1.Whitey is an ongoing solo project by N.J Whitey. He is a hard character to pin down- his genre-twisting songs swing wildly between styles, and his dismissive attitude towards the music industry means there are few shows, and even fewer interviews. He has to date had no major record deal, but has still released over 30 records under a variety of names. Yet without any significant industry investment his distinctive sounds have broken through to mainstream daytime radio in the U.S and elsewhere, and for four straight years his music has been a fixture from rock clubs to fashion runways, from movie soundtracks to television, computer games to skate films. From Japan to Iceland, Moscow to Hollywood. From the Sopranos to Grand Theft Auto. Gradually this cult U.K artist has built a strange home in the shadowy ground between high fashion and mainstream entertainment, between pop radio and what little is left of the underground. An outsider who relishes this status, and celebrates this outsider ethos in his work. What else? He’s lived in a variety of places, but you could say he finished growing up in Coventry. He now lives in Berlin. He sings, programs, plays guitar, keys, bass and drums but has no formal qualifications and is totally self taught. His live shows are haphazard- some are an uplifting rhythmic experience, whilst some occur in deliberately darkened rooms and are hedonistic affairs drenched with chaotic walls of feedback and electronic noise. Others may swing from ferocious rock moments to gentle simple melodies played on tiny bells, acoustic guitars and toy instruments. There have been gigs with everyone from New Order to Iggy Pop, Soulwax to Peaches to the Undertones. He’s as comfortable playing a sweaty NYC rock club as an Ibizan dance megaclub, and is one of the few artists regularly invited to play both. What more can we find out? Not much. There’s only been one interview in the last couple of years, and this was a strange rambling piece where the hapless journalist was led off on a meandering journey through the dead of an East End night, on a quest to discover more-or-less nothing. Since then? A deliberate silence- as he has said in a previous interview- “…there is nothing more tedious than a celebrity, nothing more run-of-the-mill. I cant think of anything I want less.” He has to date recorded and released the album THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL IS A TRAIN (1234 Records, 2005). This made many critical ‘Best Of Year’ lists. You should listen to this, if you can find it. If you are in America then you can buy it from DimMak, or from Itunes on the link below. There is a leaked online album ‘GREAT SHAKES’ out there in limbo. The second official Whitey album ‘STAY ON THE OUTSIDE’ was signed to Marquis Cha Cha and delivered in late autumn 2008, but no official release date has been announced. The third official (and supposedly final) album, titled ‘CANNED LAUGHTER’ was released on April Fools Day 2010. The “CANNED LAUGHTER’ - vol. 2 will be released in sept.1st 2010. ================================================== 2. Whitey is a blues-based-doom band from Boston, MA, featuring members of Glazed Baby, Javelin, The Glow, & Muss. Whitey is saturated with the blues the way gas spreads through a puddle. But it’s also modern as hell, with deafening waves of distorted metal brutality. Style-wise, the band makes wide turns, from Jesus Lizard hypno-grunge to even sicker stuff that’ll remind you of the Melvins’. At its best, it’s mind-warping noise that borders on the extreme without sinking into an experimental quagmire. Whitey flat out rocks. This is the kind of baby that the blues should have had before it was too late, before that pampered infant grew up and started listening to Bon Jovi and Nickelback. This is the kind of baby it’d be cool to have, once it got over that nasty cholic and started callin’ you Pop. Randy, formerly of dicked-over major label act Glazed Baby, finally has the kind of band that’s ready; it’s coiled on its haunches, prepared to lunge viciously and unsympathetically at unsuspecting audiences. As Randy’s first real crack at getting back in the game, the savage Whitey proves the time is finally right. |
|
 | ||||||||||||||||
