Icon Fetch

It was a turning point in popular culture. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were arrested in early 1967 on drug charges stemming from a party that Richards held for close friends. Local police, tipped off by an opportunistic newspaper, raided the festivities, setting off a series of events which led to a media frenzy, and the arrest and eventual temporary imprisonment of both band members. What was...

Australian songwriter Paul Kelly has put a new twist on the past. His new 8-CD box set, The A to Z Recordings, features recently performed live versions of 100 of his best songs in alphabetical order. The collection comes housed in a handsome booklet featuring photographs, old concert posters, paintings and pictures of artists that influenced Kelly’s music over the years. He’s also written an acco...

he Hobart Brothers and ‘Lil Sis Hobart, made up of songwriters Freedy Johnston, Jon Dee Graham, and Susan Cowsill, first came together during the annual SXSW Music Festival in Austin, and found that they each shared a common history of working in the kitchens of numerous restaurants in their younger days (Hobart is a reference to the most famous industrial dishwasher). After recording demos last y...

Pianist David Lanz continues his homage to the Beatles with his new CD, Here Comes the Sun. Like his first tribute, Liverpool: Re-imagining the Beatles, this album takes classics by the Fab Four and reworks them with stunning results. Lanz returns to Icon Fetch to talk about choosing this new batch of songs, how “I Am the Walrus” took several months to arrange, and why he decided to include songs...

I See Hawks in LA continue the California folk rock that was pioneered by bands like the Byrds, then twisted and re-imagined by visionaries like Gram Parsons. They’ve just released their fifth album, New Kind of Lonely, which is the band’s first all-acoustic outing. The record still contains their signature dark humor, sharp picking and tight harmonies, all elements the band has perfected over the...

Norman Greenbaum is known for the 1970 smash hit “Spirit in the Sky.” The song’s unique paring of gospel-inspired lyrics with psychedelic rock backing helped it sell a whopping two million records in its first year of release. But, it’s the song’s universal message that continues to make it one of the most-played oldies on the radio. It’s also been included in almost 50 different movies, in numero...

The Good Lovelies provide some much-needed sunshine in these winter months with the release of their third long-player, Let the Rain Fall. The Toronto-based trio mixes elements of folk, bluegrass and swing and tops it off with delectable harmonies that bring to mind the Andrews and McGuire Sisters, groups of a forgotten era. Icon Fetch talks to one-third of the band, Sue Passmore, about their (mos...

Mitch Ryder stormed out of Michigan with the Detroit Wheels scoring mid-60’s hits with “Jenny Take a Ride,” “Devil With the Blue Dress On,” and “Sock it To Me-Baby!” For a shining moment, he was one of the few American artists that could rival the British bands in intensity. But, after the hits dried up, Ryder’s career collapsed in a haze of drugs and shady management deals. He managed to pick him...

Richard Barone returns to Icon Fetch with a brand new album Collection 2: Before and Afterglow, featuring demos and rare tracks spanning his entire career, including a brand-new reworking of the classic “Sidewalks of New York,” plus covers of songs by ELO, Nilsson, and Bobby Fuller. There’s even a seldom heard track from the Snails, Barone’s first band way back in 1976. Icon Fetch talks with the f...

Singer Chris Willis first teamed with French DJ David Guetta back in 2001 for the club hit “Just a Little More Love.” Over the next ten years, the duo would put together a string of international dance hits including “Love Don’t Let Me Go,” “Money,” “Love is Gone,” and “Gettin’ Over You,” which also featured Fergie and LMFAO. Now, Willis is stepping out on his own for his first solo EP Premium / S...

Rob Shanahan is so good at taking pictures, Ringo Starr has selected him as his personal photographer. For the last 15 years, Shanahan’s work has appeared in countless music magazines, on album covers and inside CD booklets. Now he’s put together his first collection of photographs – appropriately titled Volume One. Through his lens we see a wide array of artists, including legends like Paul McCar...

The Smithereens have become legends for their brand of no-nonsense rock n’ roll, scoring hits with “Behind the Wall of Sleep,” “A Girl Like You,” “Only a Memory,” and “Too Much Passion.” Their first album of original material in twelve years – 2011 – is being hailed as one of the best records of their entire career (it made Icon Fetch’s “Sweet Sixteen” – the Best of 2011 list. Icon Fetch talks wit...

Sophie B. Hawkins first burst on the scene with the sensual hit “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover,” from 1992. Her next album yielded another smash in “As I Lay Me Down” in ’95. As she readies her first new full-length album in seven years – The Crossing – for release early 2012, she’s got a song in the brand new hit movie, New Year’s Eve – “Life is a Bomb.” Icon Fetch talks to the native New Yorker...

Suzi Quatro is known in the US for her role as Leather Tuscadero on TV’s Happy Days, and her 1978 Top Ten duet with Chris Norman “Stumblin’ In.” But, overseas she’s a bona fide icon – selling a staggering 50 million records worldwide, scoring several number one singles in both the UK and Australia. Quatro has just released her 15th album, In the Spotlight, a strong return to form helmed by longtim...

Hailing from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Dwight Twilley teamed with Phil Seymour in the Dwight Twilley Band, hitting gold with their very first single, 1975’s “I’m On Fire” – lauded by the San Francisco Chronicle as “The best debut single by an American rock band ever.” But, a combination of dumb label decisions and bad luck prevented the band’s career from properly taking off. That didn’t stop Twilley – he’...

You’d never think a young singer/songwriter could make such a classic-sounding album. Ben Wilkins hails from Canada and has just released his self-titled debut album, a combination of his melodic piano work and soaring tenor, augmented by strings, horns and lush background vocals – all adding up to a record that sounds like it could’ve come out in 1973. Wilkins has a knack for writing hook-laden s...

Nils Lofgren has been a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E. Street Band since 1984. He’s also played in Neil Young’s band, all the while maintaining a successful solo career. Old School, Lofgren’s first full-length album of his tunes in five years, features guest appearances by Paul Rodgers of Bad Company, Lou Gramm of Foreigner, and Sam Moore of Sam & Dave. Icon Fetch talks to the multi-instrumental...

We continue our follow up conversation with Mark Linett & Alan Boyd, co-producers of the SMiLE Sessions box set. They answer more of the questions that you submitted to Icon Fetch, including why there was no sessionography for disc one of the set, why they included Carl Wilson’s vocal on “Surf’s Up,” if they used all the pieces recorded for “Heroes and Villains,” and what’s next in the Beach Boys’...

With over 10,000 sessions to her credit, Carol Kaye is one of the most-recorded musicians in the history of popular music Part of the famous Wrecking Crew, a group of session musicians that backed everyone from Simon & Garfunkel to the Righteous Brothers and the Monkees. But, Kaye is probably best-known as bassist and guitarist on many of the Beach Boys best-loved songs and albums. She was a part...

The Beach Boys’ SMiLE Sessions box is out now. Co-producers Mark Linett and Alan Boyd return to Icon Fetch to answer some of the questions you have – including what happened to the background vocals on “Barnyard,” what, if any, songs Brian Wilson nixed from the album, why there isn’t a stereo mix of “Good Vibrations,” and how they assembled “Heroes and Villains part two.”

Concord Music Group has just released Singular Genius – the Complete ABC Singles collection by Ray Charles, a monumental five-disc box set featuring every A and B side released during his peak years of 1960-1972, and all in their original, mono single mix. Thirty of these tracks have never been released on CD. Icon Fetch talks with John Burk, the Chief Creative Officer at Concord, who spearheaded...

Jon Anderson fronted progressive rock legends Yes for almost 40 years before stepping away due to health issues near the end of last decade. He’s just released a brand new solo effort called Survival and Other Stories, which deals in part with some of the struggles that he’s had to overcome recently. Anderson talks with Icon Fetch’s Justine Bevan about collaborating with different songwriters, hav...

The V-Roys hailed from Knoxville, Tennessee, with a sound that blended gritty rock n’ roll with bar room country and a keen melodic sense. The band put out two albums on Steve Earle’s E-Squared label in the 1990s before breaking up near the end of the decade. Since then, the members have gone their separate ways, yet their legend has continued to grow. They were named “Best Knoxville Band Ever” in...

Domenic Priore was the first person to release an entire book devoted to the SMiLE project when he compiled Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile! in 1995. He followed that up in 2007 with Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece. Now, he’s penned one of the essays in the new SMiLE Sessions box set. Icon Fetch talks to the author, DJ and music historian about SMiLE’s place in rock history and it...

Our Beach Boys coverage continues with Jon Stebbins, author of The Beach Boys FAQ – All That’s Left to Know About America’s Band (Backbeat Books). The comprehensive book includes bios of every member of the Beach Boys (past and present), including who sang on which song, specifics on the musical gear they used, and even their addresses. Plus, he gives a profile of the sidemen who played on their r...