COURTESY OF MANIFESTO RECORDS
If there's one thing not lacking in Johnette Napolitano's life, it's drama. You'd think it'd be enough being part of a beloved rock band, Concrete Blonde. When the trio arrives here from a tour of Australia for today's concert, a portion of her downtime here will be devoted to visiting her brother, incarcerated at Halawa Correctional Facility. Dealing with drama
Concrete Blonde looks for a break
By Gary C. W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comAn effusive talker, Napolitano was spirited and forthcoming during a phone interview last month from her Hollywood home before leaving for a tour of the land Down Under, her comments punctuated by the occasional explosive laugh.
Just after her brother John was sentenced in February to 10 years for theft, forgery and burglary, a beloved L.A.-based musician friend of hers, Marc Moreland (an original member of Wall of Voodoo who played with Napolitano in a side band called Pretty & Twisted), died in Paris.
But wait, there's more! Just as Concrete Blonde should have been celebrating the release of its first new album in eight years, "Group Therapy," last May, their drummer quit and ended up in jail in L.A. on charges of spouse abuse.
This wasn't supposed to happen to Napolitano, known for one of the more distinctive voices of '80s new wave/alternative music, and her guitar-slinging compatriot James Mankey. Together, they're responsible for some of the more memorable songs of the era, including "Still in Hollywood," "God Is a Bullet," the band's big hit "Joey," "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)," "Tomorrow, Wendy," "Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man" and a great cover of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" that they've made their own.
But the band has never aimed for conventional success. During the first flurry of fame Concrete Blonde experienced, Napolitano escaped to the Big Island to briefly live with younger brother John near Kalapana.
"The second year that the band was together (1983) was a tough one for me, and since my brother had already lived on the Big Island for many years, then working on an orchid farm, I decided to join him," she said. "But then he got into a debilitating accident, so we ending up selling the house. Within the year, Kilauea erupted and the house was gone!"
Where: World Cafe, 1130 N. Nimitz Highway Concrete Blonde
When: 8 p.m. today. Doors open at 7, all ages welcome. There will be no opening band.
Admission: $20
Call: 599-4450
She thinks her brother will be out in two years. "He's been writing some amazing stuff that I'll be posting on our Web site at www.concreteblonde.org. He's talked to some Hawaiian elders over the years, and it's pretty deep stuff."
She said, "John's writing a piece on recovery, and this is the first time we're clicking as brother and sister. He's in prison for other things, and drugs were just a symptom of his problems. But at least he has a positive outlet; suppression of creativity is the worst thing for the human spirit.
"Before then he had no outlet, no encouragement. I was lucky; music is something I always wanted to do, but being Italian American and Catholic with some Latino, I was supposed to have gotten married and had kids by now. So I can relate to what John went through.
"Whatever my brother decides, it's up to him. ... I can't help him if he can't help himself," she said.
Napolitano and Mankey tolerated drummer Harry Rushakoff's behavior for as long as they could.
"He had suddenly decided to split for some reason from our previous U.S. tour to go back home, all this before a sold-out Kansas City gig," she said. "We ended up recruiting our lighting director to play drums, and he saved us for the remaining four days of the tour.
She said, "It was just hard for Harry to shake his old bad habits once we were on the road. We still love him -- he's a brilliant drummer -- but we couldn't do this anymore. We wish him the best, though."
Napolitano is excited over the recruitment of new drummer Gabriel Ramirez, a member of the "rock en Español" Mexican band Maria Fatal. They've already started writing a new record together.
"It's a good feeling to be excited about the music again," she said. "When things get good, sometimes it brings out personal weirdness, like it did with Harry. Jim and I are so grateful to have this chance again, and even though I'm still shook up over Marc's passing, I appreciate playing our music for our longtime fans and not f---ing up. I don't wanna bring it all down.
"This is the first year I've appreciated what Concrete Blonde has done. I admit I'm actually happy and that it would be selfish to take it all down by manufacturing problems. I mean, I'm making a living playing music! How many people can say that?"
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