In between Foo’s tours, winning a Grammy, other band commitments and babies being born, Jackson United enlisted the help of producer Chad Blinman (Face To Face, Viva Death, Get Up Kids) and recorded 21 “a little bit rock, a little bit punk” tracks from the thousands Chris had written that he couldn’t convince anyone else to sing. Fourteen of those are on “Western Ballads”. Confessing a love for “way down in kokomo” era Beach Boys ahead of the often cited and trendier “Pet Sounds”, Shiflett says “… it’s guitar pop. Not as heavy as Foo Fighters stuff. And there’s some stuff that’s pretty mellow and vibey”. We prefer to think of it as flawless. Six months later the release of “Western Ballads” marked not only a new name, but new band mates too! Cary Lascala (also of Vue) took over the drumsticks and Doug Sangalang (ex Screw 32/Limp) became the new guitarist. Both of them had toured a bunch with Chris’ old band No Use For A Name). Also Omen Starr was added to the line-up, replacing Scott on bass. In 2006 Scott was called back in after Omen’s departure, and along with Jose Mendeles on drums, they began work on their second record. Unfortunately Jose didn’t stay with the band, and ‘guest drummers’ were drafted in for recording. Jackson United’s second album Harmony and Dissidence was released in Australia and Japan on April 14th 2008, and set to be available on itunes. This album sees the return of Scott Shiflett to the band, and ‘guest drummers’ were revealed to be Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins of Chris’ “day band” Foo Fighters, Harmony and Dissidence also features Rami Jaffee (of The Wallflowers, and currently a touring member of Foo Fighters) on keyboards and Drew Hester (also a touring member of Foo Fighters, and also produced and mixed the 2006 debut self-titled album from Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders) on percussion. The video for “21st Century Fight Song” can be seen here |
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