent. With Cold Revival, Matt Turk has distinguished himself as one of the premier talents of our time, and this is one of the best albums ever made. It is that special. Matt Turk - Cold Revival October 6, 2014: Over the past several months we have been reviewing some truly amazing albums in the folk-rock singersongwriter space here at RUST Magazine. Luke Elliot thoroughly surprised us with his EP Provisions. Xander Smith crafted a regional and career-defining record with Outside. Georgia ex-pats Charlie and the Foxtrots fascinated us with Golden. And now, Matt Turk’s masterfully crafted album Cold Revival has crossed our skies like a blazing star, transfixing our gaze on it’s brilliance. This is an album of immediate excellence and lasting relevance. It’s simply fantastic. It’s deep, intricate and touching. Cold Revival is a project of inspiration and subtlety where Matt Turk both creates and redefines passages of musical beauty, making them all uniquely his own. Cold Revival was - for us - an introduction to an artist who has been active for over 2 decades and whose solo discography includes Turktunes (2000), What Gives (2002) and Washington Arms (2006), Mandolin Caravan’s Desert Soul (2003), and Gillen & Turk Backs to the Wall (2008). Matt Turk has toured internationally and the miles and stages have seasoned him to the point where he could make such an ambitious album and be certain to succeed. For several years, Matt coordinated and hosted the Circle of Song and Jam tents at Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival. Since 1997, Matt Turk has served as resident musician at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York City and is an Arts Westchester Roster Artist. Matt served two terms (June 2010-June 2012) as president of the board of Tribes Hill, the Hudson Valley kindred folk music organization and he now lives in Hastingson-Hudson, NY with his wife Ilana Arazie. Helping him on Cold Revival is producer and filmmaker David Dobkin, best known for directing Wedding Crashers, and the musicians on the new album include Russ Irwin from Sting and Aerosmith, Chris Joyner of Jason Mraz, Ray La Montagne, and Sheryl Crow, and Dean Butterworth from Good Charlotte and Ben Harper. Together with Matt singing and playing acoustic guitar, mandolin and lap steel, Cold Revival bears the hallmarks of musical craftspeople of the highest order. Photo courtesy Matt Turk A few of the songs featured on Cold Revival are adaptations which were brought to Matt’s attention by his teacher, Hot Tuna’s Barry Mitterhoff. “Midnight on the Water” is a shortened version of the Luke Thomasson classic, while “Battle Song” is adapted from the instrumental “Tunturisatu.” Whatever the source for the core ideas, Matt and company take every song on Cold Revival into unique and personal spaces via patient and meticulous treatment. This is a project of reverence and it’s to be taken very, very seriously. 8 RUST Magazine There is a greatness at work here that has aligned the people involved like the gravity of a dark star affecting everything around it. As a listener you’re helpless but to fall deeper and deeper into the music. Every song is a journey in itself and on Cold Revival, all the paths lead further on into the heart of Matt Turk. Cold Revival plays out like Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (the book Apocalypse Now was based on) taking you into unavoidable places you fear, while tempting you with lights in the darkness that are always just slightly beyond reach. There are very few albums that have the specialness of Cold Revival. It’s a significant, timeless release from some of the premiere artists of our age. It Photo by Peter Freed takes a combination of elements old and new and brings them together with integrity, intensity and individuality. There is a lineage behind the music here that demands a level of ability and a respect for both the past and future. It’s a stellar achievement. RUST Magazine commends Matt, David and the other artists for both their exceptional performances and their humanity here. Essential. turktunes.com Album of the Year 2014: Matt Turk’s Cold Revival November 20, 2014: There was absolutely no doubt which album was the best of the year for 2014. Matt Turk is a seasoned performer with decades of experience, and it all pours out like molten gold in Cold Revival. There were many great albums in a similar singersongwriter space this year including Chris Grant, Sean Watkins and Xander Smith but Matt Turk took it to a whole other level emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. His songs are so passionate, so personal and so human… you cannot help but stop everything you are doing and listen when you hear his music. Cold Revival is non-stop genius from beginning to end. Highlights of the album are songs like In Her Smile and Ilana Donna, and – for us – the definitive track for Matt is The Ballad of Reuben. It blows like a clear, chilling wind with the details of a million leaves caught in the flow. Each note is perfection. This is a legendary album that has grown and grown in our appreciation since the original review was written several months ago. And it’s a work of art from a community of people united in a vision of musical excellence. The sense of family and friendship comes through in every aspect. Whoever you are, Matt Turk has something to say that you will relate to. He will inspire you and give you perspective on the trevails of life, love and the challenges of a rainy day. Matt Turk is the best of the best and Cold Revival is a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. And, this year we actually have a prize for the Album of the Year! Our friends at Cascade Microphones have generously donated one of their Fat Head BE Microphones as a prize and we’re super happy to award it to Matt. We regularly use the Fat Head II mics on our shoots and we love them, and we thank Cascade for sending us one for Matt. Maybe this mic will be a part of Matt’s next great song? We hope so, and we congratulate Matt again on his excellent achievement. cascademicrophones.com RUST Magazine 9 July 11, 2014: RUST Magazine met up with bluesman Gil Gann in Nashville. facebook.com/gil.gann 10 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 11 Sassparilla Releases Double CD Pasajero/Hullabaloo June 17, 2014: Hey RUST fans, we’ve got a hot potato here (speaking metaphorically) that’s got us feeling groovy, edgy and outrageous. The band is called Sassparilla and they’ve got a double album release on June 17, 2014 and it’s cool as ice cubes on a chilly day in Alaska. It’s really a unique project and we encourage y’all to check it out right away! Led by songwriter and front man Kevin Blackwell, Sassparilla will release Pasajero and Hullabaloo on Fluff & Gravy Records as a 19-track, double-disc set of two albums. The two albums move in polar directions. Pasajero is more akin to the band’s latest two records (2012’s The Darndest Thing and 2013’s Magpie) and it boasts tight studio production and a melodic focus, while the ten tracks of Hullabaloo capture the live essence and playful nature of the band. 7Horse - Songs for a Voodoo Wedding June 9, 2014: The combined forces of 7Horse’s Joie Calio and Phil Leavitt are today releasing their new album Songs For A Voodoo Wedding and, plain and simple, it’s the shit. We’ve been watching these guys lately as their song Meth Lab Zoso Sticker was featured in the movie The Wolf Of Wall Street and we’ve featured stories about them and links on our facebook page for a couple months because we want to support them and tell the world about them. Bringing a stripped-down roots approach, 7Horse cuts to the bone and identifies the elusive core feelings and phrases in their music, then OWNS them. They present a deep and dark city full of intrigue and alleyways, then take you on a captive journey through it’s outskirts and avenues. This will be no surprise to fans who already have their album Let The Horse Run, and Songs For A Voodoo Wedding sees the band in an even more focused and intense mood. Their original style of songwriting has developed into new and more complex spaces with this pack of songs, and the range of intellect they are bringing right now is burying the needle on the talent-o-meter. Each song is distinct and thoroughly individual because of the band’s capability to merge their conceptual writing process with their style of execution. They are bringing their A game, and they are ready to take the fight to any neighborhood. Diversity is really the key word that describes this album because each song has it’s own story to tell and it’s own whole personality. All the songs are great, and they’re all great in a unique way. Whether it’s a slower ballad like Flying High or the languid licks of Long Way or the shameless, bawdy On The 4th of July the approach is just right for the song. This is really an album that you have to listen to over and over to begin to unravel it’s layers because you get so deep and low into songs like Before The Flood that barn-burners like Carousel Bar come at you from such totally different spaces it’s like the proverbial blind-siding. Joie and Phil are like relentless boxers, surrounding you in the ring and just keeping the hits coming and coming from every direction. What’s extra interesting to us here at RUST is that we’ve been following and covering several other similar artists lately including the venerable Dex Romweber Duo as well as Slim Wray, who we really like, and who we think are very handsome. In this roots duo space, there are some fascinating and intense arists at work, and even in the pop space duos like Melanie and Rich from SIRSY are just blowing open the fringes of the style and finding entirely new territories to explore. If you’re not listeing to these artists you’re missing out on some of the most vibrant and fresh music happening right now. Produced by Phil Joie and engineered by Jonathan Chi and Scott Gordon, Songs For A Voodoo Wedding was mixed by Dave Way and mastered by Howie Weinberg. It’s release date coincides with The Holy Day of Voodoo: St. Johns Eve, a celebration that honors the Voodoo Queen Maria Laveau, and much of the inspiration for the new album comes from a visit to New Orleans. It also marks the beginnng of a North American tour, which we expect to see them on this Friday. 7Horse delivers a commendably intense, vibrant and complex album with Songs For A Voodoo Wedding, and in doing so they clearly mark out their space and dare any to approach. Great individual songwriting is the foundation of everything they do and their instrumental style follows their thoughts into new, dark and outrageous spaces. Classics to the core, 7Horse’s second album will surely cement their legacy as hard rocking legends. Essential. 7horsemusic.com Blackwell explains his reason for making two different records, yet packaging them together as an attempt to provide fans with two distinct Sassparilla experiences: A studio record, and a “come as you are” record. “I’ve always maintained that bands wear two hats, the live show and the recorded product. With our last two releases, we made studio records. Songs that could be performed live, but with a different energy or spin on them,” explains Blackwell. “The recorded product was something I saw as a different entity. With those albums I wanted a recording folks could listen to over and over again and find things they hadn’t heard the first couple of times.” Which is what he accomplished with The Darndest Thing and Magpie. Recorded and produced by Eels’ guitarist Chet Lyster, this tradition continues with Pasajero. With Hullabaloo, the band went in the opposite direction, choosing to leave behind a proper studio for Blackwell’s attic, leaving in the flaws and raw energy of the moment and offering fans the live show “experience” they’ve asked for. On The Darndest Thing and Magpie, the band left behind the washtub bass fans have come to love at the live shows. On Hullabaloo the band brings it back front and center. “The washtub provides a unique and fantastic tone that no other instrument can replicate. It has a voice. An argument. A proper upright bass is one of the sexiest instruments there is, the tub bass is sexy too, but it brings handcuffs with it. I think the washtub is the defining sound on Hullabaloo.” In addition to the resurrection of the tub bass, on Hullabaloo, “There aren’t multiple takes, there aren’t overdubs,” says Blackwell. “It’s us with our pants down. It was recorded mostly in my attic between diaper changes and arguments; a couple borrowed mics, a borrowed compressor, and the simplistic genius of Apple’s Logic. I named the records separately because they are in fact different entities. On Pasajero I enlisted the talent of a lot of our friends in addition to Sassparilla to augment the sound or achieve what I was going for. Hullabaloo is only the five members of Sassparilla.” “Folks are always saying we should make a ‘live’ record ‘cause they enjoy themselves at our shows. I’m fairly convinced they wouldn’t feel the same way about a recording of that show. The live energy can never really be captured on a recording. Songs are inevitably played a little too fast, the vocals are a little rushed or pitchy ‘cause you are jumping around. Those things can pass at a show, I’m not so sure on record,” states Blackwell. “We aren’t that kind of band. We are kinetic. We aren’t staring at a spot on the back wall and focusing on perfection while playing live. We are attempting to make an organic experience that isn’t necessarily concerned with musical perfection. However, on record, I am concerned with that. I want it to be as nearly perfect as our abilities allow.” The two albums showcase the breadth of the Sassparilla experience: one moment beautiful, the other falling down the stairs. “The difference with this release from our past albums,” Blackwell says, “is that Pasajero and Hullabaloo contain a bit of everything, whereas some of our other albums only had one of these elements to them.” sassparilla.info Photos courtesy of Pasajero 12 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 13 Provisions is a great work of musical art. It’s like the tip of the iceberg showing just a portion of a massive talent below the surface. It’s all great, but for us, the highlight was the song I Get It Anyway. It’s a haunting, relentless descent that exposes layer upon layer of darkness as it unfolds. Just as a singular piece of music, it’s the best one track we have heard since last year’s King Kong Strut by Kevin Breit - which won our Song of the Year Award. The keyboard elements add complexity, building layer upon layer until the piercing guitar work cuts through any remnant of shelter. It defies description other than it’s excellence. I Get It Anyway is literally - the best one song we have heard in a year, and we wanted to know more about it. RUST: First, Luke congratulations on Provisions, it’s just great all around. How happy were you with the final project? Did you realize what you wanted to with it? LE: Thanks so much! I am very happy with the EP. I think that the songs really come through. When I went into the studio, I had a rough idea of the sound, but that was it- just a rough idea. I’m really pleased with the final product. RUST: The song I Get It Anyway captivated us from the moment we first heard it, and our whole world stopped for it. Really. It’s so special and so unique. Where did this song come from? Photo courtesy of Luke Elliot Luke Elliot - Provisions April 23, 2014: With his second EP release Provisions, multi-talented multi-instrumentalist Luke Elliot makes a memorable entrance onto the world stage. His music comes from a place of authenticity and intensity and it refuses to be categorized or contained in any one genre or description. There is a toughness and intelligence to everything he does, and it’s all done with a signature style that stays in your memory like a mysterious vision speaking of things past and future. Complex, original music like this is rare under any circumstances, but it’s surprising to hear it coming from such a young performer. His first EP Death of a Widow was released in 2010 and since then his work includes composing the track Benny’s a Bum for Paul Cantagallo’s independent film of the same name, which ultimately won the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival in 2012. Benny’s a Bum is on Provisions along with four new tracks including scene-stealer I Get It Anyway which is simply an all-time great song in the classic Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Nick Cave style. At age 14, Luke Elliot’s knack for writing music became apparent and since then he’s collaborated with a multitude of bands and has impressed audiences at venues including Rockwood Music Hall, Mercury Lounge, North Star, and the legendary World Cafe Live, where he has headlined. On Provisions he is joined by Jim McGee on electric guitar, Ed Barber on bass and backing vocals, and Dan Peck on drums and it’s a fantastic line-up of complimentary personalities. Luke Elliot may have the magic balance of elements that will propel him to the highest altitudes of accomplishment. He has the talent, he has the band, and he has the individuality that other, lesser artists can only imitate. Underneath it all there is substance. There is talent. There is style and there is personal resilience. Luke Elliot’s Provisions is a release that announces a truly great new talent to the world and will certainly hold an esteemed place in rock history. Very Highly Recommended. LE: Thanks, that’s so nice to hear. I wrote this song in Nashville. I was visiting with a few producers, and it sort of just came out one night. I worked on it from about midnight til 4 or 5 am. RUST: Was it an idea that came into reality easily, or was it a struggle to realize an obscure idea? LE: Most of my songs start out with obscure ideas- figuring them out is usually the bulk of the process. RUST: Can you tell us a little about what each of the band members brings to this one song? LE: I am so lucky to have the band members I have. They are talented, yes, but they also bring a ton of drive and passion with them. I don’t think people realize how important it is to have dependable artists working with you. I couldn’t ask for better people in my corner. Jim, Ed, and Dan really worked well together on this piece. They all have their own ways of shining. Jim’s guitar solo is priceless, and Ed has a bass line that stands out for me. Dan’s drumming is impeccable, as it usually is. It’s no surprise that you chose this song to feature- you can hear the ability of each band member very clearly. RUST: The album hasn’t been released yet. Are you nervous or excited about how the public will react? LE: Excited! I really hope people enjoy it- I know we do. RUST: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. One last question, you’re about to return to the studio with John Agnello, can you hint at a direction your next project will go? LE: I can’t wait to finish what I’m working on with John. Working with him is a totally unique process- when you’re in the studio with John, he has a way of directing things. The process is much more cohesive- it’s really the only way I can describe it. I think this project with him is driven in a different way. Some of the choruses are much stronger- the songs will have a structure unlike anything I’ve put out before. I’m thrilled about it! Song of the Year: Luke Elliot - I Get It Anyhow November 20, 2014: Something of a newcomer, you may not have heard of Luke Elliot, his first EP Death of a Widow or his second EP Provisions yet, but this is definitely an artist with a very bright future. This multi-talented multi-instrumentalist has only released ten songs so far, and this definitely was a factor in choosing I Get It Anyhow as Song of the Year. Not only is the song itself dark, rich and mysterious, and thoroughly worthy of this award purely on its own merits, but it was important for us to show to the world that excellence can come from anyone, anywhere. When we first reviewed Provisions we reached out to Luke who told us that I Get It Anyhow was a song that “sort of just came out one night” in the studio. What this says to us it that Luke Elliot is an artist with that magical ability to capture the formless and to make it real. It means that he is able to find words and notes for ideas that other have not been able to capture. And he has been able to do it at a very early point in his career as an artist. We congratulate Luke on his very fine work so far and we’re excited to see what comes next from this rarely talented artist. lukeelliot.com 14 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 15 Rebelution - Count Me In June 3, 2014: Last year we reviewed an amazing reggae album from Sly & Robbie and it puts a unique perspective on the new release Count Me In from Rebelution. Sly & Robbie’s Stepper Takes The Taxi was a very unique project where the Riddim Twins opened up their vault, containing decades of recordings, to be remixed and performed over. French saxophone player Guillaume Briard and mixing engineer Fabwise collaborated to reinterperet vintage reggae flavors into a new dark, hazy dream-vision. One part Marseilles rainy night, one part heart of Jamaica, Stepper Takes The Taxi is one of the very best all-time reggae albums. So with the memory of Stepper Takes The Taxi lingering in our memories, Count Me In brings a totally fresh and different take on reggae styles. Listening to Count Me In is an invigorating, mystical mountain-top experience. The music is bright, airy, clear and brilliant. The two albums together are complimentary opposites, one the dusk, one the dawn. Rebelution celebrates the new day and the gift of light by moving familiar themes into new territories and mixing in vibes of Bob and Ziggy Marley, Stele Pulse - AMG lists Go Jimmy Go, The Aggrolites and Westbound Train with contemporary elements like you might hear from Death Cab For Cutie or Modest Mouse. There are classic Spanish flavors and even hints of the big Brit stadium rockers all put together through the natural, effortless interplay of the musicians. THE HANDCUFFS Formed about 10 years ago in Santa Barbara, Rebelution has grown by supporting their community of peers and fans. The support they have received back has meant real grassroots activism on behalf of their fans. When people find something they love and they relate to, they want to share it, and this sharing resulted in their 2012 album Peace of Mind debuting at #1 on the Billboard Reggae charts. Right now members Eric Rachmany, Rory Carey, Marley D. Williams and Wesley Finley are on a nationwide tour supporting the release of Count Me In and whether you see the band live or get the new album, you’ll be feeling the love, too. Count Me In is an album with a moral, philosophical and artistic alignment of positivity and empowerment. Rebelution songs are originally written and defined through intricate musicianship. There’s a lot more to their music than the good time surface vibe. There are layers of thought and ideas, both musical and personal that reflect the everchanging momets of life. Reggae is the root of Rebelution’s music, but like a seed carried by the wind, the core sounds have found new environments and vistas on Count Me In. Their dynamic, flexible approach lets them travel through different tempos and moods, all while defining a sound with a broad range of influences. Often a band can get contained in a description, and though they are a reggae band for sure, there’s a lot more to experience here. It’s with a dual sense of playfulness and seriousness that Rebelution looks at political, romantic and economic issues. They never push their message, they have the confidence to just put it out there and let the listener take their own message from it. October 25, 2014: Brad Elvis and Chloe F. Orwell of The Handcuffs pose for us at their mod pad in Chicago. 16 RUST Magazine thehandcuffs.com What really makes Count Me In such a great album is the complex personalities that make up the band. Rebelution is all about a unified band of brothers that have been earning it for years. They’re at the top of their game and they are able to climb the loftiest peaks and make it all look easy. They succeed in crafting original music that’s both totally contemporary and classic at the same time. Very Highly Recommended. rebelutionmusic.com RUST Magazine 17 Charlie and the Foxtrots - Golden June 17, 2014: In a word, Charlie and the Foxtrots fascinates us. Originally hailing from our shared home state of Georgia, and now calling Nashville home, Charlie and the Foxtrots delivers classic folk and rural rock with an emphasis on core songwriting, and their new Golden EP showcases a great band that distinguishes itself by reflecting feelings and images from the back roads of America and the thicketed paths deep in their own minds. All things seem in within reach for Charlie and the Foxtrots. This is a young band with a long trail already behind them and they’re in that magical state where they still have the enthusiasm to dream and the innocence to believe in the course of that dream. There is a confidence in their voices, though their knees may be shaking a little. Timid at moments, brash at others, Golden packs a lot of Charlie-ness into a little space. In addition to The Big Bad Wolf, which is really an admirable signature song, we particularly liked both Dorothy Gale and Stomp, Clap. This is a band you MUST check out, right now. Transporting the glimmer of dwindling innocence and focusing it into their music, Charlie and the Foxtrots combines old school southern instruments with contemporary rock vibes into a very unique group sound. The songwriting is distinct and complex. Each song is a living, individual thing. Each song tells it’s own story. All the elements are in the places they should be. There’s a harmony and natural balance to their music that is truly admirable and their songs have an easy flow, like a lazy river under the southern sun. Started in January 2013, Chas Wilson (vocals/guitar) recruited each of the ‘foxtrots’ one by one into the current line up: James Varner (drums/vocals), Matt McClure (bass), Jeremy Webster (piano/vocals), Andrew Mcpheters (banjo/mandolin/trumpet, Josh Ramos (guitar/harmonica/banjo/mandolin), and Rob Hutchison (fiddle). They recorded their Evergreen EP last year after a successful Kickstarter campaign, and now with the Golden EP, the band is poised to break out far beyond the region. Chas Wilson Guitar, Vocals Andrew McPheters Banjo, Mandolin, Trumpet James Varner Percussion, Backing Vocals Jeremy Webster Piano, Accordion, Jug, Backing Vocals Charlie and the Foxtrots is all about great, contemporary rock music that bridges the vibes of the country and the city. Likewise it crosses the gulf of generations between the parent and the child and the spaces between individuals. Charlie and the Foxtrots builds bridges. Their music connects people because we can all relate to the wisdom of youth that dreams innocent dreams for the future. Charlie and the Foxtrots believes wholeheartedly in the music they make, though their vision of the future may, at times, be obscured by tears. Charlie and the Foxtrots is – without a doubt – the most interesting new band we’ve heard so far this year. Not only is this a superior Americana rock band, but they’re on the vanguard of the new Southern Renaissance artists movement that is bringing a whole new generation of artists to national recognition. In this super-connected world, regions and styles are getting all mixed up and artists are making music that blends the flavors and emotions from different places into beautiful new landscapes through their music. So take a ride with Charlie and the Foxtrots’ new Golden EP. You might ride through the country, you might ride through the city. We’re not sure where you’ll finally end up, but the journey will be well worth it. Very Highly Recommended. Josh Ramos Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo, Harmonica, Handsaw Matt McClure Electric Bass, Upright Bass Rob Hutchison Violin, Mandolin charlieandthefoxtrots.com RUST Magazine 19 Jared Grabb - Pulling Weight Julia Klee Session October 24, 2014: RUST Magazine had the good fortune to get a last-minute session with an expecting Julia Klee while we were in Chicago. Watch the video to Apples on our YouTUbe channle and be sure to check out her album Big Charade. June 5, 2012: Jared Grabb is more than an artist with a new album out. He’s an amazing artist with a phenomenal new album out. He’s a truly gifted song writer and performer, and is the singular force behind Thinker Thought Records. He’s also a new father and he somehow he manages to do all of this in addition to his full time job. Jared Grabb is - in our appreciation at RUST - the embodiment of integrity in modern music. juliaklee.com “Pulling Weight” is a mix of folk, rock, bluegrass and punk and follows closely in the footsteps of his most recent album “Where Do You Hide Your Love Songs.” There are quiet tracks full of emotion and get-up-and-dance songs that all share insightful lyrics and stripped-down instrumentation that expose the many different facets of Grabb’s style. Pick any American songwriting legend and jumble it together with a modern indie approach and you start to get the idea. It’s acoustic and electric, city and country. It’s an album that has distilled the modern American identity into a dozen songs. Jared sings and plays guitar, banjo and mandolin along with Chris Anderson on bass, Heather Rose on vocals and Thomas “Atomic” Satterfield on drums. Joining them are musicians Justin MIller, Neal MacCannell and Mark Perez with recording engineer Mike Lust and Carl Saff mastering. Together they have built the American dream in music, shining away the neglected and tarnished exterior to show the spectrum of emotions that we have experienced in our modern era. Matthew Ryan – Boxers December 12, 2014: Matthew Ryan is the real deal. He’s a vintage style rocker with modern sensibilities and his own signature style. With an archive of work stretching back about 15 years, his new album Boxers arrives at a critical moment for him as an artist. Boxers has the possibility of being “that” album – the one that clicks with audiences and establishes his legacy. It’s a great album, full of passion, longing, regret and inspiration. Matthew Ryan’s real strength as an artist comes from his ability to make a personal statement with ease. His music flows – seemingly without effort. He never pushes and never pulls. His art is presented in its own space and its own gravity. Like the seasons of nature, all things in Matthew Ryan’s world come and go with their own natural rhythm. His music is that of a wisened artist fully confident in his balance. Speaking with his own voice, he finds himself in stylistic company with people like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty. There’s a down-home likeability to the music he makes, and perhaps some of that has to do with the album being recorded in Woodstock, NY at Applehead Studios with production by Kevin Salem. It could also have to do with the friends he recorded it with, and its dedication to those fighting ALS. There’s definitely a message to Boxers, but it’s never at the forefront. You have to read between the lines and listen between the notes. It’s a message of aging and of loss. It’s also a message of resilience and hope. It’s a message coming straight from the heart and soul of a person who has dedicated his life to finding that truth and exposing it in all its pain and beauty. Matthew Ryan has traveled the paths inside his soul, both the dark and the light, and here, at the end of the journey, the tale is told through Boxers. Boxers is, literally, a great American songbook and it’s time to recognize Matthew Ryan as a great American songwriter and musician. Timeless and powerful, Boxers delivers great, complex, inspiring rock music with a signature style. It opens the door to an endless path. It asks questions where the answer is in the asking. It’s a classic rock album from a true class act. It’s music for music’s sake. There’s no corporate sponsor or crossover marketing gimmick or back-up dancers. Though available in cd and digital formats it truly shines on vinyl and there are VERY limited quantities of the album available with unique marbled colors that are already collector’s items. Though there’s been a lot of talk about vinyl making a comeback lately (which is great) you have to understand that for an artist like Jared Grabb to consign such a limited pressing and to have it in unique colors and a silk-screened jacket, this is not a money-maker, he’s doing this so that the people who love his music can have it in a format that enhances their experience and brings them closer to the artist. With “Pulling Weight” Jared Grabb has accomplished something truly special. Those who know him recognize that he is one of the very few artists active today who not only accomplish great things themselves but support many other people in pursuit of their dreams. He is a stellar talent who has labored in relative obscurity, and his new album is not about “making it big” though it surely has the potential. It’s true to the heart of the artist. It speaks volumes about today and will say even more tomorrow, Essential. facebook.com/jaredgrabb See and download hi-res images at flickr.com/photos/rust-magazine Jeff Kendrick from Devil Driver June 16, 2014: Devil Driver’s Jeff Kendrick takes a few minutes to update RUST on what’s up with the band and the tour at the Masquerade in Atlanta. Watch the video on our YouTube channel. devildriver.com matthewryanonline.com 20 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 21 FLINTFACE - Hope June 25, 2014: Here at RUST magazine we have to give it up to FLINTFACE. He’s got it. He’s got it for real, and his debut album Hope has that magical familiar-yet-new vibe that speaks with a distinct and individual voice. This album bears the fruits of a long-simmering artistic soul whose roots go deep into a long and challenging path that he has travelled to get to today. As a songwriter, a performer and an artist, FLINTFACE blazes his own path, uncovering a unique perspective on pop rock. He’s got toughness tempered with soul. He has an inner drive that pours out through his music. And he is able to balance the elements of himself as he balances his musical aspirations in Hope. The result is a rocking album with relevance, intelligence and heart. It’s a fantastic album, filled with moments where the music is really, really good – then it goes to another whole level. That’s the real essence of FLINTFACE as an artist. He builds songs with intricacy and complexity, then uses that structure as a base for a new generation of energy. There are many facets to every song, perhaps as there are many faces to FLINTFACE himself. And with Hope he has now announced his presence to the world. FLINTFACE speaks with an individual, memorable voice. Perhaps this is due to the long and difficult road he has had to walk to get to here. That path starts in West Philadelphia and crosses through the rural environs of the Pocono Mountains. Along the way he split paths musically with his co-performing brother, leaving him alone on the journey, though the two remain close. This separation turned into a motivating experience and – perhaps – the defining moment for his career. Alone, FLINTFACE immersed himself in writing music and in 2013 he entered the studio with notable producer Ross Hogarth [John Mellencamp, John Fogerty] to record what would become Hope. Perhaps it is the hope within him, or perhaps it is the hope of building a community through his music, either way, the result is a new rock album that is simply great. The development of the themes and the construction of the ideas is first-rate and done with a personal touch. To accomplish his inspirations, FLINTFACE recruited some amazing people to join him on this new part of his journey. The talented musicians who are featured on Hope include Rami Jaffee (The Wallflowers, Foo Fighters), Tim Pierce (Jason Mraz, Bruce Springsteen), Randy Cooke (Eurythmics, Kelly Clarkson), Kenny Aronoff (The Smashing Pumpkins, John Mellencamp), Chris Chaney (Jane’s Addiction), Matt Rollings (Lyle Lovett), Matt Chamberlain (Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians), Cameron Stone & Loren Gold (The Who), Jessy Greene (Foo Fighters, P!nk, The Jayhawks). His touring band was handpicked from an array of east coast up and comers and includes Darrell Jones (lead guitar & backing vocals), Billy Sims (bass), Anthony Scorsone (rhythm guitar), Chris DeMas (drums), and the lovely Beth Scorsone, who lends her beautiful voice to the harmonies. FLINTFACE has been able to find balance in his music, perhaps as he has had to find balance in himself after struggling just to be able to get to today. Hope will certainly mark a change in paths for him, as now the whole world gets to share in his insights and struggles. Hope is a great rock album from a distinctive new artist that deserves to have his music heard. It’s relevant, intelligent, individual and powerful. Very Highly Recommended. flintface.com Flintface performs Ready For It October 13, 2014: FLINTFACE performs Ready For It for RUST Magazine at the Nelson Street Bridge, a famous Walking Dead S1E1 filming location in Atlanta. Watch the video on our YouTube Channel. October 13, 2014: FLINTFACE at the Krog Street Tunnel in Atlanta Georgia RUST Magazine 23 is unique unto itself. It’s taken an incredible amount of work to bring Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter to reality in album form, and we can only expect the best when it’s presented live by the people who have crafted it for months, if not years. Photo courtesy Ívar Páll Jónsson few weeks now, and today we want to call attention to the preview performance of the stage production at Minetta Lane Theater in New York City’s West Village on July 28th, 2014. Make no mistake, this is going to be the ticket of the year. It could even be the ticket of a generation. Review: Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter June 25, 2014: Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter is one of those very special albums that are destined for music history. It’s that good, that special, and the album is even being brought to the stage in NYC starting next month, making it the inspiration for the work of hundreds of people who believe in it, and thousands of people about to experience it firsthand. The source for this creative masterwork is Icelandic composer Ívar Páll Jónsson who has been writing books, lyrics and music since the age of 15. He’s written thousands of songs in his career, most of which are unpublished. One morning in 2011, Ívar woke up with the idea for the project and started working on it, setting out to make the best album of songs he possibly could. He enlisted Stefán Örn Gunnlaugsson as producer and arranger, and executive producer Gunnlaugur Jónsson, who is also co-author of the story to help him. Over the next two years the project grew in scope and the artists travelled to New York and hired Bergur Þór Ingólfsson as a director, bringing with him the acclaimed creative team behind the Icelandic production of Mary Poppins, including choreographer Lee Proud and set designer Petr Hlousek. The album itself takes you on an 18 song sonic journey through the heart and soul of Elbowville, where a story of love and revolution unfolds, as three brothers live in perfect harmony until their story turns to conflict, shaking Elbowville to its core. The music on the album was performed by The Revolutionary Cellular Orchestra, and features an array of guest vocalists, including Liam McCormick, Hjalti Þorkelsson, Sigríður Thorlacius, Valdimar Guðmundsso, Arnar Guðjónsson, Lára Rúnarsdóttir, Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson, Soffía Björg (Orfia) and Ásdís Rósa Þórðardóttir. What makes this project so significant is that Revolution in the Elbow of 24 RUST Magazine Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter is a true contemporary rock opera on the level to masterpieces like Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. The artists involved are stunningly talented and it seems like they were able to accomplish an extreme projection of themselves in the music, bringing out their very best. Moving across expansive and varied tempos and colors, what’s so fantastic about this album is that there is just so much there to hear. It’s so complex and vibrant, and just so good it is clearly destined to make a permanent statement in music history. This is music that will unite people everywhere because of what the artists have collectively accomplished. Ívar Páll Jónsson has attracted some of the very best creative people in his home country as well as the United States purely by the virtue of the greatness of his music. It’s music that is so good, and so inspiring that people have come together to make it happen in ways both large and small. No detail is too small, and no load is too heavy for these artists who have their community pride and love embedded in this album. This is music that is beautiful, inspired and meticulously compiled. What makes this project so significant is that it’s like a classic rock opera transported to our modern world and filtered through a group of extremely unique artists. It’s very, very rare that people like this can collect and group together for an ambitious series of international efforts like this. What we’ve been listening to is so fresh and vibrant, so well crafted and lovingly put together, we can only imagine what this will be like with a live performance and an audience sharing the space and experiencing it. The story of how Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson grew from the idea of a single person to include so many passionate people Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter is the brainchild of Icelandic author Ívar Páll Jónsson who has been writing books, lyrics and music since the age of 15. One morning in 2011, Ívar woke up with the idea for the project and started working on it, subsequently enlisting Stefán Örn Gunnlaugsson as producer and arranger plus Gunnlaugur Jónsson as executive producer and co-author. In 2013 they started working with producers Karl Pétur Jónsson and Óskar Eiríksson, and a milestone in the process cams when they hired Bergur Þór Ingólfsson as a director, bringing with him the acclaimed creative team behind the Icelandic production of Mary Poppins; choreographer Lee Proud and set designer Petr Hlousek. Starring Cady Huffman, Kate Shindle, Michael Biren, Patrick Boll, Zach Cossman, Karli Dinardo, Danielle Kelsey – among others – Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter is destined to be legendary. This will be the coolest stage musical event of the year without a doubt. The music we’ve heard follows a lineage of great works like Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and The Gorillaz Demon Days and takes it into a new and modern space. It’s gorgeous modern rock, and it’s unique source and powerful alliance of artists puts it truly into a class by itself. If you are able, this is a show that simply cannot be missed. elbowville.com Project of the Year: Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter The many, many people who have brought Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter to life are examples of the best, most dedicated, most talented, and most highly inspired and visionary artists of our modern world. We commend them and congratulate them on this special album. This is an amazing accomplishment and it’s some of the best music our world has ever heard. The inspiration behind the music is genius and the collected community effort to realize it will provide a testament to the best of our age for all time to come. Essential. November 20, 2014: Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter is a great album, and it is an achievement that will live forever in music history. But it’s even more than that. With hundreds of people involved in making both the music and the stage play, Ragnar became something more than ‘just’ an album. It was the biggest single story we covered this year, and with so many people involved, it grew beyond the sum of it’s many parts into something legendary. Because it’s more than an album, RUST Magazine is uniquely naming it as Project of the Year for 2014. Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson on Stage It took a lot of people with absolute belief in this music to turn it into what it eventually became. Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter was the most profound expression of modern music we heard all year and it was the one pre-eminent music story of the year. We congratulate all involved and we encourage artists everywhere to follow Ívar Páll Jónsson’s lead and to collaborate on a larger scale and to make visionary music for a whole world. July 3, 2014: Hey RUST readers, we’ve been telling you about this amazing new project from Icelandic composer Ívar Páll Jónsson for a Revolution in the Elbow started as a waking dream in the singular mind of Icelandic coposer Ívar Páll Jónsson, and his personal vision became a beacon of light and inspiration for some of the most talented people in Iceland, NYC and beyond. These people worked incredibly hard to bring it both to ears everywhere and to live audiences at the Minetta Lane Theatre. The reviews were fantastic, and Ragnar became a truly global event, the likes of which the world has not seen since the grand rock operas of the 60’s and 70’s. The music itself is pure genius. And it’s extremely rare when a project like this attracts enough people to take it through the recording process, and then to the live stage. RUST Magazine 25 Ryan Tree’s amazing debut album Illusions February 5, 2015: Ryan Tree is a fantastic songwriter, singer and musician. His debut album Illusions is an amazing first effort featuring rock-solid songs and a great overall vibe. This is an artist with an authentic, personal musical voice and here at RUST Magazine we – literally – cannot say enough good things about him. But what really makes this artist, and this album special, can be summed up in one phrase: crossover appeal. We hear great music every day. It’s all we write about, and our critical scale never factors commercial success into what we have to say about someone. There are enough fame-chasing bloggers already and not enough critics concerned with the multitudes of independent artists who make profoundly excellent music, often without reward or recognition. There is more, better music being made every day as tech tools advance and our society adds to our collected musical knowledge. With so much information out there and so many great artists to learn from, there is a whole new generation of musicians like Ryan Tree crafting work at a level of excellence that rivals the “legends” of just a few years ago. But there is something that makes you take notice of Ryan Tree’s music beyond the music itself. It’s music that cannot be denied greatness and it’s music that has the power to touch and reach people on a global scale. Ryan Tree has lived up to the words of Steve Martin who famously said “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” And you cannot ignore this music. Here at RUST Magazine, we see a shockingly bright future for Ryan Tree. Not only is his music superb purely in itself but it has that special something, that lightning in bottle that immediately suggests enormous possibilities on a commercial scale. His music has individuality yes, but it has that “right” sound to fit into those big genre blocks of music fans where mass success can be achieved. This is an artist with a massive fan base… they just don’t know it yet. His music hits all the right notes for lite rock radio play, film and television licensing and red-state & faith-based community support. It’s anthemic and it just plain rocks. Ryan Tree is turning the tables on the idea of bigness with his new album Illusions. He has built a concrete foundation that could support a career that reaches the stars. It’s that “big time” combination of the right artist with the right material at the right time that could go all the way. About the best comparison we could make to another artist would be comparing him to a young George Michael. But don’t take our word for it, check him out at ryantreemusic.com and decide for yourself. Homeless Gospel Choir July 17, 2014: RUST Magazine thanks Derek Zanetti from the Homeless Gospel Choir for taking the time to talk to us in Atlanta. Wathc the video on our YouTube channel. facebook.com/TheHomelessGospelChoir Photo courtesy Ryan Tree RUST Recommends: John Statz’s new album Tulsa February 11, 2015: Here at RUST Magazine we’ve been watching a phenomenon in music lately with an emphasis on the desert. John Statz’s new album Tulsa follows stunningly good releases from Ryan Tree, Brandon Decker and Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray – among others – who have found a home in the western dry country. Loosely categorized as desert psychedelic folk, this movement may have found it’s spiritual leader in John Statz. Tulsa is beautiful, deep and haunting. He crystallizes the essence of the style with ease and natural timing. This is just one of those albums that is so good that it’s greatness is what is so great about it. Oddly enough it was recorded in the middle of a Vermont ice storm, perhaps magnifying the intensity through the distance. Tulsa is a sublime and individual masterwork. Check it out for yourself at johnstatz.com 26 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 27 June 29, 2014: Thanks to The Vaudevillains for performing for us in Atlanta Georgia. See the videos on our YouTube channel. thevaudevillains.com 28 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 29 Song By Song: Jeffrey Dean Foster’s The Arrow The Sun Will Shine Again: My friend Sara Bell played the haunting piano and the rest of the track was cut during those original sessions. I think it has a “Don’t Fear The Reaper” shimmering murkiness. October 11, 2014: Jeffrey Dean Foster has always been ahead of his time. Having been involved in several seminal Americana bands since the 1980’s he is just now releasing The Arrow, following up his first solo release, 2007’s Million Star Hotel, and it’s fantastic. His ability to capture thoughts and feelings and to communicate them in a unique, individual way is truly admirable. We’ve been rocking out to his music here at the RUST offices and we wanted to reach out to Jeffrey to hear what he had to say about it. Here he is in his own words: Young Tigers Disappear: This is another one that I taught to the band right on the spot. I’d never even really sang it out loud before. The finished version is almost completely live. I just wanted it to sound like modern warfare and not a romanticized version of wars from the past. The Lucky One: Sara Bell helped finish the lyric to this one. She took her time, saying that she wanted it to be as good as when Patti Smith added lyrics to “Because The Night”. I don’t think it’s in that league (that being one of the best singles ever ) but Lynn and Tonya Lamm’s backing vocals sure are pretty. I Will Understand: The other side of the coin to “When You Break” I took me a long time to convince folks that I really did want this to sound like the witches in MacBeth gathered around a fire! Jigsaw Man: John Pfiffner and I recorded this one all by ourselves. He can play almost any instrument and did on this one. RUST: Jeffrey, this is a great album, before we talk about the individual songs can you tell us a little about where your life is at right now? What’s going on? How is it coming out through your music? Hang My Head On You: This song has been around for a LONG time. I first recorded it about 25 years ago with Andy York (John Mellencamp, Ian Hunter). I reworked it and I dig the Ronnie Lane party rock vibe. Cliff Retallick added some of his trademark Floyd Kramer piano licks too. JDF: I’m not 25 years old and invincible anymore. Me and many of my friends and family have lost a lot of people close to us in the last few years since we started making this record. The Arrow is still just a collection of songs, but there does seem to be a little ghost of something running through them. The record is certainly not about death but it may be about LIFE and how ephemeral it can seem. Out Of The Blue: Another one that John Pfiffner and I did by ourselves. I think it started as kind of a Plastic Ono Band track but it grew some more flesh and bone. RUST: Who are some of the people that helped you make this album? JDF: Well when I opened the door to the studio on the first day of the first session, there was Don Dixon saying “I’m here, what can I do”. I knew we were off to a good start. Mitch Easter engineered, mixed and played some guitar, Dixon played a lot of instruments during the 3 days that he was there. He’s a great cheerleader in the studio and keeps things rolling along. The rest of the record was made by good friends like Lynn Blakey (Tres Chicas), her husband Ecki Heins, my long time pals, John Pfiffner, Brian Landrum and Brooks Carter. Sara Bell (Regina Hexaphone, Sharkquest) helped me write a song and played piano on another. Cliff Retallick who is just now finishing up arranging a cool Paul McCartney tribute record in LA with everyone from Cat Stevens to KISS, sent in some great piano tracks. Crispin Cioe and Larry Knechtel of The Uptown Horns arranged and recorded some great Exile on Main St. type horns for “Life Is Sweet” Open Book: Some more Lynn/Tonya backing vocals and some very southern California grooving. The Arrow: It was originally gonna be a epic ballad but it just kind of laid there when we were recording it. After much consternation I went into the other room and figured out that it could just be plain and simple, like a Buddy Holly song. RUST: Thanks Jeffrey, what’s next for you? JDF: So now I just want some folks to hear this record that I made with such a cool gang of people. I don’t think it would have sounded like this if I’d recorded it anywhere else or with any other people. Everyone that played on it are close friends and I think it sounds like that. Hopefully we can get out on the road and let these songs breath a little. I love that records are exactly that, a “record” of something very fleeting, that happened in one moment, but then they last forever. jeffreydeanfoster.com RUST: Now that it’s all done, how happy are you with it? Did you get the sound that you intended? Was it a challenge to finish or was it a free flowing creative motion? JDF: As usual, some songs come quick and easy and some take months. I love the sound that we got. I think it feels like a spin across the FM dial back when I was a teenager. Back when you could hear the Faces right next to Al Green and Lynyrd Skynyrd! RUST: Let’s start with Life is Sweet. JDF: Cut almost completely live in the studio, 2 guitars, bass and drums. The horn section was added later by Crispin Cioe and Larry Knechtel up north. Even though this one only has about a dozen words, it took me a long time. It was like whittling a piece of wood until I got rid of everything that didn’t matter. When You Break: This is one of two that I wrote with my teenage daughter. It didn’t occur to me until I was recording the vocal that this could be a Buck Owens song, if Don Rich was playing his telecaster through a fuzz pedal. Morningside: One of my favorites on the record. All my friends played a lot on this one. We were just going for something beautiful and Lynn Blakey’s voice is always nothing less than beautiful. Her husband’s string arrangement in the coda feels about 150 years old. Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts: I think this was the first song that we recorded on the first day of the sessions. Don Dixon played some terrific organ and Brian Landrum came up with a crazy, almost New Orleans drum groove. The title refers to a phrase written on a slip of paper found in Stephen Foster’s pocket when he died. 30 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 31 The Jigsaw Seen – Old Man Reverb with commentary by Jonathan Lea July 2, 2014: At this point, people expect nothing less than pop rock perfection from The Jigsaw Seen, and the guys deliver it better than ever on their new album Old Man Reverb. RUST Magazine has been covering The Jigsaw Seen since before we even were a magazine, and our interview with guitarist Jonathan Lea was one of our very first articles. Since then, the band has been on a creative binge, releasing immaculately crafted and produced albums like Winterland and Gifted, interspersed with dates touring as the band for Dave Davies of The Kinks. The LP packaging for Old Man Reverb has a CD mounted to the front of the album by a gummy button. Perennial critical darlings, The Jigsaw Seen explores a post-Beatles vibe and habitually masters their albums at Abbey Road studios, this time with Sean Magee. Everything this band does, it does well, and with a signature integrity. This extends to the packaging and design for the albums – which they’ve been Grammy-nominated for their album Zenith – and on Old Man Reverb, the cover art and inserts are based on some of the elements of a Fender “silverface” amplifier including the faceplate, volume knob, speaker, footswitch and tube chart. We received a cd copy of Old Man Reverb here to review, but we’ve been paying attention to the album construction process on the band’s facebook page and the vinyl version of Old Man Reverb looks like an amazing package. All of The Jigsaw Seen’s albums are specially packaged, and one of the most unique touches along the way has been the snow flakes that came with Winterland. The cd packaging of Old Man Reverb is similarly unique and well done with a metallic base and transparent teal ink on the exterior and three different inserts emphasizing style and concept. Packaging aside, what The Jigsaw Seen delivers on all of their albums is some the best rock music ever made. They have been at it for well over 20 years as a group and they have self-sustained because of the merits of their work. Their music is a master class on song construction, style and technique. The band is also really good about posting online about what they’re doing, so we’ve been watching this project as it has developed, and we’ve seen a tremendous amount of work and effort go into it. This group of artists always puts in maximum effort, and their work ethic equals their compositional excellence. The Jigsaw Seen has been collecting die-hard fans and getting international exposure, especially from their last few albums including 2010’s Bananas Foster, and they’re getting about a quarter million streams a month, so Old Man Reverb is being released to an expectant fan base. Hopefully this will be the album that breaks The Jigsaw Seen out and onto the international stages they deserve. Really there are just two types of people when it come to The Jigsaw Seen, band fanatics and people who have not heard them yet. Old Man Reverb is a very special album in that The Jigsaw Seen has never been better, more focused or has made music with such clarity of vision. They’re legitimately legends, and this new album only adds to their long list of accomplishments. What makes this album even more interesting is the recent series of releases from the band, which have all been excellent. They just keep getting better and better with each new release, and they were already one of the best… ever. Essential. RUST Magazine was so interested in what guitarist Jonathan Lea had to say about the tracks on the album that we reached out to him to tell us a little about each one, where it came from, and what it took to make it through the creative process to Old Man Reverb, Here’s what he had to say: Let There Be Reverb – With this album, we decided to go back and record some songs that we’d played live over the years but had never recorded and released. This song is the exception, written by Dennis recently to tie in with the album’s title, it was recorded in Los Angeles on a day off during Dave Davies’ tour last Summer. This track features some great Rod Argent-style organ playing by Morley Bartnoff on the outro. Idiots With Guitars – This is one of my favorites, with its “Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide” meets “Baby Blue” feel. We’ve played this one for the past 15 years and we’ve actually opened shows with it. Great lyrics dedicated to some of our “friends” on the LA music scene. 32 RUST Magazine Die Laughing – This and the following song are from the same era, mid-1990’s. For this we tried to imagine The Who being produced by Phil Spector (without the victims.) The track features some great Abba-esque piano by Tom and “Mr. Blue Sky” himself, Dennis on Vocoder. Understand – Like the previous track, this features a great performance by our rhythm section, Tom and Teddy. Dennis added a lot of great harmony vocals to this one while I played the guitar solo using a Uni-Vibe pedal, made famous by Jimi Hendrix and David Gilmour. We Women – This is our third attempt at this one and I think we finally got it. Recorded live in the studio without me, I added the guitars and piano later. Previously recorded in 1993, 2003 and 2013, maybe we’ll tackle it again in 2023 (a doo-wop arrangement?) Your Mind Is Like Mine – I originally recorded electric 12-string guitars for this but thought it sounded too “British Invasion” so I replaced them with acoustic guitars. Another “oldie,” Dennis and I performed this song on the BBC in 2001. Madame Whirligig – This and the following track were demoed by Dennis and me for “Bananas Foster” and the two songs were originally connected. Dennis played the swirly phased guitar while I played the bass and also an E-bow guitar recorded through a Leslie cabinet. Abide – The oldest song on the album, actually one of the first songs we played when Dennis and I met in the 1980’s (I guess we were in no hurry to record it.) Influenced by Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti western soundtracks, I play baritone guitar on this. Hercules And Sylvia – Similar in feel to the previous track, this one also features a great string arrangement by Dennis. Me on bass (again) and “Hello Hooray”-influenced harmony guitars. Grief Rehearsal – The other relatively new song on the album, this one was influenced by Jimmy Webb and Gene Clark. Pretty laid back for us, with Dennis on Chamberlin strings, me on tremelo guitar (and more baritone), Tom on bass and Teddy (under duress) on brushes. Thanks Jon. thejigsawseen.com RUST Magazine 33 Zanzibar III - Analog Prison December 12, 2014: There’s a cool new movement happening on the rock scene right now, and it’s something you might not expect. The rock opera is making a comeback. Our Project of the Year for 2014 was an Icelandic album (and stage show – check it out here) that energized listeners with a bright, modern and inspired collection of songs all built around a fantastic imaginary story line. The music world has been moving to a smaller and faster approach for years now, resulting in many bands releasing a song a month rather than an album a year. Contrary to this are bands like Look What I Did whose cartoonadelic over-the-top apporach to making dramatic rock music delivers a whole concept package of music and art. It’s part punk, and part sci-fi pulp fiction with a swashbuckling swagger and irreverence. It’s refreshing to see a band like Look What I Did complete an album that has so many layers and aspects to it because bands have not been attempting project like this since the golden age of albums like Tommy and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Zanzibar III: Analog Prison is a creative cluster of concepts that deliver real substance musically and philosophically. And it’s fun. And entertaining. And maybe even something of a guilty pleasure as listeners today have not been used to taking so much time to appreciate anything for so long. The rock opera never went away, of course, but there’s definitely a thirst on behalf of listeners who want more from their music, and from artists frustrated with the tiny boxes that they are relegated to by modern circumstances. Zanzibar III is also available in some incredibly cool limited edition multi-color LP’s with really nice album artwork. We’re really digging the sound of this album and the other big, new concept albums coming out – check it out! sosayweallrecords.bandcamp.com/album/zanzibar-iii-analog-prison Soft News - Used Melodies RUST Magazine recently interviewed James Raftery, half of the creative core behind Rat Wakes Red, along with Jeral Benjamin, who described his work as making “music so beautiful it hurts” and Used Melodies, the debut album from Soft News is just that. Erik Laroi – the man behind Soft News – takes a focused approach to defining his own particular musical space with intense, stripped-down and beautifully re-arranged songs from days past. Used Melodies is much more than a cover album, it’s truly new music in it’s own radiant way. What Soft News does so exceptionally is to isolate particular elements from a song, then re-embellish something new, built from elements of the old structure. Michael Dustin Youree August 6, 2014: Pushmethod’s Michael Dustin Youree stopped by to see RUST Magazine after nearly a year on the road. Ho posed for some photos, sang a few songs for us and we all took a swim in the cool rivers on Dahlonega, Georgia. Watch the videos on our YouTube channel. michaeldustinyouree.com All this is done with gorgeous vocals and immaculate production. The arrangements are so unique and complex that most people would not recognize any of the original songs except for having the same vocals. And the tone of songs is completely different from the original. Billy Idol’s top-40 hit Dancing With Myself here is a lonely ballad, and this is done for songs such as Love Touch by Rod Stewart, Separate Ways by Journey, Holocaust by Big Star and Red Headed Woman by Bruce Springsteen. Used Melodies is perplexing in it’s pleasing, and that’s what really makes it so unique and special. It’s like a multi-layered puzzle with no answer. Of course it’s the journey, not the destination in music, and Used Melodies is like a labyrinth of memories suspended in golden twilight. You’re forever losing and reconnecting with visions in a whole other time and space. Soft News traps you in it’s dream, and you cannot wake up. After a while, you stop trying to emerge from the dream and give in to it, letting it take you to places both dark and light. What’s even more interesting about his treatment is that there’s been a big movement in the post-rock space, especially in Europe where really, really great music is being made by slowing the music down and exposing unexpected things within it. It’s like people have been in such a hurry and so socially accelerated that we’re all craving the richness that comes with patience. Maybe that’s why this album, at this moment, is extra significant. It’s got a trans-generational appeal that speaks across time, and will continue to do so on it’s individual merits for a very long time to come. Whether you know the original songs or not, Used Melodies stands as a unique, personal, intimate album by a very special performer, supported by people like Charles Newman and Ray Ketchem and artists Lorraine Lelis, Margaret White, Perry Serpa and Jean Cook. Deep and rewarding, Used Melodies is itself a world without end. facebook.com/listentosoftnews 34 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 35 36 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 37 Jeremy Bass talks about Tenant October 11, 2014: 2014 has been – without a doubt – the year of the indie rock singer-songwriter. We’ve had amazing releases like Xander Smith, Matt Turk and Sean Watkins coming in one after the other, and they just keep getting better and better. The latest album to amaze us is Tenant by Jeremy Bass. It’s a daring, brave set of songs that strips away the mind’s trickery of camouflage and crutches, and bares the truth of an individual through words and music. It’s touching, relevant and excellent. Jeremy Bass is a bi-coastal singer/songwriter, published poet and literary critic and on Tenant his stunning lyrical and language skills are perfectly framed and beautifully displayed. His ability to paint pictures with words and music is simply superb and he takes the listener on journeys that are elegant, deep and seemingly endless. There’s a whole world lensed through the shimmering window of Tenant. Joining Jeremy are producer Matthew Vitti, bassist Pete Griffin, keyboardist and composer Aaron Kotler, members of Silouette Quartet, and a backing array of mandolin, banjo, and lap steel guitars who have all combined to craft an album that will surely stand the test of time. Together they have put together a collection of complex, poignant and personal songs that have been beautifully realized with love and attention to the finest detail. Very Highly Recommended. RUST Magazine was so taken with Tenant that we reached out to Jeremy to have him tell us about the recording of Tanant and a little about each song on the album. Here he is in his own words. RUST: First, Jeremy, this really is a great album. One could say that it took a lifetime to make it, so we’re curious, how long had you been working on some of the songs here? JB: Thanks so much. I think you could say that about a lot of first albums–it’s an artist’s first offering, and in a sense all the musical experiences they make up to that point go into that album. That being said, yes, the album took a long time to make, and some of the songs are quite old, as much as 8 years or more. Some of them I wrote in the first weeks and months after moving to NYC, and some were written as the album was being recorded. RUST: Who were some of the people that helped record this album? What was it about them that made them right for the project? JB: The core tracks were all recorded at Matthew Vitti’s MotherBrotherStudios in Bridgeport, CT. Matt is the main reason the album came to completion and sounds the way it does–he recorded all the guitars, vocals, mandolin and banjo, strings and piano, as well as playing and recording drums and percussion and writing all the string parts. He was perfect for the project, not only for his technical skills at mic placement, mixing and arranging, but also for his creativity and openness to helping me achieve what I was hearing but couldn’t make yet. We spent hours in his studio playing around with ideas until we found what worked, and Tenant wouldn’t exist without that sense of possibility and discovery. RUST: During the recording process, did the songs develop like you expected or did you find new directions as you worked through the ideas? JB: Because I’d lived with most of the songs for a long time, I had a pretty clear vision of what I wanted them to sound like, and what the arrangements and instrumentation would be on some of them. With other songs, the vision changed as we heard what the instrumentation sounded like, usually in the direction of less-is-more. “Gone,” for example, began as a kind of southern-rock anthem and ended up sparsely arranged with light percussion, organ and mandolin. RUST: Now that it is all done, how do you feel about it? JB: I love it, and I’m really happy about the reception it’s been getting. I feel, though, that I moved on to the next project some time ago. The mixing took quite a long time, as did the production and promotion, and in that intervening time I cooked up two batches of other songs and recorded them, each as their own EP, funded completely by my fans on Kickstarter. Winter Bare was recorded at New Monkey Studio in Los Angeles this past summer (Elliott Smith’s last studio), and I just finished recording the second EP, New York in Spring, last week at a new studio in Brooklyn called Creekside Sound. We’ve got quite a lot of work left to do, overdubs and arrangements and some more recording before the mixing process begins, but I hope these will come out in Winter and Spring of 2015. And while that’s going on, I’ll probably start in on something new–not sure what that will be yet. Brooklyn, also played on nearly all the tracks, sometimes contributing three or four keyboard layers, and Tenant wouldn’t be so lush without his contributions. Of course, I can’t thank my friends and fans enough for all the support they’ve given me while making and touring to support this album. RUST: Thanks Jeremy, what can you tell us about each of the songs? Pickup Lines for the Love of my Life: My first weeks in New York City. In May, everyone comes out of hiding, and they shed as many layers of clothes as possible. Ah, God be a gust of wind under a woman’s skirt. This is a fantasy, pure and simple, of finding the love of your life among the many beautiful passing faces in the crowd. Grey Days: My first apartment was an old, converted warehouse building in Bushwick that looked across a garbage-processing plant into a seemingly never-ending expanse of warehouses and row-buildings. There were a lot of cloudy, windy days that autumn, and I have to admit I’ve always suffered a bit from the shortening daylight of November and December (good ol’ seasonal affective disorder), and this was my attempt to get beyond that and just enjoy my time there. I was listening to a lot of Elliott Smith, which probably didn’t help my mood, but certainly informed the sound and structure of this song. The Road: A Paul Simon tribute, and my attempt at a semi-narrative song. One thing about NYC is that you can get trapped there, spending as much as a year without realizing you haven’t left. It really sucks the life out of you, but all you have to do is hop in a car (which nobody has usually) and get the hell out of town. I’m from New England, and for a while this became the simplest solution for the NYC blues. River, River: This is an old Peggy Lee tune. I was sitting around one night, listening to a bunch of her music, and was so taken with this song I decided I had to learn it. While I was puzzling out the chords, the thought occurred to me that Jeff Buckley would’ve done a killer version of it, and I tried to approximate the chord voicings and 6/8 cascading triplet rhythms he loved so much. So I can’t take too much credit here. Everyone’s gotta have a cover, right? Almost Empty: There’s a phenomenon in early Spring in New York City where everyone is so sick of winter and being cooped up in their apartments that as soon as it shows the slightest sign of being the least bit warmer than the day before, they rush out to have dinner or drinks in the outdoor patios and open-door cafes. Inevitably, however, some freezing torrent of spring rain comes crashing down and sends everyone running inside. I was one of those unfortunates one night in April, and I was thinking of my mother, who had died recently, and was trying to write a poem for her. I sketched out what later became these lyrics, and when I got home, realized that it could be a killer song instead of lame poem, and wrote the whole tune that night. Songs of Sex and Ritual: A reviewer recently called this my “rock opera anthem,” and I think I agree. Funny enough, the main melody was inspired by Bjork, but it ended up as something very different. Millimoon (Calvino): This is a re-telling of a short story by the great Italian post-modernist Italo Calvino, called “The Distance to the Moon.” It’s from a book called Cosmicomics, where each short story is a re-envisioning of a creation myth–how we came to be solid forms, how we first became land animals after living in the sea for so long, etc. This story is about a time when the moon was so close that people used to row out to it, lean ladders against its surface and climb up to harvest the delicious moon-milk. The narrator of the story is in love with someone else’s wife, and when she climbs up one time to search for milk, the moon starts to pull out into its current orbit, and he loses her forever. Calvino ends the story by saying that this passion and lost love is what causes our dogs to howl when the moon is full and close to the earth again. Gone: Lost love, a bad breakup, the middle of winter, and lessons that arrive just when they can do no good anymore. What are you gonna do but sing about it? These Hands: I wrote this song for my ex-wife to sing on her first album. Hard to believe, looking back, how violent it is, how indicative of the decline of our marriage. That’s the amazing thing about art–try as hard as you can, when you’re really committed to making something good, it can’t help but be authentic, and it reveals things you didn’t even know you thought or felt. We broke up soon after I wrote this tune. She never recorded it, so I decided to instead. The Thief’s Song: This was the first song I wrote as a make-up song. I’d really fucked up, and so it had to be good to get her back. It worked, for a time anyway. I think this may be my favorite tune on the album right now. The Bridge: Let’s end on an positive note. This is still New York City, after all–life, people, chaos, possibility, dreams. And Matt’s kick-ass percussion moving things along. jeremybassmusic.com RUST: Is there anybody you want to thank for supporting you while you worked on Tenant? JB: Certainly Matthew Vitti, for numerous reasons. Pete Griffin, a touring and session musician, bass-player extraordinaire from Los Angeles, played on every track, and without him this album wouldn’t be what it is. Aaron Kotler, a brilliant jazz pianist and composer from 38 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 39 Fred Gillen Jr. talks about Wage Love photos © 2013 Tom Kristich January 8, 2015: Several years ago, when the economy collapsed, there was a communal need in our country to revisit our roots culturally and to seek wisdom, guidance and comfort in the things that our predecessors found solace in. Bands like The Blueflowers, The Great Tribulation, The Grahams and Jared Grabb came to be grouped in – what we called – the New Rustbelt Sound. Bringing back musical memories of the dust bowl and the lonely sounds of dark heartland artists like Patsy Cline and Roy Orbison, these new voices joined a long and distinguished lineage of poets and rebels disenchanted with the shine and finding substance in the shadow. Of course, these voices were never silent. They never have been and the never will be. But this new generation of musicians were doing amazing work at a time when their relevance, which had been neglected while the world was distracted with other fads, suddenly became essential. It’s been a few years since then and there has been a continuation of the development of Great Americana music with bands like The Fugitives, The End Times, Sean Watkins and Cabinet merging the country and the city, and the new and the old into fresh, vibrant, relevant music. Last year, we picked Matt Turk’s Cold Revival as our album of the year. Like the other current and historical works that defined the American, and the human experience, Matt delivered a unique, personal and superb collection of music in the classic American singer-songwriter space. One of the other people involved in that album, and a co-creator and performer with Matt is Fred Gillen Jr. who is about to release his new album Wage Love, and it’s going to make history. Or perhaps it’s going to join other great works in the endless history of our world. Reaching back to those first definitive union anthems, Wage Love bridges the generations and eras of our shared culture to find profound truths both new and old in the quietness of poverty – either fiscal or philosophical. Matt also joins Fred on this album playing mandolin, and just as with Cold Revival, a dedicated core group of people have helped Fred realize this expression of his music. A prolific poet and musician, Fred Gillen Jr. has an archive of work going back almost 20 years. He’s released solo albums as well as working with groups like Hope Machine and he’s been heavily involved with the arts community in his home region of upper New York. Wage Love is focused more on political and social issues than his previous work, and it gives the album a specificity that accentuates it’s relevance and timeliness. This is an album with something to say. It has a self-evident importance and clear identity. RUST Magazine gives it our highest recommendation, but we wanted to hear from Fred about what he thinks about it himself and he graciously answered a few questions for us: RUST: A few years ago, there was a big resurgence in what might be called Americana Roots music, while it is now becoming somewhat less present in the public space. Perhaps times aren’t as profoundly hard as they were a couple years ago, maybe people have adjusted to a new normal. You finely interpret the spirit of that moment with the song Occupy Your Own Mind, did you write this as a cautionary message not to forget the occupy movement as well as the other moments that inspired other people to write about their times? FGJR: We definitely do quickly adjust to a new normal. I think Occupy Your Own Mind was more of a “here is what is” song for me. I had that word occupy rolling around in my head for a long time. I set out to write a very “political” protest song, but wound up with something else. The two verses are about two things I think about a lot. We’ve wound up in a situation where our so- called leaders can only get elected by coming up with a whole lot of money. Citizens United made that even worse- now corporations can “donate” so much money anonymously. In Germany where they have publicly-funded elections they’d call a private donation to a candidate a bribe! Duh! Also every President has been a male over 6 feet tall who was educated at one of just a few colleges. We elected a black man president, which to me was frankly surprising and great, but we did it before we ever elected a woman. Twenty years ago I would have said you were crazy if you told me that would happen. With how racist this country seems to be I think this illustrates how sexist it also still is. Woman still don’t have equal pay for equal work, and are still culturally treated as objects pretty easily in the media and in our daily conversations. In the midst of all of this, in the northeast we had a big hurricane a couple of years ago and the reason that seniors and disabled people without electricity got meals and heat was because Occupy Sandy organized and made it happen. They had a lot of help from churches and synagogues and other organizations, but Occupy were the organizers. This gives me great hope! The Occupy movement was bigger, more organized, and accomplished more than the mainstream media, which is owned and run by the Wall Street folks, showed us. The great thing is that the occupy movement didn’t go anywhere. They’re still here!!! RUST: As a whole culture, with hindsight it appears that America lost some of it’s own self-identity in the gilded age before the crash and they looked to the music of old – as you might phrase it – to regain that sense of cultural pride when hard times returned. Perhaps people felt that they had to now earn that which was previously so easily bought, and they had a new appreciation for it. Are you wary that this righteous message is beginning to again fade as times continue to change? 40 RUST Magazine FGJR: Living in the Hudson Valley I guess I don’t see this as much, because it has not faded here at all. I don’t think it ever fades anyway – I think it just stops getting televised for a while until it becomes sexy again. But I do think that the hard times give it a sense of urgency. The thing about this music is that it is a community-building thing, and in hard times we all need community in a more urgent way. I think American cultural pride is still out there, but it is more underground, or perhaps more local. RUST: But I’m making it sound as though this style was sealed away in a “break glass in case of emergency” container, and of course it wasn’t. You’ve been active for about 20 years, as have fantastic artists like Matt Turk. You must have met some amazing people along that journey, can you share a story with us about one person that inspired you along the way? FGJR: Of course the first person who comes to mind is Pete Seeger. The last time I played with Pete was after a parade in Beacon with a group of school children. The event was “Spirit of Beacon Day.” Pete had helped create this event because he observed, many years ago when he moved to Beacon, that the town was basically segregated, and he wanted to for at least one day a year integrate it. He and some other folks created this event in September every year. Anyhow, here was the guy who co-wrote Turn Turn Turn and If I Had A Hammer playing on the street after a parade! This is very inspiring. When Pete’s career and livelihood were taken away from him by HUAC and the black-listing, he took it to the streets and schools, and I think he found out that that’s where it belonged! I was fortunate to get to spend much more than my share of time with Pete, because of a few people who seemed determined to put me in the room with him. Matt Turk, David Bernz, Susan Wright, Rick Rock of Tribes Hill- they all put me in the room or on stage with Pete, along with a few other folks, over the years. Knowing him and having spent some quality time with him it is hard to imagine him on the mall with Springsteen at the inauguration. That last time I played a gig with him he taught us a new verse he’d written for “This Land” about fracking. He said “last week I sang this at Farm Aid with Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and that nice young man Bruce Springsteen.” Sure enough I looked it up, and there it was on Youtube. Dave Matthews and Mellencamp were also there. “NY is your home, NY is my home, from the upstate mountains down to the ocean’s foam, with all kinds of people, we’re all polychrome, NY was made to be frack free.” Polychrome- such a Pete kind of word! I wasn’t close to Pete the same way Turk was, but boy do I miss him. We all do! RUST: It’s just the new year. Hello 2015. As another new year begins, do you have hope that a new generation of musicians has looked to people like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie to inspire them as they grow as musicians? FGJR: Hope Machine did a lot of work with the Woody Guthrie Foundation/ archives. Anna Canoni, Nora Guthrie’s daughter, got us a lot of gigs playing Woody songs. It always struck me that the “myth” of Woody Guthrie was very appealing. He is really kind of a classic outlaw/ underdog. I think one of the things that they do at the foundation is attempt to tell the real story without undermining the myth. Kind of interesting. When I consider that This Land was never on the radio or television (until the Obama inauguration) but almost everyone in this country knows the song, I’ve got to figure that something big is going on. I talked to Cy Hamlin, the guy who designed the Clearwater Sloop, on the phone this summer. Some story about Pete and the Clearwater came up and he said “that’s not how it happened but it is a good story so let’s let it stand.” At 94 he had the wisdom and humility to let the myth be built, and to know he was a little part of it. He understands that the Clearwater is not just a boat and not just a currently active vehicle for change, but also a part of a mythology. It helped get the Clean Air & Water Act passed, after all! So it is with Woody and Pete. I think some of what happened in their lives is just what happened, just the chaos of life. I also think they made large and small choices which changed the course of their lives, and therefore changed their legacies. Woody left a good-paying radio job because he was censored there. In the moment the impact it had on his life was that he was broke but had his integrity, but in the long term it changed everything. This was a very difficult choice. Woody met Will Geer and Will brought him to see the jungle camps, and this politicized him. Was this luck? Maybe they were “meant” to meet. Maybe it was inevitable. In any case, Pete and Woody’s decisions made a difference. What strikes me is how many of these decisions were made for the sake of integrity. More than the music, this is what I hope young musicians get out of their stories. Integrity is something worth fighting and suffering for, in my opinion. If Wall Street had more of it we wouldn’t need an “Occupy” movement! Now we’ve got “B-corporations,” and I’m hopeful we’ll have more RUST Magazine 41 humane capitalism in the future! But there are a handful of people grasping a big pile of money and they’ve been pulling strings, greasing palms, and even breaking laws for a long time to get it. We don’t have to ask what Pete would do, because he was at Occupy Wall Street, at 93 years old! Pete and Woody were human and flawed, but they are also archetypical heroes, and both were very stubborn about their integrity. I think a lot of young artists recognize that about them. RUST: So, we’re both big fans of Matt Turk. You’ve worked with him and toured with him. We gave him album of the year. Do you have a funny (and hopefully mildly embarrassing) story to tell about your mutual adventures? FGJR: Most of the funny stories I have from touring with Turk I don’t want to tell in print because it could hurt the other people involved. Suffice it to say it is always an adventure. The thing I love most about Turk is that he isn’t necessarily as happy-go-lucky as he appears, but he WORKS at being positive, I’d say at all times. I think if it came as easily as it appears it wouldn’t have the impact it has. He brings positivity everywhere he goes. He manifests it in the world. It is the same with the music- he makes the mandolin sound easy, but I can tell you he’s worked very hard at it, studying with Barry Mitterhoff of Hot Tuna and practicing many hours a day. Our Spring tour is going to be called the “Love Revival Tour.” Wage Love, Cold Revival. But that’s kind of who Turk is- a walking love revival. He sort of refuses to accept negativity! A great friend. Actually he’s more than a friend, he’s family. RUST: Who are some of the other people who helped make Wage Love? What about them made them right for this album? FGJR: It’s funny. When I first started working on the album, Tom Kristich, the photographer, called me. He said he wanted to shoot some photos of me at an abandoned Department of Public Works garage near his house. We had to climb through a fence, and walk past broken bottles and a fire pit where kids hang out and drink at night, and there we found the torn American flag on the ground. I picked it up and brought it with us for the shoot. I know a whole bunch of great singers, including great folks like Abbie Gardner and Laurie MacAllister of the band Red Molly and Brooke Campbell, who have sung on my records. I met Laura Bowman when my cousin jazz drummer Brian Woodruff suggested I call her to play at a songwriters night in Astoria, Queens that she hosted. She turned out to be really community-oriented and we kept in touch. Last year she did a project called “Busk or Bust,” where she planned to busk her way across the country until she ran out of money, and make a documentary about it. It was supposed to be a film about not being able to make a living as a musician, really about having to go home out of money. She wound up on the road for the whole summer, going to the West Coast and back. I think this really transformed her. So though I really like her singing, I called her for more personal than musical reasons, thinking that she was right for this record in a personal sense. About 95% of what she sang she arranged. “I Dreamed I Saw Pete Seeger” I wrote at the last minute, so Laura heard it for the first time just before she sang it! Talk about a home run! She put out a great ep recently called “Troubadour.” Paul Magliari is just groovy as a drummer. He made “We The People” less square, and “Election Day” more musical. I’m currently recording, at my studio, an album with him of his music. His music is a bit like early Genesis. He calls it “conceptual pop.” I thought of Turk as soon as I wrote “Ghost of Joe Hill.” He says he thinks he went to a new place singing on “Freedom Highway,” and I agree. He also helped me work out the arrangement for that, because we’re singing what the audience usually sings. Lastly Jeffry Braun, who designed the cover, named the album. I’ve been giving away “Wage Love” stickers for almost 15 years now but I never would have named the album that! RUST: We The People is *one* of our favorite songs on the album, can you tell us a little about it? FGJR: I wrote what I’d call the first finished drafts of that and Killing Machine in 2003, after the war in Iraq started. Killing Machine didn’t undergo much revision after that. That one wrote itself. I made a quick, limited-run e.p. called “We The People” that summer because I was angry about the government’s reaction to 9/11. The first concert I ever played with Pete Seeger probably in 2005 I sang that version of We The People, and he told me it was important and I should keep working on it and keep singing it. I’ve been revising it since then. Ten years! I’d thought about including it because I knew it sort of fit, and when Pete passed away last January I kind of felt a sense of responsibility for the song, because Pete told me to work on it. I think a lot of songwriters in the Hudson Valley feel a similar sense of responsibility, because it will take all zillion of us to do anything like what Pete did. When I get really down and cynical I pick up my little paperback of the constitution and Declaration of Independence, and remind 42 RUST Magazine myself that the constitution and the people are the country, not the current politicians. We the People! It is our country! When you join the Army you swear an oath to uphold the constitution. This is bigger than any political party or person! RUST: The album isn’t out yet, but maybe you have you heard from some people about it already? Which songs seems to be the ones other folks like the best? FGJR: Well, “Killing Machine” has been around a while, and I’ve heard from a lot of veterans and other people over the years about that song. That song seems to really work. It is a difficult story to hear but the music seems to open people’s ears to it. “Walking Down That Freedom Highway” has been a big song for me live since I wrote it, and is already being covered by local Hudson Valley songwriter Scoot Horton. (We cover a lot of each other’s songs up here!) “Election Day” nobody seems to want to hear, though it is probably my favorite song on the record. I know it is a tough one, but I think it speaks the truth. I’ve just started singing “Cost of War” live and that one has also been wellreceived. “I Dreamed I Saw Pete Seeger,” though the closing song on the record, has been a great opening song at solo shows. It really brings everyone into the room, so to speak. RUST: Thanks Fred, one last question, is there one artist out there right now that people should be listening to? FGJR: Well- the first person I thought of was Chris Moore. http://www. mooresong.com/ I’ve been a fan for years and we’ve gotten to know each other and played some shows together. He’s out of Brooklyn, but was the drummer of the 80’s Detroit hardcore/ punk band Negative Approach before he became a singer/ songwriter. He’s got a new ep and a new full-length album out. fredgillenjr.com Check it out: Go Betty Go’s Reboot January 20, 2015: Die-hard fans will remember Go Betty Go from two Warped tours plus a lot of SoCal and Mexico gigs, and they’re back (and badder than ever) with their suprise new album Reboot. The orginal foursome of Michelle Rangel, Betty Cisneros, Nicolette Vilar and Aixa Vilar have re-assembled and are re-emerging with an anthemic 6-song album that kicks butt, then chases it down the street and kicks it again! Strong, soulful and full of depth and intensity Reboot sounds great all around. It’s a classic punk band with a unique self-identity delivering fresh music that showcases a huge reservoir of stored-up energy and intention. It’s a confident quartet at work here with a little help from producer Ted Hutt and the result is an album that’s rock solid – and a lot of fun. Go Betty Go keeps it real… real punk rock – check it out! gobettygo.com RUST Magazine 43 44 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 45 IP: Mum and Dad to start that off. They’ve always been behind us 100% After that it’s hard because so many people have helped us get to where we are. For one example: our friend Michelle from 45 South Café just put on a big album release party for us and did such an awesome job promoting it and named a cheeseburger after us and everything. And on top of that she’s pretty much convinced her son that we’re super heroes or something. So there’s been tons of people like that having us play for house parties or letting us open for them at a show or inviting us into their homes for a night and there are so many to thank. IP: When we put our first EP out I thought that was the biggest thing we would ever do. All we wanted was to have one person that was a complete stranger to us say that they were a fan. I never thought we’d be on our third independent album though, I absolutely love doing it all ourselves. RUST: The album sounds really good, can you tell us a little about the recording process? Highbeams: One Word July 22, 2014: Recently, one of RUST Magazine’s top secret investigative listenening secret agents messaged us about a band with a cool sound, original and stylish material, and who put on a great live show. Highbeams truly is a band of brothers, comprised of Adam Pendlington, Ian Pendlington, and Stephen Quinn, and their new album One Word is a collection of indie folk-rock with a distinctive, likeable sound. One Word follows up their 2013 release Keeping Tomorrow in Mind, and the band has been getting a lot of love playing regionally around their Georgia home base. In fact they self-recorded the album at home and it sounds great. The guys put a lot of effort into their music and the cd is a really nice overall package. Highbeams has crisp timing, gentle instrumentation and a wide range of thematic ability – they’ve got a good thing going and they’re sharing it through their music. Highbeams is really a good example of where the music world is at right now. You’ve got talented, dedicated people like them out there just doing it. There’s an enthusiasm to what they do that carries over into their music, and we commend them on their moxy. Check out Highbeam’s new album One Word, it’s full of fun, folky rock with a fresh sound and an authentic positivity. RUST Magazine was curious about Highbeams and we reached out to Ian Pendlington to talk to us a little about it RUST: We heard about you because of your live show, what do you think you bring to the stage that’s unique and that people are responding to? IP: We recorded the whole thing in our basement. We used to only do our demos down there before paying for the big pro studio version, but we eventually got good enough that we were really liking our home recordings. There was no rush to lay everything down and if a song didn’t sound good we could just start over completely. The first track on the album had at least five different versions, and then there was one or two songs that we got right on the first try somehow haha. IP: Pretty much just playing to as many new people as we possibly can. The more we Adam and Ian Pendlington, Stephen Quinn play, the better things get. We feel like we really got our sound right for this album so this is the time for us to work our hardest getting RUST: Do you write whole ideas and then record them, or do you discover it out there. We couldn’t be happier with the response so far. We’re very excited for whatever happens next. songs more in the recording process? IP: We always get really excited and try to record when it’s just an idea but that almost never works for us. There are certain parts of a song that you don’t think of until you record and hear it though, which is why being able to start over is so awesome. The whole rap god part on “If I Give Up” wasn’t on it until the very last version. highbeamsmusic.com RUST: The three of you compliment each other and you share writing credit, what’s the vibe like when you’re crafting new music? Is it competitive or cooperative? IP: People always comment on our energy when we play live, especially when there aren’t many people at a show. People really like watching you loving what you’re doing and loving the people you’re doing it with. Whenever we first started doing shows we always wanted that to come through live. IP: It’s very cooperative. A lot of the time Adam brings something to me or to both of us that he can’t quite finish and then with a couple play throughs we can tell if something feels good. Some songs can seem barely there and then we all play it together and it pretty much writes itself. We all know each other really well and anticipate each other when we’re improvising in the early stages. It’s always a really good feeling. RUST: Can you tell us a little about your early times together, did you ever imagine the three of you would be putting out albums and playing on the road? RUST: Who are some of the people that have helped you get to where you are right now? 46 RUST Magazine RUST: Thanks Ian, last question, what’s next for Highbeams? Watch the videos from our November 25, 2014 session with Highbeams in Ball Ground, Georgia plus their Hard Rock Cafe gig in Atlanta on February 26, 2015 on our YouTube channel. youtube.com/user/rustzine RUST Magazine 47 5 Tips to Break Through and Get Exposure November 21, 2014: Being a music writer, and focusing on the indie scene, I’ve seen a lot of lists and tips lately advising aspiring artists on how to break through and get some exposure. Some of this advice is good, and some isn’t – like all advice – but the truth is that there isn’t a play book or check list of things that will universally work. And there is a big mis-assumption that there is somewhere to break through to… in a lot of ways there isn’t. The best most bands can hope for is to have a tour where you don’t lose a ‘lot’ of money, and to have enough money to record your next album. Sorry kids, but that’s about as good as it gets these days. Having reviewed and interviewed hundreds of bands, and being the one on the receiving end of all the emails and promotional posts, I’m going to add to the clutter of similar articles with my personal take on the things that get my attention, and that get written about. 1: Hire a good PR person. I get dozens of emails daily about new music. They all sound the same, and I can’t read most of them – because I have a life and things to do – and I already have a backlog of articles to finish. But, when a PR person I have a relationship with messages me and asks me to take a special look at an artist, I do it 100% of the time. A good PR person will be able to cut through the red tape, if you can afford them. The truth of our modern world is that it is pay to play, and if you want to cut to the front of the line it’s going to cost you. 2: Get a good band photo. This is probably the number one tip above all others. Before someone will listen to you, they will see you. Whether it’s on an album cover, a social post or an email message, there will be a visual image of you that people will see before they hear your music, and this is the sizzle that sells the steak. Again, a good shot will cost you, but a bad shot or a lack of one will cost you even more. 3: Videos, videos and more videos. They don’t have to be fancy. They don’t have to be from an expensive camera. They don’t even have to be good! Seriously. But you’ve got to have them, and the more the better. YouTube is the number one promotional platform for music. Having a video link gives you the “thing” to blog about and for your fans to share. If you had started doing a video a week last year, you would have 50 videos online right now and that would give the search engines something to find… and that’s how people will find you. Making The Video - Eight ‘O Five Jive October 31, 2014: RUST Magazine shot the official music video for the song Young Enough To Be My Son by Eight O’ Five Jive from the album Too Many Men with a little help from the band and starring Nick Currier as “Guido.” It was a fast and furious shoot in three locations and barely half a day but everybody was on time and ready to shoot. You can watch the video on our YouTube chanel and check out the band at eightofivejive.net 4: Write a personal letter. I can tell the difference between a form letter and a personally written letter in my email box instantly. I trash the form letters and read the personal ones, and when a band takes their time to write to me personally, and to ask me if I want to check them out I say yes 100% of the time. Even if I don’t have time to write a full review I will take my time and blog about them if they have taken their time to write to me. I consider it being polite. Remember, music writers are people too. Try to make a personal connection. 5: Be so good they can’t ignore you. This quote is attributed to Steve Martin, and if you have exceptional talent, and an authentic belief in yourself and satisfaction with your artistic accomplishment, it shows through no matter what the medium. If you believe in yourself, others will believe in you, so don’t try to sell yourself, let your talent sell itself. And if, like most musicians, you fail to find commercial success, you will have the pride of accomplishment within yourself. That’s something you cannot buy no matter how much money you make and it’s also something that can never be taken away from you. A little more personal advice? Relax and enjoy your time in the band. You might make money, you might not, but the time people spend expressing their art and their rock and roll spirit together with like-minded people defines them and grows their humanity and depth. There is a 99.9% probability that you’re not going to break through, so if you orient your life around that and it doesn’t happen, you’ll feel that you have failed. So make the music that you want and be grateful that you are privileged enough to have a life where you even have the chance to spend your time making music. PHOTO: World War IX 48 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 49 Cam-Jam Festival On October 5th, 2014 at the Red Clay Theatre in Duluth, Georgia, RUST Magazine and AMP Artist Management and Promotion presented the first Cam-Jam Festival and it was a star-studded night of amazing performances. Eddie Owen Presents, Galerie Wardrobe Boutique, Tree Sound Studios and the Deadwood Guitar Company all helped make it a great event and you can watch all the videos at Ralph Roddenbery ralphroddenbery.com youtube.com/user/camjamfest Copious Jones The Pussywillows copiousjones.com thepussywillowsmusic.com Donna Hopkins Band Uncommon Kind feat. Sam French donnahopkins.com facebook.com/ UncommonKind 50 RUST Magazine Deep Blue Sun The BJ Wilbanks Band deepbluesun.com bjwilbanks.com RUST Magazine 51 Interview with Bill Fay from Roman Ring November 14, 2014: Recently I went to Chicago to visit family and do some interviews and one of the very cool people I wound up talking to was Bill Fay who plays guitar for Roman Ring. Along with bandmates Nate, Franco, Jason and Danny they’re making some tough Chicagostyle math metal, and since it’s been a long time since I was on the scene there, I was curious to hear what things were like today. EP: So I’ll date myself here with a story about 1983 when Black Sabbath came to town with Ian Gillan from Deep Purple on vocals. I was just seventeen and really didn’t understand ticket buying so I went all the way down to the venue to buy my tickets. I wound up getting delayed and lost and showed up at a lone ticket booth in an empty parking lot downtown thinking I was late for the 10am tickets to go on sale, and that the show had sold out already. It turned out that the first ten rows had been reserved until noon and I wound up with front row seats. The show was amazing. How could it not be? Black Sabbath X Deep Purple?! Was there one particular show you saw back in the day that really changed things for you? BF: For me that would have been the Rage Against The Machine’s reunion show at alpine valley in ’07. I was completely blown away by how many people were at that show and 100% into it and screaming the lyrics. There was also a pretty sweet mudslide that if you stepped on it you were going down it whether you wanted to our not. EP: What about today? Who are some of the Chicago people that are putting on the best metal shows? BF: Currently I’d say bands like Thieves, Jar’d Loose, Ox King, Wasted Fortune, all these bands put on really great shows with either great energy, tight playing, and just looking like they’re having a good time on stage. EP: What’s the best current metal album in your opinion? What makes it so? BF: When we met a few days ago I mentioned that I’m not a really good metal head, but I have been listening to more metal the last few years. Unlike some of my band mates I don’t go too far down the rabbit hole of finding metal bands. Currently there are three bands that come to mind that are current, but are all probably due for another album by now are, Cattle Decapitation, Obscura, and Spawn of Possession. All of them have some crazy technical styles, with drummers that blast at a 1000 bpms, singers that sound like pigs vomiting, and really catchy riffs. What Travis Ryan does Vocally on Cattle Decapitation’s Monolith of Inhumanity you’d have to get 6 vocalist from other bands to do what he does, the guy’s range is insane and not human. Christian Muenzner who is in Spawn of Possession and formally Obscura is one of my favorite guitarist regardless of genre, he is another one that plays like he’s not even human. The drummers in those bands are all amazing, but of the 3 Hannes Grossmann of obscura is my favorite EP: Is there a Chicago band from days past that you think should have gotten more exposure? Maybe a lost treasure people outside the city don’t know about? BF: My number one pick from that was this band called O’Glorious Leader, I’ll admit I’m a little biased because I have been in bands with several of the members, two of which are my best friends, but that’s because of this band. In the sea of local bands from back in the day they were one of the ones that just shocked the shit out of me. I was going to a show to see Small Town Murder (the band I would join and become Roman Ring) and some other locals and OGL happened to be on the bill. They got up on stage and for 30 minutes just killed it and I was hooked. After that I was determined have my band do shows and go to as many shows of theirs as I could. Unfortunately it was relatively short lived after that and they disbanded a few years after that show. If you do a quick Google search you’ll find their sweet MySpace page they haven’t touched in years, but it’s sweet that it still exists, just make sure you blow the dust off. EP: What about the clubs, where are the hottest shows happening right now? BF: One of my personal favorites is Cobra Lounge for so many reasons; amazing staff, great stage and room, awesome sound, and when the kitchen is open one of the best buffalo chicken sandwiches ever! Other great venues would be live wire, which is small but some of my favorite shows I’ve played and seen were there. The empty bottle is sweet, the sound there always sounds good, I’ve yet to play there but I’ve seen some awesome shows there. The bottom lounge is sweet, also great food, however it’s massive place and they get a lot of big acts that I’m not too into. shows being booked you’d see the Unholy logo on the flier and you still do. More specifically Eddie Gobbo books some really awesome bands and sets up some great shows for us even before he was a part of Unholy. Rick Linus the guy in charge of the label has been really great to work with! EP: You just released the Babel EP which moves fast and hits hard. There’s a lot packed in there. Do you come into the studio with your ideas already mostly constructed or is there a lot of improv and discovery as you put the songs together? BF: Being technical metal we really try to construct 99% of the music before recording, that other 1% is reserved for solos and drum fills and outros. On recordings I like to keep it pretty straight forward, it isn’t until we are playing live that I’ll get a little crafty because then I have my pedal board in front of me and I get to make a bunch of wacky sounds. Nate’s not a fan of that, but it puts a smile on my face and our friends that know our songs well enough to know that when they hear my guitar sound like a slide whistle I’m clearly fucking off. EP: Can you tell us a little about your gear kit? What are some of the effects and tools you use to really define your sound? BF: I’ve acquired a lot of gear of over the years and tend to switch stuff out from time to time but the main gear I always go back to are my Ibanez S prestige that I absolutely love but it doesn’t look like it cause it’s taken some beatings and a Parker Nitefly that I completely stripped and refinished and built a pick guard for with one pick up. To me it’s a great live guitar because it’s really simple and less likely to have any issues. For an amp I’ve been using my Peavey 6505+ for a while now cause it’s not too expensive and it sounds great, plus I’ve been using an effects loop now and as a result using that with my mesa two channel the effects don’t sound as good. The Peavey holds a special place in my heart because I completely change up it’s looks with a new front and white tolex. For cabs I switch between and Engl with v30’s and g12k-100’s and a Framus Cobra with an x pattern of v30’s and greenbacks. However I’ve recently started building cabs and even impressed myself with the way they’ve come out so I’ll be playing those soon. For pedals I’m not to crazy, I have my boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor to help cut back on extra noise, a boss tu-2 tuner which everyone should have, everyone! Boss DD-3 delay, CE-3 Chorus Ensemble, RV-5 Reverb all go through my effects loop which makes switching on and off of all three easy with the peavey. Honestly with our current set I’ll only switch these on 3 or 4 times for a few seconds. I have a PS-5 Pitch Shifter which is a lot of fun, I use it to dive bomb because my parker has a fixed bridge and the whammy bar on my Ibanez broke several times and I gave up fixing it. Last I have a Dimebag Darrell signature wah and an digitech whammy 2, which everyone assumes because I have these I’m a huge pantera fan, and sadly I’m not really, I just think that particular wah is one of the best Dunlop makes, and with the whammy I like making slide whistle sounds. EP: OK, last question. Music is the same worldwide, and metal fans are equally rabid everywhere, but what makes a Chicago metal fan special? BF: The thing that makes a Chicago metal fan special would be dedication. Honestly the metal scene in Chicago has really gone down since I was a kid going to metal shows. Chicago really isn’t a big market for metal which is why a lot of metal acts usually don’t come through here or at the least play in the suburbs. Being such a small group I feel like people are a little more picky when it comes to their metal, so if you can hook a Chicago metal head to like your band you’re doing something special. facebook.com/RomanRing A Love Letter to TG and the Swampbusters January 14, 2015: Here at RUST Magazine we liked roots-rocker Tim Gibbons’ new project so much, we actually wrote him a love letter instead of a review: Dear TG and the Swampbusters, We love you. You are so cool. We love the way you play guitar and we love your funky down-low beats. We love the way you keep it so real, and we love how you write your songs. We love your swagger and your style and we love your new CD Swamp Tooth Comb. You are our very favorite roots rockers. We listen to your album all day long and at night and we play it in the car and we nod our heads up and down while we drive down the road. We told all the other kids at school about it too! We think you are awesome. So, if you’re not dating another music magazine, can we go steady? EP: Who are some of the people really driving or contributing behind the scenes? Maybe a producer or promoter? Love, RUST Magazine BF: The group Unholy Empire is doing some awesome stuff, however I’m being biased because they are our label. Even before that most swampbusters.ca 52 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 53 Motopony – A Legend Is Born November 2, 2014: The Last night, on November 1st in Atlanta, Motopony, RUST Magazine and DooGallery collided in a night of music and art – and it was amazing. Wrapping up their North American tour and getting ready to head overseas, the six members of Motopony set up at the Buy It or Burn It art show and we had all our cameras rolling. Though we’d been listening to their latest EP Idle Beauty for a few days, nothing could have prepared us for the intensity, the originality and the excellence they brought to their live performance. It was – in a word – legendary. Motopony is a thoroughly modern art rock band that could perhaps be best compared to the Talking Heads in their diversity of musical skill, their originality of songwriting and the simple wow factor of hearing their different personalities come together. Here at RUST Magazine all we do is document musical artists. We do it all day, every day. We only cover the best, and Motopony showed themselves to be just that last night. We’ll have photos and videos from the night coming soon but right now, RUST Magazine is calling it: Motopony was the best live band we saw all year. They’re mesmerizing. They have what it takes to command the biggest stages and we see things happening for them on a global scale. They’re just one of those bands that takes their music into new and extreme places with amazing technical skill, original songwriting and a unique group personality. They have a “bigness” that is undeniable. Motopony takes inspiration through a time machine, starting with The Beatles, and through the alt-rock space of bands like Modest Mouse, then projecting it into a whole other, new space and time that is thoroughly their own. What comes through when Daniel Blue (Vox + Guitar), Forrest Mauvais (Drums), Mike Notter (Guitar + Vox), Terry Mattson (Bass + Vox), Andrew Butler (Keys + Vox), and Nate Daley (Guitar + Vox) unite is nothing short of magical. This stellar group of dedicated, intelligent and creative artists became much more than the sum of its parts when they played, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be there to see and hear it. Motopony is “that band” which is just so good, that they set their own standard. The technical setup for the show was extremely complex. It was analog heaven with old school tools delivering a vintage rock band sound. We haven’t seen a band on this scale with this much gear ever, and their tools were masterfully put to use for the stage show. Motopony is a behemoth of both vintage and contemporary rock and roll. They have deep roots in the psychedelic rock space, and they’ve taken their sound well beyond today and into the future. People will be listening to – and will still be amazed by Motopony – decades from now. What RUST Magazine saw last night was a band thoroughly embodying the greatest ideals of the combination of music and art. With six performers, some of whom mixed and swapped instruments during the show, Motopony has a complexity in both concept and execution. They are as good as it gets. Amazing talent like this comes together incredibly rarely, and we are extremely grateful that we not only had the evening to experience them, but to document this moment in their history. It was truly an enlightening and inspiring experience… then when it was all over everybody went out behind the gallery and burned art. Ryan Boss @ The Hard Rock December 1, 2014: We caught Ryan Boss on stage at the Hard Rock Cafe in Atlanta, Georgia for an evening of originals and covers. Watch the five videos on our YouTube channel. ryanbossmusic.com Well, we burned some of the art. It was Buy It or Burn It after all. Today, as the sun rose, and the implications of what Motopony did last night truly sank in, all we can hope for is that – through our lens – the world will see that there is a new, truly great art rock band that has come to full maturity and potency in our presence. Perhaps, like the sparks from the late night fire behind DooGallery, we can hope that the work we did last night to document Motopony will carry their radiance on the wind, alighting the minds of people everywhere with fascination and reverence. motoponymusic.com 54 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 55 The Lost Patrol – Chasing Shadows October 21, 2014: The Lost Patrol is one of our favorite bands here at RUST, but what really impresses us about them is the respect and admiration they get from their peer musicians. Again and again, we hear amazing things being said about them from other bands, and this is a testament how good they are. They’re the band folks want to gig with and who travel to their shows just to see them. We’ve been talking about them a lot in conjunction with the Rustbelt sound that sprang up several years ago, and the last time we reviewed their album Driven we broke our own scale and called the album Obligatory. Chasing Shadows is another great album in the Noir space that The Lost Patrol has explored so distinctly in their music. Part sci-fi, part grindhouse, each song is an acoustic treat, meticulously detailed with production and effects that make every aspect of the music significant. On Chasing Shadows, long time bandmates Mollie Israel, Stephen Masucci, and Michael Williams are now joined by drummer Tony Mann, and the band has never sounded better. The Lost Patrol is a group with excellence of writing and performing skills, and personalities, on par with a group like Genesis. They really are that good and the music they have been making is simply astounding again and again. We’ve said so many good things about this band we reached out to guitarist-keyboardist Stephen Masucci to tell us a few things in his own words about the band and this latest album: RUST: Stephen, what are some of the tools and techniques you use to craft the sound of the band and this album? SM: Most of the sound of the band is actually in the writing, and, almost more importantly, in the arranging. So much of the arranging really defines the character of the sound and song. Having said that, we keep a small studio at the rehearsal space that we do most of our work in. The equipment selection is always evolving but we’ve been using primarily an Allen and Heath analog board coupled to an Alesis HD24 recorder. There’s a small selection of Lexicon reverbs, Spectra Sonics mic preamps and a few mics. Nothing exotic at all, really. The instruments we use are more or less standard but do include some nice keyboard instruments like a Moog modular synth, various digital synths, omnichords, etc. We really just use whatever suits the song at the time. Very little of our material is recorded “live” in the traditional sense. We usually record by overdubbing tracks as we go, adding parts and building the mix as we record. When we’re done recording the last track, the mix on the board is usually very close to the song’s final mixed version. RUST: How do the song ideas grow and develop? Do you all start with pre-written lyrics and notes and such, or do concepts come from audio experimentation and then accumulate specifics to grow into complete songs? SM: The songs can develop from almost anywhere; there’s no set or standard way we work. A tune could just as easily result from sonic experimentation, a rhythmic idea, a lyric, a melody, a chord progression or any combination of these. Once in a while Mollie might come in with something that is pretty much a finished idea, and then we set about arranging it. Again, no set pattern to any of this. The only thing we’re really wary of is the dilemma that most artists feel – do you have a style that is somehow uniquely yours, or are you simply repeating yourself or what others have been doing? SM: Any changes in instrumentation, or our approach to it, really just stems from or goes hand-in-hand with us always looking for something new to do. Sometimes it’s what you DON’T do that makes a particular song unique or gives it it’s own flavor. The main thing that has changed for me is that you start to realize that it’s not about the equipment, the studio, what guitars or keyboards you have, etc.; it’s all about the singer and the song. It sounds simple enough but it’s where the real hard work is. The things that make a great recording or performance is about your vision and how hard you’re willing to work toward your goals. RUST: Thanks Stephen, last question, lots of bands love you, what’s one band that you really like? SM: There’s a lot of really great bands that I (and the rest of the group ) really love. However, I really have a soft and warm spot in my heart for the Cramps. RUST: Thanks Stephen! thelostpatrol.com RUST: What have the past few years been like for you as an artist? Are you feeling that you’ve “made it” to the place you wanted to be? SM: The past few years have been nice in that the work never really seems to stagnate, there’s always something new to explore. That’s not to say that it’s not tedious or hard work at times, but over all we love moving forward. We’re never really in the “place we want to be”, we’re always looking over the horizon. RUST: What in your opinion makes Mollie “right” for TLP? What is it about her performing persona that makes her so special? SM: It’s not so much Mollie being “right” for TLP as much as she brings so much to the table. She’s a gifted composer and lyricist who possesses a unique world-view, and that’s wonderful and inspiring to work with. Her musical interests are very wide ranging, and her musical vocabulary is really astounding for someone so young. Our (the instrumentalists) job is to frame and support Mollie so she and her ideas can be heard in the best possible way. She’s a unique person and should be heard that way. Pop music is essentially a vocalist’s medium, and showing the singer in the best possible way benefits the song as well as everyone involved. Also, she’s a truly gifted and original singer, and completely her own person on stage. How rare is that? RUST: What changes to your approach to instrumentation have come about from delving so deeply into this space? How has your style, or philosophy changed because of TLP? 56 RUST Magazine The Love Is Loud!! at The Hard Rock Cafe January 9, 2015: Thanks to The Love Is Loud!! for taking the stage at our showcase at The Hard Rock Cafe in Atlanta. The guys played some songs we already knew, and some from their upcoming double release. Read more in Issue #6. theloveisloud.com RUST Magazine 57 58 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 59 Mustered Courage August 4 and 5, 2014: Mustered Courage poses in the Gainesville industrial district and on the shores of Lake Lanier, Georgia. musteredcourage.com 60 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 61 Sean Watkins new album All I Do Is Lie July 23, 2014: Here at RUST Magazine we have been receiving some truly amazing albums recently in the singer-songwriter space and it’s become evident that there is a real movement happening – right now. Xander Smith has not only defined himself, but has redefined a regional sound with his album Outside, Matt Turk’s yet-to-be-released Cold Revival is simply radiant, and now with the release of Sean Watkins’ All I Do Is Lie, all we can say is that it is, without a doubt, a new and special age in modern music. Wooden Hez defines their legacy with Spew October 29, 2014: Here at RUST Magazine our history with Wooden Hez started about a year and a half ago when a chance encounter jumbled us together for a last-minute session and shoot at Jay Lou’s Restaurant in Gainesville, Georgia. Guitarist Dave Pitone, Bassist Alan Lee and drummer Tim Stevens showed up at 7 in the morning and we spent a few hours together having breakfast and rocking a tiny bacon-and-eggs diner. Jay Lou’s is a vintage industrial district style eatery that hasn’t changed in 50 years, and though the guys had been up driving all night, they mustered their groove and we recorded several excellent renditions of songs as baffled farmers and truck drivers walked in on the shoot. The rural Georgia crowd was not quite ready for Wooden Hez’s Philadelphia style heavy but we got to know them, they got to know us and we had a great shoot. After the audio session we went out back and lit a stack of prop money on fire and we got some iconic shots of Timmy lighting up a smoke with the stack. It looked so realistic that several people actually messaged the band later in complete outrage at the waste. Really, it was a thing. But the fun was short lived as Timmy passed away in his sleep several months later from natural causes. For us the lesson was that, as documentarians, what we do at RUST Magazine can sometimes be the one and only record of bands like Wooden Hez and people like Timmy and that we needed to take our responsibilities much more seriously. That day perhaps had the single greatest effect on what direction RUST would take for the future. Perhaps Dave and Alan felt a similar way as their new album Spew is a thorough and complete realization of the idea of what Wooden Hez is capable of being. Joined by E. Joseph Neenan on lead guitar and keyboards, and Ed Galang on drums, Spew is a strikingly excellent collection of nightmares and fever dreams, slowed down and torturously extended, exposing rich details and powerful emotions. This album is a classic. It’s a dark punk masterpiece. It’s music that sinks you deeper and deeper into a visionary paralysis. For us it’s not just good, it’s great and knowing what Dave and Allen have had to go through to make it happen, we appreciate it even more. Wooden Hez has craftfully developed a niche territory with their sound unlike any other. They take a Low-esque vibe and electrify it with a focus on languid and tormentuous guitar phrasing. It’s captivating. There are half a dozen absolutely legendary tracks on this album with Sundown, Punk Rock Jack and Old Same Old topping our favorites. This is music made by true artists who will never surrender their originality. They will make the music they want the way they want no matter what. Wooden Hez defies description. They are thoroughly original, and with Spew they have made some of the best, most fascinating audio art ever recorded anywhere. Spew is an amazing, intricate and intense. You can stream it for free at www.woodenhez.com/spew and it’s available on Bandcamp for $5. Just get it. woodenhez.com Xander, Matt, Sean and others like Owen Campbell and Luke Elliot are all crafting beautiful personal music with intensity and passion, and though people have been working in this style of music continually, having so many albums that are so good come out right at the same time is unique and special. There are more artists doing better work every day, and they have technologies and support communities that are empowering them to take their music into truly new and deeply personal places. All I Do Is Lie is an album that stands as equal to the best rememberances from the golden age of FM. There is a relevance to everything Sean Watkins says and plays. His technical skill has earned him a place in the company of people like Jackson Browne, Lyle Lovett, Dolly Parton and Hank Williams Jr. and it’s his humanity that really shines through here. He’s awarded. He’s experienced. And the long trails of life that have led him to today have worn and weathered his soul. It’s the sum of all these elements that is the collage of emotions presented in All I Do Is Lie. Touching, inspiring and full of regret, thoughts flicker and dance like lights contrasted against the dark in his songs. Issues of family, faith and longing prevail and are poignantly punctuated by his gorgeous instrumental style. All I Do Is Lie is an album that stops time. This is partly because it could be an album from many years ago. There are no contemporary hallmarks or distractions to cue you to when it was made. It stands alone, captivates you, and draws you further and further in. It’s also an album that will be just as relevant (if not more so) many years from now because it’s so personal and unique. What makes music – or any art – special is that magical combination of technical skill and individuality where one person can make a statement that is special because it says something about both being human and Photo courtesy Sean Watkins being a human. If an artist can communicate something about themselves, and something shared, to another person using these intermediary musical tools, that’s the highest aspiration an artist can acheive. We all feel. We all think. When someone can capture the emotion of these things and put them into a form for another to appreciate, that’s art. So we commend Sean Watkins on his abilities, his beauty and his humanity. All I Do Is Lie is a touching, vibrant and complex album that comes from a very deep place. What we learn from listening to it is that this deep place is both individual and shared. It exposes the true, undeniable, inescapable and inexplicable nature of us. We discover things about ourselves through music, and it’s the resulting growth that has value, significance and relevance. It’s why we value the arts. They enrich us and empower us on our journey to enlightenment. On our playlist – A Leaf November 13, 2014: Hey RUST readers we’ve got a groovy band spinning our heads at our international headquarters. They’re called A Leaf and we’re digging their sound, y’all should check them out! facebook.com/LoveALeaf All I Do Is Lie is not just one of the best albums we’ve heard recently, it’s an album that has significance and relevance on a permanent scale. It’s a superbly crafted collection of songs that defines the singer-songwriter for our modern age, and gives us perspective, wisdom and inspiration for today and tomorrow. seanwatkins.com Also check out Sean in Fiction Family, a side project with Jon Foreman fictionfamily.com 62 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 63 July 26, 2014: RUST Magazine catches up with Moon Hooch at Bragg Jam in Macon, Georgia for a conversation about their new album This Is Cave Music. Watch the video on our YouTube channel. 64 RUST Magazine moonhooch.com RUST Magazine 65 Anthony Rankin talks about Love Elektrik 2 May 8, 2014: Anthony Rankin has just released Love Elektrik2, the second in a series of 4-song mini-albums, this one featuring party-starter Phoenix In Vegas and if you don’t know who he is - yet - stay tuned because his breakout is happening, like right now. It’s all about song writing talent and ninja-skills-in-the-studio execution for Anthony Rankin. His songs are complete and flawlessly constructed. He brings an old school mastery of concept, timing and punctuation to modern material and it’s all good. Along with co-producer Victor Brodén they present great creative ideas realized with overpowering energy, intense emotion and authentic excitement. RUST Magazine was so curious about this virtuosic multi-instrumentalist, obsessive self-producer and exhilarating entertainer that we reached out to him to talk about music, love and living in Nashville. RUST: So Anthony, you live in Nashville, which on the surface might surprise some people being that you are a modern electric music composer. Big changes have been happening in Music City and a lot of the music that city is now known for is anything but country. There’s a lot of talk going on about this... What is your perspective on the new Nashville? AR: I’ve only been in Nashville for a few years, and even in that short period of time it seems to have changed face a bit. People I know who have been here for a long time say that ten years ago or so, it was unrecognizable to what the city is today. It’s certainly still a country town above all, at least in the projected image; the industry is headquartered there, and the TV show Nashville is filmed here, along with many other modern-day country themed reality shows. But every style of music imaginable is being made and performed by new artists and players in Nashville, from EDM to indie rock to throwback soul/R&B. To me, the city feels like a mini LA--without the traffic--and is becoming more diverse in culture all the time. RUST: What have your experiences been there finding other likeminded artists to collaborate or socialize with there? AR: It’s been interesting, because Nashville (like other industry towns such as LA or NYC) is full of creative people who have all migrated there for one general career reason (music/entertainment) but on a personal sense, everyone seems to be after their own thing and not fighting over the same piece of pie. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have met, worked or written with other artists/ songwriters who have completely different approaches than I do and who are pursuing a different genre or different path than I am. So to me, the competitiveness never seems to get in the way of healthy collaboration, and the social aspect and friendships often comes out of those get-togethers or writing sessions. RUST: Can you tell us what it’s like working with Victor Brodén? He’s credited as your co-producer and co-writer. What is it about his talents that make you work so well together? AR: Victor is like a brother to me, and even though we’re apart in age by about a decade, our musical tastes are nearly identical. We met a couple years ago while we were both on tour with another 66 RUST Magazine artist and discovered on the first bus trip that our favorite Prince record was The Gold Experience and our favorite Bruce record was Darkness on the Edge of Town, and that we both had a dangerous obsession with Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream and producers Mutt Lange and Max Martin (side note: like Max, Victor is also Swedish). Those unusually specific things we had in common led to the conversation of collaborating on a project together. I hadn’t made a solo record in years, and my last endeavor was very old school funk-inspired, where I played all of the instruments and had much more of a throwback, live feel. So this time around, with Victor’s ear towards melody and both our desires to make something with the intention of reaching a wide mainstream audience (and our overwhelming love of all things ‘80s), I began working very hard to improve my songwriting, and started bringing demos to the table in early 2013, which is when we really started the production of these EPs without necessarily knowing it. In addition to being a great producer, Victor is an incredibly wellknown and in-demand touring bassist in Nashville, having been musical director for LeeAnn Rimes, Jake Owen, and currently Thompson Square, so needless to say he’s a busy guy, which influences how and when we work, as well. What makes us click as a production/writing unit is my OCD nose-to-the-page detail orientation, and his really broad big picture vision. There’s a yin and yang element to how we arrive at a finished idea. Many times, I will bring him a complete song and he will make a small change or addition that will wind up being the most significant part of the song. In the case of “Phoenix in Vegas” I had another song entitled “Flatbroke” that had strong verses but a weak chorus, and he had this vision of a modern pop anthem, so we sort of morphed that song into “Phoenix” and re-wrote all of the major elements in about a half hour. Where I struggle with a lot of ideas (often writing too many parts for songs or lyrics that are too obscure), Victor is a great editor and one with very clear, simple vision towards what a song needs and what it doesn’t. So in that sense, I’ve been extremely lucky to have found a co-producer and friend who really helps me carve out the core of what I’m always trying to say musically. RUST: When you’re working on songs, are they mostly composed before you record, or are they less focused ideas that get developed in the studio? AR: It’s probably about 50/50. Different songs come from different approaches. A song like “Neon Wings” (which will come out on Love Elektrik 3 in a few months) or “Name in the Stars” was a written composition, if you will. Those were born from sitting down with an acoustic guitar or at a piano and just writing the way most people probably envision how a song comes to life. Those are essentially complete from a writing perspective pre-studio, and then we produce them in a traditional sense. But a song like “Better Than Dreaming” or “Lexi J” came more from writing a lyric and melody over a basic track that was already produced, even if it wasn’t quite the refined track that wound up on the record. Or like I mentioned with “Phoenix in Vegas,” I had another complete song with a fully produced demo, so elements of that track informed where we ended up in the re-write. I don’t have a specific way of working, but Victor and I do seem to be more efficient and productive when we are sort of writing/producing/recording simultaneously. In many ways, because of that approach, we’re much more able to capture ideas as they happen. RUST: Your music has such a complete feel to it, like the ideas and the production are all done with a very specific end goal in mind. Do you feel that you have realized the ideas in your head now that you have the final albums in hand? AR: Yes, absolutely. I know it’s a cliche thing for every artist to say, but I’ve never been more proud of my work than with this most current material. It’s not contrived in any way, even if it is blatant mainstream pop. We did have extremely specific goals for the style and sound and spectrum of songwriting, but I can honestly say we didn’t do or write anything that we didn’t want to hear, and we didn’t produce anything with a mind just to fit in. It might sound right for the time (and we aren’t complaining about the Bruno Mars and Justin Timberlake comparisons) but that wasn’t really a deliberate thing. Just being pop nerds, we simply made the music we wanted to hear, and I think we succeeded to that end. RUST: Can you tell us a little about some of the other people that are part of your life or maybe were involved in the album? AR: Andrew Maltese is a mega-talented engineer and musician who mixed the songs in Los Angeles at Speakeasy Sound, a studio he operates. He was more than just someone who balanced levels and things of that nature. We saw Andrew as part of the creative process, and in a lot of instances didn’t give him much direction just to see how he would hear things and what his take would be. A great example is “Two Glasses” from the first Love Elektrik EP, which sounded completely different before he got his hands on it, and his mix really brought that song and every other song to a level we couldn’t have imagined ourselves. I have to tip my hat to Andrew for taking what were already very polished songs and making them competitive with anything on the radio. Jesse Naus mastered the music, and is a great friend of mine from college, where we both studied music and recording. Again, another person who influenced the outcome of the product and made it better than it was when Victor and I were finished. Myron Howell, a world-class musician, lent his drumming skills to the song “Liar Like Me.” All of these people made this music far more exciting than it was initially. RUST: Is there anybody in particular that has been there for you and supported you as you’ve grown your skills and career? AR: My family for sure. My dad is the reason I got into music, being a professional drummer for most of his life. My parents always tempered their encouragement and praise with instilling humility and a really strong work ethic in me. I credit them with my relentless drive to always get better. There certainly have been friends and girlfriends who’ve been really great anchors along the way, too. All of the people in my life play a significant role in my growth as a person, which has a lot more to do with where I’ve gotten than just career support. I’m sort of a sponge, not just musically, always learning from everyone around me. It’s important to be open to other ways of thinking or looking at life, especially as an artist. RUST: Thanks for taking the time here Anthony, one last question: Which artist is really impressing you right now? Who is doing work that you think is amazing? AR: I’m a major believer in what Bruno Mars has done and is continuing to do. What he’s done the last few years has really opened up a path in the industry for the kind of music I make to work again. I love what Neon Trees are doing, their new record is fantastic. LA artist Rachele Royale has been releasing singles that have been stuck in my head for months. Avan Lava is an electro band from NYC I’ve been obsessed with since 2012. And Nashville’s own Annie Bosko, who I’m lucky to call a dear friend, is one of the most genuine, honest, mega-talented singer/songwriters I’ve ever known. Her songs are superstar quality, as is her voice and personality. There is so much good stuff out there, whether it’s #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 or in your backyard. It’s an exciting time to be making pop music! anthonyrankin.com RUST Magazine 67 Pill Hill - It Tastes A Little Sweeter Owen Campbell - The Pilgrim October 29, 2014: Hey RUST fans we have a groovy new release to tell you about today. We’ve previously covered the synth scene in Minneapolis with bands like CLAPS and Aaron And The Sea – and those are both great groups well worth checking out – but if tuff guitarsey rock and roll is more your style, Pill Hill has just dropped their second full-length album It Tastes A Little Sweeter. Made up of Dan Fowlds, Judd Hildreth, Heath Henjum, Jacques Wait and Ben Glaros, Pill Hill kicks out the jams with a traditional big rock sound and an individual approach to lyrics and arrangements. July 2, 2014: What makes Owen Campbell such a great musician can be summed up on one word: diversity. His new album The Pilgrim showcases a wide variety of styles, and in each different space, he just plain owns it. Being able to maintain a consistent personality across different songs like these is truly an admirable talent, furthermore it speaks to his confidence as a performer that he would move so swiftly and deftly between these different styles. It Tastes A Little Sweeter is an album that reminds us how good a stright-up rock band can sound and feel. Just like back in the day. There’s a rawness here that is real and a style that is memorable and distinct. These guys remind us a lot of NC’s Temperance League who also deliver great, original Americana rock and similarly press on vinyl. RUST very highly recommends their 2012 self-titled album and It Tastes A Little Sweeter will be available digitally as well as on translucent butterscotch vinyl in honor of the 6th song on the album – Butterscotch House. That’s not to say that The Pilgrim is a random combination of styles, it’s all blues all day long, but that each song is distinct and that the approach that Owen Campbell takes for each song is matched to the concept of the music. Whether it’s a slow, dark and menacing song like “Leave It Alone” or a homesick ballad like “Cried For Yesterday,” Campbell brings a wise perspective and well-earned sense of judgement to each passage. Oh, yeah, then he rocks your socks off with classic electric blues jams like “Wreckin Ball” and “Remember To Breathe.” All along the way, there’s heavy jams and electrifying moments that lick at you like inescapable hot flames. The Pilgrim leaves you well done, and a little crispy on the edges! Pill Hill takes sage advice from the Petty-Springsteen recipes and then spices up their own style of rock and roll on It Tastes A Little Sweeter. This is a great, fresh band with serious depth of skill and writing ability. It Tastes A Little Sweeter reminds us about how awesome things were back in the day – and that today is a new day with fresh adventures and challenges to experience. Get it now for Name Your Price on Bandcamp! American audiences might not be familiar with this Australian talent – yet – but audiences there and in New Zealand have already had their hands on The Pilgrim for a few weeks, and it’s a runaway hit there. Not only that but he has THREE albums in the top ten there right now… which is all of his albums, with Pilgrim being his third, and his song “Sunshine Road” just tallied 1,000,000 hits. pillhill.co Owen Campbell’s tougness and style are a formidable combination, and RUST Magazine is predicting that The Pilgrim is about to break him out here in the states. This is just one of those albums that has an intensity and depth to it that cannot be denied. Wherever he is from, or wherever his music goes, the songs on The Pilgrim are so varied, and all so very well done that just completing the album can only be viewed as a tremendous success. See all the RUST Magazine videos at youtube.com/rustzine As a songwriter, Owen Campbell speaks with a sincere and individual voice. His songs cut to the heart of feelings and regrets, balanced with aspirations and dreams. Each song is a whole world unto itself with subtle development and expansion of ideas being decorated with his masterful guitar technique. Pulling influences from Cajun and delta blues, you’d never guess this was anything but an American-born bluesman who had earned his scars on lonely rail journeys and dusty back roads. Wherever he is from, Owen Campbell has learned the lessons of life, the blues and himself along the singular path he has walked to get to today. It’s this individuality that makes him great, and makes him worthy of attention. On the crowded blues scene it takes something special to stand out, and this artist stands out in every way and on every song. He’s had time to grow his craft and learn perspective, and now, with The Pilgrim, he is ready to step out onto the world stage and be given the respect and appreciation he deserves. Because he’s earned it. Because he’s that good. Very Highly Recommended. owencampbellmusic.com Owen Campbell Video Shoot July 16, 2014: Owen Campbell serenades RUST Magazine on the shores of Lake Lanier, Georgia. Watch the videos on our YouTube channel. 68 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 69 70 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 71 Artist of the Year: The Grahams November 20, 2014: RUST Magazine met the Grahams twice this year, once at the Atlanta Amtrak train station on National Train Day, and again weeks later on the train between Gainesville and Atlanta. After walking the length of the Mississippi river to prepare for their 2013 album Riverman’s Daughter, they embarked on a month-long-plus journey across America by rail to get inspiration for their next album. This trip took weeks and, besides the material cost, it took an unbelievable investment of heart and soul. Without a doubt, The Grahams displayed the most dedication of any band we met this year. Not only are they dedicated to what they do, but the doing of it intertwines their lives and their music, merging the two into an expression of both individuality and shared humanity. For them, making music means a complete and total immersion in the process of creativity. It means leaving the comforts of home and creating new life experiences with unknown people in strange places. It means changing their own perspectives through travel and adventure. It means that they have new, relevant, personal things to say as people and artists, and it gives their music a unique value. thegrahamsmusic.net We congratulate The Grahams on their excellent music and their imagination as music makers, and we hope that their example inspires others to go out there and take journeys to grow both their own skills, and their souls. Alyssa and Doug Graham are the RUST Magazine Artist of the Year because they lead by example – literally. And to reward The Grahams, our friends at Kopf Percussion have generously donated one of their ToeKicker Stompboxes. We hope this prize will be a part of their future journeys and music, and be with them on their next adventure. kopfpercussion.com 72 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 73 RUST: Is there anybody (or anybodies) that really helped you personally during this time? Louis Prima Jr and the Witnesses Blow May 13, 2014: Here at RUST Magazine we only cover the very best music. It’s more than a slogan, it’s our purpose. There’s more, better music being made every day, and our goal is to recognize these great artists and attempt to give them critical assessments that are as good as they are. So for us, it’s not so much a question of ‘if” they are good, if we’re writing about them, they’re good... really good, but the question is exactly what about them is extraordinary and unique? For Louis Prima Jr and the Witnesses, this what is the plain and simple hard work that you hear on Blow, their second full-length album. You hear dedication. You hear a collected body of musical knowledge expressed with ease. You hear style, substance, labor and exhilaration... and they make it all look easy. It’s amazing. And integral to all of this is hard work, both in the effort to make the album as well as the effort it took for each artist to get to the point where they could make music like this. Blow is like a victory lap after running a thousand marathons. But this should be no surprise as the Senior to this Junior was one of his era’s best known and most successful band leaders and performers. He played for Presidents and received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. The music on Blow bears the clear hallmarks of a tradition taken to heart. It would seem that impeccable timing and New Orleans spice are truly in his blood and it’s refreshing and exciting to hear a new album coming out with such a classic sound. Blow reminds us that the old ways are still the best ways, but that each generation finds a new and unique way to interpret the legacy they leave for the future. No man is an island, though, so joining Louis Prima Jr. is an industrial-strength crew of horny bayou blues rockers whose collected energy moves mountains and shakes the ground for miles around. Make no mistake, this is an all-star safe-cracking bank-robbing crew. As a whole unit, this interwoven fabric of talent deftly moves from fast to slow tempos, with a diversity of ability that is astounding. Whether it’s a quiet moment, like a full moon hanging in the swampy night air or a frenetic dance-party where everything in the hall gets broken, the Prima Jr. team treats every note as if it were the most important one ever. This band works as a single unit like almost no other. Their mutual timing and sense of team identity is incredible. You can almost hear the band teasing you with an upcoming punctuation, and then they wind up and hit that note, and it’s just so right... Louis Prima Jr. and the Witnesses never, ever make a promise they cannot deliver on. In a lot of ways, their band synergy and sense of chronology remind us a lot of the live stage dynamic of Frank Zappa. Blow is a timeless album. It’s thoroughly fresh and contemporary while being traditional and familiar. It’s a combination of history and hysteria. You could take this music 50 years into the past or future and it would be just as vibrant, and just as relevant to either audience. And the music is fun! For instance our favorite song on the album is track 10: Robin Hood. It’s a swingy re-telling of the classic British tale complete with stylish vocals and crazy horns blowing on top of a naughty, naughty bassline. It’s the kind of song that makes you want a zoot suit really bad... a white one with a big hat and wing-tip shoes to match. Though, truthfully, every song on the whole album is good enough to be someone’s favorite song, and Blow is already one of our favorite album ever, Very Highly Recommended. RUST Magazine was so impressed with the whole production of Blow that we reached out to Louis Prima Jr. to see what he had to say about the people that helped him make this album. Here’s what he had to say: RUST: Firstly, Louis, wow what a great album! How long were you working on this project? collective years of experience and taste, thrown and served shaken, not stirred. LPJR: My Whole Life! But seriously, as musicians, entertainers, artists, your goal is always to create some sort of magic that others enjoy. When I began “this project”, “this band” 7/8 years ago, it was leading to this, original music, new music, its own genre. That is where I’ve been headed alls long. When we met Jim Ervin from Warrior Records 4 years ago, and came to terms on distribution of our first album Return of the Wildest!, he said, “I want album number two, I want to see what y’all can write”. Writing actually began last summer on the road. It is the culmination of hundreds of RUST: Did you have a specific idea of what you wanted Blow to be before you started recording or did the project find itself through the recording process? 74 RUST Magazine LPJR: We did not set out to write music with “daddio” in it, if thats what you mean. There was no effort to write any specific song, or any specific style. We just came together with little parts of souls, and put them together. What you have is honest and pure. “trying” to write music is shallow, and fans see right thru it. If it is not naked and raw, it will ultimately be short lived. LPJR: Just the 9 people wailing’ it. Honestly, ever person who influenced us along the way, every person that touched us along the way, every person we idolized, that’s all the help you need. Well, that and a record label that believes in us. Without Jim Ervin and Warrior Records, we would still be selling out of our garage (so to speak). We are fortunate to have a complete team, management, agents, PR, everyone. You are truly only as strong as your weakest link, and once the have put together an uniquely strong foundation, there ain’t no shakin’ it,,,, well unless you’re shakin’ your booty. :) LPJR: Phil Clevinger - How do you describe Phil.. He is kind of like the class clown, without the alcohol. Phil wanders off from the group and comes back with snakes. Yes snakes. If we asked him to bungee jump while soloing, he would. What an amazing performer and player. I love his Ska feel. LPJR: Ryan McKay - Guitar God with flowing blonde locks…. Ryan forever challenges himself musically. He quietly masters every note, studies and perfects every lick, and when no one is looking POW. The guitar is so crucial to our style of play, yet no one knows it, until he is out front screaming’ a solo. And I am very jealous of his family. LPJR: Ted “Two Lips” Schumacher Ted is our military leader as we take over the world. Ted grew up in his family’s ice cream parlor, yet doesn’t eat sweets. He is organized and dependable. If you needed a button for your jacket, he would have one that matched EXACTLY. His attention to detail hits every note of his playing, until he steps up to solo, and it becomes a free-for-all of “Wail” That and he states awake with me when driving. RUST: Louis, where did you get these guys?! Seriously, this is an amazing team of players, how do you feel being able to bring them together? LPJR: It was my own personal Where’s Waldo. I have played with so many talented folks on the way to finding this “Band of Merry Idiots” (lovingly) Everyone comes from their own stoop. Everyone brings with them their own style. I wanted Talented cats LPJR: Steve Pandis - MAHHHHM (in who could also entertain. It was a long my best Cartmen) Steve stepped up wait, but I have that now. WE are a to the plate on two days notice and family. We each care deeply for one kept up with our mayhem for 32 another. We value everyones input days without a break. He plays many and respect their individuality. We things but pounds the bass in perfect have the GREATEST time together, tandem with A.D. Loud, boisterous on and off stage. We are that group Photo courtesy Louis Prima Jr and the Witnesses and juvenile (lovingly) he give my of people that you see that make you “rocker” rhythm section balance. clutch your purse, but deep inside you want to come join the mayhem. I am having the time of my life, and LPJR: Leslie Spencer - Leslie is our newest member. Met her on am thankful each and every day that they allow me to share a stage Twitter actually. I don’t think I had everyone on our team sold on her, with them. until she hit that note on Someday in the studio. What a goose bump RUST: Can you tell us a little about each person? There isn’t enough time!!! but I’ll give you a quickie on everyone. LPJR: A.D. Adams - I have not felt a drummer like this since the great Jimmy Vincent. He is a roughed up little old school punk that would give you the shirt off his back. I cannot imagine performing without him in the driver seat. Not just a stick handler though, he writes, teaches, and can bounce a phone off of anything. LPJR: Gregg Foxx - Helicopters come to mind (inside joke) Greg is amazing, what a wealth of experience and talent. And a lot of times, he will out perform everyone on stage. Matched only for his tendency to get into trouble. He is the one we keep tabs on, or pay bail.. One of the two. LPJR: Marco Palos - Marco came to me in 2010, and said that He was my sax player. And after only a few notes.. well, you be the judge. He has been playin’ and writing this since he was a little puppy. He is masterful and intense. Kills himself every night, for every note, and every swoon. He is happily our Eddie Van Halen. moment. Actually, her first meeting of everyone was IN the studio. She wasted ZERO time becoming one of us. She was the missing piece. That amazing voice, mixed with more schoolyard bad-ass then the rest of us combined. But just listen to her voice. That’s talent. Words just don’t do anyone justice. I can never understate the importance of everyone in my little chunk of the world. I am noone without them, not just the band, but everyone involved. I am blessed. RUST: Wow, Louis, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us here, last question... which performers are you really impressed with right now? Who is rocking your world? LPJR: As far as new “popular” artists. Bruno Mars, talented, period. And he uses a BAND... Imagine that, actual musicians. louisprimajr.com RUST Magazine 75 October 15th and 17th 2014: Bobby Long poses for us in Decatur and Arcade Georgia. bobbylong.info 76 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 77 Hollis Brown - Ride The Train March 5, 2013: Hollis Brown makes today the best day ever. Their debut album “Ride On The Train” is an immediate classic. Pulling from the roots of rock, soul, ballads, folk and jam this hybrid sound feels as comfortable as your old jeans and sneakers on a stroll through sunlit paths. Get-up-and-jam tracks are mixed with patient ballads and they all sound distinctive. Superior songwriting, analog processing and a self-evident dedication to musical excellence across the board has resulted in a total package of musical intensity. Not only is “Ride On The Train” a must-have for any rock and roll fan but the band is currently on an extensive tour and this is a band that demands to be seen live. Young, but already well seasoned, they bring a fresh vibe mixed with a classic sensibility. Make no mistake, Hollis Brown is headed to big, bright places, and they’ve earned it by staying true to themselves. It’s pretty rare when a group comes on the scene with such a total identity already earned, and they are just getting started. These guys are here to stay because they’re just so darn good that fans won’t let them fade away. Whatever you’re doing today, stop. Take a pause, just for a moment. Check Hollis Brown out. That task can wait. That email can wait. Invest just a single moment to take a listen to this amazing band. Essential. alive-records.com The Bixby Knolls Near & Undear December 11, 2013: The Bixby Knolls bring a really fresh “now” energy to the alt-indie space with their debut album Near & Undear. Expanding the vibes of a Red Hot Chili Peppers/Galactic mash-up, they also remind us a lot of Dengue Fever with their multi-cultural, crosspacific origination and maximum retro-alt energy. This is one of those fun, fresh bands that mixes up influences, techniques and approaches like mad musical scientists drinking too much of their own potions. They’ve been let loose in a time machine and have returned from beyond with fuzzedout tools of sci-fi mass distortion. Built on a super solid foundation of alt-rock, The Bixby Knolls come on strong and keep the energy redlined for the whole album. It’s an awesome audio assault that will *hopefully* get this band the attention and break-out it deserves. Very Highly Recommended. Big thanks to Curt Barlage from the band who answered a few quick questions for us! RUST: What’s at the top of your playlist right now? CB: Right now we’ve been listening to WILD NOTHING ‘NOCTURNE’, SPRITUALIZED ‘SWEET HEART, SWEET LIGHT’, THE RAVEONETTES ‘OBSERVATOR’... a lot of soft stuff, you know. Most new ‘indie’ records are soft these days, the whole shoegaze thing is coming back, which we’re really into...but, The Bixby Knolls are trying to add that rougher edge to the new sound today, bring a little r-n-r back into it, so to say. Been also digging in the crates and listening to a bunch of REPLACEMENTS, ORANGE JUICE and SWERVEDRIVER (who we supported on their last tour). Hollis Brown Interview March 22, 2013: RUST Magazine talks to Dylan and Jon from Hollis Brown at Smith’s Olde Bar. See more interviews on our YouTube channel. RUST: Which musician would you like to get drunk and steal a car with? CB: Well... I’d say go with someone more likely not to do something like that rather than someone thugish. Like steal a car with Elton John as opposed to Tupac because your chances of getting away with it would be a lot greater. That is if I can make a post-mortem reference... otherwise we’d be in big trouble if we were in a car with him! RUST: Who would we abduct to be the 5th honorary Bixby Knolls member, and what would you ransom them back for? CB: Hope Sandoval. But back in the 90’s if time wasn’t referenced. We’d still have her in now, she’s one of our heroines. Although, I don’t know if we’d be able to abduct her. I hear she’s one crazy, ass-kicking bitch! We’d ask for 1 million dollars in ransom... why that much? I don’t know, isn’t that what you’re supposed to ask for? thebixbyknolls.com RUST Recommends The Mojo Gurus - Who Asked Ya? August 8, 2014: Get your motor running, head out on the highway and follow the sweatiest, dirtiest pack of bikers you can find to their roadhouse, and that’s where you’ll find the Mojo Gurus laying down the rock and roll heat like a stretch of Florida asphalt in the noon-day sun. Their new album Who Asked Ya? rocks from start to finish with old-school cool and southern swagger all mixed up in a whirlwind of spicy style. Known for their sadistically awesome live shows in their Florida West Coast home zone, the whole world is about to get a big taste of their true rock and roll soul. Who Asked Ya? comes on like an electric hurricane blowing all the way across the country, so forget your flood insurance and buy this album. This is a straight-up rock and roll show, so check your square at the door, get into the groove and join the party with The Mojo Gurus. All Eyes West Interview October 24, 2014: We caught up with All Eyes Wes in Chicago just as they were leaving for their tour and talked to them about life, love and our shared appreciation for Jared Grabb alleyeswest.com mojogurus.com 78 RUST Magazine RUST Magazine 79 Bolder Monkey Sessions November 23, 2014: RUST Magazine had the good fortune to meet up with Thom Jenkins, Kenny Smith, Spike Brantley and Les Horn from Bolder Monkey for a living room demo session – and it was fantastic. These four monkey men brought a great classic acoustic rock sound accentuated with beautiful winds from Thom Jenkins. We had a gaggle of recording gear on hand including mics from our friends at Cascade and we even had a Focusrite ISA 428 MkII mic pre-amp running for this session, and it sounded great. The Focusrite delivered a really strong sound to our Roland VS-2400 and we used it to dial in subtle volumes on vocals, woodwinds and both guitars. This was our first time using the ISA 428 MkII and it really added that high-end sound to what we were doing, even in a crowded living room. We’ll have more info on the Focusrite ISA 428 MkII in future posts. facebook.com/pages/Bolder-Monkey RUST Magazine welcomes Cloud Microphones For 2015 RUST Magazine is very pleased to welcome Cloud Microphones to our support roster. They join Cascade Microphones and KOPF Percussion in supporting us and we thank them for their enthusiasm in our efforts. The gear we’ve been using from Cloud Microphones are their CL-2 Mic Activators, and we’ve been getting great results in conjunction with the Fat Head mics we received last year from Cascade. We’re getting fantastic sound using this pairing of gear, and there are great bundles deals available on the CascadeMicrophones.com website, plus they have their own microphones at CloudMicrophones.com including the legendary 44-A. Cloud Microphones Mic Activators have made a huge difference in our ability to present today’s best artists - in the best possible way. Thanks Cloud! 80 RUST Magazine Bolder Monkey at The Hard Rock Cafe in Atlanta on January 5, 2015 I The Victor Coming in Issue #6
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