Hollywood Undead

John Schlesinger said “Hollywood is an extraordinary kind of temporary place.” Robert DeNiro says he only goes to Los Angeles “when he gets paid for it.” Jay Leno said, “If God doesn’t destroy Hollywood Boulevard, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.” Slithering out of this cauldron like the rumored first cell from primordial soup is a band called Hollywood Undead.

If you haven’t heard of them yet, prepare to be blindsided. The day they created their MySpace profile, several thousand new users signed on. In one week they crested to the top of the MySpace music chart like a wave on the Santa Monica shore. Their first official album called “Swan Songs” was released Sep. 2 by (A&M/Octone Records). They consist of six members identified only by street aliases. Their music is a collision of hip-hop, metal, and rock and sounds like the Beastie Boy’s Licensed to Ill getting pistol whipped by Eminem.

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Hinder

Rock-n-rollers and out-of-controllers, be advised: Hinder is en route to the northern tundra on a mission to “bring the fun back to rock & roll.” Scheduled to play three shows in Wisconsin this winter, they’ll be at The Eagles Club in Milwaukee Dec. 21, the Alliant Energy Center in Madison Feb. 14, and the Resch Center in Green Bay Feb. 19.

Formed in 2001 in Oklahoma City, this five man outfit experienced massive success with their first album titled “Extreme Behavior” (Universal Records, 2005). If you listened to the radio for any duration of time in 2005, you probably heard one of their many singles, most notably “Lips of an Angel” or “Get Stoned.”

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(Hed)pe

Hed Pe (the Hed stands for higher thought and the PE added later meaning planet earth) is best known as a G - punk act. Hed was formed in 1994 in Huntington Beach,CA. They have nine albums to date(including one live album and one compilation).Current members include Jared Gomes, Jaxon, Mawk, DJ Project 1969, and Trauma. The music fuses styles like hip hop,reggae, punk rock, and heavy metal. I recently caught up with Jared for the latest on their work.

Maximum Ink: Where did the idea for the name Hed pe come from?
Jared Gomes: The word head comes from one of the first songs I wrote with the band that was called “heavy head”, which was about thinking too much and depression. For a while we were just called Hed. When we got signed, we had to change our name for legal reasons and we added the P.E., which stands for Planetary Evolution, and came from some books I was reading. Books like ET 101, and Earth: The living library by Barbara Marciniak.

MI: What were some of your earliest influences?
JG: The influences have definitely changed through the years. In the 90s, I was influenced by The Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails and Dr. Dre.

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The Carl Harvey

Carl Harvey has been playing the guitar since the age of 13. Although he has worked with bands like Crack of Dawn, Aggrovators, and Willi William, he is best known from his work in Toots and the Maytals, where he has worked for well over 25 years. He has also worked as a record producer, producing four albums for Messenjah (two of which gained Juno Award nominations). He also produced a recording from Juno-winning artist Kim Richardson and Sway. Harvey has won an Grammy for his work with Toots and The Maytals for the Best Reggae Album of the Year in 2004 on the album True Love. He is also a solo artist with The Carl Harvey Project. His solo album The Times is available now.

Maximum Ink: What is it like in Jamaica? Do you remember what it was like to relocate from there to Toronto?
Carl Harvey:  I have mixed memories about my life as a child in Jamaica. Some are happy and some very sad. My parents immigrated to the U.S. when I was very young and then to Canada. I went to join them in Toronto when I was 12 yrs old. Integrating into a whole new environment and being reunited with my parents along with my younger brother was a bit tough at first. I had to deal with a whole new social dynamic. I arrived in Toronto a day or two before having to go to a new school in a new country. It was scary and exciting at the same time.

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Harmony Bar - 20th Anniversary

As one of the area’s most carefree and nonchalant taverns, Madison’s Harmony Bar on Atwood Avenue has been delighting local residents with music, food, and drinks for the past two decades. Twenty years in business makes it one of the city’s longest-lasting live music venues in an industry that usually chews up clubs and spits them out. To celebrate the launch of their third decade, owner Keith Daniels is sponsoring an all-day anniversary party on March 14th at The Barrymore Theatre right down the road.

And the rationale behind it is simple. “I wanted to throw a party.”, Daniels says. “I wanted to throw a good party for all the good people that have been coming for twenty years. We’re having Bunky’s (a cafe also on Atwood and another near-east side of Madison tradition) do the catering because I want all our people to have the day off. And I still thought that we should do a little something for the neighborhood. So, we decided to put a five dollar cover on it and it all goes to the Goodman Community Center.” So, it’s not only a party but a benefit for one of the area’s most valuable programs for at-risk youth as well.

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Josh Harris

Josh Harris is a producer, remixer, and DJ. He spent 2008 working alongside Seal for several private performances in the US and abroad. While on the road, he worked on remixes for both Seal and Alannis Morrisette. He and songstress Ilona Europa worked together in Poland and are currently set to take their “Rocktronica” show to the Laserium Cyber Theater in Los Angeles. Josh is also working with Mike Rizzo, and the two are now producing and remixing under the moniker Groove Police.

Harris has a degree in music with an emphasis on music theory and composition. He has been part of over 200 remixes as either producer,programmer or engineer. Josh holds a Bachelor of Arts in music, with an emphasis in theory and composition from Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin. Here is what Josh had to say to Maximum Ink.

Maximum Ink: What was it like to take classical piano lessons at age 7? What led you to that? Did you always know you wanted to work in the music industry?
Josh Harris: I started taking classical piano at age 7 because my best friend was taking lessons, and I think I felt a bit left out! My first piano teacher was very strict and the whole experience was a bit intense, but I stuck with it until I was 11. Then, I started getting into synthesizers and I became more interested in writing and creating my own music than staying on the classical path. When I was 15, I attended a 5 week summer program at Berklee College of Music, and that’s when I decided that music was going to be my profession. So, I got back into classical lessons, so that I could properly audition for college. My parents wanted me to attend a liberal arts school that also had a music school, and that’s how I wound up going to college at Lawrence University.

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JJO Band Camp

Willow Island at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison becomes JJO Band Camp on Saturday, August 14th. The outdoor music festival has been growing since it’s inception in 2003, attracts some of the world’s biggest names in modern metal, and is put on by Madison’s solid rock.. er ahhh.. metal radio station… 94.1 WJJO and promoters Frank Productions.

Randy Hawke is program director for WJJO, a station that went from classic rock to “solid rock” around 13 years ago. He has been in radio for 19 years and has also been PD of WAPL in Appleton as well as WLUM in Milwaukee.

MAXIMUM INK: How did Band Camp get started?
RANDY HAWKE: The name came about when Blake Patton and I were brainstorming what we wanted to call our show and we made a deal that the title could not end in Fest, Stock or Palooza. The location was Fred Frank.  He starts a lot of sentences with “Hey Randy what do you think about ….” One of those sentences were completed with “having a huge festival on willow Island next to the Alliant.” Band Camp was born.  Crazy thing was for the first year we had to spend more time telling people where Willow Island was than who was playing. No event of Band Camps magnitude had ever been held out there. Band Camp put Willow Island on the map.  LITERALLY!

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