Spread over two consecutive weekends in mid-September, Madison’s global gathering touches every point on the compass across Madison in every creative fashion imaginable. Syrian singer GAIDA, Indian guitarist PRASANNA and the psychedelic dub of Turkey’s BABA ZULA perform, dance, lead workshops and colorfully flavor UW’s campus, the Annex and the Willy Street Fair.
Formed in the mid-80’s in New York City, White Zombie would become one of the most popular metal acts through the 90’s. Their sound was heavy but with a groove and songs inspired from horror authors like Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) to classic muscle cars and cult films like Blade Runner and Night of the Living Dead. Their most visible member, Rob Zombie (Robert Cummings, Jr.), was not only a musician, but a filmmaker as well, who over the course of the past two decades would go from directing the band’s videos to being a sought-after horror movie director in Hollywood. Even though the band has been broken up for over a decade, Rob went through the entirety of their old recordings and came up with a new boxed set called Let Sleeping Corpses Lie which is a five-disc collection of everything the band recorded.
You can tell Rob Zombie gets asked about a White Zombie reunion all the time because the first thing he says is how the set has a perfect title, “it’s pretty self-explanatory because I didn’t want everybody to think the box set was the beginning of something. I wanted everyone to realize it was the end of something… I am not big on revisiting the past. I like to move forward all the time. So whenever anything else would come up, this would go in the backburner. I had a little bit of window, and just knocked it out. And I also figured that, if not now, when? By waiting longer, CDs aren’t even going to exist, so there will be no box sets.”
It finally happened. Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman are bringing their duo show to the United States for an abbreviated tour this fall, which kicks off at 8:00 p.m. Oct. 19, in all of all places…Milwaukee. The northern Lights Theater At Potawatomi Casino is playing host to a program that stateside fans of the former Yes frontman and keyboardist have presented to U.K. audiences in 2006, and last year, coinciding with the release fo their CD, “The Living Tree.”
With one foot in bubblegum and one foot in rock, ANNA WANG AND THE OH BOYS! is unabashed good-time music, straightforward, fun, and deliriously catchy. Lead vocalist and songwriter, Anna Wang, is a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin and ready to take on the world with her “Oh Boys”- bassist Jeff Funk, guitarist Jeremy Van Mill, and (not so boyish) Nicky Sund on drums. They’re celebrating the release of a brand new EP, Drive Fast (currently available for listening on their website, www.annawangandtheohboys.com), with a big party at The Frequency in Madison on February 3rd.
Michael Williams has been labeled “the one to watch” by guitar enthusiasts and critics alike.His smooth styling that appeals to both blues and rock n roll fans alike, has made him one of the best new blues artists of our time. The Michael Williams Band is consisted of Williams(guitar and vocals), Gerald Tugboat Turner II(bass), Darin Watkins(drums),and Ryan Shea Smith(keyboard). Most recently they have opened for such legendary acts as George Thorogood,Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Eric Johnson, and Jonny Lang. Their latest release Fire Red was produced by Eddie Kramer(Jimi Hendrix,The Rolling Stones, KISS, Buddy Guy, and Led Zepplin).
Maximum Ink: Can you tell us a little about what you where like as a child? What is your fondest memory from that time?
Michael Williams: I was an out-going kid who always found himself getting into trouble! My fondest memory as a kid would be sitting on the old railroad ties and singing Whitney Houston’s “I believe the children are our future” with my sister Camille.
MI: Your musical roots run deep, what was it like being surrounded by music at such an early age? Do you think you would be a musician today if not for the early influence?
MW: Music was bred into me at a young age I recall watching Stevie Ray from side stage as a kid night after night. My father would bring me on stage and let me play “manishboy” (Muddy Water’s) at age ten! I don’t know what path I would have taken if not for the great influences of my childhood (smiles). I owe it to my father for leading me in the right direction at an early age.
There have been very few voices and guitar riffs that have been as noticeable as Wayne Static’s signature metal howl and “evil disco” sound in the past few decades. He has mashed and molded a unique combination of hardcore metal with industrial sounds dashed with a side of disco to form a brand that has sold thousands worldwide. Now that Static-X is on an indefinite hiatus, Wayne is back at it, doing it solo but still bringing the signature sound to rape and pillage your ear drums. Maximum Ink’s Aaron Manogue sat down with Wayne Static to talk about his new solo album Pighammer, his favorite music he listens to and his pyshco dog Brutus that would protect his wife and himself, in case of a zombie apocalypse.
Maximum Ink: Talk to me a little bit about where the name Pighammer came from for your latest solo album?
Wayne Static: It’s kind of just a word that popped in my head years ago and I’ve wanted to use for something for a long time. I finally figured out we’d call the solo record Pighammer and me and my wife had a good time thinking of what Pighammer means. At first, we were going to say it was a sexual position, but we thought that might be too much for the kids. So we came up with this whole story about the mad plastic surgeon with this big hammer tool that he uses to change women into pigs. That kind of went along with the whole lyrical theme of the record too, which is transformation.
Those who have encountered the band W.A.S.P. are not likely to forget the experience. Like them or hate them, their stage antics tend to be memorable. The group almost literally clawed their way out of the early eighties Los Angeles heavy metal scene the same fertile ground that produced the likes of Mötley Crüe, L.A. Guns, and Ratt. These groups paved the way for many more hair bands to come, but W.A.S.P. was a little bit different. While many of the other groups from that era focused on a cross-dressing, bad-boy image, W.A.S.P. was just plain twisted and scary; the group was more Alice Cooper than Rolling Stones. Band members had circular saws sewn into the crotch of their trousers. Raw meat was cut up and thrown into the audience. Blood was a common stage prop. All of this accompanied aggressively sexual lyrics, buzz saw guitar riffs, and pumping double-bass drums.
At the heart of the group, then and now, was Blackie Lawless. In fact, he is the only remaining original member, and for all intents and purposes, W.A.S.P. is his artistic vehicle. Lawless was born Steven Duren on Staten Island, New York. Famously, or perhaps infamously, he got his first break playing with the legendary New York Dolls. The group was in its final death throes, but it introduced Lawless to New York Doll’s guitarist Arthur Kane. After the New York Dolls finally split, Lawless followed Kane to Los Angeles.
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