Asia Live In Concert Photographs

Jet is an Australian band that rose to fame in the early 2000′s. Brothers Nic Cester and Chris Cester grew up in a suburb just out of Melbourne. As kids, they would pick through their dad’s record album collection to find anything good, such as, The Who, AC/DC, The Easybeats, Faces, The Loved Ones and especially The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. The classic rock influence can be heard on many of their songs. “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” tastes of AC/DC, and “Look What You’ve Done” is reminiscent of the Beatles.

Chris said, “It’s always interpreted that our father had a great record collection, but that’s not true. It was actually a really sh#* collection that Nic managed to find the gems in.”

Nic interjects, “Hi Fi Way was the most important album of my generation … I think everyone our age, who played guitar, played You Am I songs for the first time in front of their school (St Bede’s) assembly … That was the record that made you realize you could be in an Australian band, you didn’t have to be a grunge band and you didn’t have to be influenced by American bands. It changed everything.”

In 2001, they formed the band Jet after the Paul McCartney and Wings song of the same name.

“Jet! with the wind in your hair of a thousand laces.
Climb on the back and we’ll
Go for a ride in the sky.
And jet, I thought the major
Was a lady suffragette.
Jet! jet!”

The song was supposedly inspired by Paul McCartney’s dog; however, several interpretations of the song say it is a jab at David Bowie’s feminine glam rock persona. “I’ld always heard that “Jet” was, in part, a satirical jab at David Bowie and the then trendy androgyny of so-called “glam” rockers.” This could be the case since the members of Jet (the band) are no posers nor glam rockers.

In 2003, they released Get Born. The single “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” was voted the number one song that year.

For 2006, they released Shine On. Though it did not rise to the success level of Get Born, it did give birth to quite a few good songs.

After the release of their next album Shaka Rock was delayed, they released a 5-track acoustic live audio and video EP. “Recorded at Metropolis Studios in London on their recent sold out tour of the UK, these tracks have never been recorded like this before…”

The track list for the acoustic EP is…

Bring It On Back
Kings Horses
Look What You’ve Done
Are You Gonna Be My Girl
Shine On

The Shaka Rock release date — August 25, 2009. The first two singles are She’s A Genius and K.I.A. (Killed In Action).

Foghat Playing Near Philadelphia, PA

Cooper River Park, NJ — Radio station 102.9 WMGK and the Camden County Board of Freeholders put on the Let Freedom Rock Fest on July 4. The show opened with their houseband, The Dead Poets. They got the crowd jumping with a nice mix of coversongs. Then, The Marshal Tucker Band took the stage for a set of southern rock culminating with their hit “Can’t You See”.

You might have thought that the headliner, Foghat, would be a let down. After all, two of the original members are dead. Lead singer and guitarist “Lonesome” Dave Peverett died of cancer in 2000. Lead and slide guitarist Rod Price died from a fall in 2005. How could the remainder of the old folks in this classic band still rock?

Well, unlike Journey and Yes that have resorted to recruiting replacements from YouTube tribute bands, Foghat enlisted two superb veterans. Charlie Huhn has been Foghat’s lead vocalist and guitarist since Lonesome Dave’s death. Charlie has a great voice and plays a solid guitar. In 1978, he joined the Ted Nugent band for the album Weekend Warriors. At the time, Nugent was one of the hottest bands selling out large stadiums around the world. Charlie recorded three studio albums and two live albums before leaving Nugent’s band in 1982. Between 1982 and 1987, he did a variety of projects including a band with former Alice Cooper members called DeadRinger. From 1989 to 1999, he was the lead vocalist for Humble Pie. Now, he brings his energy and enthusiasm to Foghat for some outstanding frolicking boogie blues rock.

Bryan Bassett took Rod Price’s place on lead and slide guitars. In the 1970′s, Bryan was in the band Wild Cherry when they had their big hit, “Play That Funky Music, White Boy”. (During his on-stage introduction, Foghat broke into a bit of the song.) For the 1990′s Bryan played with Molly Hatchet. His guitar style complements Charlie’s to give Foghat the ability combine rhythm and solos in a spectacular way.

Craig MacGregor has been Foghat’s “on again / off again” bassist since 1976. He recorded “Night Shift” in 1976, a live album in 1977, and “Stone Blue” in 1978. Although most people would think the album “Fool For The City” was Foghat’s biggest album, it was actually the live album that achieved the highest sales record selling over 2,000,000 copies.

The combination of Craig and original drummer, Roger Earl, give Foghat that solid boogie rhythm section. Roger was in the group Savoy Brown from 1967 – 1970 before leaving to form Foghat with Dave Peverett and bassist Tony Stevens. “Roger Earl is the man with the beat. Pounding his drums for over 35 years, this British rock ‘n’roller is partial to rock & blues (always has been).”

The Foghat set for the Freedom Rock Fest concert included: Ride, Ride, Ride, Chateau Lafitte ’59 Boogie, Drivin’ Wheel, Third Time Lucky, Fool for the City, I Just Want To Make Love To You and Slow Ride.

“Black Clouds & Silver Linings”, the latest album by progressive rockers Dream Theater, debuted at #6 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart.

“This is truly amazing. After almost 25 years together, Dream Theater is still growing and progressing and doing bigger and better than ever. I can’t think of many bands that can claim that. We are truly thankful to have this incredible support from fans who believe in the band as a musical force,” said drummer Mike Portnoy. “An album with four songs over 12 minutes in the US Top 10? Hell must’ve frozen over! This is one small leap for Dream Theater, and one giant leap for music in general.”

It is quite amusing when you look at their company in the top 10 — the Jonas Brothers, Black Eyed Peas and Regina Spektor.

The band is on their Progressive Nation tour which comes near Philadelphia to the Tower Theatre on July, 31. Zappa Plays Zappa is included on the bill. Frank Zappa’s oldest son, Dweezil Zappa, put together a show featuring his late father’s work.

Philadelphia — Former members of Evanescence fronted by American Idol contestant Carly Smithson have changed their name from The Fallen to We Are the Fallen after being issued a “cease and desist” order from the Philadelphia based band The Fallen.

There are conflicting reports over which band “The Fallen” issued the cease and desist order. There is also a British rock band called The Fallen.

Radio station 104.5 and music news MOG report it is the Philadelphia, PA based, The Fallen, that started in late 2005.

Wikipedia and the UK The Fallen’s Blog claim it is the English cover band that formed in 2005.

Hmmm… it makes you wonder if the Philadelphia band and the UK band will write each other cease and desist orders?

Ed McMahon, Phara Faucet and Michael Jackson — Dead!

No matter what you thought of them as people, you had to respect their fame. All of them attempted to let themselves be exploited for the better of themselves and others.

They did it in a real big way.

It is odd that they would die together in a big sort-of way? It may be similar to the time Princess Di and John Denver had untimely deaths. Is it strange that people that appear to have great big hearts have a (near) simultaneousness demise?

MINNEAPOLIS — A jury has awarded the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) a “ridiculous” amount in a peer-to-peer MP3 file sharing lawsuit against a Mother from Minnesota.

A federal jury ruled that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated copyrights on 24 songs. The recording companies were awarded $80,000 per song ($1.92 million).

After hearing the verdict, Jammie Thomas-Rasset said the award was “kind of ridiculous”.

The record companies accused Jammie of offering 1,700 songs on the Kazaa music sharing software, though the RIAA to prove only 24 infringements.

RIAA Comment on Verdict in Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas-Rasset
RIAA REACTION:
“We appreciate the jury’s service and that they take this as seriously as we do. We are pleased that the jury agreed with the evidence and found the defendant liable. Since day one, we have been willing to settle this case and we remain willing to do so.” — Cara Duckworth

PUBLIC REACTION:
Boooooo!

About THe Mistaken

A great photographer friend, Ed Simmons suggested the following band might be fun to work with:

In the words of one Mistaken fan: ‘you aren’t writing about milkshakes…’

The Mistaken deal with lonely satellites, bunker-dwelling control-freaks, articulate terrorists and George Zapata, among others. Is it a thankless job? We think not.

The Mistaken were enlisted as back-up band for Drayfus Grayson on his ‘Go!’ CD, released 1998. We and Drayfus shared many a smokey dive together as ‘Three Guesses’, traversing the Westside underbelly of converted mortuaries and hen-houses masquerading as nightclubs.

The Mistaken have been associated with fellow conspirators The Brothers Dimm, and The Flower Machine. Mistaken members hail from Mount Washington, Lake Forest and Santa Ana, now known collectively as ‘Dreamland.’

Musical influences include Wilco, Squeeze, Ron Sexsmith, Beatles, et al. Then again, our record collections include albums by Crowded House, XTC, Esquivel, Annette, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, and Jerry Vale.

Should probably stop there.

Instrumentation
Chris Shulda: vocals, bass, guitar
Nick Santangelo: vocals, keyboards, guitar
Jose Sanchez: drums

Discography
Calliope Sound (2008) available via digital download (http://cdbaby.com/cd/mistaken).

This journey began in 2001 when at 17 years old, Stuart and Callum formed the band. During this year they played small local shows and school concerts, gaining valuable experience. The duo quickly formed a fantastic musical understanding of one another and shared the same goals and ambitions. Through the years they wrote a full album that falls within the heavy rock/alternative genre. This has been developed through time and experience. Along the way they took on many band members, attempting to create the sound they were striving for. Through various reasons, mainly lack of drive and ambition from the other members, they parted ways with them, seeking the perfect line up. During this time however, there were many positives. A backlog of material was pieced together and valuable gigging and recording experience was gained through the previous line-ups.

September 2008 spawned the birth of the band Purusa. In this month Stuart and Callum found the perfect line up. This now included vocalist and lyricist, Emma. Her all round package of unique vocals, lyrical ability, ambition and aura made her the missing piece they searched to find. Emma has many years of singing experience, going right back to singing cover songs in school concerts (age 11). Her other experience mainly includes singing solo local shows and singing competitions, usually to backing tracks or a single guitar. However, Emma’s desire was always to be the front woman of a heavy rock band. She began her search for this band in 2007. Many bands were tried but unfortunately, none met her high standards… Until she met Purusa.

Purusa’s first endeavour was to write and produce a concept album that has been named ‘Intrinsic’ which is representational of the journey through life and is best described as gothic ambience. This album was created due to the fact that the band struggled to find a drummer that would meet their high standards of ambition, determination and musicianship. In April 2009, all members of the band quit their full time jobs to focus fully on recording their debut album. Due to the bands ambitions towards being successful they searched long and hard and found a session drummer called Tim Kitchen who naturally understood the vibe and intricacies of the songs.

Purusa have currently completed their first 3 track E.P. entitled ‘Anoxia’ which includes Emma’s vocals. They are currently working with a designer to complete artwork for the E.P. which best represents the music. In the meantime the songs are available to listen to on MySpace and Taxi.

Purusa have received excellent, positive feedback from the general public and Radio stations from America, Germany and the UK have shown enough interest to play the songs and promote them on their own pages. They have also been approached by a film director/writer to use one of their songs in a new feature length production, and producer Sylvia Massy has contacted them to discuss recording with her.

Purusa have a marketable image and all the drive and ambition required to ‘make it’ in the industry. They also have a fresh and completely unique sound. Uncommonly to other bands, Purusa’s main influence is its own music. The band constantly strives to build upon and improve in any way the music that they have written previously. They live for playing their own music and listen to their own creations more than those of any other bands.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this bio,

Much love,

Purusa

“Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band came to Bonnaroo, and Bonnaroo will never be the same. Before the throng, the band played a set of classic songs, and broke out “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” and “Growin’ Up” in the request slot midway through the show.” — brucespringsteen.net

Bruce played a three hour set he said was for “hard times.” It is unusual for him to play a festival. In fact, this is only the second such show for him and the E-street Band.

Bruce said, “We didn’t come all the way down to the beautiful Tennessee hills just to rock the house. We came down here tonight because we want to build a house. That’s right. Right here in this field. … A house of love. A house of hope.”

Set List
Badlands
No Surrender
My Lucky Day
Outlaw Pete
Out In The Street
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
Youngstown
Raise Your Hand
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Growin’ Up
Thunder Road
Waiting On A Sunny Day
The Promised Land
The River
Kingdom Of Days
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run

Hard Times
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Land Of Hope And Dreams
American Land
Rosalita
Glory Days
Dancing In The Dark