With his salient credentials including Grammy for engineering Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather’s “No Substitutions: Live In Osaka” in 2002 and working on QUIET RIOT’s “Rehab” four years later, some people may forgiven for forgetting Neil Citron‘s work as a mastermind of BANGTOWER whose "With N With Out" was one of the highlights of 2016, and a multi-instrumentalist with a few solo albums under his belt. The latest of those appeared quite a long time ago, though, yet a follow-up to 2006’s “Flavored Jam” is finally ready to be out.
Planned for release on August 22nd, “Steal From Me, Dead 2 Me” – in the artist’s words, “an album with a collection of drummers who I’ve either played with in the past or wanted to but didn’t get the chance” – was written and recorded in late 2023 and early 2024. It finds the veteran on vocals, guitars and keyboards, with bass parts delegated to Jon Pomplin, whereas the skin-hitters’ roll call includes such luminaries as Virgil Donati, Tom Brechtlein, Van Romaine and Citron’s old friend Frankie Banali who sent his track for “Ride RV” to Neil three weeks before he passed away. All of this seem to promise rather technical results – only the first couple of songs which preface the platter sound tasty, to say the least. How did it come about and what do the letters on its cover mean?
“The title comes from a person I can’t name, but who did a terrible thing to a dear friend,” explains Citron. “All songs come from my travels and thoughts about things in this world that bother me. For example, ‘Ride RV’ is a song where I propose going out and seeing for yourself what’s what in the world in a RV, while Truck Stop Sally was a woman who I met in the road working and who was proud of making money no matter what anyone thinks. The initials are just that: a private list from my past.”
Steal From Me, Dead 2 Me
1. Medicate
2. I Will Be Free
3. Shallow Grave
4. She
5. Slam Me Hard
6. Together We Stand
7. Dead 2 Me
8. Ride RV
9. Truck Stop Sally
10. Please
11. Til Tomorrow
12. One Last Day
