August 10

Today's birthday goes to Jon Farriss, the drummer for the Australian band INXS. The members have been together over 30 years, ever since they were a new wave/ska band called the Farriss Brothers (Jon's brothers, Andrew and Tim, play keyboards and lead guitar, respectively.) A former manager, who almost convinced them to become a Christian band, gave them the INXS name.


Instead, they developed their own rock sound (and their confidence to follow the beat of their own drummer, so to speak) and became one of the biggest music acts of the 80's. In their first 20 years, five of their albums went platinum, and they charted singles in the US 22 times (including "Disappear", which Jon co-wrote with lead singer Michael Hutchence.)


After the death of lead singer Hutchence in 1997, the rest of the band struggled to determine their next step. Over the next few years, the band would perform one-off shows with guest vocalists, then almost found a new singer - who left before they could record an album. Finally in 2004, they took the audacious step of making a worldwide search for their next lead singer, and making it part of a reality TV show. Though met with criticism, the show did produce what they were looking for: their next singer, J D Fortune, a guy as rebellious as the band is. He got the job and toured with the band for the next few years.


What happened after the tour is still under debate. Either JD got sent home after the tour, or he got 'sent home'. [As of 2010, the band and JD have confirmed that he is definitely the lead singer of INXS.] Either way, the next INXS album isn't with JD Fortune; it's a tribute album to Michael Hutchence, with guest singers performing covers from the first 20 years of the band's history. Among the names confirmed are the Killers' Brandon Flowers, Rob Thomas, Nikki Costa, and Ben Harper.
Here's a Ben Harper concert performance, with birthday boy Jon sitting in, of "Never Tear Us Apart":

May 1

Whose career trajectory could I compare to Ray Parker Jr? He worked his way up as a guitarist for acts like the Spinners and Barry White, parlaying that into a band called Raydio that managed a fistful of top 40 hits. Ray went solo in a big way, harnessing the power of MTV, even going too far: two years before "Thriller", he did a vampire and werewolf infested video for "The Other Woman" that was banned by MTV - turns out, they were more afraid of showing a white woman and black man on a date together.

He didn't give up on the spooky stuff, though. He accepted a movie theme songwriting gig that many artists (such as Lindsay Buckingham and Huey Lewis) had turned down: Ghostbusters. His title song became a global sensation (number 1 in U.S., top 5 in the rest of the English spekaing world) and an Oscar nominee. It also became the source of a lawsuit from Huey Lewis, who said it sounded too much like "I Want a New Drug". That lawsuit was settled out of court, but it still raises hackles between Parker and Lewis. (I guess they think neither of them can't lose... sorry...) And that's why, as of 2009, you won't find the video for "Ghostbusters" on any video or DVD release.

These days, music's a world away from the pop-funk that made Ray Parker Jr a sensation in the 80's. Family took precedence over career for him: he assumed care of his parents under their deaths in '93, he got married in '94 and concentrated on raising his kids... he didn't put out an album for 15 years.
These days, he plays smooth jazz at vineyard concerts and gushes about his collegeiate sons. He doesn't even have the jheri-curls anymore. But "Ghostbusters" never goes away; if they ever get the third movie off the ground, who wouldn't be surprised if Mr Parker Jr made an appearance on the charts once again?