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RECENT NEWS
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Concrete Blonde
Johnette Napolitano -- Vocals, bass Jim Mankey -- guitars Gabriel Ramirez-Quezada -- drums
Ever since rising out of the post-punk scene of mid-'80s Los Angeles, Concrete Blonde has followed the road less traveled. Whether it's the old-school college favorite "God Is A Bullet" from 1989's
Free, the surprise left-field hit "Joey" of 1990's
Bloodletting, the Latin influences of the band's breakup album
Mexican Moon, or their dark reunion with 2002's
Group Therapy, the group has clearly defined its own musical path.
With
Mojave, their newest album, Concrete Blonde provides a musical postcard from the edge of civilization, where lonely strips of asphalt wind their way through the coyote's backyard. Now denizens of the desert that gave the album its name, singer/bassist Johnette Napolitano, guitarist Jim Mankey and drummer Gabriel Ramirez provide a soundtrack to the scenic Southwest. After a year of working on
Mojave, the revitalized group is ready to release the album on their own label, Happy Hermit Records (In association with Eleven Thirty Records and Redeye Distribution.)
"The songs are sort of like little movies," Johnette says. "It always amazes me when people say the desert is a bunch of nothing. It's completely teeming all the time. The sunsets are never the same, and it's just drama all the time. You're one on one with nature or God or whatever. I find a lot of peace and quiet out here, and it's genuinely a very strange vortex of a place."
The desert's strange beauty is reflected throughout
Mojave, from the shadowy, bass-driven opening track "A Road" to the sprawling soundscapes and ghostly vocals of "My Tornado At Rest." Spirit animals come crawling out of the arid night as well, with reptiles shedding skin in "Snakes" and Johnette explaining the mysterious desert dogs on "Hey Coyote." The specter-like quality of the desert's night sky is also captured in a haunting cover of "(Ghost) Riders In The Sky," the old Western chestnut re-popularized by Southern rockers The Outlaws in the early'80s.
Concrete Blonde is not content to live in the past, although Johnette has no problem being recognized for hits like "God Is A Bullet" and their biggest hit, "Joey." "Why would that association bother me? I wrote them," she says with a laugh. "I never expected to have a hit out of anything. I put as much into the first, second, fifth or sixth record as I ever do."
"I think Jim and I respect each other more than ever because of the breakup," she says. "It made us appreciate our own band a lot more. This wouldn't have happened this way if we kept going. We had been in other places, listened to other things and had other life experiences. We realize, as a point of maturity, that this is as good as it gets."
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OR TO SET UP AN INTERVIEW, PLEASE CONTACT: STEPHEN JUDGE: 336-578-7300 x 211 - STEPHENJ@REDEYEUSA.COM
