Press & Reviews
Billboard
September 5, 1998
Block To Lead Glen Ballard's Java Into Market
What's percolating? Java Records, producer Glen Ballard's joint venture with Capitol Records, will give birth to its fist release Oct. 6, when the nascent label puts out "Timing Is Everything" from New York singer/songwriter Block.
Block, who, with his often spoken delivery, recalls Lou Reed, has been kicking around the New York scene for years and received deserved acclaim for his most recent indie release, 1996's "Lead Me Not Into Penn Station." His new effort is a witty, knowing collection of pop tracks, the highlights of which are the comical "I Used To Manage PM Dawn" and the sardonic "Cigarettes, Prozac & Scotch." Block will start a Northeastern residency tour Sept. 17 in Philadelphia that will include weekly gigs in that city, as well as New York, Boston, and Arlington, Va., and points beyond. The album will be serviced to college radio upon its release in October; however, a push at commercial radio will not begin until January.
Block first came to Ballard's's attention when the label head was looking for unsigned acts for the soundtrack to "Clubland," a movie he produced and wrote. Both engineer Chris Fogel and Java A&R exec Amos Newman were encouraging Ballard to sign Block. "I heard three or four more songs and said, 'Let's do it,'" says Ballard's. Block mixed and overdubbed a portion of the album at Java's on-site studios at the Capitol Tower in Los Angeles.
Ballard knows a first record from a label can set the tone for the company to the music community. "While I don't think one thing is going to stylistically represent what we do, this album represents the concept of us being involved in what is good," Ballard says. "I look at this release as one component of what we're going to be doing here, but in the truer sense it's all about supporting an artist.
"I hung out my shingle here to be a sanctuary for real artists," continued Ballard, who just finished working on Alanis Morrisette's follow-up to "Jagged Little Pill," due Nov. 3. "I wanted to create a place where they could develop, a place where they could access creative collaborations with me or anyone else here. And that's exactly what's happening. I want to continue to be an artist-friendly place that gives our artists a chance to communicate and reach a lot of people, while remaining true to what they do."
1999 will be a busy year for Java, with releases coming from Billy Idol, Terence Trent D'Arby, singer-songwriter Judith Owen, Boston-based group Splashdown, and, of course, Lisa Marie Presley, with whom Ballard is co-writing and producing. "She's got an amazing voice and a passion and intensity about what she wants to say," says Ballard. "[Making the album] is an act of discovery, but I know she has the goods and the artist's maturity. She's never wanted to tread on her name; she's wanted to wait, so we're going to take our time and make a record that says what she is."