***CONSUMMATE NEW ‘ORIGINS VOL. 2’ COVERS ALBUM RELEASED SEPTEMBER 18TH ON STEAMHAMMER / SPV ***
Ace Frehley, KISS co-founder and 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, continues his reflections on a lifetime in music with the release of ‘Origins Vol. 2’, a thoughtful and exciting collection of new covers, on September 18th on Steamhammer / SPV as a DigiPak CD (plus bonus track), double gatefold 180 gram blue vinyl LP (with printed inner sleeves), download and stream.
No stranger to cover versions throughout his entire history – having recorded, rebranded and repossessed such notable nuggets as ‘New York Groove’, ‘Do Ya’, and ‘I Wanna Go Back’ over the course of his 8 studio albums – this new compendium contains songs that have all inspired and shaped the legendry guitarist’s life jukebox. Ace comments, “I just thought about the songs that I used to play in clubs when I was doing other people’s material. I went through my album collection and thought about the songs that influenced me the most. It’s a pretty well-rounded record and I think the fans will enjoy it.”
‘Origins Vol. 2’, featuring guest appearances by Robin Zander (Cheap Trick), John 5, Lita Ford and Bruce Kulick, is a well thought out, but not over-thought, album. For Ace, keeping things organic is an important part of crafting an album’s atmosphere: “I just let it happen. Things evolve when I start doing these records and I try not to plan too much ahead. I like spontaneity. It’s the same way I write guitar solos.”
As the second volume focusing on his musical origins, Ace has grown since the release of ‘Origins Vol.1’, which hit #23 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts in April 2016, becoming his 4th Top 40 and second highest charting solo album. Ace chuckles, “Since I had one covers album under my belt, the process of doing ‘Origins, Vol. 2’ was easier because I had put together a formula, picking guest stars and so-on.” The challenge for him was to put a suitable personal stamp on the material, and ‘Origins, Vol. 2’ is replete with special touches that both honour and embellish the songs.
The third video from ‘beauty re-envisioned’. This NEW version of the T. REX classic features the late Marc Bolan’s son, Rolan Bolan on lead vocals along with The Mission UK’s main-man Wayne Hussey.
Rolan Bolan: lead vocals
Wayne Hussey: guitar and harmony vocals
Michael Ciravolo: guitar, vocals
Tish Ciravolo: bass
Michael Rozon: drums
Scarlett Perry: piano
LA-based collective Beauty in Chaos presents their new single ’20th Century Boy’ feat. Rolan Bolan and Wayne Hussey, with a fun-filled retro-inspired video, created by Industrialism Films and directed by Vicente Cordero. Here Bolan onoring the legacy of his father Marc Bolan, along with The Mission’s main-man and Beauty in Chaos mastermind Michael Ciravolo.
This track is off the new Beauty in Chaos album ‘Beauty Re-Envisioned’. This rendition definitely sounds more like T.Rex than the industrial-fueled version featuring Ministry’s Al Jourgensen that appears on Beauty In Chaos’s debut ‘Finding Beauty in Chaos’.
“Once Rolan (son of Marc Bolan and singer Gloria Jones) agreed to be part of this, I wanted to recut the track with much more of the sultry swagger from the original. We added a growly sax and some cool Mott the Hoople meets New Orleans honkey-tonk piano to enhance the vibe we wanted. I probably would not be playing electric guitar if it was not for Marc Bolan. This is my big thank you … and I have been blessed to be able to enlist some great company to help me say it,” says Michael Ciravolo.
“Getting to record and perform this song with Marc’s son and Wayne Hussey is one of those oft-mentioned surreal moments in BIC.”
Rolan Bolan explains his involvement in the project: “When Michael came to me about Beauty In Chaos and doing ‘20th Century Boy’ , I first thought ‘here we go again, another T. Rex cover, but once I heard the track and talked with him about the love and respect he has for my father’s music it just made sense. It was great timing for me as I was just beginning to get back into making music and we just clicked in the studio. My Dad was so influential to so many, and at times it’s been hard for me to understand what that really means. I’m really proud of what we’ve done here and I believe he would be too.”
“It is, of course, a huge pleasure to be playing guitar and singing on ‘20th Century Boy’, one of Marc Bolan’s best-known songs. And a transcendent honour to be doing so behind Rolan Bolan, Marc’s son. When Michael Ciravolo told me that Rolan was going to be involved I virtually begged Michael to let me be involved in this project. Bless him, despite being more than capable of handling all the guitar parts himself Michael did deign to let me have a strum, and a yodel, along. There’s another one off my bucket list! Cheers, Michael. And Rolan,” says Wayne Hussey.
Hussey’s love for T. Rex and Marc Bolan runs deep, as detailed in his recently released ‘Salad Daze’ autobiography, out now via Omnibus Press.
“I was reborn. It was a Thursday evening, early January 1972, getting on for 8pm. I was 13 going on 14 years old. That evening the course of my life was changed irrevocably forever. I saw my destiny in a blinding flash of glitter, a touch of mascara and dark curls. From that moment I knew I was pre-ordained. I was gonna be a rock star. Well, somebody has to be, don’t they, so why not me?
I had just watched Marc Bolan and T. Rex dazzle the nation on the institutional British TV show, Top Of The Pops. Miming to ‘Telegram Sam’, the new number one single in the charts, Bolan pranced and preened across our TV screens and straight into the hearts of teens, dividing the generations for perhaps the first time since The Beatles had done so almost ten years before.
That was it for me. In one fell swoop I no longer wanted to be Kevin Keegan, I wanted to be Marc Bolan. Bolan had better hair than Keegan and was far prettier. It looked like a really good job to me, playing guitar and singing, being on TV and being screamed at by girls. And even some boys. And a darn sight more agreeable and easier than all the dedication, training and physical exercise required to become a professional footballer.
Switching allegiances as easy as finding sand in a desert, down came my posters of Keegan, Ray Clemence, Tommy Smith (!) et al and up went centre page pull-outs from Jackie and Disco 45 of dear beloved Marc. Marc Bolan was my first and, still to this day, an enduring love.
I was T. Rex crazy and, like a million other kids, I would pose in front of the mirror with a tennis racket, pretending to play guitar while singing along to Bolan. The first LP I ever bought was Electric Warrior, maybe a month or two later after saving up enough money from my paper round wages. Electric Warrior is a fantastic album and it’s still high on my list of best albums ever. I love the earthiness of its sound, the funkiness, the otherworldly mystical lyrics, the simplicity of the songs, the instrumentation, the guitar playing, the backing vocals of Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman (better known as The Turtles), but most of all, it’s that voice, that extraordinarily fey, quivering, tactile Bolan voice that just oozes sexual exuberance.”
Beauty in Chaos’ also involves numerous other music luminaries, including Simon Gallup (The Cure), Al Jourgensen (Ministry), Ashton Nyte (The Awakening), Robin Zander (Cheap Trick), Pete Parada (The Offspring), dUg Pinnick (Kings X), ICE-T (Body Count), producer Tim Palmer, guitar icon Zakk Wylde, Kevin Haskins (Bauhaus, Love & Rockets), Michael Aston (Gene Loves Jezebel), Michael Anthony (Van Halen), Paul Wiley (Marilyn Manson), Dirk Doucette (Gene Loves Jezebel), Pando (A Flock of Seagulls), Evi Vine, Johnny Indovina (Human Drama), Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson), Betsy Martin (Caterwaul / Purr Machine), Marc Danzeisen (The Riverdogs), Kevin Kipnis (Purr Machine / Kommunity FK), Rudy Matchinga (Red Scare), and Tish Ciravolo (StunGun/ Daisy Rock Guitars).
‘Beauty Re-Envisioned’ is available on deluxe CD, limited-edition heavy-weight colored vinyl, and digitally, with a Spotifyversion to appear later. CDs and vinyl can be ordered directly from Beauty in Chaos at www.beautyinchaosmusic.com/music-store. Apart from the 14 core tracks, orders placed via the website also come with 11 bonus remixes.
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