Joshua Kadison sings the praises of gospel and soul

(Nov. 2, 1995)

Just for the sake of change, Joshua Kadison cut his long, dirty-blond locks. It wasn't a bold statement, an act of rebellion or a conscious effort to conform.

He simply cut his hair. What's the big deal?

"It's really funny what an issue it's become, which is fascinating to me," the Los Angeles-area singer-songwriter said recently. "I guess fascinating is the appropriate word because I have never been conscious of my physical presence, per se. And apparently a lot of people were."

Perhaps now that he's sporting a serious look - short, cropped hair and a scraggy goatee - fans of the sensitive troubadour might think he has lost his flair for impassioned songs of love, faith and hope.

Not in the least.

Kadison's second SBK/EMI album, "Delilah Blue," is cut not far from the mold of his 1993 platinum-selling debut, "Painted Desert Serenade," which evoked vocal comparisons to Elton John, Billy Joel, Harry Chapin and Jim Croce (namely on his hits "Jessie" and "Beautiful In My Eyes").

On "Delilah Blue," however, gospel/soul-tinged songs such as "Take It On Faith" (the first single), "Amsterdam" and "Listen to the Lambs" set him apart from that crowd.

His affinity for R&B waxes romantically through each track.

"Elements of soul are in everything," Kadison said. "Not just the fact that I loved Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and Smokey Robinson, you name it, but that it's there in Chet Baker's playing, it's there in Miles Davis' playing.

"I just find it very hard the way people really split up things and try to make everything this very antiseptic, scientific division in something that's much more round-edged. ... Where my soul influences come from, where my gospel influences come from, they come from me loving music.

"The thing about it is, at the core, I don't think gospel or soul music is the exclusive music of a people, like a race. The coolest thing I ever heard was from Bobby Womack. He said, 'You know what, soul music is feeling. Gospel music is feeling. You can't say that we (black people) are the only ones who can feel.' It's a universal experience. It doesn't matter who you are."

Artists mine their feelings, Kadison said, telling tales of their soul at any given time. On "Delilah Blue," he travels similar terrain but goes out of his way to avoid repetition from the double-platinum success of "Painted Desert Serenade." He assembled a live studio setting, finished the tracks in a relatively short time and added string arrangements to some cuts.

"I would be very saddened if I knew I was just going to keep on writing and recording songs just like songs I had done before," he said. "That would be like going to the same dinner party over and over again. You know that movie 'Groundhog Day'? It would like living the same day over and over.

"The joy and the excitement of life is going in and rearranging whatever materials you're given to work with, whether it's sound or paint or clay. You go in and you arrange according to your moods and the way you feel about the world."

What he was feeling at the time of recording "Delilah Blue" was a sense of unity.

"It's about saying 'You know what, we're all just experiencing life,' " he said. "It happens to be about faith, from beginning to end, about different styles and sounds. It's also about an expression of joy, and I hope people feel that in the music."

Kieran Kane keeps plugging away

(May 17, 1998)

Kieran Kane's second Dead Reckoning album, "Six Months, No Sun" (released April 7), is a contrast in styles. The lyrics are melancholy, but the sound anything but. The Nashville singer-songwriter enjoys that contradiction.

"A review came in the other day," Kane said recently, "where they thought the songs were, not depressing, but dark and suddenly realizing that they were tapping their feet and clicking their fingers along to them at the same time. To me, I kind of write grooves, so regardless of what the tone of the song is, it may be melancholy, but they're usually groove-oriented in some way. They're very simple, melodically."

By design, Kane also took a new sonic route from his last album.

"One of the things I wanted to do," he said, "was record some of the tracks in my own studio, kind of following my demo process, only being a little more careful because when I do a demo, if it's not in tune, I don't even care. I was looking for a whole new, bottom-end sound to the record. I was looking for something with more just rhythms and songs.

"A song like 'J'aime Faire L'amour' reflects that process the most in that it's purely a groove in the song; there are no licks or fills, aside from the string parts. I also wanted to bring in Tammy (Rogers) and have her do kind of a string part playing."

"Six Months, No Sun" is the first Dead Reckoning release of the year, three years after Kane formed the label with Rogers, Mike Henderson, Harry Stinson and Kevin Welch - a small indie alternative to mighty Music Row.

"It's still slow," Kane said, "but we're still in business, and my accountant tells me that's a victory in and of itself. In '97, we only put out one record. We changed all of our distribution relationships; we're no longer working with Rounder, and we have new distribution in Europe, so this album is the first album in the new rearranged way of doing business.

"I almost feel like we're starting over again and, in some ways, a little bit smarter. We've figured out better ways of doing things, and we accomplished a lot in the first three years. We're on a five-year plan, really, and I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel now.

"The big problem is that we have no way of getting heard; there's no serious radio outlet. I mean, it's doing very well on the Americana chart, but that doesn't turn into very much retail sales. The reviews have been tremendous, but reviews don't sell records either."

BWF (before we forget): For more on Kieran Kane, check out Dead Reckoning on the Web @ http://songs.com/deadreck or www.pressnetwork.com.

THIRD TIME AROUND IS A CHARM FOR KIERAN KANE (Nov. 25, 1993): If it weren't for a few nearsighted 7-Eleven clerks who ask for his driver's license when he tries buying a six-pack, Kieran Kane would never know he's not getting any younger.

The boyish-looking singer-songwriter, once one-half of the popular duo The O'Kanes, is hitting his stride in his mid-40s at a time when most veteran performers would consider throwing up their hands to the new breed.

"I don't envy in any way the sort of rash of younger successful country artists," Kane said from his Nashville home, "because I realize at this point how quickly that bright flame can burn out. ... I wonder sometimes when I see a lot of these younger guys and women how they will be able to sustain over the years.

"Sometimes that rush of adulation can become pretty heady stuff. It's easy to take it for granted. You develop an invincible feeling about yourself."

There's no chance of that happening with Kane, who knows the pitfalls all too well. With his heralded debut Atlantic album, "Find My Way Home," he's approaching his third time around at country fame with caution.

In the early '80s, the New York-born -and-raised Kane took his first shot at a solo career and saw limited chart success with an album on Elektra and a few Top-10 country singles. He and Elektra soon parted amicably, disagreeing over what direction he should take.

In the mid-'80s, Kane teamed with fellow Tree Publishing Co. songwriter Jamie O'Hara to form The O'Kanes, noted primarily for their flawless Everly Brothers-like harmonies. After three records for CBS, The O'Kanes disbanded in 1989, and Kane went back to his bread and butter: songwriting.

A few years later, Kane took demos he and co-producer/drummer Harry Stinson put together to the head of Atlantic's Nashville office, Rick Blackburn, the same man who signed The O'Kanes to CBS.

Kane's second solo try has some critics calling it one of the year's best country albums.

The persona of "Find My Way Home," buoyed by the leadoff single "I'm Here To Love You," is of a man who admits he's made some mistakes and is trying to make amends. The track "Forgive and Forget" says it all: "To live in peace, to be free of the past/To close my eyes in sweet dreams is all that I ask/But if I die and peace has not come yet/Write on my stone I tried to forgive and forget."

"As a writer, I think everything, in some way, is personal," Kane said. "It's hard to avoid it. It may be just an immediate flash of something, an emotion you're feeling at the time.

"I've known a few writers who write songs and say, 'Well, that song isn't really about me,' but there's always some element of it that's about you. Maybe it's an element you're trying to suppress.

"I don't think I regret much. Everything one goes through is a learning experience. The negative things are probably more a learning experience than the positive ones. Sometimes you look back on things and say, 'Gee, I could have done that differently,' and in the future you may take that information along with you when the next time you're confronted with a similar situation."

Kane has learned from the experiences in his three-part career, the good and the bad.

"One of the things I've learned is that I'm not too concerned what it is the record label wants," he said. "Quite frankly, the thing for me is, if I'm happy and pleased with the work that's done, then that's the ultimate satisfaction.

"And after that, it's pretty much out of my control. There's a great freedom with that realization."

There's no place like home for Kansas

(July 9, 2000)

Who says you can't go home again? Kansas has done it and then some.

The progressive-rock group made its 19th album, "Somewhere to Elsewhere" (out July 11 on Magna Carta), truly an all-Kansas affair. The disc reunites all the original members for the first time in 17 years, and it was recorded at guitarist Kerry Livgren's recording studio in rural Kansas.

The involvement of Livgren, who wrote the band's signature hits "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind," alone is a major feat. He left the band in 1983, moved back to Kansas from the band's home base of Atlanta, bought a 76-acre farm and became a popular contemporary Christian artist, producer and label owner (Numabox).

"I have an active solo career, and that's actually what spun off the material Kansas ended up doing," Livgren said recently. "I had started working on a new CD about a year ago and during the course of writing, I was generating a lot of material that sounded to me like Kansas, much more than my previous stuff has. I had mentioned that to the guys, 'Gee, let's hear it,' and as soon as they heard it, they said, 'We've got to do this.'

"There were some certain criteria I laid down, like first off, 'If we're going to do this, it's got to be the original band and it's got to be in Kansas. Let's make this every bit as Kansas as we can make it.' They eventually agreed to do that, even getting (bassist) Dave (Hope) involved, and he's a full-time minister. Of course, (guitarist) Billy Greer's been with us so long (since 1986) we couldn't exactly tell him to take a hike, so we used him, too."

When Livgren quit the group in 1983, many Kansas fans assumed it had to do with him becoming a born-again Christian. That was just part of it, he says.

"Really, at the point I left, (singer) Steve (Walsh) was gone, (violinist) Robby (Steinhardt) was gone and it just didn't seem like the same band to me anymore," Livgren said. "The goals changed, the motives changed. I really didn't have the freedom of expression at that point, and after a 14-year run, I was just ready for something different. I just finished a solo project with the guys that became A.D., the band I formed after Kansas; we clicked so well, I just thought, 'It's time (to leave Kansas).' "

After selling 30 million copies with eight straight gold- and platinum-selling albums, including 1976's "Leftoverture" and 1977's "Point of Know Return," Kansas had lost its creative muse. But Livgren's departure had no effect on their friendship, says drummer Phil Ehart.

"Me and Kerry and (guitarist) Rich (Williams) and Dave all went to Topeka West School together, so we have known each other for many years," he said. "That's what we had in common. That keeps you in touch. If we hadn't been in the same band, I'm not sure we would have stayed in touch, but the band keeps drawing us back together.

"It was great fun going back to Kansas for this album. A lot of water had passed under those bridges for many years, but still there's a reason that this band is such a good band and has the history it does, it's because of the people who make it up and all those people were all there in the same room again. It's the chemistry that makes it work, so we had a great time."

"Somewhere to Elsewhere" is every bit as lyrically and musically complex as any Kansas album at its peak. It even opens with "Icarus II," a sequel to "Icarus - Borne on Wings of Steel" off the "Masque" album.

"We wanted to make an album we could all enjoy making," Livgren said, "and we wanted to set up a scenario where it would at least pay for itself, where we could make some music we could be proud of. We wanted to make a CD that we could go back and listen to and just have few if any regrets about, and I think we accomplished that.

"I think we made an album that will endure as one of the better Kansas albums we've made. I know the band feels it's one of the top three we've made. Whether it'll do well, it's such a different world out there. You've got rigid radio formatting; there's no place for our music, and really I don't care. You can become a slave to that. There's no room to push the envelope, and that's what we like to do."

The group is in the middle of a U.S. tour with one of its early influences, Yes. Livgren and Hope will show up to a few shows, but for the most part, they have too many other things on their plates to commit to a tour.

"To do (a tour) I would have to shut down my label and my studio and my farm," Livgren said. "It's just too complicated. And everybody knew that going into it. Making an album's one thing, but touring is another. A lot of people think, 'Kerry Livgren, he doesn't want to tour.' That's not really true. In fact, the idea of them going out and doing this music without me is not a thought I really like. The reality is, I just can't pull it off."

Ehart says the band is blown away by the fan response at shows.

"The people that are coming, they're not coming for any other reason than that they want to hear this kind of music," he said. "The band has enjoyed a resurgence here in the last five years that nobody could have foretold, so it was interesting that here the millennium's changing and Kansas is still out on the road and selling more records after almost 30 years and doing better than we have in quite a while. Who could have guessed?"

THE FIRST RECORD I EVER BOUGHT: Livgren - "I remember buying it in a drugstore, and it was a 45, but it had three songs on each side. It was something like 'The Hits of Today.' It had doo-wop songs. I think I was 11; my parents always had records, so I thought I should have one, too. And it changed my life." Ehart - "It was by the Byrds, 'Mr. Tambourine Man.' "

THE FIRST CONCERT I EVER WENT TO: Livgren - "I don't know if I'd call it a concert, but I went to a recreation center here in Kansas that on Friday nights had bands playing. I had never seen a live rock 'n' roll band before, and I walked in and it was a surf band. Of course, surf music in Kansas ... what's wrong with this picture? I went ahead and heard these guys, and I took one look and didn't even make it through one song and I knew that's what I wanted to do, make music." Ehart - "I'm thinking the first one that ever made an impression on me was Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels at the Topeka Auditorium when I was 15. I didn't talk for a week, I was so stunned. Seeing Jim McCarty on guitar, man, I knew I had to do that for a living. And what a great underrated singer Mitch Ryder was."

THE LAST CD I BOUGHT: Livgren - "I got the new Sting CD, and I've been listening a lot to Tears For Fears' 'Raoul and the Kings of Spain.' I love it. That's one of the bands that came out of the '80s that I think has endured. So many '80s bands dropped off the face of the Earth." Ehart - " 'Inside Job' by Don Henley. It's pretty dark, very introspective, a lot of his comments politically and he had just gotten married. One of the songs is called 'My Wedding.' It's still pretty good, I could listen to Don Henley gargle, he's one of my favorite singers of all time."

BWF (before we forget): All they are is dust on the Web @ www.kansasband.com. ... The Kansas album discography - "Kansas" (Kirshner, 1974); "Song For America" (1975); "Masque" (1976); "Leftoverture" (1976); "Point of Know Return" (1977); "Two for the Show" (1978); "Monolith" (1979); "Audio-Visions" (1980); "Vinyl Confessions" (CBS Assoc., 1982); "Drastic Measures" (1983); "The Best of Kansas" (1984); "Power" (MCA, 1986); "In the Spirit of Things" (1988); "Live at the Whiskey" (Intersound, 1992); "Box Set" (Epic, 1994); "Freaks of Nature" (1995); "Always Never the Same" (River North, 1998); "Somewhere to Elsewhere" (Magna Carta, 2000).

Looking through Kelis' 'Kaleidoscope' of music

(Feb. 27, 2000)

Three months into her big-label career, 20-year-old hip-hop star Kelis has few complaints.

She even finds a silver lining after her first single, "Caught Out There," failed to reach Billboard's Top 40. The track, a slap at disrespectful men - spiked with the scorching chorus "I hate you so much right now," peaked several weeks ago at No. 54, while the New York-based singer-songwriter's debut Virgin album, "Kaleidoscope" (released Dec. 7), reached No. 148 on the Billboard 200.

"I'm not disappointed at all," Kelis said recently. "I think it's going pretty well. I mean, I'm glad to see how far it's gone. I didn't expect it to be crazy; I just wanted people to notice that I'm not like everybody else and that the music can't be easily put into a category. Not everybody loves it, but no one can go around saying they've heard it before."

That's for sure. Kelis has an eclectic range of influences, from Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan to Stevie Wonder. She also has an extensive background in classic jazz and gospel. The daughter of an ordained minister, she was a member of the Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem and is an accomplished jazz saxophonist.

Kelis also appears on Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Got Your Money," which is rising again on Billboard's pop chart, now at No. 54 after 18 weeks.

She has carved her own mark among the new breed of young black female hip-hop artists. But she fully acknowledges artists such as Lauryn Hill and Macy Gray for making her success possible.

"I feel like anybody who has come before me has had a great place, opening doors for what it is I do now," Kelis said. "We're black females just expressing ourselves, and I think we have a common goal.

"Women have always been expressing themselves in songs. They express real-life issues. Maybe this is a day when people are listening, that feelings are changing."

The strident message behind "Caught Out There" is refreshing, but it may falsely give the impression that Kelis is overbearing. Nothing could be further from the truth, she says.

"Everybody rubs me differently, and I rub everybody in a different way, too," she said. "I guess at this point some people appreciate the honesty, and maybe some people are offended by it. Some people may mistake honesty for rudeness, but it's not. Either that or people don't like to be told the truth.

"Generally, though, I'm finding that people - men and women - are really responsive to the song and to the album. Everywhere I go I get positive stuff, so I have no complaints. People relate to the feeling, and that's what it's all about."

After working with the hip-hop groups Goldfingahz and Gravediggaz, Kelis came to the attention of Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams of Neptunes, a Virginia-based production company. The duo, whose credits include Mase, Noreaga, BLACKstreet, Ol' Dirty Bastard and SWV, helped Kelis cut a three-song demo and then shopped it around. Virgin quickly snapped her up.

"I really enjoyed making the album," Kelis said. "We had a really good time recording. It has such a futuristic vibe to it. The songs are all over the map, which is why we called the album 'Kaleidoscope.' We just did what felt right. Now that it's all over and done with, I just want people to enjoy it, too, and have a good time with the music, and make them dance."

What does she envision herself doing 10 years from now? Kelis doesn't know, but it's going to be on her terms.

"My goal in life is to be happy, so wherever that leads me and how I get there, who knows," she said. "Ten years from now, it'll be creative, whatever it is. I'm an artist; I do artistic things. Ten years from now, I could be making T-shirts, who knows, but it'll be something I enjoy doing."

THE FIRST RECORD I EVER BOUGHT: "Gosh, I don't remember ... but I'd like to remember it."

THE FIRST CONCERT I EVER WENT TO: "I want to say Annie Lennox at the Beacon Theater. I wanted to be onstage long before I saw her; any time I see anybody onstage, whether they're dancing, singing or acting, I always wanted to be up there with them."

THE LAST CD I BOUGHT: "The Lox ('We Are the Streets') and Dr. Dre's 'Dr. Dre - 2001.' The Dre CD is absolutely phenomenal. It's definitely a classic."

BWF (before we forget): For more on Kelis, visit www.virginurban.com.

Join Kenickie down 'At the Club'

(June 5, 1997)

"Grease" is nearly the word for Britain's latest pop sensation, Kenickie.

The tidy guitar band - made up of three 19-year-old women and a 20-year-old male drummer - takes its name from the bad-boy character played by Jeff Conaway in the hit movie from 1978, the year the women were all born.

Conventionality belongs to yesterday, and Kenickie goes as far as it can with its debut Warner album "At the Club," out June 17. It straddles Go's-Go's pop, Blondie-like punk and a general frenzy, lacing it with just enough fetching detail, such as the infectious handclaps on the track "Millionaire Sweeper." One British writer described them as "the Shirelles meets the Ramones."

Bassist Emmy-Kate Montrose loves it.

"That sums it up better than I can," she said recently. "I think even for us it's difficult to describe our sound, because we have so many musical influences. (Guitarist) Marie (Du Santiago) loves everything, (singer) Lauren (Le Laverne) is into pop music and I like Motown and soul. Put all those influences together and it gives us our sound."

Le Laverne, Du Santiago and Montrose have been friends since grade school, when they always sat together in the back of class and passed notes. They shared an obsession for Gary Numan, even though they were all in diapers when "Cars" helped usher in the new wave era. Like their male counterparts, Ash, they formed their band while in high school, then recruited Le Laverne's older brother, Johnny X, to play drums.

"We didn't know how to play any instruments, but we thought we could learn," Montrose said. "When we learned to play, we were pretty good. There's no concept, it's just us playing punk-influenced rock 'n' roll."

Their early demos caught the sharp ears of renowned British disc jockey John Peel, who played them on the air before they were signed and also predicted big things. One cut, "Come Out 2 Nite," was voted No. 1 in Peel's annual "Festival 50" list last year.

An eight-song EP, "Catsuit City," on the Newcastle, England, label Slampt earned them a spot opening for the Ramones at their farewell Brixton Academy gig. Another EP, "Skillex," prompted Bob Stanley of the British group Saint Etienne to sign them to his EMI-affiliated label, Emidisc. Their first major-label single, "Punka," cracked the U.K. Top 40.

By then, they were plastered on the covers of New Musical Express and Melody Maker, from Aberdeen to Exeter.

"We're big enough now to be working all the time, and we get a bit more artistic freedom," Montrose said. "We're obviously not getting mobbed on the streets, but every now and then we'll be on the train and someone will scream out. You catch yourself looking around, going 'Who? Me?' "

All in all, the ride to fame has been enjoyable, Montrose said, but whether it flies in the United States is anyone's guess.

"We just wanted to make the best album we possibly could,'' she said, "and we're all very, very proud of it. I hope people in America will like it, because it's a fun record."

Kent is the rock pride of Sweden

(Dec. 6, 1998)

For singer Joakim Berg and his Kent band mates, home is where they lay their hats and their guitars, drums and keyboards.

High school friends Berg, bassist-keyboardist Martin Skold, lead guitarist Sami Sirvio, guitarist Harri Manty and drummer Markus Mustonen left behind the industrial wasteland of Eskilstuna, their small Swedish hometown, in 1992 and moved to thoroughly modern Stockholm to pursue their rock dreams.

They had no choice.

"You basically have to move to Stockholm," Skold said recently, "because all the record companies are in Stockholm and they don't bother to go into other cities to look for rock bands."

"When we started our band in our town," Berg said, "we were so bored. There was nothing else to do. If you're 20 years old, you can't even go into bars or anything.

"When I was growing up in that town, there was so many people talking about leaving and getting out and starting a new and better life somewhere else, but they just stay anyway. They were just complaining about it. 'It's so boring here,' but what's so hard about moving? I always tried to get this town out of my system; I hated it so much when I was growing up there; I wanted to leave so badly and not look back. Now I think it's a nice town, but when you spend all your days wanting to see some excitement somewhere, then you get really, really frustrated."

Berg finally has gotten the hometown angst out of his system with the group's moody third album, "Isola" (RCA), released stateside in mid-September. The album, the quintet's first English recording, touches on isolation and other assorted fears. But there's always a flip side to breaking free from the ties that bind you, Berg said.

"You can get stuck somewhere else, even if you move from your small town to New York or wherever, you can't keep on going and going," he said. "You need something, someplace you can always call home."

Home now is Stockholm, where RCA/BMG Sweden executives discovered the band opening a gig for The Cardigans in 1994. A year later, their self-titled debut album only scratched at the surface of what was to come: Their second LP, "Verkligen" (1996), and "Isola" both entered at No. 1 on Sweden's album chart, went platinum and yielded several Swedish Grammys.

While critics have lavished them with praise and all sorts of comparisons, from The Cure to the Smashing Pumpkins, Berg said their sound is a conglomeration of everything they hear in Sweden.

"We get a lot of music in Sweden," he said. "Swedish people, especially in Stockholm, are up to date on trends. And we have the same release dates for albums as you have (in the United States), so the albums always come out on the same dates. We're so used to hearing music from everywhere, so we never really thought about the comparisons. Some people said we sounded like The Cure; they have to box us in the beginning. We sang in Swedish on the first two albums, and they were both very Swedish because the main attraction was the Swedish lyrics; it was very uncommon then for rock bands to sing in Swedish."

Now that they are singing in English, Skold said some of their Swedish fans have abandoned them.

"Some people don't like it being in English, because before we were all theirs," he said. "They wanted to keep us for themselves."

Disc jockey Gene "Bean" Baxter, of KROQ in Los Angeles, heard "If You Were Here," a track off "Isola," while on vacation in Iceland. He bought a copy of the album and played it for his station manager, who quickly added "If You Were Here" to KROQ's playlist over the summer. Favorable audience response forced RCA to rush-release "Isola" stateside. ("If You Were Here" peaked at No. 7 on P&P's Picks chart in early October.)

"No one knew the song was being played until the record company told us, 'They're playing your song in New York and L.A.,' " Berg said. "We're like, 'What? That's impossible, it's not even released there.' "

Kent made its U.S. concert debut in early November, opening for The Cardigans during the CMJ convention in New York. The band will return early next year for its first American tour.

BWF (before we forget): Join Kent on the Web @ www2.passagen.se/kentbmg.

The Kid knows how to rock

(Oct. 11, 1998)

Kid Rock may be a rapper and a hip-hop artist, but he's a rocker at heart.

"I'm rock 'n' roll," the suburban Detroit native said recently. "I'm a rapper, but I play rock 'n' roll. I love the Wallflowers, but I don't see them as rock 'n' roll. Matchbox 20 isn't rock 'n' roll. I see Tupac as rock 'n' roll, I see Monster Magnet as rock 'n' roll. It's the attitude."

Kid Rock, born Bob Ritchie in the mostly white Detroit suburb of Romeo, Mich., has had plenty of attitude since the mid-1980s when he had a revelation at his first Beastie Boys concert.

"I used to be the only white kids at all these rap shows," he said, "and I remember walking into Cobo Hall and seeing these three white kids onstage and my heart stopped. It's like, 'Oh, my god, somebody beat me to it.' I knew I had to do what they did but with my own touch."

He had a conspicuous start in 1990 when "Yodeling in the Valley," a track off his Jive Records debut album "Grits Sandwiches For Breakfast," made national headlines. The Federal Communications Commission handed out the largest fine ever for a college radio station, $23,750, against WSUC-FM at the State University of New York at Cortland for airing the "obscene" song about oral sex.

2 Live Crew made a career out of that sort of notoriety, but the Cortland case - which eventually was thrown out - neither hurt nor helped Kid Rock's career.

"It just gave everybody something to write about for a while," Kid Rock said. "My feeling was, 'If you don't wanna hear that kind of song, turn the dial.' I thought at the time, 'This is sweet, I'm gonna sell some records.' It didn't."

He didn't give up. Kid Rock toured with such rap giants as Ice Cube and Too $hort and released two more albums and an EP through his Top Dog indie label before signing last year with Lava/Atlantic. His label debut, "Devil Without a Cause" (released Aug. 18), isn't going to threaten the Beasties' supremacy, but it does have its share of fist-pumpin' anthems and rapid-fire rhymes, particularly the revved-up leadoff track "Bawitdaba." Backed by his Twisted Brown Trucker band, he marches a hip-hop beat through rock-oriented twists and turns.

"I'm all over the place ... country, rock, metal, rap, hip-hop," Kid Rock said. "I'm into Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hank Williams, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, all the outlaws. I also love Run-D.M.C. and Whodini, but I don't go out of my way to be influenced by anything. Anything that hits me, I go for it, whether it's country rock or hip-hop. I didn't go out one day and say, 'I want to listen to country music.' It was just something came through in the course of my life and hit me. I listened to country music back then as much I did rap."

Kid Rock had the time of his life during the recording sessions, which included a guest appearance by Detroit bluesman Robert Bradley (on "I Got One For Ya' "), but when push came to shove, he took matters into his own hands.

"I basically finished the record in seven days," he said. "I kicked everybody out of the studio, sent the producer home, locked myself in the room and did it all myself, after everybody had helped a whole lot, don't get me wrong.

"I think I've gotten everything right finally. This is the best record I've made, even though there's going to be even better ones to come. The timing's right, with 311, Rage (Against the Machine) and the Beasties out there."

BWF (before we forget): Rock with Kid Rock on the Web @ www.kidrock.com. ... The Kid Rock album discography - "Grits Sandwiches For Breakfast" (Jive/RCA/Top Dog, 1990); "The Polyfuze Method" (Continuum/Top Dog, 1992); "Fire It Up" EP (1994); "Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp" (1996); "Devil Without a Cause" (Lava/Atlantic/Top Dog, 1998).

Killing Joke has the last laugh with 'Pandemonium'

(July 21, 1994)

Killing Joke singer-keyboardist Jaz Coleman, one would think, is safely tucked away living in New Zealand's picturesque countryside.

He can run from the music industry, but he can't hide.

"One of our big things is personal freedom," Coleman said recently of the influential British band's philosophy. "If somebody said to me, 'You're gonna go gold, you're gonna go platinum, you're going on a 120-date tour,' I say f*** right off, mate. Life's too short and too beautiful for all that.

"I conduct symphonies when I'm not doing Killing Joke, so you'd be surprised how many industry people really do come knocking on your door when you're in a place like New Zealand. They say, 'There's a business-class ticket down at the travel agency,' and I say, 'Go away. I'm going to the beach.' "

Coleman has dusted off the sand between his toes and put away the sunblock long enough to team again with guitarist Geordie Walker and bassist Youth. The industrial/thrash pioneers return Aug. 2 with their Zoo Entertainment debut album "Pandemonium" and the killer single "Millennium."

It's the band's 10th album, but the first with the original lineup since 1982.

"Pandemonium" may be the album that finally breaks Killing Joke in America, 15 years after it formed. To hear Coleman tell it, the reunion was nothing more than a few friends getting together.

"To us, it was basically setting the stage in a studio, getting all our friends around us, getting into a groove and just letting it happen," Coleman said between puffs on a cigarette. "It's a very spontaneous thing ... there's not a real intellectual phase period. We switch it right off."

"Pandemonium" is more elaborate than that. Produced by Youth, the 10-track album takes the quartet on a musical odyssey through the Middle East and other uncharted territory. Part of the album's mystical texture was recorded at the King's Chamber inside the great Pyramids of Egypt.

"We bribed our way in to the minister of culture," Coleman said with a hearty laugh. "I've done a couple of LPs over in Egypt, so it wasn't new to me. When we went there to record this LP, Youth decided he wanted to check out the Pyramids, so we got ourselves in. ... I can't even begin to describe the emotional impact of the whole thing, going into the great galleries and finally up into the King's Chamber to set up the vocals."

After capturing the primal sounds, the trio walked outside, Coleman said, and they were greeted by about 90 locals, who were clapping and cheering for them. Just the sort of party atmosphere American fans can expect when Killing Joke tours in September.

"We're going to get away from the gig principle and set up a few parties around us," Coleman said. "You know how it goes: the support bangers go on at 8 p.m. and the main bangers go on half-past nine and then you're tucked in bed by 11.

"We want a party where there's food and drinks and our own DJs, maybe even some acoustic playing. It's so cliched, the rock 'n' roll thing ... so we're gonna try different things. We'll have a ball. But I have no expectations of anything, other than a little bit of fishing."