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BLAIR
JACKSON		 BRIAN SETZER
Retro Cool

by Bryan Reesman
 Brian Setzer does not come off as your typical pop star. He’s not obsessed with inane posturing or with glamorizing his life; he just genuinely digs what he does. Then again, if the talented Setzer wanted to be a rock idol, he could have picked easier musical formats to market than big band and rockabilly. The Long Island native and current Southern California resident may have retro tastes, but his fluid way of combining big band, rockabilly, blues and doo-wop is very modern. Continue..
GODSMACK
Second Time Around
by Elianne Halbersberg
When Sully Erna called Andrew “Mudrock” Murdock to say he had “a band called Godsmack and a little money” with which he wanted to record at Mudrock’s New Alliance Studio in Boston, no one entertained the thought that a $3,000 indie CD would go on to sell more than 3 million copies. When it came time for the band to record their follow-up, Awake, they turned to Mudrock for production and engineering assistance. Again, Mudrock was caught by surprise. Continue..
EVERCLEAR
Art Alexakis & Co. Record Two “Movies”

by David John Farinella
It’s been a whiz-bang-boom type of year for Everclear’s Art Alexakis—a new marriage, an appearance before Congress (testifying about deadbeat dads; he was abandoned as a child) and the release of two albums in two different styles. The two albums actually took 18 months to record, though they were both released during 2000 and they both move in that Everclear way between melodic pop and harder rock. Alas, with all that running around, Alexakis got a bit run-down. Continue..
CLASSIC TRACKS

KOOL & THE GANG’S “CELEBRATION”

by Blair Jackson

Twenty years after it hit the top of the pop and R&B charts, “Celebration” is still ubiquitous, a true modern “standard” that seems to appeal to nearly every demographic group. Continue..

Reprinted with permission from Magazine, January, 2001
 © 2001, Intertec Publishing, A Primedia Company All Rights Reserved


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