Date: Fri 18-Aug-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A-9

Quick Words:

Johnette-Napolitano-Pretty

Full Text:

PRETTY & TWISTED, MAYBE

(with photo)

By Shannon Hicks

She answered the phone and immediately, that familiar voice came clear across

the wires from Baton Rouge, where she was staying few a few days before her

next show. Johnette Napolitano and her brother, Robert, were waiting for a

ride to New Orleans for a day trip, sandwiched in among the dates Johnette and

her latest incarnation - Pretty & Twisted, with guitarist Marc Moreland and

drummer Danny Montgomery - are spending on the road and in the clubs.

Johnette, as you should know, was an influential/founding member of L.A. punk

band Concrete Blonde. She was younger and angry then, during days when she and

the band cut one of their best-known singles, "Joey," or even the last two

albums the band produced, 1992's Walking in London , and Walking in London of

1993.

These days, however, Johnette's a little older (just a little, mind you; the

lady is still quite young in mind and heart) and a little less angry. In fact,

after taking a self-imposed sabbatical in Paris during the summer of `94,

she's just about positive.

Last week, however, she was a little tired. She was on-line with her computer

until 3 am Thursday morning, talking with people about dogs and fleas and

other topics that continue to amaze a recent catch to the Net.

"It's outrageous!" she said of finding America Online. "I'm really glad to

have [this computer], because when you're moving around and only playing about

90 minutes a night, between those shows there's a lot of down time."

In between shows these days, Johnette is a lot more relaxed than past stories

would have had her being. There is time to reflect on the last six years of

hectic recording and touring, resulting in five acclaimed Concrete Blonde

albums, a schedule that would burn up anyone. Now there's the new album to

think about, and it's a killer.

Pretty & Twisted is the group's debut on Warner Bros Records, and Johnette's

first outing as a solo producer. Maybe more importantly to fans of Johnette,

it's the first album she has put out after the breakup of Concrete Blonde,

which left the singer/songwriter so frazzled she was thinking seriously about

never recording again.

In addition to the break-up of Concrete Blonde, Johnette also suffered the

loss of something very close to her: during the recording stages, an art

gallery she had owned for two years had to close down because she couldn't

afford to keep it running any longer.

"I really felt like a failure," she said. "That gallery meant a lot to me. It

did a lot of good work for the community, and having to drive past it everyday

to see it empty really bummed me."

Luckily, Danny Goldberg stepped in and saved Johnette from her own

self-despair. Goldberg, now Warner Bros. chairman and CEO, had worked

extensively with Johnette during her Blonde days while a bigwig at Atlantic

Records. When Goldberg moved over to Warner Bros., Johnette was at her

low-point. She felt she was no longer writing for herself, but for what she

thought others wanted to hear. Not a great position for an artist to find

themselves in.

"It had gotten to a time when I didn't think I wanted to do any of this

anymore," she lamented.

Goldberg saw this, knew the talent that was still inside the lady, and when it

came time for him to make his own move over to Warner Bros., "he threw me in a

suitcase and brought me along," Johnette says. "Danny wanted to sign me and it

didn't seem to matter to him what I did or when I did it."

So a new contract was put together, Goldberg gave Johnette the shot of

confidence she needed by believing in her - "It's really nice to have somebody

have that much faith in you," she said last week - and let her take as much

time as she needed to find herself and come back home to her own songs.

The result is Pretty & Twisted, the band and eponymously-titled album that

opens with "The Highs Are Too High," one of Johnette's favorite things about

the entire album. "It has everything I love - the spoken word, the harmonies,

spooky guitars - it's not just the words that I love about this song."

Above and beyond the first song, Napolitano is proud of the entire album. And

she should be: her return to the world of the living is a great representation

of what a person can do once their battery is recharged.

"I was nervous when it was first finished," said she, who also produced this

album. "But I'm also real pleased with it. It's the first album in a long time

that I've listened to nightly when it was done.

"The whole writing-recording-playing circuit is sort of a weird out-of-body

experience," she continued, "it takes a lot of complete mind/body/soul

attention."

There are a lot of choice cuts to listen to. After "The Highs Are Too High,"

Pretty & Twisted takes on Brian Ferry's "Mother of Pearl." "No Daddy No" is

about fighting depression and those black moods that attack so many without

warning, rhyme or reason. "They can be so very debilitating, and a lot of

people don't understand that," the songwriter explains.

And then there's "Dear Marlon Brando," which Napolitano wrote to tell the

world how awe-inspiring and incredible she finds the legendary actor.

"Within his realm he has always tried to affect change, whether through the

American-Indian movement or the environment," Johnette said. "He talked about

ecological sensitivity long before a lot of other people did."

Johnette found books and rented movies on the actor, and found herself very

much in awe of Brando, so she one day she wrote him a letter and walked up and

dropped it into his mailbox, just to tell him how she felt. She hasn't heard

from Brando, but with what has been occuring in his life recently she doesn't

expect to, either.

"I think he's a very important soul," she said. "I don't want anything from

him, I just wanted him to know how I felt and how he has affected me."

With Paul Westerberg, whom Napolitano has known for years, came the

collaborative "Stranger." Johnette had the lyrics all set, but couldn't get

the right music to work with it. Knowing Westerberg's talents at songwriting,

Johnette sent the lyrics his way, thinking, "Paul's the guy that's gonna get

this," and she was right on the mark. Westerberg came up with the haunting

bridge, and the collaboration couldn't have been better.

"Some things like that aren't forced," Johnette said. "He nailed it, just like

I knew he would.

"Paul's very Capricorn," she said with a laugh.

And laughing is what Johnette is allowing herself to do a lot of these days.

She has a new album to be very proud of, and a tour to support it that's being

received by new and old fans everywhere. Her new band has her working with two

men she can't say enough positive things about -Moreland is an old friend of

hers (his name should be recognizable for fans of Wall of Voodoo, which he

founded), who, Napolitano says, "knew I would be playing with this time

around," and guitarist Marc Moreland, a San Francisco native "who is

unbelievable, a real find," Johnette met while in Paris last summer.

And she is dealing with old issues, overcoming anger, and just looking towards

the future.

"There are things to be angry at - but can you allow yourself to get angry at

everything you see on the news at night? - but at this point, a lot of these

things you can't change," she reasons.

"I finally realized that it was time to turn this angry energy into something

beneficial."

Brando should be very proud of her.

Pretty & Twisted will be at Toad's Place in New Haven next week, on Wednesday,

August 23. Steve Wynn opens that show.