In the studio with Perry Farrell!

In spite of a crazy-busy schedule over this last year (including working on a new album with The Empty Hearts and playing for such wonderful events as “The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’ in Concert” and Wild Honey Orchestra’s benefit for the Autism Think Tank), Elliot has made time to collaborate on Perry Farrell’s first solo album in 18 years, Kind Heaven.

Who the heck is Perry Farrell, you might ask? To be honest, I didn’t recognize his name, either. But I quickly discovered that I was familiar with his vocals once I found out he was the frontman for the late 80s/early 90s alternative rock band Jane’s Addiction. The group, who found a flurry of explosive-but-relatively-short-lived mainstream attention with their 1990 hit, “Been Caught Stealing,” is regarded as one of the most highly influential acts in alternative music and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.

Interestingly, the band’s initial ‘farewell tour’ in 1991 was actually the very first Lollapalooza concert which, as we know, turned into an annual event and a highly popular festival in the rock world. Perry came up with the notion and continues to be closely involved in its production every year.

Anyway… back to this new album. Kind Heaven was released on June 7, 2019, though Perry spoke about it being in the works as early as 2014. Perry created this concept album as a soundtrack for his elaborate multi-media experience coming to Las Vegas in 2020, and apparently it is quite a wild audio encounter: Rolling Stone called it “a musical journey akin to Willie [sic] Wonka’s boat ride.” Haha!

All of the articles I’ve read about Kind Heaven include Elliot as a guest guitarist, but I haven’t been able to determine if he worked on the entire record or just on certain selections. It was produced by Toni Visconti and boasts other musical legends besides EE, including drummer Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters) and pianist Mike Garson (David Bowie).

Here is the first single released from the album; it contains some pretty rocking guitar jams. I wouldn’t be surprised if that IS our Elliot — we know he can play anything to perfection!

Kind Heaven can be streamed on iTunes and Spotify.

A big thank you to Andrew C for putting this on my radar with his YouTube comment!

In the studio with D.M.C.!

Yes, folks, that’s D.M.C. (Darryl Matthews McDaniels) of Run-D.M.C. fame: the hip hop pioneers largely credited for breaking the ‘hip hop sound’ onto the mainstream music charts, as well as being the likely force that kick-started Aerosmith’s late 80s musical comeback with their joint cover of “Walk This Way.” Growing up in that decade, I love a poppy rap song as much as anyone (I still have Rob Base and Kid ‘n Play in my running tunes), but I confess that I never thought I would come across Elliot’s name in association with a rap album.

If anything, this discovery further cements my belief that Elliot Easton can play any music anytime with anyone — and completely nail the performance.

A quick background (although there is SO much to D.M.C.’s story): In 2004, a couple of years after the official disbanding of Run-D.M.C., McDaniels began working on his own solo project, which coincided with some deep soul-searching over the experiences in his life. The result was a 13-track album entitled Checks Thugs and Rock n Roll (no punctuation on purpose, which makes me twitchy). It featured a couple of guest artists, including, among others, Sarah McLachlan and Kid Rock, and EE, of course!

While Darryl’s overall effort was received with lukewarm reviews, Elliot’s guitar playing on D.M.C.’s interpolation of Jimi Hendrix’s (Bob Dylan’s) “Watchtower” creates a 5 alarm fire. Even if you are not a fan of rap, at least take a listen to about the first 25 seconds of this song, and see if that ripping guitar doesn’t leave you eager to hear the rest.

 

In the studio with Billy Sherwood!

Billy Sherwood is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, engineer, producer, songwriter, and former bassist for the band Yes (among many other projects). In 2005, he organized a tribute to Pink Floyd’s album, The Wall. Billy gathered up a bunch of successful musical artists and had them cover each song from that iconic 1979 release, and put the results out on an album called Back Against the Wall. The roster of talent involved is highly impressive: Keith Emerson, Tommy Shaw, Aynsley Dunbar, Fee Waybill, Ronnie Montrose… the whole group is listed here on wikipedia. What a kick those recording sessions must have been, huh?

Elliot blistered the CD with his lead guitar playing on track #9 — a cover of “Young Lust,” with Glenn Hughes on vocals and a stellar band (bassist Tony Franklin, drummer Aynsley Dunbar, guitarist Bob Kulick, and Billy on keyboards). I’m not a huge Pink Floyd fan myself (don’t throw things at me!) but this is a great version of a cool song. Sending out a kiss of thanks to my dear friend Vanessa H for putting it on my radar!

Here is the cover version (a link to the original is below in case you want to compare).