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In addition to their work with Eleven, Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider became a sought-after production team. They set up a recording studio at their home called 11AD; Eleven’s entire fifth album Howling Book (2005) was recorded, produced and mixed at this studio.
Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider worked with No Doubt on one of my favorite albums of the early 2000’s, Return of Saturn; Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic notes: “No Doubt’s desire to expand the emotional template of new wave is the perfect match for [Gwen] Stefani’s themes – she may be writing about love, but she’s not writing adolescent love songs. Fragments of her teenaged romantic fantasies remain, but she’s writing as a woman in her late 20’s. She’s tired of being another ‘ex-girlfriend’ – she wants to fall in love, get married, and have a family. It’s a subject that’s surprisingly uncommon in pop music, which would alone make Return of Saturn an interesting album. What makes it a successful one is that the band delivers an aural equivalent of Stefani’s lyrical themes. . . . Surprisingly, they pull it off – it’s a far stronger record than Tragic Kingdom, even if the catchiest numbers don’t have the same swagger and punch as their previous hit singles. So be it. With Return of Saturn, No Doubt have made a terrific, layered record that exceeds any expectations set by Tragic Kingdom. Not only have they found their voice, they know what to do with it.”
Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider co-produced the No Doubt cover of the Donna Summer song “Love to Love You Baby” that was included on the Zoolander soundtrack album, Zoolander (Music From The Motion Picture) (2001).
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Even considering that he is talking about his wife, Alain Johannes can hardly praise Natasha Shneider highly enough for her musical genius. In an interview that features technical talk which is a little beyond me (posted on ultimate-guitar.com), Alain Johannes was asked about Shneider’s essentially playing bass guitar on the keyboard with her left hand while playing regular keyboards with her right: “[P]eople would be watching us and she’d have the keyboard and I’d usually do a MIDI map of the two-and-a-half octaves and later on it became an Ovation Bass Station or the Wurlitzer. So that would feed into a bass amp and it was onstage and it was a huge sound with that Moog Bass in her left hand. She was so independent, she could sit in the pocket with Jack [Irons] and have a different pocket with the right hand, which was basically a second rhythm guitar and lead lines with me and then sing lead or harmonies as if there were three completely different grooves.”
Asked about specifically not wanting a bass guitarist, Alain Johannes continued: “Yeah, basically because her musical thinking on the bass was just so far beyond. Her mind was like [Paul] McCartney and if you listen to her bass lines, they have this contrapuntal and second melodic thing and the tension and release she creates against the chords are masterful. We were really into the energy of the three because Jack and I had known each other since we were 14 or 15, and Natasha and I were soulmates and at the time I was hoping lifelong partners.”
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In the same time period, Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider contributed to another of my favorite albums of the early 2000’s, Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age; Johannes co-wrote one of the songs on the album, “Hangin’ Tree” with Josh Homme. Alain Johannes played guitar and bass on the band’s next album, Lullabies to Paralyze (2005); he and Natasha Shneider were also in the touring band that supported the album. Alain Johannes apparently became an official bandmember in QOTSA for the Lullabies album; as best I can figure it, he basically replaced bass guitarist Nick Oliveri (who had also been in Kyuss with Josh Homme).
Natasha Shneider played keyboards on the Queens of the Stone Age track “Never Say Never” that showed up on a single and EP called Feel Good Hit of the Summer (2000); and also piano on “Who’ll be the Next in Line” that was on their album Rated R (2000). The latter song was also on a Kinks tribute album called This Is Where I Belong: The Songs of Ray Davies & The Kinks (2002).
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Additionally, Natasha Shneider played piano on the “Josh Homme and Alain Johannes Backwards Remix” of a song by Unkle called “Eye for an Eye” that appears on their album Never, Never, Land (2003).
For another Josh Homme project, Eagles of Death Metal, Alain Johannes plays piano and Natasha Shneider provides vocals (both uncredited) for the song “Who’ll Kiss the Devil” on their debut album, Peace, Love & Death Metal (2004).
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The formation of Queens of the Stone Age grew out of a series of pick-up concerts between 1997 and 2003 that were documented in a series of 10 albums called Desert Sessions. Josh Homme organized the concerts at a ranch near Joshua Tree, California after the breakup of his band Kyuss, and the rotating line-up of musicians who were in Queens of the Stone Age mimicked the large number who were involved in the Desert Sessions.
Josh Homme is quoted in Wikipedia as having said of the Desert Sessions: “At Desert Sessions, you play for the sake of music. That’s why it’s good for musicians. If someday that’s not enough anymore, or that’s not the reason behind you doing it — that’s not your raison d’être — then a quick reminder like Desert Sessions can do so much for you, it’s amazing. It’s easy to forget that this all starts from playing in your garage and loving it.”
Natasha Shneider provided vocals on “Up in Hell” on Desert Sessions, Volume 7: Gypsy Marches. Natasha Shneider and Josh Homme co-wrote the song “Nenada” that appears on Desert Sessions, Volume 8: Can You See Under My Thumb? . . . There You Are. According to the liner notes, Shneider provided “Foreign Vocals, Bass Keys, Rhoades, Stuff” for the recording of “Nenada”, where she is credited as “Natasha the Great”.
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Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider worked with Chris Cornell on his first solo album, Euphoria Morning (1999); they were also along on the band that toured to support the album. This is the only album that Cornell made after Soundgarden broke up, and before he joined members of Rage Against the Machine in forming Audioslave.
From Wikipedia: “The album proved commercially unsuccessful although the album’s single ‘Can’t Change Me’ was nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 2000 Grammy Awards. He also contributed the song ‘Sunshower’ (a bonus track on the Japanese release of Euphoria Morning) to the soundtrack of the 1998 film, Great Expectations; and a reworked version of the track ‘Mission’, retitled ‘Mission 2000’, was used on the soundtrack to the 2000 film, Mission: Impossible II.”
In 2006, Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider co-produced the debut album Wires on Fire by Wires on Fire, another hard rock band in the mold of Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal; Shneider provided backing vocals on the opening track “Death to Jeff Lynn”.
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Thanks to the good people who contribute to the discography website Discogs, I have information on dozens of credits for Natasha Shneider that show her becoming more and more in demand as a vocalist, instrumentalist and songwriter as time went on. Natasha Shneider provided backing vocals on the song “People Like You” on the album V (2001) by the alternative rock band Live; and on “Methamphetamine Blues” by the Mark Lanegan Band on their album Here Comes That Weird Chill (2003), as well as “Sympathy” that appeared on the 2014 Mark Lanegan retrospective album Has God Seen My Shadow? An Anthology 1989-2011.
Natasha Shneider shows up on even more records for her prowess on keyboards. In addition to the many songs that have already been mentioned, she plays clavinet on the Soundgarden song “Fresh Tendrils” from their album Superunknown (1994); harpsichord on the song “Guilt by Association” by the garage rock band Louis XIV on their album Slick Dogs and Ponies (2008); synthesizer on the song “Each to Each” on the Gutter Twins album, Saturnalia (2008); and Moog Bass and Synthesizer on the track “WYUT” – which Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider co-wrote with Natalie Imbruglia – on her album Come to Life (2009).
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Many of the songs that Natasha Shneider wrote or co-wrote have also been recorded by other bands and artists over the years; I have already given numerous examples. For the soundtrack album Spider-Man 2 (Music From and Inspired By) (2004), Jimmy Gnecco along with Brian May of Queen recorded “Someone to Die For” that was co-written by Alain Johannes, Natasha Shneider and Chris Cornell. Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider co-produced the song “Wave Goodbye” by Steadman for the soundtrack of the 2004 film New York Minute.
Natasha Shneider wrote and performed the song “Who’s in Control” for the soundtrack of the Halle Berry film Catwoman (2004).
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Natasha Shneider also worked as an actress, most notably starring as the female cosmonaut Irina Yakunina in the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey called 2010 (1984). In one touching scene, Shneider is shown in a clutch with star Roy Scheider during a particularly frightening part of the voyage to Jupiter. She also appeared in episodes of the TV shows Miami Vice and Hill Street Blues, sometimes being credited as Natasha Detente.
Somewhat ironically, a song that was co-written by Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider called “Time for Miracles” was included in the soundtrack for the 2009 disaster film 2012, as sung by American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert. Lambert also included this song on his album For Your Entertainment (2009).
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Natasha Shneider passed away on July 2, 2008 after being stricken with cancer. The news was first broken on the MySpace site of the band Sweethead; Troy van Leeuwen, who had been a second guitarist with Queens of the Stone Age, is a member of that band and had been a close friend of Shneider. As shown on Wikipedia, the post read: “Natasha Schneider [sic], musician extraordinaire, former actress, singer of the ground-breaking band Eleven, and one-time Queens of the Stone Age keyboard player, died today at 11:11 am of cancer. She was a brilliant, beautiful, and ballsy woman who will be missed deeply by all those who knew her. Send your loving thoughts her way in the universe.”
As reported on Wikipedia: “On August 16, 2008, Queens of the Stone Age performed a concert in celebration of Natasha Shneider’s life at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. They were joined on stage by Alain Johannes, Tenacious D’s Jack Black and Kyle Gass, Matt Cameron, Brody Dalle, Jesse Hughes, Chris Goss, and PJ Harvey, playing a variety of QOTSA and non-QOTSA songs. Proceeds from the concert went to defray the costs associated with Natasha’s illness.”
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There have been several posthumous releases of music by Natasha Shneider; some have already been mentioned. People in Planes included her song “Better than Life” on their album Beyond the Horizon that was released in September 2008. The song “Flow Like a River” (co-written by Alain Johannes, Natasha Shneider and Jack Irons) was included by the Gutter Twins on their album Adorata (also released in September 2008). On the song “22 Below” (Piano Version) by Melissa Auf der Maur, Natasha Shneider is listed as a featured performer (probably on piano); the song is included on her album Out of Our Minds (2010).
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FLASHBACK: The Under Appreciated Rock Band of the Month for April 2013 – LES SINNERS
Les Sinners is from French Canada and is best known in this country for a powerful English-language garage rock song, “Nice Try”; one of their French-language songs, “Sinnerisme” was also included on a garage rock compilation album that I have. They have released a total of 6 albums (mostly in French), and several of the bandmembers released two more albums under the name La Révolution Française. Even French Wikipedia has only a short article on the band that does little more than list the album names.
YouTube has “Nice Try” (audio only) at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnK31wgCGtY . Their French-language cover of the Beatles song “Penny Lane” can be heard here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaDlVJtDCjQ . A mind-boggling 91 videos of Les Sinners songs is available at this address: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jPq6V4cPrs&list=PLsuZiqyAOc0PUl3l5cKPSI1WpVp5TWFl8 .
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PICTURE GALLERY: The Under Appreciated Rock Artist of the Month for April 2012 – LINDA PIERRE KING
Linda Pierre King is a Texan folksinger who is sometimes backed by a rock band; I now have two CD’s of otherwise garage rock and psychedelic rock music that feature numerous songs that were evidently recorded by her back in the 1960’s. None were apparently ever released until these CD’s came out, as far as I know.
Someone put together a backstory for the characters in the Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do!. Some of the people were entirely made-up; presumably those are the ones who are actually in the film. Others are famous to one degree or another: Bob Dylan, Suzanne Pleshette, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Jerry Murad’s Harmonicats, Timi Yuro.
And then they threw Linda Pierre King into the mix – and that just isn’t playing fair. Neither one of the CD’s that I have provides any information to speak of about her. The liner notes in one of them describe her as a quintessential hippie folksinger, and the small picture that is included bears that out. Now anyone trying to ferret out information about Linda Pierre King has to get past all of the made-up story line about her hanging out in a Greenwich Village club called Beanie’s something-or-other, and then meeting and marrying the so-called King of Barber Shop.
I did find a tidbit on line that I will share with you about yet another Linda Pierre King song, “Autumn Leaves” that does not appear on either CD. I must say that she has an impressive list of songs for someone about whom no one seems to know anything.
“Linda Pierre King travelled through Texas and in 1966, recorded at Accurate Sound in San Angelo. Most of her songs were recorded solo, but on a couple, some of the Outcasts backed her up. The owner of the studio, Ron Newdoll recalled her as an attractive folk singer who recorded about 18 songs in his studio. Nothing of hers would ever be released though, until a couple of decades later. This version and complete session of ‘Autumn Leaves’ makes it here or anywhere for the first time. Other artists such as Nat King Cole also covered this famous ballad.”
This is the first CD that I got with Linda Pierre King songs on it:
This is the second CD that I recently picked up:
This is the small picture of her that was included in the first CD:
Here is another picture that purports to be of Linda Pierre King, though I am not sure that I buy that:
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STORY OF THE MONTH: “Scotch and Soda” (from April 2012)
Apr 2015 (II) – BLACK RUSSIAN (Part 2); Songwriting III (Partnerships)
