ANTICIPATED NEW SOLO ALBUM FROM FOUNDINGMEMBER OF THE PUNK BAND X

Of his forthcoming Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet, John Doe says, “This is not punk rock, but it uses all the same ingredients: sex, drugs, death, loss, longing and alienation.” The new album isn’t exactly blues either: although Doe says he aimed to make a recording Muddy Waters or Robert Johnson might like, and roughly the same list of “ingredients” defines their music. Like Doe’s body of work to date—his acclaimed solo albums as well as the landmark discography of his band X—Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet explores the artistic and emotional common ground between punk and American roots music. The new songs are at once simple and emotionally charged, achieving a deceptively delicate balance that defines the best of punk and blues. Yep Roc Records releases Forever March 22.
Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet features a number of the key players in Doe’s tight musical community. On “The Losing Kind,” he is joined by Dave Alvin and Grant Lee Phillips, who also sings on the tender “Twin Brother.” Neko Case duets with him on “Hwy 5,” a song Doe co-wrote with Exene Cervenka. “Ready” features Kristin Hersh on vocals, and on “There’s a Black Horse” Doe sings with Smokey Hormel on guitar. Also, making her singing debut is Doe’s daughter, Veronica Jane on the electrifying “Mama Don’t.”
Co-produced by Doe and Dave Way (Sheryl Crowe and Macy Gray), Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet was recorded over a two week period at Way Station studios in Los Angeles, CA. The album contains 11 tracks of original material including the raw elemental blues of “Highway 5,” the honest emotion about love lost and drug abuse expressed in “Ready” (an ode to Elliot Smith, Darby Crash and Jeffrey Lee Pierce among others).
Forever is Doe’s first album for Yep Roc Records. Label president Glenn Dicker has shared his enthusiasm about the signing: “Everyone here is a fan, so it’s a slam dunk for us, and we believe this is his best album.”
Doe has garnered worldwide acclaim for his recent solo albums that Entertainment Weekly calls “rip roarin’ and warm hearted,” Q deems “the tightest, finest and most morally acute music of the last 20 years” and The Boston Globe praises for “striking emotional territory…in line with what he has always examined in his best work.”
Doe will tour the U.S. in Spring 2005; an itinerary of shows will be announced soon.