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By Don Sill Jesse Malin's artistic flare and unique vocals has made him a stand out talent within the trendy whirlpool of New York City's underground music scene. It was there he earned his stripes by singing for the punk/glam band, D Generation, and proved himself as a worthy front man whose poetic lyrics and gritty rock ambiance bled into his music. D Generation, best known for their hit single, "Helpless" which was featured on the soundtrack to the teen horror film, "The Faculty," formed in 1991 and disbanded in 1999 with a fabulous farewell show at Coney Island High. "D Generation was kind of misunderstood, but we had a good run and we are all friends and we did a lot of great stuff." Explains Malin, "We toured with Kiss and Green Day and all these great bands, but it was time to free myself from the situation and take my songs and go somewhere new." Now, two and a half years after the demise of D Generation, Malin has taken center stage once again with a new sound, a new direction and a new band. "I kinda felt that at the end with D Generation that it was time for a change." Says Malin, "I felt young enough to do a new band and I just wanted to get out of the pigeon hole with the hair-doo's and the shoes and do something more about the music and the soul and more about rock and roll." Malin found everything he was looking for and then some when he joined forces with former D Generation drummer, Joe Rizzo along with Quicksand Bassist, Johnny Pisano and Guitarist, Esko to form their new band, Bellvue. "This band is more musical, deeper, more about the lyrics, more about the songs, more about the sounds, it's more aggressive, it's darker, it's less of a punk-pop kinda thing. It might be poppy but it also has a real heavy darkness and a dissidence and a tribalness as well as a rock and roll thing. It was really time to do something new and fresh." After only seven months together, Bellvue has already been signed to Golden Seal Records and is prepping the release of their debut album, "To Be Somebody." This is a solid record that seems to be, in some ways, Malin's opus of sorts, a personal reflection on the days gone by and times past on that is written with such impact that hits the listener right in the soft spot. "Sometimes I just write stories about characters or about things I've been through or things I've witnessed, I believe that the audience can find a piece of themselves in it and relate in their universal way to my personal little scroll." Malin says, "Survival is a human thing, there is always stuff we get disenchanted with or things that inspire us everyday. I just try to find something to connect to and I think that expressing feelings of isolation or downtrodden type stuff and sharing those observations may help find a way to overcome those sad feelings and attack them. Music has always been a great way of uniting people to celebrate life." Malin writes of real substances and real consequences from his life and blends his thoughts with a raw rock and roll edge that fits naturally with his persona. As a music veteran, Malin has seen a lot throughout his years within the concrete jungle of New York's punk scene and the music scene in general, and has earned a unique brand of wisdom through his experiences. "I'm a lot wiser, a lot calmer and am really excited in a different way. Certain things I stop and enjoy because I don't take it for granted any more. I appreciate it more instead of pissing it away." He says, "I got better as a singer, better as a performer, I know how to work a situation that is tougher, and nights when things screw up on stage I know how to handle it better and not get as flustered." "To Be Somebody" begins with the track 'My Life' and that seems to be a foreshadow of what this record is indeed all about. "It's kinda my life and the people I grew up with." Says Malin, "When you get to a certain age and you hit a place where some people disappear and you break out of your circle of contacts and go into a different direction for good or for worse. And it's really about surviving those times and beating the bullet, ya know. Making it through all the punches that life has to give, cutting through and trying to keep a positive head, dodging the bullets, as simple as that sounds." Musically, Bellvue seems to be a bit more in tune with the main stream than D Generation ever was by coming through with craftier songs and catchier hooks, but Malin insists that he never intended it that way. "I don't think we're following the pack as far as a lot of the rap/rock stuff that's going on, ADIDAS music and stuff like that. We play from a real deep place, I don't think we're a metal band, I don't think we're a punk band, I think we're a rock and roll band and there's not a lot of that going on." Songs like "Faded Flowers," "Love Streams," "Solitaire" and "Sorrow" all possess the pop-rock cross-over qualities that the TRL hipsters eat up like pot brownies, yet still their music carries an edgy, grit that gives it that inner-city punk feel that very few can generate. One of the deepest tunes on the album is "Brooklyn," a very subtle and powerful dittie that has 'hit single' written all over it. "It's about what happened to New York City in it's current state, they've taken the city and made it less of a neighborhood." Says Malin, "So, the person who once moved to the burrows, like Queens and Brooklyn or Staten Island, and came to New York to be something because they had dreams are now forced to move. It's about a person giving up and going back to where they came from, back to what they always tried to escape and giving into it. It makes a lot of sense now because so many people are leaving the city because they can't live here and they have to go back to what they always wanted to get away from. I mean, It costs like a couple of thousand dollars to live in Brooklyn now, and there is a hipster rock club and a vegetarian store up the road, and they have everything that the hipper Bohemian cities offer, so it's kind of a reversal, it's all going backwards." The band also dedicated the track, "Sweet Talker" to their late-great friend and mentor, Joey Ramone. "(Joey) helped us make this record, he actually helped me frequence some of the tracks and really encouraged me to put 'Sweet Talker' on the record as he was in the hospital during his final days." Malin says with a touch of sorrow in his tone, "I wish I could have done more, but I didn't want to think negatively or I would've dedicated the whole album to him." Bellvue is getting ready to tour the country this summer in support of their debut album, "To Be Somebody," and have just wrapped up the Video for their first single, "Faded Flowers." The band has also been getting a lot of huge support from rock radio and is looking forward to a successful year. For more information about Bellvue you canlog to: www.bellvuemusic.com
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