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Gene Loves Jezebel, But Doesn't Love Madonna
04/30/1999 4:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Lyndsey Parker
(4/30/99, 1 a.m. PDT) - Last month, Cleopatra Records released the Madonna tribute record Virgin Voices, which features many '80s artists who once shared the MTV and radio airwaves with Maddy in her early, pre-workout, boy-toy days. The lineup includes Heaven 17 ("Holiday"), Berlin ("Live To Tell"), Information Society ("Express Yourself"), Dead Or Alive ("Why It's So Hard"), and Bow Wow Wow's Annabella Lwin ("Like A Virgin") (LAUNCH, 2/26). All of these artists, however, aren't necessarily huge fans of the Ethereal Girl's work. In fact, Gene Loves Jezebel--who recorded a haunting version of "Frozen" for Virgin Voices, and just released its own new album, VII--has no qualms admitting that its decision to take part in the project was 100% financially motivated. "We got a call from Cleopatra, saying, 'Fancy doing a Madonna tribute?' And of course we said, 'No, she's crap,'" chuckles Gene Loves Jezebel's leader, Jay Aston. "Then [Cleopatra] offered us so much money, we said, 'Oh, all right then!'" admits the band's guitarist, James Stevenson. When the members of Gene Loves Jezebel recently taped a segment for VH1's flashback show Where Are They Now?, they were equally forthright. "On VH1, they wanted us to promote the Madonna thing. They asked, 'Why did you choose to do a Madonna song?' And we said, 'We needed the money!'" explains Aston. When asked why he's not a big Maddy fan, Aston says he's turned off by her sheer blonde ambition. "She represents everything non-spiritual. You have to have that part of you that wants to be that famous, to have that insecurity that deep in you, to push like she's pushed to become famous. Sure, that takes a lot of business savvy and whatever else it takes to promote yourself, to get 11-year-old girls to wear suspender belts. I don't think that's a great feat, personally. She's successful in those terms. Just because you're selling millions of records, just because you're all over the television, doesn't make me respect you. She's very clever, though. When she started, she came from Detroit, just this ordinary-looking cheerleader girl, and she just hopped onto the scene that was the real '80s in New York, which was a very underground scene, and just stole whatever she could. And she's done the same thing ever since, in my opinion. "We don't respect that kind of success, "Aston continues. "I think you should be successful as an artist. I think time shows that people who produce great records live on much deeper in the public's conscious in the long run. People like Nick Drake or Miles Davis or the Rolling Stones won't be forgotten; they'll still be remembered." Ironically, it was Aston's disdain for Madonna's alleged lack of spirituality that led Gene Loves Jezebel to choose "Frozen" for their Virgin Voices cover song. "We said, 'Let's do the song where she pretends to be spiritual!'" quips Aston sarcastically. "A very sub-Enigma type of song she ripped off. And we did a f--king brilliant version of it." However, Aston and company weren't exactly thrilled with the final version of "Frozen"--the Razed In Black remix--that eventually wound up on Virgin Voices. "They gave it to some guys and they just did the usual techno thing to it. All those techno guys, they're not engineers, they don't understand how to record things. It's most noticeable in the vocals, because the vocals are always cold. They don't know how to do the simplest EQ on the vocals. It's all bass and all top; there's nothing in between. So it was a marriage made in hell, really." (Aston has expressed similar dissatisfaction with Desire: Gene Loves Jezebel Remixed, a dance-mix GJL compilation released last year on Cleopatra as well.) As for the band's experience on VH1's Where Are They Now?, Aston cracks, "They kind of set up things where they try to make it look like you were this god, and all you're doing now is baking cookies like John Lennon or something. You're at their mercy, I guess. We spent five hours doing it. We'll have to see what it's like when it comes out, if comes out." He then, only half-jokingly, adds, "If my brother doesn't stop it from coming out!"--referring to his estranged twin and former bandmate, Michael Aston, who's been gigging under the Gene Loves Jezebel name and, according to Jay, has tried to stop Jay's GLJ lineup (which includes longtime members Stevenson and bassist Peter Rizzo) from performing. Those who really want to know where Gene Loves Jezebel is now should look not to Virgin Voices, the remix album, or VH1, but to the band's seventh album, aptly titled VII. The new release mixes the darkly seductive Goth/ glam and gypsy-pop of such earlier GLJ tunes as "20 Killer Hurts" and "Suspicion" with a contemplative, almost rustic style, which is perhaps the result of Jay's experience recording his 1998 solo acoustic album, Unpopular Songs. Boasting more mature songwriting and stronger, richer vocals than any previous GLJ album, VII is a solid and confident album that hopefully will help this band re-establish itself after seven long years of silence. To read a Gene Loves Jezebel feature, click here. -- Lyndsey Parker, Los Angeles Got news tips, comments, or questions? Send them to newstips@launch.com.
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