September 21, 1999 Over The Edge Page 8 John Popper Zygote Universal\A&M Records Ever need to sit back relax after a day of hard meeningless work brought upon by your ruthless profes- sors? Need some blues to go along Sevendust Home Blinker The Star with that ice cold lager? Here is your musical solution, Zygote the new solo album by Blues Traveler alumnus John Popper. This excellent batch of blues is diverse enough to fit anyones palette. John Popper was been a musical prodigy, who had the amazing ability to sing harmonies since the preco- cious age of three. From then on he has been experimenting with instrue- mental melodies and musical instru- ments. His parents enroled him in bass, cello, guitar, and other various instruements. All of which he failed at once his teachers dicovered that he relied on playing by ear rather than reading the music. Soon he found the key to his musical lock, the simple harmonica. This was an instrument TVT / Universal Sevendust is hardly a new player on the hard core scene. With a sound close to Korn and Primus, Sevendust still manages to sound original and unique in a world of heavy riffs and snappy vocals. One song “Licking Cream” even features guest Skin of British “Skunk Anansie”, to make for a sonic sound akin to neither of the bands, only the mixture of the two. August Everywhere Dreamworks / Universal Every now and then you get a vocalist who sings with a touch of his own life. Blinker The Star lead singer/gui- tarist/songwriter Jordon Zadorozny doesn’t let emotion escape his music when he’s singing. When he first started writing music, he had a dream of writing music for a band and never having to do any of the singing him- self, never having to expose himself. Since Jordon writes all of his songs based on his personal life experi- ences, his music is in turn also very personal. The songs have a construct of broken poetry and semi-molded moods or feelings. The album name itself “August that he could play without being both- ered by lessons. John simply played by ear and enjoyed it despite the har- monica not being a classical instru- ment. Inspired by the movie The Blues Brothers John decided to follow in their soulful pathway. Throughout his school career he could always be found playing in the band. However his career didn’t take off until the day he was showing off infront of his peers. With his ability to play the har- monica with a raunchy blues tone he soon entranced everyone and gained popularity. From then on he was known through out his highschool as the “harmonica guy”. From there he started a small time band with various local jazz students, known as the Blues Travler. Little did he know that Their second release, Sevendust already sports a gold record, and years of touring to get there. As an indie label, they were originally signed to TVT (The same New York label who started Nine Inch Nails out on its journey to stardom.) They never actually made it to their cere- mony to accept the gold album due to their extensive touring to support this album before its release. With sounds of the Deftones and Korn predominating, Sevendust Everywhere” boldly embraces one of these feelings. An offshoot of the first track “September Already”, Jordon speaks of the final days of the August summer. With the end of August comes the end of a relationship. Each person doesn’t really add up to much on their own, or they don’t feel that they do, but together they are something special. “| don’t need me” “You don’t need you” “We need someone soon” “lm laughing inside, it’s insane” “Cuz nobody hears me chant your name.” this band would soon end up being one of the worlds top blues bands to this day. In 1999 John decided to go solo, releasing this lovely little album, Zygote The music on this CD ranges from the funky rymthm of “Miserable Bastard” to the soothing soul of “Once You Wake Up”. He has been aclaimed as “the man with a sweet set of chops’ due to the original style of har- monica he plays. His unique style of music lends itself ideally to mellow parties and all night study sessions. The swing style beat of “Tip The Dominoe” and raunchy soul under tones of “Evil In My Chair’ make this music something you can use to take away all your worries. keeps a melody always flowing over the hard rock which lies underneath, smoothing the whole sound out, with- out taking its vigor away. “On this earth” is about a simple dedication. One person trying to con- vince the other of how special they are. A very real, grounded love. This is the type of emotional apti- tude which can be found on this album of bare truth. Canadians by right, the trio is origi- nally from Ottawa, Jordon a former student of Concordia University. The band founded itself originally through- out Ontario and in Montreal.