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"Our new album is done. It's good, but there's a difference in the sound and arrangement from the last two albums," said Alvin, who leads the band with his brother Phil, who sings and plays rhythm guitar. Other members of the band are John Bazz (bass), Bill Bateman (drums) and Gene Taylor (piano) The band's two saxophone players, Lee Allen and Steve Berlin, are not playing with the group on this tour. "We're on the road to get the band in shape and play the new songs," Alvin said. "We would like to have a modest hit … It's frustrating when you write a good song that doesn't get heard (on the radio), he reflected. "I wrote a song on our last album, 'Jubilee Train" that I thought would be on every truck-stop jukebox in the country," he said. To his dismay, it wasn't. Alvin, the group's primary songwriter, has collaborated with John Cougar Mellencamp on The Blasters' next single, "Colored Lights." Mellencamp is one of three producers the group used on "Hard Line." "I came up with the song and John came up with a better second verse," Alvin said of the collaboration. The Blasters have attracted favorable comparisons to Creedence Clearwater Revival, a pre-eminent American band of the late 1960s and early 1970s, for their sound and songwriting. Alvin's songwriting has taken on topics not usually tackled in rock 'n' roll, such as economic hard times ("Boomtown"), memories of the New Deal and the government's inattention to the problems of the working man ("Jubilee Train"), and the death of Hank Williams ("Long White Cadillac"). The group is branching out and made its movie debut this summer in the Walter Hill film "Streets of Fire." The movie, which is set in the future, deals with the kidnapping of a female rock star by a criminal gang and the efforts of an ex-girlfriend to get her back. The Blasters were featured as a bar band in one sequence of the movie, and Alvin said he enjoyed the experience. "Playing in a club with the actors was great," he observed. "It's fun and an easy way to make money." However, the film bombed at the box office and quickly disappeared from the theaters. "We're hoping it will do an 'Eddie and the Cruisers' when it appears on cable," Alvin laughed, referring to the renewed life - and booming soundtrack sales - for a rock film directed by Martin Davidson that similarly came and went. Ironically, Alvin had been asked to do seven songs for the soundtrack of Hill's previous movie, "48 HRS," which starred Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy. The movie became one of the big hits of 1982-83, but Alvin turned down the opportunity. The 28-year-old songwriter said he also has been doing recording work for other artists. He recently played guitar on sessions for Buffy Sainte-Marie and the Gun Club. And he hopes to play music until he reaches a ripe old age.
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