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Sgt. Pepper's, dub style

Easy Star All-Stars add Beatles to reggae revision
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Who: Easy Star All-Stars

When: Friday, Sept. 11, 9:30 p.m.

Where: GLC

Cost: First 100 tickets $25, then price goes up

You can call them cover songs, but that doesn't quite capture the level of thought and production values that go into an Easy Star All-Stars project.

"Homage" is probably a more accurate description.

Last April the All-Stars released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Dub Band , the third in a series of reimagining concept albums after the release of Dub Side of the Moon in 2003 and Radiodread (a reggae-fication of Radiohead's OK Computer ) in 2006. All three albums have been well-received by critics and fans, and have been embraced by the musicians themselves. Pink Floyd frontman David Gilmour was a big fan of Dub Side and Radiohead used to play it before their shows.

"We try to have a sense of humour about all this stuff, that's part of making music for us, but I like to think that we go a lot further than that because we really respect the source material," said Michael Goldwasser, who plays guitar and produces the Easy Star All-Star sound.

It all started, like so many good ideas, with a casual suggestion. One of the founding members of the All-Stars, Lem Oppenheimer, was a big fan of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and suggested making a reggae version. Goldwasser embraced the challenge, putting a lot of other projects on hold to try it out.

"I set about coming up with a few basic arrangements to see if I thought it could work and we thought it sounded pretty good so we took it from there. I spent about three years on and off working on Dub Side of the Moon , working on it in a very freeform way because I'd never done something like that before," he said. "I knew from the start that it had to be good. Dark Side of the Moon is one of the most popular, most famous and most cherished albums in rock history, so we really had to nail it."

The success of that project left reggae fans around the world shouting for more and Goldwasser knew they had to deliver. The obvious suggestion was to do another Pink Floyd album like The Wall , but in the end they decided on Radiohead's OK Computer - another high concept album that revolutionized music and stood out from the crowd.

"We settled on Radiohead for several reasons," Goldwasser explained. "One is we liked the idea that Dark Side was a concept album and we wanted to continue that direction out of some cohesiveness, and OK Computer functions the same way. Radiohead is kind of a modern-day Pink Floyd in the sense that they're a progressive band pushing the limits.

"That was a very complex and difficult album, half the songs aren't in 4/4 time, there are a lot of different sounds and key signatures, so I knew it would be a fun challenge," said Goldwasser.

From there the next choice of album was obvious. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the "mother of all concept albums," according to Goldwasser, "and we knew that if we were going to do this as a series that sooner or later we'd have to tackle Sgt. Pepper's .

"It's a great album, one of the greatest albums with so many cool songs. The album is very different, Dark Side and OK Computer were all about minor keys, they're very dark and brooding, so it felt great to change it up with something that's more upbeat, more pop-oriented, with all the songs in major keys."

In many ways Goldwasser says that the band is trying to get back to the roots of music, when albums were more important as a whole than their individual songs.

"I love a good song, but what I really enjoy is listening to an album," he said. "I grew up in they '70s and '80s, and my early experience listening to music is putting on one side of an LP and listening to it and then flipping it over to side two. I feel sad that in this day of MP3s the younger generation doesn't think about albums in the broader sense. We didn't shuffle iPods in those days, we listened to entire albums. We work on things that people will hopefully listen to in the same way instead of picking this song or that song. It's really a music journey."

While the All-Stars are best known for their covers, they also produce original material whenever they get the chance. In 2008 they released an EP of original material called Until That Day , with one Radiohead cover.

In the six years since the release of Dub Side the Easy Star All-Stars have gone from side project to full-time job for a core of four original members and a lot of the other musicians that join the group for tours and recording sessions. They have traveled the world in wider and wider circles, and recently played their first shows in Moscow and Tokyo before launching a wider tour of Australia. They also played a concert in Italy for the annual Eurovision contest that was watched by 11 million viewers.

At their GLC show on Friday you can expect the All-Stars to mix it up, playing selections from all three of their homage albums, as well as original material. While he's busy as a producer, representing bands like The Black Seeds and John Brown's Body, Goldwasser says he enjoys playing live and being on the road.

"There's lots of good vibes out there and we always get a warm reception," he said, recalling their last Whistler show in July 2008. "It's one thing to be on the road in Europe or something, but we never forget our friends."

For more information on the Easy Star All-Stars or other bands on the East Star label visit www.easystar.com.