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Holly Brook Scores Big on New Eminem Album

Holly Brook is a long way from her roots in Mazomainie, Wisconsin. Living in L.A. for the last several years has helped Brook to achieve new heights.

Currently riding the top of the charts is the Eminem single “Love the Way You Lie,” which features a chorus written by Brook and sung by Rhianna. The track reached these heights without even being planned as the album’s second single and without a single promotional dollar going into it. That’s changed now, but Brook is ecstatic about the results.

Late in 2004, Brook was signed to  Machine Shop Recordings, the home of Linkin’ Park.  Holly’s voice was featured on the Fort Minor song (by Linkin’ Park’s Mike Shinoda) “Where’d You Go” which won an MTV award in 2006. She also appeared on Late Night with David Letterman with Fort Minor.

In 2006 Brook released her solo debut album Like Blood, Like Honey (read our review here) on Machine Shop. Legal disputes followed and Brook was finally released from the label. She joined forces with Duncan Sheik and toured with him in 2009 as part of the Spring Awakenings musical tour, which made a stop at the Union Theater in Madison.

She’s just released a new EP, O’Dark Thirty, that can be purchased here.

You can also read a review of the album right here at Local Sounds.

Brook was also featured in the very first issue of Rick’s Cafe in 2003, which you can find here in our archives .

subvocal to Release New Live CD; New Studio Album Due This Fall

subvocal will release their 2nd CD, “subvocal LIVE,” on July 30, 2010. This five-song EP includes four live tracks recorded at the Brink Lounge during an appearance on the  Mad Toast Live! show hosted by Chris Wagoner and Mary Gaines  in June of 2009.
The show was recorded by Andrew LaValley of Bear Sound . Also included is a  bonus track, a studio recording of ”Esoterica.”

This CD is a precursor to the long overdue second full length studio release coming this fall.

subvocal’s first release, Nikkis Room,  won Unique CD of the Year at the 2005 Madison Area Music Awards.

subvocal LIVE will be available online at most digital retailers including CD Baby and Amazon.

CEMETERY IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY – J.A.N.E.

(2010   Analogy)

The new album from Cemetery Improvement Society is one of the most ambitious recordings ever released by a Madison-based band. Following closely on the heels of the debut Lonely Dog Island, J.A.N.E. is a concept album and, in addition to the dense atmospheres the band obviously labored to create, the research and creativity that went into this is simply stunning.

                This might be a must-listen for music fans but it won’t be an easy one. The album comes with a warning label, not so much because there is sporadic profanity, but because the subject matter is so unsettling.

J.A.N.E. is the aural equivalent of the film Blue Velvet or even the television series The Shield and would make an interesting movie on its own. It’s shockingly real, sparing no detail as it traces the incidents surrounding a young prostitute. The acronym is important as well: Just Another Neglected Existence is a fitting synonym for what is a masterful fictional documentary. The duo of Marc Claggett (7-string guitar/samplers/programming) and Brad Hawes (drums/percussion/keys/sampler/programming) collaborated with Jessica Knox who produced a sixteen-page “diary” that gives the backdrop to the story in eerily effective scribbles and illustrations. The entire diary is available on TCIS’s mySpace and is essential to understanding the concept.

Musically, the album gets more adventurous than Lonely Dog Island, the nature of the concept’s “chapters” resulting in a more song-based approach. As it is, the album’s fifteen tracks (plus four cleverly inserted “PSAs) play out over the course of more than an hour. The PSAs add a bit of dark humor to the story. There are more guitars in these electronic excursions and the album is primarily instrumental with the liberal addition of sound bites.  By the album’s seventh track, “Blade,” the music gets more effective at portraying the events of the story as things start spiraling down. Here guest Joel Shanahan adds some tasty guitar lines to the soulful, streetwise backdrop while the theramin exacerbates the absurdity of the situation.  “Pretty” follows with Claggett and Russell Paul turning in impressive guitar performances, effectively expressing the mounting tension and desperation and marking the turning point in the album’s narrative.

Other guests make appearances. Charles Prasalowicz (from metal band the Unnecessary Gunpoint Lecture) provides vocals to “Work,” an especially frightening and demented entry.  Vocals are also provided by Jeff Goldsmith on “Christmas Hill,” which succeeds in revealing the fantasies and childlike reversions of the protagonist. Kevin McDonnell adds bass to “Pimp Killer” and Scott Cannaday (from The Projection People and Revolving Doors), who also produced, engineered and mixed the recording, adds keys to “Down to Sleep,” the album’s morose finale.

The Cemetery Improvement Society ran the table in the electronic categories at the 2010 Madison Area Music Awards and deservedly so. They are fresh, ambitious, inspired and, like so many contemporary bands do, blend numerous styles into a conglomerate whole.  With J.A.N.E., the Cemetery Improvement Society has taken that approach to a new level, creating a strangely beautiful work of art out of a fictional existence that couldn’t be uglier.

Local Sounds Magazine Reporting for Duty!

After what turned out to be a spring hiatus, Local Sounds Magazine is proud to be back, defending our local music country from ignoramists!  Be ready for a new onslaught of local music coverage as we re-kick this thing off. There will be some new faces shortly and some familiar ones.

So, a little thing called the Madison Area Music Awards snuck up and bonged the editor on the head and it took several weeks (and several more bongs) for him to remove his head from arse and get back on the stick.  Look for an overview on that (the MAMAs, not the head removal) to be posted shortly.

We have tons of CDs to catch up on but any of you who haven’t submitted a disc for review should send one to us pronto.

If you’re a writer with a decent grasp of the English language, we could use your help. Drop us a line.

We’re back… because we love you.

John Statz to Release new Ghost Towns CD at the HIgh Noon on August 12th

Madison-based singer/songwriter John Statz will release his third full-length CD entitled Ghost Towns.  He’ll celebrate with a CD Release Party on August 12th at the High Noon.

According to his website, Ghosts Towns was “inspired by grimey, war-torn Balkan towns and dying, broken down American cities and is the direct result of several years of hard touring around the United States, Canada, and Europe.

This is the first band-based recording from Statz, whose band includes Blueheels/Blake Thomas drummer Adam Cargin and songwriters Jeremiah Nelson and Whitney Mann.

Ghost Towns will be released for digital download, compact disc, and vinyl on August 12th, 2010. And is available from his website .

You may also find John online at:
  » www.myspace.com/johnstatz
  » www.audiostreet.net/johnstatz
  » www.sonicbids.com/johnstatz (Electronic Press Kit)

Atwood Summersfest is July 31st

Atwood Avenue, between the Barrymore Theater and Schenk’s Corners, is once again the site of the Atwood Summerfest. The street celebration benefits the Goodman Atwood Community Center and features ethnic foods, local and handmade goods, games and art activities and, of course, live music. Here’s the lineup:

Maximum Ink Rock Stage
The Shtetlblasters (Electro-Klezmer)
Kingtown Rockers (Reggae)
VO5 (Classic Disco)
Soul Shaker (Blues-Rock)
Beatallica (Beatles meet Metallica)
 

Harmony Bar Blues Stage
Kristy Larson Honky Tonk 12pm
Piper Road Spring Band 1:10pm
Alex Wilson Band 2:20pm
The Midwesterners 3:30pm
Altered 5 4:40pm
Jim Schwall/Andy Ewen Band 5:50

THE HANAH JON TAYLOR ARTET – HyrPlasis

(2009 Tiger Fish)

Madison sometimes doesn’t realize how lucky it is to have talent of the caliber of Hanah Jon Taylor in its backyard. So few jazz CDs get released locally as it is, and especially a CD of all original material. So the release of HyrPlasis in late 2009 should have been met with rapt enthusiasm. As it is, it’s difficult to find a review at all, even in the U.S. Taylor has always seemed to be more famous in Europe, where he spends a lot of time touring each year. He’s acclimated to this situation no doubt. But if there is one local jazz CD you should have, HyrPlasis is the one.

Taylor surrounds himself with class, the same cats he’s been playing with for some time now: drummer Vincent Davis, bassist Yosef Ben Israel and pianist Kirk Brown. Madison’s Mattan Rubenstein (piano) and bassist Vito Caricati also appear. The core ensemble seems to have telepathic qualities as they are able to weave themselves around Taylor’s graceful and sometimes spastic melodies and groove furiously as Taylor explores the outer reaches of expression. The whole album is like a conversation but not like typical two-way (or in this case four-way) conversation is. It’s more like the flurry of thoughts that run through your head as someone speaks. Occasionally your attention turns to the supporting messages rather than the primary message. What makes HyrPlasis so uncannily remarkable is that it’s like a single voice.

The conversation almost always begins with Taylor. His lyrical tenor sax marks the opening of the title track, a twelve-minute expedition that begins the album. Brown, Davis and Caricati join in and the Artet goes through an astonishing expansion and contraction with Taylor providing fiery squawks and squeals amidst blistering runs. It may be the most emotionally charged playing Taylor’s committed to tape.

Taylor is generous as well, giving Brown a lot of space on “Songo Red.” Brown makes the best of it and delivers an impressive extended piano solo. Here Taylor takes the flute and when he brings it back in after Brown’s solo you can feel the inspiration as well as the mutual admiration.

Another standout is “Vertigo,” which eclipses the fifteen-minute mark. Taylor is renowned for his use of the wind synth and it’s on full display here as the band ventures beyond Sun Ra’s home planet of Saturn before the flute returns to announce re-entry. Israel’s bowed bass is particularly effective as are Brown’s electrified keys. The mood is so eerie that it practically induces vertigo on the listener. Davis is stunning throughout the album and here he bridges the wind synth and flute sections with a rousing drum solo. Elsewhere his playing is sharp and distinctive, giving the Artet a fusion flavor. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Billy Cobham.

Two tracks are trio pieces. “7-7-5-7” is interesting in that these are the number of notes Taylor’s flute employs in each phrase of the opening section. “Istanbul” is more rhythmic, suggesting bop. There is also a beautiful duet with Rubenstein on “Precious Time,” a song Taylor composed for his son.

The core quartet of players recorded two songs live. “When Betty met John” and “Luna Mia” both highlight Brown’s keyboard, the latter being the only track on the album that is initiated by someone other than Taylor, in this case Vincent’s percussion.

HyrPlasis is a triumph for Taylor and his Artet and a milestone for jazz recordings in Madison (it was mostly recorded at Madison Media Institute where Taylor is employed as an instructor). If you love the real thing; the gut-wrenching depth of expression, the inner improvisational voice of humanity being brought out to the world to hear in tones, then HyrPlasis is an experience that you will want to hear and a venture that you will want to take repeatedly.

Madison Music Foundry Announces New “Plugged In” Program

Madison Music Foundry is excited to announce a new program called “Plugged In” that will be held at the Frequency on the last Monday of every month from 5:30-7:30 pm.  Plugged In is a multi-faceted and FREE event that is open to the public and includes demos from local music businesses, musician networking opportunities, a Madison Music Foundry student jam (along with a jam open to the public) and educational workshops.  The goal is to have a good time talking and learning about music, playing music, and networking with other musicians. The event will be emceed by Ken Fitzsimmons (MMF Education Director) and Adam Gregory Pergament of Venice Gas House Trolley.

The debut event will be held on July 26th starting promptly at 5:30 and is open to those 21 and up (but those under 21 are welcome to attend as long as they are accompanied by a legal guardian).

Partnering in the July 26th event will be US Masters Guitar Works (www.usmasters.com) based out of Middleton, WI along with Sooper Dooper , CD/DVD manufacturing and packaging design. US Masters will be bringing an array of their guitars and amps to try out. Sooper Dooper will be on hand to answer questions on navigating the world of optical media. The process explained with Q&A, visuals and samples to check out

Each event in the Plugged In series will host different local music businesses, workshops, and themes.  If you would like to help out or have ideas to share, please feel free to contact the Madison Music Foundry at info@madisonmusicfoundry.com or 608-270-2660.

Ken Fitzsimmons