Artist

GRINDER BLUES’ HARD ROCKING DEBUT ALBUM TEAMS KING’S X LEGEND dUg PINNICK WITH EMMY AWARD WINNING ROOTS MUSIC MVP’S THE BIHLMAN BROTHERS

Trio’s high-energy performances, bone-crushing sound and from-the-gut songwriting put a fresh, contemporary spin on the blues tradition

Powerhouse trio Grinder Blues’ new album, called simply Grinder Blues, is like a shot of adrenaline to the heart of the genre. Its 10 original, high-voltage songs sizzle with daredevil virtuosity and rock with unrestrained energy, blasting a sound minted in the urban canyons of Chicago and the swamps of rural Louisiana during the 1950s into the present thanks to rumbling guitars, freight train rhythms and bass legend dUg Pinnick’s virtuoso licks and elegantly gritty rock ‘n’ soul voice.

The fast-paced disc opens with fireworks. Drummer Scot Little Bihlman’s supercharged shuffle lays the foundation for a slippery lockstep guitar-and-bass riff shared by Jabo Bihlman and Pinnick, kick-starting “Don’t Come Home.” As the song, a counterpoint to the old blues trope “baby, please come home,” unfolds, it dives from clenched-fist immediacy into open-palmed psychedelia, then shifts back to overdrive for a thunderous finale.

“The idea for the music was to stay away from the clichés and rock out,” dUg explains. “If we felt like we were heading into any songs that seemed like standard blues lyrically or musically, we made it a point to veer in the opposite direction.”

There’s ample evidence of that throughout Grinder Blues. In the insanely catchy “Burn the Bridge,” Jabo’s proto-metal guitar hook sinks deep into the tune’s one-chord framework and the trio’s chanting vocal harmonies spotlight the hypnotic groove. And the song “Train” is a galloping juggernaut that barely stays on the rails as dUg spins the true story of his step-grandfather’s demise by a speeding locomotive. The tune is set, of course, to an infectious, rampaging train beat.

“We wanted every song to have something you could latch onto immediately,” Jabo says, “so we started with grooves that people know from the blues — shuffles, train beats, flat fours — and then made them huge. After that, all the rules were thrown out, really taking things outside the box.” To ensure big-bellied tones and maximum heaviness, Jabo and dUg tuned their instruments’ strings down one-and-a-half steps to C standard tuning.

The maverick blues-rock supergroup chased inspiration’s tail as they recorded live at the Palms Studio in Las Vegas with producer Miles Fulwider, who was an integral part of the project. “There were times when we had almost no idea where we were going,” relates Scot. “We’d lock into a groove and at the place where Jabo and me might normally change like we would in a regular 12-bar blues, dUg would yell ‘keep going.’ The session became like a Jackson Pollock painting, with us splashing musical ideas on canvas.”

Despite the serious chops at work in Grinder Blues, Pinnick says the project’s core philosophy was simply “to have fun. We wanted every song to be fun to play and fun to hear, because we spend so much time in our other bands writing songs in our blood, tearing pages from our soul, concentrating on every part being perfect. What Grinder Blues and King’s X have in common is pushing the envelope. What’s different is that Grinder Blues is all about letting things fly — even little mistakes — and having a good time.”

The alliance of Pinnick and the Bihlmans — who are both major King’s X fans — started at a cookout in Hollywood, where Scot met dUg. Soon the conversation turned to music production for film and TV, an arena where the multiple Emmy Award winning Bihlman’s thrive. Their credits range from such big screen fare as Love N’ Dancing to the FX network’s hit series Sons of Anarchy. Within months Jabo, Scot and dUg were composing for movies and television together. Their chemistry made forming a trio and recording Grinder Blues a natural step.

Originally from northern Indiana’s Chicagoland, Jabo and Scot have a long history in blues and rock. They’ve made four albums with their Bihlman Brothers band including Sweet Tooth and Day By Day, which were cut with Grammy-winning producer Jim Gaines at Memphis’ legendary Ardent Studios, and toured behind Son Seals and other blues legends. The Bihlman Brothers have appeared on stage with a diverse list of stars ranging from B.B King to Ted Nugent to Kid Rock, testifying to the diverse appeal of their music. Scot and Jabo — who were signed to a song publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music — are also in-demand session musicians, music educators and authors of how-to music instructional books.

Although dUg grew up just outside of Chicago, Grinder Blues is his first project in the genre. His grandmother, who was a strict Baptist, raised him. So dUg’s first musical passion was gospel — with R&B, Motown and rock on its heels. dUg has been the frontman of the spiritually probing, steel-edged progressive rock outfit King’s X since its inception in 1980 and has developed a reputation as one of rock’s most venerated bassists over the course of more than 20 King’s X albums, four solo discs and many, many tours.

Despite his long history on rock’s cutting edge, dUg says his singing on Grinder Blues is his most natural and soulful. The low C standard tuning he and Jabo employed encouraged dUg to explore the lower end of his register. He also had time to craft his vocal lines at home after the initial sessions for the album, allowing him to hone his performances at a relaxed and studied pace.

“I believe I’ve found myself as a singer with this album,” dUg offers. “In the past, I’ve always had a tendency to push myself to the top of my range, or to get in and work through my weaknesses in the studio until I got past them. This time, because Grinder Blues is all about having fun, I just relaxed and played to my strengths, and found that being in my comfort zone gave me more flexibility.”

As for Jabo and Scot, the thrill of being in a band with dUg is “how an Elvis fan would feel forming a band with Elvis,” Jabo relates. “And the fact that we’re all on the same page is so cool it’s almost unbelievable.

“We’re trying to push the boundaries of a genre that can be stale if you’re not careful,” he continues. “But we’ve got the right blend of chops, energy and love for the blues to really breathe some fire into it.”

Marky Ramone is best known for the 15 years he spent drumming for the legendary Ramones.

In the spring of 1978, Marky joined the Ramones. In a matter of weeks he was in the studio recording his first album with The Ramones entitled, “Road to Ruin”, which features one of the biggest Ramones songs “I Wanna Be Sedated”. The following year the Ramones filmed the cult classic “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School”. Later that year, they joined forces with producer legend, Phil Spector to record “End Of The Century”.

Kottonmouth Kings is an American hip hop group formed in Placentia, Orange County, California in 1996 by D-Loc and Saint Dog. The group is known for their activism in favor of legalizing cannabis, and often performing lyrics about smoking marijuana. The group plays hip hop, punk and rap rock songs that sometimes incorporate elements of other genres, including psychedelic rock, reggae, dubstep, bluegrass and jam band.

Crazy Town is an American rap rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995 by Bret Mazur and Seth Binzer. Crazy Town is best known for their 2000 hit single, “Butterfly”, which reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and helped their debut album, The Gift of Game sell over 1.5 million units.

In January 2017, after a year of hiatus from the band, Epic announced through his Facebook post that he will no longer tour with the band. Epic intends to still be involved with Crazy Town, though not as a band member. Following Mazur’s departure, Rick Dixon, Nick Diiorio and Kevin Kapler also left the band in early April. Shifty decided to add an “X” next to the band’s name. When asked about the letter’s significance on their Instagram account, the band stated “the X is used by gangs to symbolize a territory that has just been won”.

Fueled by an insatiable urge to create and collaborate, heavy metal’s latest incarnation seeks to challenge all that we believe to be true with their new project Disciples of Verity (DOV). Featuring such heavy-hitters as Corey Glover (Living Colour), Corey Pierce (God Forbid), George Pond (Negative Sky) and Greg Antine (MADJUL), this all-star band is unleashing an onslaught to the senses with a new sound that can only be described as “a new breed of crossover Metal”.

The band formed just over a year ago after mutual projects brought the foursome together. With Pond as the common denominator, having played with each of the artists throughout his career, his songs with Antine were quickly embraced by the others and work on their debut album Pragmatic Sanction started immediately.

Over the next eight months, DOV feverishly cranked out eight heavy, hook-laden songs with one distinct element—their infectious, melodic grooves. Ranging from Hardcore, Metalcore and even Active Rock, the band knew that their debut would be like nothing else in the industry and brought in a veritable “who’s who” of the hard rock and metal industry to up the ante.

Platinum-Selling and Grammy-Award winning artists including Morgan Rose (Sevendust), Phil Demmel (Machine Head), Jeff Loomis (Arch Enemy), Tara McLeod (Kitty), Mike Antine (Majul) JJ Sammataro (Negative Sky) and solo artist Joe Gareri made special guest appearances on the CD, making it one of the biggest metal collaborations to date.

“I had a few of these amazing artists in mind while writing this material,” said Pond. “I know this sounds a little crazy but it’s true. I picked the song each player would play on according to what I thought would best suit them. I am such a fan of all of their work and each guest did such a great job and brought so much dimension to this record.”

Pragmatic Sanction was produced by Pond and Charlie Berezansky (Vexas) at Rival Sound Studios in Barnegat, NJ with additional production by Jay Muench and Corey Pierce. Engineering was provided by Muench at GORGRIN studios in Toms River, NJ, Pond at Spidersound in Jackson, NJ, Berezansky at Rival Sound and Corey Lowery (Seether) in Atlanta, GA.

A true labor of love by some of the best musicians and professionals in the industry today, Pragmatic Sanction is not only a testament to DOV’s creativity and ingenuity but finally a project worthy of posing the question “Am I a seeker of truth or simply a Disciple Of Verity?”.

Although formed in 1983 in Paramus, NJ, Trixter’s big break didn’t come until 1989, when the band decamped to Hollywood to record for MCA Records. The following year saw Trixter touring the country with Stryperand Don Dokken in support of their self-titled debut, which received a significant boost from MTV. Vocalist Peter Loran, guitarist Steve Brown, bassist P.J. Farley, and drummer Mark “Gus” Scott became frequent faces on the music network, where the videos for “Give It to Me Good,” “One in a Million,” and “Surrender” all fell into regular rotation. Trixter went gold in early 1991, having sold over 500,000 copies in the U.S., and the bandmates increased their popularity by joining the “Blood, Sweat, and Beers Tour” (which also featured Warrant and Firehouse) and contributing to the soundtrack for If Looks Could Kill. Today Trixter continues to tour thr world to sold out shows.

Each time Firewind released an album over the last 20 years, it wasn’t just the brilliancy of exceptional guitarist Gus G (Ozzy Osbourne, Arch Enemy, Dream Evil) that fans were in awe of, but also the skills of every one of the band’s vocalists. Fantastic riffs, hooks and solos by the gifted hands of guitarist Gus aside, it’s the great vocal melody – an integral part of every Firewind song – that’s causing a stir. In that respect nothing has changed in their newest album, simply titled Firewind, quite the contrary: with his charismatic voice new member Herbie Langhans (Avantasia, Radiant, Seventh Avenue, amongst others) refines each and every last one of the ten new songs and infuses them with an expressive force that is remarkable. “With Herbie I feel like we’re doing a relaunch of the original Firewind cast, because his singing style bears a certain resemblance to that of Stephen Fredrick, our first vocalist,” comments Gus. “I’m proud and happy that we can continue with the tradition of great Firewind vocalists thanks to Herbie.” On 15 May 2020 at the latest, when Firewind will be released via AFM, the public will hear just how competently new band member Langhans has stepped up to this challenge.

The Beatles Rock Show’s mission statement is simple: “ROCK THE HOUSE!”

Imagine a band playing a full-length, high-energy rock show of Beatles, Lennon, and McCartney’s hits wrapped up in the style of an arena rock band. This is The Beatles Rock Show!

More than just a show, it’s a musical experience, and after gracing some of the biggest festivals and stages across the world, this band is second to none.

With millions of units sold, and countless TV and movie credits, The Beatles Rock Show’s core musicians have been members of Enuff Z’nuff, Steven Adler, Ultravox, Missing Persons, When In Rome and more.

This band truly brings it home. It’s the Beatles with Marshall stacks, ’80s rock attitude, and one hell of a party. By no means a regular cover band, The Beatles Rock Show pulls no punches, from the first song to the last.

Concept: 90’s front men and players perform their hits, as well as a full set list of 90’s songs.

Members: Vinnie Dombroski from Sponge, Zac Maloy from The Nixons, Todd Pipes from Deep Blue Something and Michael Jerome from Better Than Ezra

Sample set list:

Plowed-Sponge

In the Meantime-Spacehog

Would-Alice in Chains

Bittersweet Symhony-The Verve

Alive-Pearl Jam

No Rain-Blind Melon

Come as You Are-Nirvana

Champagne Supernova-Oasis

Sister-The Nixons

Santa Monica-Everclear

Hunger Strike-Temple of the Dog

Interstate Love Song-STP

Breakfast at Tiffanys-Deep Blue Something

Closing Time-Semisonic

Get What You Give-New Radicals

Molly-Sponge

Black Hole Sun- Soundgarden