Concrete Blonde reunites for 'Therapy'

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

From left, Concrete Blonde members Jim Mankey, Johnette Napolitano and Harry Rushakoff illustrate their new "Group Therapy" album. Rushakoff no longer is performing with the group and has been replaced by Gabriel Ramirez who will play at tonight's concert at World Café. Concrete Blonde 8 p.m. today (doors open at 7 p.m.) World Café $20 526-4400

"I don't know where the rumor started," said Concrete Blonde vocalist/bassist Johnette Napolitano, the song's lyricist. "God rest his soul, I've never met Joey Ramone or spoken, at all, to Joey Ramone in my life." In truth, "Joey" wasn't even about someone named Joey.

Instead, the heart-breaking ballad chronicling a love affair cut short by alcoholism — and powered by Napolitano's alternately husky and soaring voice — was written for Wall of Voodoo guitarist Marc Moreland.

"The very first time that we had been out of the (United States), we opened for those guys here and met them in Melbourne," said Napolitano, via telephone from Sydney, Australia, Tuesday. "And (that started) many, many years of a very turbulent on-and-off, up-and-down friendship/relationship."

The 1995 post-Concrete Blonde album and band project "Pretty and Twisted" marked the only time the two would work together before the 44-year-old guitarist's death in March of complications from a liver transplant.

"I'm very proud of that record and I'm very proud to have worked with Marc," Napolitano said. "I thought he was a genius and a complete original. He passed away right before we left on this tour. And it was very, very, very difficult and still is."

Only recently reunited after eight years apart, Concrete Blonde — besides Napolitano, guitarist Jim Mankey and recently added drummer Gabriel Ramirez — will perform tonight at the World Café.

Formed by Napolitano and Mankey in 1984, Concrete Blonde emerged from the same early-1980s Los Angeles post-punk club scene that produced bands such as Wall of Voodoo, the Go-Go's and X. The duo — then called Dream 6 — was wooed by a number of major labels until I.R.S. Records (The Police, Go-Go's, R.E.M.) managed to sign them in 1987.

Napolitano and Mankey recruited drummer Harry Rushakoff, accepted the suggestion of then-I.R.S. labelmate Michael Stipe (of R.E.M.) for a new name and released their self-titled debut that same year.

Concrete Blonde's dark, deeply personal lyrics and lavishly moody instrumentation garnered the band a passionate underground following through two modestly selling albums until 1990's "Bloodletting" (and its single "Joey") connected with mainstream music buyers. Initially, Napolitano thought the song too personal and too complicated for anyone else but her to understand, and considered another single release.

"But it was just amazing how universal that record was," said Napolitano. "The amount of mail we got ... the amount of people that related to it just blew me away. It taught me a big lesson about second-guessing myself."

Concrete Blonde would never again capture the popular success of "Joey," nor did Napolitano — to her credit — exactly try to. The band held together for two more albums before Napolitano — feeling the band was getting too complacent — departed to pursue solo projects.

After hooking up to jam again last summer, the band decided it had enough creative juices flowing for an entire album of new material and a tour. Released in January, Concrete Blonde's "Group Therapy" was recorded in 10 days last September before the group had a label to distribute it.

Although it has so far fared better with music critics than record buyers, "Group Therapy" is a captivating listen that finds the band's signature pop moodiness intact, but under far more control than on past albums.

While still full of the quirky rockers and turbulent ballads the band is known for, the album's lack of unnecessary vocal and instrumental theatrics (another former band habit) sets the tone for a more mature, more laid-back and more easily accessible Concrete Blonde.

On tour since March, the band's otherwise happy reunion even survived the same-month departure of drummer Rushakoff, who simply neglected to show up for a Kansas City show or any gigs thereafter. "There's a lot of problems there," Napolitano said of Rushakoff.

Still, "Musically, I think we have more respect for each other than we ever did because of the time apart," said Napolitano, of her renewed musical partnership with Mankey.

"There's a lot of common ground now. A lot of work in the past. A lot of experience together. A lot of shared achievements, frustrations, failures and all kinds of other things that give you common ground with anybody, you know."