| CD REVIEW John 5 |
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Band: John 5 To be quite honest, I never consciously made contact with the music of guitarist John 5…which is amazing enough! Of course, everyone knows that he was a member of Marilyn Manson from 1998 to 2004 (it’s where he got his stage name, his own being John William Lowery). Upon his departure, he formed Loser, who were contracted by Island Records and had their single Disposable Sunshine featured on the soundtrack of the movie Fantastic Four. During the recording sessions for their debut album he was invited to join Rob Zombie’s live band and finding schedules didn’t meet, John set out to find a suitable replacement to replace him in Loser. Island not liking the idea of Loser without John dropped the band, and canned the album! John was a participant in the recording of Rob Zombie’s 2006 studio album Educated Horses (the Zombie Live album following in 2007), and in fact it has been rumoured that Zombie originally wanted to step out of the music business to concentrate on making movies before he’d met up with John. Before his connection to Marilyn Manson, John had already made a name for himself, his music career starting as a session guitarist when he moved from his hometown of Grosse Point (an upper-class region in Michigan) to Los Angeles, where his first band Alligator Soup attracted the attention of Whitesnake bassist Rudy Sarzo. This led to a meeting with producer Bob Marlette, which turned into a working relation (the two started working on several commercials, infomercials, plus tv show and movie soundtracks – including Speed 2 – Cruise Control ) and friendship. He was then picked up to play with Lita Ford, and started a long time friendship with several Kiss members (eventually guesting on Stanley’s 2006 Live To Win album). Next up was a short-lived project with Randy Castilla known as Red Square Black. Producing a self-titled EP, the project stopped when John was picked to play live with K.D. Lang. In 1996 John made his first audition for Marilyn Manson, but he fluked because of coming too late, and Mike Linton akà Zim Zum got the job in stead. John in stead, teamed up with none less than Rob Halford (a business associate of Marlette, let’s not forget) to work on the Industrial Metal project 2wo, which would deliver the 1998 album Voyeurs. Also in that band were bassist James Wooley and drummer Sid Riggs (remember the latter’s name for later reference). 2wo embarked on a world tour and participated to the Ozzfest, but then the tour was pulled and 2wo disbanded. That same year, John got the chance to work with David Lee Roth on the former Van Halen frontman’s 1998 eponimous album. In 2003 Roth again contacted John for some song ideas, John eventually contributing the track “Thug Pop” for the Diamond Dave album. After Marilyn Manson had finished the recordings of 1998’s Mechanical Animals, they were looking to replace Zim Zum…and thus the circle is completed! In 2004 John 5 started a series of instrumental albums with Vertigo. Followed up a year later by Songs For Sanity, by The Devil Knows My Name in 2007, and eventually Requiem in 2008. As the title of this new John 5 solo album suggests, Remixploitation is a remix album, remix masters on duty being Jeff McDonogh, Chris Baseford (producer on Requiem), Sid Riggs (remember him? He also contributed to The Devil Knows My Name and Songs For Sanity), and of course Bob Marlette (who gets away with no less than 4 remixes…the others getting only two a piece). For the most part, the guys have used movie soundtracks to give the tracks (taken off all 4 solo albums, but for the most part I couldn’t find out from which album a song originated, as in 8 of the 10 resulting songs the remixer gave his song a new title) a song aspect…and in two cases the movie in question was even porn! No doubt, the occasional Industrial touch in some of the songs is due to the remix (and adding of drum computer), but the remixers would probably not have made that come through if they hadn’t felt the potential in the song. No matter whether the remixer only added a few samples and gave the music itself a thorough remix, or in stead put in plenty of samples…the end result is simply gréat (“magnificent”, “fantastic”, are certainly suitable synomims here), and I just lóve each and évery track on the album…each for a different reason, but the underlaying reason being the guitarist’s work in the first place! Yeah, this reviewer has discovered himself an exhilerating guitarist to check out! First thing on my activities list (next time I get around to jumping into town, that is) is to order John 5’s all previous albums…and then spend some time trying to find out where the songs on Remixploitation originated from! And when I get to that length of trouble, the reader should know me well enough to expect a top rated album, and a nomination of said recording into my “Best Albums Of 2009” list! Y’know sumthin’? I’ll be the first to admit that I had a bit of a prejudice towards John 5 because I knew he’d played with Marilyn Manson…but if I can be big enough to come out and admit to the fact that I had this guy pegged in the wrong square, and that he’s really a gréat guitarist (with some Buckethead remeniscences, for instance, and having been lauded by the likes of Steve Vai, Greg Howe, Marilyn Manson, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, and of course Rob Zombie…John himself cites a shite-load in influencial artists which should please any afficionado of Goog Guitar Music). I haven’t had time to check it out myself (due to the fact that record labels have suddenly flooded our editor-in-chief’s desc with a shit-load of new albums to be reviewed, many of which have landed in my to-do box), but yoù can listen to several songs off John’s solo albums at myspace.com/john5official…and there’s even the one off this Remixploitation. So you just mosey on over there now…and enjoóóóy! 98/100 Tony. |