Erie Beat                                                February 9, 2012 | Volume 8 Issue 7

All That Jazz
By Jenna Croyle

Because it spans music from Ragtime to the present day and over 100 years now, jazz can be very difficult to define. From its early beginnings in the 20th century, Jazz has developed and spread around the world and has drawn from many different national, regional and local musical cultures giving rise to many distinctive styles, including New Orleans Jazz Big Band Swing, Kansas City Jazz and Gypsy Jazz, bebop, along with many other styles.
 

tantalizing delivery of her heartfelt lyrics and provocative stage presence makes for a truly enchanting listening experience for all.

Sheldon Peterson’s Guitar licks are overshadowed only by the electrifying way in which he develops a captivating rapport with his audience. Peterson soul-tinged chromatically fluent Guitar strums are simply dripping with talent as he lends great musical color and versatility to every song.

As a superb musician, David Blaetz’s electric upright bass, is a refreshing and unique change of pace for the more commonly used bass of most local bands. Blaetz’s renders translucent layers of music rich colors that fill any venue he plays with powerful mixes of the coolest, grooviest beats and amazing creativity.

The chops of Alan Chaffee more than round out the gifted culmination of musicians that make up this dynamic band.

Chaffee is to say the least a seasoned musician, having performed with many local legendary groups such as Rodger Montgomery Blues Band and Jakes Blues.

All one has to do is listen to the beats that Chaffee lays down to instantly know that he is truly the most innovative, talented and versatile drummers this side of the Mississippi.

Chaffee’s style, time keeping and rhythms are reminiscent of such musicians commonly thought of as the founding fathers of jazz drumming such as Baby Dodds and Christopher ‘Black Happy’ Goldston. Chaffee’s thrilling displays of drumming intensity add a must hear nuance to this dazzling ensemble.

The Heliotropes give their loyal following a pulse pounding and exhilarating show every time, always keeping not only the music, but the total show experience fresh, vibrant and true to the spirit of the music that they play. The Heliotropes are a must see band with a one of kind sound.

For show dates, booking and general information on The Heliotropes, please visit their Facebook Page.

Grammy Awards 2012: Dance Music Makes Broadcast, Deadmau5/Foo Fighters Duet

Grammy show producer Ken Ehrlich had considered putting dancing/electronica music into the ceremony in the past, but could never quite figure out how to incorporate the high-energy club feel in front of a sometimes staid audience.

He thinks he's figured it out this year. For the first time, the Grammy show will put the spotlight on the genre with a segment featuring Grammy nominees Deadmau5, the Foo Fighters, Chris Brown, David Guetta and Lil Wayne, all performing in a tent space amid 1,000 fans.

"We decided to go all out this year," Ehrlich said of the performance taking place outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where Sunday's ceremony will be held. "All we're going to try and do next week is to try and put the home audience in the middle of it. ... It is more than just sitting there and watching it."

Dance music did not receive its own category until 2003 with the best dance recording/dance field, and the music had not been featured with its own segment in the show.

"I don't know that I figured out a way to do it that felt right until now," Ehrlich said in an interview Monday. "My feeling about dance is it's such an immersive experience for the participant, that to put it on stage ... where the audience is not a part of it ... I don't know, honestly, until we came up with the idea of doing it this way, I don't know if it ever would have worked."

Ehrlich calls the performance the "most ambitious number that we've ever done outside the Staples Center." It will feature at least four cameras from audience level as Deadmau5 (pronounced dead mouse) and the Foo Fighters perform his remixed version of the band's song "Rope," which netted him one of his Grammy nominations, and as Brown and Lil Wayne perform with Guetta.

Ehrlich said the performance reflects the popularity of dance music over the past few years.

"As much as a recorded medium that it is, and the fact that it's selling a lot of CDs and downloads, it's really a live experience," he said. "It is more than just sitting there and watching it."

Other performers on the show include Adele, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Brown, Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift for what Ehrlich boasted would be a "pretty amazing show."

"What I try and do when we're building this show is to think about the audience first. ... What can I do that's going to keep an audience for 3 1/2 hours watching the Grammy Awards?" he said. "I do try and look for how broad I can make it and still assume that people are going to tune in and stay with it."

Johnny Cash's 80th Birthday, Legacy to be Celebrated

Johnny Cash is still cool.

Like Elvis or Hank Williams, Cash retains a certain cachet in current popular culture even in death. More proof of his enduring legend is on the way as plans to celebrate what would have been the American icon's 80th birthday unfold later this month and year.

There will be a groundbreaking on the project to preserve Cash's childhood home in Dyess, Ark., on Feb. 26, his birthday. A new Cash museum will open in Nashville later this year, and several music releases are expected to commemorate the anniversary of his birth. There are three documentaries in the works as well.

Interest remains as high as ever more than eight years after his death in 2003 at 71 of complications from diabetes.

"He appealed to people and still appeals to people who have a small CD collection and live in middle America, just as much as the punk on the streets of Germany," Cash's son, John Carter Cash, said. "And that's sort of magical the way he's been able to do that still, that his image still draws people from all walks of life."

The Cash family is most excited about the project in Dyess. Many of Cash's children and grandchildren will attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home Project, an undertaking led by Arkansas State University.

Fundraising for the project began last summer, and the family and university hope to restore the house Cash grew up in and its outbuildings. ASU also has taken over other buildings of historic importance that remain from the New Deal-era Dyess Colony and wants to reflect not only Cash's life but the reality of the Great Depression.

The government put 500 families in homes with small agricultural land grants at a time of great hardship, and Rosanne Cash says without exaggeration that it saved her family. Her father would later become a citizen of the world, but his time in Dyess was instrumental in shaping his sound and his worldview.

Rosanne Cash says of all the thousands of tributes and moments of recognition her father has received over the years, the restoration "has really captured my heart."

The house is being restored based on photos and the memories of relatives. It will be furnished and decorated as it was when the family lived there in the 1930s and '40s. ASU plans to establish a museum and a space for workshops, demonstrations and classes.

"It's so amazing how you don't realize how important these touchstones in your ancestry are until your parents are gone," Rosanne Cash said. "There's this paradox that you can't really feel it or realize it while they're here, so there's a tremendous amount of poignancy and embracing it and protecting it and preserving it for future generations, and drawing my own children into it. It's a big deal to me."

Bill Miller, a Cash memorabilia collector and the operator of the Johnny Cash website, is behind the Nashville museum, which will be located on Music City's busy Lower Broadway tourist strip, "right in the middle of the hubbub," John Carter Cash said. The museum will be filled with pieces from the House of Cash, which closed in 1999, and other items endowed by the family.

"He's been an incredible supporter of my dad and one of the largest collectors of memorabilia," Rosanne Cash said. "If anybody has the whole structure to put up a museum, he does. So I have a lot of trust in him, and I think it's great at this point. I think he'll do something with dignity and class that's historically important, not some kitschy thing. I'm very interested in seeing what he does."

No celebration of Cash would be complete without music. There's been plenty since his death, including the completion of his American Recordings work with producer Rick Rubin and the start of a bootleg series. The two-CD "Bootleg IV: The Soul of Truth," focusing on gospel and spiritual songs recorded in the 1970s and '80s, will be out April 3 and will include some unreleased material. And Columbia/Legacy plans other releases later this year, including a large box set, but details on those projects are not yet available.

Whatever is released will find a willing audience, eager to hear new material or learn something new about the Man in Black.

"Dad was, I don't know how else to put it but to say, He was the real deal," John Carter Cash said. "He had a humility and a charm and a style and a charisma that just still attracts people to him. Through his music, his writings and the other people who study his life, it's inspiring. And I think that's a great thing, that people are inspired by my father still."

Ness 'EYE2025': Rapper 'Zones Out' on Futuristic, New Collection
By Keith Murphy

The description that's getting bandied about for Ness' 'EYE2025' EP is "a hip-hop 'Clockwork Orange.'" The late prolific filmmaker Stanley Kubrick would have never imagined that his brilliantly warped, violent, dark and dystopian view of the future would be the unofficial template for such a challenging musical project. But Ness, a member of the politically minded duo A-Alikes -- high-profile affiliates of the Dead Prez-led outfit People Army/RBGs -- is all about defying expectations. Available now, 'EYE2025' is a psychedelic, genre-hopping release that mixes hardcore hip-hop, '80s electro-pop, rock, funk and '70s analog sounds.

Longtime fans of the A-Alikes expecting something of the order of their 2006 underground classic 'I Eat, You Eat' will no doubt be taken aback by the experimental tone of 'EYE2025.' But for Ness, it all makes sense. "It's basically about being free," says Ness, who hooked up with The BoomBox recently to discuss his bold new set, the future of the A-Alikes, his early days with Dead Prez and the respect Jay-Z and Kanye West have for his work. "Whatever sound inspires me to write -- I'm not just going to stay in a box and say, 'Nah, that's too weird," he says. "I'm going to just make music." Spoken like a true rebel.

As a member of A-Alikes, you are usually involved in more political and socially conscious releases. 'EYE2025' has a more conceptual, experimental tone. How did it come about?

It started with me doing a movie soundtrack about a year and half ago. I was talking with film director Paul Biedrzycki about doing the soundtrack for a movie set in the near future. Something that's tangible, something we can deal with. Not like a 'Star Wars' or something like that [laughs]. Being a musician, I wanted to do the score for it. But it ended up rolling into this 'EYE2025' project. The script is on hold, but I moved forward on it in terms of making music. But the actual concept of 'EYE2025' is still based in the future. There's poverty and [political, social and technological] strife. Very conceptual.

Structurally, that had to be different, right?

It was very different. You know, A-Alikes is usually rooted in right-now, street and political day-to-do experience. But this project is saying imagine you as a person still having your politics and worldview, but let's give it a different perspective. Imagine where the world is going to be years from now. Imagine how music is going to sound and where people's heads are going to be at and paint that picture.

Was there any particular movie score that you listened to for musical inspiration?

I was listening to scores from certain movies like 'Blade Runner.' I was trying to imagine what sonically would we be listening to years from now. And politically how would that also come off, content-wise. With the A-Alikes, doing what we have been doing for years, I felt the political climate getting more intense. I think hip-hop reflects that. But you have to keep it from being a niche thing. That's what 'EYE2025' is all about. The content is a lot more general. It's some next s---. It's not just straight-up boom-bap. There are elements of electronic, pop and rock music. You can hear different genres in the music.

That has to be an irony, given that you started working on this project almost two years ago, as music was changing so rapidly?

Exactly. Sonically, this project is not just three-bar loops. Since I started working on 'EYE2025,' things have kind of progressed to the point where people are doing a lot of genre-bending. You hear a lot of electronic music out right now. And then there has been the political changes, the Occupy Movement. This has all happened in a year-and-a-half, and it's not even 2025 yet.

Specifically, what sound were you aiming for?

At the time, when I first started it, I was opening up my musical taste from just listening to classic East Coast hip-hop -- Nas, Mobb Deep, and stuff like that -- for most of my younger years to now listening to classic '80s pop music and underground electronic music. I incorporated those elements into the project. I even started listening to '70s analog dance music ... Giorgio Moroder, who did stuff for Donna Summers and soundtracks for 'Scarface' and 'Midnight Express.' There's this crew, this French electronic duo called Justice. They had an album called 'Cross the Universe.' I was just amazed. I just thought to myself, "How the f--- is this even out and the hood or cats that just listen to dope beats are not even up on it?" This is what I was researching.

Did you work with any other producers on the mixtape?

There were a couple of beats I got. There's this one producer Enki Alien. She's from Australia. She engineered the last A-Alikes album. At the time I was working on the beginnings of the 'EYE2025' project, she was coming over to the loft and was like, "This is amazing. I got some tracks for you."

Did you think about the fact that you were working with a female producer, a rarity in hip-hop?

Not really. One thing about me is I'm in my own lane. I do what I want to do. Being as she was my engineer for the last project, I kind of seen her grow. When I played it out, it was dope.

How much of a battle was it to do an entire project without you're A-Alikes partner K?

It took some getting use to. A-Alikes has been rocking since the early '00s. This project was an exploration into the music process and learning about what I like and what I want to do. When you are in a group, you have to compromise; you have take in account what your band members want in terms of sound and content. But this time around, I just wanted to do this myself. I don't want to negotiate my creativity. I just wanted to zone out. I learned a lot about myself. It was real fun, man. It was freeing and therapeutic. It wasn't just me saying, "Oh, I'm going to do an album that's set in the future." I just wanted to take myself out my own comfort zone and showcase this story.

Take me back to what it was like coming up as a member of the People Army/RBG movement and being in the same circle as Dead Prez. Artistically and politically, did you guys think you were really going to change the world?

Well, the irony is I really thought and felt that we were going to do the things that we were talking about as far as pushing the envelope, attacking the system and helping the people rise up. We wanted to free ourselves from the economic and social situations that we were in. And that may not have happened. But there are still so many people who come up to me and say, "Oh, Ness from A-Alikes -- you down with Dead Prez and RBG's? Y'all changed my life." People tell me that all the time, how they were in college when Dead Prez's 'Let's Get Free' came out, or when A-Alikes' 'I Eat, You Eat' dropped. That we made them care about their health and what they eat. That we put them on to certain books. You can't pinpoint what we did to change the world. But I know the vibrations that we put out there -- the whole People Army and RBG's -- I know it helped shift the consciousness of the hip-hop collective. Maybe we were naïve. But we played a part in the protesting that you see now.

And it must have been cool to see artists like Kool G. Rap, Jay-Z and Kanye West have reached out to your crew over the years for collaborations and performances. What does it mean to know that these acts have a respect for you?

For a long time, I would say, "Well, I don't care if you have a big name." And I still hold on to that. People are people. But looking back at my career and moving forward I find a level of pride in knowing that I've been involved with certain artists that people look up to and respect. From going back and forth spitting rhymes with Kanye to being around Mos Def and hanging out and building with Dead Prez. All of these things are cool to look back on.

The thing that was always cool about you guys is you critiqued everybody -- not just what you saw as racist power structures and the self-destruction that goes on in minority neighborhoods. You also helped put together a 2008 documentary about Barack Obama's presidential run and what it meant to the hip-hop nation. It's not exactly a love letter. Why did you decide to tackle the documentary world with such a thought-provoking subject?

The documentary, directed by Paul Biedrzycki, is called 'The Ballot or The Bullet,' which comes from a Malcolm X speech. Kennedy was going to be president and Malcolm was telling people don't fall for the okey doke. Does it lead to freedom? So when we got a black candidate that had a real chance to win, we wanted to ask hip-hop, what does it all mean? Will it help us? Can we get free through the ballot? So we went around to activists and artists like Chuck D [of Public Enemy.] We went to his home in Long Island and talked for three hours! It was incredible.

That sounds insanely epic, huh?

It was ... and we talked to Stic man and M-1 from Dead Prez. We built with Immortal Technique, and we built with Malcolm X's daughter Ilyasa Shabazz and what would Malcolm say about Obama. And we even had Joy Bryant, the model and actress, for that film. It was great to be a part of it. I got a certain level of insight into other people's opinion. I'm still not a fan of voting. But my politics have become less rigid. The same can be said about my music. I'm going to do one more A-Alikes album. Me and K will link back up because we will always have [that chemistry]. From there, anything is possible.

James Blake Plots Tibet House Collaborations With Laurie Anderson, Rahzel

Irreverent up-and-coming hip-hop act Das Racist and dubstep-inspired singer-songwriter James Blake will share the stage with avant-garde legends Philip Glass, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson at the 22nd Annual Tibet House Benefit at Carnegie Hall on Feb. 13.

The lineup, which also features Antony Hegarty, Stephin Merritt and Rahzel, was curated by Glass, who recently celebrated his 75th birthday in commemoration of the Monlam Prayer Festival, which traditionally takes place at the Tibetan New Year.

In preparation for his performance, Blake tells Spinner/RPM that he's taken time off to "hibernate" for the first time since his cover of Feist's 'Limit to Your Love' propelled him to stardom.

"I've had the pleasure of just able to hibernate, really, which is why it's nice that I'm playing this gig," Blake explained. "It will be the first gig that I've played with a real break in between, you know, lots of touring, so we'll see how that effects my voice and how it effects the way I play. Generally it'll just make me feel more inspired."

Blake expressed excitement about sharing the Carnegie Hall stage with some of his experimental heroes, especially Laurie Anderson, whose early forays into electronic music have inspired countless DJs and producers. Surprisingly, however, it was human beatbox Rahzel who garnered the most excitement from Blake.

"I've followed Laurie Anderson for a while and I've got several friends who are really excited about me being able to play with her, and so am I," Blake said. "And Rahzel as well, I was a big fan from the early days, from the Roots and everything he's done, really. It's been really cool."

Proceeds from the benefit will go towards the Tibet House U.S., the Tibetan community of New York and New Jersey and other non-profit organizations. For more information about Tibet House, or to buy tickets, click here.

Garth Brooks' 50th Birthday: 25 Fun Facts About the Country Icon
By Stephen L. Betts

Happy 50th Birthday to Garth Brooks! The Oklahoma native, who hits the big 5-0 today (Feb. 7), took country music by storm in the late '80s, eventually shattering album and concert-ticket sales records all over the world. But that's just one small part of the titanic Garth story.

The Boot pays tribute to the Oklahoma native by recalling some of the most memorable achievements of his past half-century and sharing 25 of the more noteworthy -- and newsworthy -- events surrounding one of the most successful artists of all time.

1. Garth's first name is Troyal (Garth is his middle name), the same first name as his father's.

2. Garth was born February 7, 1962, in Tulsa, Okla. On that day, 4,391 miles away in Liverpool, England, a young band called the Beatles were playing the Cavern Club, still months from scoring their very first hit single. (also see No. 25 below)

3. Garth was working as a bouncer at the Tumbleweed Ballroom, in Stillwater, Okla., when he met Sandy Mahl, who would eventually would become his first wife and mother to his three daughters. He was breaking up a fight that had erupted between Sandy and another woman in the ladies' room.

4. After 'Much Too Young (to Feel This Damn Old),' the first single from Garth's debut album on Capitol Nashville, mentioned "a worn out tape of Chris LeDoux," the rodeo star/singer rose to national prominence and was signed to the label as well. Chris' first project for Capitol was actually the 23rd album of his career.

5. Garth became the 65th member of the Grand Ole Opry on October 6, 1990, just 18 months after his debut album was released.

6. The thunder heard on 'The Thunder Rolls' was first recorded for a song called 'Delta Rain' by the Memphis Boys.

7. On a trip home to Yukon, Okla., in March 1991, Garth watched as a sign on the town's water tower was unveiled, reading: "Home of Garth Brooks." One month later, Garth won a record-setting six ACM awards.

8. When Garth's 'Ropin' the Wind' became the first country album to ever debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the album it knocked from the top spot was Metallica's 1991 self-titled disc.

9. The opening act on Garth's solo tour in 1992, his first as a headliner, was Martina McBride.

10. In 1994, when Garth played Dublin, Ireland, he drew the biggest crowds there since a 1979 visit from the pope.

11. Garth's 1994 single, 'The Red Strokes' was inspired in part by co-writer Lisa Sanderson's visit to the Louvre in Paris and the red in a particular painting that had caught her eye.

12. In November 1995, a copy of Garth's 'The Hits' journeyed 3.4 million miles, when Colonel Bill MacArthur, a space shuttle mission specialist, took it with him as he visited the Russian Mir space station in orbit.

13. In January 1996, Garth won the American Music Award for Artist of the Year. Among the other acts nominated were Hootie & the Blowfish, led by future country star (on Capitol Nashville), Darius Rucker.

14. In May 1996, Garth was honored at a Nashville party for sales of 60 million albums. The theme of the party: the '60s.

15. In between the third and fourth singles from 'Sevens,' in 1998, Garth released 'To Make You Feel My Love,' from the 'Hope Floats' movie soundtrack. The tune, written by Bob Dylan, has since been recorded by Billy Joel, Joan Osborne and Adele, among others.

16. Garth's version of 'To Make You Feel My Love' is the first track on the 'Hope Floats' soundtrack. The last track on the album is a version of the song by Trisha Yearwood.

17. Garth and his first wife, Sandy, announced plans to divorce in 2000 and did so in 2001. Garth married Trisha Yearwood in December 2005.

18. In 2000, Garth attempted to donate part of his liver for a transplant for ailing Chris LeDoux but he was deemed incompatible. Chris died of complications from liver cancer in 2005.

19. In 1999, Garth introduced the fictional character of Chris Gaines (who was "born" August 1, 1967, in Brisbane, Australia.)

20. Although 'The Lamb,' the film featuring Garth as Chris Gaines, never materialized, a one-off album, 'Garth Brooks ... in the Life of Chris Gaines' was released and scored a Top 5 pop hit, 'Lost in You.'

21. Garth "retired" from performing and touring on October 26, 2000, the same day Capitol threw a party celebrating his sales of 100 million albums.

22. In June 2005, Garth ended his relationship with Capitol Records, after which he signed a deal with Walmart.

23. 'More Than a Memory,' Garth's 51st single, was released in 2007. Written by Lee Brice, Kyle Jacobs and Billy Montana, the song became the first ever to debut at No. 1 on the country chart.

24. Garth, who earned a bachelor's degree in advertising in 1985, earned his Master's in business administration from Oklahoma State in 2011. He attended the ceremony and donned a cap and gown.

25. In January 2012, Garth was crowned the top-selling artist of the last two decades. Since 1991, he has sold 68,561,000 units, some five million more than the No. 2 act, the Beatles.

Bird Peterson And Ocelot Craft Diy Horror Flick For 'Soul Survivor' -- Video Premiere

At the top of Bird Peterson and Ocelot's banging single 'Soul Survivor,' a voice-over tells us there has been "a real mean killing, and the wrong guy died." The luckless chap was buried, "but his soul survived." Right there, you've got the makings of a great horror flick, and when Ocelot went to shoot the video, that's precisely the direction they took.

The clip starts innocently enough as Peterson and Ocelot's Cory Kilduff walk into a house and proceed to lounge about. They play video games and mess around with their computers, but before long, weird things start happening.

Is their music causing cookware to rise, cabinet doors to open and bike wheels to spin, or is the house haunted? At first, it's unclear what's going on, but by clip's end, when both musicians are being tossed around like a couple of rag dolls, it seems we're in the presence of a rather violent ghost.

"The 'Soul Survivor' video was shot over a weekend at my house," says Kilduff, a native Texan and former metal singer who connected with Welsh, a former BMX biker from England, back in his teens. "Yeah, thats my very handsome cat Charles that makes a couple appearances too. Our friend Chris McInroy was into the idea enough to basically take it over and do it for us."

"It cost us a few carpet burns and 12 dollars to make this," he adds. "Death to false DIY."

R&B Singer David Peaston Dies at Age 54

Singer David Peaston, who had a string of R&B hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, has died, his family said Thursday.

Peaston, 54, died Wednesday of complications from diabetes, his niece, Neuka Mitchell said.

Peaston was born into a St. Louis family with deep musical roots. His mother, gospel singer Martha Bass, was one of the Clara Ward Singers. His older sister, Fontella Bass, is a noted singer whose single "Rescue Me" reached No. 1 on R&B charts and No. 4 on pop single charts in 1965.

Peaston's highest-charting song was "Two Wrongs (Don't Make It Right)," which reached No. 3 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1989. "Can I?" got to No. 14 on the R&B chart that year, and "We're All in This Together" reached No. 11 on R&B chart and No. 45 on the dance chart in 1990. His first album, "Introducing ... David Peaston," reached No. 7 on the Billboard R&B albums chart in 1989. At the height of his career, he toured with Gladys Knight.

Peaston earned a degree in elementary education and taught in his hometown of St. Louis before moving to New York to pursue a career as a singer. He began doing session gospel and R&B work. His career got a big boost after winning several competitions on the "Showtime at the Apollo" television show in the late 1980s, winning over fans and the judges with his powerful rendition of "God Bless the Child."

Singer Cheryl Pepsii Riley recalled traveling with Peaston on several shows.

"I soooooooooo loved this man with the hearty laugh, great sense of humor, that incredible voice, and he was the most amazing friend!!!" she said in a statement to the website eurweb.com. "This hurts so much. He had a gift that commanded the room. David will be sorely missed."

Despite a rich tenor voice that awed fans, crossover success eluded Peaston.

"He's the greatest unsung artist ever," Mitchell said. "Fabulous. A great father, husband, uncle. A great man."

Peaston's Facebook page described him as a "joyful independent double amputee." Both of Preston's legs were amputated below the knees due to diabetes.

Trouble Vocalist Kory Clarke Quits, Disses Former Bandmates

BKory Clarke, late of Warrior Soul, has quit legendary Chicago doom band Trouble. The singer is leaving the group behind in order to start The Bones of Children, a new band, with Russ Strahan, who did time in Pentagram and Land of Doom. Clarke had been fronting Trouble since 2008, when he replaced original singer Eric Wagner.

Clarke's split with Trouble is not without drama, though. The vocalist took the opportunity to send a few shots at his now-former bandmates and their religious beliefs while discussing his new outfit.

According to Blabbermouth, Clarke said, "This metal album will be high energy, with a fresh artistic approach to the genre without the limitations of the over-50-something religious crowd. It will be so nice to be working without the shackles that a previous singer has left behind of a band that is over 30 years old and acts and sounds like it. I like to do progressive, pushing-the-boundary lyrics in an individualistic style." Wow, tell us how you really feel, Kory!

He continued, "I don't want to sound like Ozzy, like the old singer tried to do," slamming Wagner. "I am also glad when I look to my left on stage from now on I will not be seeing 'Derek Smalls' in my peripheral vision...I just cannot play with people who are fundamentalist Christians, or too family-oriented to the point that they can't tour, do records or knock down a few margaritas with me at the bar. This is rock 'n' roll, guys, not the Family Channel." Ouch!

The debut release from the not Ozzy-like, the not Family Channel-like and the decidedly rock 'n' roll The Bones of Children is slated to drop this fall.

Trouble just announced former Exhorder and Alabama Thunderpussy frontman Kyle Thomas as their new vocalist.y Amy Sciarretto.

Paul McCartney, Elton John, Other Stars to Perform for Queen

Some of the world's biggest pop stars will perform in front of Buckingham Palace on June 4 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, palace officials said Tuesday.

The lineup will include former Beatle Paul McCartney, singers Elton John and Shirley Bassey and popular boy band JLS. Longtime favorites Cliff Richard and Tom Jones will also perform.

Concert organizers said that many more stars, including some from America and Australia, will also be on the bill, with details to be released in the coming months.

"It's going to be fun," Elton John said in a video shown to reporters at Buckingham Palace.

The event is a centerpiece in the queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, which have already kicked off to mark her 60 years on the throne.

It follows a raucous Golden Jubilee concert in 2002 that featured a rendition of "God Save the Queen" by Queen guitarist Brian May, performed in the open air on the palace roof.

Take That star Gary Barlow, charged with organizing the gala event, said he hopes as many as half a million people are able to see the concert from the public areas in front of the palace. It will also be broadcast on television and radio.

"The whole world will be watching," he said, while acknowledging it may be hard to top May's performance at the 2002 gala.

"We all remember that and we will try to come up with something newer and better," he said.

Some 10,000 tickets will be awarded by lottery. Tickets will also include entry into the palace garden for a jubilee picnic, with food provided by the palace.

The queen and husband Prince Philip plan to attend along with other senior members of the royal family.

Barlow said that the queen's grandsons Prince Harry and Prince William had suggested some performers who may be added to the list. Officials said the queen is "content" with the musical program.

He said the goal is the have music from all the decades of the queen's reign incorporated into the program.