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ROLLINS BAND
In 1998, Henry Rollins, longtime MS fan and friend, produced “DEEP” the
third Mother Superior CD and after he saw first-hand how quickly and
easily the band worked in the studio he asked the trio to help him come
up with some songs for his then-planned solo CD. His group Rollins Band
was taking a break from each other after 10 years of recording and
touring. After watching MS complete their CD in 3 days he wondered why
it took his band 2 years to complete their last project “Come In And
Burn” in 1997. Mother Superior jumped at the chance of writing with
Rollins and soon ended up with around a dozen new tunes together. It
was soon evident that this was more than some songs for a solo record
and MS was asked to become the new incarnation of ROLLINS BAND.
Henry, Jim, Marcus & Jason recorded around 30 songs at Cherokee
Studios in Hollywood including two tracks with Wayne Kramer of the MC5
and a version of Thin Lizzy’s “Are You Ready” with Lizzy guitarist
Scott Gorham as a guest. In late 1999, the band hit the road for some
test dates and the audience reaction went from confusion (“who are
these guys?”) to positive rock ‘n roll elation. From the start, Rollins
made sure that this was NOT the end of Mother Superior as a band, just
an extension of their talents.
The new ROLLINS BAND debuted on Dreamworks Records in 2000 with “GET
SOME GO AGAIN” and Rollins received his best reviews in years and was
applauded for the refreshing Stooges-style no bullshit music. The first
single was “Illumination” and upon its release received heavy
alternative radio airplay and a video was filmed in India and Los
Angeles. A world tour followed including dates with Metallica. Rollins
released the remainder of the songs from the GSGA sessions as “YELLOW
BLUES” on his own 2-13-61 Records. Also in 2000, their 100th show, at a
festival in Denmark was recorded and released as a live CD called “A
CLOCKWORK ORANGE STAGE”. Playing in front of 100,000 people, the
emotion of the show was evident as the night before during Pearl Jam’s
set, six young concert goers were crushed and killed by an over-excited
crowd.
Upon returning home to L.A., the band’s unity was strong and they took
the songs they started writing on the road and immediately went back
into Cherokee Studios to record over 25 more songs. At the same time,
Mother Superior wrote and completed their self-title Triple X Records
debut CD which Henry again produced. The next Rollins Band CD was
released in 2001 on Sanctuary Records and was titled “NICE”. A video
was made for “Your Number Is One” and the band hit the road again,
touring worldwide in support of the record. Starting with dates on the
Van’s Warped Tour on the east coast of America and on to places as far
away as Russia, the tour ended in Chicago in March 2002 for two
sold-out dates at the Metro. Those shows were recorded and released as
a double-live CD called “THE ONLY WAY TO KNOW FOR SURE” on Sanctuary
Records in the summer of 2002.
2-13-61 Records also released “A NICER SHADE OF RED” in 2002, which
consisted of some great, twisted tracks that were left off of the
“NICE” CD.
They finished 2002 by recording all of the music on the “RISE ABOVE” CD
produced by Henry and featuring IGGY POP, LEMMY, HANK III and many
others singing their favorite Black Flag songs and a coinciding tour.
More about “RISE ABOVE” below.
DANIEL LANOIS
After seeing Mother Superior perform with Henry Rollins at L.A.’s
Troubadour club, Grammy award-winning producer Daniel Lanois (U2, Peter
Gabriel, Bob Dylan, Neville Brothers, Emmylou Harris, etc.) became a
fan and close friend of the band. After completing his third solo CD in
2003, “SHINE”, he asked the band if they would like to do some jamming
at his home studio in Silverlake, California. They gelled so well that
he then asked Mother Superior to perform with him at the SXSW festival
in Austin, Texas in March, 2003 where he was also keynote speaker. The
crowd’s reaction was so great that they are now currently touring with
Daniel as his backing band.
WAYNE KRAMER
After sitting in with Rollins Band for the “Get Some Go Again” CD,
Brother Wayne Kramer, former guitarist of Detroit legends the MC5 was
producing a CD project called “BEYOND CYBERPUNK”. He asked Mother
Superior if they would like to be involved. Wayne produced an MS track
called “Black Silk” for the project and they had such a great time that
they started working on a full CD together. 15 new Mother Superior
tracks were recorded with Wayne producing, but at the same time the
band was finishing mixing songs they had already recorded by themselves
for their CD they were calling “SIN”. Wayne heard and loved the CD so
much that he asked the band to release it on his own label called
Muscletone Records. After the CD was released in May 2002, MS hit the
road that summer touring opening for Wayne’s band in which Jim Wilson
also played guitar and keyboards. The tracks that Wayne produced on MS
will be released in 2003 and the CD is titled “13 VIOLETS”. Many agree
that this is the band’s strongest work to date.
GEORGE CLINTON
After meeting Henry Rollins at a Los Angeles promo party,
Parliament/Funkadelic leader and legendary cosmic funk messenger George
Clinton asked if Henry would like to record some stuff with him for an
upcoming P-Funk project. A session was immediately planned and Mother
Superior were asked to provide the grooves, along with Blackbyrd and
Ronkat from George’s camp. They spent an entire night recording with
George which resulted in “Asswipe”, a funk version of “Whole Lot Of
Shakin’ Goin’ On” (George’s favorite song as a kid) and a few funk
instrumentals. “Asswipe” will be released shortly.
ALICE COOPER
When producer Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper/Kiss/Pink Floyd) was working with
Billy Idol on a new project he called Mother Superior to help write
some songs with the 80s star. But before they could even get together,
Ezrin was called in to help coordinate Alice Cooper’s new “Brutal
Planet” CD. He put a phone call into MS saying he changed his mind and
he thinks they would be perfect to help Alice with new songs. MS met
and hit it off with Alice and spent time exchanging ideas and riffs
with him. One of their collaborations “Can’t Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me”
was released on the Japanese version of “Brutal Planet” in 2000. In
2002, the track was available worldwide when it was added to the
special edition of Alice’s “Dragontown” CD.
TONY VISCONTI
Tony Visconti’s career is a history lesson in rock ‘n roll and he has
worked with and produced such artists as David Bowie, T. Rex, Sparks,
Squeeze members Difford And Tilbrook, The Move, Paul McCartney and Thin
Lizzy just to list a few. He became aware of the band when Rollins Band
recorded a cover of “Are You Ready” which Tony originally produced for
Thin Lizzy in 1977. After seeing Mother Superior perform live in New
York they struck up a friendship. For the track “Four Walls” which
appears on the “13 VIOLETS” CD, MS asked Tony to provide on of his
classic string quartet arrangements. Tony wrote the arrangement and
conducted the session and the result was astounding. The band wish to
do more work with Tony in the near future. He is now finishing the
production for the next David Bowie project which currently occupies
his time.
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