IN THIS ISSUE OF COSMIK DEBRIS: Interviews with Country singer and songwriter Phil Vassar, who has sent several of his buddies to the top of the charts with his songs already and has now been there himself with "Just Another Day In Paradise", and Ike Willis, an 11-year veteran of Frank Zappa's band, now touring with Project/Object. Articles covering the butt-kickin' country band Red Meat and the Victoriaville Avant-Garde Jazz Festival, which is comin' soon! Then we have our CD reviews and the Everything Else In Review section, which includes a review of a Jonatha Brooke concert, and columns, which features a rebuttal to a previous column. (Sekerka -vs- Gold! What ARE the best Canadian records?) All in the 71st issue of Cosmik Debris Magazine.

COSMIK RADIO!: Cosmik Radio is Megadeth followed by Sinatra followed by Yellowman followed by Iggy. Sick, huh? You just need a RealAudio Player to listen. If you don't have one, go pick one up. Cosmik Radio is just the kind of Net-Only audio that radio station program directors don't want you getting hooked on. So go ahead. Inhale!

PHIL VASSAR - Everything the man writes sticks like glue. Ask Jo Dee Messina or Alan Jackson or Joe Diffie, all beneficiaries of Vassar's talents, having been to #1 on the strength of his songs. After a decade of paying his dues in the Nashville clubs and honing his craft, he's out there doing it himself, and he's even reached the top of the hill himself, going to #1 with "Just Another Day In Paradise." DJ Johnson had a little talk with Phil just before the release of his next single, "Rose Bouquet."

IKE WILLIS AND PROJECT/OBJECT - Quick quiz: who played in Zappa's band longer than anyone else over the years? Okay, so that was a gimme. The answer wasn't going to be Steve Vai when the topic is Ike Willis. You got us there. Well, Mr. Willis is still going strong, and in fact he's playing in more bands than most musicians play in in a career. One of them is Project/Object, a top notch Zappa tribute band, and Ike's on the road with them right this minute. Rusty Pipes caught him during a brief lull.

COOKIN' COUNTRY WITH RED MEAT - You can say what ya wanna say about anything else, but don't go wearin' your polished, catalog-ordered cowboy boots and tellin' Smelley Kelley what country is. He may be clean and sober now, but the music of Red Meat still kicks like a jug of moonshine. How did this band blast into existence? Shaun Dale has the story.

THE VICTORIAVILLE AVANT-GARDE JAZZ FESTIVAL - We at the Cosmik Debris offices are not impressed with most of the jazz we have to choose from. We're talkin' live concerts here. It's usually dull stuff, just like America seems to prefer it. You have to leave the country to hear anything adventurous, usually. And Usually that means Europe or Japan. But hey, according to John Sekerka, there's a yearly festival for the brave jazz fan not too far from Ottawa, it's coming up very soon, and if you doubt the clout we just have to say two words: John Zorn.


CD & RECORD REVIEWS - Everything from rock to jazz to hip-hop and back again.

OTHER REVIEWS - Concerts, books, and other things.





PIGSHIT - Chew 'em if ya got 'em! Gary Pig Gold lists the best bubblegum songs and lets you know about a new book you wanna know about.

CANADIAN REBUTTAL - Last month Gary Pig Gold fired off the 10 Canadian records he thought you shouldn't be without. This month his fellow Canadian, John Sekerka, demanded equal time.

CLOSET PHILOSOPHY - The Resident isn't at it again. Is. Well, whatever he's doing or not doing... Oh, it's just so confusing with this guy. Luckily, we have our own philosopher to straighten things out for us. If ever we needed him, we need him now.

COSMIK BLUES - Eric Steiner takes a look at this year's field for the W.C. Handy Awards, and offers some suggestions of his own.

WALLEY@WITZEND - Where the hell has David Walley BEEN for the past six months? Lost. Lost little lamb, like many of us. We'll let him tell you.



CREDITS - The names and e-mail addresses of the people responsible for this thing.

COSMIK RADIO - Want an hour of music that fits the personality of Cosmik Debris Magazine? That's right, Sinatra segues into Megadeth into Peter Tosh into Man Or Astro-Man into... well, you get the picture. It's a little something we like to call Genre Whiplash. Or maybe you're in the mood for a trip into The Fog Machine, our mix of music of the ethereal variety. All you need is a RealAudio player. Come on in.

INTERNET RADIO STATIONS - Great radio is alive and well on the Net! Cosmik Debris presents links to take you where the good ones are hiding, from St. Louis to Dublin. You're no longer stuck with just the "classic rock," "young country" and "24-hour talk" that has your town held hostage.

OUR OWN WEBSITES - Many of the Cosmik Debris writers have websites of their own. We have some links right here.



Well, that sucked. Punk rockers have dropped off the radar left and right over the years, but it was never going to be Joey Ramone and it was certainly never going to be cancer. The guy battled that disease since 1995, but most people never even knew he had it until he was gone.

Gone... It's still not really connecting. This is Joey freakin' Ramone we're talking about here.

It's hard to plan an official statement like an obituary or a tribute article when you're still not totally clear on the "he's gone" concept. I wasn't the least bit surprised to find that this was the prevailing attitude in the quiet staff room at Cosmik HQ. The vote was fast and unanimous. No obit. By the time of our May 7th release, we'd just be writing Obit #27,040,105, and besides, we feel bad enough as it is.

Nor will there be a tribute, in the typical sense. Our tribute is more like denial. We've just decided we weren't ready for Joey to go. We didn't see it coming, so we couldn't prepare. We decided to keep him with us for another month, hanging around Cosmik, looking down from our main titles, popping up on our sidebar. It's not much. It's almost nothing. But to us, it's a cool thing. We're keeping him with us just a wee bit longer before we say goodbye. Then we'll be a little more ready. So if you looked through our table of contents and wondered why we had no obituary for the King of Punks, now you understand. Or you think we're nuts, and maybe we are. But we feel a little better right now.

DJ Johnson
Editor

Did you miss an issue? We now have many of our back issues online, including sound clips and extras. Check out interviews with The Witches, Electric Frankenstein, the Vampire Beach Babes, Jeff Berlin, Curve, Michael Shermer, Steel Pulse, Transglobal Underground, Mark Helm, The Southern Rock All-Stars, Ottmar Liebert, Jason Noble of Shipping News, Phil Vassar, Joel Dorn, Mark Cline of Love Tractor, Texas Terri (of Texas Terri & The Stiff Ones), Mike Keneally, Chris Shinn of Unified Theory, Alley of Wise Monkey Orchestra, Mario Escovedo of The Dragons, The Clarks, Big Ass Truck, Richard Cheese, Paul Krassner, Tony Iommi, Ron Dante... and too many more to list!!