(RockAndMetal.com) (05/06/05)

Edited By Michael Bennett

LONDON, UK - Rock veterans GENE LOVES JEZEBEL will release a new album on the Track Records label on June 6th, succinctly titled "Exploding Girls."

The band has taken on several different labels over the years, having variously been called hip, anarchic, Gothic, Rock, melodic and fascinating.

In other words, they defy a neat description.

Gene Loves Jezebel have been around in various permutations since Goth diverged from the early Eighties UK romantic scene, and currently comprise a four-strong band.

The line up for their latest release consists of Michael Aston (vocals/guitars), Michael Ciravolo (guitars/keyboards), Pando (bass), and Michael Brahm (drums).

Frontman Aston, now living in California (and whose twin brother Jay lost the rights to the band name in 1997 after the brothers' bitter split) is more Goth-ish than Gothic and has a flair for the dramatic. He also knows how to use it.

And there's no pussy-footing around on the new Gene Loves Jezebel album.

"Exploding Girls" is a smouldering, melodic meditation on Wafa Idris, Palestine's first female suicide bomber.

Other topical and personal insights surface amid edgy tunes shot through with exotic flavors.

They range from the slinky Electronic groove behind the bittersweet '2 Hungry Women' to the African-style percussion driving 'Blue Mary.'

"Exploding Girls" is an album that holds a special appeal for those who fondly recall the days when Goth was more about romantic yearning (in the Bronte sense) and gritty Pop/Rock than fetish gear and down-tuned guitars.

It is an album that's comprised completely of songs that Aston penned about women who have affected his life, and could be considered by some to be the strongest work that Gene Loves Jezebel has ever made.

"Exploding Girls" is near flawless in its U2 meets The Cure-meets Human League-style delivery. The songs are strong and catchy and the thought-provoking lyrical content makes it all the more intriguing.

Twenty-odd years after first taking the stage with Gene Loves Jezebel, Michael Aston leads them through the new album, which raises some serious questions, such as: "How can this band, whose turbulent history would have burned out any other band several times over, turn out material like this?"

"Exploding Girls" bristles with brutal candor, slams with passionate performances, and poses challenges that listeners will not be able to ignore, and, in fact, even drove other members of Gene Loves Jezebel into angry exchanges with Aston.

The answer is simple. "Exploding Girls" is about something that has changed the lives of countless musicians, fans, and even people who don't care about music at all.

It's about women.

Specifically, Aston explains: "women I've loved, women I've admired, women I've detested, women who have elevated me and others who have half-destroyed me."

"Every single song on this record is about someone who has had a great impact on my life. They're all 'exploding girls.'"

The soft-spoken singer realized very quickly how tricky that theme would be.

He had written a long list of classic songs for Gene Loves Jezebel, going back to their early Goth period with 'Shaving My Neck' and 'Bruises,' and through later periods of Pop/Rock accessibility with 'Shame' and 'Heartache.'

"But a lot of my old songs were mainly about angst," he says. "It was very rare that I would write about women."

Perhaps that's why the material he would produce for "Exploding Girls" stands out from the pap that's ground through the Pop machinery these days.

"The key, for me, was to write each song about an individual, rather than just writing to a formula," Aston says.

"Very often, when you write a basic love song, you're just tying words together. But when you have a specific person or event in mind, that gives you clarity."

As he dug into a regimen of writing both on his own and with current Gene Loves Jezebel guitarist/keyboardist Michael Ciravolo, images began to emerge from Aston's imagination like photos in a darkroom.

Some were innocent, as on 'My Heart's A Flame,' a recollection of first love idealized by time.

Others are painfully honest, such as 'What Do You Want From Me,' a confession of helplessness and incomprehension before his partner's furious flurry of "daggers, wings, and feathers."

On 'Exploding Girl,' to the sound of a crunchy riff and jaunty chorus, Aston recalls Wafa Idris, the first female Palestinian suicide bomber.

"When I first heard this story, I was completely aghast, amazed, fascinated, and engaged," he says.

"This girl, who was so young, educated, deeply committed and fueled by her perception of her people's insufferable oppression, is demonized as a terrorist."

"But one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter and another is one's martyr."

Then we come to 'Jenin,' in which we visit the Middle East again and through the example of another young woman, come face to face with issues of violence and sacrifice, heroism and insanity.

"This seems to be about a woman, but it's actually about Jenin, the Palestinian refugee camp."

"I'm always touched by young women, like 23-year-old American Rachel Corey, who was run over while trying to stop an Israeli bulldozer."

"It's outrageously courageous, but in many ways it also gives great hope."

"In the years that I've lived in Los Angeles, I've learned that a lot of men in particular don't have any empathy beyond the borders of the United States," Aston says.

"I've even felt this conflict when talking with my wife at the end of the day."

"She's an American, the daughter of a Republican policeman, and we often don't agree on these things."

"It works out well for us both, though, because we've learned a lot from each other."

"Being raised as a steelworker's son in a socialist household, I've come to feel it imperative for all of us to speak our minds; that exchange of ideas is very important."

But sometimes dialog can flare up unexpectedly.

As Ciravolo, bassist Pando, drummer Michael Brahm, and Aston's co-producer Michael Rosen -- all Americans -- worked through the material on "Exploding Girls," tempers in the studio began to rise.

They were all excited about 'shock and awe' and going into Baghdad," Aston says, "and I'm like, 'You're going to kill thousands of women and children! Destroy lives! People will get their limbs blown off! How many heads will make you satisfied and will the heal the pain of the Twin towers?'"

Fortunately, the band had the discipline to put this tension to good use, first in nailing 'Two Hungry Women,' a grim wartime saga that plays out as "another woman watches her child die."

This same energy surged through all of the "Exploding Girls" sessions, adding up to an intensity that's rare - even in this band's catalog.

"Talking with the other guys only made me more emotional, more passionate," Aston insists.

"It made me want to be sure about what I was saying and to be able to back it up."

"Sure, some of what I say on these songs might be misunderstood, but what matters more is that it draws people into the discussion."

"'Exploding Girls' demands something of you. And how you react to it may tell you more about yourself than you expected to learn."

Michael Aston is used to fighting for his beliefs; longtime fans have already had a taste of it the in the long wrangle between Michael and identical twin brother Jay over the rights to the name "Gene Loves Jezebel."

Michael won that legal battle, and he and Jay haven't spoken since their last performances together with the band in 1997.

Aston's uncompromising approach to conceiving "Exploding Girls" only shows that he's become even more steadfast, fearless and resolute.

"I don't like being vague about things, especially when I'm addressing serious issues," he explains.

"That's why 'Exploding Girls' was so hard for me to do."

"I really thought about each song and worked for many, many hours in bringing them to where I want."

"On all my other records I've been happy to be impressionistic, to just let people listen and make up their own minds."

"That can be effective, but for me that wasn't an option. Working this way changed my ideas about women: I see them now as very powerful and vocal, which I can very easily identify with."

"It made me feel stronger about standing up even to people I work with and care about who might be pro-war and couldn't understand why I'd write a song about a girl who, as they saw it, 'blew up a bunch of innocent people.'"

"Which all means that 'Exploding Girls' led me back to Gene Loves Jezebel."

We've been many things to many people, from gothic to alternative to empty-headed pop."

"But our original manifesto was to make passionate, confrontational music, and that's exactly what we do on the new album."

Produced and mixed by Michael Aston, "Exploding Girls" features 13 tracks in total.

To coincide with its release, Gene Loves Jezebel will embark on a full UK tour in support of "Exploding Girls," their first in several years.

"Exploding Girls" Track Listing:

1. Exploding Girl
2. Love No Longer
3. Downhill Both Ways
4. The Wanting Song
5. Jenin
6. My Heart's A Flame
7. 2 Hungry Women
8. Blue Mary
9. Aire (Buenos Aires)
10. Wind & Fire
11. Love Lie Bleeding
12. Why Me, Why This, Why Now
13. Phreque

Upcoming UK Tour Dates:

May 30th Newquay, UK [Koola]
May 31st Bristol, UK [Fleece & Firkin]
June 1st Exeter, UK [Three Fat Fish]
June 2nd London, UK [100 Club]
June 3rd Porthcawl, UK [Grand Pavilion]
June 4th York, UK [Fibbers]
June 5th Stourbridge, UK [Rock Cafe]
June 8th Ashton-U-Lyne, UK [Witchwood]
June 9th Derby, UK [Victoria Inn]
June 10th Bradford, UK [Rio]
June 11th Glasgow, Scotland [Barfly]
June 12th Edinburgh, Scotland [Exchange]
June 14th Aberdeen, Scotland [Drummonds]
June 15th Newcastle, UK [Cluny]
June 16th Leicester, UK [Charlotte]
June 17th Scunthorpe, UK [Baths Hall]
June 18th Sheffield, UK [Corporation]
June 19th Peterborough, UK [Met Lounge]
June 22nd Oxford, UK [Bullingdon]
June 23rd Cardiff, UK [Barfly]
June 24th Birmingham, UK [Edwards No. 8]
June 25th Nuneaton, UK [Queens Hall]

Copyright 2003-2008 Internet Music Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

---

[Top]