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A weekly audio podcast hosted by Johnny Brennan, creator of The Jerky Boys. ﻿Every week, Johnny provides behind the scenes commentary on classic Jerky Boys bits.

Since 1995 Alanis Morissette has been one of the most influential singer-songwriter-musicians in contemporary music. Her deeply expressive music and performances have earned vast critical praise, 14 Canadian Juno Awards, 7 Grammy® Awards (with an additional 14 nominations), a Golden Globe nomination and sales of over 60 million albums worldwide. Morissette’s 1995 debut, “JAGGED LITTLE PILL,” was followed by such eclectic and acclaimed albums as “SUPPOSED FORMER INFATUATION JUNKIE” (1998), “MTV UNPLUGGED” (1999), “UNDER RUG SWEPT” (2002), “SO-CALLED CHAOS” (2004), “JAGGED LITTLE PILL ACOUSTIC” (2005), her greatest hits album, “THE COLLECTION” (2005), “FLAVORS OF ENTANGLEMENT”(2008), HAVOC AND BRIGHT LIGHTS (2012), and “JAGGED LITTLE PILL: COLLECTOR’S EDITION” (2015), released in honor of the 20th anniversary of the groundbreaking debut, as well as musical contributions to theatrical releases, some of which include “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “Prince of Persia,” and “City of Angels.” Alanis has acted on the big and small screen with roles in “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Dogma,” “Sex and the City,” “Weeds” and “Up All Night,” and has appeared as a celebrity guest mentor on the 2nd season of “The Voice.” In 2015, Alanis was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Outside of entertainment, she is an avid supporter of female empowerment, as well as spiritual, psychological and physical wellness. She has contributed her writing to a variety of outlets and forums, and participates in worships, special speaking engagements and keynote speaking worldwide. Alanis has also donated her time to a number of causes that help raise awareness and funding on a number of issues including Equality Now which benefits international human rights, Music for Relief, UN Global Tolerance for which she was honored for her contributions for promoting tolerance through the arts, “Every Mother Counts” CD for which she contributed her song “Magical Child” to help prevent needless maternal deaths, and P.S Arts which has worked tirelessly to provide access to the arts through in-school programs to thousands of children in some of the most under-served neighborhoods in California. Alanis has also been outspoken on the issue of home child birth, its benefits and challenges for mothers across the world. Currently she is working on new music as well as a book, which will be released in late 2016. For more information see www.alanis.com.

	When Alana Davis was a little girl, she found her key to happiness in a roundabout way. She'd go to the principal's office in school to call her mom and tell her she was having a bad day. Upon returning home, her mother - a former jazz singer and single mom - would have her favorite song, Stevie Wonder's "As" from "Songs in the Key of Life" playing and it would instantly transform Alana's sadness to happiness. She soon learned to fake her bad school days in order to have that magical musical moment of bliss greet her upon coming home from school. 

	"That song was a healer for me and a game-changer. I learned really young how profoundly I connected to music and how music can really, on a deep level, transform your emotions, feelings," explains the singer/songwriter. "In the past few years, I lost sight of that for a bit. I became a mom and my focus was there. But now with my child, who is four, I'm seeing myself in her and I'm being reminded of who I am as an artist, and how I want my music to touch people the way that Stevie Wonder touched me as a little girl."

	Alana's newfound motherhood might have initially put the Grammy Award- nominated artist on the sidelines for a bit, but it's also what has given her the fuel and inspiration to move forward. "Honestly, after having a natural childbirth, it makes me feel like I can do anything. It gave me a newfound sense of strength and power and an internal toughness I think I needed. That really translates into who I am and what my music is about. More than my need to express myself through music, there is a need to be a good example for my daughter to not give up and follow your heart and what is truly in your soul. Music is truly in my heart and soul," says the New York-born artist.

	Music isn't just in her heart and soul it's in her DNA as well. Alana's mother is Anna Scholfield, a noted jazz vocalist whose 1963 Atlantic Records release, "Anamari," was produced by the legendary Nesuhi Ertegun and featured jazz greats Art farmer, Grady Tate, Jim Hall and Clark Terry. And, her father is acclaimed jazz pianist Walter Davis Jr. who played with Charlie Parker, Art Blakey and Dizzy Gillespie and whose albums "Davis Cup" and "In Walked Thelonius" are considered jazz classics.

	Raised by her mother in a humble West Village apartment amidst a backdrop of bebop, Stevie Wonder, Harry Belafonte and Nat King Cole, Alana would learn to harmonize at a young age as her musical mom would sing songs like, "You Are My Sunshine," with her on the way to the school bus. Alana would soon gravitate to the burgeoning underground punk and reggae scene at the time, and cite bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees and Bad Brains amongst her favorites. She'd later dabble in the likes of Joni Mitchell and Billie Holiday and discover her instrument of choice, the guitar, at age 16. 

 	Though music ran through her veins, Alana was always a bit too shy to perform and was discouraged by an unsupportive teacher at La Guardia School of Performing Arts (the “Fame” school that gave her a scholarship at age 13). She found her voice, and her calling, one fateful night when a friend made her get up onstage at Finnian's Rainbow on St. Mark's and sang a Janis Joplin song. "For the first time, I wasn't shy. People clapped. This was the beginning of thinking, well, maybe I can do this," recalls Alana. 

Her big break came, as she says, a "total fluke and happy accident." She explains, "A friend gave a recording of mine to an A&R guy at Elektra Records. At the time, I never would've thought I would even try to get a deal and they heard just one song, not even one of my own, and soon signed me. It was surreal. I don't think I was ready, but it was happening."

That "happy accident" turned into her Elektra Records debut CD, "Blame It on Me," which contained the hits "32 Flavors," which peaked at No. 37 Billboard's Hot 100 chart, "Crazy," a No. 17 hit on Adult Top 40, and "Murder," which was sampled on Jay-Z's own "Murder" on his CD, "Vol. 3...Life and Times of S. Carter." "Blame It on Me," which peaked at No. 7 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart, was also nominated for a Grammy award and cited by Time magazine as one of the Top 5 albums of 1997. 

What followed were two more critically acclaimed albums that had everyone calling Alana a true "singer's singer" - 2001's “Fortune Cookies" on Elektra, which peaked at No. 34 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart and featured production by Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes, and 2005's "Surrender Dorothy" on her own independent label, Tigress Records. The critical success of these albums landed her on every major TV outlet ("Good Morning American," "Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" to name a few). 


Alana also made a name for herself on the touring front, making history as being the only female artist on the H.O.R.D.E tour in 1998, alongside Blues Traveler, Barenaked Ladies, Ben Harper and others. She was also part of the iconic Lilith Fair tour in 1997 with Sarah McLachlan, Emmylou Harris, Jewel, Fiona Apple and other great female artists of the time. Over the years, the singer-songwriter has toured with or opened for Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, Ziggy Marley, Indigo Girls, John Mayer, Jack Johnson, Steel Pulse, Jethro Tull, Steve Winwood and many more. 

Also of note, her 2003 single, a cover of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Carry On," was featured in a Sony Electronics Super Bowl commercial and had Billboard raving that the "wildly spirited and emotionally charged" track made Alana "poised to have the biggest hit of her career."

"It's been such a journey. I paid some dues along the way. I've gone through some stuff. I now have more to write about because I've been rejected, I've had the Grammy nomination and the accolades and then I've had the record deal and then didn't. I kind of did it backwards. I got my first deal in an accidentally way and then I paid my dues. Today, I'm coming at it from a different place. At one point I wondered if it's worth it because it's so damn hard but somewhere along the way I decided I would do music because I love it. It's as simple as that," she says.

	Alana is currently writing new songs for what will be her fourth album. "The new material that I'm working on is a bit simpler, really stripped down. I think I used to cerebrallize a lot of things and play the hardest chords I could just because they turned me on. But now, it's more about how the song feels to me. Even though I haven't toured in a while, music was always there for me. It's the closest thing I have to a guru and I feel blessed to be able to communicate in this language," she adds.


www.robinsukroso.com
one man band // guitar invention

RobinSukroso "zweifelsfrei der beste Acpad-Gitarrenspieler der Welt".

Schlagzeug, Orchesterklänge, verschiedenste elektronische Instrumente mit virtuosem Gitarrenspiel treffen auf tanzbare Beats... Nein, es handelt sich nicht um eine 8-köpfige Band. Hier steht nur ein Mann auf der Bühne mit einer etwas anders aussehenden Gitarre, die ausser blau leuchtende LED-Tasten, mittels Computerchip und vielen Kabeln, ein virtuelles und komplexes Instrumentarium in sich birgt.

RobinSukroso schuf eine Invention, welche er Acpad-Gitarre nennt. Im Oktober 2011 wurde der Prototyp zusammen mit seinem ersten Musikvideoclip "Brazil" veröffentlicht. Daraufhin dauerte es nicht lange bis sich Sukroso zunächst in der Berliner Elektro und Clubszene einen Namen machte. Innerhalb von ein paar Monaten gab es die ersten Anfragen für große und internationale Bühnen (u.a. Dubai - Chill Out Festival April 2012, Lärz - Fusion Festival 2012, Berlin - Katerholzig / Volksbühne).

Doch diese Erfindung schuf Begehrlichkeiten und so kam es zum musikalischen Supergau. Dem jungen Künstler wurde letztes Jahr, nach einem Auftritt in Berlin, das komplette Equipment gestohlen. Inzwischen hat sich Sukroso von dem harten Schlag am Anfang seiner Karriere erholt und spielte 2013 seine erste Indientour.

Bei RobinSukroso handelt es sich nicht nur um einen Bastler, sondern um einen Ausnahmemusiker und Pionier, der sein Handwerk (Jazzgitarre, Piano, Schlagzeug, Harmonielehre, Arrangement etc.) mehrere Jahre lang studierte, um neue musikalische Wege und Möglichkeiten zu ergründen.

Seine Musik schafft hypnotisierende Atmosphären, die durch große musikalische Vielfältigkeit, Ausdrucksweise als auch durch gefühlvolles und teilweise atemberaubend schnelles Gitarrenspiel getragen wird. Dabei handelt es sich um ausgeklügelte Arrangements, die zudem Freiraum für Improvisationen lassen. Er schließt musikalisch als auch technisch die Lücke zwischen akustischer und elektronischer Musik und leitet bei seinen Auftritten von einem Song zum Nächsten über, so wie man es sonst nur von einem DJ gewohnt ist.

"... ein Künstler von dem man in Zukunft bestimmt noch mehr sehen und hören wird ..."
GITARRE & BASS

Ab April 2013 ist er mit vielen neuen Tracks und einer neuen Gitarre, die er zusammen mit einem achtköpfigen Team des "Indian Institute for Technologe in Bombay" kreierte - für Auftritte in den GAS zurück!

'MAMA' out now:
https://EllaEyre.lnk.to/Mama7t

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