Julian Fist
Pushing Audio Platinum

by Lisa Hummel

It’s been a few years since the release of Julian Fist’s self-titled demo. A three-track disc, Julian Fist was a solid entry into the recorded format, providing an impressive taste for what was to come. Though the follow-up, Pushing Audio Platinum — the band’s first full-length release — was a while in coming, due to personnel changes and personal tragedy, it does what its predecessor could not. It allows for nearly an hour of listening to what Julian Fist does best: edgy guitar riffs, rich harmonies, reliable beats, and unwavering vocals that could only be bettered by catching a live performance of the band.

Platinum’s 11 tracks are a fine meld of the band’s hard and its lesser-known softer sides. Kicked-off with a crunching intro and the metallic-tinged “Rain,” the rest of this album exploits Julian Fist’s obvious chemistry, each song a see-saw of talent, back and forth, from the ever-present guitar to drums to vocals to bass, the band is tight and that is evident in the resulting material.

Platinum also features the heavy hitting “Turn You Down” (“See the hate your evil ways inspire/Pray the weak with no defense/Spark the fire watch the flames grow higher/Bring me to my bitter end”) and “Bow or Break” as well as the contemplative “How Do I?” and the hopeful “The One.” Also included among the tracks is the album’s first single, “Fly Away.” A tribute to Scott Michajluk’s late sister — the entire album is dedicated in her honor — “Fly Away” tells of a search for inner peace: “Fly away trying to touch/Reality that’s now a memory/Fly away through the dark/To light the hope that’s burning out inside.” The cut is hauntingly beautiful and at once highlights one of the band’s strongest attributes — their ability to develop complex lyrics and layer them over a bed of raucous rock.

Released in June, Pushing Audio Platinum is an impressive effort that shows just how much the band has grown in the time since Julian Fist’s release, both as musicians and as people. With this album, the members of Julian Fist have compiled a well-crafted, well-written collection and they couldn’t sound more on the mark. Rather than hold them back, the happenings in the band’s past have propelled them into a bright future. If Julian Fist was a taste and Pushing Audio Platinum an entrée, here’s to the dessert!

Blues Traveler
Bridge

by Benjy Eisen

A lot has happened to Blues Traveler since last we heard from them. Of the four original Travelers one of them sadly didn’t make it. In August of 1999 bassist Bobby Sheehan passed away in New Orleans. For a while, the future of Blues Traveler was uncertain. But what doesn’t destroy you makes you stronger and so Blues Traveler rebounded by not only finding a new bass player (interestingly enough, guitarist Chan Kinchla’s brother, Tad Kinchla), but also adding Ben Wilson on piano and keyboards. Thus making Blues Traveler a five-piece band for the first time in their 13-year history.

Like the line-up itself, the Blues Traveler that recorded Bridge is both different and the same. They’re a little heavier than before, the beats are a little more driving, the tunes a little more athematic. Frontman John Popper still delivers literate lyrics with his patented clever phrasing as if saying the punch line of a joke. Mood-wise however, this music is no joke. Gone is the light-heartedness of “Run Around” (the Top Ten hit that made them famous in 1995). In its place are a collection of songs that musically and lyrically reflect, and directly deal with, the death of Bobby Sheehan and the evolution of the band as both people and personnel. This mood culminates with “Pretty Angry,” dedicated to Sheehan’s surviving brother Johnny (“And I guess I’m still pretty angry/And I don’t want to be/I don’t know which was the bigger waste of time/missing you or wishing instead it was me.”)

Bridge serves as an obvious bridge between the Blues Traveler past and the Blues Traveler of the immediate future, and it successfully crosses that water several times over. This is a mighty bridge, a fortified bridge … an extremely catchy bridge.

“We didn’t want to enshrine Bob,” explains Popper. “We wanted to celebrate what he was trying to build because we weren’t done building it. We’re still building it.” Well boys, at least the bridge is done. (A&M)