Though perhaps best-known as an actress for her starring roles in the hit television series "Law & Order" and "Crossing Jordan," Jill Hennessy began her show business career as a musician, busking in the streets of Toronto. "I left home when I was 17," remembers the Edmonton-born musician. "I went to Toronto and tried to find work. One day, I was walking down Yonge Street and I heard two guys playing 'Take It Easy' by the Eagles. I knew all the harmonies of all those songs -- my dad played the Eagles all the time -- so I started to harmonize with them. I stayed three hours and they gave me a cut of their money. Soon we started having a regular gig on the subways and did the underground club circuit, playing coffeehouses like Fat Albert's on Bloor Street."

Concurrent with her Toronto coffeehouse and subway gigs, Jill began working with an improv comedy troupe playing local dinner theaters. "A short-lived boyfriend bought me a guitar," she recalls, "and showed me an A and a D chord. I went out and bought the U2 'Joshua Tree' songbook and a Tracy Chapman songbook and began learning all the songs I could. I used my guitar case as a table. My guitar was my friend, my family, the one constant in my life."

Circa 1989, a friend of hers borrowed her guitar to audition during the Toronto tryouts for "Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story," a musical adaptation of the life and music of the profoundly influential rock & roll pioneer. "I went to his audition to: a) give him some support and b) to pick up my guitar," Jill remembers. During her friend's audition, Jill was cajoled on-stage where she played Van Morrison's 'Brown-Eyed Girl' and one of her own songs in an impromptu try-out for the musical. Her natural talent and ease on-stage -- "plus I spoke Spanish" -- led to a series of roles -- including Buddy's wife Maria Elena -- in the Broadway production of "Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story."

"My life is 6 degrees of Buddy Holly," says Jill (who, coincidentally, lives with her husband and two children in the New York apartment building where Buddy lived with Maria and cut his final homemade demos in December 1958). "The reason I came to New York is because of Buddy Holly."

In 1992-93, following the close of the Buddy Holly musical on Broadway, Jill sang backup and played guitar in a variety of bands including the New Originals, performing on subway platforms ("the 1 and 9 line"), parks ("Washington Square," "Central Park"), and the West Village. "When I got 'Law & Order' in 1993," she recalls, "I reluctantly had to leave the New Originals."

She made her official recording debut in 2003, performing songs by Tom Waits ("You're Innocent When You Dream") and Bob Dylan ("It's All Over Now, Baby Blue") on the T Bone Burnett-produced "Crossing Jordan" soundtrack album. The All Music guide praised her for revealing an "....expressive voice with just a tinge of world-weariness."

Perhaps the deepest connection between the music of Jill Hennessy and the spirit of Buddy Holly lies in the heart of Texas, home to Holly's Lubbock birthplace and Austin's legendary Bismeaux Studio, a state-of-the-art facility that's played host to recordings by a variety of artists including Asleep At The Wheel, the Chieftains, Trace Adkins, Pam Tillis and Sir George Martin, among many others.

Neither of my parents sing or play any instruments but they loved music -- Ian & Sylvia, Peter Paul & Mary, James Taylor, Ray Charles, the Rolling Stones," says Jill. "One of my good memories was when my dad would come home from work. We'd sit on the kitchen floor and listen to records -- Elton John, Carpenters, Joni Mitchell, and especially Cat Stevens. That was my image of family, being together, being safe. I feel like music is the closest thing to who I am. It's where I feel most at home."

Coming to an ear hole near you, it's whiskey in the lungs! Listen to three Canadian Jackasses as they bray on about movies, video games, intoxicants, and life itself. James, Matt, Duncan, Will not only tickle your funny bone stop. they will buy it dinner and call it the next day. So tune in weekly for shenanigans galore.


Agnostic Front and Black Sabbath on a blind date at the Neverland Ranch, playing lawn-dart-monkey-in-the-middle with Marcel Marceau. Excuse us, we meant his corpse. Tad Doyle and Duane Dennison filet and de-bone him, fill him with juniper berries and fresh cilantro, and truss him up. Dinner is served. The dinner party consists of Jack Kerouac, Roy Clarke, Sly and Robbie, Brian Jones, Emily Remler, Son House, and John Bonham, and the host is Gil Scott-Heron.

Blending his "OUTLAW" Country history & image with a NEW Texas Music "Vibe", Chuck Barnes creates a traditional but cutting edge sound... 
(Bill Penn) RedCow Booking Agency, LLC

The Beginning

Born in Lubbock Texas, Chuck Barnes began playing guitar and singing when he was 11 years old, winning a school talent show singing and playing guitar on "You Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog" made famous by Elvis.  Playing on the stage in the schools auditorium, in front of the entire student body and all the teacher's, a pretty nerve racking experience for an 11 year old. 
Chuck's Dad and Grandfather taught him his first few guitar chords and he also learned alot from an old guitar chord book his Dad had given him. 
Around this same time a man named Brian Gilmore (Jimmy Dale Gilmore's Father) Taught him some more chords, some strumming styles and ways to put them all together to play a song. Brian Gilmore was one of the finest guitar players Chuck had ever met and he has had a lasting influence on him. 
During the first couple of years after getting his own guitar, Chuck would spend countless hours practicing on his playing and singing  The first song he learned to play was the classic "Down in the Valley" (aka The Birmingham Jail). 
At age 15, he wrote his own first song called "Hell Raisin" sitting at the little kitchen table at the house where he and his Dad lived.
Chuck's first time on a dance hall stage (1980's) was at the "Texas Cafe" in Lubbock, he sat in with Tommy Hancock and the Super Natural Family Band and sang  "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash. Tommy has always been a friend to Chuck and the Band and supported their music in both Lubbock and Austin.


Growing up in Lubbock left no shortage of musical inspiration, with so many great songwriters and performers hailing from the "Hub City". His early musical influences include Buddy Holly (Chuck sang and played guitar on some Saturday's for Buddy's father at a Lubbock barber shop called "Shag & Shear" owned by Jake Goss, while working as a shoe shine boy in the late 70's- early 80's), Mac Davis, The Maines Brothers (1st & 2nd generation), Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, Billy joe Shaver, Joe Ely etc...
One night Chuck (as a teenager) and his Dad were at a place called the "Lake Side Club" it was located near the entrance of Buffalo Springs Lake (SE of Lubbock)
Chuck had sat in with "Sonny Maines" of the original Maines Brothers Band, (Sonny was the uncle to the second generation Maines Brothers that features Kenny and Lloyd Maines). When Chuck left the stage he was approached by a lady named Barbara Fisher, she and her husband Tommy Fisher owned the Acuff Steak House in Acuff, Tx. Barbara and Tommy hired Chuck to play at their place on the weekends. It was Chuck's first paying gig. He got paid $25 plus tips and a nice steak dinner, quite a deal for a young start-up singer/songwriter.

Chuck was in the U.S. Army's 82d Airborne Division and he played and sat in with different bands when he was able to. Chuck had arranged a deal where he was going to sit in with a local band that was to be the opening act for a "John Anderson" concert in Fayetteville, N.C. but Chuck's unit was called away for a military deployment and he missed the opportunity.
On one occasion he booked a gig in a country bar outside of Ft. Bragg, N.C. and the only back up band that could be found was of a heavy metal persuasion.
It made for an interesting evening to say the least.  Chuck would often practice his guitar in the stairwell of his Army barracks. It had great acoustics's and echo.

The Lubbock Music

After Military service, Chuck returned to Lubbock, Tx and was hired on as singer and guitar player for the "Country Rose Band", They played and toured around north and west Texas and eastern New Mexico, it was a great learning experience. Then in 1991 he formed "Chuck Barnes & the Genuine Texan Band", featuring players like Matthew Mclarty, Brent Jobe, Chuck McClure Sr., Cliff Dillard, Joel Searcy, Bob Biggs and others through the years. The Band traveled and played  all over Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and beyond. The Band also played a whole lot of Fraternity and Sorority parties (Texas Tech is in Lubbock) 
Some of Chuck's fondest memories are pickin' and singin' out at the Burk Brothers farm northwest of Lubbock. There were always talented and entertaining people hanging out at the farm. 
Chuck teamed up with Texas Tech Professor "Johnny Hughes" also a songwriter and recorded several of Johnny's songs. One of these songs "Santa Fe" co-written by Johnny and Chuck was included in the CD "Another Boy From Lubbock".
While in Lubbock Chuck was also fortunate enough to have Lloyd Maines play on and produce several demo songs. It doesn't get any better than "Lloyd Maines" and that's a fact. Chuck also made several appearances on the "Maines Brothers" West Texas Music Hour, hosted by Lloyd and Kenny Maines and broadcast on KLLL FM.


The Austin Music

He moved to Austin, Texas in August 1994 and formed the "Chuck Barnes Band". One night shortly after arriving in Austin, Chuck was at a bar on Sixth street called "Babes". "Johnny Hughes" from Lubbock had arranged for Chuck to meet up with his friend TJ "Tiny" McFarland, (TJ was once the drummer for the Joe Ely Band)
TJ and Chuck talked awhile and he was able to get Chuck up to sit in with the band that was playing that night. The band was "Don Walser", what a treat. After Chuck got down from the stage, a man introduced himself as JC George, Bass player. They talked a while and JC knew a drummer named "Woz" (Cephas Wozencraft). To keep it short and sweet, this was the beginning of the "Chuck Barnes Band" in Austin. 
After about a year of playing together, " Tommy X Hancock" got Chuck and the Band an audition with James White at The Broken Spoke. It went well and The Band ended up playing 1-2 times a month at the Spoke for about 5 years. Those were great times. 
On a trip to Nashville, the band stopped at a Road House Bar near Hermitage, Tn.  The bar did not have a band that night, so we asked if we could play. We played late in to the night to a small but very enthusiastic crowd. An impromptu evening, but a great time and fond memory. On that same trip Chuck and the Band were invited over to "Cowboy Jack Clements" house. They had a good visit and Jack told Chuck he liked the songs he had been writing. Coming from Jack, that meant something to Chuck and the Band.
The band has always been blessed with exceptional players through the years consisting of folks like Cephas Wozencraft and Dennis Vanderhoof on Drums, 
JC George and Larry Dobbs on Bass Guitar, Craig Shroer, Lars Albrecht, Michael Landscoot and Pete Mitchell on Lead Guitar, Jim Justice on Fiddle,
Lost John Casner on Keyboard, Bobby Snell, Herb Steiner on Pedal Steel and Dobro Guitar. Chuck considers these guy's as friends for life.  
Over the years the Austin Band has played all over Texas, as far out as Colorado and everywhere in between.


Summary

Chuck has shared the stage with a variety of artist's including Freddie Powers, Kitty Wells, Chris Wall, Texana Dames, Tommy X Hancock, Jesse Taylor, Harold Aiken, Pat Green, Cary Swinney, RC Banks, Lloyd Maines, Ponty Bone, the Texas Belaires,  Larry Gatlin, Dale Watson and many others. 
He also performed at the CBS' Cotton Club Revival in Lubbock (1993). 


He has had numerous appearances on the "Maines Brothers" West Texas Music Hour, hosted by Lloyd and Kenny Maines and the Lubbock Roots Music Program, featuring Texas songwriters, in Lubbock, Texas hosted by Lannie Fiel, invited along with Cary Swinney, Kent Mings, and Robin Griffin. Chuck and the band performed monthly for 5 years at the world famous "Broken Spoke", Austin's definitive country music venue. He has had several appearances on local and cable television and a live performance on the Austin Music Network's local licks program, hosted by "Rob Mahoney" which produced a music video. Chuck and the band have also been mentioned numerous times in the Austin American-Statesman "best bets" section.

Chuck has also performed live on "KVET's" (98.1 FM in Austin) morning show, the top-rated morning show in Texas hosted by "Sammy Allred" & "Bob Cole" And on KFAN (107.9 FM in Fredericksburg) and several other radio programs.

The CD "Another Boy From Lubbock".... was released independently in 1998. Recorded at Driftwood Studio's By Lost John Casner
Players on this CD are:
Chuck Barnes: Singer/Songwriter and Guitar
Craig Schroer: Lead Guitar and harmony vocals
JC George: Bass Guitar and harmony vocals
Cephas Wozencraft (Woz): Drums
Bobby Snell: Pedal Steel and Dobro Guitar
Lost John Casner: Keyboard, harmony vocals and producer
Jim Justice: Fiddle
Ponty Bone: Accordion on "Sofia"


The CD "Long Time" .... was released on the label "Permanent Records"  in October of 2005. Recorded at Sangabriel Sound Studios by Larry Sheehan.
Players on this CD are:Chuck Barnes: Singer/Songwriter and Guitar
Lars Albrecht: Lead Guitar
Larry Dobbs: Bass Guitar
Dennis Vanderhoof: Drums and harmony vocals
Bobby Snell: Pedal Steel and Dobro Guitar


The songs on both CD's have received air play on KVET 98.1 FM Austin, Tx , KFAN 107.9 FM Fredericksburg, Tx, the "Wolf" 95.9 in Dallas and KCLW am in Hamilton Texas, as well as numerous internet radio stations. One song "If I Was A Woman" was played on rotation as part of American Airlines music broadcast's.

Currently Chuck has been sporadically performing solo and duo songwriter shows and writing new material for a future recording project. Also practicing with his Daughter "Kassidy Barnes" in preparation for some Father Daughter shows.

More to come......


Choosing their name from the Latin word meaning “a story or a tale”, Estoria pens their own narrative with heavy rock, orchestral pop, inspirational rap, and soulful, bone-chilling harmonies. The Huntsville, Alabama based pop/rock band not only puts on an amazingly energetic live show full of guitar throws and gravity-defying tricks, but also captivates, motivates, and inspires the hearts of listeners.

“Estoria’s message is exactly what this generation’s youth needs to hear,” said Nick Kempland, an enthused fan. “[They] have what it takes to grab [people’s] attention.”

Estoria strives to connect with individuals on a personal level. The band’s mission is to make a difference in the lives of hurting people not only through music, but also by inviting fans out to dinner after a show or having a conversation with them on Facebook.

“The kindness that you and your band showed my daughter, husband, and I made me certain that you sing from your heart,” said Samantha Mason of Fayetteville, TN. “You don’t do it because you want money or fame, and that gave me something to believe in.”

Reaching out to the youth or giving people something to believe in aren’t the only reasons why this dynamic group is special. Each member came from various cities across the nation, which stamped them with their X-factor. Estoria’s co-founder, lead guitarist, keyboardist, and entrepreneur Jeff Sandridge was born and raised in Athens, Alabama, where he planted his pop punk roots. John Toelaer, Estoria’s rhythm guitarist, sound engineer, lyricist, and other co-founder made his way to the group from Missouri and forged a sharp metal sound in a previous band. The multi-talented bassist, rap artist, and writer Raymond Gilstrap grew up in Georgia where he honed his hip hop skills. And lastly, the soulful, powerhouse, songwriter and lead singer Meagan Reeves found the band after growing up in Texas as an aspiring country act. As a band, they decided to combine their different musical backgrounds to forge a unique sound. And that was only the beginning.

This past year, Estoria has landed appearances on TV, singles on regional, local, and international radio stations, and features in online music magazines and blogs, all the while strengthening their presence on the Internet and creating a buzz in Europe. The band also won the Crazy Gifted Minds Battle of the Bands competition, which was judged by Grammy nominated producer Kelvin Wooten and producer/cinematographer Daniel Beard. Currently, Estoria is booking shows for 2014 and preparing to release their upcoming EP, which was produced by Dove Award winning producer Travis Wyrick. United with a common goal, Estoria invites you to become a part of their story.

Artists that Estoria have shared the stage with before: 3 Times Driven, 911 Reporters, April Cover, Battlelion, Brent Morgan, Brittany Smith, Corporate Sponsored Uprising, Dimitri McDowell, Eyes Around, Freedom or Fire, Local Orbit, MaryJustice Lucas, Rupert the Whale, Serenity, Sound of Silence, Stanford, Statement, Stars Below, The Auxillary, The Coronation, The Crooked Toes, The Night Owls, The Persuaded, The Sages, The Weedeater Incident, Them Damn Dogs, These Scars Bleed, Warband, We're Not Heroes, Yellowhammer, and Zac Dreher

Jazz legend Alaadeen was born in Kansas City, on July 24, 1934. Alaadeen began on the saxophone when he was in sixth grade, in time also mastering flute, clarinet and oboe. He studied at R.T. Coles High School under the tutelage of Leo H. Davis, a well-respected music instructor reported to have taught Charlie Parker. “The way he taught improvisation was to sing the melody in my ear when I soloed so I’d always keep the melody in mind.” Alaadeen debuted as a professional with Davis’ concert band playing e-flat horn when he was 14 and his first major job was playing baritone sax with the great pianist-bandleader Jay McShann. In later years he would rejoin McShann on tenor.
     Alaadeen spent time in Chicago, playing in a program led by pianist-composer Richard Abrams that was the beginning of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians); other members included trumpeter Lester Bowie and bassist Malachi Favors. He picked up a lot of experience living and playing in such cities as New York, Chicago, Denver, Houston, San Antonio and St. Louis. In addition to McShann, he had opportunities to work in a countless number of settings including stints with Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, the Count Basie Orchestra, The Glen Miller ghost band under the direction of Tex Beneke, Della Reese, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, T-Bone Walker, Claude “Fiddler” Williams and with R&B stars, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, Four Tops and Sam Cooke. 
   After returning to Kansas City, Alaadeen not only played music locally but also became a very significant educator. “I always tell my students that playing Jazz is a hard life, that it is important to always study and be current, and that they should not be afraid to make mistakes.” His skills as a teacher were recognized when he was inducted into the R.T. Coles/Lincoln High School “Outstanding Alumni Hall Of Fame.” During 1990-91, he won songwriting competitions sponsored by Billboard for his songs Big Six, Wayne Himself and Blues For R.C. Along the way he recorded with Jay McShann, Crown Prince Waterford, the City Light Orchestra and countless others. He led the Deans of Swing in the 1990s, and the ensemble was picked in 1996 as Musician Magazine’s Best Unsigned Band. 
     To document his music, Alaadeen started the ‘ASR label. Each of his CDs, which include Blues For RC and Josephine Too, Time Through The Ages, New Africa Suite and And The Beauty Of It All, features him with some of Kansas City’s top young Jazz players. He also prepared many of his original compositions for performance by large Jazz ensemble through his publishing company, Fandeen Publishing Company, Inc. In 2009, Alaadeen authored The Rest of the Story: Jazz Improvization and History, a method manual in which he shares the secrets of how he learned the music as handed down to him by the masters.
     Alaadeen was recognized in his community and state as a master of the distinctive sound known as Kansas City Jazz with his receipt of numerous awards including Kansas City's Jazz Heritage Award, the Missouri Humanities Council's Community Heritage Award, the Missouri Arts Award and Kansas City’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2000 he was recognized in the United States House of Representatives for the contributions he has made to his community's understanding of its heritage and in 2002, Missouri Governor Bob Holden honored Alaadeen at an official dinner at the Governor's Mansion in Jefferson City. In an effort to acknowledge Alaadeen for making a significant impact in the history, development and performance of Jazz, and to applaud Alaadeen for his outstanding achievements in the art form of Jazz, Alaadeen was issued a Proclamation from the Office of the Governor, State of Missouri. The American Jazz Museum honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.  Cancer claimed Ahmad Alaadeen's life on August 15, 2010 at the age of 76.


for further information: moth3rh00d@gmail.com

http://www.myspace.com/570044050

Gigs: 

26 January: Heroes, Camden 7pm. THE RETURN OF GIGS!

24 November: Launch of Thank You, My Dog EP; George Orwell Tavern (Essex Road) w/No Colour, Frog Morris, and Great Men plus special performances by Paul Haworth and an exotic film screening. Video teaser (expect this and much more, homie(s)): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sg4jJ0YVow

17 November: Blag Club (Notting Hill Gate) (acoustical)

15 November: Monto Water Rats (Kings Cross) w/Sweet Sweet Lies

13 November: Start the Bus (Bristol, UK) w/Jeff the Brotherhood (video below):
http://blip.tv/yourmusic-productions/13-11-11-at-start-the-bus-motherhood-pt-1-5738117

8 November: The Good Ship (Kilburn)

29 October, The Enterprise (Chalk Farms/Camden)CANCELLED FOR SOME UNKNOWABLE REASON

20 October: St. Paul's

15 September 2011: Book Launch Partnership Friary Road House: 

Just to announce that the increasingly legendary South London Publishing House Friary Road House and Motherhood are working together to draw attention to FRH's latest almighty poetry anthology: "noetpy"--doing my best to mimic the cyrillic orthography of the journal with Roman letters. 

Among the amazing writers included are Bobby Dowler, Vincent Clay and the incomparable Alexander Nemser 

Motherhood is including a free CD complete with artwork/lyrics sheet and a lovingly crafted personal message with copies of "noetpy". If you'd like a copy of the anthology, just email us here and we'll get it out to you. The collection is £6 plus postage. 


9 August, 2011, Buffalo Bar (video of "Punk for Life/Punk for Death")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR1xr3U5Flo


17 August, 2011, Good Ship (Kilburn) 8pm.ish.

in the meantime, a pseud0-bandifest0 for downpressing grourmandisers who recreate the punk club of their youth in Vegas:
 
			Motherhood Manifestations 

The markets reject sleep. The European vortex howls outside. Null and void, full of economic rationalisations, the confrontation of the past, with the bad dream. Horrible, misplaceable freedom is dancing in the cappuccino froth. The sea monster roils beneath, scrapings from the drama are reconfigured and sold back via satellite packages and living room sets. Daily anthracite inhalings, arctic seepage, briefly, heavenly forgotten poisons are inhaled in spas; back in style. Turn every page, hoping that the last newspaper will disintegrate before dawn. Listen to every plane and helicopter as it passes, chopping its way into deeper darknesses. Which will be the day it chops for you? An X-Factor Saturday?

Primordial scouring of the ideologies is producing nothing, writers blocs and idiolecterns for the worst. It’s fun to drag flags through teargas and watch the club descend into hazy double vision. Dog runs are breeding, rats and hocus-pocus are breaking teeth on the gates of Vienna in the dream of an extraordinarily stupid ape.  Tune in for the carcass videos, and the fright-faces of the masters and their press secretaries, securities and exchanges are commissioned, call me a fledgling, I’m fledging my allegiance to the only thing I’ve ever loved: hiss and noise and total disobedience. 
Nostalgia for air raid sirens, motility of borders, the old fashioned in-and-down-and-out. Common enemies proliferate in the auto-recessional and in the mildew towers. Jubilee year came and went without any jubilation. The securitisation of the cathedral seat also came and petered out. Enter the venerable mosque paranoia, the soul on icicles and icecap retreat. I’m feeling the stoppage of the genre, the inevitable every day slowing of the thermo-haline deregulation. Aristocrats love Aristaeus, written on papyrus, buying copies of Frieze and The Big Takeover, reading until fingers bleed and consciousness manifests itself as something greater than a fashionable malady. Inside the mouth organ, inside the portcullis, David Foster Wallace fell out of race for rattiness, what does the aerial surveillance tell? The coconut and tear ice cream is melting on the sidewalk, suck the spoon until all the goodness goes out. After dinner mincing, supply lines are tight, the fear of a dark future looms on a black planet, that there won’t be enough black blood to keep the tanks and caterpillars humming. Harmony is a kind of conspiracy. 

 Down at Lourdes, various accidental members of the human race accrue. Dive into the illustrious illusions, accidental interpretations accrue. The kids of yesterday become the eternal kids of today, the calumny of the 1970s is being rerun, nurturing the harrow of the 1980s, homogenising the milk of the 1990s, which is lead, sleepwalking, in a financialised sleeping bag called the 2000s. We’ve counted up to slaughterhouse six now, preparing to unleash our special brand of mistake on everything, Klingons, giraffes, the noble presence gone absent since something like the Edwardian age, the pointless in-between. 

Tear gas for tear masks, hobo jamborees erupted from the nothingness in the wake of the RNC Welcoming Committee and the media flare gun pointed at its heart. Credit line lassos evoked Buffalo Bill et al. defunct. The zero radiates and pulls the unhappy constant of the present into one piece. No one has a freedom pass any more for the freedom bus. Neal Cassidy and Ginsberg are rotting beneath the Stealer’s Wheel licensing fees and T-Shirt assassins gathered at the foyer. Welcome to the industry, kid(z). 

Gone commando, the night before I enlisted, I decided to drink that beer and enlist the jizz goggles and all that entails. I peered into the future for long enough to realise that all the world is a stage and all in it are soundmen/soundwomen waiting for Gyges and the Lychees to take the stage, to emerge from the cave and give us a round of ring-around-the-warhead before departing on the private hell-jet to nowhere, to play a gig for Ilham Aliev and companies—Spoek Mathambo on percussion. Before they left, I stole the set list which contained Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipe for rock’n’roll rebellion: push a button and nothing drips out. As soon as an idea bubbles over it is frozen by the coolness of the advertising avant-garde. Sob if you will, ideally on to a plate of bone china porcelain with intellectual property rights, to be projected on the Jumbotron. Farewell, moon. 
Flowers and allergies, and rhapsody can be imported. Punching a hole in the romantic outlaw is a fine way to pass through time. Camelot was a lie before it became a legend, now there’s only the Barbary pirates’ radio station brought to you by supermarkets and monks retreating down the demand curve, obsessed with giving something back to the no ones and antibodies.  As soon as you feel it, you can buy it because someone felt you while you were feeling it. 

All manifestations are the reification of irrelevance. How can the present be different from the past when the past is sitting there drunk and passed out on the couch with a dick drawn on its cheek and “Obama 2012” written on its shin-bone?  A loop, as they say, is a loop, is a loop is a wolf is a woolf is an allegiance to a particular place and time and estimate of bohemian credibility. You feel strangely attached to it, but still want to see it ruptured and its guts spilling on the ground. 
Sooner or later someone asks you to stand outside yourself and make a long list of plausible things to reject:


 				Bullet Point/Going Ballistics 
--Art is a strawberry jar effect followed by a strawberry fields effect.
--Art is a long haired dude effect (black T-shirt with oozy writing optional).
--Art is a cleansing of the synaptic cleft.
--Art is a Tom Petty and the Heartbroken effect.
 		--Art is a sustained love for that which can and does destroy you effect.
 		--Art is a modality of crapulence effect.
 --Art is an I didn’t do it and he throws up his hands; I was only robbin’ the  register, I hope ya understand effect. 
 		--Art is a subsidiary of the cigar effect. 
 		--Art is a worst left to the professionals effect. 

This is the day of the fetishising of the lunatic. Donks have touched everything. One sunny afternoon, irony vomited misogyny into its present form; no amount of hate is too volatile to be commodified. Rock’n’roll was born as a paisley camera, and a floating signifier after a shipwreck, as a cartoon starring Savonarola, micro-fish mircosoflty melting in an endless desert of the unreal, annealing in the endless descant that is glass, from the friction of its own masturbation. 

Today donuts are rock’n’roll. Rock’n’roll is as much of a ritual as the sex it parodies. But rock’n’roll is a mistake worth repeating. Rock’n’roll is the bellhop for hip-hop. Rock’n’roll is a designer balaclava. Rock’n’roll is an allusion to the Battle of Sevastopol made on Rue Sebastopol. Rock’n’roll is sodomy with a cigar. Rock’n’roll is the plosive and the fricative in history.  Rock’n’roll is a pig destined for Serrano ham. 

Q: What makes a band start pyres? 
A: Paranoia about 19-year-olds not going broke to feed the bonobo dairy farm in your backyard. 

Self indulgence leads to cultural gout—were you too gently raised to feast upon yourself, Bajazeth?  Rock’n’roll is the machine without the ghost. It runs all night and only scares itself. Rock’n’roll needs a good schism. 

Type powerlessness into search engines: there’s an image of a bar-back in a band. Turn the lights out once a generation and watch everyone eating their young in the narcolepsy of cheap holidays: express the same hopeless, powerless, shamelessness in a different city with a language barrier and, fatally, the barrier persists when you wake up, unaware how you got home, as you thread the passersby in the streets. Caring becomes a subculture, compassion a mode of assassination of the political discourse as permitted and mitigated. Leaving water in the desert of the real is understood by the barbarians who created it to be the act of greatest infamy.  Criminalising humanity will be the final test and expression of professional credibility. 
Long shadows of power stretch back into the dark ages and create strange topologies. The Creature from the Black Lagoon was a communist, same as aliens and virons of various stripes are stand-ins for Orientalist spiders in the present. We end up, sooner or later, on one side of the glass partition, where the past and the future stand staring each other in the face in blind terror as plastic reinforcement lends greater flexibility and licensing the blind thrashing continue without fear of splinters. 

Nothing so beautiful as glass breaking, nothing so beautiful as the silence of sarcophagi, nothing so beautiful as the mound built of love sloping and exhaling beside you, nothing so beautiful as money exposed to daylight. All children will be trained in business suits and graduate into permanent retirement. The fortunate sonneteers who learn the corporate bleat fluently-fruitlessly will man the pilotless reconnaissance reapers, telling us what we think of ourselves and providing the subject matter for photorealist meditations on the distance between post-democracy and desire. 
In the next life (more or less), we will write poetry that is easy to understand and be invited to the White House Press Dinner so that we can shake hands with our own hubris and timidity. Gideon hisself will read the Bible to the taxidermist who immortalised Rocky Raccoon. The discussion will centre on the pleasures of watching yourself evanesce without disturbing the galaxy or, more referentially, the universe, and the pleasures of dealing yourself out of the fun and games and into the chain gang. 

Sooner or later, the permanent disorder pays off. The heavy hands blunder in to a Fashoda Incident by for and of the cameras, expect any faces you see to be dispersed like cherry blossoms as soon as they appear, in transit to the cherry moon. Come on, you wilderness enthusiasts, come on, you wolf children with wolf shoulders who name your bands after wolves. Come on, you up-and-comers. Come on, you down-and-goers. Come on, you fuckwads and fucksticks, and fuckwits. Lets meet in the utterly ruined roses, the pansy-dotted flunky city farms. Come on, last bad ideas! Let’s meet in the fragment of the frangipani future bequeathed to us. Let’s have our table talk, our autumnal folk flutter, our embrace before the wings close over us. If one person can change, lots of people can transmogrify. Don’t you dream of a bike basement made out of rosewood and lover-fuckdom? Of a woodland compound and the song of deliquescing nymphs in the shower? Of punks falling into your reflection in the black water of home? No? 

excess = success = excressence.

Rock on, dog.  




The Fish Sellers, from the roman dialect "pesciaroli", are an indie band based in Rome, with the obsession for the fish. Some years ago, during a Christmas dinner, a member of the band endep up at the first aid hospital due a fish bone in the throat. In the meanwhile, the other members of the band were making a party in a club of the citycenter. Still now they have doubts about this story and believe instead there was a girl behind. We are currently recording the first single from the debut record "Rhombus with Potatoes".

Mumbai-based traditional heavy metal quintet Albatross is a band that combines bone-chilling stories with bone-crushing metal. The band started out as the solo project of bassist Riju Dasgupta (Workshop, Old Monks) who wanted to marry his love of literature with his other love: metal. 

Later on, a lineup of like-minded musicians was standardized and hence Albatross was born. The band released the critically acclaimed 'Dinner is You', a concept EP about cannibalism and the Kuru disease, which was mastered by Grammy nominated Swedish producer Andy LaRocque from King Diamond, in September 2010. 

Since then, the band has been a regular in India's live circuit and recently released ‘The Kissing Flies’ EP as part of a split CD with American doom metal band Vestal Claret to critical acclaim. This EP features contributions from famed luminaries such as Niklas 'Viper' Stalvind (Wolf), The Demonstealer (Demonic Resurrection) and Murari Vasudevan (Rat King). 

Subsequently, the band completed a four-city India tour to launch the EP. The tour started in Chennai, and then took the band to Bangalore, followed by their hometown suburb of Thane, and ended in the scenic Northeastern region of India, in the city of Guwahati. And most recently, on June 16, the band played India's biggest heavy metal festival - the prestigious Bangalore Open Air, where they got to share the stage with the likes of Kreator, Suidakra, and some of India’s best bands including Dying Embrace, Kryptos and Bevar Sea.

Now, the band plans to disperse the terror of the Kissing Flies and expand their Indian fan base by performing in cities they weren’t been able to reach previously, and eventually take their incredible show overseas. Be on the lookout for Albatross as they visit a town near you, real soon! 

Albaross is endorsed by Warwick basses and ESP guitars.


Bradford Cathryn is following