AN OPEN LETTER TO TODD PHILLIPS ON HIS FAILURE AS A DIRECTOR....SEE #40
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| Progressive rock band Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius spent six years making their sixth album, “Impostor!” due on 7d Media (City Hall Distribution), October 11, 2024. The songs share stories of emotional battles Joe has observed in his life and the outside world.
“Sometimes you write a bunch of songs and don’t see the thread that binds them together until they are all on one album.”
The title track addresses impostor syndrome and the epic “Chasing the Dragon” about “midlife crisis and unrealized dreams and expectations, ‘Are we ever satisfied?’ The dragon represents that elusive goal, always just out of reach.” The song features guest vocalist Chloe Lowery (Trans-Siberian Orchestra). “Outrage Olympics,” which is the band’s upcoming music video, is a rebuke of cancel culture. “Cognitive Dissonance” features guest vocals from Randy McStine (Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree) explores how religious intolerance destroys childhood friendships. “Storm Surge” explores anxiety and features some legends in the prog world, including pianist/flautist Rachel Flowers, guitarist Fernando Perdomo (“Echo in the Canyon,” Jacob Dylan, Carmine Appice), and Saga vocalist Michael Sadler, who co-wrote the song with Joe and the group’s drummer Jason Gianni. Inspired by Friedrich Burgmuller’s 19th century piano piece, “L’Orage (the Storm).”
The album also includes the Jean Luc Ponty/Jerry Goodman-inspired instrumentals “Voodoo Vortex Part I & II.” The song title, “Tripping the Merry-Go-Round” is taken from Bruce Springsteen’s lyric in “Blinded by the Light.” Joe performs most of the acoustic strings and describes the song; “If Gentle Giant wrote ‘Eleanor Rigby.’ It’s a snapshot of a long relationship where the ‘merry-go-round’ of life keeps people from making adequate time for each other.” Stratospheerius covers King Crimson’s “Frame by Frame” with backup vocals from Val Vigoda (Groovelilly).
“Impostor!” is being released on Trey Gunn’s 7d Media and features Joe (electric 7-string violin, acoustic violin, viola, chin cello, lead and background vocals, and producer), Michelangelo Quirinale-(Guitars), Paul Ranieri (bass), Jason Gianni (drums), and Bill Hubauer (keyboards). “Impostor!” is mixed and mastered by Rich Mouser (Tears for Fears, Dream Theater, Weezer).
Joe’s music’s been compared to Rush, Muse, Dream Theater, and Kansas, who welcomed Joe into the band in May 2023. “While Kansas became my main gig, it was my work with Stratospheerius that got their attention. Looks like all that “dragon chasing” paid off for Joe and his bandmates! |
Trust Me Review by Joe Viglione
Songwriter Bobby Womack released this superb tune on his 1975 Safety Zone album, but in its form as the sleeper track on Janis Joplin's 1971 Pearl album, "Trust Me" emerges with great power, a performance that is Janis at her absolute best. Her voice goes from sweet in the first couple of lines to raspy when she so knowingly issues lines like "the older the grape, the sweeter the wine." Ken Pearson's organ works wonderfully alongside Bobby Womack's acoustic guitar and John Till's electric. Paul Rothchild's production work is simply amazing, choreographing this thick array of sounds and piecing them together perfectly, Brad Campbell's bass and Richard Bell's piano lines both dancing inside the changes. Listen to Clark Pierson's definite drums as the song fades out, a solid team effort recorded on September 25, 1970, just a week and a half before Janis would leave us. In a small catalog of work, "Trust Me" shows what truly gifted art Janis Joplin brought to this world. Having Womack participating is a treat, the element of the songwriter working with the interpreter and their camaraderie as a major contribution to this definitive version cannot be overlooked. The creative energy is in these grooves and one doesn't have to imagine how magical the room must have been when this music was made. It translates very well. As "Me & Bobby McGee" has been overplayed, "Trust Me" has been underexposed. This key piece of the Pearl album concisely shows Janis Joplin as the equal of Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Billie Holiday, Otis Redding and her other heroes. At certain moments during this song Joplin eclipses even those gods.
This new compilation celebrates the iconic musician and songwriter who transformed folk and rock music in the '60s, becoming a global symbol of cultural revolution in youth movements: Bob Dylan.
French music producer Philippe Le Bras spent years developing the concept of a compilation on which Dylan's influence is obvious with every note. While there isn’t a single cover of his songs on this CD, the master’s influence is unmistakable on every track, leaving his mark on both the music and the performers. The remarkable line-up of artists includes Lou Reed, Leon Russell, David Crosby, Boz Scaggs, Bob Seger, Dion, Bobby Darin, Tom Rush, Len Chandler, Dion, Peter La Farge, Barry McGuire, Casey Anderson, Ferré Grignard, Dick Campbell, P.F. Sloan, Dean DeWolf, Johnny Winter, Billy Joe Royal, David Blue and many others.
The album's beautiful packaging includes a foreword by the late John Sinclair, essays by Iggy Pop and Elliott Murphy, extensive liner notes and numerous rare illustrations and memorabilia in a 48-page booklet.
TRACK LISTING:
- Dion - Two Ton Feather
- Eric Andersen - Honey
- Dick Campbell - You’ve Got to be Kidding
- Bobby Darin - Me & Mr Hohner
- P.F. Sloan - Halloween Mary
- Jackie Washington - Long Black Cadillac
- Len Chandler - Feet First Baby
- David Crosby - Willie Jean
- Lou Reed - Men of Good Fortune (May 1965 Demo)
- Casey Anderson - Little Girl
- Bubba Fowler - Next Year This Time
- Dean DeWolf - Pistol Slapper Blues
- David Blue - The Gasman Won't Buy Your Love
- Tom Rush - You Can't Tell A Book By The Cover
- Barry McGuire - Don't You Wonder Where It's At
- Bob Seger & The Last Heard - Persecution Smith
- Ferré Grignard - Drunken Sailor
- Peter LaFarge - Easy Rider
- Donovan - Universal Soldier
- Boz Scaggs - Baby Let Me Follow You Down
- Billy Joe Royal - These Are Not My People
- Leon Russell - Everybody’s Talking About the Young
- Johnny Winter - Birds Can’t Row Boats
- Dino Valenti - Black Betty
- Sammy Walker - Vigilante Man
Pre-order the album on Amazon.com: https://tinyurl.com/BFBDAMZ
GuitarForce.Com
https://youtu.be/-aW-C0ENlgU?list=PLjpdcRKp6WcreMS730tPItTUffyO_MlwQ
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Album release Nov. 29; first music video “Seeds” is now out
Days Between Stations are releasing their fourth album, “Perpetual Motion Machines (Music For A Film),” on November 29. Just released this weekend is the music video “Seeds” at https://youtu.be/5kmLDoapIkg.
The music video for “Seeds” features artist Jean-Paul Bourdier at work, altering landscapes, coloring bodies, marking up film frames, playing with manufactured items to see how they influence visuals.
“Perpetual Motion Machines (Music For Film)” is the result of DBS founding members keyboardist Oscar Fuentes Bills and guitarist Sepand Samzadeh working on the music for a documentary film about Jean-Paul Bourdier, himself, in the mid-2010s. As the music reached completion, the group was offered the opportunity to release their music as a “proper” album. Sepand says, “Jean Paul’s artwork was our muse, and we scored the music to pictures and to existing films.”
One song, "Being," felt unfinished at the time. Oscar had written a melody that lent itself to vocals, and “we based them around the general concept of existence and trying to inject Jean Paul’s poetic philosophy.” Ultimately, the lyrics came from a more personal place, “this is what Jean-Paul’s art inspired us to do, and we let the music speak for itself. Pink Floyd backup vocalist Durga McBroom sings on “Being,” which will be released as a video on November 29, the same day as the album.
Produced by Navon Weisberg (The Voice engineer, Puddle of Mudd), he helmed the project “as a fan. I removed the technical hurdles and allowed Sepand and Oscar to focus their energy on the music, allowing their emotions to be captured.”
The album is dedicated to the memory of "Big" Bill Kaylor who engineered early sessions of “Perpetual Motion Machines” and worked on the group’s second album, “In Extremis.”
Formed exactly 20 years ago in Los Angeles, Sepand and Oscar named the band after Steve Erickson’s novel “Days Between Stations.” The Pineapple Thief’s Bruce Soord inspired the band to work on their music after he used some of Sepand and Oscar’s musical experiments as the basis for “Saturday” on The Pineapple Thief’s “12 Stories Down” album. The duo continued to work with a range of musicians on what became their first release, “Days Between Stations,” in 2007. Their 2012 recording “In Extremis” was produced by Yes’ Billy Sherwood. In 2020 they released “Giants,” which included vocals from Durga McBroom on “Witness the End of the World” and voted as Prog Magazine’s Track of the Week.
The band has a history of music in films-dating back to “Radio Song” (from the debut album) licensed in the independent film “Young, Single & Angry” in 2006 and then in 2023 in “Paul & Trisha: The Art of Fluidity,” now featured on Apple Movies. They created the score for a short Mexican movie, “Y Recibir Tu Aliento” in 2017.
Perpetual Motion Machines (Music For A Film)
1. Waltz for the Dead (1:53)
2. Proof of Life (2:49)
3. Seeds (2:39)
4. Unearth (4:21)
5. Intermission 3 (0:52)
6. Stone Faces (3:15)
7. Paradigm Lost (6:24)
8. Ascend (3:14)
9. Being (featuring Durga McBroom) (9:00)
Pre-Order CD or vinyl at www.daysbetweenstations.com/product-category/perpetual-motion-machines/
- Todd Phillips
- c/o Todd Feldman
- Att: Todd Feldman
- agent (Talent Agent)
- +1 424 288 2000 phone
- +1 424 288 2900 fax
- info@caa.com
- 2000 Avenue of the Stars
- Los Angeles, CA 90067
- USA
- Todd Phillips
- c/o Todd Feldman
- Att: Todd Feldman
- agent (Talent Agent)
- +1 424 288 2000 phone
- +1 424 288 2900 fax
- info@caa.com
- 2000 Avenue of the Stars
- Los Angeles, CA 90067
- USA
Hated: GG Allin & the Murder Junkies
Joker: Folie à Deux by Marco Cuda
https://thesomervillenewsweekly.blog/2024/10/08/joker-folie-a-deux-by-marco-cuda/
Joker 2 (Joker: Folie à Deux) is a musical revolving around courtroom drama, jail life and a romance between Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn and Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker. There is so much music, in fact, by the end you’ll be bracing yourself for a song to start during almost any scene. Besides that, the movie turns into a courtroom drama where the focus is whether or not Arthur Fleck truly has a split personality as the Joker.
It’s compelling at times between a lot of recanting of the first film and a look into some intimate details about the Joker’s personal life, but at other times you might find yourself waiting for more action.
This is also a film that starts and ends in jail, so besides the courtroom scenes, there aren’t many interesting places for the eye to go. I would have liked a little more screen time dedicated to settings that either weren’t indoors or away from the court or jail since it gets tiring and dreary to stay in two settings the entire movie. The jail life scenes open up once Arthur Fleck finds himself with Lady Gaga in a recreation room and their romance begins. The movie might have been more interesting if we learned more about Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn character rather than spending so much time in jail with Joaquin Phoenix.
Although there are some unexpected twists and turns, I found the film a little too tame and at times sort of boring. The musical aspect is fun sometimes and feels like filler at others. Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix both put on great performances but with too much courtroom time and a flat plot the movie feels like it never takes off.
As an eternal movie optimist, I still have to say this wasn’t one of my favorites although I think Lady Gaga fans might be in for a pleasant surprise.
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