New Radicals
Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too (MCA)
Back in the early '90s, regular samplers called Stanley, Son of Theodore gave "underground" music fans (as they were known then) a sneak preview of tracks by cutting-edge artists. A 1992 version of Stanley included up-and-comers like Pearl Jam, Cypress Hill and a little squeaky-voiced joker named Gregg Alexander, whose contribution, "Truth," was a hilarious, squawking tune about being dumped ("I'm a Jew, and you're my Hitler," hollered this pre-Beck bumpkin). It seemed everyone on that comp broke through to the new "alternative" format except this oddball.
Sometimes it just takes patience and persistence; six years later, Alexander's causing a ruckus with his band, New Radicals. They've got a radio hit on their hands ("You Get What You Give") and an album full of nicely wrapped pop cacophony. So why doesn't it feel so good to see Alexander get his due? Maybe because the Radicals sound so much like World Party, Ben Folds Five and a zillion hippie crossover bands that Alexander blends in like a Wallflower. Sure, he knows how to write a feel-good ballad and fill a groove with his corn silk vocals — which still occasionally crack like a 13-year-old's, thankfully — but the fit is too pat. While Alexander may have finally gotten his gold key to the record-label washroom, he's still not working to potential. —Kristy Ojala, Sidewalk
Teen People, April 1999
What you need to check out this month, NOW!
"The eternal question right now," says singer Gregg Alexander, "is whether people are getting what they want or {wanting} what they are given." It's a question that the 28-year-old from Grosse Pointe, Mich. explores in this first stream-of-consciousness single from his band's debut album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. "I was at a friend's house {in L.A.} that had a big window {with a view of} the entire city below," says Gregg. "I was looking at the city as this sprawling sea of humanity and knowing that witin that sea there were pregnant mothers who couldn't get health insurance and in that same city there were spoiled children taking on cell phones about how come they didn't get fifteen Prada dresses for christmas. While I was looking out at that dea, 'You Get What You Give' came flowing through me."
Here's how to know if the New Radicals are the group for you. Get their latest MCA CD, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too (we'd put a comma in there, but, heck, maybe we're brainwashed), and open up the pullout lyric booklet inside, Notice that the lyrics are--a-ha!--upside down. Get it??? We're all brainwashed into expecting that the lyrics will face in the same direction as the cover photo. Now, did you find that: a) striking, witty commentary on today's society or b) a shallow, obvious attempt to get you to "think" that instead made you roll your eyes and groan?
Pick "a" and you're probaly Gregg Alexander's kind of fan. "We're not a concept band like Rush," says Alexander, who for all intents and purposes is the New Radicals, having written every song on the lyrically dense album. "It's really more of a feeling. Right now a lot of people are disenchanted with what's going on around them, and people are afraid to talk about it. We don't want to be afraid of sharing our opinions on what's going on in society in regards to sexism, racism and corporate ownership of the media." Even if those opinions strike with the subtlety of a falling anvil.
The 27 year old Alexander is the man responsible for the '70s-inflected funky dance tune "You Get What You Give," which itself is best known for forcefully dissing most of today's alt-rock head of state. Lyrically, Alexander's got a craving for socialist-leaning, anarchic statements `a la Chumbawamba, which you don't see much of in American pop these days. But does the world need a socially aware dance-pop band fronted by a white guy out of Grosse Pointe, Michigan (the "poor" section, as Alexander insists on reminding interviewers)?
Aw, hell, who really cares? The music's pretty catchy, and Alexander's got his heart in the right place, so give the man some credit for trying--he's tried just abut everything else already. By age 12, Alexander had an electric guitar, then he saved up enough to buy a 4-track recorder when he was 15. ("I would spend obscene amounts of hours in my bedroom, recording songs and playing all of the instruments," he recalls). Alexander ran away from home at age 16 to get away from what he considered a neglectful family (his father, a plumber, and his mother, a Jehovah's Witness, "looked at our report cards like once every 18 months") and to amass some "Different life experiences. I wanted to get out of the Midwest and be living in a situation so that when the s*** hit the fan, my parents weren't a phone call away." After stints in London, Los Angeles and New York (Alexander claims to have criss-crossed America 12 times), in 1989 he released Michigan Rain, and three years later out came another easily missed album, Intoxifornication.
So what's different now? Well, for one thing, MTV has finally started to listen--The New Radicals' heavily rotated video for "You Get" features kids taking over a shopping mall, and there is an irrepressible excitement about much of their music. "My life experiences have taught me a lot of things," Alexander explains, "and that's why this album sounds different than my other stuff. You live and you learn."
And, if you're lucky, you teach a little bit. That seems to be the real message behind both Alexander and the New Radicals. "I care passionately about the things I talk about," he says, "but I'm not Mr. Goody Two-Shoes. There are so many disgusting things going on before our eyes; it's almost as if we as a society have decided to not even care. I'm not stupid enough to think that the world revolves around this band, but if it gets people talking about issues... that'll be good enough."---Randee Dawn
New Radicals Song Misunderstood, Singer Says Alternative-pop act hit jackpot with track that seems to decry Beck, other rock stars as 'fakes.' Contributing Editor Gianni Sibilla reports:
It's more than a little ironic that the New Radicals, who pride themselves on rejecting negativity, would rocket to fame with a song that seems to dis a handful of rock peers. But Gregg Alexander, singer/songwriter for the alternative-pop act, claims You Get What You Give has been misinterpreted.
"I don't have a strong view on any of the artists mentioned in the song," Alexander said.
With such lyrics as "Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson/ Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson/ You're all fakes run to your mansions/ Come round here we'll kick your ass in," "You Get What You Give" has attracted wide attention and garnered massive radio and TV play.
Alexander said the track was meant not as an intentional slam of the rockers cited but rather as an experiment in mixing together real issues and big names, to see which the media would focus on.
The "real issues" cited in the song are expressed in such lyrics as "Health insurance rip-off lying/ FDA big bankers buying/ Fake computer crashes dining/ Cloning while they're multiplying."
"There's this whole hysteria and curiosity over peripheral stupidity instead of focusing on real issues," Alexander continued. "And a lot of people I talked to asked me about those real things, while a lot of rock media tried to turn it into a cat fight."
"I heard about [shock rocker Marilyn] Manson's reaction, but I think it's based on a misunderstanding of the lyrics," Alexander added.
The single was from the band's debut album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, which hit U.S. stores in October and was shipped to European outlets more recently. Riding on the momentum of the single, the band is slated to open for guitar-pop act the Goo Goo Dolls on a U.S. tour that begins in April.
Alexander said the New Radicals were born out of necessity and a desire to create something different.
Alexander, who was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, started out as a solo artist with two barely noticed albums: Michigan Rain(1989) and Intoxifornication (1991). "They just didn't get marketed, even if there were people at the record company who really believed in them," Alexander said.
When the albums went belly-up, Alexander decided to press the pause button on his musical career. An urge to return to action arose around the same time his disposable income began running out, he said.
Still, he initially expected little in the way of instant recognition for his new band. "After having two albums out and never having been heard, I started writing assuming that I was doing it for myself," Alexander said.
He formed the New Radicals as a group in which everybody was free to come, play and then leave. "The original concept for the band was to be a revolving door, with no permanent lineup and different musicians playing ... I wanted it to be different from every other band. That's why I produced [the album] myself. I didn't want any producer to come in and make it sound like some other band."
Alexander expects the lineup on the forthcoming tour will be a more stable one, however.
According to Alexander, the mix of different musical genres -- including '60s pop, rock and soul -- that permeates such songs as "Someday We'll Know" and "Mother We Just Can't Get Enough" is the result of his growing up listening to a wide variety of musical styles.
"The radio stations in Detroit played everything, so you got these strange mixes," he said. "There were so many stations playing so many different [kinds of] music that if you began playing, it would have been difficult to have just one or two [frames] of reference."
But to Alexander, what primarily sets New Radicals apart is the band's refusal to wallow in the negativity and self-pity in which so many other bands indulge. "It's so much easier to scream 'I want kill myself' than to have a sense of hope and to try to find a way out of the darkness," he said.
"In a place like America, when you're talking about something that's real, it's more difficult," he added. "If I had louder guitars and if I did the negativity thing I'd probably be selling more records."
"Just when you thought songs with great melodies, gut-wrenching hooks, and an edge to cut your teeth on had disappeared, along comes New Radicals to kick your A$$!"
So reads the tag-line on the advertisement promoting the debut release by virgin pop group New Radicals.
Now really: you've gotta be careful when you threaten to be that cool. The last pop personatity to promise that kind of legitimacy was MC Hammer, and as memory serves, he was definitely NOT too legit to quit.
Does the tag-line make the potential listener want to check out the radicals? Sort of. Does it sound interesting? Sure. But what's more interesting is the album title itself: Maybe You've Been Brainwashed, Too. Not to mention the fact that the guy sitting in the lotus position on the album cover is ovscuring his eyes with his Huner S. Thompson-wannabe hat. Not the mention the fact that the guy has a bar-code on his hand. Not to mention the fact that he's the frontman of the band.
Meet Gregg Alexander: 28-year-old wunderkind, mastermind, and according to his managers, maga-find. Ignore the guy's age: New Radicals is the second (singed) act that Alexander has led. So what's the story, born-again glory? Who are these "NEW: radicals, are they mocking society or themselves, is there a secondary agenda, why should we care, and CAN they kick our A$$?
Sitting on his A$$ in sunny California, Alexander's ready to use the phone the same way he's been using his album: as a weapon. "The immediate New Radicals reference is to just this last generation born into the end of the millennium and all the insanity that's going on, several decades into the computer age and the whole technological age, and how information has gotten to a place," Alexander spits out at machine gun speed. "{It's about} information, the media pontificating on everything and overanalyzing it ten seconds after it happens to the point that it's invalid right away. {It's about} the way culture runs these days. It's about people hopefully having a backlash about that, people being more cynical about it."
Traditionally, radicalism is best known as a political approach to life. Among the most (in)famous radicals are French Revolution-leader Robespierre and American independence-declarer Thomas Jefferson. But radicalism can be social, too. So can brainwashing. So can music...
Maybe You've Been Brainwashed, Too is a more subersive record than anything out there right now," maintains Alexander, "but it's emotional currency is melodies and lyrics that, hopefully, will uplift people's spirits and make them feel a lighter step in their walk and make them have a different mood over the course of 45 minutes."
True enough the subversion to which Alexander refers abounds on the album. On "Mother, We just Can't Get Enough," he derides the horrible conditions of social security, the banks and the phone company all in a total of four lines. One song later ("You Get What You Give") and he's laying witness to the demise of health insurance, the FDA, big bankers, fashion mags, celebrities, the rich and other topics that "no one with a brain is believing." New Radicalism also touches on drugs ("I Hope I Didn't Just Give Away the Ending"), the hypocrisy of non-conformists ("Jehovah Made This Whole Joint For You") and a whole host of problems with the world, from sexism to politics to investgative reporting (on the title track, centerpiece song "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too" especially). And, just like the best most effective subversion, it comes in a mighty enjoyable package.
Hot current single "You Get What You Give" is a textbook perfect pop song. Of it, Alexander explains: "Theres a feeling in America, and maybe Canada as well, that mankind is infallible even though all these horrible thing have happend in the last 50 years, {yet} everything always seems to pull through." It's a happy song that predicts a positive view for the f u t u r e.
Or is it? Alexander can't resist the idea of injecting a little bit of his cynical New World Order millennial angst. The song ends on a sour not, attacking health insurance scandals, fake computer crashes, cloning, and fake rock stars. In the last category, Beck, Hanson, Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson all get mention. whether it's simply because the name pairings rhyme or not is unknown, and Alexander won't say. He doesn't like specifics when it come to one-on-one conversation. But that's fine: his generalization is entertaining on it's own. "Everything seems to pull hrough," he continues. "On the other hand, we seem to to be oblivious to the fact that over the history of mankind, the s*** invariably hits the fan." Isn't this happy/sad double-take a contradiction?
Alexander disagrees: "The music is celebratory, but with the album lyrically, there's something brewing underneath the kettle." Or to put it another way, it's like "hitting the gas as the car speeds off the cliff," he says.
Even some of the love numbers, such as "Mother, We Just Can't Get Enoguh," offer constant references to all things millennial (and therefore apocalyptic) such as the need for social security numbers and credit cards to make even a simple phone call. By definition, they are those things that our present generation is beginning to accept in commonplace terms (as well as consider to be conspriacy-related) as we approach the end of the millennium.
"You Get What You Give" touches on some of these topics (as noted above). Particularly interesting is Alexander's accusation in regards to "Fake computer crashes." Does he think that the Year 2000 bug (a.k.a. the Y2K bug) is a hoax? Much of the technological world certainly believes that when the clock turns over, computers around the globe are going to be disabled, possible down for good.
"Potentially all those things could happen," he admits. "{If so,} then everybody's just gonna accept what happens because we've all been trained in this society to accept whatever cards we're dealt. Everybody's just gonna accept whatever the person the news channel tell them to believe."
Which, as Oliver Stone knows, isn't always the truth. And somehow, one gets the feeling that Alexander has a stash of cash and canned goods hidden in a sub-basement somewhere.
"It's hysterical that everybody's bought into the whole computer crash," he laughs. "It's just another example of everybody just taking what we're given to eat. It's perverse how computers in 20 years have gone from being what the nerds in high school were into and all of a sudden now, if you're not up on it, you're gonna lose big time. How it ties into te millennium: the number {2000} is just a big turning point psychologically in the history of mankind. That's all."
We'll just have to wait and see. As the saying goes: time will tell. it isn't only Alexander's lyrics that focus on this fear of self-destruction through ignorance in modern society. Throughout the CD's inlay card, Alexander is portrayed numerous times with barcodes on his skin in various places. The commodity-driven symolism is obvious. But Alexander's message is deeper: he's riffing off the fact that religious tracts currently being handed out on the streets of major urban centre detail the use of barcodes on hands and foreheads as a modern-day "mark of the beast," setting the stage for the Apocalypse detailed in Revelations. Secular circles draw the line back to the government and the fear of a New World Order that would be able to track all individuals, not so much a physical end of the world as an end of indiviuality, and therefore a spiritual apocalypse.
"We're all going to essentially be a barcode," Alexander states. "We are already. we may have barcodes physically on our person in fifteen years. And as outragous as it sounds right now, if there was a good enough reason concocted by the media, everybody would buy into it."
Clearly, this man believes in government conspiracy, or at the very least watches The X-Files.
"People can draw their own conclusions," he says, skirting the question. "People need to start drawing their own conclusions and talking to everybody a lot, because the big secret weapon that people in our society underestimate is the ability of change from talking on a regular basis. I'm certainly not in the loop enough to know exactly what's going down in situation A, B and C, but I could say there's enough word of mouth and enough precedence of what man has been capable of over the history of mankind to say, maybe all's not well in the world of people being able to have health insurance or get a good education or any of the injustices that, for one reason or another, pervade society and are allowed to fester the way they do."
So when you're ut there dancing your A$$ off to New Radicals, remember that the true message behind the music is to not allow yourself to be spoon-fed, but to get out there and question what's happening. And remember, theres a solution.
"Be aware of {the problem}," Alexander stresses. "Feel passionate about it. Talk about it. Share information and have conversations aobut it and make that the topic of conversation a little bit on Friday night in addition to everything else people talk about. The closest thing we have to a solution at this point in human history is public outrage."
However, he does admit that constantly thinking about the world's problems is not really a healthy alternative.
"I go out and party," he concedes. "I hate the word 'party': I go out and cause trouble and rough things up a bit. If we think about these things all the time, then we also have potential to go off the deep end!"
Is there a New Radicals mission statement? "Have a great time, party your A$$ off— I love party your A$$ off— and celebrate the end of the world." Party in the face of certain destruction? Maybe he's been brainwashed too? Then again, maybe he's the only one who
New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
Grade: B+
By Jess Redmon
Like a breath of fresh air, the smooth sounds of New Radicals hit the world with the subtle and understated Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. New Radicals are the one man project of one Gregg Alexander, who has crafted a refreshing blend of soulful tunes with a unique and truly capturing perspective. The classic and reason to buy is the truly wonderful "You Get What You Give." With a floating groove of piano notes, capturing music and the soothing voice of Alexander, the track is just magic. "You Get What You Give" is also a very good introduction to the style and uninhibited groove of the New Radicals. Although there isn't much in the way of variance, the songs come off new and unique. "I Don't Wanna Die Anymore" is a beautiful, piano powered ballad with Alexander's vocals that accompany perfectly. Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too doesn't stand out right away, it's soft, quiet and unexpected. The New Radicals are the most surprising new project soon to be in the conscious of America. With their truly radical approach, far from the world of shock and desensitization, they will be on top before you know it.
Featured Album of the Week
New Radicals
"Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too"
(MCA Records)
New Radicals are led by singer/songwriter/producer and multi-instrumentalist Gregg Alexander and on his debut album he challenges pop culture for being a victim of its own hype. "Wake up kids/we've got the dreamers disease, Age fourteen/they got you down on your knees," sings Alexander on the song "You Get What You Give." Whether you're fourteen or forty-four, we're all sucked in to hype in some form or another - now we're being sucked into the hype of popster Gregg Alexander.
Alexander grew up in Michigan, where he immersed himself in the Detroit music scene everything from r&b and techno to punk rock. This album, however, sounds like what would have happened if World Party, Todd Rundgren and Electric Light Orchestra got together to make a record.
Alexander is a highly opinionated artist. Lyrically the album is one of the most provocative of the year. His take on popular culture, the music industry and society as a whole are quite interesting. Throughout the album he addresses a social landscape filled with all sorts of inconsistencies including political leaders who are more interested in their own agendas rather than their constituents, and cultural icons who offer up uninspiring art.
Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too is a fantastic debut album from a promising new artist. On songs like the title track, "Technicolor Lover," "You Get What You Give," and "I Hope I Didn't Just Give Away the Ending," Alexander is telling people to wake up and smell the deceit. His messages would sound cliché if they weren't so insightful and articulated with such uninhibited truth.
Exclusive LAUNCH Feature By Ken Micallef
New Radical Gregg Alexander may have the most cynical rap since '60s comic Lenny Bruce, but he's got the mouth to back it up. His hit single "You Get What You Give" attacks everyone's favorite rock stars, but that wasn't the real point, says Alexander, who has a million points to make.
"The lyric was not about those artists," he says on the phone while touring Germany. "They're just figureheads, it was an experiment. I knew the song was gonna be a hit. I wanted to see if celebrity culture and obsession would translate into rock journalism. The lyric before the one that mentions Beck and Courtney Love is 'Health insurance rip-off lying/ FDA big bankers buying/ Fake computer crashes dying/ Cloning while they're multiplying.' That is a human lyric, followed by 'You're all fakes, run to your mansions/ Come around, we'll kick your ass in.' As we expected, the media went after the celebrity bait and didn't address the political issues. Whereas real people that we met on the street all asked about the political lyrics. That told us that the problem doesn't lie with people, they're sick of the lies."
Alexander may posit himself as an angry rebel with a cause, but while a couple of cuts on New Radicals' Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too (most notably the title track) do deal with social issues, other songs are as sappy as the Partridge Family. Even the Todd Rundgren-ish hit spouts the clichés "you've got the music in you" and "you only get what you give," and the songs "Technicolor Lover," "Flowers" and "Jehovah Made This Whole Joint For You" are full of exuberant vibrations and positive, uplifting lyrics.
"I quote clichés in songs because I believe the songs have an intellectual subtext. That's been missing in music for years. [There's been an] inability to escape that hip vagueness of most lyrics. I wanted the music to communicate something, not be this desperate attempt at being hip or recreating Japanese kimonos in my videos to be in with the cool crowd. We went for the jugular with big grandiose statements and hitting the thrill button in rock 'n' roll."
The son of a plumber from the ritzy Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe, Alexander says his inspiration comes from a life spent observing people, avoiding television, and, well... "Just the wonder and magic of being on this Earth," he says, without a hint of irony. "You can't pine about injustice all the time. But Americans need to be aware of the state of the world. Some Americans have no problem going on vacation and eating at McDonald's every day in a foreign city.
My music comes from looking around and not having my head up my butt like most people do, that's why the album is called Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. I didn't own a TV for years, then I noticed how people interacted with each other. I saw what they fed their minds. America is not Melrose Place. The real America is Cops and the Jerry Springer show. You reap what you sow."
Ken_Micallef
New Radicals Flirt with the Abyss
Gregg Alexander: Pressure drop.
Sources Say Gregg Alexander Wants Out of the Music Business
Officially, a band member from the New Radicals recently fell ill, forcing the group to cancel a tour of Great Britain.
Unofficially, according to sources, the 'group' is Gregg Alexander, and he wasn't and isn't sick at all. He simply wants nothing to do with the music industry right now.
"Inevitably Gregg is the New Radicals -- if somebody else was sick in the band the record company [MCA] would replace them because they're hired musicians," says a source close to the band. Simply stated, says the source, "he no longer wants to work any longer doing anything musically related."
A couple of weeks back, the New Radicals abruptly cancelled a spring tour of the U.K., citing the illness of a band member, but a spokesperson for MCA could not identify which member. The band also cancelled an appearance at Atlanta's RockFest on June 5 for the same reason.
"He is not interested in doing any shows right now," says another source familiar with the situation. "He just didn't want to go to Europe and perform." The source close to the band speculated there's "too much pressure on [Alexander] to perform" and "he doesn't like people telling him what to do." He will, however, acquiesce and begin work on a music video for Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too's second single, "Someday We'll Know," once he's decided on a director. Alexander will also, according to the source close to the band, cooperate with regard to various promotional appearances this summer. The spokesperson added that summer radio festivals featuring the New Radicals are still a go as of now.
Since the September release of Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, the album has sold more than 600,000 copies largely on the strength of the first single "You Get What You Give."
BLAIR R. FISCHER
(May 25, 1999)
COMMENTS: Do you think Gregg Alexander will pull the plug on the New Radicals and his music career?
Ame1110@aol.com No, he will not pull the plug on the New Radicals because he has come this far and he just doesnt feel like touring right now...let him make his new video and leave him alone!
© 1999 Rolling Stone Network. All rights reserved.
June 5, 1999 New Radicals Cancel Shows On Wave Of Success May 21, 1999
New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander recently sang "You Get What You Give" to national adulation and gold-record status for his MCA Records debut Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, but that doesn't always mean you want what you get.
A source close to the band claims Alexander is "mentally unstable" (that's opinion, not fact) and no longer wants to cooperate with the duties of promoting his record and possibly with the music business in general. "Gregg did say something of the sort -- that he doesn't want to be doing this anymore," says the source. "He said he didn't want to go to the U.K., he really doesn't want to be doing this anymore, and that's when they started canceling all the radio festival dates."
What "this" is exactly remains unclear at press time, but the band recently cancelled their scheduled U.K. tour as well as an appearance at Atlanta's Rockfest on June 5, citing illness on the part of a band member. According to the source, no one in the band is actually ill and all subsequent summer festival dates could be cancelled as well. "No one is sick," says the source. "Right now, he just doesn't want to do anything. He doesn't want to promote his record, he doesn't want to tour, he doesn't want to make TV appearances, and he doesn't want to do press."
A spokesperson for MCA Records maintains that a band member fell ill, causing the cancellation of the U.K tour and summer festival dates.
Alexander has agreed to make a video for their current single, "Someday We'll Know," however, and is currently looking at directors' reels. Whether or not he follows through remains to be seen, according to the source. -- Kevin Raub
"LOS ANGELES, July 12/PRNewswire/ --
The New Radicals are disbanding and will no longer be a recording, promoting or performing entity to allow record producer/ex-rads singer Gregg Alexander to focus on producing and writing songs freelance for established acts as well as new artists, with a production company he's forming which will release records, on a variety of major labels over the coming years. Gregg Alexander elaborates:
"It was an experience playing the artist, but I accomplished all of my goals with this record, and I'm ready to move on and make the next step in my career. I've been writing songs for and working with artists as varied as R & B acts to Belinda Carlisle intermittently for the last nine years, and I'm looking forward to starting the day-to-day creative process of building a successful production company. I view myself much the same as a just getting started Babyface or Matthew Wilder (No Doubt producer), who dabbled in performing, but whose real calling was being a producer.
"I'm going to be turning thirty next year, and realize that the fatigue of traveling & getting three hours sleep in a different hotel every night to do boring 'hanging and schmoozing' with radio and retail people, is definitely not for me ... now I can do what I do best.
"The next record I have coming out as a producer/co-writer is an album by an artist named Danielle Brisebois that will be out in September on RCA/BMG. She's a fantastic singer who, while a member of the New Radicals (as well as someone involved in many community causes and issues), was the one behind much of that band's 'point of view' & image. Now that it's disbanded, several of the ex New Rads touring members will be playing and touring with her full time. This will be good, because I'm more interested in being the next Mutt Lange than a performer. Over the last several months, I'd lost interest in fronting a 'One Hit Wonder' to the point that I was wearing a hat while performing so that people wouldn't see my lack of enthusiasm. I am, however, excited and looking forward to getting started on working in the studio with a wide range of artists and building the next phase of my career.
So although there will be no more albums, videos (besides the two made) or unalbum worthy outtakes from the band or me solo, as a producer there will be a lot more good music coming.
"Lastly, I'd like to thank the members of my business team for being partners in my return to my career path of record production." "
Gregg Alexander (and his production company) will have all press inquiries handled by HBPR, 323.650.1328 (hal@hbpr.com).
Gregg Alexander (and his production company) are managed exclusively by Lippman Entertainment / Tim McDaniel, Los Angeles, CA www.officialgreggalexander.com , www.officialnewradicals.com .
SOURCE Gregg Alexander
7.12.99 17:00 EST Free Radicals: Gregg Alexander Disbands New Radicals
Attention, New Radicals fans: frontman Gregg Alexander has just given away the ending.
After producing one album, "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too," and a hit single, "You Get What You Give," New Radicals has been disbanded.
In a statement released Monday morning, Alexander said he's tired of fronting what he referred to as a "One Hit Wonder," and that he was "more interested in being the next Mutt Lange than a performer."
Alexander, the creative impetus behind the group, says he will now focus on forming his own production company and writing songs for other artists, including former New Radicals singer Danielle Brisebois. (Alexander produced and co-wrote Brisebois' 1994 debut album, "Arrive All Over You.) Most of the remaining Radicals will serve as Brisebois' backing band.
"It was an experience playing the artist," Alexander continued, "but I accomplished all of my goals with this record, and I'm ready to move on and make the next step in my career."
Rumors about Alexander's unhappiness with the live-performance aspect of New Radicals began to surface in mid-May, after the band pulled out of a high-profile gig at the first Hard Rock RockFest in Atlanta (see "New Radicals Cancel RockFest Appearance").
At the time, representatives for the group's label hinted that Alexander had become tired of touring behind "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too," which was released in October 1998.
Monday's announcement also hinted at Alexander's growing disdain for the highways and byways associated with the music biz. "I'm going to be turning 30 next year," he wrote, "and realize that the fatigue of traveling and getting three hours sleep in a different hotel every night to do boring 'hanging and schmoozing' with radio and retail people is definitely not for me."
The group had shot a video for its just-released single, "Someday We'll Know," although both MCA Records spokespeople and Alexander's current publicists were unaware if the video would be completed in light of the band's dissolution.
According to Alexander's new handlers, lawyers representing the frontman and MCA Records reached an amicable settlement involving the Radicals' demise a few weeks ago but have waited until now to make the breakup public.
The next project for Alexander will be producing the upcoming album by Brisebois, whom vintage TV watchers may remember as the child actress who played "Stephanie Mills" on "All in the Family" and "Archie Bunker's Place." Brisebois' next record is expected to be released via MCA/BMG Records in September.
July 12, 1999
It's the End of the Road for the New Radicals
After just one album and one MTV Buzz Clip, the New Radicals have called it quits. They're now destined to reside forever in one-hit-wonderland, courtesy of the infectious single "You Get What You Give" from their 1998 album Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. News of the band's demise was announced in a statement by the group's frontman-songwriter-mastermind Gregg Alexander, who has decided to focus on producing and writing songs for other acts. "It was an experience playing the artist, but I accomplished all of my goals with this record," Alexander says. "I've been writing songs for and working with artists as varied as R&B acts to Belinda Carlisle intermittently for the last nine years, and I'm looking forward to starting the day-to-day creative process of building a successful production company.
"Over the last several months, I'd lost interest in fronting a 'One Hit Wonder' to the point that I was wearing a hat while performing so that people wouldn't see my lack of enthusiasm," Alexander adds. "I'm more interested in being the next Mutt Lange than a performer," he says, referring to the veteran rock producer (AC/DC, Def Leppard, Bryan Adams) who is both Shania Twain's hubby and her producer.
First up for Alexander will be production and co-writing work with Danielle Brisebois, another member of the New Radicals. Brisebois, for all you trivia buffs, played young "Stephanie" on All in the Family and Archie Bunker's Place from 1978 to 1983. She also appeared in the 1997 flick As Good as It Gets in the part of a singer, and two of her songs appear on the film's soundtrack. Brisebois's album, her second, is due out in September (her debut, released in 1994, was also produced by Alexander).
Several touring members of the New Radicals will end up playing and touring with Brisebois on a full-time basis, Alexander says.
From NME.com...
BOYZONE’S RONAN KEATING has collaborated with NEW RADICALS vocalist GREGG ALEXANDER on KEATING’S new solo single 'LIFE IS A ROLLERCOASTER'.
Alexander has co-written and co-produced the single, which is released on July 10 through Polydor.
A spokesperson for Keating told nme.com: "It sounds pretty good. We were all shocked when we found out they were working together. It sounds more like the New Radicals than Boyzone, very summery."
Keating is currently putting the final touches to his debut solo album, 'Ronan', which is expected toward the end of July. Other artists collaborating on the record include the Bee Gees' Maurice and Barry Gibb.
New Radicals split in July last year. At the time of the split Alexander claimed he had lost interest in fronting a "one hit wonder" after the success of the single 'You Get What You Give', which went Top Ten in the UK. He claimed he was "getting to the point that I was wearing a hat while performing so that people wouldn't see my lack of enthusiasm."
Since the split Alexander has worked as a producer, and as well as working with Keating, has also produced material by ex-New Radicals backing vocalist Danielle Brisebois.
February 5, 2001
Rod Stewart
Human (Atlantic)
Human is Rod Stewart's first record since his voice-threatening throat surgery, which seems to have brought neither havoc nor improvement to the singer's patented, polarizing rasp. Human (also the first release for his new label, Atlantic) is in all ways the prototypical Rod Stewart record: A carefully made collection of gently done, Motown-reminiscent R&B tracks, with the occasional lite-rock ballad thrown in.
Like John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen, Stewart has done a reasonably good job of making his music millennium-friendly without alienating aging baby boomers for whom the occasional Tom Waits cover is adventure enough. Here, Stewart wisely surrounds himself with adult contemporary-skewing hipsters: the inimitable Macy Gray lends her usual Louie-Armstrong-on-antidepressants drawl, while former New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander co-writes the record's first single and strongest track, "I Can't Deny It." (Slash and Mark Knopfler show up in unobtrusive capacities as well.)
Given Stewart's recent high profile as an R&B interpreter, it's surprising that the record's only even remotely classic cover is Stewart's take on Curtis Mayfield's "It Was Love That We Needed." Only five years old, the track isn't that classic, but it's faithful and clean, and nicely done, anyway.
Allison Stewart
Write the New Radicals via "Snail Mail":
New Radicals
c/o MCA Records
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
