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JESSE MALIN' S SUNSET KID S IS A LITTLE BIT C OUNTRY, A LITTLE BIT R OCK AND R OLL, AND FULL OF HE ART AND S OUL.
PLAYING MUSIC IS cathartic for me," Jesse Malin says. "I don't know where else I could go to get that feeling." He laughs. "I used to say, 'What else are you gonna do - rob a bank?'"
Malin views his line of work as more a calling than a choice, and true to form, the native of Queens, New York, is a music lifer. He began playing in bands at the tender age of 12, fronting the seminal New York City hardcore act Heart Attack, who were part of a scene that also included Bad Brains and the pre-hip-hop iteration of the Beastie Boys. Malin went on to experience mainstream success in the early '90s with major-label glam-punkers D Generation, and in the process he became friends with some of his idols, including Joey Ramone and Joe Strummer.
D Generation broke up in 1999, and a few years later Malin re-emerged as a solo artist, playing music in an acoustic, Americana singer-songwriter style that harkened to a different aspect of his musical roots. "In my teens, I used to busk with my acoustic guitar in the subways on 14th Street," he says. "I'd play songs by the Ramones and Dion and Johnny Thunders, and get some money."
As a solo artist, Malin has issued eight studio albums, several EPs and a live effort that find him, as in his subway days, accompanying himself largely on acoustic guitar. Sometimes he's backed by a band; other times, as on 2008's On Your Sleeve, he's returned to covering Johnny Thunders, as well as Elton John, Jim Croce and Bad Brains, or surrounded himself with piano and strings and duetted with Bruce Springsteen ("Broken Radio," from 2007's Glitter in the Gutter).
Malin adds another layer to his varied catalog with his ninth studio effort, Sunset Kids (Wicked Cool/The Orchard/ Velvet Elk). This time out, he was joined in the studio by Lucinda Williams, who served as both his producer and, on several cuts, guest artist. As it turns out, the two musicians go back many years. "I became a fan...