John Kastner

Published By: RichardH DKastneyer
Skiddle.com
THE BOSS TUNEAGE RECORDING COMPANY?RELEASE DATE: 26th JUNE 2006
John Kastner is a busy man. Since moving to Los Angeles with his wife Nicole Deboer he has co-founded Cobraside distribution, toured and recorded with his band All Systems Go, scored film soundtracks (including Phil the Alien, the indie hit of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival) and written songs with numerous rock legends (Marc Lanegan, Evan Dando, etc.). Now he has recorded his first solo recorded, “Have You Seen Lucky”, which he describes as “a cross between everything I’ve done over the past 20 years. Alex from Rush plays guitar on it and Lee Ving from Fear sings on it – so it’s really all over the place. That’s my crazy 70’s upbringing in a nutshell”.
John was an original rock and roll kid. At eight he started going to rock concerts, Aerosmith, KISS and everyone in between, but when he heard the Ramones and Iggy Pop it was all over. John was only sixteen when he started a little punk band from Montreal called The Asexuals. Within a year of forming they had a single out followed shortly by a full length album, and tours of Canada and the U.S. One year later the band released a second record, but John quit The Asexuals and quickly formed The Doughboys, a band he would record seven albums with, and which would keep him on the road steadily for the next ten years.
On the Doughboys last tour, in support of The Offspring, Marc Arnold of the recently-defunct Big Drill Car played guitar. With their two old bands sliding out of the picture, John and Mark decided it was time for All Systems Go! After having done time on a number of major labels with the Doughboys, John decided to take a different route, and use his experience in the music business to take charge: “Now, I make my own records and license them to labels all over the world. The last All Systems Go! album was on Universal in Canada, EMI in the US, different labels everywhere.”
Growing half Ace Frehley and half Darby Crash, John Kastner is now doing it all his way, and his way is the rock.

Now Toronto
discs
JOHN KASTNER HAVE YOU SEEN LUCKY? (Boss Tuneage) Rating: NNNN



The affable dreadlocked punk from Montreal who fronted the Doughboys and All Systems Go finally goes solo, but not exactly. From the credits, it's obvious Kastner busted out the Rolodex. Everyone's here, from ex-Doughboy Jon Cummins, Alex Lifeson, Fear's Lee Ving, Jim Cuddy and Descendents bassist Karl Alvarez right down to buddy Evan Dando doing the artwork, and that's not even half the guest list. The helping hands don't clutter the end product, which sounds distinctly Kastner, with the remnants of his melodic hardcore days filtered through smartened pop structures. Hopefully, this presages more solo work from Kastner, though something tells me he prefers company.

John Kastner plays the Horseshoe as part of North By Northeast Saturday, June 10.
Jason Keller
NOW | MAY 25 - 31, 2006 | VOL. 25 NO. 39
Reviewed this wee






Wilrecords.com
John Kastner "have you seen lucky?" (Boss Tuneage)
Alors ce disque c'est la classe... Un album solo de John Kaster, chanteur du groupe All System Go !!! Il à fondé également le légendaire Doughboys et aussi The Asexuals (son 1er groupe). On trouve d’ailleurs Jon Cummins le guitariste des Doughboys. Il n’y a pas moins de 18 noms de musiciens !!!! Le monsieur est vraiment bien accompagné et on trouve même Alex Lifeson, le super guitariste de RUSH (une légende au Canada !) qui joue sur 2 titres. Ah ouais d’accord, il y a aussi Karl Alvarez, bassiste des Descendents ! Le monsieur, il se fait grave du bien ha ha ! Cet album est truffé de mélodies accrocheuses enrobées dans une ceinture d’énergie pure ! Je monte l'ampli et découvre des chansons dignes du plus grand Foo Fighters… Le power pop dans toute sa splendeur. Les compos sont également très étonnantes et par exemple sur "Brilliant People", j'ai l'impression d'écouter une chanson des Allemands de Scumbucket (au cas ou vous avez la chance de connaître ce groupe fabuleux resté dans l'ombre). En fait, c’est normal, on retrouve sur ce 1er album solo toutes les influences de John qui commencent forcément dans les années 70 avec Pink Floyd et peut-être Neil Young jusqu'à aujourd’hui (un côté parfois hardcore, des expériences Pop Punk et un passage vers les trucs plus punk rock à la Stooges). Difficile de retrouver tout ça dans ce disque. Je pense que nous avons a faire avec une œuvre très mature dans laquelle il est difficile de ressortir des noms tellement tout ça est bien digéré. Bien évidemment cette sortie restera très peu distribuée en France et passera certainement sous silence médiatique mais sachez que « Have you seen lucky » est une petite merveille et que j’ai de la chance ! (Chris) Contact : http://www.johnkastner.com/
GENRE : Power Pop

Translation:
John Kastner "Have you seen lucky?"
Then, this records is class... A solo album from Joh - RichardH DKastneyer