aerosmith issue

Table of ContentsFeatures

on the cover

DAVID COOK:Declaration of a Cook

COLBIE CAILLAT:America’s #1 Songwriter

THE SCRIPT:The Luck of the Irish

GUITAR GODS:Steve Vai and Joe Satriani

MTV VMA’s:Broken Records Gets to Hang out on the Red Carpet

METAL MAYHEM:Manson, Slayer, Killswitch and more Rock out in NJ.

AEROSMITH:America’s Greatest

Rock Band

Cover Image: Steven Tyler. by Scott Vollweiler/Broken Records Photography

TOC Image: Joe Perry. by Scott Vollweiler/Broken Records Photography

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departments**NEW LAYOUT FORMAT**

Warm Ups:Features up and coming Buzz Bands:The Script, KSM, Carter Twins, Chris Ayer, Chrissy Danielle, Company of Thieves

Main Support:Features music’s biggest stars:David Cook, Chevelle, Colbie Caillait, Collective Soul and more

Headliner: Aerosmith

Encore:Featuring Show Reviews:U2 at Giants Stadium, MTV’s VMAs, Metal Mayhem in Camden, NJ, ZZ Top at Jones Beach & Broadway shows: Oleanna, Bye Bye Birdie and Memphis.

Local Spotlight:Featuring hot unsigned artists:Static Summer

CD Reviews:

Editor In Chief, Writer, Photos, Layout Design:

Scott Vollweiler

Editor: Nicole Seblano

Staff Supervisor, Writer, Layout, Photographer:

Candice Wanca

Staff: Kristin Tully:

Angela DiBartolomeo:Joe Pennachio

Joshua KailMatt Jax

Michael WooldridgeVeronica GonzalesAlicia Gallagher

Kyra KvernoVictoria BaroneLuis VazquezIrene Heller

Lindsay ShapiroRene Mata

Alaura ChristineMichael MarcuilianoMichael Simonovsky

Broken Records Magazine is published by Bro-ken Records Publishing. Broken Records Maga-zine and all its subsidiary companies are gov-erned under state law. If you’d like to intern for any of the Broken Records companies, please email us @ [email protected] Logos are used with permission and are owned by the respective artists.

Broken Records Magazine prints every 2 months, 6 times a year. To see more photos or to putchase other copies please visit us at: Broken-RecordsOnline.com

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Zach and Josh Carter are Nashville’s newest hot country music duo. With airtight vocal harmonies and playful songwriting, this blonde-haired country team has a recognizable advantage over another well-known brotherly music group, the Jonas Brothers - - Zach and Josh are identical twins. The Carter Twins are now 19 years old, but caught the country music bug at an early age. They always had a passion for music, but they still clearly remember one particular day when they were about seven years old. It was a ‘bring your child to work’ day at their mother’s country radio station (WGAR in Cleveland, OH), and being surrounded by the greatest country music and musicians really piqued their curiosity. Their mother encouraged their particular interests by teaching Josh “Stairway to Heaven” on the guitar and Zach the pia-no. Their musical influences come from their strong country roots including Brooks & Dunn, Keith Urban, John Mayer, and Randy Owen. Zach said that they even had a picture of George Strait on their mantle growing up, “like he was always looking over us”. As identical twins, they admit that in the begin-

ning music was a brotherly competition. They remem-ber competing head-to-head in school and local talent shows. In due time they realized they could be far more successful working as a team rather than as individu-als, and in high school the gigs started rolling in for the duo. “It was hard at first, a lot of late nights performing at bars (the ones that would let us) and festivals. We would have to get home early and do homework right away, so we could perform that night.” Josh said. Zach tells fans who ask how to be young and suc-cessful in the industry, “Play as much as you can, you never know who you’re playing for.” When they were in Los Angeles in 2008 they unknowingly performed for the Vice President of MTV, who led them to CMT (Country Music Television), and the rest is history. The twins moved to Nashville, TN a year and a half ago after graduation. Since then they have worked with some of the nation’s top country music songwriters. Their freshman radio single, “Heart Like Memphis” is gaining popularity and finding success on the radio, as well as on CMT, iTunes, and Rhapsody. Their first full-length album is anticipated for release in 2010.

By Angela DiBartolomeo

BrokenRecordsOnline.com Myspace.com/BrokenRecordsMagazine6

Smaller shows in New York City, despite the con-stant availability of new bands and exciting musicians, can often feel a little redundant. Often there are a whole lot of people who aren’t actually that familiar with the band, but enjoy the venue and thought the promotional posters looked cool. There are the people who just want to be able to say at work the next day that they went to an awesome show the night before. There are the peo-ple who want to be seen in their new outfit. All of this, of course, makes it hard for a show to feel particularly intimate. This is why Chris Ayer’s July 21st show at the Canal Room in Tribeca was such a pleasant surprise. It was an intimate show at an otherwise unexciting venue in NYC. And Chris wasn’t the only artist to get comfort-able onstage. Every artist that performed had excep-tional rapport with the audience and they were all really good. It was truly a delightful show to attend and I had the opportunity to meet Chris briefly before the show. Chris Ayer is an independent artist’s dream, in that he has made it work. He started his musical career in San Francisco and at Stanford, in Palo Alto, California, playing at bars and steakhouses. He self-published his first album, an EP entitled Static, in 2003 and has since gotten picked up by a small label. “I got very fatigued trying to do it all, it’s cool to have some help.” He’s been touring for just over two years, and loves it. “Traveling

can be a pain, but it’s great in the context of getting to play, touring is the best problem you can hope for.” He’s on a mission now to get to know Los An-geles and New York City. He’s played San Francisco for years, but his label has been sponsoring his tours and providing support so he’s taking advantage of the opportunity. Chris and his tour manager are obviously close and she joins him on stage for a few numbers. He plays melodic tunes, with sounds reminiscent of John Mayer and others, but also clearly his own, without the polish of a wildly successful artist. He had a great stage presence, one learned through trial and error, and he clearly relishes the chance to interact with the audience. Above all, he obviously enjoys the experience of play-ing shows and doesn’t take the opportunity to do so for granted. “It’s exciting and surreal to get to play shows, and just seeing what happens when I do.” All in all, it was a great show with an awesome crowd and great performers. I’ll be keeping my eye on the tour schedule for the next opportunity to see Chris Ayer again live and hear some of his new work and even just to see who he is touring with, because you can be assured that each and every band he plays with will be just as rock solid and entertaining as he is.

CHRIS AYER Live in Tribeca

Article and Photo by Mike Wooldridge


In Theory,CHRISSY DANIELLE

Is A BAD GIRLFRIEND!

Broken Records Magazine: What do you prefer the most: being a musician, songwriter or actress?Chrissy Danielle: I love it all. It’s nice to have all three outlets of creativity. I’m kind of a hyper person and acting is really good for that and I get to go through a lot of different emotions at once. Songwriting is cool because when I’m writing for myself I can really put the real me out there and it gives people a real look at who I am and what I’ve gone through in my life. Songwriting for other bands and artists is also super cool because, for example, if I write for an all male rock band I can get away with saying things a girl artist never could. It’s kind of fun to put yourself in another person’s shoes. Performing my music is an entirely different rush I can never get enough of. I just have such a great time playing for live crowds.

BRM: For our movie fans… can you tell us some of the major movies you’ve been in?CD: I was in the film Underworld Evolution which was the sequel to Underworld, starring Kate Beckinsale. It was a really fun role because you don’t often get to play a vampire. Also I was in In the Land of Women. Adam Brody, Kristen Stewart, and Meg Ryan were also in that film. I had a role on this CW show called Aliens in America, and I am in an upcoming National Lampoon movie to name some of them.

BRM: I knew that the song “Bad Girlfriend” was about you but I had no clue that you co-wrote it. How much of the song is fictional and was it hard to write the song about yourself?CD: Haha, it actually was insanely easy. That song is very literal. I used to go to this nightclub in Vancouver called the Roxy all the time. I was a wild party girl in all the good ways. I love this song just be-cause I feel like in a weird way it’s very empowering to girls who like to go out and have a good time because there’s nothing wrong with that. Being the center of attention, dancing on the bar, but being kind of untouchable is really hot. Everyone wants a bad, bad girlfriend. It’s a song guys like because they want one and girls like because they wanna be one.

Interview By Scott Vollweiler8

BrokenRecordsOnline.com Myspace.com/BrokenRecordsMagazine

BRM: Were you a songwriter before you met Tyler?CD: Yes I’ve been a writer all my life. I work with a lot of different people. Tyler is an amazing songwriter and one of my favorites to work with. Once I really got going with my acting I was ready to get out there with my writing. I’m someone who always has to keep growing with my job and creativity.

BRM: How has writing your own music differed from co-writing songs for say, Theory?CD: My own music is a total window into who I am. All of my songs are either true things that have happened to me or to someone close to me and it’s effected me in some way. I’m a very literal writer and like to write songs like they’re a story. I almost feel like songs can be a diary and you can express what’s on your mind or something you may not have shared with the world otherwise. Also, I’m a very outgoing person who likes to have fun and I think my music expresses that. I want people to feel that when they’re listening. I just think when you write for yourself it’s so different because you’re deciding how you want people to view you and they’ll get a good idea of what you’re really about. My stuff is dirty pop and sarcastic and out there just like me.

BRM: How would you describe your music?CD: Dirty, edgy, pop, that you can have a good time lis-tening to. Some songs are about giving a big ‘F*** YOU’ to someone. Some are about being in love, some are self loathing, and some are very cocky and empowering. It just depends what mood I was in when I wrote it.

BRM: How did you hook up with InDeGoot?CD: I’ve known Bill Mcgathy the head of InDeGoot since I was very young. I originally got his attention with my songwriting and he was one of the first people to ever hear my own music. Right after he listened he called and told me he’d love to be my manager. I don’t know how I could refuse that. I’m InDeGoot’s first ever pop act.

BRM: When can we expect a full album and consequent tours? Would you open for TOADM?CD: Soon. I’m starting to get out there and play. I’m doing a few shows in LA in September. I’m sure it wont be long until I have a full album done, until then you can check me out at myspace.com/chrissydaniellemusic. I would be honored to do some shows with Theory of a Deadman, they’re a little heavier than me, haha, but why not!

Interview By Scott Vollweiler

Indie rock trio, Company of Thieves, is Chicago’s latest musical success story, garnering a devoted fol-lowing in the Midwest and piquing interest nationwide with their first album, Ordinary Riches. They toured nationwide this summer, bringing their catchy guitar riffs, diverse melodies, and poetic lyrics to Los Ange-les, New York City, and every region of the country in between. True to the humblest indie-band beginnings, Gen-evieve Schatz (vocals), Marc Walloch (guitars), and Mike Ortiz (drums) met through mutual friends at Union Station in Chicago and soon after started making music together. They performed in the Chicago coffee shops before assembling their current band lineup and recording Ordinary Riches. Company of Thieves has created a whirlwind recent-ly, following the release of Ordinary Riches. Within months they were signed to Wind-Up Records, featured on ‘Last Call with Carson Daly’, and began touring na-tionally. The band says that performing on ‘Last Call with Carson Daly’ in February really lit the spark that started the fire. “That’s kind of what hit off the whole year.” Marc says, “She (Genevieve) called and said ‘we’re flying to LA next week to do Carson Daly’ …then we got our first tour.”

Their summer tour was a first for them and was an eye-opening experience. “We’ve learned the reali-ties of what’s going on in our country, of how [some] people live.” says Genevieve. “We’ve been heartbroken with some of the things we’ve seen and also overjoyed with all of the hidden beautiful treasures that we have here.” Company of Thieves stays true to themselves and their roots. The band name is a tribute to their wide range of musical influences including Wilco, Radio-head, and The Beatles. “We don’t steal anything. It’s just a fun play on words to stay true to what we know,” says Genevieve. Marc says the message of their music is “pushing the boundaries and inspiring people not to limit whatever they’re doing. Things can still work with a different formula. There are always these formulas for success, whatever you’re doing. We kind of from [our] Day One have been the exception, doing things differently than most people.” Company of Thieves has evolved quickly from coffee shop gigs to national television features nearly overnight, so whatever “formula” they are using they are doing it right. Keep your ears open, they have al-ready announced their second album will be released next year.

By Angela DiBartolomeo Photo by Kristin Tully

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Sounds Like SoulArticle and Photos by Scott Vollweiler

Eric Hutchinson stands tall, taller than I expected, backstage before his supporting slot on the current Kel-ly Clarkson tour. The polite musician, originally hailing from Washington DC but now living in New York City, shakes my hand and introduces himself. Of course, I know the artist, but so may you. Hutchinson’s music has been featured on the soundtrack for “The Sister-hood of the Traveling Pants 2” and has performed live on late night talk shows including Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno. For most artists, getting signed to a major label re-cord deal is one of the hardest and most grueling tasks in their careers but for Hutchinson, his luck struck twice. A few years back, he was signed to Madonna’s Maver-ick Records, an imprint of the Warner Brothers label. After lots of legal trouble, the label folded and many artists were kept by the parent company. Hutchinson tells us, “I had been signed to Maverick but never got to release anything on it. Before I got to release anything the label went under. Warner had an option to keep me and they decided not to. So I decided to go on my own and get the buzz going.” Getting dropped from a label before your dream has started can demoralize you; Eric Hutchinson, on the otherhand, overcame his letdown and wrote a phenom-

enal album titled Sounds Like This. For someone who had the rug ripped out from un-derneath him, Sounds Like This seems so upbeat and happy. “I was really frustrat-ed when I was writing a lot of these songs,” H u t c h i n s o n says, “but

people would come up to me and be like, ‘It’s my feel good album. It’s the CD I put on when I wanna be In a good mood’. I don’t know really. Maybe it’s just my Paul McCartney influence.” Sounds Like This is a masterpiece of an album that is so hard to pigeonhole. At first listen, its very indie singer/songwriter. After seeing him live, Eric’s thoughts on his sound were spot on. “Acoustic Soul but we are getting more electric.” Hutchinson then adds, “It’s soul music with catchy melodies. I try to write some catchy stuff without being annoying. It’s like the Nabisco song is really catchy but your not going to see it in concert. (laughs).” To Eric Hutchinson, it’s all about the songwriting. He mentions Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello and the Beatles as primary influences, all big songwriters. “I just want to write stuff that I’ll enjoy playing,” he adds. I said, “even the best write clunkers. He then jokes, “I am excellent at writing clunkers. That must make me a great song writer.”


Luck Of The IrishBy Scott Vollweiler

“You guys must be the luckiest band ever,” I said to Glen Power, drummer for the band,

The Script. He quips, “It must be the luck of the Irish!”

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The Script is a trio from Ireland whose success in the states has yet to reach the heights it has overseas. They have sold millions of records worldwide and have been top 5 in many countries. So how lucky has the Script been thus far? Recently, they were invited to open all three dates that Sir Paul McCartney headlined at the inau-gural concerts at Citi Field. “It was honestly a dream come true,” Power confesses to us about the experience. “Just to grace the same stage as Sir Paul and to just watch his show...it was just amazing. He’s a legend. Greatest live show I’ve ever seen.” The experience must have been so overwhelming; those shows were all he could talk about. “We were just in the dressing room and then he walked in. We were like ‘Whoa! It’s Paul McCartney. Do we call him Paul, Sir Paul, Mr. McCartney?’ We talked about a half an hour. He told us stories about early in the Beatles career. It was surreal. He was nice enough to pose for a photograph with us. He was the nicest celebrity I’ve ever met.” In addition to the amazing ex-p e r i e n c e with Sir Paul, they opened for I r e l a n d ’s biggest ex-port, U2, who is P o w e r ’ s f a v o r i t e band of all time. “We played for eighty-two t h o u s a n d people. I was so ner-vous. U2 is like my all

time favorite idol. When I got to see them live, I was like ‘Wow! Holy God!’ They sent over two bottles of champagne to our dressing room and were like ‘Best of luck!’ It was so nice.” While Glen Power does say his bands’ success does have to be the “luck of the Irish,” he also says it’s because they are a “great live band.” With that being said, I asked him how it feels to be an up and coming band in the States, even with their success overseas. Power answered with such elation, “It’s amazing. We get the same reaction now, the same crowd response that we did when we started in the U.K. and in Ireland. It’s a dream come true. I’ve always wanted to come to America and succeed.” The Script almost never made their self titled record. Band members fell ill and family members passed away, but when I asked him (Glen) about the making of the record, I was shocked to hear that he had to have a Craniotomy. “I slipped and fell and hit my head and I had a blood clot. It was the same thing that happened to Liam Neison’s wife, Natasha

Richardson. U n f o r t u -nately she didn’t get to the hospital in time, but my father was smart enough to rush me there. It was amaz-ing that we pulled to-gether to make the record. We were very lucky.” K

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ksmTHE REAL DEAL

photo and article by Kristin Tully

KSM may be a part of the Disney family, but these girls are not your average teenie boppers. These girls are real, and ready to rock. “We’re running a little late, the girls just finished some press in Manhattan and we’re stuck in traffic,” a tired voice relays through the phone, “…and we have to do sound check when we get there, plus the girls have a 3 AM call time tomorrow, so would you mind doing the interview after their set?” If you think, being Disney’s latest rock star protégées is an easy job, think again. With a pending CD release, tentatively titled Read Be-tween The Lines, a demanding schedule of interviews, television performances, promotions, and fan meet and greets add opening band to KSM’s impressive resume. “We actually just started this tour with Demi [Lovato} and David Archuleta and it’s been really awesome!” Though their schedule may be daunting, it scarce-ly seems to have an effect on the ambitious fivesome - Shelby Cobra, Shae Padilla, Katie Cecil, Sophia Melon, and Kate Cabebe. Enthusiastically, each girl outstretches a hand with a huge smile, while intro-ducing the backstage area. “Sorry, there’s not enough chairs…” Katie, the bands lead singer apologizes as the other girls eagerly insists, “we’ll sit on the floor with you!” A smiling Sophia (the bands base player) adds “Like a pow-wow!” Though their PG image and per-fect manners seem to allow them to fit in among their other pop-sensationalized peers on the Disney roster, it

quickly becomes evident that these girls are more than just another prepackaged pop group; they’re real. With their current remake of the hit “I Want You To Want Me,” the girls have landed the theme song on ABC Family’s newest series- Ten Things I Hate About You. “It’s really exciting,” guitarist Shae smirks shyly, “we have some great people who work really hard for us and they approached us and asked us if we wanted to do it…we’ve been really lucky!” But these girls don’t get by on just luck; their tireless work ethic has proven they rock just as hard off stage as on. “We’re busy, but I think we keep each other sane…” the girls confess, “actually we just started journaling, so maybe at the end of all this we can pool them all together and get some good songs out of it!” While the girl’s chemistry both on and offstage is un-deniable, the foundation of KSM is what really seems to make the group work. At its core the band is still just a remarkable ingenuous teenage heart; one that’s enthusiastic, driven, and more than anything waiting to prove their chops. “I think people have this stereo-type that girls can’t rock as hard as guys, and hopefully, we’ve been able to change that and raise the bar… if it motivates just one person to go out and pick up a guitar or play their music, we’re more than happy!” Shelby genuinely grins. And it’s not the fake grin you see plas-tered all over the Disney channel; it’s a smile that radi-ates. And most of all…it’s a smile that is real.

California’s Picture Me Broken may have just re-leased their latest EP, Dearest (I’m So Sorry), but the quartet have nothing to apologize for. PMB has already opened for Linkin Park, Soasin and other high ranking artists, while also winning a tiny little award known as the MTV VMA; all that and they are only 16 years old. Impressive huh? Their latest EP was produced by pro-ducer extraordinaire, Mudrock (Avenged Sevenfold).

Broken Records Magazine: At only 16 years old, do you feel that the music world wont take your music se-riously, although the songs are tight?AUSTIN: I think the response so far indicates that we are not going to just be a teen band. We work hard to be professional and to be the best we can be. CONNOR: We have a maturity in our music that other teen bands don’t have…which may be why we have already gotten some cool people to work with us. If we keep playing, pretty soon some record company will “get it” ya know?

BRM: Obviously there are bands out there in the genre with female vocals. How do you feel your band differs? Why should fans choose your band over the others?LAYLA: In my opinion, most if not all female front-ed bands either go down the gothic metal road or the cheesy pop rock road. I feel like we’re one of the only bands out there with a female vocalist exploring genres like hard rock, alternative and screamo, comparable to bands that fall in between those two roads musically.NICK: There aren’t many female fronted bands in the same genre as us... a lot of people would argue that with Paramore but I really don’t think we fall into the same genre as them at all! I think fans should choose us be-cause we’re one of the few hard rock bands that’s fe-male fronted.

BRM: How was it working with big time producers on the EP?LAYLA: It was an honor that Mudrock agreed to work with us and he had a lot to offer with arranging our songs. I was also very pleased with how Scott Gil-man worked with me on my ballad (“If I Never Wake Again”), he made my vision a reality.AUSTIN: It was a new and interesting experience. It was the first time we really got input on the arrange-ments and writing of our songs, we used to just plug and play in studio with what we had. It was a great ex-perience that we learned a lot from, and we are all itch-ing to getback into a studio.

BRM: You’ve gotten to open for a bunch of big shows and bands; is there one show or tour that really stood out as a favorite? Any fun backstage moments?LAYLA: We just played The Fillmore with Saosin, truly one of the most memorable experiences of my life so far. It was a real professional environment where we were treated as well as any other band on the tour and played our best set to date. It’s amazing what a real sound system and a sound guy who knows what the heck he is doing can do for your live show! It strength-ened my desire to fully graduate to that level in the mu-sic business alongside bands like the one’s we opened for last night. My heart stopped when Cove from Saosin complimented my voice, I was so flattered because I definitely look up to him.

BRM: VMA huh? I never heard of a indie band win one. How’s it feel to win a VMA and not even have a full length album or label?LAYLA: That was a major stepping stone for us, we came together as a band throughout the process and saw ourselves on MTV for the first time. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so proud of what I do or grateful for my band and the opportunities we’ve had. That was prob-ably the best thing to happen to us as it exposed us to thousands of kids who now follow our music and what we do which just further motivates us to work harder.AUSTIN: It feels great. We were ecstatic when we heard the news. I was on the lawn watching blink 182 when I got the news. It is such a great honor to win something so monumental, and I think were still giddy about it.NICK: Pretty flippin’ good.


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“The winner, by twelve million votes, of American Idol 2008 is...David Cook

I know you all remember these words that were announced by Ryan Seacrest last May. We all sat on the edge of our chairs and couches waiting to see which David won. Well the rest as they say is history. David Cook, the former bartender, beat out millions of hopefuls to become season eight’s, of Fox’s hit televi-sion show, American Idol. Since then, Cook has released his major label debut, which has spawned three singles and has gone on to Platinum certification. He has the record for the most songs on the Billboard Hot 100, with eleven tracks; the record is the most in the modern era and the most since the Beatles had fourteen. At the end of July, David Cook was nice enough to talk to us prior to his sold out concert at the Starland Ball-room in New Jersey.

Broken Records Magazine: It has been over a year since you won American Idol. How has your life changed and what has been the best moment in your musical journey since?David Cook: Well, how does your life change seems like a pretty lofty question. It’s changed a lot. I get to wake up everyday and do something I love, which is great. Past that, it’s been a whirl-wind. I’ve played overseas for the troops in the Middle East and played in the Philippines in front of one hundred and fifty thousand people. Just a little pinch me along the way.

BRM: How did the troops dur-ing the USO tour react to you playing for them?DC: Military acts are usually very different. They are trained to act a certain way. You played a song and they wouldn’t clap right away. We played a couple of shows where they would all clap at the same rate and the same time and then stopped im-mediately.

BRM: When making your self-titled record, what did you feel you needed to prove and did the label give you room to make the record?DC: I didn’t feel like I had to prove anything. What I tried to lean on was that I’ve been doing this since I was fifteen. The idea of writing songs and being in a band weren’t new things to me but the stakes were higher. I didn’t care about anyone else’s expectations but my

own. 19/RCA were amazing about letting me write the record. It’s what gave the energy of the record. I felt the only way to do this properly is to invest myself into these songs and there was no better way to invest your-self but to be a part of the writing of the songs.

BRM: Did it feel different than creating Analog Heart?DC: The schedule was a little cra-zier. With the first record it was a little more laid back like whenever we can get into the studio to record, we’d do it. But I did like having a deadline. It gave the record a more youthful energy.

BRM: I know you’ve been touring under the name “The Declaration Tour.” What is it that you are de-claring?DC: I guess both long term and short term intensions. I wanna be someone who puts out good music and plays good shows and kind of sticks around for a while. It’s the formula I’m working with.

BRM: You released the single “Permanent” as a charity single during the finale of American Idol.

How did it do? Did it sell well? And how much did you raise with the release?DC: I think we ended up with over one-hundred thou-sand which is great. Past that, we just tried to stay the course. I don’t want to end up being the poster child for Cancer funding but of course it’s important to me. If I can find a viable way to raise money like releas


“I wanna be someone who puts out good

music and plays good shows and kind of sticks around for a

while.”

-David Cook

ing “Permanent,” which is obviously about my brother, then I’ll get on board with it.

BRM: Did you feel that it was hard to move on with your touring schedule after the loss of your brother?DC: Yes and no. I think for me, it’s therapeutic to be out on the road playing shows. It kept my mind on some-thing other than that. It’s never an easy thing.

BRM: Have you started work on the next album?DC: We are in the infant stages. We started talking about making another record and started formalizing plans and writing songs. Right now we don’t have a producer lined up nor the direction the album is going to wind up. We have a long time between now and then. I’ve been noodling on the road, writing riffs and melo-dies but no concrete songs. I’ve been focusing on us as a band and getting our footing.

BRM: I was lucky enough to see you live in Atlan-tic City in March (read the review in Broken Records Magazine Issue 2). You rocked out on a couple of cov-ers including “Hot For Teacher.” How do you choose what covers you play? Also, I noticed you didn’t play “Time of Your Life.” Why?DC: We just try to pick songs that are fun to play and “Hot For Teacher” is just a blast. Plus at the time of that show we were playing primarily college shows and it just seemed like an inappropriate song to play (laughs).

As for not playing “Time of Your Life,” you know it’s a great song and it has done great things for me by seg-ueing and buying me time between “Idol” and getting my record out, but I’m all about representing myself accurately, especially live.

BRM: It seems like you’ve been on tour non-stop since you released the record. What’s next for you?DC: We are on tour until October. Then, maybe we will take a few weeks off and jump back on tour again until the end of the year and start working on the new record shortly after.

BRM: Any chance of seeing something with Chris Daughtry? Same label and same show.DC: There has been talk. I would definitely work with Chris for sure. You know I’d love to have some of his record sales. But by the same token, we are two dif-ferent musicians, two different performers. If the right vibe came along, then absolutely but otherwise, I’m sure we are very happy where we are individually in our careers.

BRM: Thinking back at the exact moment when you won, can you tell me what went through your head?DC: I went through a conscious blackout. I don’t re-member. My memory of it is exactly what everyone sees on Youtube. I don’t remember my mom and broth-er coming on stage but apparently that happened.


Broken Records Magazine: First off, where did the name HURT spawn from?Rek Mohr: Well the name of the band, it was chosen mostly, as something ev-eryone can kind of associate with, it’s a feeling that everyone’s been familiar with at some point. That was kind of the goal of the music as well, some-thing that everyone could relate to. So the name was just kind of a no-brainer for us.

BRM: You chose to release this album on your own?RM: Yeah, we did. This album, Good-bye to the Machine was released on our own label, Amusement. It’s a lot harder when you’re doing things yourself but it’s also a lot more rewarding because you have no one else to blame, no one else that’s dipping in the pot; everything is up to us.

BRM: Are there political undertones with the name of the album?RM: There is. There are a lot of under-tones with that name. The reason we chose it was it kind of fit a lot of dif-ferent things that were happening at the time. At the time it was being recorded, Bush was on his way out of office and Obama was on his way in. But also we recorded the album analog, without us-ing the typical digital recording meth-ods. So we kind of wanted to go back old school and record, so what you hear on the album is very true, it’s what we played. It’s not over-edited; what you hear is performance. That’s kind of what we wanted…we wanted to show that bands could still play their instru-ments.

BRM: Why confront such controver-sial topics?RM: Somebody has to. Certainly, we’re not trying to be the next Rage Against the Machine- they’re great at being political and really speaking out- we’re not trying to be that, we’re not trying to get on a soapbox. What we are trying to do is not avoid the is-sues and just simply say “this is what’s wrong.” If people are aware at least…then you can start to change. But first you have to be aware that there is a ma-jor problem.

BRM: Though there are political un-dertones and social commentary, it can also be interpreted in a personal way. Was that intentional?RM: As a song writer, you hope that when you write a certain lyric, or a cer-tain series of chord changes, you want people to interpret that their own way, you want the listener to make that his/her own so that it means something to them. They don’t have to necessar-ily agree with what you’re saying but they can take those lyrics and they can reinterpret them to mean whatever, re-ally, they want. And that’s the beauty of music…it means something differ-ent to everyone.

BRM: You have a pretty unique sound, but do you ever get compared to any-one?RM:You’re going to get compared to other bands. It’s in people’s nature to compare and that’s ok. It’s just that, you hope one day, you become the standard by which people compare. We want people to say, “Well, those guys sound like Hurt”.

With a new album, “Goodbye To The Machine,” Rek Mohr of Hurt sits down to talk about confronting some controversial topics.

By Kristin Tully

19

Turn on top 40 radio and you’ll hear one of Colbie Caillat’s hit songs. It could be the ultra catchy singles “Bubbly” and “Realize” or the duet with Jason Mraz called “Lucky.” Most recently Miss Caillat released her brand new single “Fallin’ For You.” The twenty-four year old singer/songwriter released her latest album Breakthrough in late August. Breakthrough debuted at #1. Colbie Caillat was gracious enough to speak with us through email.

Broken Records Magazine: With multiple hits under your belt, did you feel pressure making your new re-cord? Colbie Caillat: At the beginning, yes, but once I started writing and getting into production with my new songs, I lost all worries and the pressure just went away. I love these songs and I got to produce them and bring them to life exactly how I wanted to!

Broken Records Magazine: How did you approach the songwriting for “BreakThrough?” Was it any dif-ferent than “CoCo?”Colbie Caillat: I worked with a few different song writers that are friends of mine on this record. We went to Kauai for 3 weeks in January, soaked up life, talked about real situations that I was going through and wrote about them (falling in love with someone, falling out of love with someone, or writing about people that I was close to and what they are going through at that mo-ment). Collaborating with people is so much fun; we help each other grow as writers.

Broken Records Magazine: “Fallin’ For You” seems to be poised for a big rise to the top of the charts. How did this song come about? Is there any truth to the lyrics for you? Colbie Caillat: Yes. I wrote “Fallin’ For You” the day after I went on a date with a friend of mine. We had the best time together. I remember he held my hand while we were dancing on the dance floor together and

I swear it was like the room went in slow motion and the music stopped! I knew at that moment that I didn’t think of him as a friend any more and I was totally fall-ing in love with him.

Broken Records Magazine: Does songwriting come easy to you? It seems that you have a very subtle way of expressing yourself in songs. Colbie Caillat: Yes and no. Sometimes I won’t write a song for months and then all of a sudden, all of the emotions that had been building up inside of me that whole time, start flowing out of me so fast and I’ll write 3 songs in a weekend. It’s kind of crazy when it hap-pens. Songwriting is a release; it’s like therapy.

Broken Records Magazine: So you’re a cartoon now! How did that come about? What was your initial reac-tion to seeing yourself in ink? Were you an Archie fan prior? Colbie Caillat: I was stoked the first time I saw myself as a cartoon! It looks exactly like me! Seriously, we took a picture of me next to the drawing and it’s to the T! Soooo cool! : )

Broken Records Magazine: Break Through is a strong title. How does this title fit you? Colbie Caillat: I named my album Breakthrough be-cause I had a break through. I had to break through my fears and my insecurities as a young woman and allow

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myself to become the person I have always wanted to be and have the career I know I can have. It took me such a long time to get to this point. For years I struggled with stage fright and because of it I contemplated giving up my love for singing. I finally had a wake up call that I was too young to give up and take the easy way out, plus I wanted to set a good example for all of my young fans, well actually, all of my fans no matter what age they are. It’s never too late to breakthrough your fears! : ) So that’s exactly what I did. Now I enjoy performing and I look forward to every show I play!

Broken Records Magazine: You’re also on the track “Lucky” with Jason Mraz. How did that come togeth-er? How was it working with Jason? Colbie Caillat: It’s a funny story actually. Jason and I had never met before. He emailed me telling me he loved my music and he wanted us to write a song to-gether. He had a song started that he wanted me to help him finish. So, he emailed “Lucky” to me. I worked on it with my guitar player Tim Fagan for a couple weeks, sent it back to Jason, and then flew to London to record the song with him. That was the first time we met. He is one of my favorite musicians in the world!

Broken Records Magazine: At such a young age…how does it feel to be so successful and have your songs reach near the top of the charts throughout the world? Colbie Caillat: I am still in disbelief about it all...and I am so honored at the same time! I was recognized as BMI’s songwriter of the year and that is an accomplish-ment that I never expected! Getting to travel the world and play my songs has to be one of the best jobs in the world! I have to thank my fans for listening to my mu-sic and continuing to come to my shows! It means the world to me!

Broken Records Magazine: When did you “realize” you made it? Colbie Caillat: I’m still “realizing” it. : ) Life changes for me everyday...

Thank you! : ) ~Cc

Interview by Scott Vollweiler


Dredg Dredg is a progressive/alternative rock band based out of Los Gatos, California. They formed in 1993, with the band consisting of: vocalist, Gavin Hayes; bassist, Drew Roulette; drummer/keyboardist, Dino Campanella; and guitarist, Mark Engles. The band first made a name for themselves in 1993 when they put out concept album, “Leitmotif,” which led to a deal with Interscope Records. Dredg released the album, “The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion” in June 2009. They just recently played at Coachella and are now touring with the RX Bandits.

Broken Records Magazine: What would you say about the artistic progression with this new record in comparison with your previous records?Gavin Hayes: I mean, on many levels we’ve become better musicians. We’ve fine-tuned our skills as musi-cians. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly. I think from both a rhythm and production level it’s our best sounding record.

BRM: What is your guilty pleasure music wise?GH: You mean as far as what I’ve been listening to? I really enjoy the new Kanye West. I guess it’s not new, but it’s his most recent, and Travis Tritt’s song, “It’s a Great Day to be Alive.” It’s not really country, but it’s a great song and well written. I listened to that a lot during the making of this record.

BRM: Okay, give me three albums which you would say were/are most influential for you as an individual, as well as a musician?GH: Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and “The Wall,” if I can combine the two. “Diary of a Madman” by Ozzy Osbourne. The new Peter Gabriel record, es-pecially for him being such an established artist, I mean he’s been around forever. His new record is really mod-ern. It’s a great record.

BRM: What show or tour of yours would you say was the most memorable for Dredg?GH: It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s coming up for us. We’re playing in NYC for a benefit for the homeless with HIV and AIDS. Although it hasn’t happened yet, we’ll be working with Salman Rushdie, who is huge for us. So I would say that will be our highlight in our career so far even though it hasn’t happened yet.

Interview by Alicia GallagherPhoto by Kyra Kverno

DROP Of

Walking into an empty elevator, a rather tall, tattoo clad drummer, stands facing the closing doors. While the unusually spacious elevator holds only three other people, it’s funny to watch as a considerably short-er band mate raises his eyes to meet the drummer’s. Pressed forcefully against the drummer as if crammed in by some invisible space constraint, they glare at each other with straight face. The charade only lasts a mo-ment before both guys break into a cloud of laughter. “We definitely try to keep it interesting on the road…make sure we keep on our toes,” RED’s guitarist Jasen Rauch wryly comments. Within the first 5 minutes of meeting RED, it’s apparent this band has got something you can’t fake; chemistry. “We’re five brothers. We just hang out and do our thing.” Started as a Christian rock band, RED is made up of: Michael Barnes (lead singer), Jasen Rauch (guitar), Randy Armstrong (bass), Anthony Armstrong (guitar), and Joe Rickard (drums). Though the bands roots are in the Christian market, RED manages to defy the type of pigeon-holing that is accompanied when categorizing such bands. “Our message isn’t extremely blatant and definitive on the first listen. For us, it’s really just about telling our stories and writing good music and if we’re Christian’s doing it…then it happens to be Christian’s doing it. In fact the band’s first album, End of Silence was so widely acclaimed it was pinned as a Grammy nominee.” Following their success, the band recently released their second album Innocence and Instinct. The album debuted on the US Billboard 200 chart at #15; however, the band found themselves one member short. Having endured a harrowing car crash, Jasen recalls “It was a really weird, uncomfortable situation for us to be in…because our drummer from the previous record hurt his shoulder in the accident we had and wasn’t able to play when it came time to record the record. So his drum tech, Joe… recorded all the drums on the album.” In spite of the change in line up, the band hasn’t missed a beat and it seems Joe fits right in with the bands light-

hearted pranks. “There all sorts of different pranks that we do from taking gear off stage, so we’re left with like a snare drum and a guitar to people driving around porter potties on stage…It’s anything you can imagine- toilet paper fights!” All joking aside, with Joe joining the group on the road, the band is short a guitarist tonight…though this time for happier reasons. “My brother Anthony couldn’t be here with us tonight because his wife is having a baby,” bass player Randy Armstrong smiles. Minus a member, plus a member, new or old, the band seems to take each challenge they are faced with in stride, though it’s not always so easy. Backstage, Jasen leans forward pensively on a ragged couch as the rest of the band changes in a nearby dress-ing room. “I think something that always resonates as common ground with RED stuff is, we want things to be dynamic. We want to be able to visit a lot of things lyrically and with our lyrics we just want to be really honest and….unafraid and unashamed to go to places.” Looking up from under his newsboy cap, his eyes re-veal his sincerity in his words; this record means a lot to the band. It depicts a struggle that’s both personal and intimate to the band. “That whole, fight inside-literally, that’s really the key to unlocking where all the songs came from. I think it’s a personal thing and I think it’s a universal thing as well. We always have things that we wish we could better about ourselves but ultimately, for a lot of us, our biggest enemy is ourselves….everyone has that same story and that same mold that we keep coming back to and I just think that’s part of the human experience; the dichotomy of being human.” As the crowd erupts into a chant, “RED, RED, RED…” the boys humbly wait to take the stage. “We have a lot of security about where we are and what we do and we’re really thankful…” It’s that kind of assured demeanor and comfort in itself that makes RED’s mu-sic resonate both on and off the stage. The band holds back nothing. And as they take the stage, there are no barriers…both literally and figuratively.

by Kristin Tully

GUITAR GODS

STEVE VAI

Joe Satriani

By Joe Penacchio 25

STEVE VAI On September 29, 2009, Guitar Legend Steve Vai will release his 21st solo project entitled “Where The Wild Things Are.” This 2 hour and 40 minute live DVD/Blu-ray was recorded at The State Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The band consists of: drummer, Jeremy Colson; Brian Beller, on Bass; Alex DePue, on Violin and Keyboards; Dave Weiner, on Guitar; Ann Marie Calhoun on Violin and Keyboards; and of course, Steve Vai on Gui-tar and Vocals. When asked why he chose to include violin players Steve had said, “I always like the idea of having a violin player in the band but during auditions I started to have serious concerns because I could not find one violin player that could play in tune and melodiously. Many were shrill sounding metal shredders or classically trained players that sounded wimpy when plugged in. Then the skies opened up and Alex and Ann Marie came into my life.” “Where The Wild Things Are” not only shows the band’s incredible music ability, but it also entertains the viewing and listening audience with an energetic and beautifully orchestrated stage show. There will also be a single live audio disc re-leased from the show. It consists of tracks that have never been re-leased in live versions before, such as “Oooo,” “Tender Surrender,” “Now We Run,” etc..


STEVE VAI Steve Vai has been at the forefront of Guitar In-strumental Music since his 1984 release “Flex-Able,” which has been re-released as an anniversary edition marking its 25th year. Steve goes on to talk about how it was a very memorable period in his life when he was recording his first solo album. “Whenever we create something it’s usually a snap shot of who we were at a specific time in our life. Those early years in that house were a special period of living with friends and making whatever music we felt like making. We had no real con-cerns and we were not trying to be successful with what we were doing. We just wanted to make music and have fun. That music was meant to make us laugh. That’s why it sounds so silly and carefree.” Steve goes on to explain that the 25th anniversary issue of “Flex-Able” is a digital re-mastering of the original two track master. There were no fixes in the re-mastering, only E.Q. and compression. When asked about his music influences growing up, Vai states that he was a teenager in the seventies and names Jim-my Page, Jeff Beck, Hendrix, and others as his guitar heroes. Vai has also recently put out a five disc box-set entitled “The Naked Tracks,” which feature some of his best songs without the lead guitar tracks. When bringing up that it is quite a dif-ferent idea Vai says, “I make a conscious effort to create projects that have unique-ness to them. I enjoy challeng-ing myself to come up with ideas that I be-lieve are unique,

like the “Naked Tracks” box set, The 7th Song, Alive in An Ultra World, the Ibanez Jem guitar, and some other projects. These things give me a feeling of accomplish-ment.” In fact, many of his ideas he has mentioned, were in the works or thoughts from many years prior to their release. Steve Vai stays very busy with touring, composing, and recording, but in his three hour in-person seminar Alien Guitar Secrets, Steve takes the time to share his wealth of information ranging from how he started, to some basic guitar playing concepts, and discussion about the music business. This masterclass also features a question and answer session, along with a meet and greet, and a few attendees will also be chosen to jam with Steve! Vai stated, “The academics of music can be found on any good Internet site or book on the subject, but in Alien Guitar Secrets, I talk intimately about identifying with your own inner musical voice and expressing it through

a cathartic ex-ploration of self discovery.” At the age of 49, Steve continues to astound many people with his lightening fast guitar runs, his unmatched whammy bar skills, and his incredible and beautiful guitar melodies. He inspires many to pick up their i n s t r u m e n t s and strive to be the best they can be. He has made a huge impact in the guitar world, and has many of us wonder-ing what else he has in store for us on the horizon.


Joe Satriani

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Joe Satriani

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of the last 20 years.

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Joe Satriani has been revered as one of the most talented and influential guitar play-ers of the last 20 years. He has established a successful musical ca-reer as a very unique and tasteful instru-mental rock guitarist and has had numerous Grammy nominations for his work. His most recent project is rock super group “Chickenfoot,” in which he is along-side front man, Sam-my Hagar; bassist, Michael Anthony; and drummer, Chad Smith. When BRM asked Joe about his new band, he enthusiastically mentioned that is was great fun and it gives him a “kick in the mu-sic bone” to be play-ing with such great talent. He goes on to say that he joined the group after a gig he did with them in Las Vegas. Joe stated that it felt quite natu-ral to step back and play more rhythm guitar than solo guitar. He compares his experience in the band to his high school rock band. Satriani said that most people would be surprised to know that even though all of their previous bands were quite different from each other, that they all have many of the same influences and that they played a lot of the same cover songs in the past. For Chickenfoot, Joe says his guitar set up is basi-cally the same. He upgraded his string gauge from 9s to 10s, and tunes his signature JS1200 to E flat (1/2 step down). The reasoning behind the string change, Joe says, is that tuning a half step lower leaves the 9 gauge strings sounding flimsy and weak. Chickenfoot’s last tour labeled, “The Road Test,” was

a scaled down small venue tour. Satriani states that the band wanted to see how ev-erything would go over and that it was a great way to interact closely with fans. He feels that being in a band of this nature will most definitely influence his playing, although he is not certain exactly how. Chickenfoot’s writing process varies quite a bit due to the other commitments band members have. At times, they get to-gether for a few hours and then won’t see each other for months. But Joe stated that it is a “real band” and that he is quite certain they will be putting out more material. We asked Joe if he and his friend, Steve Vai, will ever record an album together. Joe Satriani and Steve Vai have been friends

since their early teens. In fact, Joe taught Vai guitar, among other now famous musicians, such as Kirk Ham-mett of Metallica. Joe says that it is al-ways a thought, but due to their very busy schedules, they always end up

postponing their plans to later dates. About a year ago, Joe Satriani had a lawsuit pending with Coldplay in the matter of determining if his song “If I Could Fly” was plagiarized by the band with their song “Viva La Vida.” Although he wasn’t able to say much about the lawsuit, he mentioned that he was very hurt that someone would do that to him. The matter has since been settled out of court. Joe Satriani has contributed a lot to the music and guitar playing community and we know that there is much more to come from this guitar giant.

“Playing with

Chickenfoot is a

kick in the music

bone”

27

A trans-continental call connects me in my peace-ful family home with Dream Theater keyboardist, Jor-dan Rudess, 2500 miles away about to start a show at the San Jose Civic Auditorium. Rudess and the men of Dream Theater, James Labrie on vocals, John Myung on bass, John Petrucci on guitar, and Mike Portnoy on drums, are finishing up the North American leg of their Progressive Nation tour along with Scale the Summit, Bigelf, and Zappa Plays Zappa. After a quick stop home, the band continues onward to Finland, where they will be playing with Opeth and Bigelf, and then Sweden, where they will be joined by Unexpect, for the Progres-sive Nation’s European tour. With touring and the re-lease of their new album, 2009 has been a busy year for the band, marked not only by constant motion but also by celebration and milestone; Black Clouds and Silver Linings has been nominated by the Classic Rock Awards for album of the year, and also debuted at #6 on Billboard’s Top 200 album charts, the band’s highest chart position to date. And yet, despite their undeniable success, the technical wizards of Dream Theater attract a very select, devout bunch without the airplay some of their contemporaries had. A majestic 20 years of re-cording and performing has established the men as a band of individuals, a group that is out of the ordinary, able to keep their audience guessing and coming back for more. The trio of Portnoy, Myung, and Petrucci began by playing Rush and Iron Maiden covers in their spare time while studying at the Berklee College of Music in ’85. In these nascent years, they dubbed themselves “Majesty,” after their impression on the ending to Rush’s Bastille Day. But a friendship and partnership of over twenty years was not always the success it is today. For years it was hard for the band to keep its members together; much of the material for ‘92’s Im-ages and Words was developed at a time when the band was without a vocalist. By ’91 LaBrie of glam metal band Winter Rose filled that position. The band’s search for a keyboardist was an even longer battle. After gain-ing international attention as ‘94’s “Best New Talent,” in Keyboard Magazine, Rudess was invited to join on with Dream Theater, but initially turned them down. However, they kept in touch, and in ‘97 Rudess worked with Portnoy, Petrucci and Tony Levin on the super-group Liquid Tension Experiment, leading to Rudess joining the band in ’99. Musically, the group had grown and with the addition of Rudess, the fragmented group came together.

by Veronica Gonzales


And their sound continues to grow. The group has built their name on a solid foundation of technical mastery and physical memory. Rudess, who himself started at the Julliard pre-college when he was 9, reveals to young as-piring musicians, “training doesn’t have to be classical, but if you are playing something with a physical reality to it, you need to train your muscles to the instruments… all the band members take their instruments very seri-ously and practice with metronomes backstage before every show.” Of his transition from classical piano to something with a little more edge, Rudess describes a scene from his high school days where he and friends would, “gather in a basement, listen to Pink Floyd, Gen-esis and Yes, and experiment with a mog synthesizer.” Petrucci, Portonoy, and Rudess take on the main role in writing the music, but Rudess also explains that the composition process is borne from jam sessions where the musicians present their ideas and build together. Af-terwards, tracking begins, with drums first, then guitar and keyboard, leaving the vocals for last. The lyrics are

often added in the last step. Rudess reveals that his take on music is very different from previous keyboardists with Dream Theater, as Moore was interested in the use of organs in the music, while he has worked to inject newer sounds into the band’s work. Hilighting monste work Octavarium of ‘05, Rudess speaks of his work with an arranger converting midi files for the orchestra as, “a pretty cool experience. With the keyboard you emulate the orchestra... you can imagine how it would go into the musicians’ hands.” Recently he has been working with Amidio to create the JR Hexatone Pro iP-hone app, implementing the use of a 6-directional drum machine/rhythm sequencer into their work and stage performance. This along with the band’s reputation for changing the set up every night to keep a fresh show for each performance shows their drive and dedication to the audience and keeping the music alive.

Interview by Victoria BaronePhotos By Scott Vollweiler

BRM: Pete, have you picked the first single for the album yet? Also, you had premiered the song “Letter From a Thief” months ago. Can you tell me about that tune?Pete Loeffer: We actually just picked the real single called “Jars.” It’s kind of making fun of humanity in general and us too. It’s not making fun of global warm-ing; it’s actually just addressing the environment in a goofy way, like a satire. It’s actually doing well at ra-dio which we’re happy about. “Letter From a Thief” is just talking about a situation that happened to me. I had stuff returned to me from I don’t know who, could have been a thief, I don’t know. You know, people call us wussies for complaining about what happened to our stuff, but people don’t understand. It’s not like we had a couple of guitars stolen, it was our whole trailer. Say you worked at Walmart and you show up at work and WALMARTS GONE when you get there!

BRM: Talk to me about SciFi Crimes. What’s behind the title? What can fans expect from it in comparison to your previous albums?PL: Well SciFi Crimes is a little bit different; It’s an

extremely raw record if you ask me. Everything was gone over painstakingly until we loved it. It has very little Protools; we tried not to do any of that. It’s a little more old school, a little more true, a little more real you know? And SciFi Crimes is sort of themed and very interesting in the fact that it’s been teaching us a lot of things. We’ve been getting into UFO’s and things like that, and there’s a song called “Roswell” on the album that touches upon that. We even themed artwork that Dean has been painting himself which is really amaz-ing. It’s all just been coming together; it’s really just a dreamy sounding album.

BRM: If there was one thing you could change about your bands history, what would it be?PL: There’s a lot of things man. One small thing is we have a video for “Send the Pain Below” which has snow boarding in it which we never wanted to surface. We had a really cool artsy dark video that we wanted but the editor couldn’t get it together and couldn’t edit it properly so someone had an idea and they went for it and they shot the video without us knowing we couldn’t do anything about it

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Mitch Musso is all that corporate pop has to of-fer. Co-star of Hannah Montana, his debut album is also under the Walt Disney banner. This continuation guarantees a crossover of fans as he jumps from film to MP3. At the same time his music career can be seen as an escape from the larger TV vehicle, a way to make his own name, a point underlined by the title of his album, Mitch Musso. As he put it, “as an actor you play kind of the robot all the time, you make it your own, but people tell you what to do and you do it.” With his music he is able to be a bit freer. He writes his own music but openly admits to collaborating; in fact he prefers it and sees it as a way to get new ideas. Despite this freedom he does not stray too far from his acting roots themati-cally. Lyrically, Mitch’s songs are about “girls, parties, and about not fitting in but how that’s ok. I write about regular stuff that teens go through every single day, be-cause I am a basic teen.” If I were a “basic teen” the way Mitch Musso is a “basic teen” my memories would be a lot different than they are. Practically speaking, however, where Mitch is in his music career this choice makes the most sense. With a core fan base that fell in love with him through his acting and that followed him over because of that, writing within the same genre that those fans are used to, is the best way to retain them, at least for now (but more on this later). Musically speak-ing there is a generic rock feel with some leanings to-wards a richer dance influ-ence, but ultimately it seems to lack a soul. Interestingly enough when asked what the goal of his music is, his an-swer was “I’m not trying to do anything other then play shows for the fans that want to come out and see me. I want everyone to know that I am doing this for them.” And to the question of where he sees himself in twenty years his response was “If it’s me playing in my basement by myself or if it’s me playing in front of twenty thousand people at the Staples Center, it really doesn’t matter man, I just love music.” At the

same time when looking to the near future his goal is to add more of a hip hop element with dance and rock elements throughout, citing Justin Timberlake’s recent styling.This juxtaposition of being the every guy teen who loves playing music for music’s sake and isn’t focus-ing on where the future will take him versus these very specific stylistic alterations for the near future, paint a contradicting image. At the same time it makes per-fect sense. Mitch’s core fans are those tweens and early teens who grew up with him and are still at the point where the generic issues and emotions summed up in his songs make sense and are acoustically satisfying. Mitch Musso currently fits into that mold and into that structure. Anything deeper or more complex than that would leave him stuck between TV based fans that don’t understand or relate to his music and the rest of the music loving world that would judge him based on that same old fan base. By having this debut album that is safe both in style and content he is allowed that tran-sition into a music career without rocking the boat too much. In Mitch’s future those Hannah Montana fans would have hit teendom in full force and begin to estab-lish their own personalities and disperse into the plen-

tiful world of music genres. Mitch by then will almost be twenty and still singing for twelve year olds would seem drastically inappropriate. Like his old fan base, Mitch is plan-ning to spread out into deeper genres. His mention of Justin Timberlake is no accident, as the career plan Mitch alluded to is very similar to the one Justin has already conquered, from boy band tween idol to well-established artist. With this first CD Mitch in many ways is still the actor. But his current role is to help ensure a future where he can put the script away. Despite his facade to the contrary, Mitch Musso seems very much focused and determined as to where he wants his music career to be and how he plans to get there. What remains to be seen is can he do it.

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Broken Records Magazine: How has it been on the road with Cruefest?Shannon Larkin: Everyday is a crazy day when you’re in a band on this tour! It’s been crazy man! The first week, everyone’s getting to know each other, all the bands get along really well. Then by this week, Tommy blew his hand up with fireworks, so you got Morgan from Sevendust, playing the drums, but Tommy still comes out and does his thing- shows everybody he’s here. So it’s working out! It’s been crazy…to say the least!

BRM: So how did you guys end up on this tour?SL: Motley Crue reached out to us. Tommy and Sul-ly are good friends and the Cruefest I was a success last year so they wanted to do a Cruefest II and they needed a main support band and we got the call! Like I said, we’re friends with Tommy anyway and obviously, Motley Crue is a legendary band, and it’s an honor for us to share the stage. So that’s how it all went down!

BRM: What has Godsmack been up to? Have you been in the studio at all?SL: We took a little time off after ten years of straight touring and took a year and half off and then did ten shows last year, just to get back together. Immedi-ately after the ten shows we started writing. So we got six months of writing in and we have almost twenty songs complete now. And in that respect we’ve been really lucky because we hit a lot of good songs really quick, so that enabled us to be able to stop writing and go on this Cruefest. Two weeks af-ter Cruefest, we’re going to L.A to start doing the record. We’re hoping to have it out in March/April of 2010. This way we can tour next year and we got big plans for a tour with a bunch of cool bands that we are gonna bring out with us, so we’re very excited!

BRM: Possible album names yet?SL: No, we don’t have any album names yet. We basically write all the music first and then Sully goes and writes all the lyrics and melodies to all the

music that we have complete. So usually, it’s a song, like “Faceless,” we loved that song “Faceless” on that record, and wanted it to be the first song on the record and so we ended up calling the record Faceless. Same thing for the Awake record; the song was the lead single. But the IV record was our fourth album and we loved Led Zeppelin IV so we were like “Godsmack IV! Let’s do it!” For this one, who knows! It definitely won’t be called V though, I can guarantee you that!

BRM: Have you been playing any of the new stuff on this tour? SL: We are only playing one new song- Whiskey Hang-over. It’s kicking ass on the radio right now, so people seem to like it…they’re getting off on it just like we are! Everything else is all the radio hits we’ve had. We try to keep it to that because a lot of the people in this crowd aren’t Godsmack people, they’re Motley Crue people and they might have heard of us, but most of them don’t know who we are. We play all of the top


five hits, so everything you hear is a radio hit except for the drum solo. We do a double drum solo thing which lights it up!

BRM: You said you’re playing mostly hits, does that ever get monotonous for you guys? Or is it something that never gets old?SL: I just love to play the drums so much! If I had to pick a favorite song we play, probably…”Straight Down The Line.” It’s a fun song to play on drums. I think the bands first hit was called “Whatever” and that song, whenever we play it, is always fun because whenever we play it the crowd just loses their mind and jumps up and down. It’s exciting! It just makes me wanna break something!

BRM: What’s the studio process for you?SL: You know, it’s different every time and it’s differ-ent for every song. On the last record we went in pretty loose and just let things happen. On the record before

that, “Faceless,” we were so well rehearsed- everybody knew exactly what they were going to play before we even walked into the studio. Typically, we’ve always done drums first. So the drums all get done in a week and then we start laying down the bass, the guitar, the vocals but this time we’re thinking of getting one song at a time and doing the drums for that song and then the bass, guitars- all that shit. So it would be a whole different process and I guess we just try not to let it get stale.

BRM: How have you guys as a band progressed and grown musically?SL: Wow! I think that we’ve definitely gotten ten more years under our belts since the beginning of the band, so I think we’ve grown as song writers certainly. Par-ticularly, having the opportunity to step up more and contribute more to “Sully’s Table,” as they say. But as musicians we play all the time and we’ve played all our lives…so I don’t think you can ever get worse, you just get better! As a band we’ve all grown. We’re not a young band. We’re all in our forties so we’ve gotten through most of the shenanigans and debauchery and all the bullshit that ends up tearing apart bands. We’ve gotten all that shit out of the way already so we can be pretty solid. You’re guaranteed, if you come to a Gods-mack show, we’re not going to f*cking let you down! We’re all great players, we’re professionals and we’ll go up there and kick ass every night, the same way we would in Jersey, we do it the same way we would in LA. So I think as pros it becomes a professional thing as you get older, we try to deliver every night like we’re supposed to.

BRM: You’ve been successful at really making a name for yourself, so where do you go from here?SL: Well, honestly we want to dominate radio and that’s been the heart of this bands success. We always come out and put out songs that really do well on radio, so that’s something we always want to accomplish. We’re neck-in-neck with Metallica for most top ten singles from a rock band, modern rock. the best way to answer that question is, our ultimate goal in life is to try and continue to play music for a living.

Interview by Kristin Tully


Diagnosis:TRI-POLARby Kristin Tully

Beneath a head of pretty-boy blonde hair, a perfectly crafted white smile, and charming Australian accent, is a thrashing rocker: “Are you ready to f***ing rock New York? Let’s do this b****!” Sitting backstage only mo-ments earlier, perched casual on a couch between two other band members, Emma Anzai on bass and Mike Goodwin on drums, charismatically chatting, it’s hard to imagine lead singer, Shimon Moore, screaming such profanities, let alone fronting anything more harmless than a boy band. “We just call ourselves a rock band….The music does most of the talking”… and so it does, in fact it has quite a lot to say! The band, formed back in 1997 in Sydney Austra-lia, has come quite a way. From working in sandwich shops, and telemarketing in Australia, to moving to L.A and penning their first major label release, Dressed Up As Life, this band is anything but ordinary. Having first made a name for themselves as a YouTube sensa-tion- popularized by their contribution of the song “All the Same” to the Free Hugs Campaign viral video- the band doesn’t shy away from anything. In fact it’s the bands tenacity and border line manic approach to their music that has made them such a success. Their heated lyrics have become the backdrop to Street Fighter IV’s video game campaign, as well as the WWE’s pay per view theme song. Their third release to date, “Tri Polar,” asserts the bands unabashed willingness to push the boundaries. “[Tripolar] is a play on Bipolar, but we looked it up and it’s clinically defined as the third level of insan-ity,” Goodwin tries to coolly explain before Shimon interjects, “It’s real f***ed up…it’s like a whole differ-ent level of crazy.” Any preconceived notions of what this band is about are quickly thrown out the door, “We chose it because it sounded cool, but really there are three different people in the band, and we are very dif-ferent personalities,” Shimon admits. It is apparent Shimon is dead on in that respect. His

take-charge demeanor makes him the perfect lead sing-er, answering each question thrown his way with enthu-siasm, barely leaving room to breathe. “Oh, we haven’t talked about Rock Prophecies yet! You’re not leaving till we talk about that!” Shimon pronounces, wagging a finger in the air. “It’s a documentary about a rock and roll photographer called Robert Knight who actually photographed Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix…he became a world renowned photographer… and he made a mis-sion statement for himself to find new talent that he be-

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lieved in and help get them started- which is exactly what he did with us. He was filming us over the course of our career even when we didn’t have a record deal and then the Free Hugs video, to playing with Evanes-cence in areas.” Shimon is the quintessential, frivolous front man of the group, when it comes down to it, he’s serious about the bands music, “If you know that peo-ple are listening and you have that ability to affect that change…there is that responsibility; that’s something we took seriously with this record.” Conversely, Mike sits to Shimon’s right seemingly thinking each question through in his head. He inter-mittently punctuates the conversation, clarifying or adding to Shimon’s explosive quotes; he is the glue, pulling the conversation back together. “We’ve learned so much from our fans, that on this record we just tried to pick the things they connected with and write that from our perspective.” On the other side of the couch a reserved Emma sits seemingly very thoughtful. Though she doesn’t say much, until directly addressed, you can tell something is going on behind the cool, darkly lined eyes of hers.

She later proves, the quietness masks an explosive bass player, whose emotions are not marked by words but by a stellar performance. Before hitting the stage, the band brainstorms back and forth over the perfect roster; a list of all the bands they’d love to play with dead or alive. “The Beatles, Nirvana, Pearl Jam…,” Mike casually muses. “I’d throw in Elvis” Emma smiles at Shimon, spawning the comment, “I’d throw in Beethoven, just to f*ck with ‘em. It would be sensational, larger than life music and they’d all have to play the hits. No B-sides! F*ck the B-sides!” It is Sick Puppies willingness both in person and in their music, to go there, to push the boundaries that make them the driving force they are. And as they hit the stage, they prove, it’s not just about being outland-ish and making jaws drop…it’s about the music and making a sound that resonates. “It’s all come together right now…it’s happening….Not just with the film but the fact that we started out with nothing effectively, and all the people who have believed in us, including our-selves, it’s all coming full circle.”

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Multi-platinum selling rock band Collective Soul, recently released their eighth studio album titled, Col-lective Sou, also known as “Rabbit” in August of 2009. The band has generated seven number 1 singles over their 17 year career. BRM sat down to talk with Rhythm guitarist Dean Roland, whose brother Ed is the lead singer/founder of CS. Dean tells us that the reason why he feels Collective Soul is still relevant to the modern rock scene is due to their “originality” and that they “stay true to who they are regardless of trends.” Collective Soul hails from Stockbridge, Georgia and was formed by Ed Roland, a Berkley College of Music student, in the early nineties. Their first hit was the 1993 single “Shine”, which catapulted the band into instant rock stars. Within the next few years, CS kept putting out one hit after another. Their next album, which was their first self-titled album, produced three more num-ber 1 hits. The new self titled album was a collaborative effort amongst the band members. Dean states that “usually there are only one or two people who write the mu-

sic and lyrics in CS.” After numerous albums on the Atlantic record label, and two albums on their own label, El Records, Collective Soul signed with Road-runner records for their newest release. Dean said that although, running a label was fun, they decided that the business aspect should be handled by someone else, so they could focus on the music. He continues to say that they chose Roadrunner because it is a smaller, but more diverse label. Collective Soul was re-cently honored as an in-ductee into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. The band thanked all of the people who had helped them achieve success over the years. They brought up former member Shane Evans, who was the drum-mer of the band from 1993 to 2005, to celebrate the honor with them. Dean Roland at Toms River Fest 2008

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Country music has enjoyed a renaissance on the mainstream stage in recent years. Smash-ing through old typecasts of what a typical country singer’s sound is, a string of fresh art-ists with a varied styles from Shania Twain to Taylor Swift, have made country extremely popular again and country singers in particular in de-mand. Justin Moore is just such an artist. He is a humble and easygoing guy from the town of Poyen, Arkansas. Yet some-thing in his upbringing mold-ed him into a competitive in-dividual. Yet Justin owns the

ability to laugh at himself in the toughest situations. For example, attending several talent contests in a small town can be limited at best. Justin explains, “300 people in a town isn’t a lot of competition (laughs). We actually have 372 people and I only know that because the sign is on my grandparents front yard.” Justin had his dreams, but he had perspective. He earned his keep working the farm, building his character. He went to college and tried out for sports. He also kept a finger on the beat of his first love, music. Justin reflected

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about his early days. “Initially, I started playing mu-sic with my uncle’s southern rock band in Arkansas. I played baseball in college and after two weeks of that I decided I liked playing music more than writing papers. I graduated H.S. I was one of those guys who never wanted to move from home. But, I gave it a shot. I fig-ured if it works out, it works out.” And he did, taking a major step, a gamble really, by moving to Nashville, the capital of country music. The promised land but for a few, as this place marks a heavy load of talent with few slots to advance. Justin had some things going for him. “I moved to Nashville about seven years ago. I got lucky. I started writing songs. Through my pro-ducer, I met Keith Stegall, who produced Alan Jack-son. They gave me a pub-lishing deal and through them I met the head of my label. I signed with Valory Music Company, a subsidiary of Big Ma-chine Records, a couple of years ago. I was fortu-nate to surround myself with really talented peo-ple who cared as much for my career, which is rare in this industry.” The music industry has been changed enormous-ly by the internet and downloading in particu-lar. The proliferation of social networking has opened the eyes of music executives and given artists the op-portunity to be more accessible to their fan-base. Justin has embraced this system going so far as to even let his fans choose the songs that appeared on his album. “Ab-solutely, the internet did two things for us. It created an underground burn, on myspace, you tube, etc. and got people interested. Before we had hits on the radio, when our first song was released, there was a built-in crowd somewhat and that’s helpful.” But this promotion exceeded the usual ideas for a

new artist. “As far as the promotion, I went to the re-cord label. I had too many songs. They said ‘Frankly, we are not going to put out a box set for your first al-bum. You are going to have to come up with something to trim this down.’ They suggested releasing two songs each week and letting the fans choose the one they liked best for a ten week period. The ten songs with the most votes made the album. What’s cooler than allowing the

fans to decide what they are going to spend their hard-earned money on.” The long nights play-ing with bands like ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd is an excellent teaching tool for the new artist. Justin learned a lot from playing with these liv-ing legends. “You go out touring with these guys and the see how they bring it every night. I im-proved dramatically after being around those guys. It did wonders. My fa-vorite artist of all time is Dwight Yoakom. I grew up on Southern rock. You can see George Jones in-fluence in my music as well as Lynyrd Skynyrd. We did a good job on the real mixing those two to-gether. It’s been a good road for Justin Moore and his hit single “Small town USA.” Not bad for a new artist. The 35th rank-

ing album under his belt, Justin has taken it in stride. “When you grow up, you want to be a rock star. All I got to do is go up and play an hour every night. See-ing many talented artists who never get the chance, I believe if it’s meant to be, it will be. We fly around the country but it’s a whole lot of fun. At the end of the day we get to go on stage for an hour or hour and a half and play music. That’s what we all got into this for.”


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Broken Records Magazine got the honor of receiv-ing a phone call from Bronx native Joey Kramer, drum-mer of one of the greatest, most influential rock bands out there; Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, the Bad Boys from Boston, the one and only Aerosmith, proud recipi-ents of four Grammy Awards, and twelve MTV Video Awards. With many musicians citing Aerosmith as an influ-ence or a favorite band, who does Mr. Kramer contrib-ute as an influence? Bands like Jethro Tull, The Young Rascals, Led Zeppelin and the ever popular Jimi Hen-drix enticed a young Joey to pick up the sticks. Among newer bands he likes listening to now, he mentions the Foo Fighters and some of my very own favorites, Green Day and No Doubt. As for his views on being a famous musician, since being signed to Columbia re-cords in 1972, he tells me with a laugh that the best aspect is “all the perks.” A generalized answer but I think we can all figure out the things he’s referring to. Conversely, “the worst part is I have to sacrifice a good part of my privacy unless I become an a**hole and say don’t bother me, leave me alone, and that’s not what it’s all about.” So how has decades of living in the spotlight shaped Joey’s person-ality? “That’s an excellent question actually. I think it makes it a challenge to separate your own self, your sense of self, because it’s easy to confuse what it is that you do for a living with who you are. I think that stay-ing humble is really important and being appreciative of where you come from and what you have. Remem-bering your roots is important.” I went on to ask about the making of their Guitar Hero game. It’s not the first time Aerosmith has been featured in a video game. Many of us have pumped our quarters into Revolution X and Quest for Fame at the arcade, but this time the band was more involved in the making of the game. “We went in and we had to be filmed so they

could mock us for the game. Some of it was pretty hard work actually. We had to sit there and play stuff over and over again. I think, actually, the one who spent the most time doing it was Steven ‘cause they wanted it to really replicate him,’ which I think it really did. It was a fun experience,” he tells me. He also admits that he has played the game but admits that he “really sucks at it.” A surprise confession coming from someone who has their own personalized Zildjian sticks. Aside from his contributions to the music and gaming worlds, Joey has now put his mark in the literary world. After four years of writing, Hit Hard was released on June 30th. He explains that the book is all about his life,

and “the thread that runs through it is a very time sensitive issue, which is the confusion that people have be-tween love and abuse. It’s not just a rock and roll memoir of the norm. I think it’s an interest-ing read. I hope people think it is. My goal is to help people out and even if it helps two or

three people out then my goal has been reached.” All bands hit rocky points in the road at some point or another and it’s no secret that Aerosmith has had trou-ble with drugs in the past. It was this substance induced inner turmoil that resulted in the departures of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, in 1979 and 1981 respectively, both to return in 1984. A somewhat sensitive subject that I’m usually hesitant to touch upon in an interview, I had to question if there was ever a point where he thought the good outweighed the bad and didn’t want to continue in the band. “No,” Joey begins, “never been at the point of not continuing. Things happen and people are the way they are and they go through changes and when you have something like Aerosmith there’s no entertain-ment of the idea of ending it because it’s just too strong of an entity to do that. Somehow regardless of any ob-stacle put in our way we’ve always come through and when the pressure is on that’s when we perform the

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best.” He’s got a valid argument considering, despite the nickname the “Toxic Twins,” Perry and Tyler have co-written over eighty songs together. It’d be hard to fathom letting drugs and arguments get in the way of selling more than one hundred and fifty million albums worldwide and holding the record for the most gold and multi-platinum albums by an American group. (For all you other curious fans out there, had Joey in fact left the band-or never joined in the first place- he tells me that he thinks he would’ve become an archaeologist.) The band started working on their latest and fif-teenth album last autumn but unfortunately had to take a break from recording as Steven became ill with pneu-monia. There is no set release date for the album but the band has not abandoned its next masterpiece. It will no doubt add to their repertoire of 21 Top 40 billboard hits. Meanwhile Joe Perry will be touring for his fifth solo project Have Guitar, Will Travel throughout the rest of 2009. Steven is planning to do a solo effort “Brand Tyler” as he calls it but has stated that he does not plan to leave the band. Rumors of Aerosmith seeking a new vocalist seem to have been extinguished by Tyler’s appearance at Perry’s New York City show where the “twins” per-

formed 1977’s hit “Walk This Way” together. Aeros-mith’s future, Joey assures me and the rest of the “Blue Army,” that they “still got plenty of juice left de-spite what anyone thinks or says otherwise.” Despite the rumors and members constantly denying the validity, websites have gone haywire with reports. The following is an excerpt of an interview between Joe Perry and NME.com. “Steven quit as far as I can tell,” he told the Las Ve-gas Sun, adding that the singer “has had no contact with me or the other band members.” The past few months have blighted with problems for Aerosmith. In August Tyler was airlifted to hospital after falling offstage at a gig in Dakota. As a result, the band were forced to cancel a U.S. tour. Reacting to Tyler’s supposed depar-ture, Perry vowed to carry on with Aerosmith. “Right now I’m adjusting to how we’re going to go on,” Perry explained. “Aerosmith is such a powerful band, I mean it’s like a steam locomotive. You just can’t disregard 40 years of four guys who play together as well as they do. As far as replacing Steve, it’s not just about that, it’s also four guys that play extremely well together, and I’m not going to see that go to waste. I really don’t know what path it’s going to take at this point, but we’ll probably find somebody else that will sing in those spots where we need a singer.”


JOE PERRY on the passing of LES PAUL

As a guitarist and a fan of music in general, I know the amaz-ing contributions Les Paul made in his lifetime to the art of making music. I think if the general public knew how much of that influence is heard every day in the music that they listen to, they would be amazed. He was a true genius. The few times that I had met him, he made me feel like I had known him forever. He was always sharp, ready to rock and he was always talking about his next gig. Knowing that he is not walking the earth anymore is sad and I have lost a friend. But every time I pick up a guitar I’ll know that his spirit is alive and well right next to me.

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After an hour plus rain delay, the sold out crowd finally got to experience ZZ Top live. On June 26th, ZZ Top landed at their tour stop at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in Long Island, NY. The weather was perfect; 75 degrees, cool and sunny. Out of nowhere, black clouds swarmed the sky like vultures in the desert. Within min-utes, the security walkie talkies were buzzing about rain delays. Then it happened, torrential rain and the most amazing lighting bolts and cloud formations I have ever witnessed. Finally after an hour or so of sitting in the car and admiring the stunning weather, it appeared: the brightest and boldest sun creeping through on its sun-setting descent. Now its 8:45 in the evening and the weather is calm. It’s time for ZZ Top! The legendary group consists of frontmen, Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill, supported by their drummer, Frank Beard (Beard is the only member without a beard). Gibbons and Hill both came on stage rocking out on matching custom gold guitars. The duo also pulled out their trademark spinning furry guitars. The trio’s set lasted for close to an hour and a half while playing extended versions of many of their

hits including “Tush,” “Sharped Dress Man,” “La Grange,” and “Legs.” The most nota-ble and buzzworthy mo-ment of the set was when Gibbons was starting up a cover of “Foxy Lady,” and he was telling the story of how Jimi Hen-drix brought them out on the road with them once and how he mentored them years ago. But as soon as he announces

Hendrix’s name, a lightning bolt jumps out of the sky. The weather has already been clear and not a drop of rain had dropped since the sun had reappeared. It was Jimi’s way of saying “I’m here and I’m watching!”

ZZ TOP SETS OWN TOUR IN WAKE OF AEROSMITH CANCELLATION

In light of the just-announced cancellation of Aero-smith/ZZ Top tour dates which had been slated, ZZ Top is mounting a tour of its own that will hit the ground running as soon as this coming week. Routing will take ZZ Top to many of the markets that had been on that cancelled tour’s itinerary, giving fans a second chance, in a manner of speaking, to see the band after all. ZZ Top affirms a commitment to scheduling as many dates as feasible as soon as possible with more specific details relating to markets, venues, ticket sales, etc. to be revealed shortly. New ZZ Top dates, informally known within the band’s inner circle as the “Necessity-Is-A-Mother Tour,” will be posted on zztop.com as they are con-firmed. It is expected that as many as 20 performance dates including stops in Los Angeles, Anaheim, Chi-cago, Detroit, Atlantic, City, Washington, DC, Boston and New York will be part of the tour that will launch within the next few days on the west coast.

Review and Photos by Scott Vollweiler

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Where do a bunch of mainstream hardcore bands, some country music singers, a worship music duo from New Zealand, a smattering of alt rock bands, and a hip hop artist who qualifies for almost every minority status there is, come together? A new Disney theme park? An emerging hip neighborhood in New York? Some bizarre new millennium breakfast club? Good guesses, but the event in question here is the Revelation Genera-tion Music Fest, located for the past five years in scenic Frenchtown, NJ. Never heard of it? No worries, nei-ther have most of us. But that doesn’t keep the party, popularly abbreviated RevGen, from rocking. The name Revelation Generation, presumably, is de-rived from the festival’s Christian origins. While Rev-Gen, was a very Christian music festival, it wasn’t an exclusively Christian music festival. Baptism was not mandatory for attendance, and while bands occasion-ally discussed their religious inclinations during their sets, there wasn’t too much in-your-face God talk for the average moderate or non-Christian to stomach. The music was more than gospel choirs and organ music too. Lots of bands you’ve heard of came to play, including Flyleaf and Underoath, and some that you haven’t heard of in a while, like Jars of Clay, were billed as headliners too. As expected, the big bands rocked out to the big-gest screaming and devoted crowds. However, the real story of this festival was in the opening acts, the little guys, the musicians you haven’t heard of – yet. One of the earliest interviews we were able to get was with Dan and Keith from an outfit they call The Fold. These guys actually embodied one of the more complex points of the weekend. They were playing a Christian rock festival, and are both Chris-tians and rockers, but according to them, not “Christian rockers.” In the noisy and somewhat chaotic merchandise tent, the guys told us about trying to live in the narrow area where secular and religious worlds join.

The band is from Chi-cago, and depending on which one of the guys you ask about their sound, they’ll tell you, “If The Killers left rock, we could replace them,” or “If The Foo Fight-ers and Jimmy Eat World were to have a baby, we would be the baby.” Dan formed the band when his old band broke up, upon him becoming a Christian. One of the guys in Dan’s old band thought of the name The Fold, but it took on special meaning for Dan after the other guys “dispersed,” when he came across a Bible verse which used the term. This merging of re-ligious and secular in the very name of the band is just another illustration of how the guys are trying to bridge the gap. Though they were playing RevGen when I met them, they’ve been on tour with secular bands, in-cluding the Plain White Tees, and note humorously that because of their religious affiliation, guys have “been weird about swearing around us.” They also find that, if there isn’t a social stigma attached to being a Chris-tian band, there are at least some preconceptions.“So many people… at least where we come from, [say]

‘Oh you’re a Christian band. So you’re like Creed?’” The guys re-leased their debut This Too Shall Pass in 2006 with Tooth and Nail Records, and plan to release a third album in October, with a home-town release show in Chi-town. One interview that I sought out in particular was with Heesun Lee, who is not only a Korean-born

REVELATION GENERATION FEST 2009

Revelation: Maybe Not So ‘Fire and Brimstone’ After All

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woman doing hip hop, she’s doing Christian hip hop. Needless to say, Ms. Lee has a few obstacles to overcome. The hip hop scene being what it is today, Heesun Lee faces a lot of adversity from all angles. The girl takes heat from the mainstream hip hop community because of her classification as Christian. She says many listen-ers won’t even consider Christian hip hop. “They won’t listen to Christian hip hop because they think its corny, but that’s because they didn’t hear us.” Her uniqueness though, sometimes helps her attract lis-teners. “A lot of people will automatically gravitate to me because they’re like, ‘yo, what is this girl about?’ It could be a negative thing, it could be a positive thing, regardless, they’re there to listen. They’re gonna stay quiet and hear what I have to say. It is a little discourag-ing sometimes cause… I am outnumbered.” Still, tak-ing everything in stride, Lee counts her tribulations as, what else, a blessing. “It keeps me on point.”Lee also recognizes the slow pace at which hip hop has in being accepted by the Christian music community. She says, “A lot of traditional churches will look at Christian hip hop and be like, ‘OK no.’”Still, this artist perseveres. As if she weren’t ambitious enough, the 26 year old is collaborating on an album

inspired by

the popular and enigmatic TV series LOST. The album, called

The LOST LP, is to be released in January, alongside the sixth season of the TV show. Tracks will even feature samples from the series. “You know the beginning of the show, when the… ‘LOST’… yeah I’m not gonna do the noise… that’s at the beginning of the song (Lost In You, [the single from the album]). If you think Heesun Lee has got it hard, don’t feel too bad for her. Obstacles abound, this chick isn’t slowing down. She recently played a secular stage at an all-female hip hop showcase. She proudly announced that she was “representing God,” and reportedly en-joyed a strong reception from the crowd. She’s got all the spunk and charisma needed to perform in front of any audience.“Whether you’re Christian or not you’re gonna feel what I’m doing cause its hot.” There are a lot of stories to tell from RevGen. Doz-ens of bands came to play. Some from as nearby as the next town, others from literally the other side of the planet. They came from different background, for different reasons, with different goals, but the end re-sult was an impression that together, they didn’t throw a half bad party.

Story By Matt Jax

Photos By KRistin Tully


Season 8’s Summer TourNassau Colliseum, Long Island, NY

Interviews by Rene MataPhotos By Lindsay Shapiro

Broken Records Magazine: What has been your fa-vorite song to perform on tour so far?Allison Iraheta: Definitely “Cry Baby” by Janis Jop-lin.

BRM: Is there anyone in particular you’d like to work with on your album?AI: I’m pretty much down for working with anyone to help it get out there.

BRM: What type of direction do you want to go in on

the record?AI: I definitely want to rock. I want to make a rock driven album. It’s definitely going to have a harder edge but being on Jive Records means it’s going to have a poppy sound.

BRM: Have they set you up with any big time song-writers?AI: So far they set me up with Kevin Rudolph, who has been my favorite to work with. I’ve also worked with David Hodges.

BRM: So is all your dreams coming true? Going from school to superstar!AI: Yeah man! It’s crazy. I never thought I’d be liv-ing a life like this. Never did I think it would hap-pen.

BRM: So one my best friends in the world is Mitch Allan. He told me when you were recording your

version of “No Boundaries” it was like a Nine Inch Nails version. When I ended up hearing it on the show I was like “Mitch, what happened.”Adam Lambert: He was kinda just blowing smoke up your ass! It was different though!

BRM: How do you picture your album to come out?AL: Well, it comes out in November. I really had to figure out how to straddle the rock thing with Pop and Electronica, I love both sounds. I want it to be interna-tional. It should be played in clubs but its gotta have


BRM: What has been your favorite song to sing on the tour?Anoop Desai: I like singing “Mad” which was Ne-Yo’s last single. It really shows what I wanna do after Idol.

BRM: What was your biggest influences musically growing up?AD: Growing up it was a combination of things like Boyz II Men to like LL. I listen to everything like Nir-vana to classic rock to classic Indian music. It’s a real mixture.

BRM: How do you see your album sounding?AD: I see my album being R & B like Ne-Yo, Chris-sette Michelle, you know, melodic. The most important thing is that it’s poppy. I want to feel free to express myself.

BRM: When would you like to start making your re-cord?AD: Well I’d love to start ASAP but I’m still shopping for a deal. I’m taking every meeting. It’s not as easy for the rest of us, whereas the top three as all set.

guitars and vocals. It’s like I’m fusing modern dance-floor music with rock. I’m not going to just regurgitate 70’s classic rock.

BRM: Who are you looking forward to working with on the album?AL: So far I’ve worked with Red One, he worked on Lady Gaga’s album, and we were able to keep the gui-tars tracks. The choruses are like 80’s choruses with gang vocals. I’ve been working with Linda Perry and I’ve been texting back and forth with Slash, but I don’t know if it will be for his album or mine. Also I’ve got Rob Cavallo producing some tracks.


The story starts on August 25th. I get word from an outside tick-eting and casting company that Taylor Swift will be taping a seg-ment for her MTV Video Music Awards performance. I’m told that there is no press for the event and I would have to come as a fan. That’s fine with me; every-one knows I’m a Taylor fan.

THE ENDLESS WAIT AND LET DOWN

We get to the Grand Ballroom inside a glitzy New York City ho-tel and there’s a decent size crowd waiting to check in (it was invite only). About fifteen minutes after we get there, the line just stops moving. This motionless bore-dom lasts about thirty minutes. Finally we are told that the casting is at “capacity” and they may be able to take more people but they are unsure. About another forty-five minutes later “they” decide to take the first sixty people in line, meanwhile there is another hundred plus people waiting be-hind us. I end up being apart of the “lucky” sixty. Fast forward another hour and a half…we all decide we are going to leave after

Behind the Scenes and on the Red Carpet At the MTV VMAsStory and Photos by Scott Vollweiler

Top: Taylor SwiftBottom: Jack Black

Top: Katy PerryBottom: Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong


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we are told we are the back ups to the back up crew who are still waiting. What a let down. But in the end, we are told we could still get to be apart of the live Taylor performance at the VMAs.

STRIKE A POSE AND MORE WAITING

It’s Sunday September 13th; time for the MTV VMAs. We ar-rive at Radio City Music Hall at around 11am for check in. We literally sat around until 2:45pm

until we got directive to get ready for Taylor Swift’s dress rehearsal for her live portion of the perfor-mance. As the two-hundred fans gather around a taxi cab parked in front of Radio City, Miss Swift walks out of a subway sta-tion with an additional forty fans trailing her, screaming and flail-ing their arms. She is singing her latest hit “You Belong With Me.” It’s quick and short but very ex-citing.

A few hours later, we walk the red carpet. Photographers snapped our photos, a nice change for someone who is usu-ally behind the camera. We end up stopping our celebrity walk in a private section next to press outlets waiting for interviews. I place myself in a prime spot right in front of the interview platform where Sway was going to be do-ing his interviews. To the left was Adrianne from the Cheetah Girls; she seemed to be interviewing celebs as the

fashion expert of the night. To the right was Ashley Greene, star of the hit movie, “Twilight.” Ce-lebrities just kept coming. Walk-ing the red carpet was everyone from Sean Paul to Faye Dun-away, Lady Gaga (who couldn’t move in her odd outfit) to J-Lo. The funniest moments were get-ting poses from Jimmy Fallon and Jack Black. It was great to see Green Day and Pink in per-son. I had been a Green Day fan since 1994 when Dookie was released. Oh course there were

those big headed celebrities that didn’t stop to say hi or pose for my camera, like P. Diddy or Puff, whatever he calls himself or even the always so lovely Kanye West (sorry to be so sarcastic), who was walking around with a half empty bottle of liquor. I guess that ended up being a precursor to the actual awards. Finally an out of breathe Taylor Swift gets pushed through the red carpet by her assistants, but not without saying hi to a few of us and sign-ing a few autographs.

Left: Pink. Top: Jimmy FallonBottom: Alicia Keys. Right:

Twilight’s Taylor Lautner


HER MOMENT TO SHINE AND BE INTER-RUPTED

The red carpet came to a close and now it was time for Taylor’s live performance. It was to be just like the dress rehearsal…plus more standing around. A girl next to me gets a text saying “Taylor just won an award.” We all pause from our conversations we were having with each other to bask in her hap-piness. Not a minute later we find out her speech was interrupted, but we don’t know anything more than that. Moments later Taylor’s band, which was set up on the marquee on top of Radio City, started strumming the opening chords to the show. Then like that Taylor enters and we all sing along and have fun. Yet again, it was way too short. Eventually we all found out about the most talk-ed about, blogged about and watched portion of the VMAs: Kayne West interrupting Taylor’s accep-tance speech. Taylor has since made several state-ments regarding the “moment” and has accepted Kayne’s apology. In the days following, Taylor was on ABC’s “The View” and told the hosts “My over-all thought process was something like, ‘Wow cant believe I won! Wow awesome! Don’t trip and fall. I can thank the fans...oh Kayne West is here...cool hair cut.’ And then, ‘What are you doing there?’ And then, ‘Ouch.’ Then, ‘Guess I can’t thank the fans,’” she recalled.

WANT TO SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THE VMA’s?

GO TO BROKENRECORDSONLINE.COM

What kind of crowd do you get when Pink comes to New York City, playing MSG? A crazy, packed, sold-out one! Pink coming to the big apple brought people from al over to her concert, October 5th, only her NY appearance on her Funhouse tour.

Opening with a video of Pink getting dressed for the show, making her way on a motorcycle, as if heading into the Garden. She rose from under the stage on a har-ness while AC/DC’s “Highway

to Hell” was playing through the PA. Pink then opened singing “Bad Influence.” She was joined onstage by her dancers, along with her drummer, back up singers and her guitarist. Playing many songs from her Funhouse CD, such as “Please Don’t Leave, Me,” the crowd stood on their feet the entire time she performed. Pink’s setlist was a barrage of Top 40 hits. Her stand-out song of the night was “Dear Mr. President”, a song about former president George W. Bush, which she said she only got booed in Virginia and Anaheim. Pink also covered the always risky “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley, and “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, by Led Zeppelin. She also covered ”I Touch Myself” by the Divinyls, while sitting and laying down on a couch that had holes; hands would come out and touch her. Not only did Pink sing and dance, she al-ways stopped to talk to the crowd, received a necklace from a fan and signed that same fan’s leg.; proving to be a down to earth person, not a singer that let the fame go straight to her head. After performing for more than two hours straight, Pink sang “Glitter in the Air,” while glitter poured on her as she rose from the stage in a star shaped forma-tion. Thinking that the show was over, people left the Garden but Pink surprised the crowd by coming back out for two encores. She then performed “Get the Party Started,” leaving the stage flying high with the screen saying “The End”. Pink performs a show that holds a little something for everyone. With a sold-out stadium Pink left no tick-et holder dissatisfied.

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In retro-spect, it makes sense that Chris Daughtry gained his fame through a TV show watched by millions.Daughtry’s mu-sic is the most m a i n s t r e a m type of hard rock imagin-able, but he supplements it with well-craft-ed pop-rock songs that he sings very well. He is good-

looking and his music doesn’t have an edge that would scare off some women, who were out in abundance during his eponymous band’s sold-out show November 6th at the Mark G. Etess Arena in the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort. Early on during the concert in front of more than 5,000 fans, Chris Daughtry displayed the crowd-pleasing instincts that helped him reach fourth place during season five of “American Idol.” Daughtry opened its concert with one of the better songs, “Everytime You Turn Around,” from its new-est CD, “Leave This Town.” Chris Daughtry came on stage with his rock-star cool all dressed in black, and the digital cameras and cell phones were out in force to capture a picture of him on the floor, where most people with seats stood on their chairs. Within the first four songs, he whipped out two crowd pleasers. The

hit “It’s Not Over” from the 2006 debut CD and the first single, “No Surprise,” from the newest CD turned into crowd sing-alongs. “Leave This Town” was released in July. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart. After the first few songs, Chris Daughtry showed that he was willing to give the crowd a long night of rocking by taking off his black jacket to reveal a black T-shirt underneath. This was Chris Daughtry’s first appearance in the city since he sang as part of the “American Idols Live Tour 2006,” which stopped at Boardwalk Hall. Besides singer-songwriter-guitarist Chris Daughtry, the Daughtry members are: bassist Josh Paul; drummer Joey Barnes; rhythm guitarist Brian Craddock and lead guitarist Josh Steely. The triple bill of Daughtry, Theory of a Deadman and Cavo turned the concert into a night of big guitars, big drums and big choruses. Theory of a Deadman may have been on the road too long. It last performed here in March, opening for Mot-ley Crue at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. It also toured during the summer promoting its newest CD, “Scars and Souvenirs,” the band’s most successful release to date by selling more than a half million copies since its release last year. Lead singer Tyler Connolly was not on his game

vocally, and the crowd didn’t really seem to respond to the set. At one point, he whipped out a video cam-era and started filming the audience to get it to make more noise and rise out of its seats. Theory of a Deadman played two really good songs, “Bad Girlfriend,” which sounds like it could have been recorded by Hinder, and “Hate My Life,” which is beg-ging to be re-recorded by a country act like Toby Keith. Opening act Cavo hasn’t had the success of Theory of a Deadman, but its songs equal that band’s, as lead vocalist Casey Walker sang bet-ter than Connolly.

Live At the Mark G. Etess Arena:

Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort.Review by Vincent JacksonPhotos by Scott Vollweiler


The first thing that comes to mind when you think of Cam-den, NJ is most definitely not METAL but for the last two years, around this time in the summer, the Susquehanna Center has been taken over by the Rockstar Mayhem Festival. Since its inception last year, the festival orga-nizers have done the best possible job of representing the true diversity that exists in metal today. The festi-val has picked up where Ozzfest left off and if it has not already surpassed its legend, it is well on its way. The weather just happened to be amazing, although I wouldn’t have minded thunder, lightning, and acid rain to drench the metal masses and add some extra bass to the band’s performances just for good measure. Whitechapel has been on tour non-stop since I heard their debut album, The Somatic Defilement, a few years ago and the way they ripped through their set so early in the day is indicative of the band’s touring. This is Exile, their latest album, pushed Whitechapel to the forefront of the new metal movement and the tracks sounded vi-cious live. There were already at least 500 half asleep people at the Hot Topic Stage who were all fully awake in no time when they heard front-man Phil Bozeman sound the wake-up alarm for this great day of metal. The next band I saw was The Black Dahlia Murder. It’s inevitable that front-man Trevor Strnad would not keep his shirt on from pictures I’ve seen and this show was no exception. New member, Ryan Knight’s, guitar riffs act as a grinding soundtrack to Trevor’s evil strip

tease. He paces around the stage in sync with the intensity of the tracks the band plays and interacts with the crowd to make sure they are having a good time in and out of the pit and is a pretty funny guy to boot. This was my first time seeing the band live and they lived up to all the hype. By this

point, anyone that wasn’t fully awake was probably dead in either of the pits for these two bands. Behemoth stormed the stage in full black metal splendor. Before the band even came out you could tell that something wicked this way was coming by the giant backdrop illustrated with demon animal priests and religious symbolism. Behemoth is the band that could just look in the direction of some of the other bands on the bill and scare the sh*t out of them. They were one of the best sounding bands of the day and introduced the crowd to tracks off of their new album, Evangelion. Grindcore masters Canninbal Corpse, who I have been a fan of since I started listening to metal, played a killer set that covered their long expansive ca-reers. The songs off their latest album, Evisceration Plague, sounded just as awesome as all of the earlier tracks that helped to crown them the kings of grind. Themes of death, horror, and destruc-tion have never sounded so good rotting in the sun. I caught some of NJ’s own, God For-bid, on the Jägermeister Stage as well as

8/7/09 Susquehanna Center, Camden, NJ

Review by: Christian Alcantara

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All That Remains. Both bands had their fans in a frenzy during their sets and you finally were able to see some fans yelling along with the singers of each band. Trivium sounded great but couldn’t really get the crowd into their set. These bands were the perfect segue to what was about to happen inside the amphi-theater a few moments from now. Bullet For My Valentine are no strangers to big festival shows and kicked off the main stage. They, along with Killswitch Engage, represent the more

“mainstream” acts that were invited to play. Killswitch Engage had their fans screaming along to “My Last Ser-enade” so loud that it was hard to hear front-man Howard Jones during this cacophony of metal fandom. They have become so huge now that it al-most wouldn’t completely sound right unless there are explosions and fire for their epic sounding singles. The stage was just warm enough for Slayer now.Slayer is a band that can do no wrong. They have been around forever and without them, this show may have not even have been possible because they have had a hand in influencing so many bands over the last 25+ years. You would think that a band, after 25+ years would lose its luster or evolve into some crappy unrecognizable ver-sion of the band you once loved, but not Slayer. They absolutely obliterated

all in attendance, old and new. Fans still in grammar school to dudes that could be my dad’s dad were in metal heaven or rather in metal hell. The varied

track list comprised mainly of their older crowd favorites like “Mandatory Suicide” and “Reign in Blood,” as well as fresh sounding new tracks like “Disciple” combined with their unparalleled stage presence, the show equaled metal perfection. If you are a fan of metal and cannot have a good time at a Slayer show, you seriously need to look for a new genre of music. Having seen an entire day’s worth of kick-ass metal and capping the night off with Slayer just goes to show that if you make good music and really enjoy what you do, in Slayer’s case, destroying your fans audibly, you will continue to keep old fans, garner new fans, and most importantly, you will continue to ROCK. Marilyn Manson was the first concert I ever attended when I was in high school. Mr. Manson came out on stilts at Limelight in New York City. Although I haven’t been a fan of his music since Mechanical Animals, I ex-pected something of what I remembered from my first show. I kind of wish I had forgotten. The performance was absolutely lackluster and full of diatribes towards the press and songs I failed to recognize. It was at this point that I was so happy to have been a part of such a great overall concert experience, called it a night and began to imagine what next year’s Rockstar Mayhem Festival would bring.

Photos by: Alaura Christine

8/7/09 Susquehanna Center, Camden, NJ

For Artist’s Interviews VisitBrokenRecordsOnline.com

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Wednesday, September 23 was my first concert expe-rience at Giants Stadium. I had heard tales of wondrous shows by incredible artists that left the tellers’ ears ring-ing for days. While I did not expect to leave the MUSE/U2 show with my ears ringing, I did expect one heck of a show. I go to concerts to lose myself in the music and forget about my life outside of that performance. What I got was a great opening act, a mediocre headliner, a strong political message forced on me, and a major let down. I was apparently one of the fortunate souls who were able to leave work at five pm and arrive at the parking lot by six. The tailgaters were varied in age, gender and sobriety, but the overall feeling was a quiet energy just looking for a release. I knew the opening act, British imports and Twilight linked MUSE had taken the stage because I felt the ground shake. This was my call to make the walk to the Stadium. The second thing I noticed, the first being how amaz-ing MUSE sounded, was the stage setup provided by U2. It was this incredible structure that reminded me of a four legged spider lying on its back with a massive video screen in the center hung around a giant pole of light. The stage itself was a huge circular walkway at the base of this spider structure. MUSE was set up to

face one part of the audience in a definite “this way front” ar-rangement. Because of the size of the screen, and the excellent videography, this did not make a difference to the enjoyment of the performance. MUSE put on an incredible show, in what I’ve come to call a “Depeche Mode/Iron Maiden/ Black Sabbath with Dio” sound that complete-ly saturated the Stadium. They ended their set with “Knights of Cydonia”; leaving everyone in the stadium at the time on their feet screaming for more. After almost an hour U2 was ready to perform. The energy

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was palpable. The band took the stage and the crowd was on their feet. U2 performed two songs off their new album, fol-lowed by a more recent song, and then one of their early hits: this was the pattern for most of the night, a couple of well known songs, then a big hit, then a new song. I was imme-diately disappointed. Bono’s voice was thin, which sounded fine when he sang the early tunes, but did not have the same effect as the album tracks on later, more produced songs. There were timing issues and band members messing up…yes…the drummer goofed… a lot. I understand that mistakes are part of a live performance, but being U2 does not mean that you can make as many mistakes as you want and still

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have a happy audience. The best part of the show for me was the music video qual-ity cinematography we were able to watch on their incredible screen. Turned out it opened up like a basketball net, seem-ingly just about to touch the stage, with flashing lights and moving images of the band on stage, it was incredible. Unfor-tunately, that was the best part of their show. They underuti-lized the 360 degree walkway, their sound did not fill the Sta-dium, someone’s monitor must have been busted…I felt like I just watched the 360 tour dress rehearsal. I left the show in the middle of their first encore, happy to be on my way home before U2 could unleash more pre-recorded political propa ganda.

In a time when many Broadway musicals are reviv-als, Memphis brings life to an otherwise flat theater dis-trict. The storyline is more than the standard boy meets girl and they fall in love, rather, boy falls in love with this forbidden music, meets girl and everything blooms, but with speed bumps everywhere. Set in 1950’s Memphis, Tennessee, a poor white music lover named Huey Calhoun (Chad Kimball) walks into the generally black underground club called “Delrays” hoping to catch some live music that the majority of the white population in the South were not approving of. The music was Soul, R & B and good ol’ Blues music, all which would fit into the title of Rock and Roll! Inside were the hot, bluesy vocals of Felicia Farrell (Montego Glover). Farrell is an up and coming singer whose star is rising but can’t get the big break in the segregated music business. Huey Calhoun’s love for this music overcomes the color of the singer’s skin and falls for her and her voice. Calhoun sets his goal to get black music, in particular, Farrell’s music, on the radio. His endeavors bring him to the pinnacle of Memphis’ music world, the number one radio disc jockey and bring black music to the fore-front of all music, but not without getting jumped by narrow-minded white men because of his relationship with Farrell. As Calhoun’s popularity grew, as did Farrell’s and both were given great opportunities to further their re-spective careers. Again, race makes a huge deal in their careers. Both are forced in opposite directions and fi-nally separating. The production, costumes, choreography, music, well ev-erything involved, was excel-lent. Once the curtain rose and the downbeat hit, you imme-diately feel immersed into the South during the ‘50s. The show puts together each component of what a Broadway show needs to be successful, and they succeed. Memphis is what a Broadway should be!

Q & A With Montego Glover

Star of MEMPHISWhat Age did you start acting and what made you decide to go that route?Well, I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember and at around age 12 I was a student at a school in my hometown and I started studying theater and acting. I started being exposed to the classics and to different acting techniques. And it became clear that it was something that I loved to do, even then. It was like breathing.

I know many shows that you’ve been in has its own special role or component, but of all your credits, is there a show or role that you’ve played that really stood out to you?Well I have to be completely honest with you…I have to say that Felicia Farrell (her role in Memphis) has to be one them. That’s definitely at the top of the list for a number of reasons. It’s an original role in an original play. To have a hand in creating this role from the ground up and destined to be played on a world’s stage like Broadway, it’s a tremendous gift for an actor. Plus there are the similarities between us. She’s a young woman from the south, as am I. She has this energy in her voice that I can relate with. I think we just understand each other.

Sidestepping briefly…You can’t play this character forever; you’ve been playing “Felicia” since the role was born. How will you react when you need to move on?My goal in my career has been: be in the place you wish to be and once you learned everything there is and you feel fully and com-pletely satiated then you move on. You have to as an actor. I’ve always done that in my career. Also, I’ve had the honor of laying the ground work for this character…that’s something no one else could say.

So how did you end up getting “setup” with Memphis?Well it was the run of the mill, daily business for an actor. I got a phone call from my agent who said “I’ve got a script here for a piece called Memphis and the producer wants you to come down and the first official reading in NY.” He sent the script; it arrived by messenger. I opened it up and I read it, fell in love with it and that was it.

The official opening of Memphis was the October 19th…tell me about the opening. How was the crowd’s reaction? Opening nights, in general, are usually high energy situation. You’ve been rehearsal and getting ready and finally the show is ready to be seen in it’s final version, it’s final draft and it’s the an-ticipatory energy is off the charts. We’d had been working on this project for so long and finally we were given the change to show it in its final draft. It was magical. It felt like we were flying. Our crowd was so for us and so present that I felt the room was shaking before the downbeat. Before you knew it, we were at bows. There were people outside the theater that night who had said they had seen the show six or seven times already, before the show was of-ficially open.

claiming rape and attempting to ban Professor John’s book. Both Pullman and Stiles mesh well together with their quick, rapid fire dialogue. As each minute goes by we see what goes on, but do we really? In retrospect, we realize that many of John’s words could be taken way out of context and a female in Carol’s position could easily misconstrue what was being said, especially if she had ulterior motives in the first place. While the show starts a little slow with Pullman speaking on the phone for the first few minutes, Olean-na gains steam right before the end of the first scene. As this was the first time I had seen the show, in any form, I was little bored at times. It’s not until the last few moments of the play that I (and maybe the entire audi-ence) became fully awake as Pullman becomes physi-cal with Stiles, throwing books, chairs and hitting her to the point of blood.

After 48 years Bye Bye Birdie is back on Broadway at the Henry Miller Theatre and reintroducing audiences to a timeless musical trea-sure. The show returns to the time of apple pie, Cam-elot, and a love and devotion to 1960s Rock & Roll. Show stopping tunes such as “Put on a Happy Face,” ”Kids,” “We love you Conrad,” and “One last Kiss” bring on ear to ear smiles. The citizens of Sweet Apple, Ohio welcome you by singing and dancing their hearts out. Standout performances included John Stamos as Al-bert Peterson in the role originally played by Dick Van Dyke and Gina Gershon as Rosie Alvarez originally played by Broadway great Chita Rivera. John Stamos

lights up the stage with his great sense of timing lending to the offbeat yet undeniable suave appeal of his role. Mr. Stamos’ approach as Albert Peterson salutes the ge-nius of Mr. Van Dyke and John’s prior commitment as emcee in the much loved Cabaret. Miss Gershon lends her voice and physical talents to blend innocently to match, and yet not out star, Mr. Stamos. Miss Gershon’s voice and enthusiasm are pivotal to the success of this venture. I can happily say “bravo.” The role of Conrad Birdie played by Nolan Gerard Funk was ably filled in by talented new comer Robert Hager. Mr. Hager’s voice and likeability come across in his approach to the role. Allie Trimm, the 15 year old Kim Macafee, is ready to bestow that one last kiss before Birdie leaves for the Army. Miss Trimm is an al-luring and talented performer gifted with an innocence of voice that stands out in her version of “How lovely to be a Woman.” Other outstanding performances in-clude Jayne Houdyshell as Mae Peterson, lending her comedic talents as Albert’s mother and Rosie’s primary antagonist. Kudos to Broadway talent Bill Irwin, play-ing Harry Macafee. Mr. Irwins raucous and outrageous scene destroying the set at the Ed Sullivan Theatre is the show’s outstanding point. I can’t imagine anything more fun than being part of a Bye Bye Birdie revival.

By Mel Vollweiler

Phot

os: J

oan

Mar

cus

Julia Stiles and Bill Pullman set the stage in this intense 80 minute dra-ma filled with both provocative lan-guage and situations that test both power and gender. Julia Stiles plays Carol, a college student, who goes to her professor, Bill Pullman, for help in his course. The audience watches as a simple situation quickly unrav-els revealing hidden agendas that leave mouths wide open. Pullman’s character, John, is in the middle of buy-ing a new house after being granted tenure when Stiles walks into his office raving about her grade and lack of understanding in the course. Pullman tries to console her, offering her after-class sessions with him in his of-fice. The situation at first seems to be misconstrued as Stiles believes her Professor is coming on to her and brings it to the attention of the tenure board. By the end, it becomes easy to see that Stiles was out for blood,

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Contrary to popular belief, being

in a band hailing

from New York City is not as easy as it seems.

By Marie Scarscella

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While many musicians may know it as the city of op-portunity, there are not many bands that have succeeded in developing a strong fan-base. However, bands with as much passion and determination as local favorites, Static Summer, make being from New York seem easy. Frontman, Rene Mata, agrees that being a band from New York City is “a curse.” One of the biggest prob-lems is that the smaller venues, such as the legendary CBGB’s and the world famous Knitting Factory, have been shut down, leaving no venues for a local scene to really take form and develop. “Kids can go see a show at Blender [Theatre] or Irving Plaza, but to get on a show like that you need to be friends with a big band … getting shows is definitely hard,” Mata claims. With help from friends like Papa Roach, Static Sum-mer was able to overcome this obstacle and gain a de-vout legion of fans that were craving some new music. It is because of these fans that their new EP, “She’s Not a Lover,” was born. The EP contains the band’s current single of the same name. The song was the first for the band to go to radio, which Mata says, “was pretty sur-real. We were played just after The Clash.” Mata also explains that the band is planning to film a video for “She’s Not a Lover” and they already have a few concepts in mind. The She’s Not a Lover EP also includes a track titled “Phoenix and the Fall,” that features guest vocals from Papa Roach’s own, Jacoby Shaddix. The song is the EP’s hardest track, and it clearly showcases the band’s ability. The collaboration came about out of the band’s friendship with Jacoby prior to the recording and they were very excited to work with him. He was someone with which the band felt “totally comfortable [working with].” According to Mata, “he’s open for anything, and he’s a really amazing singer.” Along with Jacoby Shaddix, a few other big names were involved with recording “She’s Not a Lover.” The group worked with Jay Gordon on the track “Chasing Yesterday,” and Jason Freese, the fourth mem-ber of Green Day’s live show, played all of the keyboards. They also turned to Jay Baumgard-ner during the mixing process– the man behind albums from big name acts such as Hoobastank,

New Found Glory, Orgy, and Three Days Grace. “He stepped up and hit it out of the ball-park,” Rene explains, “he’s really easygo-ing. He’s really open for anything.” With a few extra people involved, the recording process was made a little bit more complicated. While the band did most of the work on their own, getting others involved led to the album’s recording being scattered across the country. For example, the song “Phoenix and the Fall” was recorded in Long Island and Los Angeles simultaneously. “Jacoby recorded his parts in Holly-wood and I finished my parts in like, a rehearsal room,” says Rene. Regardless of such complications, the band pulled it together and all their hard work had finally paid off. The “She’s Not a Lover” EP has since been released and can be purchased now on i-Tunes. Now that the EP is released, Static Summer can start planning for the future. With plans for a music video in the works, a single making its rounds on local ra-dio, and eager ears of fans throughout the city, the band can’t and won’t stop here. They’re eventually planning to record a full length with a label that they’d like to work with. Until then, though, fans can check them out through social networking tools such as myspace, facebook, and twitter, as well as on i-Tunes, if they can’t make it out to one of the band’s live shows.

Clearly, Static Summer has proven that bands based in one of America’s toughest, largest cities can make it in the music industry with enough effort. While it may not be a piece of cake like they have made it appear, the band’s hard work has paid off, leaving them one of the few to set the bar in New York City’s dwindling mu-sic scene, perfecting the example of a New York City success story.


CD REVIEWS

CREEDFull Circle

CARRIE UNDERWOOD

Play On

THE MUSEThe Resistance

CARL VERHEYENTrading 8’s

Back with a new al-bum and a new sound, Muse is redefining musi-cal standards and bringing true musicality to an era of overproduced pop music. Their new album, The Resistance, shows how they evolved from a gifted alternative rock band, to what they are now; a celebrated rock act that wins countless awards for their live per-formances and for the ingenuity of their songs. Their newest al-bum shows how eclectic and creative a band can be without the pressures of being limited in time and by company producers. The Resistance is filled with stories of love, standing up for yourself and what you believe in, and oddly enough the globalization of the world. Songs to lis-ten to are “United States of Eurasia,” “Unnatural Selection,” “Uprising,” and the mas-terpiece of the whole album “Exogenesis Sym-phony,” which is a mag-nificent three-part symphonic rock opera. It’s an Eclectic Master-piece of Epic Propor-tions.

Carrie Underwood’s crossover into country-pop has begun. Her latest album, Play On, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and the Country charts. The al-bum is arguable the most pop album she’s released thus far. While the record has its standard uptempo Underwood songs, “Songs Like This,” “Undo It,” and the first single “Cowboy Casanova,” Play On is filled with slow, pop songs; the only thing that makes this album Country is the fact there is fiddle, lap steels and bluesy vocals by the singer. Her crossover is also apparent with her choice of songwriters. She employed big time pop songwriters David Hodges and Kara Dio-Guardi, as well as Max Martin, who is known for his songs for Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears and N’SYNC. Recommended songs are “Undo It,” and “What Can I Say.”

A fine blues album for a great blues musician. Former guitarist of Supertramp, Carl Ver-heyen, brings together some of the most accom-plished guitarists to play with him on this fantastic re-cord. Soloist include: Rick Vito (of Fleetwood Mac fame) and Steve Morse, as well as many others. While every song is gold on the record, his cover of The Beatles “Taxman,” is definitely one to admire. Another song to listen to is “Higher Ground” which talks about the 2008 Midwestern flood; it is very heartwarming. This al-bum is a must-get for any fan of the blues, or just about any fan of good music.

Full Circle is the band’s first studio release 2001’s Weathered and has grown leaps and bounds. Full Circle is the first disc of Creed’s to be produced by Howard Benson and apparently he inspired the band to change their sound a bit. After a few seconds of the opening track “Over-come” I asked myself, did I just put on a Creed record? It’s heavy as well! Scott Stapp’s vo-cals are as crisp as ever and lyrics are deep and potent. Stapp exclaims “I’m entitled to over-come.” Stapp recognizes his flaws and is ready to get his life back. As always, Creed’s rhythm section is tight. Again unexpected is, Mark Tremonti’s wailing guitar solo. His playing has be-come so fierce and raw, not something you hear from a “pop-rock” band. Moving into the next track, “Bread of Shame” you realize, this isn’t the standard Creed disc; it’s their hardest and heaviest album yet. It’s not until “A Thou-sand Faces” that you hear the “normal” Creed sound: clean guitars arpeggiated during in-tro and verses and big,

heavy distorted chorus with catchy vocals. “A Thousand Faces” is rem-iniscent of “Torn” from My Own Prison. Along the same lines is “Rain” which has been released as a Top 40 single, and “On My Sleeve.” Breakout tracks on Full Circle are “Away In Silence” and the title track. While both songs are very typical sound-ing Creed, Stapp finally opens up and tells the world “I’m not the man I used to be. I’ve changed” in “Silence” and tells the world “It’s funny how times can change, rear-range and distance makes the pain fade away. So important then, doesn’t matter now; Both feet on the ground. Come full circle.” Not bad from a singer whose ego was as big as his bank account. Bravo Stapp!

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CD REVIEWS

aerosmith issue

Documents

broken records companies

greatest country music

country music bug

broken records magazine

carter twins

ning music

josh carter

identical twins