New Faces on SPIN LA!

After the hacker’s attack on the Dynamite Online website, targeting the blogs including SPIN LA, we are back with some news.

Starting this month, SPIN LA will feature new bands that are working hard to get their word – or music – out there. This is an idea that I have been contemplating for a while, most precisely since I used to live in Brazil. During the time I worked in the music industry in São Paulo I always thought that musicians had a tough life and very few opportunities. In my idea the music industry in the US had to be a lot easier and musicians in the US had more opportunities than in Brazil.
Well, years later I live in Los Angeles, have many acquaintances in the industry and guess what? It is just as hard!
Having this in mind we are opening this space to new bands that are looking for opportunities to show their music.

The first band to be feature has a very peculiar name, ‘Tragic Orange’, and it comes from New York.

TRAGIC ORANGE

Tragic Orange is Phil Skiba (vocals), Christina Vitucci (drums), Jimmy Pavlis (bass), Steve Valdez and Victor Fakhoury (guitars).


The band has been together since 2005, has recorded a self-titled album in 2005, and just finished recording an EP, ‘The Golden Moon’, with 3 new songs. The songs are available on their MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/tragicorange

Their sound is a mixture of heavy metal, traditional rock and energy that could only come from the youth and the willingness to succeed. According to the band, their music influences are very diverse: Bullet for my Valentine, Chevelle, Portishead, Tool, The Doors, Staind, 10 years, Cold Play, Motley Crue. From ‘The Golden Moon’, ‘Leave’ and ‘Despite Despair’ deserve a peak, showing melodic guitars and excellent drum/bass chemistry.

The band starts its first US tour this month (August), with over 50 dates all over the country. “The 2008 Summer Awareness Tour” 'was inspired by the heroes that are fighting in the war', says the band. And they add: ‘it is basically to support our troops and their families, we are not pro war but we are pro life, the donations, ticket sales, and merchandise proceeds as well as audience donations will go to the children and families of our American heroes defending our country’.


If you would like to be part of this effort, find more information at
www. operationhomefront.net

Next month more new faces here on SPIN LA.

Cheers!

SM

Quick note about SPIN LA Portuguese version

Hi everyone,

If you also check out the Portuguese version of SPIN LA you probably noticed that it is currently not working. Unfortunately, due to some hackers invading the Dynamite Online website, the whole site is temporarily offline. This issue should be fixed soon and I will keep you updated.

Thanks for reading SPIN LA and for your patience.

SM

Gene Loves Jezebel with Jay Aston at Fitzgerald Pub, Huntington Beach, CA – 6/27/2008

The anticipation to see Gene Loves Jezebel with Jay Aston, Pete Rizzo (bass), James Stevenson (guitars) and drummer Rob Adams was overwhelming, especially considering the fact that nowadays there are two versions of the band, one with Michael Aston (who left the original band about 10 years ago), and the other one with Jay Aston and most of the old times line up.

The band’s chemistry could already be seen during the sound check, but with all the controversy between the twins Jay and Mike Aston (see interview with Jay Aston on SPIN LA) about who’s band is the real Gene Loves Jezebel, the only way one can decide which one is the real GLJ watching both bands live to compare and make a decision on who is the real Jezebel.


This Jezebel, Jay Aston, and his mates did a pretty good job! Despite of the fact they were playing in a pub, very different than the music venues the band has been performing during this more of 20 years of career, Gene Loves Jezebel with Jay Aston shows that there is a reason for the longevity, they really have fun doing this!


The set started with ’20 Killer Hurts’ and James Stevenson’s powerful guitar riffs. Gene Loves Jezebel nowadays looks quite different than 20 years ago. Jay Aston’s short dark hair, Pete Rizzo, James Stevenson and Rob Williams black outfits and lack of the excess make up from the past, gives the band a more sophisticated look, not losing the magic from the old times.


The set included most of the greatest hits like ‘Jealous’, ‘Suspicious’, ‘Gorgeous’ – and Jay Aston, as the great entertainer he is, tells the audience the tale about this song. According to Jay, the band wrote this song about him when he was not around… Yes, Jay is still a gorgeous presence on stage, jumping, singing, dancing and communicating with the audience and the band very comfortably.


The next song honors London, ‘Sweet, Sweet Rain’ (one of my favorites), followed by ‘Break the Chain’ to cool down the crowd a bit. Peter Rizzo, Rob Adams and James Stevenson are such powerful presence on stage, and the boys do have fun together, making whoever is in the audience, long time fan or someone who just walked in the bar, stop and listen to them.


The set ends, the band leaves the stage but the audience was not satisfied, they wanted more, much more. Gene Loves Jezebel returns to the stage and plays their biggest hit ‘Desire’. There were no more questions; this is the same Gene Loves Jezebel I remember seeing back in São Paulo, Brazil, 20 years ago. After this shows in Los Angeles, the band flew to Brazil to play in São Paulo and Curitiba. If you had the chance to see Gene Loves Jezebel with Jay Aston in one of these places, great, if not, try it next time, I recommend!

Text: Silvia Mendes
Photos: Luciana Mendes and Kevin Long

Gene Loves Jezebel in Brazil... and Jay Aston on SPIN LA...

Brazil is famous worldwide because of its sandy beaches, great soccer players, beautiful women, and lately as a new hot territory for artists and bands from all over the world.

One of the bands playing in Brazil this month is Gene Loves Jezebel. For the ones who do not remember them, the band became popular in the 80’s leaded by the twins Jay and Mike Aston and their androgynous look allied to the sort of gothic sound. The band first show in Brazil was back in late 80’s when one of their biggest hits ‘Desire’ made hundreds of Brazilian fans dance. Since then a lot has changed for this Jezebel. The brothers parted ways with Michael leaving the band, Jay and the original members kept the band alive, recording and playing with Gene Loves Jezebel all over the world, but with an unhappy Mike Aston disputing and affirming GLJ belongs to him and his band is the real thing.

Gene Loves Jezebel (with Jay Aston and the original boys) is playing in Brazil this week, July 2 and 4 in São Paulo and Curitiba respectively, with another legend from the 80’s, Echo & the Bunnymen. I met Jay Aston in a sunny afternoon at Holland Park in London. Jay talked about the issues with his brother, the new album, tour and much more. Enjoy!



SPIN LA: Jay, I saw Gene Loves Jezebel live a couple months ago in LA, but it had Mike Aston singing and a totally different line up than the one that plays with you. Mike says that his band is the real GLJ and that he owns the name Gene Loves Jezebel, but you are still touring and recording using the same name. Can you explain this situation?

Jay Aston: Michael left the band years ago and GLJ continued and still continues recording and touring with the original members, James Stevenson (guitars), Pete Rizzo (bass), Chris Bell (drums) and Jay Aston. It is not like the band split and he came back with a new line up; GLJ never split. We never left the band, he did. Mike is mentally ill and unfortunately he is my twin brother and he uses that all the time. His wife calls the promoters of our shows to say that we are using the name of our band against the law. This is insane. What I have to say is that my brother never have a role in the band, he did not record or participate on most of the songs. He can’t sing. When he was in the band all he did was dance and sing in a few parts of the songs. My brother has been fighting for years with the excuse that the name Gene Loves Jezebel belongs to him. I spent a fortune already in lawyers, but he always finds some other excuse and the dispute goes on and on. I got tired of this story, he is thrashing the name of the band playing with musicians he found on the streets who have no idea who we are. People go to the shows expecting to see the real GLJ and when they get there they see a different band with someone who has my face singing. This is really bad for the real band. He played in Brazil about 2 years ago with his band and one Brazilian magazine considered GLJ the worse live band of the year according to one of my Brazilian friends. If there is one thing I know for sure is that Gene Loves Jezebel, the real one, knows how to play and sing. I still can sing all my songs; I am still a great singer.

SPIN LA: But Jay, Mike was on the cover of the most successful albums, everything was around the twins Mike and Jay Aston, it is hard to believe that he did not have a role in the band…

Jay Aston: This whole thing of everything being around us was his idea. I always believed and still do that we are a band, the other members are just as important in the band as I am, but Mike had no role in the band.

SPIN LA: It still sounds bizarre, for everybody it looked like he did...

Jay Aston: Yes, I know. He was in videos, records, etc. He always made sure that everything about the band revolved around us, he had no respect for the other musicians. I think we are a band, not Wham. The truth is that he has never written anything, but he always put his name on the credits and I was a fool and did not do anything to stop him. Mike is a very manipulative person, but he never wrote anything for GLJ.

Photo: Kevin Long

SPIN LA: Ok, so let’s change the subject. The last GLJ (with Jay Aston) ‘Anthology’ was released in 2006. What is new now with Gene Loves Jezebel?

Jay Aston: We have been writing new songs that sound very different than the songs we did before. We are going on a tour, playing in Los Angeles and Brazil and when we come back we are going to record a new CD, probably August/September. The music industry is very different nowadays and it is very expensive to record a CD with good quality, but we are going to do it.

SPIN LA: How is the creative process for you guys?

Jay Aston: In general I write and James (Stevenson) and Pete (Rizzo) include their input and their songs too. We have been playing together for so long that we don’t really need to rehearse or to be in the same room to be able to write songs. We all live in different places so we exchange files over the internet, it is easier this way. I live in London, James lives in between London and Los Angeles, Pete is in Yorkshire, Chris Bell is in Bath and Robert Adams (who is also GLJ’s drummer and is playing in this tour to Brazil) lives in between London and Tulsa. James has other bands like Chelsea, a punk band he has been playing with since high school. We all have other things going on in our lives, but when we play together is like magic, we have a lot of fun.

SPIN LA: When was the last time you played in Brazil? How was it? What has changed since then? (According to Jay, Michael played in Brazil a couple years ago using the name GLJ, as mentioned above)

Jay Aston: It was about 7 years ago. I remember we played in São Paulo since it is such a big city and we love it there. The gigs were fantastic there, and lots of nice people and wonderful restaurants! Now what has changed? Obviously we are older (laughs), we do not wear much make up anymore, and I cut my hair short… musically we are more mature as well. In the past we wore colorful clothes, a lot of make up, I used to do the make up and choose the outfit for everybody in the band… it would take me hours to do my hair with all the fabric… it was a lot of fun.

SPIN LA: All right, but what should people expect from the GLJ concert?

Jay Aston: A lot of energy. Nowadays we concentrate more in the music and the energy we put into it, instead of the way we look. We are older and it would be kind of funny to go onstage dressed like before… I used to wear mini skirts and dresses… Pete used to make fun of me saying that I had nice legs! We also intend to play a couple of new songs, but the truth is that the fans go to the show to listen to our big hits like ‘Desire’, ‘Motion of Love’, etc.



SPIN LA: And do you like touring?

Jay Aston: Oh yes, I love it! Like I said, we have a lot of fun together. It is like magic when we play together. I should do some solo gigs too, since I write a lot of songs. Maybe I will, but it will be very different than Gene Loves Jezebel. It will be more acoustic, only me, my guitar and my voice…

SPIN LA: And what does Jay Aston listen to nowadays?

Jay Aston: I like a lot of different things. From Led Zeppelin, my favorite band as a kid, to Muse, Portishead and Cold Play. I really pay attention to the vocals of the songs, I guess because I am a singer, it is important to me. I believe that you do not choose music, but music chooses you.



SPIN LA: And what are the plans for the future?

Jay Aston: Well, first the tour which includes Brazil and Los Angeles. Then record the new album in August/September and I hope this legal situation with my brother is solved so we can avoid more hassles.
(Jay refers to the episode earlier this year in Los Angeles when he was scheduled to play at the Viper Room and Michael’s guitar player served the band with a warrant that they could not play. The show happened anyway, but Jay and the rest of the band got very upset with the episode, one of the reasons why this battle continues)

SPIN LA: Do you have anything to say to the Brazilian fans?

Jay Aston: Yes, I want to say that we are very anxious and happy to play in Brazil again. Every time we played there people were wonderful to us and it will be awesome to be there again. If you see me there come and say hi and buy me a drink (laughs). Let’s have fun because life is too short!

http://www.myspace.com/genelovesjezebeluk

http://www.myspace.com/jpaston