For the seemingly always-on-the-move Rachel Platten, summertime will be a relatively stationary period in which the singer/pianist will roll up her sleeves and get to work on a new studio album.

Then again, Platten could end up making another international project, writing and recording in a variety of far-apart locales — just like she did with her most recent full-length effort, 2011's Be Here (Rock Ridge Music).

With travel and relocation so much a part of her life and career, Platten recently found time to talk about some of the places she's been — not long before hitting the road for a U.S. headlining tour in support of her new EP.

Living near the heart of Red Sox Nation: Raised just outside Boston, Platten remembers her parents acquiring an upright piano around the time they settled in Massachusetts. "I was constantly banging it, and when I was 5, they let me start having lessons," she says. A precocious Platten wrote her first song — about her dog — at age 7. "That might be the most powerful, emotional thing I've written," she says with a laugh.

College in Connecticut: Platten attended Trinity College in Hartford, and it was toward the end of her higher-education years that she started playing gigs in the city's concert venues. "Sully's Pub was one of them," she recalls. "I played my big first show, opening for Rusted Root, at the Webster."

A trip to Trinidad: During her junior year of college, Platten was studying in the West Indies when a band she knew asked for help. "Their keyboard player was sick or something, and they needed a sub." She ended up performing with the group during the finals of the International Soca Monarch competition.

Here, there and everywhere: "The album wasn't intended to be an album," Platten says about Be Here, which features the single "1,000 Ships," a Billboard Adult Pop Songs chart hit. "It was intended to be different songwriting sessions — [in] Sweden, London, New York and Los Angeles. I had a hard time narrowing things down, and I was scared to release something. I was excited that the sound came out to be this international thing. It's pop music, but it has credibility."

— By Chris M. Junior

Rachel Platten on tour (schedule subject to change):

* May 11: Anthology — San Diego

* May 12: Hotel Café — Los Angeles

* May 13: B-Ryders — Bakersfield, Calif.

* May 16: Fulton 55 — Fresno, Calif.

* May 18: Hotel Utah — San Francisco

* May 19: Mississippi Studios — Portland, Ore.

* May 21: Triple Door — Seattle

* May 23: The Venue — Boise, Idaho

* May 24: Kilby — Salt Lake City

* May 25: Soiled Dove — Denver

* May 26: Waiting Room — Omaha, Neb.

* May 27: Vaudeville Mews — Des Moines, Iowa

* May 29: 7th Street Entry — Minneapolis

* May 31: Redamte Coffee House — Madison, Wis.

* June 1: Space — Evanston, Ill.

* June 2: The Intersection — Grand Rapids, Mich.

* June 3: 20th Century Theater — Cincinnati

* June 6: Headliners — Louisville, Ky.

* June 7: The Basement — Columbus, Ohio

* June 8: Beachland Tavern — Cleveland

* June 9: The Fire — Philadelphia

* June 10: Jammin' Java — Washington, D.C.

A one-off performance in an intimate casino ballroom gave Ronnie Wood a rare platform to do more than show the full scope of his talent, and why he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of two legendary groups.

Even better, with those two bands — The Rolling Stones, whose 50th anniversary tour plans are seemingly grounded; and The Faces, who disbanded in the 1970s but are perpetually rumored to finally forge a reunion with singer Rod Stewart — seemingly on hold, and Wood proving to be in such fine form, this show strongly suggested it's high time one or both of those bands gets on with the show already.

Opener "Am I Grooving You," from Wood's 1974 solo debut, I’ve Got My Own Album to Do, served as an early template of sorts, with the band locked into a driving R&B groove around Wood's rough-hewn riffs and smokes-and-sandpaper voice, a formula that worked well two tracks later on a much newer number, "Thing About You," from 2010's I Feel Like Playing. Taut rocker "Seven Days," the Wood staple that he "stole from Bob Dylan but he gave me, actually," was another early highlight, with the guitarist cutting loose for a soaring solo and Leavell and Wallace bringing things to a crescendo with dueling splashes of organ.

From there, the band genre-hopped, easing into the reggae-flavored "Sweetness My Weakness," taking a bluesy spin through the Stones' Tattoo You nugget "Black Limousine" (with Fowler singing lead, as he would for the handful of Stones songs and Stewart-sung selections in the set) and turning in a transcendent version of the Temptations hit "(I Know) I'm Losing You" that kicked the energy in the room up a couple of notches.

The night's highlight, however, might have been the Faces obscurity "Flying," which not only best showcased Wood's versatility — his guitar intro was elegant, followed by some ace slide work minutes later — but also some surprisingly high range from Fowler, who finally broke out into full-on emcee mode for the ultra-funky main set closer "Dance (Part 1)," a sleeper selection from the Stones catalog. As far as other Glimmer Twins material went, Wood and Co. unleashed a Chuck Berry-style take on the 1974 Stones hit "It's Only Rock 'N Roll" (But I Like It) — one of Wood's earliest Stones recordings, even though he wasn't officially in the band at the time.

It all ended in much more predictable fashion with a faithful rendition of "Stay With Me," a song seemingly built for crowd-pleasing encores. Ronnie Wood seemed to be going home happy, too. He flashed a big grin as he and his bandmates took their bows and he bid the audience farewell, until the next gig.

Whenever, and with whomever, that might be.

— By George Henn

In the years leading up to Moving Up Living Down (Warner Bros.), singer/songwriter Eric Hutchinson has been a man in constant motion: lots of touring, relocating from the Maryland suburbs to New York City and recording the aforementioned album in two countries.

"The biggest inspirations of the album were the cities I visited, the inspiration and rhythms of the people," Hutchinson says.

While in San Francisco, Hutchinson came up with a line that sparked him to write "Watching You Watch Him," the album's first single. It was featured in the season eight premiere of ABC's Grey’s Anatomy, and since late March, the song’s official video has racked up more than 70,000 YouTube views. (Hutchinson's music has done quite well on YouTube in the past: Clips for "OK, It's Alright With Me" and "Rock & Roll" — songs from his last album, Sounds Like This — have surpassed 500,000 and 1.5 million views, respectively.)

Hutchinson checked in prior to the release of Moving Up Living Down and the start of his spring U.S. tour to talk about the new album, his catchy single and other subjects.

You road-tested the songs on Moving Up Living Down before you hit the studio. Which ones, if any, underwent the biggest transformation leading up to when you recorded them?
Hutchinson: " 'In the First Place' is a song I was constantly tweaking all the way up to when I was singing the lyrics on the record in the studio. I go over every song with a fine-tooth comb, and I'm quick to throw out songs that I think get boring too quickly. That’s hopefully how you make an album that people can listen to over and over again."

Let’s break down the single "Watching You Watch Him." We've all been there — the one you want is so close yet so far away, preoccupied with someone else, and you're on the outside looking in. So how did you go about putting your own lyrical spin on this familiar theme and matching it with cheery music and a buoyant melody?
Hutchinson: "I was backstage strumming my guitar at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco before a show. I hit a few chords and started singing 'Walking through that door.' I sang it into my phone, and when I listened back to it a few weeks later in my home studio, I heard the lyrics 'Watching you watch him.' This was one of those songs that wrote itself. It's been great to have people respond well to it. I have fans come up to me after I sing it and say,'‘You're singing my LIFE right now!' Then we hug it out."

Had you ever seen or even heard a requinto jarocho prior to one being used for the solo?
Hutchinson: "It took me weeks to learn to pronounce the instrument correctly! I was looking for a unique sound for that solo, and [producer] Mike [Elizondo] suggested the requinto jarocho, which is used in traditional Mexican folk music. I wanted this to be a song you could blast on a road trip through the desert, so I liked the idea of borrowing from Mexican music to do that. Plus, it's gotten me really into the band Los Lobos."

What's the secret to capturing crisp handclaps like the ones heard on "Watching You Watch Him"? Those were made by human hands, right? And was there any studio enhancement?
Hutchinson: "I can't give you the secret, but if you come see me live, all we do all night is sing, dance and clap."

Talk about recording the new album in two distinct cities in different countries with two different producers — Mike Elizondo in Los Angeles and Martin Terefe in London.
Hutchinson: "It was amazing! I got to record for a month in London with Martin and then for another month in L.A. with Mike — two very different cities, and I loved getting to hang out and get inspired by their energies. I know that ended up in the music."

How was your Live From Daryl's House experience? Did anything happen on the air or behind the scenes that really surprised or impressed you?
Hutchinson: "Daryl was great! He and his band were so welcoming and such amazing players. I had a blast and still can't believe I got to sing ‘Private Eyes’ with him. I had practiced it at karaoke a few nights earlier so I wouldn't blow it."

— Introduction and interview by Chris M. Junior

Eric Hutchinson on tour (schedule subject to change):

* April 17: Bluebird Theatre — Denver

* April 18: Waiting Room — Omaha, Neb.

* April 19: Wooly’s — Des Moines, Iowa

* April 21: First Avenue Mainroom — Minneapolis

* April 23: Lincoln Hall — Chicago

* April 24: Majestic: Madison, Wis.

* April 26: Magic Bag — Detroit

* April 27: The Basement — Columbus, Ohio

* April 28: Beachland — Cleveland

* April 30: Club AE — Pittsburgh

* May 1: Paradise — Boston

* May 2: Highline Ballroom — New York

* May 4: Heirloom Arts Theatre — Danbury, Conn.

* May 5: 9:30 Club — Washington, D.C.

* May 6: World Café — Philadelphia

* May 8: Visulite — Charlotte, N.C.

* May 9: Pour House — Charleston, S.C.

* May 10: Bijou Theatre — Knoxville, Tenn.

* May 11: 3rd and Lindsey — Nashville, Tenn.

* May 12: Zydeco — Birmingham, Ala.

* May 14: House of Blues — Dallas

* May 15: Stubb’s — Austin, Texas

* May 17: Crescent Ballroom — Phoenix

* May 18: Coach House — San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

* May 19: Troubadour — Los Angeles

* May 20: Slim’s — San Francisco

* May 22: Chop Suey — Seattle

* May 23: Hawthorne Theater — Portland, Ore.

* May 24: Knitting Factory — Spokane, Wash.

* May 26: Hang With the Band.com Hangout — Las Vegas

Photo by Jeff Lipsky

In the late 1980s, Jack Petruzzelli and Joan Osborne first crossed paths when they both played the same circuit of blues and R&B clubs in and around New York.

Petruzzelli was working with Barbecue Bob and the Spare Ribs, while Osborne was fronting her own band. And after Osborne broke big as a solo artist with her 1995 big-label debut, Relish, Petruzzelli became a steady presence in Osborne's career, touring, writing and recording with her while also pursuing his other projects.

Their musical partnership has come full circle, Petruzzelli says, with Osborne's latest album, Bring It on Home (Time Life Music), which he co-produced.

"When I first met Joan, we were playing some of the music we had recorded for this [project]," Petruzzelli says. "So it was a lot of fun to revisit that aspect of our careers together, of our relationship together."

Osborne and a Time Life employee put together a list of more than 20 potential songs, which she showed to Petruzzelli, whom Osborne tapped to co-produce with her as well as play guitar and percussion.

"We had to dwindle that down to what we thought was a good 14-ish tunes to go by," Petruzzelli says, "and Joan kept saying all along, ‘If you have any suggestions, let me know.' "

And he did, recommending what became the first single: "Shake Your Hips," an old Slim Harpo song Petruzzelli used to play with Barbecue Bob and the Spare Ribs.

"When I brought it in to rehearsal, Joan knew all of the lyrics," Petruzzelli says. "And it's such a familiar song, the band just flowed right into it. Once we played it, we just knew it had to be on the album."

From the start, Petruzzelli says he and Osborne wanted to go the analog route.

"One thing's for sure when you work with tape: You have to work within the limitations of a tape machine," he explains. "What that means is, sure, you can go back and punch in something, but you can’t copy and paste like you can in the digital format."

In addition to equipment limitations, there were self-imposed limitations: Petruzzelli's plan was to record only one or two takes of each song.

"So the band had to be prepared, and she has a great band," he says. "We put two weeks into rehearsing, so we knew what the arrangements were and what we were looking for."

Bring It on Home was recorded in longtime Lenny Kravitz producer Henry Hirsch's new studio — a renovated church in Hudson, N.Y., outfitted with vintage (and well-maintained) analog equipment.

"Just because it's older gear doesn't mean it needs to break down," says Petruzzelli, who's a member of the acclaimed Beatles tribute band The Fab Faux. "If the gear is in good shape, you're fine. I think that's the biggest hang-up — that when you have older stuff, and it's not looked after, you're going to hear a lot of hiss and pops. You don't want that. You've gotta make sure that the gear is well taken care of."

— By Chris M. Junior

Photo by Michael Weintrob

Very late one evening in the very late 1980s, my pal Doug and I were dejectedly roaming the Canadian television airwaves when we suddenly chanced upon footage of these two guys playing music out on someone's porch.

Our collective jaws — to say nothing of the remote — immediately dropped.

It seems we'd stumbled upon a movie called Athens, GA: Inside/Out. The two guys playing the incredible music turned out to be Chris "Crow" Smith and, on guitar and vocals, Dexter Romweber. When a graphic across the screen reading Flat Duo Jets eventually appeared, both Doug and I realized, among several other things, that we had a New Favorite Band.

But then?

Nothing.

So, what in God's name happened to the Flat Duo Jets? Where did our heroes Crow and Dex go? And why did Celine Dion, and not them, sell over 20 million records worldwide during calendar year 1998??

The answers to these, and a multitude of other earthly injustices, are vividly contained within the 80-minute mélange of rock and roll that is Tony Gayton's Dexter Romweber: Two Headed Cow, recently available on DVD courtesy of the fine folk at MVD Visual.

From its very opening sequence of Dex pontificating upon JFK and the Three Stooges, clear through its concluding title-song sequence (which even hearing and seeing isn't quite believing), this "18 years in the making" as the disc box boasts — yes, director Gayton has been faithfully trailing his subject matters ever since shooting that historic Inside/Out footage — illustrates perhaps better than any film since 200 Motels that, absolutely, touring can make you crazy.

"I can't say no to managers, and I can't say no to the band, and I'm sort of locked into this thing so, you know, I say, 'OK, I'm gonna go do this tour,' " Romweber recalls. Two Headed Cow's cantankerously claustrophobic, monochrome, literally-in-their-faces footage perfectly captures Crow and Romweber’s nocturnal crawls across post-Ronald Reagan America, carrying guitars through all-night inconvenience stores, tumbling in and out of pizza-encrusted flea-pit motels, and in Romweber's case spending most every single semi-waking hour burning through a trough of backseat literature that only serves to heighten the general mis-awareness of it all.

Errol Flynn, John Barrymore, Hermann Hesse, Knut Hamsun, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Arthur Rimbaud and eventually Charles Baudelaire — such are the fabulous figures of infamy duly name-checked by Dex as his self-confessed "f***ed-up role models that I'd come to be later. Partiers and wreckage-makers. They became second, third and fourth selves in me."

Or, as he helpfully explains elsewhere, "Going out and hell-raising, I think, is really, and to a degree, a positive thing. Madness is merely the door open to the supernatural."

Nevertheless, despite mopping the floor with a d-u-m-b-struck Paul Shaffer on Letterman, being floated by none other than David Geffen for the Scott Litt/Chris Stamey-supervised Lucky Eye and remaining just so damned good a band that despite all attempts, subconscious or otherwise, to derail the star-making machinery, the Flat Duo Jets were poised to become, at the very least, the White Stripes and/or Black Keys they would later only spawn and — now this is putting it mildly — influence. Sure, rarely do the brave, crazed, pioneering innovators of any artistic signpost receive the credit, to say nothing of the cash, those who later water down and recast reap. But the 1999 dissolution of the (in Romweber's perfect words) "relaxed brotherhood" between he and Crow not only left our New Favorite Band in splinters, but it turns out cast Dex "broken open," betrayed and falling into a dark night "trek into some sort of semi-psychotic spiritual odyssey."

Thankfully however, the concluding Two Headed Cow footage shows the man somehow renewed and basking in the retrospective attention and glory he now most rightfully enjoys. In fact, I'm much more than pleased to report that the last time I caught the grand-new Dex Romweber Duo (alongside his utterly brilliant drummer/sister Sara) in full action a couple of years ago, the man remains every single inch the towering, blistering, all-encroaching talent he ever was as a keen young Jet.

If ever a movie, or a musical journey, deserves such a happy ending, it is indeed that of Dexter Romweber.

— Musician/writer Gary Pig Gold is the co-founder of the To M’Lou Music label.

Paul Weller's 11th solo album, Sonik Kicks (Yep Roc), is not so much a departure as it is a potent fusion of musical styles from one of rock's most viable and unpredictable songwriters. On his new album, the ex-Jam and Style Council leader tries to touch as many bases as he can, from punk to soul to techno and beyond, in a bold embrace of sound and fury.

"The Attic" is a bouncy pop composition. The underlying strings and Hammond organ treatments would have fit well on any album by The Style Council. On "Kling I Klang," Weller has nailed the Krautrock sound that he was aiming for without drowning the song in an avalanche of noise.

"By the Waters" is a kitchen-sink workingman ballad that is vintage Weller, brought together by an excellent string arrangement. "So long you bum/You can get your work done/Come now beside the waters/Sit and rest" is a yearning for a respite from the daily drudgery of life.

"That Dangerous Age" is an up-tempo lament that continues the middle-age hero theme. "And when he wakes up in the morning/It takes him time to adjust" the lyrics reveal. "So sick and tired of the money/And all the life that is lost." Most men lead lives of quiet desperation, according to Henry David Thoreau, as so often people do in Weller's world — with a few "shoop, shoops" thrown in for good measure.

"Study in Blue," the album's longest track, has a funky bass line and a sprightly Wurlitzer piano accompanying the impressionistic lyrics, which Weller describes as "a straightforward love song."

"Dragonfly" grew out of a poem written by Weller's youngest daughter, Jessie (who is credited on the song). Marco Nelson plays bass and Blur's Graham Coxon plays guitar and Hammond organ on the track.

"When Your Garden's Overgrown" is an homage to Syd Barrett, the iconic founding member of Pink Floyd. According to Weller, "Noel Gallagher [of Oasis] plays guitar and bass on it, I think." That comment is open to interpretation.

"Around the Lake," clocking in at 2:12, is a concentrated deluge of sound built on a bedrock of Krautrock rhythm. Weller effectively plays with the lyrics to create a dizzy gothic feel. "There’s a vacuum/in the backroom/of a ballroom/in the dark."

“Drifters” (co-written by long-time collaborator Steve Craddock) is another standout track — a flamenco-tinged rave with feverish guitar bursts and a driving batterie of percussion.

"Paperchase" starts out as a delicate arrangement, and then morphs into a synthesized Middle Eastern ballad with a Led Zeppelin trace-like quality bordering on psychedelic. Weller reportedly had the late diva Amy Winehouse in mind when he wrote this song: "Paperchase, paperchase/You can’t hear the words at all/When you’re in your free fall."

"Be Happy Children," the closing tune, is a celebration of family unity with some vocals by Weller's young children Mac and Leah, done in a stylish production that gives more than a subtle nod to Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield.

Experimental may be too diffuse a term to describe this latest offering from Weller. Taking nothing away from his last two releases (22 Dreams and Wake Up the Nation), this is Weller's riskiest and most visionary album in years — and although many fans may accuse him of emphasizing sonic effects over substance, there is an abundance of pleasurable kicks here to keep the Modfather’s fans extremely satisfied.

— By Donald Gavron

The record-label concept might seem antiquated to a lot of people in this era of digital downloads, but not to singer/guitarist Bobby Hussy, the leader of the Wisconsin-bred garage-rock duo The Hussy.

Hussy the man runs his own label, Kind Turkey, and Hussy the band has released a lot of music in a physical format over a short period of time through a variety of imprints, the latest being Weed Seizure, The Hussy's second album, which arrived earlier this month on Tic Tac Totally Records.

The group's namesake found some time just prior to hitting the road with drummer Heather Sawyer to talk about the new album, song length, the video for the tune "Undefined" and the labels he feels are carrying the torch for garage rock.

"I wrote a lot of songs during that time period, but really, when we got back, the first priority was promoting Cement Tomb by playing shows —not recording — even though much of that record was two years old in terms of when the songs were written. Once we started tracking stuff, we realized we had a mountain of stuff. … We realized we could easily fill the commitments of the four labels — Evil Weevil, Eradicator, Black Gladiator and Goodbye Boozy — that wanted to do singles, as well as carve out a solid LP that we liked.

"So that's what we did. We whittled it down that everything would be exclusive and a unique purchase, so that each release is special. I think that's really important."

How did you hook up with Chicago's Tic Tac Totally Records to release Weed Seizure? And how come you didn’t choose to put the album out on your own Kind Turkey label?
Hussy: "I shopped the LP to Matt [Clark] at Tic Tac via e-mail, and he heard we had a bunch of seven-inches coming out. He liked our previous output, and I know Heather had been shopping demos to him since the beginning of the band. It's a label we really trusted. We had really only shopped the tracks to two other labels that shall remain nameless. So really, Tic Tac was a top pick for us, and we were so ecstatic when he decided he wanted to do it. Matt was involved with the whole process of putting it all together — title, sequence, release date.

"We picked the album title after a friend of ours actually had a weed seizure at a show, and then we had our friend Ben Lyon design the cover art. Once Matt and the band had agreed on a track sequence, we went ahead and had Justin Perkins master it. I've worked with Justin on 10-plus records, both with The Hussy and Kind Turkey, the label I run. He's a quality mastering engineer.

"I decided to sorta keep the Kind Turkey label about other bands more so than my own projects. I like to do fun one-off things like tapes for our [material], but the vinyl I like to let other labels handle. Essentially, all of the labels we're working with for The Hussy have more experience than I do with record pressing/label operation, so I like to let those guys use their experience. I mean, why not? Someday I'd like to [release] a Hussy record, but it'd be some sorta special release. I want [my] label to represent scenes all over, bands from everywhere.

"I guess basically it just seemed like we should have a different label stamp its mark of approval on the record. [That] seemed to make the record a bit more credible, and honestly, Tic Tac is one of our favorite labels, so it was a no-brainer for us. We're really happy to be a part of that label and all of the labels we've worked with — and are working with, Kind Turkey included."

Many of the songs on Weed Seizure clock in at less than two minutes. What are the biggest challenges in writing tunes that are so compact?
Hussy: "I don't really think there's a challenge in short songs, and I think Heather would probably agree. For us, this is what we do. Ever since this band started, we've been about short songs with lots of hooks — simple, but [full of depth]. Basically, pop songs are typically short, and I think first and foremost, we're sorta a pop band. We honestly never think about song length. We never cut stuff out for the sake of it being shorter, and we never add stuff if we think it should be longer. We just write a song, and we usually aren't going to put more than two verses in a song, and that's just our style.

"I just think we translate better as a simple and quick-song band, instead of a drawn-out, jammy band. Most of our songs don't really lend themselves too much to extended jams — some do, but they're few and far between. It's basically just what this band does. We like short pop songs, and that's just what we write. Maybe it's because we're lazy and just call a song finished before we should?" (laughs)

Talk about the concept behind the video for "Undefined" and some of the steps that were involved to make such a trippy-looking clip.
Hussy: "Well, first of all, huge thanks have to be given to High Frequency Media. They've been friends for quite some time and have done a lot of live footage of us. They also did a documentary about us and our friends The Midwest Beat, one of the best Wisconsin bands around.

"Essentially we let them run with whatever they wanted. I trust those guys completely. We honestly just told them we wanted the video to look like a [messed-up] acid trip. We wanted reverse stuff and dark stuff. And we wanted it to be really psychedelic. And then they said, 'Sure, we can do something like that — can you come and shoot at our place for like 30 minutes?' So we went there, and I did the smoke shot, and Heather and I both sang the song once into the camera, and that was it. Those guys took care of the rest.

"I know that's not the most artistic answer to the question, but at the time we were so busy getting ready for the three records coming out, and getting the records in order, as well as booking the two tours, that we just didn't have time for a huge concept session. We've got plans for four more videos, two of which have been started. So the record will have five videos for it, which is pretty exciting. They will come out over the course of the next year."

Describe a typical Hussy concert in five words.
Hussy: "Loud, fast, short, fun, stoned."

What's the state of garage rock around the country? Are you hearing the same thing everywhere you go? Or are there bands in certain regions that are experimenting and pushing boundaries?
Hussy: "Garage rock is doing really well right now, I think. I think punk and underground music will never go anywhere. There will always be the subculture, and now that the Internet has connected everything, that subculture is getting more and more exposure and becoming mainstream. [That's] sorta scary, but if you’re an intelligent listener, you can pick out the phonies from the real deals.

"I think the San Francisco scene is setting the stage right now. Castle Face Records, Southpaw, 1234 Go! Records and Burger Records are all just cranking out the jams in that general area, and boy, those are all great labels. Goner's obviously ruling a lot of the board in terms of the garage-punk market. And In the Red — as always — has its pulse right on the scene as well by promoting Thee Oh Sees and a new Ty Segall 12-inch.

"ITR is the be-all, end-all label in my opinion. … I have more love for that label than any other, and I honestly am happy that the label still exists after so many years of putting out records."

— Introduction and interview by Chris M. Junior

The Hussy's March 2012 tour dates (schedule subject to change):

* March 23: Crown Tap — Chicago

* March 24: Locals Only — Indianapolis

* March 25: South Park Tavern — Dayton, Ohio

* March 26: Brass Rail — Fort Wayne, Ind.

* March 27: Trio’s — Cleveland

* March 29: First Cap — York, Pa.

* March 30: The Acheron — Brooklyn, N.Y.

* March 31: Emoda Gallery — Philadelphia

Photo by Tom Tian

Alejandro Escovedo (right)

Producer Don B (center, from HBO’s Treme) with sons and fellow producers Supa Dezzy (left) and Chris Magee