Motorhead roars ahead

(Aug. 31, 1995)

Even as he approaches his 50th birthday on Christmas Eve, Motorhead frontman Lemmy has no thoughts of retirement. None whatsoever.

"I'm not the type to putter about the garden," the brash lead singer-bassist said recently. "Turning 50 doesn't make a difference to me. Rock 'n' roll is still in my blood, and this is still a helluva lot of fun. If it wasn't, we wouldn't be doing this."

Now in its 20th year, Motorhead - Lemmy, guitarist Phil Campbell and drummer Mikkey Dee - continues its brand of supercharged rock on its 18th album, "Sacrifice" (released in the spring on CMC International). It's everything a diehard Motorhead fan expects.

"We make albums as good as we can make them," Lemmy said. "Our vision is being the best we can be. There are no plans, no real agenda. This is straightahead rock 'n' roll. It's what this world needs more of."

Lemmy, once a member of the British psychedelic rock band Hawkwind, said he formed Motorhead in 1975 with American sonic-boomers MC5 in mind.

"For me, it was 'Kick Out the Jams' (in 1969)," he said. "At first, I didn't like the album, but it definitely grew on me. I always thought their second album ('Back in the USA') was much better. It was a good band, with a good approach, and that's what we were after."

BWF (before we forget): Rev up with Motorhead on the Web @ www.imotorhead.com or www.cmcinternational.com.

To the moon and back for Moxy Fruvous

(July 10, 1997)

Moxy Fruvous, the platinum-selling pop quartet from Toronto, strayed a bit from its busking roots on its second album, "Wood," in 1995. But bassist-vocalist Murray Foster says he and singer-guitarist Mike Ford, multi-instrumentalist Dave Matheson and drummer Jian Ghomeshi are back to their old witty, sardonic selves with their Bottom Line debut "You Will Go to the Moon."

"For 'Wood,' we split our personalities with a serious side and a funny side," Foster said recently. "After touring that album for a year, we decided we wanted to do something eclectic, upbeat and funny. That's who we are. We had a bit of an identity crisis before, in some ways."

An album doesn't get any more experimental than "You Will Go to the Moon": There's pop songs, accordion love songs, gangsta banjo hip-hop, even a Beck-like cover version of the Bee Gees' "I've Gotta Get a Message to You."

For Moxy Fruvous, like brethen Barenaked Ladies, it's all about having a sense of humor.

"I think Canadians, for whatever reason, are funny people," Foster said, laughing. "People ask us, 'What's in the drinking water there?' It's partly because we're a smaller country that has no sort of ego. We're really not No. 1 in anything. We're very humble about it. There's no delusions of grandeur."

BWF (before we forget): Check out Moxy Fruvous on the Web @ www.warnermusic.ca/moxyfruvous/index.html, or send e-mail to moxy@passport.ca..

Mudhoney's 'Tomorrow Hit Today'

(Oct. 25, 1998)

Mudhoney went for broke with its latest Reprise album, "Tomorrow Hit Today" (released Sept. 22).

One of the few remaining vestiges of the long-lost grunge era, the Seattle quartet hooked up with producer Jim Dickinson (Rolling Stones, Replacements, Big Star) and split time between Pearl Jam's Litho studio and legendary Ardent studios in Memphis. And singer-guitarist Mark Arm, guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Matt Lukin and drummer Dan Peters finally had the recording budget to back it up.

"We've recorded usually pretty cheaply, here at home, with no big-name producer or anything like that," Turner said recently. "We figured most likely we're not going to be given the chance to go spend $150,000 on a record again. That's a small budget but for us it was huge; the Smashing Pumpkins could probably spend that in a day and a half, but for us it was either now or never for that, since we hadn't before. That's why we went for more of a big-budget recording this time around.

"The biggest thing I noticed, besides having Jim Dickinson there for the recording process - of course, he was a big chunk of money right there; he was a great asset to us - but also the guy that mixed the record, David Bianco, and what he was capable of getting out of the sounds that were already on the tape. It really made a difference."

The group had more time to fine-tune and rehearse the songs live before going into the studio; they also had so many songs to choose from, they were able to be more selective of what would stay and what would go, Turner said.

"A lot of times, a year after a record comes out," he said, "we'd go, 'Yeah, remember those eight songs we shelved and put on B-sides? We should've actually used those on the record and gotten rid of half the songs that were actually on the record.' This album flows pretty good. It sounds more like a unified record, and I think having the extra time really helped."

Mudhoney got signed to Reprise at the height of the Nirvana/all-things-Seattle frenzy in 1992, but the group was a modern-day Blue Cheer when it formed in 1988, long before grunge became a category to describe "the Seattle scene."

"The 'Touch Me I'm Sick' single, a lot of people consider that the first national exposure of some of these bands in Seattle," Turner said. "We were there, I'll tell you that, but we certainly didn't start it. It's a very out-of-fashion term now. And it's not like we loved being called grunge; we accepted it, that's fine. Historically, that's probably how we're going to be remembered in the footnotes of the rock history books under Seattle grunge bands. Okay, fine, whatever."

BWF (before we forget): Sweeten up to Mudhoney on the Web @ www.RepriseRec.com.

The Muffs are alert and alive

(Aug. 1, 1999)

Kim Shattuck and the rest of The Muffs know when they're not wanted.

After the veteran Los Angeles-based punk-rock trio finished its third Reprise album ("Happy Birthday to Me") in 1997, the label gave them the cold shoulder and told Shattuck, in essence, don't expect any publicity support for the album.

"Only if it did well on its own were they going to even try," the singer-guitarist said recently. "They even gave us the option of putting the album out some other way, but we were like, 'Oh, we just want it to come out.' Consequently, they didn't try. They used even meaner words.

"When it came out, we were really excited about it and did a really good tour. The album did well, but it was mostly because of the loyal fans and not any new converts. After that, we hoped they'd drop us and not treat us like Mary's Danish or something, be stuck on the label forever and have to break up. We weren't going to break up no matter what. Fuck that. I was hinting to them, 'Please drop us.' Finally, it was a mutual parting of ways, but at the same time you do feel slightly rejected. Boo-hoo."

Shattuck, bassist Ronnie Barnett and drummer Roy McDonald didn't get mad or try to get even. They just went about their business of creating more crunchy, bare-bones punk rock, just as they did when they formed in January 1991.

"Despite being canned from Reprise, my motives for being in a band are pretty much the same: to express myself," Shattuck said. "I really, really like doing this, and I really don't care who hears it, in a way. You have to not worry about the business side of it and not really care, though it's disconcerting to have people say, 'You should've been bigger.' It's like, 'Why?' I'm still making the same records I would've made either way, so it doesn't really matter."

Undaunted, The Muffs have resurfaced with their fourth album, "Alert Today Alive Tomorrow," on Honest Don's, a power-pop subsidiary of punk-rock imprint Fat Wreck Chords.

It's their most commercial-sounding effort to date, from The Who-like refrains of "I Wish That I Could Be You" to the instrumental "Jack Champagne."

"Basically, the lyrics are angry toward myself this time," Shattuck said. "I got it out of my system and I feel so much better now. I was just having a bunch of weird feelings, craziness, and it came out in the lyrics. I think I'm okay now. I'm not going to slice my throat or anything."

"Alert Today Alive Tomorrow" also was easily their most cost-effective.

"I just hope it gets out there better than our past records," Shattuck said. "We made the most poppy-sounding record on an indie and we made our rough-sounding records on a major label. We spent more money on the major to make a more shitty-sounding record, then we get less money and make a poppier, more commercial-sounding record on an indie. We're just rebels, and that was all doing it naturally, without thought, no premeditation at all."

BWF (before we forget): If you've never heard of The Muffs, perhaps this will refresh your memory - They did a version of Kim Wilde's "Kids in America" for the "Clueless" film soundtrack; they appeared in the premiere episode of the "Clueless" TV series; Shattuck had a small role in the movie "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion," and the band appeared in the Robin Williams-Billy Crystal film "Father's Day." ... Catch up with The Muffs on the Web @ www.honestdons.com.

Mulu stands tall in trip-hop crowd

(Feb. 26, 1998)

Alan Edmunds didn't know quite what to think of Laura Campbell when they first met, but that didn't stop him from enlisting her to be the lead singer of his British trip-hop group Mulu.

"When my friend pulled up in his car, there was Laura hopping out and skipping across the road," Edmunds said, laughing. "I thought she was mad before she even got into my house."

By the end of the night, Campbell was singing her lungs out in Edmunds' closet. That was all he needed to hear.

"I was mainly looking for a singer, because I had been doing instrumentals and I got kind of fed up with that," Edmunds said. "I wanted a singer, male or female, but everyone I auditioned was terrible and strange and very weird. But, later on, Laura came in and did these spontaneous vocals on a four-track and I sampled them all at a later date. It worked perfectly. We jelled instantly."

Campbell's sultry voice and evocative lyrics and Edmunds' programming wizardry go hand in hand on Mulu's debut Dedicated album, "Smiles Like a Shark." Like those before it - Everything But the Girl, Portishead, Olive - Mulu has an entrancing sound, best evidenced in the leadoff single "Pussycat." Slowly but surely, radio stations - particularly in California - are catching wind of it.

Much like back home.

"We're not mega-stars here," Campbell said, "but it's done pretty well. It's building steadily, selling more and more as the months go by. A lot of it is word of mouth, as well. A lot of bands in this sort of niche have had that happen to them. You have to be patient."

To have come this far is a major accomplishment. Campbell had a drama degree from Liverpool John Moores University and was looking for an outlet for her ideas when she hooked up with Edmunds, a reputable remixer for such acts as Bjork, OMD and Utah Saints.

"I've worked with a lot of shitheads before, so it was quite nice to meet someone new who wasn't an egomaniac and just wanted to do his stuff without going 'I want my drums laid in,' 'I want the big guitar here.' The only problem is he has to put up with my ego," Campbell said, giggling.

"We had written these songs and it was completely by chance that we got our manager (Pete Byrne). We had recorded the album in almost a year, and all we wanted to do was: I love going out live, we wanted to do really well at it and make a living writing this kind of music."

Edmunds, for one, is having the time of his life.

"You can't classify this as a job, because you enjoy it so much," he said. "It's more of a hobby, and you get paid for it. There's a lot more worse things to be doing."

BWF (before we forget): Snuggle up to Mulu on the Web @ www.dedicated.co.uk .

Trish Murphy cultivates 'Rubies On the Lawn'

(Aug. 15, 1999)

Austin-based singer-songwriter Trish Murphy felt there was something missing from her 1997 indie-label debut album, "Crooked Mile": pop sensibility.

It came to her just in time for her winning Doolittle/Mercury debut, "Rubies on the Lawn" (released July 20).

"When I came out with all these songs for what became 'Rubies on the Lawn,' the songs just demanded a different treatment," the Houston native said recently. "I was happy about it, because I could see what they were; they were the strongest melodies I had ever written, and that was progress really to celebrate.

"Lyrically, what I achieved was a lot more freedom, that the songs became less about specifics and less about biography and became more about universal experience. That's something you grow into."

Murphy is a true do-it-yourself marvel. She released "Crooked Mile" on her own label, sold 10,000 copies and earned critical praise. One music writer likened her country, rock and folk blend to "Sheryl Crow minus the city attitude."

Keeping her name out front, Murphy performed on such nationally syndicated radio shows as "World Cafe," "Mountain Stage" and New York's "Idiot's Delight." She also toured Europe and played Lilith Fair's second stage.

Like the subject of "Me Behind the Wheel," the second track on "Rubies on the Lawn," Murphy likes the feeling of being in control of her own destiny.

"What's been a surprise for me, and this might be a function of being on an independent label, it seems like it's all or nothing," Murphy said. "I used to have this sort of unsubstantiated fantasy that as I increased the size of my team I would have people who were well-versed or specialized in certain aspects of it that could help navigate me through the decision-making process. But what I have found, the team is bigger, but everyone still defers to me for the final decisions on things. It's so cool.

"When control is taken out of your hands, that's when you end up with, for example, videos that don't express anything of your own personal vision about a song. The more control you maintain, sure the blame falls to you if things don't work, but I think by a long shot you greatly increase the odds of success because they stay consistent with your vision and not get sidetracked by someone else's vision of what you should be.

"The bottom line is, listeners respond better to authenticity more than anything else. That's always been my target mark. I don't really care about anything else but that."

Though Murphy may be analytical about her career - she can afford to be, she has a bachelor's degree in philosophy - she still likes to shake things up, especially onstage.

"It's a rock show, and it seems to catch people by surprise," she said. "And just when people make a foregone conclusion about what it is, they see what it is, and that saves me from the pigeonhole of being compared to other female artists."

BWF (before we forget): Get up close and personal with Trish Murphy on the Web @ www.trishmurphy.com.

Anne Murray's just getting started

(Jan. 12, 1995)

If there's a way to make Anne Murray indignant, it's suggesting that her career is anywhere near over.

When the time inevitably came to anthologize her life's work into a CD box set, spanning from her 1970 breakthrough hit "Snowbird" to the '78 No. 1 "You Needed Me" and beyond, Murray put her foot down on what to name it.

"They were going to call it 'The Best of Anne Murray,' " she said with a laugh recently from her Toronto office, "but I said, 'Wait a minute, no you don't. Call it 'The Best Up Until Now' or 'So Far' or something.

"At one point when they were telling me about the box set, people were talking like it's over. I'm not 50 years old, for God's sake. I'm not done yet."

Murray, naturally, won the name game, and the 20-cut compilation "The Best ... So Far" (SBK/EMI) was born. The single CD, issued last month, is a primer for the 65-track box set, which will be released later this year.

Considering Murray's chart success - plus several Grammy and CMA awards and her standing as the first Canadian female artist ever to score a gold record in America (with "Snowbird") - it's surprising to hear the native of Nova Scotia say that she feared becoming a one-hit wonder in the early '70s.

"There was about two and a half years between 'Snowbird' and 'Danny Song,' and there were certainly a lot of times when there were doubts as to whether I could ever have another hit record," she said.

She especially had her doubts after she lobbied hard for the gospel-tinged "Put Your Hand in the Hand" as the follow-up single to "Snowbird," but her label then - Capitol - opted for "Sing High, Sing Low," which promptly fizzled. Then the Canadian pop group Ocean put out its version of "Put Your Hand in the Hand," and it peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's pop chart.

"I couldn't believe it, so I got very discouraged at that stage," Murray said, "because I believed in that song. Of course, it sold 2 million records for Ocean. It took me some time to get back some confidence."

Good thing she did: Murray, who has a degree in physical education to fall back on (just in case), has since been one of the top-selling female artists in the pop and country fields over the past 25 years.

At her peak, she joked, "I could have probably sung in Chinese and it would've been released and been a hit. I say the same thing about Kenny Rogers, when he had a run of hits like that.

"My career has been phenomenal ... very long and very endearing. I can still go out and do concerts to full houses, and I don't know how but I do. I still look over my shoulder sometimes and go, 'What the hell are all these people doing here?' "

Among the highlights over those 25 years was a visit from John Lennon backstage at the Grammys in 1974. He told her that her version of "You Won't See Me" was the best cover of a Beatles song he had ever heard.

"That and being Elvis' favorite singer," she said. "I heard it from Linda Thompson, who was his girlfriend at the time he died. She was interviewed after (he died) and said that I was Elvis' favorite female singer. That was a biggie for me."

BWF (before we forget): Murray's self-titled album (on SBK) in 1996 was dedicated to her longtime manager, Leonard T. Rambeau, who died in 1995. ... Fans can visit her on the Web @ www.annemurray.com or send e-mail to amurray@emimusic.ca.

'Size' isn't everything for Muzzle

(March 21, 1999)

Ryan Maxwell and Wesley Nelson, singers-guitarists for the Seattle power-pop group Muzzle, have been through the wringer since their Reprise debut album, "Betty Pickup," in 1996.

Original bassist Greg Collinsworth and drummer Burke Thomas were let go; Pete Donnelly and Mike Levesque filled in for them in the studio for the group's follow-up album, "Actual Size." Bassist Brad Nabors and drummer Jim Wilding joined the permanent lineup and recorded two more tracks, then Wilding was canned in favor of Michael Shore.

To make matters worse, the release date for "Actual Size" was pushed back several times. It finally was issued March 9, not a moment too soon for Maxwell.

"It felt like an eternity, especially when you're writing material for the next album," he said recently. "The last two songs on the album got added, those were songs that would've been on the third album - if there is a third album, knock on wood."

Maxwell said "Actual Size" is "the culmination of two solid years of heartbreak," but he tries to put a positive spin on it.

"I'm not going to say anything bad about any of those guys," he said, "because they're all really nice and good players. What it really came down to was a question of personalities meshing. We just had to find the right personalities, because we figured if we had to spend a lot of time on the road, we wanted to have it run very smoothly, and it hadn't done that in the past."

Muzzle's quest for perfection pays off on "Actual Size," which effortlessly moves from energetic rock excursions to compressed pop tracks. The Maxwell-Nelson vision is its most focused on "Drop the Needle," an ode to the long lost days of vinyl.

"I wouldn't want to be too nostalgic for it," Maxwell said, "because I think any new tool that's at our disposal is good. There's going to be bad elements of any medium, but I miss vinyl. I miss the way it sounds, I miss the size of the packaging. It's great to physically hold an album in your hands."

Think of Seattle and the term "grunge" comes up. Seattle is much more than that, Maxwell said.

"Power-pop and Supersuckers rock is what's pretty much going on in Seattle, and then you have Built to Spill, indie-type stuff," he said. "There's a huge common misconception about Seattle, and I'm sure I'm not the first one to say that grunge was never really present in Seattle. The bands that fell into the category 'grunge' just happened to be popular at the time. Before they became popular, they were playing with each other and other weird bands. It was a big community of groups playing together.

"It just so happens that the combination of punk and heavy metal happened to hit a chord with people. If you want to call that grunge, fine, but god I get so sick of that word."

The band's only mantra for the album was to write good songs, Maxwell said.

""There wasn't too much preplanning or pretension put into the whole thing," he said. "We just let whatever best songs we had come out, and they just keep getting better. I'm excited to hear the third album, because our songwriting keeps getting better.

"I think ('Actual Size') will do well, but I don't foresee gold or anything like that. I have a feeling we'll definitely get a chance, an opportunity to bring it to people. Then it's just really up to them. If they like it, they like it, then we'll probably be all right, and if they don't, too bad for us. Another casualty."

THE FIRST RECORD I EVER BOUGHT: "Kiss' 'Destroyer.' I had the good fortune of having parents who listened to really great music. My first three records from them were Chuck Berry's 'Greatest Hits,' 'Meet the Beatles' and Elvis' '69 comeback ('From Elvis in Memphis')."

THE FIRST CONCERT I EVER WENT TO: "Kiss again. For it to be my first rock concert, it was pretty amazing, because all rock concerts since then pale in comparison. I mean, there was fire, and it wasn't a little bit of fire; there was 20-foot columns of fire, big flash pots. Ace Frehley's guitar flew around the room, he shot Roman candles out of it and it burst into flames. He had this clear guitar with the lights lighting up inside. Gene Simmons spit fire and blood. Paul Stanley smashed a guitar. It's pretty hard to top that."

BWF (before we forget): Nuzzle up to Muzzle on the Web @ www.RepriseRec.com/muzzle.

If this is a dream, don't wake up Billie Myers

(Dec. 11, 1997)

With a hit song climbing Billboard's pop chart and a critically acclaimed album, Billie Myers feels like she's smack in the middle of a fairy tale.

"I do feel like a Cinderella story. I'm Cinderella and when twelve o'clock comes, I'll change back into a maid," the Jamaican-English singer-songwriter said recently of her rising single "Kiss the Rain" and her Universal Records debut album "Growing, Pains."

"It's like someone's out there, like Universal's my Prince Charming and they're holding the shoe and I hope I fit it. When the ball is over at 12, I hope my fairy godmother doesn't come down and change me back to the Billie Myers I once was. I hope they give me a couple of extra hours."

No problem. Universal and EMI's publishing company are in it for the long haul after investing a lot of confidence in Myers' promising abilities, teaming her with producer Desmond Child and powerhouse songwriters Peter Vale, Peter Q. Harris, David Austin, George Hutchinson and former Hooters member Eric Bazilian.

Myers lived up to their expectations, creating honest, heartfelt songs, particularly "Kiss the Rain," now at No. 66 and climbing on Billboard's pop chart. The song addresses long distance relationships and the accompanying insecurities.

"I'd like to think that somewhere in the world someone is singing 'Kiss the Rain' for someone they're really missing," Myers said. "I remember one of the first boyfriends I ever had, separated by so many miles, he gave me Sade's 'Your Love Is King' and wrote on it 'Your Love Is Queen.' I remember that now, especially with 'Kiss the Rain' being out, because when I hear people on the radio saying 'I'm in a long-distance affair,' I understand that. I've been there."

Above all, Myers wanted to avoid being labeled another "angry young woman." She wanted her songs to evoke hope and positivism.

"I also wanted to make sure the album retained an eclectic nature, which shows the humor side of me with 'The Shark and the Mermaid' and the idealistic side of me with 'Much Change Too Soon' and the paranoid side with 'Kiss the Rain,' wondering what that other person is doing without you," she said.

"I wanted to stay honest and true to things that happened in my life, so that when I'm asked about them, I would know what I was talking about, and that when I sung them, I wouldn't get bored of them, because they were real."

Myers, who now lives in Miami Beach, pinches herself daily over her good fortunes.

"It's not my god-given right to be here, and I think maybe the difference is, is that I know that," she said. "A lot of people who have worked incredibly hard and then suddenly get snooty with the public, they don't realize that we are very lucky. There are hundreds of releases every week, some better than ours or certainly as good as ours, and either the record company or a radio station gets behind you. If you don't lose sight of that, you can enjoy it. Bottom line, I love what I'm doing."

BWF (before we forget): "Kiss the Rain" peaked at No. 15 in February 1998; the album reached No. 91. ... Billie Myers fans can gather on the Web @ members.itw.com/~kircmit.

Down but not out, Alannah Myles makes her 'Arival'

(May 3, 1998)

Alannah Myles is looking forward to the day when "one-hit wonder" doesn't precede her name.

Few artists in the 1990s have soared so high and tumbled so quickly than the Canadian singer-songwriter. In 1990, she literally was on top of the world; her debut hit, the slow-burn rocker "Black Velvet," went No. 1 in a handful of countries, including the United States, where the single and her self-titled debut album each sold more than 1 million copies. She also snared the Grammy Award for best rock female vocal performance and toured with Robert Plant, Tina Turner and Simple Minds.

And, technically, she wasn't even a one-hit wonder. Her follow-up single, "Love Is," cracked the Top 40.

But excessive touring, extremely high expectations, an unflattering reputation and a communication breakdown with Atlantic took a toll on Myles. In a flash, she went from international pop star to a difficult trivia question on VH1's game show "My Generation" (imagine contestants staring blankly after being asked "Who sang 'Black Velvet'?").

"I know I have to explain it, where I've been all this time," Myles said recently from her Toronto home, "because Americans have no idea what happened to me. Like George Michael, I had a fallout with my record company. It was terrible; it kept me in a prison for a year.

"I had mentally broken down from the exhaustion of the year and a half or two years it took touring and promoting the record. I was very close to death's door on a few sobering occasions, and I'm still alive to talk about it. I'm happy, and I managed to turn my life around and felt perhaps maybe this was a calling, if I survived."

Myles not only has survived, she has flourished with the arrival of her debut ARK 21 album, "Arival" (as in, "a rival"), released April 10. Her first album since 1995's "Alannah," "Arival" is typically diverse, filled with passion and driven by skill. Her raw, engaging voice is still there, but it has lost its angry edge, a sure sign that she is at peace with herself.

"I wanted it to be an organic, acoustically based retrospective of some of the favorite song styles and songwriting that I've remembered in my youth, like Marlene Dietrich or Leonard Cohen," Myles said. "It's a hybrid of complex characters and things that have moved me and collected for the album, mostly integrated in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young or Fleetwood Mac. The rockier stuff came from more of the same, what fans have come to expect on my records.

"In my head, the next album is my favorite, but this one is a good representative of its time. It's still current, it still has a contemporaryness to it. As a songwriter, it's definitely my coup, because I collaborate on all the songs except one."

"Arival" is a nice transition for her, Myles said, especially after her last album failed miserably.

"This is doing real well in Europe," she said, "but it's tough in Canada because of the reputation for someone who has achieved that high stature of success, they tend to be little hard on you if you've made a big impact and word got out that you were this or that. Reputations are all escalated to epic proportions; you might as well get into movies because now you're a star in their eyes for being an absolute dragon lady."

When it comes to music videos, Myles pretty much concedes that there is no market for her.

"I'm not country, I'm not new-wave rock, I'm not grunge, I'm not Celine Dion. What am I?" she said. "This is the problem: Is there a slot for me? There never was a slot for me; there wasn't one for 'Black Velvet' either. I made a rock record that went against the style of that period, and lo and behold, it's a bluesy song, it comes out and goes No. 1 all around the world. Go figure.

"I've never really had an identity, per se, because I do so many different things, so if I just keep on performing and do what I do best, word of mouth will travel and I believe the listeners will make it happen."

Confidence, self-reliance and a dash of humor kept her going through the hard times.

"What can you do? You have to keep your sense of humor," Myles said. "The level of success I've had can turn you into a has-been after the sophomore jinx, but you know, the irony is when I began in Toronto, I was treated by the people at the record company (in Canada) like a has-been even before I had a hit record.

"If I had to do it all over again, I'd still do it the same way. I don't like what happened, because I worked hard for my success, but if it's meant to be, my talent will win out and I will have success again."

BWF (before we forget): The Alannah Myles album discography - "Alannah Myles" (Atlantic, 1990); "Rockinghorse" (1992); "Alannah" (1995); "Arival" (ARK 21, 1998). ... Herald her arrival on the Web @ www.ark21.com.

From obscurity to life in My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult

(Sept. 10, 1993)

Jacky Blacque is just minding her own business, sharing a drink with a few girlfriends in a dimly lit, smoke-filled Chicago cocktail lounge.

In walks Buzz McCoy, a filmmaker turned leader of the self-described tabloid-rock band My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. He sees her from across the room, and without knowing her name or whether she had a passable singing voice, recruits her and the others to become the backup Bomb Gang Girlz.

Like right out of Hollywood, he tells Blacque, "I'm gonna make you a star."

Now she's a firm disciple of the Kult. When she's not singing, she's working audiences into a frenzy with her leather hot pants and go-go boots.

Sounds like an idea for an ABC sitcom? Anything's possible.

"They didn't know us from Adam," Blacque says of McCoy and Thrill Kill Kult cohort Groovie Mann. "I hadn't heard of them, and this was even before they had gone to Belgium to record their first album. I just thought, 'Ah, it's just another drunk guy coming up to me,' but little did I know."

Behind the zaniness of McCoy and Mann lurks boundless creativity. The pair, originally setting out to make a post-punk gothic thriller movie with a friend's video camera, also put their offbeat ideas down on lyrical paper for a soundtrack album.

Wax Trax Records somehow heard the demos, signed them, and eventually, the movie fell by the wayside. Six years later, the Thrill Kill Kult have unleashed their fourth frenetic album, "13 Above the Night" (Interscope/Atlantic).

Like the Kult's other efforts, "13 Above the Night" is a techno cum disco concept, complete with endless samples of dialogue from bad B-movies.

Many fans of the band's early metal-like sound were turned off by the Kult's '91 near-disco album "Sexplosion!" and are likely to stay turned off by "13 Above the Night."

"Since 'Sexplosion!' is probably the only thing that they've heard, it's just one album among a whole bunch," Blacque says in defense. "It's not the same as the one before that, so I guess you have to roll with the changes. I think all of our albums have a different flavor to them."

McCoy and Mann's fixation with everyday happenings and pop culture have rubbed off on Blacque.

"Well, I've always been a fan of those bad slasher movies, so I guess they could tell, without knowing me, that I fit the bill for them," Blacque says with a laugh. "A lot of the movies they watch, I hadn't seen before. But when I sat down and watched them, I just had to laugh."

Blacque also unabashedly admits to buying supermarket tabloid magazines, much of which fuels the ideas for the Thrill Kill Kult's sleaze-based songs.

"What, don't you read the Weekly World News?" she asks.

As for the long-lost Thrill Kill Kult movie, Blacque says 90 percent still remains fresh in the minds of McCoy and Mann. In the meantime, Kult followers can look for the band's cameo appearance in the upcoming film "The Crow."

BWF (before we forget): Blacque is no longer with the Kult. The band returned in 1997 on Red Ant Entertainment with the album "A Crime For All Seasons." ... The Thrill Kill Kult album discography - "My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult" EP (1988); "I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits" (1988); "Some Have to Dance ... Some Have to Kill" EP (1989); "Kooler Than Jesus" EP (1990); "Confessions of a Knife" (1990); "Sexplosion!" (1991); "13 Above the Night" (1993); "Hit & Run Holiday" (1995); "A Crime For All Seasons" (1997).

Make room for Mytown: a self-sufficient boy band

(May 21, 2000)

Cynics may roll their eyes when they hear that another boy band has entered the fray.

They may change their minds when they see and listen to mytown, Ireland's answer to Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync.

They're the real deal.

"There is a bit of a stigma over here with boy bands, the way the whole thing is going with 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, but we're out there doing our thing," Marc Sheehan, one-quarter of the R&B-flavored pop group, said recently. "There isn't a stigma, though, when we go on the road, because we have the experience of doing big shows in parks and doing the radio shows. There's no stigma when we're onstage; everybody seems to be really cool about it. It's difficult when you do radio or TV things, and they don't know anything about you, they go, 'Oh, they're another boy band,' but when they see us perform, they change their whole perspective."

Unlike their multiplatinum rivals, mytown members - Sheehan, Paul Walker, Danny O'Donoghue and Terry Daly - sing, write their own songs, play instruments (hey, what a concept!) and dance.

The Dublin natives will try to win over American teenyboppers and pop lovers with their self-titled debut Cherry Entertainment/Universal album, due May 23.

"You read constantly about a band, but you never get to see them. It gets a bit tiring, and then you start jumping on to the next band that's coming out," Daly said. "It's just a matter of us getting out there and getting in people's faces. Enough reading about mytown; let's see what mytown can do."

Mytown can certainly assemble a powerful team behind it. After winning a deal with Cherry, the group hooked up with Guy and BLACKstreet leader Teddy Riley, who produced three of the album's 12 tracks, including a remake of Wham!'s "Everything She Wants," and co-wrote the groove-laced "Body Bumpin'." Narada Michael Walden (Whitney Houston) was behind the boards for "Love Sent Angel," and Boyz II Men members Shawn Stockman and Wanya Morris had a production hand in "C'mon Everybody," "The Day" and the single "Lifetime Affair."

"At first, I was really intimidated about working with Boyz II Men," O'Donoghue said. "I've grown up listening to them, them being the harmony gods of the planet. Eventually we went into the studio with Wanya (Morris), and it was nothing but friendly and full of advice. They accepted all of our ideas. We thought maybe we'd sit down in the studio and maybe do a vocal. But they were great. They accepted all our ideas and we worked so well together in the studio."

The hardest part about making the album was whittling a wish list of 50 tracks down to 12. It was so time-consuming that the album's release date was moved from November to seven months later.

"We had a huge creative row over which songs we wanted on the album and which songs the record company felt should be on the album," Sheehan said. "They're very experienced people, so we don't know a lot about radio or how the music scene works. We just know what we like to hear. We were picky and wanted a certain set of songs on the album, but the creative battling we had with everybody was worthwhile. The 12 songs we picked were the ones that are working for us right now. That's what delayed the whole process."

"When you have a creative battle like that," Walker said, "it's more constructive than anything else. You feel like you're moving forward because you're learning something, like how to deal with those situations. Somebody brings up a cool point and you go, 'Oh, yeah, I didn't know that.' We're only babies in this business, and we wouldn't have known so the record company guided us in the right direction."

Make no mistake, mytown isn't the pawn of some megalomaniacal producer who choreographs their every move. They make their owns decisions, including moving to the United States for the time being to get their careers off the ground.

"Before we got signed, we couldn't get signed abroad, like in Europe, because people said 'A boy band that plays instruments isn't going to work,' " Sheehan said. "When we came to America, they said, 'This should work. This is the killer thing, a boy band that plays instruments.' It took us a long time to get signed. We had no money. We went through the whole thing trying to support ourselves over here.

"Getting here, first of all, was a tough thing; our manager (Eamonn Maguire) had to mortgage his house and remortgage it again to pay for us to get here. We all came here broke pretty much. When we eventually got signed, we thought, 'Yeah, we'll have money now!' but nope, the hard work was only beginning. We had to spend 10 months writing the album, coming up with new ideas and trying to be a little bit fresh for our album. It took a lot of time and a lot of patience."

Cracking the U.S. market is important, Walker says, and moving stateside was a risk they couldn't resist taking. They just hope their Irish fans understand.

"A lot of people in our hometown wonder where we went and whether we fell off the face of the Earth," he said, "but we hope we can go back there some day with a bit of a success story.

"Ireland's a very cool place to go back to. If you get any success anywhere else, they'll forget about the past and say, 'Yeah, here we go!' They support you 100 percent. We're always getting phone calls from family and friends saying that everybody's asking about us. Even the Irish press recently have been doing a lot of good stories, saying mytown's doing really well and working hard.

"We haven't performed back home in probably about a year and a half. We're really looking forward to going back there because our act has changed so much; it's come together so much, we've really polished it up. I'd like to go home and say, 'Hey, look at what we can do.' People won't recognize us."

BWF (before we forget): Visit mytown on the Web @ www.mytown.ie.