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Tickets:

Glasgow Garage
Manchester Academy 2
London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Bristol Anson Rooms
Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

Hello my restless souls.
I try not to get too deep in these blogs. I might start changing that, ha ha, Generally I like to be motivational or positive most of the time but I feel I must address some of you who really believed in the Licks as a band and explain a few things.

The Licks had really broken up in spirit before we ever had a chance to make the 3rd album. Kemble left early on to go solo, before that my other drummer was done with life on the road, then Todd left out of an argument but really I think he felt done with “chasing this dream” with me. So all and all since I started the band 5 years ago I’ve had 5 drummers, 6 guitarists, 2 bass players. Most were just fill ins so we could keep touring. And only a few played on actual records.

But the bottom line is it is extremely hard to keep a band together and to keep people growing creatively in the same direction as songwriters which is nearly impossible. I’ve been fortunate to work with very solid and talented musicians and good hearted human beings regardless of anything else. For all the drama I’ve heard other bands have; screaming matches, fist fights, not talking at all, drug use, missed shows etc. We’ve had little in comparison. So I am thankfull for the guys that came along. And in the end I realized “The Licks” was my naive idealized version of what a rocknroll band should be. And not everyone can fit that.

Juliette and The New Romantiques This new incarnation is more about disillusionment and hope. Determination and despair. Romance and tragedy. And truly creating music that comes from those conflicts. It is more about a sound and energy than a “band”.

To those who made your wonderful Licks websites and shirts and all the incredible creative things you contributed through out the years I can only say thank you, thank you so so much!!!! You have no idea how much it all means and meant to me!!!!! And I can only give that back to you in new music and new songs. And a new rebel fever. Cause after all I am a soul of defiance and never giving up. To go against the odds I try, try and try again. Its just my nature. And I try to extend that to you in the only ways I know how.

Do I have fear? Of course but it is exactly what gets me going. Because I L O V E what I’m doing and you who give it right back to me. It blows my mind. “You gotta give what you love, love what you live, to get it back”. That is what the New Romantiques is. Its a concept. The Little Prince in a Mad Max world. Where the wild things are. These contrasts. It is a roughed up warrior full of pixie magic and sonic love landscapes but on spiked wheels on a barron dirt road in search of the remains of civilization.

It is not the good time gang of the Licks. Its rougher than that. Dreamier than that. This new band is an extension of the sound and energy of this record ‘Terra Incognita’. Live we will play old songs of course but it is a completely different animal. And like in my drama in the movie world, my musical self takes on many different sounds shapes and visions and persona’s so I will be doing all kinds of different things in the future but I will always be Juliette. Always. And I don’t expect people to like every record, every song, every show, every picture, every outfit LOL. But that’s part of the adventure.

See you soon inside the hot light. And thank you so so much for all your comments and encouragement!!!!
“Its the great rocknroll show. Its got no place to go. Suicide divebombers. You think time’s behind you. Take a look ahead. The future is ours forever. The past is dead.” From the song Suicide Divebombers.
JL

http://www.myspace.com/juliettelewis

In 2004, Juliette Lewis the punk rocker emerged with a bang. Now she’s being reborn as a musical force in the studio as well as onstage. After four years, two full-length albums and countless high-profile tours and festival gigs alongside acts like the Killers, Foo Fighters, Muse and Chris Cornell with her roaring rock road show the Licks, Lewis is ready to unveil her new project: Juliette and the New Romantiques.

With the Licks, Lewis put out the 2004 EP … Like a Bolt of Lightning, which was followed by the full-length You’re Speaking My Language. By the time 2006’s Four on the Floor was released, the Licks had mounted their international assault, touring the world and rocking fests like Iceland Airwaves, the Hyde Park Festival and the U.K.’s prestigious V Festival. And Juliette’s time on the road is far from over: tour dates with the New Romantiques will be announced shortly after the release of their debut album: Terra Incognita.

It was during a grueling two-year tour for Four on the Floor, that the singer-actress began craving a fresh sound where guitars would provide atmospheric glow rather than chugging rhythms, and melodies could be haunting and dynamic. “I was hiding behind the bombast and rhythm guitar, riffs and hooks,” she says. “So it took five years to cut my teeth and really develop as a musical force and songwriter and gain the courage to now let my voice roar and emote.” After meeting the Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez-Lopez at Japan’s Fugi Rock Festival, the two chatted about collaborating. The pair quickly bonded over Fellini movies and the relationship between drama and music. “I was on a search for a producer who could unearth and interpret my musical identity and venture into the unknown with me,” she says. Lewis visited Rodriguez-Lopez at his Brooklyn, New York studio, bringing along cassettes of songs she’d roughly recorded on a piano at home. Rodriguez-Lopez was instantly struck by what he calls the music’s “pure honesty.” He began adding instruments and orchestration to the tracks, sent them to Juliette via e-mail, and “He blew my mind,” Lewis says. “I was looking at combining the elements of heaven and earth sonically, and Omar seemed to understand this language.”

Lewis wrote most of the 11 tracks that would become the New Romantiques’ debut album, Terra Incognita (out DATE TK VIA TK), with her friend, guitarist Chris Watson, over the past year. She and Rodriguez-Lopez recorded for three weeks at his Brooklyn and Guadalajara studios in late 2008, with a very specific cast of musicians Rodriguez-Lopez thought best suited the project; Rich Costey (Nine Inch Nails, Muse) mixed the LP at New York’s famed Electric Lady Studios. The result is a stunning album of epic sonic scope and complex emotional journeys that Lewis says “is my version of whatever soul is.” On this record, “I let the haunted woman come through – the tormented blues soul singer – as well as my full-throttle rock voice.”

Opener “Romeo” kicks off with a fuzzy riff that’s joined by Lewis’ ethereal vocal and a strong, laid-back beat. Lewis says she wrote the track in Italy about “a blue-eyed something” and “you can feel all the colors and shapes of moonlight and water in the dreamy guitars.” The straight-up blues of the spare, guitar-and-vocal track “Hard Loving Woman” emerged when one of Watson’s guitar lines untapped a flurry of emotions tied to a phrase Lewis had been carrying around. She recorded the song in a single take, and Rodriguez-Lopez convinced her to leave it untouched. “I said it won’t ever get any better than that,” he recalls – and it doesn’t. Lewis conjures Janis Joplin on the song with a gritty wail that pounds home wrenching lyrics like “Society’s got no place for me.”

On the experimental “Female Persecution,” backward drums mingle with layers of warm tones that are simultaneously suffocating and freeing. “I love contradictions and contrasts, sonically and emotionally, and I have so many things that juxtapose,” Lewis says. “Strength and despair, innocence and decay, dreams and disillusionment – and how you convey all this through different sounds, as well as lyrically and vocally.” While that broody track recalls Patti Smith’s poetry, the triumphantly glimmering “Suicide Divebombers” has a gorgeous David Bowie vibe that swells into a glorious chorus of “The past is dead.” Lewis says she wrote the line “You were selling tickets to my funeral” when she was 21 and finally found its accompaniment on the song. “It’s the closing credits, the glitter is pouring off your face, the world’s blowing up and what can we do but keep dreaming of forever together,” she explains.

The album easily shifts from punky grooves (”All Is For God”) to chiming guitar rock (”Fantasy Bar”) and even includes a flashy pop song (”Uh Huh,” which Lewis describes as her “make-out jam”). There’s a ton of variety in the vocal performances, too, which leap from growly and rich to vulnerable and subtle. It’s a remarkably dynamic range that will likely stun fans of the Licks and anyone who’s never seen Lewis take the stage that recalls PJ Harvey and Throwing Muses’ Kristin Hersh.

“Everything she’s feeling, it’s just right there for you,” Rodriguez-Lopez says. “It’s just honest. It’s her. All the music encapsulatews her and it’s driven by her, and it’s made for her.”

After mastering her live show with the Licks, Lewis says Terra Incognita is the album she always hoped to make. “I wanted to make a record that has full flavor and spectrum. Not the same song 11 times,” she says. “I felt I needed to break conventional songwriting habits, allow those roaming voices to comes out. Terra Incognita means unknown territory and I wanted – needed – to go there. Not everybody wants to. But I got no one to answer to, so why not feed the muse? It’s all about this love of expression and an audience who’s willing to take the journey into my mythical sonic forest of dreams, where romance and tragedy are next to heaven.”

Hello and Happy New Year to one and all! Its been too long and u and I have so much to say… The (mighty and lovely) Licks are no more. It is the end of our run… For now. You can find out what everyone is up to on their various sites and show them your love and support. As for me I have some exciting things in store for those who still want to follow me into the wild!Its a new sound. A new band. A new record. Its a new year. I have been working with a secret producer and a secret band on a secret project that is soon to become un-secret. I am in the process of building a new website and page and will be uploading the new sound in the next couple weeks!! Also I will report to you in a Vlog from the mystery cave in one week… So stay tuned!In closing I would like to thank all of you for your dancing feet, yells and screams and love and support over the last five years. Couldn’t of made it without you. Honestly and truly. And in the next five I promise to unearth the pixie dust, howl and fire, rhythm and groove to sooth and ignite. Can’t wait to travel into the unknown all over again…2009 its yours and mine! : )

JL

Spooktacular
Ft. Myers Florida
31 October 2008

Ft. Myers River District
Outdoor Stage
Corner of 1st St. and Hendry St.
Ft. Myers, FL 33901

More info HERE