BTW: "Ultimately when I create," Alu tells P&P, "the goal is to bring life to the music, sounds, images and stories that live in my brain. My first album 'Infomercial Gasmask' was very one-dimensional in mood so I wanted my new work to capture more aspects of my quirky personality, not just the dark side. There is a lot of humor and cynicism on this album and also a lot of playfulness. I really enjoyed creating these demented tales in fantastic landscapes."
As for her career, she wants "to continue sharing the music I hear in my head with the world. Since my music is so visual, I look forward to collaborating with more filmmakers, animators, playwrights and other visionaries."
Keith Anderson
"C'mon!" (producer: Jeffrey Steele; first single: "I Still Miss You"; Hear here)
BTW: "The Great Unreal" is Gandalf Murphy's third studio album, and because they're on the road nonstop, "we needed to speed up the recording process without sacrificing quality," lead singer Joziah Longo tells P&P. "Each band member recorded their own tracks for the most part and then handed them over to (guitarist) Sharkey (McEwen) for mixing. That saved a lot of time.
"As an album comes together, it starts to have a unique flavor or feel that is as surprising to the band as it is to the public. 'The Great Unravel' was no different. It took shape over a year or so, and the vibe turned out to be similar to our other albums, yet with a bit more retro-psychedelia thrown in for fun.
"This collection of songs mixes well with our other material, giving our live shows a broader palette of textures and styles, for the edification of the audience. It's kind of like having more crayons to color with. The material has a certain amount of grit, yet overall is more intellectual than the darker moodier 'Good Thief' or the upbeat more whimsical ''Flapjacks From the Sky.' As a songwriter, I've been looking at the world situation through a more scientific perspective than previously. Once the present day world problems get straightened out, we still need to find resonance with the more organic way the universe functions. Before you can find the big answers, you need to discover the big questions."
Gandalf Murphy appears to be a band that's "on the verge of making it big." What will it take to take them over the edge?
"A new tour van big enough for all of us to fit into!" Longo says, jokingly. "No, really, I think we're more concerned with 'making it good' than 'making it big.' After that, it's just a matter of how to multiply and distribute the good(s) to as many people as you can. The music business has been changing so rapidly that in this day and age it's a whole new game even moment to moment. We don't have a grand scheme for 'success,' just try to make each show as legendary as possible and hope that by doing that we'll hit a point of critical mass that will create a kind of 'big bang' effect. Like I said, this album has me and the band thinking along more metaphysical lines in career development!"
Mike Gordon
"The Green Sparrow" (guests: former Phish band mates Trey Anatasio and Page McConnell, Chuck Leavell, Ivan Neville, Bill Kreutzmann; Hear here)
"Lessons in Love" (producers: Baby Boy, Superkidd, Tricky, The Dream, Polow Da Don, Jasper and Big Reese; guests: Nelly, Ludacris; first single: "How We Do It"; Hear hereRead here)
"Only Through the Pain" (producer: GGGarth Richardson; first single: "Who's Going Home With You Tonight?"; Hear here)
(Eleven Seven Music, Aug. 5, 2008)
BTW: Trapt is the latest in a long line of what-have-you-done-for-me-lately? stories in the music industry.
Five years ago, the alt-metal quartet from Los Gatos, Calif., sold 1.6 million copies of its self-titled debut album on Warner Bros. Records, fueled by the Billboard modern-rock chart toppers "Headstrong" and "Still Frame." The follow-up album, "Someone in Control," sold a respectable 500,000 copies in 2005.
By the time the group started work on its third album, "Only Through the Pain," its relationship with Warner Bros. was so strained, the label wouldn't return e-mails from the band.
"We didn't like the situation," singer-guitarist Chris Taylor Brown tells P&P. "We asked them to let us off the label. There was no official parting of the ways; we just said, 'We're leaving,' and there was no response, so we were out of there."
Brown and his band mates ‹ bassist Peter Charell, drummer Aaron "Monty" Montgomery and new guitarist Robb Torres ‹ shopped their "Only Through the Pain" demos around to different labels. The winner in the sweepstakes was Eleven Seven Records, founded by Mötley Crüe manager Allen Kovac and overseen by Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx. The label is, oddly enough, distributed by Warner Bros.
"Eleven Seven is perfect for us," Brown says. "We have a lot more independence. As far as musically, we went up to Canada to work on the album with our producer, GGGarth Richardson, and there was no label people there at all.
"Warner had no clue what they were doing. Now, we're a band that's in their mid-20s, we write good songs and the album's going to be very successful. Radio stations that supported us through the first two albums are playing our new single. So we're going to have the last laugh."
"Phoenix [CD/DVD]" (includes the previously unreleased "Broadcast to the World" DVD featuring live footage and music videos; producers: Cameron Webb, Howard Benson; first single: "Mental Health"; Hear here; See here)
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