JP & Chrissie Hynde

by Mark C. Horn

It’s the proverbial story of life imitating art that Chrissie Hynde now finds herself living. The legendary veteran leader of rock royalty, The Pretenders, has spent the good part of 35 years crafting songs about her affection for tough boys and making it a true art form. The song titles are all there: “Tattooed Love Boys”, “Kid”, “Bad Boys Get Spanked” and “Rebel Rock Me” to name a few.

She has had daughters with rock royalty, first with her onetime idol Ray Davies of The Kinks and Jim Kerr of Simple Minds (to whom she was married). She is recognized the world over as one of modern music’s most enduring female rockers. So is there anything that could possibly blow her rock n’ roll hair back in the twilight of her illustrious career? Not a chance, right? Wrong!
It was just a rare, off chance meeting; in a state of inebriation, Chrissie met a young scruffy Welsh guitarist named JP Jones two years ago at a London party. The now 31-year-old, unabashedly walked right up to Hynde, 58, and said, “lechyd da” or “cheers”. Although the meeting was a fuzzy memory for the two, the die had been cast.

What she never saw coming was that she and this charming youngster would not only chat by phone about love and music, but he would provide her with her first ever band member/duet partner, co-songwriter and love interest all in the span of less than two years. Yes, this singing partner, JP Jones would prove to be “Kid” personified from the fairgrounds, and be the one to mellow out her steely exterior and show her more vulnerable side as a female musician.

And while the 28 year age difference would put the brakes on the love affair in the bedroom, it would shift exclusively to the recording studio. The affection which the two have shared would be physically held in check, but nothing could stop the musical consummation. And so, on August 26 the union of Chrissie Hynde and JP Jones created a musical child now known as Fidelity was released to the public via records stores and online. Its release has already garnered much critical acclaim.

Now as JP, Chrissie and the Fairground Boys gear up for their two month American tour (which stops at The Tangier in Akron Oct.3 and Cleveland’s Grog Shop Oct. 5) the two shared with me the impetus behind their unlikely, yet torrid relationship while en route to from Los Angeles to San Diego where they were opening for Lucinda Williams.

“It’s all happened to fast, we haven’t known each other for two years,” said Hynde, who’s leadership of the Pretenders has made her a rock icon. “I feel like he saved me. I mean, everything was fine at the time. I am not very good at having a legacy, you know. I only like the here and now.
“He found me and sort of plucked me out of my own version of obscurity. Now I have this amazing band. I had an amazing band, but this is something I didn’t have to orchestrate myself. It was like a soothing balm, to be surrounded by this new energy. It’s been a revelation to me; like an angel.”
Jones, relatively unknown to US audiences, is a native of the southern seaside resort town of Porthcrawl, Wales. He grew up listening to the sounds of European rock and The Pretenders. His own band, Grace, had landed a recording deal with EMI and released an album, Detours in 2007. After promoting the album with tours throughout the UK, the label cut Jones and his band free when the instant success did not come.

When the two realized the noise of the party where they first met was too loud, Hynde slipped Jones her number and told him to call her sometime. As The Pretenders embarked on the 2008 Break Up the Concrete tour, Hynde received a text from Jones; “Wishing you all the fairground luck for your show tonight.” This enticed Hynde to respond with, “Write a song called ‘Fairground Luck’.” So he did.

“His voice stopped me in my tracks-what a voice!” Hynde says. “And the song was like something I’d never heard before. I was totally seduced.”
In a spur-of-the-moment decision, Hynde, now smitten with this mysterious young songwriting talent, decided to rendezvous with Jones in Cuba. There, as the story goes, amidst notebooks full of lyrics, empty rum bottles and cigarette butts, the majority of Fidelity was created.

“There was no real reason (why we went to Cuba). That’s the crazy thing since we met,” Hynde acknowledges. “I feel like we are being guided by angels. We can’t really see where it is going and why until after the fact.”

Hynde was guided by her peaked curiosity of this Welsh lad’s mystic and childlike charm and the influence upon him growing up on fairgrounds.
Hynde herself had cut her teeth on rock n’ roll via the fairground or outdoor carnival route as a teen. JP sparked her fond memories of the days long ago when Hynde first experienced the old-style carnival fair.

“One of the real pivotal experiences that brought me into rock n’ roll was Chippewa Lake Park and Mitch Ryder and the Wheels. That’s where you would go to see them. I remember in the afternoon they had a fistfight on stage and I was really shocked, and I remember (Ryder’s) band was amazing. His guitarist, Jimmy McCarty, blew my mind. I remember asking my girlfriend to stay for the show that evening, which she did.

“It was the magic of it and how I was drawn in. I saw Alice Cooper at some other outdoor carnival thing. And then throughout my life I associated that with pre-rock n’ roll experiences. And later when I met JP and thought about it later, maybe I always had this fascination with fairgrounds and I would recognize that when I met him.”

Beside the song “Fairground Luck”, the album’s 10 other tracks classic rock n’ roll love songs, in which Hynde and Jones not only wear their affection on their sleeves, but allow the love to cascade out at every turn. The album is a mix of love ballads with urgent emotion-packed fervor, in which Hynde and Jones sing in response to each other. The music itself is rock and folk tinged with country twang. The album was released on Hynde’s own label La Mina in conjunction with Rocket Science Ventures.

Hynde, who is a staunch advocate for animal rights and is a devout vegan (opening her popular Vegiterranean Restaurant in Akron two years ago) has never been one to allude the meaning of her songs through grandiose metaphors. Here, she and Jones cut right to the chase with realization and acceptance of a love not to be.

On “Perfect Lover” Hynde anguishes over this impossible love, “I found my perfect lover but he’s only half my age / He was learning how to stand when I was wearing my first wedding band / I found my perfect lover but I have to turn the page / But I want him in my kitchen and standing on my stage.”
The two realized that the age difference put the writing on the wall of their May-December romance, but it also put the writing on paper as they shared songwriting responsibilities. And as much as Hynde feels Jones gave her career a second wind, he feels Hynde did even more for him. And it was all spontaneous.

“She helped me discover who I really was personally and musically. That all came from meeting Chrissie,” he admits. “We didn’t really plan the album, it just sort of happened. We went to Cuba, I brought my guitar and it just poured out of us.”
For Hynde, the whole experience has been a breath of fresh air.

“It’s pretty weird being Chrissie Hynde; you walk around the streets and to be plucked out of this life like this, is a wonderful liberation experience. He’s a great songwriter and singer. I cannot tell you what a joy it is to be sharing the stage with someone singing and laughing.”
But the songs on Fidelity are not all fun and games, but cries of longing and want, and also realization and acceptance.

On the album’s first single, “If You Let Me”, Jones takes the lead. From the opening Welsh wails of sexual tension he speaks pointedly to Hynde as he warns, “If you don’t want me to come in, you’d better lock this door.” Jones’ and Hynde’s vocals mesh perfectly here and fit as if they had been playing together for years. But the two agree, the key has been the lack of intention and planning on their debut release. They believe in the beauty of improvisation.

“I think most of your favorite records are made that way,” Hynde figures. “That has been my experience as a songwriter. The ones that come out faster with the spontaneity are the ones you like the most. They weren’t planned.

“It’s like a painting; the one that someone agonized over and you feel that agony. It’s not a great feeling. You love joy; joy is what you really respond to in any kind of art and that is what happens when it flows out naturally.”

Where Hynde is more the punk with attitude, Jones is a kind, light-hearted soul. And it is this opposites’ attraction which has made their relationship a fit.

“JP is very sweet and very personable. He’s kind-hearted and generous to people,” Hynde says. “So I try to stay one step behind him so people have to encounter him before they encounter me.”

“Chrissie can react so strongly sometimes and I’m so easily led, I will go along with anything,” Jones says frankly. “I guess I am a pleaser in that way, and sometimes that isn’t right. She has helped me and said you can’t let people walk all over you, so we are very good together.”
As for playing these songs in which they serve up to each other their hearts on a platter, how much drama comes out from playing these love songs over and over?

“The drama is good and bad,” Hynde says. “Some nights I can hardly look at him on stage, cuz I want to cry. It’s just the weirdest experience I’ve ever had in my life.”

Looking back over her punk rock beginnings when she moved from Akron to London, Hynde will not admit to mellowing out but it is noticeable how her new venture with Jones has made her aware of her past.

“Punk was all about attitude and I was in no way not short on attitude,” she admits. “I wish I had a whole lot less of it every day of my life. Of course, my brother Terry; I grew up listening to all his jazz records.”

“The musical thing is what has kept me alive, cuz you know once you lose your attitude you’ve got to have something to fall back on.”
And that she did.

The Pretenders eponymous debut album, released in 1980 on Sire Records, was an immediate hit here and in the UK. The band’s first singles “Stop Your Sobbing”, a remake of The Kinks ‘60s hit, “Kid” and “Brass in Pocket” helped the album to break the US top 100 and is ranked by many critics as one of the top 100 albums of all-time.

The 1981 follow up, Pretenders II, had the hits “Talk of the Town” and “Message of Love.” But it was a year after this release that bassist Pete Farndon was fired in the summer of 1982. Two days after this announcement, in an unrelated incident Pretenders extraordinary guitarist James Honeyman Scott died of a drug overdose. The following year, Farndon died of a heroin overdose. Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers were left to carry on.
A few line-up changes later the Pretenders recorded hit “Back on the Chain Gang” with “My City Was Gone” on the B-side. The song spoke of Hynde’s disdain of the disappearing downtown of her beloved home town of Akron. Both songs and a remake of the classic Persuaders’ single “Thin Line between Love and Hate” (with “Middle of the Road” on the B-Side) ended up on Learn to Crawl in 1984.

Over the next two decades, Hynde fostered the ongoing efforts of the Pretenders with an additional five albums: Get Close, Packed, Last of the Independents, Viva el Amor and Loose Screw. In 2005, the Pretenders received their immortal dues when they were enshrined in the Rock n’ roll HOF. It was also the Pretenders’ version of Hynde, Chambers, guitarist Adam Seymour and bassist Andy Hobson who would have the longest tenure with the band for well over a decade.

Hynde’s new project is receiving her focus as they march headlong into three dozen dates across the US. Hynde has a tour set for the Pretenders in Australia in which JP and Hynde and Fairground guitarist Murdoch will do some performing as well. The rest of the Fairground Boys include; Sam Swallow on keyboard and piano, Vezio Bacci on bass and Geoff Holroyde on drums.

Aside from her new music venture, Hynde is an advocate for the furthering of the downtown Akron area. She decided some twenty years later to be part of the answer to Akron’s problems and no longer just a critic of the city. She re-established ties with the opening of her vegan restaurant Vegiterranean in 2007 on Furnace Street. And while not on the road touring, or in her other residence in London, Hynde spends time in Highland Square where he has an apartment.

“Well, I have been writing about and thinking about it for years. It’s in my blood obviously. You know I sort of realize now in my sort of old age and wisdom, that your hometown is sort of like a third parent,” she says affectionately. “You learn from the streets, from the trees.
“I feel a responsibility to look after my city even though I have been gone for so long. It’s been my intention all this time to help rebuild the downtown which I loved so much as a child.”

“I believe Akron can be a great city again, once we get the retail downtown and people will want to live downtown. The youth population will not want to leave town; they can go downtown and get an apartment and hang out in an urban cultural center.”

“So, you know, the mayor has done a great job. You’ve got Tony Troppe, who is a believer in live music promoting Musica. These people really believe in it. The Testas and all the others who have revitalized the city, God bless them and all the others. I thank them all. The Vegiterranean would not be there without them.”

And where does all this lead for Hynde and her new band mate and group?

“I can only think two years in advance and this is taking up my time for the next two years,” she informs, adding quite frankly, “I mean come on, the Pretenders? Who cares? I have done the Pretenders for years; I think I have served my time.”

And Hynde’s time with the Pretenders has served her well. Her reward is a new band, new album and a new tour. And she is not pretending at all about what which band she prefers to play with, for now.

By Mark C. Horn

The Deal sisters rocking it out at the Beachland.

It is never easy to hop right back into the performance groove when you have not performed as a unit on stage for nearly a year. However  when Kim and Kelley Deal and their band The Breeders hit the Beachland Ballroom stage this past Thursday, they proved that practice can be over-rated.

True, while Kim had toured recently in the Middle East with the Pixies, Kelley had not played live since December.

The Deal twins were coming through NE Ohio en route to Monticello, New York for All Tomorrow’s Parties annual event with a stop in Philly in between. So being the first of a three-gig mini-tour could have been considered a practice to work out those kinks.

From the time the Deal sisters hit the stage, it was abundantly clear, they were not perfect, but screw perfection. Through 22 songs from its catalog, including a four-song encore, the band worked it out, and more importantly the smiles on the Deal sisters’ faces showed just how rewarding a return to the stage can be.

Joining the Deal sisters, were their most enduring rhythm section of drummer  Joes Medeles and bass player Mando Lopez. The addition a few years back of  the more-than-able talents of guitarist/keyboardist Cheryl Lindsey allowed the  Deal sisters to switch off from guitar to bass to keys and even drums.

The key to the Breeders sound has always been about the unique dynamics melodies which lull you into a state of buoyant euphoria and then blast you out of the water with unadulterated and sharp tempo changes.

Kelley Deal looks on to the near-sold out crowd as she jams.

“Overglazed” and “Bang On” got the set off on the right foot as Kim Deal opened on keyboard. The crowd predictably responded mostly readily to “Divine Hammer” “No Aloha” and “Cannon Ball” fromSplash. The diehard Deal fans responded to a four-pack of songs from Kim Deal’s side project The Amps, namely “Pacer, Tipp City”, “I Am Decided” and “Hoverin”.

The band also debuted one new track that is expected to be on its next album, upcoming. The song “Happy” and performed one song from last year’s EP the title track of “Fate to Fatal”.

After a quick breather, the band came back out to play a rousing 15-minute encore set. The Deal sisters led their band mates through fuzz-guitar lo-fi numbers from Title TK. The TK extra session, included “Off You”, “Sons of Three”, and The Amps “Empty Glasses” to set up the finale, “The She”.

Rock and roll is not about perfection, it is about live performance. If you want to hear the album, stay home. The near-capacity gathering at the Beachland got to witness a solid jam session with the real Deals, raw and ready.

Mando Lopez blasts away.

Jose Medeles choppin wood.

She is the great pretender or leader of The Pretenders, and he is a Welsh rocker who fell in love with this Pretender. So what’s the fuss?  She is the ageless Chrissie Hynde and he is JP Jones, 27 years younger. On their debut album, JP, Chrissie & The Fairground Boys’ Fidelity, the two tell the heart-wrenching tale of their impossible love. The sexual tension and longing fill every groove, guitar lick, duet and refrain.

Fidelity!

Fidelity is a potpourri of dramatic acoustic and rock balladry tinged with country and folk.  The melodic intertwining of Hynde’s trademark alto falsetto and Jones’s raspy vocals play off each other well. Hynde, the female rocker with the tough exterior has emotional vulnerability just under the surface here. The songs are as liberating as heartbreaking with Jones at her side.

“Perfect Lover” epitomizes the lyrical sentiment on all 11 tracks, as Hynde bares her soul: I found my perfect lover but he’s only half my age / He was learning how to stand when I was wearing my first wedding band / I found my perfect lover but I have to turn the page / But I want him in my kitchen and standing on my stage. The rocker in this grouping is “If You Let Me” and it comes off with an urgency brimming with want. -Mark C. Horn

David Alvin

There is one thing a person gathers when talking with Grammy-Award winning roots rocker Dave Alvin-he eat, sleeps and breaths American music.  You can call what he plays rockabilly, soul-laced rock, doo-wop, bluegrass, boogie-woogie, delta blues, honky tonk, country, rock and roll or west coast jazz; at the end of the day it is American music.

The one-time lead guitarist of the legendary LA rhythm and blues rock band The Blasters has reinvented himself time and time again over the course of his three decade career as he has traversed the encyclopedia of blues hybrid genres. He has persevered through band breakups, illness and death because at the heart of his art form and avocation is the blues. And how does that help one survive?

“This is my religion.  This is my church,” he proclaims frankly. “You are going to struggle (in this business) but I was mentored in that struggle.  The old blues guys taught me survival tips.  The bottom one is to do this out of the love for the music.”

Following the words of some of the legends who schooled him as a youngster (names such as Big Joe Turner, Little Milton and others), one can see and hear this love in every one of Alvin’s song.

Dave Alvin and his latest band, The Guilty Women, bring their American roots music to the Beachland Ballroom on Thur., Sept 9.  Alvin has played before with the Blasters and the country punk group The Knitters.

It was two years ago that the lives of Alvin and members of his band The Guilty Men were besieged with sadness over the passing of band mate, accordion player Chris Gaffney. Gaffney, also Alvin’s best friend, lost his battle with cancer.  So Alvin recruited several area West coast musicians to produce a tribute album to Gaffney entitled Man of Somebody’s Dream; A Tribute to Chris Gaffney. That release came out the same day as Alvin and his then new band’s debut self-titled debut, Dave Alvin and The Guilty Women.

The Guilty Women consists of steel and lap steel guitarist Cindy Cashdollar, electric guitarist Nina Gerber, violinist/mandolin player Laurie Lewis, lead vocalist Christy McWilson, bass player Sarah Brown and drummer Lisa Pankratz.

The other member of the band, the late Amy Faris, was a fixture of the Austin, Texas scene and an accomplished violin and viola player, had done work with Alvin prior to the band. In 2009, after an illness, Faris passed away, leaving yet another void in Alvin’s life and those of his bandmates.

“Chris was my closest friend, you know, and spiritual advisor,” Alvin said. “That was the toughest.  With Amy, it was extremely sad. One of the selfish reasons I put The Guilty Women together was because I missed Chris so much on stage that in order for me to continue doing what I did, I had to do it differently…  This was my way of curing my melancholy over losing my best friend (starting The Guilty Women band), and suddenly I lose a very dear friend who lived a couple blocks away from me.”

Alvin and dozens of other musicians have performed tribute shows and recordings for both Gaffney and Faris with proceeds going to the non-profit Hungry For Music, whose mission is to inspire underprivileged children with creativity through musical instrument, concert and workshop donations.

As far as the remaining Guilty Women, Alvin was no stranger to the group prior to their entry into Alvin’s touring and recording troupe.

“Everybody in the band, I’d worked with in one way or another except for Cindy (Cashdollar) and I had produced many recordings that many of the girls have played on from the past.”

Although devastated by the passing of his good friend and band mate, Alvin, who had played the popular San Francisco Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, gathered this ensemble of female talent and they hit the stage.  They played so well, Yep Roc Records (Alvin’s label) co-founder Glen Dicker told Alvin an album had to be made based on the The Guilty Women initial, one-off performance.

“I’m really lucky. I have always been able to play with great musicians, whether it was as a kid or with my brother and the guys in The Blasters,” Alvin expresses with gratitude. “The Guilty Women all came from slightly different roots music backgrounds. Some of them had never played together.

“It just meshed beautifully and over the year of touring this is sort of a core band of Lisa, Sarah, Cindy and Christy and I. Then Nina and Laurie joined. It has become a little muscular, ass-kicking outfit.”

It was back in 1979 that Phil and Dave Alvin got their roots rock band The Blasters started. Born and raised in Downey, California. The Alvin brothers were raised on classic blues music of the likes of Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, Elmore James and dozens more. The Alvin brothers witnessed the rise and fall of many famous and semi-famous musicians of a bygone era. They knew of the mortality early on.

“When you grow up like Phil and I did befriending old blues singers, you get use to mortality early,” Alvin acknowledges. “A lot of the guys split when we were still kids.”

One of those legends who was around long enough to be called a Blaster was sax great Lee Allen who made a name for himself in New Orleans and then the west coast.

The Blasters were a talented group that included piano player Gene Taylor, bassist John Bazz and veteran drummer Billy Bateman to round out its solid line-up.  The Blaster put out four studio albums and despite receiving critical acclaim the country over and even in the UK, they garnered little mainstream success. Coming out of the LA scene where bands like X, Black Flag, The Flesheaters and the Minutemen were creating a punk scene, The Blasters bonded with their punk brothers.

By 1986, Dave left for a solo career, occasionally coming back for reunion shows and tours. Alvin also played with X and the X country offshoot The Knitters.  His first two albums had a country rock flavor to them and it was on these releases that Alvin, who did limited vocals on The Blaster records, cut his vocal teeth. After a serious bout of meningitis, Alvin hopped back on the horse using royalties from Dwight Yoakam’s success off Alvin’s song “Long White Cadillac”.

Over the next eight years Alvin wrote and recorded a series of harder edged roots rock and blues albums, such as Romeo’s Escape, Blues Blvd and Museum of Heart. By 1993, Alvin turned down the electric and tuned up his acoustic sound with the releases of King of California, Interstate City and Blackjack Dave over the next five years.

In 2000, Alvin finally got the recognition that had eluded him on a more international level when his Public Domain: Songs from the Wild Land release of American roots music classics.

It was Interstate City and Out in California that Alvin recruited the talents of best friend accordion player Chris Gaffney and five other friends. The band would put out a few live albums. In 2008 after battling cancer Gaffney passes away leaving a hole in The Guilty Men lineup that Alvin felt could not be filled.

“I love to collaborate because I am a totally self-trained musician, so that’s how I learn,” admits Alvin, now 54. “Whether it’s sitting at the feet of Lighting Hopkins or watching how Laurie Lewis frames a song, I’m watching everybody.”

So, while Alvin makes a comfortable living playing American roots music, much like his blues teachers, he never was in it to make a fortune.  He knew that to stick with true roots music, there was no fortune to be had.

Another facet of Alvin’s life that resonates is his love-hate relationship with his older brother Phil. While The Blasters still perform with a different guitarist Keith Wyatt, there are occasional Alvin brothers’ get-togethers on stage.

Despite not being one who lets the cool cat out of the brand new bag, Alvin alluded to a future brotherly reunion of sorts. On the next Alvin solo project, a duet entitled “What’s Up with Your Brother?” sees the siblings crooning together in what Alvin calls “a blues rocker.”

Regardless of what is around the bend for Alvin, one thing is certain, he will be continuing to hone is skill as a roots guitarist. Whether he rejoins his old mates as a Blaster from the past or not remains to be seen. Many fans would love that to happen. But if it doesn’t there will be no shortage of quality musicians to blame, namely a dozen or so Guilty Men and Guilty Women who are near family for this man who is at the root of American music.

STP lead singer Scott Weiland on the groove.

Controversy seems to follow veteran grunge rockers, Stone Temple Pilots wherever they go. When the California-based Grammy winners began playing live and recording in the early 90s, they fought critics calls of riding on the coattails of fellow grunge bands, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Lead-singer Scott Weiland had his struggles with drug drugs and that was much well-publicized.

Now, after near 20-years with its first new album in nine years,and the first to be eponymously titled, rumors are persisting of Weiland lip-synching songs on the current summer tour.

 Now, I have covered a few hundred shows in my day. When Weiland and mates hit the Time Warner Amphitheatre in Cleveland, August 22, I was prepared to see for myself if STP was truly back in the saddle and if Weiland classic rock vocals were for up to snuff. Ironically after falling off stage at PNC Pavilion in Cincinnati, OH three nights later, on the opening “Crackerman”, Weiland got back up singing without missing a beat, leading some to believe he was lip-snyching.

 In Cleveland, after Kentucky-natives, London residents Cage the Elephant preceded STP with a rousing, nonstop energy of power-rock, Weiland and group hit the stage and did not leave for near 100 minutes before a near sold-out crowd.

 Being within five feet of the band in the photo bay, anyone with a trained eye can tell the difference between someone mouthing lyrics or truly singing them. The pulsing of the veins in his neck and breathing patterns pretty much solidified in my mind Weiland was not only singing, he was grasping for every ounce of lung and throat muscle he could muster up.

STP performed a 20-song set with equal parts Purple and Core, (its first two hits albums which put them on the map). With a wall of infinitesimal lights changing colors through the set serving as a backdrop, Weiland led the band through all the early hits – “Plush”, “Sex-Type Thing”, “Interstate Love Song”, and “The Big Empty”, “Flies in the Vaseline”.

Dean DeLeo caught in the moment.

The trademark Dean DeLeo guitar was ever-present throughout the evening. His brother Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz, who have proved to be one of the more enduring rock rhythm sections balanced the live set with a bombast that can only be associated with the STP sound.

For an encore, the foursome covered “Dead and Bloated” with the help of a fan performing the opening megaphone-style vocals. STP ended the near two-hour performance with “Trippin’ on a Hole in Paper Heart” from Tiny Gifts from the Vatican Gift Shop.

In all, STP provided a solid musical show and Weiland slithered, slinked and ran the stage as if it were his own living room with a few thousand of his closest friends, singing, yes singing with him.

Tues, Aug 31^st, at the Quicken Loan Arena in Cleveland, thousands of young girls will gather to worship at the feet of the Jonas Brothers, three. Joe, Nick and Kevin are the JB and they’ve slowly been separating a generation of tweens from their disposable income with albums, t-shirts and movies.

The latest album Lines, Vines and Trying Times debuted at #1 on the Billboard chart, selling a quarter of a million cd’s just months after their previous album. Which isn’t making the reality that you have to take your kid to see the Jonas Brothers any easier.

They are handsome and here’s the kicker, actually talented. Sure their music is a bit overproduced and maybe they’re Disney byproducts and maybe we’re conditioned by “the man” to buy their slick, shiny style. Here’s the part that could irritate you even more, they’re actually really good. Nick, the youngest has released his own solo album to a frothing swirl of adoring fans. It wasn’t outstanding, but it was respectable.

The Jonas Brothers 2010 tour features a set list that looks pretty substantial—I say this with a limited, guilty pleasure working knowledge of the Jonas Brothers catalog. Songs like Feeling Alive, Heart and Soul, I Wouldn’t Change a Thing, a duet with opener Demi Lovato. Demi Lovato is the opener, she’s holds a guitar, I’m unclear as to whether she plays a guitar. (She’s a fellow Disney kid…I also think she’s dating a “Jo Bro”.) Make sure you don’t miss that. Off the record, they are slated to play “Lovebug”, which is the only song that doesn’t make me want to poke my eyes out.

Dust off your earplugs and bring your Groucho Marx glasses—the ones with the attached nose and moustache and hit the Jonas Brothers show. Sure, maybe tickets have been sold out since last year. But, their stuff is at least listenable and they will most definitely going to do an encore. Bring comfortable shoes.

Straight outta Dayton, the Christian metalcore band, The Devil Wears Prada is bringing their show through the Cleveland area. They’re young and they’re fashionably reckless, and they have more merch to sell than KISS. The Devil Wears Prada is also playing two consecutive nights at Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights, Aug 28 and 29, doors at 7:00pm. Your Demise and Miss May I are slated to open.

TDWP has a rabidly loyal fan base because of their highly passionate performances. Their live shows are stirring and active, the guys never stop moving. The Devil Wear’s Prada has a keyboardist that is highly instrumental to their mix, even he manages to pump up the crowd with constant energy. The Devil Wears Prada is young but their confidence in their music is evident.

Fans love this band; critics can’t deny that their music does have its brilliant moments, though it is argued that their songs seem to lack direction. Also, the band has a sort of frantic chaos that could be hard to digest if you weren’t an active fan. Based on some light set list research, TDWP is slated to perform songs like Des Moines and new piece, Assistant to the Regional Manager. An homage to television’s “The Office”? Nice.

TDWP is a hot ticket anyway you slice it up. Love them or not, you should make some time to see these guys live. The summer’s almost over!

Kent Stage

While she was working on the circus’ float for the Fouth of July Parade, she met a guitar player named Cass. Since then, they’ve been making music together, most often with a full band backing them up. But tonight it’s just the two of them, playing folksy originals for a small crowd in the alleyway of the Kent Stage.

Cass carefully tunes up his guitar for each song as Angie fills time with funny, off the cuff banter, sometimes with Cass, sometimes with the crowd, sometimes just with herself. But she gives him plenty of time because, as she says, “We have to respect the capo.”

Angie’s songwriting is based heavily on personal experience, both conscious and unconscious. Several of her songs she said were about dreaming or were derived from dreams.

“I do wake up a lot with sort of a seed of something on my mind or an idea,” she says.

She adds that another common theme in her music is love. “A lot of them, for me, are sort of how to navigate in love and how to do it while still remaining strong in yourself.” Angie makes this apparent with a strong stage presence, mellow vocals and beautiful guitar playing. Her preformance is only enhanced by the chemistry shared between the two together, giving fans an honest dose of original folk.

She plans on staying in California but the two hope to return later with their full band for an eastern tour.

“I’ve been in California for nine years,” she says. “It feels good to be back.”

-Denver Collins

Coheed and Cambria are known for epic tours—this one is perhaps the most massive to date. Their newest album, Year of the Black Rainbow afforded the guys even more license for a bigger, more intricate and inspiring live show. Their latest album is perhaps the perfect piece of work to give you, the audience, the most entertaining show you’ve ever sat through. The Year of the Black Rainbow was released in April and it is the origin or prequel of their story. It was supposed to be the final story on their ongoing concept story of “Armory Wars”.

Some are calling “Rainbow” the Master of Puppets of Coheed’s career. From what the internet has been saying, this is the show to see. So, erase every Coheed show you’ve ever seen and replace it with this show. The setlist has been impressive for their past shows, including a bunch of songs off of their newest work, like “Pearl of the Stars, apparently written by Sanchez’s wife, but a great deal of their past works.

They are slated for a three-song encore, however none of my sources could confirm that they performed “Running Free”. Bummer. However, the majority of information I saw stated that they did No World for Tomorrow and Welcome Home. So pack up the special booklet included in Year of the Black Rainbow, maybe Claudio will sign it, and get your ass up to Cleveland for a stimulating night of nerdforce rock.

Maybe you could use some new products.

The Misikko Experiment

Misikko is arguably one of the industry’s most outstanding tools and hair care products. They pick and choose the absolute best hair straighteners, ceramic flat irons, hair dryers & beauty tools in the industry so you know you are getting the quality you need. From brands like Hana Salon and Chi Flat Iron, they offer a product selection that appeals to the most discriminating stylists.

They have finally tired of our complaining and they have challenged us to have gorgeous hair. Hence, the Misikko Experiment. We received a box of their finest, and our staff voted the CHI Infra Shampoo, and their CHI Silk Infusion as definite MUSTS.

The shampoo will restore your moisture and shine, it is lightweight. You don’t need much and it will get your hair clean and still keep it bouncy and workable.  I used the Silk Infusion on a shoot. I had a model that was ruthless to her hair, it was so dry! This serum is awesome. It went on smooth and was super lightweight, it also gave me a super bouncy, shiny blow-out. I also used it to smooth out some fly-away hairs when I did a bridal photo shoot. So, this stuff is multi-tasking.

Stay tuned, a little birdy told me that they may be sending us some products for YOU to try!