On Saturday, May 8, Boston industrial-rock legends Big Catholic Guilt will be reuniting for a performance at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA. It marks their return to the stage after a 15 year hiatus. We profiled the band back in 1993, and recently caught up with member Sam Jordan to get some details on the reunion.

Jordan says that the members of Big Catholic Guilt have remained good friends over the years, despite being separated geographically. In 2002, Jordan was writing Resurrection, “a 5 song project written on one theme during a difficult time in my life,” and flew to Seattle to have BCG chief electronics expert Tim Osbourne work on some production. Drummer Perry James flew up from San Francisco to be part of the recording, and when Jordan returned to the east coast he went to Boston to work on guitar parts with Dan Bongiorno. The only member not available for this project was bassist  M. Crazz.

“The songs sounded good, but, essentially the final mixes amounted to demos, and I decided not to release them at that time,” explains Jordan. “We have, however, been working on them, and will be playing these new tunes at the show on the 8th.”

At some point in time, all of the samples used in the BCG live show disappeared, so the band was faced with the task of rebuilding songs from the raw samples and various bits and pieces that were found. Jordan says that this process took 1 1/2 years, after which time the band got together to see if things worked. Happy with the results, they went into the studio to create rehearsal tracks so that band members could practice individually.

The current BCG line-up is the same as it was for their ‘final’ show – Perry James, M. Crazz, Dan Bongiorno, Tim Osbourne, and Sam Jordan.

The reunion show will be recorded as well as videotaped with 8 cameras. As for the future of BCG beyond this performance, nothing has yet been determined.

“We are taking it one step at a time,’ says Jordan. “Will we go in and record Resurrection? Possibly. Will we do shows again on any kind of basis? I can’t really say. For the moment, this is a one-off show, and at this point, that is how we are looking at it. But, well, you just never know! Right now we are just happy and excited to be working together and getting ready for this performance.”

For more info in Big Catholic Guilt, visit their website at bigcatholicguilt.com. They are currently offering a free download of a new recording, “Sing For Absolution” (a cover of the Muse track – the band didn’t want split thematic songs of Resurrection by offering one of those tracks.)

This October, Cranes will be releasing a new, self-titled album and embarking on a European tour. “Cranes” comes out on 10/13 in Europe, with the tour kicking off in Paris the following day. A full list of dates can be found on the official Cranes website. Vocalist Alison Shaw is also featured on “Other Electricities,” the debut album from Dokkemand. For more info on that project, check out dokkemand.no.

Clint Mansell (Pop Will Eat Itself) has teamed up once again with director Darren Aronofsky to provide music for the new film “The Wrestler.” The movie, which stars Mickey Rourke, recently won the Best Picture ‘Golden Lion’ Award at the Venice Film Festival. Mansell had previously scored Aronofsky’s “The Fountain,” “Requiem for a Dream” and “Pi.”

Legendary Slovenian industrial band Laibach will be returning this fall for their first US tour since 2004. The dates are:

09.22.08 Seattle, WA Showbox @ The Market
09.23.08 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
09.25.08 San Francisco, CA Independent
09.26.08 Los Angeles, CA Key Club
09.28.08 Tijuana, Mexico El Foro
09.30.08 New York, NY Fillmore

For more info on Laibach and their other recent projects (which include LAIBACHKUNSTDERFUGE – “the laibachian interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach’s work The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge)”), check out their website at : www.laibach.nsk.si.

One of the more pleasant musical surprises of last year was the release of new material from Information Society, the electronic pop group best known for the 1988 dance club hit “What’s On Your Mind? (Pure Energy).” Though the “Oscillator” EP and “Synthesizer” full-length featured newcomer Christopher Christopher Anton on most of the lead vocals, original members Paul Robb and James Cassidy maintained the essence of classic Information Society while giving it a modern edge. In an email interview, Robb discussed reasons for the band’s return, clarified that original vocalist Kurt Harland IS very much part of the current line-up, and more.

Due to excessive spamming on the interactive areas, my karaokeforever.com site has been taken off-line. I’m not sure when, but it WILL be back in some form. In the meantime, please take a look at my main site, Chaos Control Digizine. It features an EXTENSIVE collection of interviews with bands and musicians, focusing on (but not limited to) electronic, dance, and gothic styles.

Click here to see the full list of interviews.

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