I love it when I find a Setzer article in the mainstream media!

A Dark 'Lonely Avenue' Turn for Stray Cat Setzer

And since I'm usually too lazy to click on links (though the link does have a photo):

By JEFF BAENEN, Associated Press Writer Jeff Baenen, Associated Press Writer – 19 mins ago

MINNEAPOLIS – Brian Setzer can't keep his fingers still. When he talks about his new CD "Songs From Lonely Avenue," he has to grab his bright orange Gretsch guitar and start firing off the edgy riffs that make up his film noir tribute.

"It always starts with the guitar riff," Setzer said, pausing after playing the slinky intro to "King of the Whole Damn World," which veers from rockabilly to jazz, and singing in a soft, high voice.

The three-time Grammy winner recalls first coming up with one of the riffs and thinking, "That's really cool, that's kind of dark." It sounded like a soundtrack, Setzer said.

"So I got that idea — what if I wrote a soundtrack but songs, you know, like old soundtracks from the '40s and '50s. They're dramatic, they have just the pieces, like that, but they're not entire songs," Setzer said. "'Wow. It'd be cool if I wrote that kind of dark swing and made them into songs.'"

So he did.

A big fan of Robert Mitchum, James Cagney and Alfred Hitchcock, Setzer gave his new CD a story line, just like those downbeat, black-and-white movies from the 1940s and '50s where the antihero is double-crossed by a femme fatale. The result is the Brian Setzer Orchestra's "Songs From Lonely Avenue," which Surfdog Records releases Tuesday in formats that include vinyl and digital download.

"I love all those movies. And the soundtracks are just so great from those movies," Setzer said during a recent interview in his Minneapolis loft. "They've got a lot of drama to them. It's real cinema. It's just hip and cool."

Sitting on his dark-brown couch, Setzer was natty in a black suit and purple polka-dot tie and had coifed his signature blond pompadour.

He casually strummed minor chords on his gleaming guitar as he explained another song, "Trouble Train," which opens "Songs From Lonely Avenue" on a foreboding note with a frenzied roar of drums, guitar and horns.

"His friends are warning him, 'Don't get on that Trouble Train.' But he's on it, he's going down all the wrong roads," said Setzer, who celebrated his 50th birthday in April with a nightclub performance by his retro-rockabilly band the Stray Cats in Minneapolis.

For his new album's horn charts, Setzer turned again to veteran Hollywood composer and arranger Frank Comstock. The previously retired Comstock worked with bandleader Les Brown and singers Doris Day and Rosemary Clooney, and his TV credits include "Adam-12," "Dragnet" and the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.

Comstock scored Setzer's 2007 jazzed-up-classic-music disc "Wolfgang's Big Night Out" and the 87-year-old was up for another spin with Setzer.

Comstock said Setzer had just one instruction when he lured Comstock out of semiretirement: "I just want you to write that way you did in 1950."

"He said, 'I just want all these fans of mine to know, around the world, that there's more than two chords in any song,'" Comstock recalled Setzer telling him.

Setzer said he "just let Frank go."

"For instance, I would say, 'Why don't we put some flutes and clarinets in here?' And he would say, 'Yeah, that's a good idea. We haven't used flutes yet.' Things like that," Setzer said. Comstock eventually arranged horn charts for nine tracks on "Songs From Lonely Avenue," helping give the CD its swinging old-school vibe.

Setzer, who grew up on New York's Long Island, moved to Minneapolis about five years ago after marrying Twin Cities native Julie Reiten, one of his backup singers (she trades vocals with Setzer on "Gimme Some Rhythm Daddy.") Setzer recorded his new CD at a friend's Minneapolis studio, using local musicians.

"It's a music town without the attitude," Setzer said of Minneapolis, whose downtown skyline is featured behind Setzer on the CD's cover.

Setzer said he's up for playing again with his fellow Stray Cats, drummer Slim Jim Phantom and standup bassist Lee Rocker. But for now, he is gearing up for his seventh annual Christmas Rocks! Extravaganza tour, which starts Nov. 20 in Detroit.

Since the Stray Cats' 1980s heyday with hits like "Stray Cat Strut," Setzer has made a second career of big-band swing and rocking Christmas songs. He says he might try to sneak in some "Songs From Lonely Avenue" on his latest holiday tour but doesn't know which ones yet.

"You know I can't go from 'Jingle Bell Rock' to 'Trouble Train,'" Setzer said with a laugh.

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5 More Days-a-billy

an early review:
http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2009/10/sound_bites_ancestors_au_the_m.php

Brian Setzer Orchestra, Songs from Lonely Avenue (Surfdog Records). It's tough to tell if the tired edge in Setzer's voice is the natural result of so many years as a dynamic touring force, or an on-par inflection designed to complement these devilishly dark song-stories. Either way, the gruffness pairs well with the aerospace-engineering-tolerance tightness of the band, and the seedy underbelly of the noirish material.

Since the Stray Cats' 1980s heyday with hits like "Stray Cat Strut," Setzer has made a second career of big-band swing and rocking Christmas songs. He says he might try to sneak in some "Songs From Lonely Avenue" on his latest holiday tour but doesn't know which ones yet.

"You know I can't go from 'Jingle Bell Rock' to 'Trouble Train,'" Setzer said with a laugh.

I love the fact that this guy seems to have a great sense of humor, and I'm excited that we may get to hear some of the tracks live. I can't wait to hear the album in it's entirety, I'm giddy like a little school girl!

Great article, thanks for sharing!

hey guys dont forget the great video on that associated press article!

Thanks to Rick for the tip on the article, and also to mjcodina - I never would have clicked the link if you hadn't mentioned the video! (although on my 'puter, I could barely hear the audio - the reporter must have shot it with a camera phone or something!)

Great article and Video!

Thanks Rick!

Here's the video with clean audio:

Songs From Lonely Avenue

Album review: Brian Setzer Orchestra, 'Songs from Lonely Avenue'
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By Peter Chianca / pchianca@cnc.com
GateHouse News Service
Posted Oct 10, 2009 @ 09:21 AM
Last update Oct 10, 2009 @ 10:24 AM

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Brian Setzer doesn’t want your money. That’s the only possible explanation for all the banjo-plucking, yodeling, classical noodling and other activities guaranteed to keep his songs off the radio, not to mention most other places where people find music these days.

Setzer could have disappeared into the sunset after the Stray Cats went to that great feline rescue center in the sky, but he succeeded against all odds with his Brian Setzer Orchestra, first riding the unlikely swing craze of the mid-’90s and then with this decade’s Christmas records and tours. His most successful non-holiday effort remains 1998’s The Dirty Boogie, probably because that record stayed mostly true to his rockabilly roots while still swinging like a runaway big-band freight train.

Since then he’s experimented more – with hip-hop rhythms on Vavoom! (2000), and classical compositions on Wolfgang’s Big Night Out (2007) – and if record buyers haven’t responded as enthusiastically, Setzer certainly seems to be having a grand old time. But he takes a slightly darker turn on his orchestra’s latest, Songs from Lonely Avenue.

The first BSO album to feature all Setzer originals, the bandleader says he envisioned it as the soundtrack to an unwritten 1940s or ‘50s film noir – but listening to it, it’s not just a soundtrack. It’s the whole darn movie.

A trip down Lonely Avenue features gunfights, deals gone bad and at least one flirty moll – Setzer’s wife Julie Reiten, who on “Gimme Some Rhythm Daddy” proves herself as able a foil to Setzer as Gwen Stefani was on Boogie’s “You’re the Boss.” There’s also a thug who, on “King of the Whole Damn World,” spells out his tough-guy credo in a Runyonesque rasp. If what Setzer set out to do was create a smoky landscape of swinging toughs and jilted fall guys, he’s succeeded – in spades, as one of his characters might say.

Typical of Setzer, he’s most successful when he lets his Gretsch guitar do much of the talking, like on the steam-powered “Trouble Train” that kicks off the LP, and a pair of instrumentals, the smooth “Mr. Jazzer Goes Surfin’” and its hell-bent companion piece, “Mr. Surfer Goes Jazzin’.”

Setzer probably indulges his inner crooner once too often; “Lonely Avenue” is a fine misty wee-hours ballad, but “My Baby Don’t Love Me Blues” only accentuates the limitations of some of his moon-in-June lyrics. Turns out he makes a better Sammy than he does a Dean, as he shows on the bongo-driven two-minute swing rave-up “Love Partners in Crime.”

Setzer definitely benefits from the contributions of 87-year-old big-band arranger Frank Comstock, with whom he hooked up for Wolfgang. If the album lacks as many standouts as The Dirty Boogie, Lonely Avenue, with its darker arrangements, holds together better thematically – if Boogie brought the rockabilly power, this one brings a late-night swingtime mood that serves it well – more than on the group’s other albums, the band provides the shadings of a real orchestra, not just the bombast of 15 blaring horns.

Yes, I’m saying that Setzer can do subtle – he also shows that with the album’s closer, “Elena,” a beautiful acoustic guitar instrumental with more than a few nods to “Malaguena,” which Setzer covered in its full electric glory on Ignition! (2001). It’s a reminder that as much fun as his big band can be, a disc of Setzer guitar instrumentals would be a welcome next step for the rockabilly iconoclast. Who knows, it might even sell a few copies.

Not that he would care.

Another quick blurb about Lonely Ave, this one with a weirdly angled photo.

By JENNIFER CHANCELLOR World Scene Writer

Soooo, what did the modern-day big band man do when he wanted to re-create the sounds of classic 1950s film noir music for his new album, "Songs From Lonely Avenue"?

Why, Brian Setzer joined forces with the grandfather of the genre — legendary Frank Comstock, who wrote arrangements for Benny Carter, Stan Kenton, Les Brown and Judy Garland. Comstock also penned theme songs for "Rocky & Bullwinkle," "Adam 12" and "Dragnet," and recorded the 1962 classic cult album "Project Comstock: Music From Outer Space."

The album is due Oct. 13 from Surfdog Records.

The jump blues, rockabilly, swing and big band musician may be best-known for his work with the Stray Cats — but Setzer's work as bandleader of the Brian Setzer Orchestra has won him much critical acclaim in recent years.

The Brian Setzer Orchestra will perform its greatest hits and Stray Cats and holiday classics Dec. 11 at Windstar World Casino in Thackerville. For more information, visit his official Web site at tulsaworld.com/BrianSetzer.

Here's another short review. The source:

http://www.collegenews.com/index.php?/ear_candy/guide_to_upcoming_releases_for_october_13_2009101009536/
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Brian Setzer Orchestra - Songs from Lonely Avenue [Surfdog Records]

For all you hepcats and kittens out there, here’s something that really cooks. Yes, the whole retro big band sound might be long gone, but Brian Setzer doesn’t care. He’s still out there, giving his fans what they want. And, boy oh boy, does he pull it off. Songs from Lonely Avenue is described by Setzer as a “soundtrack to an unwritten film”. Listening to the album, you do have this feeling of an overall story arh. It’s not a collections of singles that are pining to get on the radio. You have to listen to the entire album in order to really appreciate it. Give it a listen. You’ll be surprised.
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"Arh"? Don't know what that is supposed to mean.

Okay, this is funny as hell.

"It sounds like the sun's shining down on the tourists at Disney's Noirland."

Yeah, comparing Setzer to Morphine. That makes sense. Hahahaha!

All That's Missing Is The Movie - the Wall Street Journal gets in on the act! (nice to see the comments from WSJ readers too...click on the "comments" tab above the article)

Brian Setzer's latest big-band adventure is dedicated to the shadowy ambience and threatening tone of film noir. When we met last month at his apartment here, he was dressed appropriately in a black suit, shirt and purple tie, but his welcoming smile and big orange Gretsch guitar were in contrast to the album's theme. So was the late-afternoon sun streaming through his living-room windows.

As for "Songs From Lonely Avenue" (Surfdog) by the Brian Setzer Orchestra, the titles of some of Mr. Setzer's 13 new compositions tell us what he was going for: "Kiss Me Deadly," "Passion of the Night," "Trouble Train," "Dead Man Incorporated," "Lonely Avenue" and "Love Partners in Crime." Five trumpets and five trombones ensure a thick blast of brass, and five woodwinds supply the warmth. Then there's Mr. Setzer's guitar playing, at least as supple as it was some 30 years ago when he fronted the Stray Cats, whose rockabilly foreshadowed his taste for '50s jump blues and swing.

Now 50 years old, Mr. Setzer insists his music isn't anchored to the past. "You have to create something new with it," he told me. "The Stray Cats weren't stuck in the '50s. My style comes out of rock 'n' roll, jazz, rockabilly, a little bit of country, blues. You mix it together and you toss it over to a big band. That's what makes it new."

The major influences on "Songs From Lonely Avenue" are the film-noir scores of Neal Hefti, Elmer Bernstein, Dmitri Tiomkin and Bernard Herrmann, he said. But Mr. Setzer doesn't quote those composers; the 1955 film of the same name may inspire his version of "Kiss Me Deadly," but nowhere does he reference Frank De Vol's score. His music conjures danger-wrought images in black-and-white: an abandoned alley, a frightened little man, a blasé woman, a snub-nose .38.

Of "Kiss Me Deadly," he said, "I was thinking of a femme fatale, a woman whose emotions were like the time of year." In the song, diminished chords usher in a romance that begins in April, but then the chill of late October arrives too soon. Mr. Setzer offers an ambiguous lyric in the final verse. Did the narrator kill her before she intended to depart?

In "Dead Man Incorporated," Mr. Setzer plays a crisp bass line and vibrating chords under the horns, suggesting a man fleeing the organization in the title. After two verses in which Mr. Setzer sings of the threat the narrator faces, his deft solo extends the "man on the run" theme. Following an abrupt tempo change, we learn the narrator has been dreaming.

"I was waking up in the middle of the night with these songs," Mr. Setzer said. "They were scribbled on a page or sung into a 1970 Sears tape recorder. I had to have a song about a dream." He explained that "thinking that I was writing a soundtrack freed me up. I'd love to do a film score. I did this backwards: I wrote the music without the film." Mr. Setzer's biggest asset on the project was Frank Comstock, the veteran arranger and composer who wrote big-band charts for Les Brown, Benny Carter and Stan Kenton and scored episodes of "Dragnet," among other TV shows. Mr. Comstock, who's now 87 years old, wrote the horn charts of nine of the disc's tunes.

Mr. Setzer said that "it all starts with a guitar." He picked up the big Gretsch and played the riff that kicks off "Trouble Train." "As I was writing, I was thinking in terms of a trio setting, but then I thought, 'No, this is for a full orchestra. Horns create atmosphere.' Once the song was finished, I'd give it to Frank. He's taken them to a unique direction."

Mr. Setzer says fans of his big band still love the Stray Cats material—"they even want to hear the B sides," he said—and clamor for his guitar playing. On "Songs From Lonely Avenue," he offers a pair of numbers, "Mr. Jazzer Goes Surfin'" and "Mr. Surfer Goes Jazzin'," that allow him to flash the many colors in his playing. Backed only by drums and bass on those tunes, Mr. Setzer references Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, Duane Eddy, Joe Pass and Les Paul to create distinctive sounds of his own.

He's committed to the Brian Setzer Orchestra, which he's fronted since 1993. "I've paid the band out of my own pocket," he recalled. "It's never gotten to the point where I couldn't pay the band. I've been able to give them bonuses. If I wanted to make money, I wouldn't start up a 15-piece band. I just do what I want to do."

Mr. Setzer will take the orchestra on the road to play songs from its three Christmas albums. He said material from "Lonely Avenue" would work its way into the sets. "Come and see us," he said as he fingered his purple tie. "We'll nail you to the wall."