Dada dreamers

The Pixies return for a fall tour – 'It seemed interesting again'

By Chris Nixon
September 16, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

The 1980s stretched across 10 long years, a time when disco and glam heavy metal dominated the charts. But in the late '80s, the Pixies rocketed out of Massachusetts, blowing apart the money-grubbing hairspray posers and the limp balladry dominating the American airwaves.

Despite their short recording career (1987-1991), leader Frank Black and his cohorts churned out five of alternative rock's best albums. The Boston band's gigantic sound set the stage for the grunge revolution, which blew formulaic pop music off the charts for a few years in the early '90s. Nirvana, for one, often apologized for ripping off the Pixies.

DATEBOOK

The Pixies with the Thrills
6:30 p.m. Tuesday; RIMAC Arena, UCSD campus, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla; $36; (619) 220-TIXS.

But in the beginning, there was surrealism. And it was good.

Charles Michael Kitridge Thompson IV's tutelage at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst only lasted a year or two, but the future rock star discovered his passion for the surrealist masters during his short collegiate tenure. Thompson – later known as Black Francis and later still as Frank Black – had his head set afire with maniacal dada musings and surrealist images from the likes of Luis Bu×uel and Salvador Dali. The beautiful thing about Black and the Pixies: they didn't take themselves too seriously, but you knew they meant every nonsensical word.

"It's not like you have to sing a song about what happened to you on the way to the store the other day," says Black from his home in Oregon. "It's OK to make stuff up and rhyme a bunch of words and be crazy and weird."

The Pixies
Hometown: Boston, Mass.

The lineup
Frank Black (vocals, guitar)
Kim Deal (bass, vocals)
Joey Santiago (guitar)
David Lovering (drums)

Discography
"Wave of Mutilation: The Best of the Pixies" 2004 (compilation)
"Pixies at the BBC" 1998 (live)
"Death to the Pixies" 1998 (compilation)
"Trompe Le Monde" 1991
"Bossanova" 1990
"Doolittle" 1990
"Surfer Rosa" 1988
"Come On Pilgrim" 1987

"This ain't the planet of soouwwund!!!!!" yowls Black on the Pixies great 1991 disc, "Trompe Le Monde." The quartet did create its own atmosphere, weather systems and gravitational forces.

Joey Santiago's buzz-tone surf guitar renderings, Kim Deal's ethereal call-and-response with Black's guttural vocal musings and drummer David Lovering's pounding pulse held the maelstrom together.

In 1992, the Pixies' planet of sound fell silent. Deal went on to form the Breeders with sister Kelly. Black had his solo career. Santiago produced and performed in projects like the Martinis. Lovering became a magician.

But a chapter seemed to be missing from the Pixies' story. With a fall tour and rumors of a possible new studio album, 2004 finds the Pixies back to finish the book.

When asked why the Pixies recently rekindled the spark that started alternative rock, Frank Black simply says: "the dough." You get points for honesty, Frank. But to his credit he adds, "And the fact I suppose that it had been a long time since we did it. It seemed interesting again. Before, after five or six years it had started to become boring. Now, we've had this extended sabbatical and it doesn't seem so boring anymore."

Surrealistic pillow talk
Whether telling tales of monkeys ascending to heaven or expounding on the benefits of elevators, Pixies lead singer and vocalist Frank Black explores the non-narrative world of dada and surrealism in his songwriting. Here are the artists and musicians who made Black unreal:

THE DARK DIRECTOR OF MIDNIGHT MOVIES:
David Lynch

Black: "My influences primarily would be from the world of film. The most contemporary guy that had an influence on me as I started to write what was to become my first Pixies songs would be David Lynch and his most famous midnight movie 'Eraserhead.' He is what I would consider a surrealist filmmaker and probably one of the few out there right now. There is not too many times when I walk down to the mall, walk into a film and say, 'Wow, that was a truly surreal film.' So I have to give him a lot of credit.

THE CLASSIC SURREALISTS:
Dali and Bunuel

Black: "I wasn't a real good student and I dropped out, but I was able to extract a few things from that experience. When I was in college, I was into all the classic surrealist film guys, whether it was Luis Bu×uel or Salvador Dali. This is all pretty stock stuff. You learn about surrealist filmmakers from the 1920s and the surrealist art movement."

THE ROCK DADAISTS:
Dylan and the Beatles

Black: "I will give credit to Bob Dylan and the Beatles for being so famous and having such a huge impact on popular music. In the big mainstream kind of way, it was those two artists who really presented the world with surrealist images or a non-narrative type of rock lyric. It became just a part of pop music. Even before I discovered David Lynch, I was a little kid listening to the Beatles or Bob Dylan singing 'Quinn the Mighty Eskimo.' You know, 'Come all without, come all within. You'll not see nothing like the Mighty Quinn.' So it didn't seem unusual to me to incorporate that type of lyric. It didn't really seem wrong to me to pursue something that was non-narrative."

– CHRIS NIXON

With a highly publicized reunion at this year's gigantic Coachella Festival in Indio followed by a hugely successful tour, the Pixies seem to be firing on all cylinders.

Everyone's really enjoying it and everyone's playing really well," says Black. "Kim is singing really great. And I have had some voice lessons, so I don't blow my voice out as quickly as I used to. So I find it pleasurable to be able to keep singing the high notes. Everyone's a little bit better than they were before because of experience."

But will the Pixies return to churning out records a decade after turning the rock world on its head?

"I have no problem with it," says Black nonchalantly. "The gigs are still good and the couple of recording sessions we've had have gone really well. We want to be creative, we don't want to only make money."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Prototype vs. Posers

The face in the 'mirror'

For Korn's Jonathan Davis, introspection put the band on the path back to its roots

By Chris Nixon
September 2, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

Originators transcend labels. Metallica knew this. Nirvana knew this. And Korn knows this now.

While Metallica dealt with thrash metal imitators flooding the market in the 1980s and the media saddled Nirvana with the "grunge" moniker in the 1990s, the Bakersfield-bred quintet spawned a whole generation of rap-rock clowns miming the band's fierce music.

DATEBOOK

Projekt Revolution with Korn, Linkin Park, Snoop Dogg and the Used
Doors open 1:30 p.m., tomorrow; Coors Amphitheatre, 2050 Entertainment Circle, Chula Vista; $38-$53.50; (619) 220-TIXS

"We're not 'rap rock,' we're not 'nu-metal,' " says Korn lead singer Jonathan Davis from his Los Angeles home. "We might have invented a new genre of heavy music or rock, but I believe the term 'nu-metal' was made up for all the bands that followed us. Those guys to me are nu-metal. And we're just Korn.

"When Metallica came out, you couldn't call them a thrash band," elaborates Davis. "They were just Metallica. Tons of bands came out after them that sounded just like them. But they are still Metallica. And it's the same with Nirvana and the whole grunge thing. Along with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, they created a whole movement. They always come up with a word for it, but for me it's to label all the followers."

Bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit forged a new sound in the late 1990s, melding aspects of heavy metal, turntable scratching and rhythmic hip-hop-influenced vocals and grunge's introspective lyricism. Limp Bizkit came off as whiny; Korn was simply scary. With wild-eyed creepiness and bombastic guitar riffs, Davis and his compadres scored a huge hit in their 1994 double-platinum self-titled album.

Korn
Hometown: Bakersfield

Discography:
"Take a Look in the Mirror" (2003)
"Untouchables" (2002)
"Issues" (1999)
"Follow the Leader" (1998)
"Life Is Peachy" (1996)
"Korn" (1994)

The lineup:
Jonathan Davis (vocals, bagpipes)
Reginald "Fieldy Snuts" Arvizu (bass)
David Silveria (drums, percussion)
James "Munky" Shaffer (guitars)
Brian "Head" Welch (guitars)

– CHRIS NIXON

Despite the glut of rich suburban kids with backward baseball caps shouting about their pained existences, Korn continued to sidestep the posers with 1996's "Life Is Peachy" (double platinum), 1998's "Follow the Leader" (quintuple platinum) and 1999's "Issues" (triple platinum).

After selling almost 20 million albums in its first seven years, Korn decided to create a more textured, finely crafted album in 2002's "Untouchables." The album still went platinum, but fell short of sales expectations. With the rap-rock movement waning and more mainstream singer-songwriters such as Norah Jones, Dave Matthews and John Mayer retaking the airwaves, Korn's once-soaring popularity seemed on the decline.

With the band's most recent studio release "Take a Look in the Mirror," Davis and the band decided to circle the wagons and return to Korn's original raw sound. The album also marked the group's first self-produced effort.

"It was a total return to our roots, back to basics," says Davis. "We did 'Untouchables' and it went over everybody's head. So we went back to our roots. We said, 'Let's go back to what we did back in the day.' "

Give my regards
to Broadway
Growing up in Bakersfield, Jonathan Davis' first exposure to music came from the bright lights of Broadway: "The first thing that got me into music was probably Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Jesus Christ Superstar.' The music was amazing, so I loved it to death. Then it went from Andrew Lloyd Webber to Christian death metal, Skinny Puppy, Duran Duran and Depeche Mode."

Hip-hop, hooray

"From there I got into hip-hop, like in '81 when it first came out. In the early '80s I was into hip-hop for a while. It was pretty easy for me to get the early hip-hop albums, 'cause I was a DJ. I would spin and do dances at schools. I was really into it. I was listening to N.W.A., Rob Base, Eric B. and Rakim, L.L. Cool J and all of that old-school stuff. That's what I loved."

Confessions of a shock rocker

"I really didn't get into rock and heavy metal until just before I got into the band. I listened to Slayer a bit when I was a kid. Slayer and Pantera were the two bands that blew me away. Just recently, I've been listening to a lot of death metal, Cannibal Corpse and bands like that."

– CHRIS NIXON

Rampant illegal downloading of Korn's last two albums has also hurt sales. Though many artists encourage trading their music online, Davis' views have changed on the subject over the past few years.

"I'm not in favor of downloading," states Davis. "At first I was, because we don't make any money off of it. But now we're doing our own thing and we're working so hard on it. No one knows how hard it is to make a record. It's long grueling hours away from my family. I love doing it. Don't get me wrong; it's my passion in life. But when you work so hard and somebody just comes along and steals it? That's not cool."

With the music industry going through some tough times, 2004 finds Korn taking steps to reverse the trend. First the band is joining with Linkin Park, Snoop Dogg and the Used for the Projekt Revolution tour, which stops at Chula Vista's Coors Amphitheatre tomorrow. They are also breaking away from Epic Records, to self-release all future albums.

"Everything's changed. The music industry is dead now. There is a lot of (crappy) music coming out now. Downloading is kind of killing it too. (Record labels) are only trying to sign bands that are going to be one-hit wonders. The bands have a hit, sell a million records and then they can't deliver on the next one. They (record companies) stopped developing artists by signing a band, putting them on the road, putting the money into them and watching them grow. That's exactly what Epic Records did back when Richard Griffiths was president there. They believed in us and put us out there, and we ended up being one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

"We're putting out our greatest hits record, which is our last album for Epic," adds Davis about the planned Oct. 19 Epic release. "So we're getting off our label and we're going to put out our own albums now. It's going to be self-published, no label. So it's exciting times for us. Exciting and scary."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Swedish sweaters

'You're getting the good Swedish stuff'

By Chris Nixon
August 12, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

Since the insidiously infectious music of ABBA exploded into the worldwide market during the 1970s, Sweden's main musical exports have consisted of vacuous, flavor-of-the-month pop. From Roxette to Ace of Base, the Nordic country tucked between Finland and Norway historically has churned out Top 40 fodder whose credo is "all-style, no substance."

Underneath all the spangles and pomp of Sweden's pop exports, a real rock scene developed. The current wave of Swedish rock bands – including the Hives, the Soundtrack of Our Lives, Sahara Hotnights and the Hellacopters – shed the sugary fluff for more significant riffs, more substantial melodies and tougher lyrics.

Spanning the gap between shiny pop and gritty rock, the Cardigans opened the door for legitimate rock bands to find audiences outside of Sweden.

"I'm not saying we had anything to do with it, but it did seem that when we started to get outside the borders of this country – maybe eight or nine years ago – things started to change," says guitarist and primary songwriter Peter Svensson from his home in Stockholm. "More real bands started to be heard outside of Sweden, not just the record company product.

"The record companies are really slow and dumb. If one band is breaking or making it, they immediately start to look for similar things. There are a lot of great Swedish bands that have been coming out over the last five years. I think you're lucky, because you're getting the good Swedish stuff."

With breakout hits like 1996's massive single "Love Fool" and 1998's "My Favorite Game," the quintet cracked the American market with its sweet pop melodies and bittersweet lyrics. Accessible and challenging, Svensson's thick orchestrated compositions along with Nina Persson's sweet sultry vocals and tough lyrics combined for a potent songwriting duo.

After recording four albums and almost a decade of constant touring since its 1992 inception, the Cardigans was burnt out on the music industry and the expectations of being recording artists.

"We needed to take a really long break after 'Gran Turismo,' " says Svensson. "We had been touring constantly and making albums for seven or eight years. Before the break, we never really had time to just sit down and get distance from all the things we had been doing. It was like a train going really fast. By taking that break, all the members of the band had some time to slow things down and get a life outside of the band."

The media's tendency to focus on one band member caused problems within the band, but not the jealousy one might think. Being an attractive female lead singer fronting five guys, Persson received the majority of the spotlight when the Cardigans became pop stars. In reality, none of the Cardigans wanted to assume the band's leadership role when it came to media coverage.

"I think our problem is that Nina is not very comfortable with that situation," admits Svensson. "It's not like the rest of the band is feeling 'Why don't we get the attention?' I think our problem is that no one in the band really wants the attention. And Nina is probably the one that wants it the least. Whenever the band is in the spotlight, she's the one they're going to pull out and do separate interview with and separate photos. She really wants just to be a fifth of the band."

The members took 18 months away from the Cardigans to regroup before reuniting to record 2004's "Long Gone Before Daylight," a cohesive collection of 14 songs. The break allowed the band to enjoy the process of recording and touring again.

"I think when we got back together, it seemed much more sincere," says Svensson. "It was more important just to be really good friends in a band rather than trying to be a part of a crazy industry and trying to create singles and selling albums. We tried to focus on the stuff that made us start up the band from the beginning. So, it's been a little bit different this time around."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

One of my favorite bands

In the 'pressure' cooker

Cake has survived 12 years in the rock biz by letting its songs carry the load
By Chris Nixon
August 5, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

As popular music in America goes, nobody listens to lyrics anymore. A song's music serves as the lightning rod for screaming fans, radio play and subsequent critical and financial success. The hook counts for everything: a catchy melody, a fleeting infectious chorus, a gorgeous harmony, a bumpin' beat.

Enter Sacramento quintet Cake, brimming with clever lyrics and carefully constructed mini pop symphonies.

Led by songwriter John McCrea and crafty trumpeter Vince DiFiore, Cake continues to carve its own niche. After 12 years of existence and a major-label recording career over the past decade, the group lures new fans with each release.

Often described as sarcastic, ironic, satirical, sardonic and even caustic, McCrea's lyrics cleverly use metaphors and a sly tongue-in-cheek attitude to create his image of the perfect woman, tell stories of lost love and comment on the benefits of bench seats versus bucket seats in automobiles.

"I've heard other people describe it as 'droll.' I've heard 'self-imposed alienation,' and 'deadpan,' " says DiFiore from Sacramento. "It's really in the tradition of American songwriting, but after going through the phase shifter of the influence of the psychedelia movement. But I think John wanted to write a song that everybody would understand, with a format that seemed like there was a lot of sobriety involved."

McCrea knows how to turn a clever phrase. Consider this from "Open Book" on the 1996 album "Fashion Nugget": You may think she's an open book / But you don't know which page to turn to, do you?

And he uses the most American of metaphors – the automobile – to describe his calm exterior and his chaotic inner workings: I've got wheels of polished steel / I've got tires that grab the road / I've got seats that selflessly hold my friends / And a trunk that can carry the heaviest of loads – but under my hood is internal combustion / Satan is my motor, from "Satan Is My Motor" on 1998's "Prolonging the Magic."

Even though lyrics play a central role in Cake's initial appeal, the band's airtight compositions featuring interlocking pieces give the songs a longer shelf life in the ears of listeners.

"We realized that we didn't want to waste the listener's time," says DiFiore, who has been with the band since its inception in 1992. "If there's a good song, you make a tight arrangement for it and then you let it be. You don't try to add a bunch of excess that is going to take away from a simple statement."

Along with guitarist Xan McCurdy, bassist Gabe Nelson and drummer Paulo Baldi, DiFiore and the band fashion tunes drawing from sad pedal steel country, groove funk bluegrass and muscle car rock. DiFiores' trumpet playing adds another melodic line to Cake's songs, separating the band's sound from the pack of current pop bands with unique instrumentation.

"In the '70s, there were a lot of bands playing horn-band funk: Sly and the Family Stone, who we often reference as an influence, War, Carlos Santana," says DiFiore. "But there are also a lot of Spanish-language radio stations around here playing Mexican norte×os and ranchera music. I think it came from those two aspects.

"(McCrea) wanted to shy away from the saxophone, because the saxophone is too much of a fun, good-time party instrument and the trumpet is a little sadder. So that's why John recruited a trumpet player to play with him."

CAKE
Hometown:

Formed in Sacramento in 1992

Discography:

"Pressure Chief" (due for release Oct. 5)

"Comfort Eagle" (2001)

"Prolonging the Magic" (1998)

"Fashion Nugget" (1996)

"Motorcade of Generosity" (1994)

Touring Lineup:

John McCrea – vocals, guitar

Xan McCurdy – guitar

Gabe Nelson – bass

Paulo Baldi – drums

Vince DiFiore – trumpet

– CHRIS NIXON

With the new album "Pressure Chief" due in October, Cake seems to be hitting its stride in terms of its music and its success. The band's Saturday's performance at the Del Mar Racetrack (which coincides with the annual Microbrew Festival) marks the start of a new touring cycle, so expect a fresh set of tunes at the show.

Life on the road is tough for DiFiore. But as long as Cake deals with the glare of the spotlight, the stormy nature of touring and internal strife, the band will keep at it: "Being a touring rock band is part traveling salesman and part fisherman. Sometimes I think I'm in 'Death of a Salesman,' I think of the dudes who were out in the boat in 'The Perfect Storm' and I think of being an adolescent. So we'll keep at it as long as we can deal with the tug of those dark themes."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

The gospel according to Randolph
The pedal steel wizard tries to bring 'this joy to the mainstream musical world'
By Chris Nixon
July 29, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

Robert Randolph lived in two different worlds growing up. During the week, he ran in the roughneck streets of urban New Jersey, a world where gunshots were the final word. But come Sunday, he clapped his hands and sang along with the rest of the congregation to celebrate at the African-American Pentecostal House of God church. In his Christian world, the word of God and the slide guitar had the final say.

"It was a pretty tough life growing up, which it is for anybody growing up in an inner-city environment," says Randolph, reflecting on his years as a young man in the city. "As a teenager, I got into some pretty tough situations. There were a bunch of incidents: losing friends, losing different family members. After time, things started to build up for me, and it made more sense not to be involved with those things.

"Luckily for me, I got into music. It kept me off the streets."

After leaving behind the thug life, Randolph focused his efforts on learning the 13-string pedal steel, an instrument normally associated with Hawaiian slack key music or honky-tonk country.
The young musician followed a long tradition of pedal steel playing in the House of God church, an institution often referred to as "Sacred Steel." Randolph became a prodigy, joining fiery gospel fervor with the bluesy licks of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix.

"For me being able to play music in church, first you develop this relationship (between music and religion)," says the 26-year-old pedal steel master. "Music is always to be played from the heart to form a connection with the listener, to really dig down deep within yourself and really express your feelings musically, to make that connection.

"You have a lot of people who have been taught music, who have been taught by a teacher, who have been all about the musical notes. Some of those people have a really hard time connecting with the audience or the listener. Growing up in church and having a different outlook on life allowed me to have that advantage over some artists out there."

His gifts as an emotional performer have served Randolph well. While working at a New York City law office as a paralegal, a bootlegged tape of one of Randolph's performances reached the ears of keyboardist John Medeski of Medeski Martin and Wood.

With the North Mississippi Allstars, Medeski and Randolph teamed up for the 2001 project titled "The Word." Combining the ever-experimental world of Medeski, the roots rock of the Mississippi band and the hallelujah shimmy shake of Randolph's Sacred Steel background, "The Word" produced a buzz among critics and brought Randolph's pedal steel playing to the mainstream's ears for the first time.

A virtuoso's faves
Robert Randolph knows his pedal steel history. When asked
about the greatest players of all-time, the 26-year-old virtuoso immediately
gave a shout-out to his three favorites:

Calvin Cooke: Born in 1944 in Cleveland, Cook is part of the long line of great pedal steel players emerging out of joyous church jams and gospel music. His big expressive voice has won him the moniker "the B.B. King of gospel pedal steel guitar." Says Randolph: "He comes out of the scared steel tradition. He's so soulful."

Julian Tharpe: Nashville session man Tharpe may have backed country stars like Ray Price and Barbara Mandrell, but he also created highly regarded crossover albums like "The Jet Age." Tharpe was also known for the unusual choice of playing a 14-string pedal steel. Randolph says: "He's an old school, jazzy pedal steel player. He's amazingly cool."

Buddy Emmons: This Nashville elite pedal steel player performed with everyone from Ernest Tubbs to Roger Miller to the Everly Brothers. Randolph says: "Buddy's the all-time country great. He was the first guy to really play in that whole context that you hear down in Nashville. He is
the all-time greatest on that thing."

When asked how he'd be considered alongside the trio, Randolph said: "I just need to continue to be original and come up with my own ideas. Those guys, they had their own tone. Great musicians. A great musician is someone who is completely unique and plays with all the heart and soul they have. That's where I want to be."
– CHRIS NIXON

Randolph rode the wave of notoriety by releasing "Live at the Wetlands" on his own Dare label in 2002, where he performed with cousins Marcus Randolph (drums) and Danyel Morgan (bass), now known as the Family Band.

"Mainly, what I try to do (in my live shows) is bring this positive, party life vibe of joyous singing and dancing together," says Randolph, talking from Milwaukee on tour with Eric Clapton. "It's really different from a lot of young black musicians today. Bringing this joy to the mainstream musical world is what I've been trying to do. And it's been going over really well. Somebody has to do it."

So how do you translate the live energy to a sterile studio environment? Randolph and the Family Band (which now includes Jason Crosby on Hammond B-3 organ, piano and violin) faced the challenge in the recording sessions for 2003's "Unclassified." The album's clap-your-hands, stomp-your-feet mentality perfectly captures the band's live shows.

Says Randolph: "We try and bring forth enough energy so if somebody's listening, they feel like they're in the room with us. That's what we try and create when we go into the studio.

"This Clapton tour we're on right now has catapulted us into the next level of respectability by musicians and audiences. It's a great, great thing to be playing with Clapton. He's the nicest guy. Everyday, I'm getting to talk to him and at the end of the show every night we come out and jam together. So it's really amazing."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Gomez in the U-T

Gomez invites you into its garage
By Chris Nixon
Special to the Union-Tribune
July 22, 2004

Standing in a vast sea of automobiles and pavement, musician Ben Ottewell pokes fun at himself and the less-than-idyllic surroundings he finds himself in. Calling from a pay phone in a Seattle parking lot, Ottewell states in a deadpan English accent: "Now, this is the glamorous rock 'n' roll lifestyle."

Ottewell and the five-piece British band Gomez may have not traded up from parking lots to palatial hotel suites, but the group's retro-pop sound and electronic experimentations have poised the five Brits on the brink of mainstream American recognition.

British music fans have long been hip to Gomez. With its refined take (adding splashes of cellos, electronic beats or mellow horns) on boogie blues, roots rock and pop harmonies, the quintet scored a major-label deal without ever playing a live show. Ottewell and his mates – Tom Gray (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Paul Blackburn (bass, guitar), Olly Peacock (drums) and Ian Ball (vocals, guitar, harmonica) – created a masterpiece of pastiche rock by simply huddling in their cramped garage in a small town outside Liverpool.

"We had recorded the album already, but we did go to a studio to make it a bit more sparkly (after we got the deal). We created the first record in the garage really, not a studio," said Ottewell. "We don't sound like most of them at the moment, but we are truly a garage band."
Gomez's 1998 debut disc, "Bring In On," garnered the band the prestigious Mercury Prize, beating out the Verve, Cornershop, Robbie Williams and Massive Attack's classic "Mezzanine" album. Ottewell's gravelly vocals combined with the band's bluesy atmospherics and airy instrumentation set Gomez apart from the glut of retro Brit-rock bands coming out of Europe in the late 1990s. The 1998 album "Liquid Skin" found the five-piece delving into electronics even further, anchored by the songwriting talents of Ottewell, Gray and Ball.

Too many songwriters in one band can lead to friction, but Gomez members seem to keep their heads about them when deciding which songs make the cut for a record.

"Sometimes people in the band hit on a golden period in their writing; it kind of ebbs and flows like that," said Ottewell. "And we're not too precious about it either, which is good. It just naturally evolves from which songs people are getting most excited about or getting the best inspiration from."

the buzz > > > > > > > >

Hometown: Southport, England

Discography

"Split the Difference" – 2004

"In Our Gun" – 2002

"Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline" – 2000, B-sides and rarities

"Liquid Skin" – 1999 "Bring It On" – 1998

Lineup

Ben Ottewell – vocals, guitar

Tom Gray – vocals, guitar, keyboards

Paul Blackburn – bass, guitar

Olly Peacock – drums

Ian Ball – vocals, guitar, harmonica

Gomez followed the one-two punch of its first two albums by taking some time away from the road. During the hiatus, the band released "Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline" in 2000, a collection of B-sides and rarities. They also crafted the brilliant studio album "In Our Gun," a rambling collection of electronic blues songs and acoustic ballads. Much like Beck's "Mellow Gold" and subsequent albums, Gomez seems to capture the essence of bluesy acoustic music while stretching the boundaries with modern studio tactics and clever instrumentation.
"When we did 'In Our Gun,' we hadn't played live for a long time," said Ottewell. "So I think what we got out of that was a more 'studio' record. So it's more ephemeral. It's more of an introverted record."

This year, with Gomez's "Split the Difference," the band's rash of tours in the months before hitting the studio was reflected in the recording process. The live influence can be heard throughout the album, giving the album less of a knob-twiddling studio feel and more of an upfront live sound: "This one is coming straight off the road, so it makes sense for us to sound a little more live. It's more of a rock record, as far as we can be a rock band."

The British group seems to have found its muse in producer Tchad Blake (Los Lobos, Soul Coughing, Travis), keeping the album more cohesive than previous efforts. The album helped Gomez score a spot on this year's Lollapalooza. But the legendary touring festival closed shop after just a few weeks after the tour was announced, citing poor ticket sales.

"When we first heard about it, we were devastated," continued Ottewell, who will play the intimate environs of the Belly Up Tavern tomorrow night. "I think we're hitting most of the places we were going to be hitting for Lollapalooza. The Thrills are supporting us, and they were also going to be out on the road with Lollapalooza. It should be a fun tour. It just gave us a chance to put together Gomezapalooza."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Warped Religion

Just got back from a few weeks in the High Sierras. Here's the Bad Religion/Warped Tour preview I put together for the Union-Tribune:

So happy together

Bad Religion, Vans Warped Tour make a fine pairing

By Chris Nixon
July 1, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

Bad Religion's Brian Baker and the Vans Warped Tour have been living parallel existences for the past decade.

Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman gave birth to the annual punk rock summer camp 10 years ago. The former Minor Threat and Dag Nasty guitarist Baker joined Bad Religion 10 years ago. Both epitomize punk's explosion since 1994, allowing the music to reach new ears without giving up its political conscience and the central tenants of the genre's aesthetic.

"(The Warped Tour) is a main reason punk rock has become an accredited musical genre," says Baker from his home in Washington, D.C. "You can walk into a mall (record shop) and there's a punk section, like there's an R&B section and a gospel section. You're dealing with a tour that can draw 20,000 to 30,000 people in any city."

The Warped Tour continues to book a cutting-edge blend of young-blood punks and old schoolers, with a splash of indie hip-hop.

And Warped has been a significant help to the career of Bad Religion.

The 13th album by the Los Angeles-based sextet – titled "The Empire Strikes First," commenting on the U.S. actions in Iraq – features songs penned by singer Greg Graffin and guitarist Brett Gurewitz. The duo wrote together during Bad Religion's early days. In 1994, Gurewitz left the band to concentrate on his successful label, Epitaph Records.

Bad Religion brought in Baker to beef up the band's sound in the 1990s. In 2001, Gurewitz rejoined the group for "The Process of Belief." The effort reunited Gurewitz and Graffin, a potent writing combo.

"When those two are on and together, working with and against each other, I think the music that comes out of them is absolutely spectacular," says Baker, who has a 24-year punk-rock resume. "The great albums come from Brett and Greg's dynamic. You remain relevant if you do something people think has value."

The Warped Tour continues to reinvent itself, adding little-known and local acts while bringing in punk's top echelons to draw the crowd. Lyman and the tour have also included up-and-coming hip-hop artists over the years, despite criticism from hardcore punk rockers.

"A lot of very relevant acts, from Black Eyed Peas to Jurassic 5 to Eminem to Ice-T to Kool Keith, they've all been on the Warped Tour," says Lyman, who once worked for San Diego's Bill Silva, along with Los Angeles promoters Goldenvoice and Perry Farrell's Lollapalooza Tour in its infancy. "There's a lot of that cool, underground hip-hop going on at the Warped Tour, but we're not out to force it down people's throats. I think if I stay with the roots (of punk) and put this stuff in as an addition, the kids will accept it more.

"Way back when, blink-182, nobody knew who they were. And they started on the Warped Tour."

So how does a tour, advertising itself as a bastion of punk rock, remain true to the roots of the punk-rock lifestyle? Like much of modern life, it involves compromise. Lyman promotes a controlled form of sponsorship, weaning a tour's needs from advertising dollars.

The Warped Tour continues to draw thousands, while Bad Religion continues to crank out pertinent political punk rock. So when does one get too old to be a punk? Lyman and Baker prove it's the mentality and not the mileage that punk music is all about.

"I think it's a good thing for kids, and I think it's a good thing for our scene," says Lyman. "Everyone will let me know when it's time to end."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Sole-less America

Here's the Local H preview which ran in the San Diego Union-Tribune's Night&Day section on Thursday, June 10, 2004:

POP MUSIC
Local H gets right to the 'Soles' of the matter

By Chris Nixon
June 10, 2004

'It's 1980. Welcome to Rock 'n' Roll High School," says an announcer during the preview for the cult film, starring legendary punks the Ramones. "Rock 'n' Roll High School, the school where the students rule."

Like most 1980s party films ("Up the Creek," "Hot Dog ... the Movie"), "Rock 'n' Roll High School's" simplistic plot revolves around sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Starring actress P.J. Soles as Riff Randell, one student's love for the Ramones incites general anarchy among the student body of Vince Lombardi High School. Randell battles the evil new principal, Miss Evelyn Togar, finally blowing up the school with the help of Joey and the rest of the Ramones.

For the Chicago-based duo Local H, the fascination with Soles stems from her roles in numerous classic films from the late 1970s and early '80s: "I've seen 'Halloween' a million times," said singer Scott Lucas during a recent interview from his home in the Windy City. " 'Rock 'n' Roll High School' has always been a favorite of ours. . . . I realized: She is in all of these movies that I grew up on and have seen a million times.

"(Soles) always seemed to be around in all these movies that have been really important to me. They're not the American Film Institute's Top 100 of anything, yet they're really important to me."

With its 2004 album, "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?," Local H ponders the fate of Soles and the fleeting nature of stardom.

Emerging from Chicago's Zion neighborhood, guitarist-singer Lucas and drummer Brian St. Clair prove the adage "less is more," discovering that the sum of two is greater than four. After creating Local H as a traditional four-piece band, Lucas had an epiphany: He could play the bottom strings of his guitar through a bass pickup, allowing him to play guitar and bass parts through one instrument.

So Local H was born as a power rock duo.

Since flirting with mainstream success in the mid-'90s (warming up for bands like Stone Temple Pilots and Veruca Salt), Lucas and St. Clair have maintained a devout underground following. Banking on the 1996 breakout single "Bound for the Floor," the press saddled Local H with the albatross moniker of "grunge."

For the past decade, the pair continued to merge post-grunge rock and catchy choruses with a tip of the cap to Nirvana, S.T.P. and Soundgarden. Despite such high-quality albums as 1998's "Pack Up the Cats" and 2002's "Here Comes the Zoo," Local H still struggles to escape the grunge tag.

"The big trick with us was trying to survive that whole mid-'90s kind of thing, just try to get out of it with our dignity intact," said Lucas.

In April, Local H released "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?" with songs dealing with pop culture and the misconceptions fed by the retro VH-1 culture and America's numerous makeover shows. The opening track, titled "Where Are They Now?," begins with Lucas screaming You're never, you're never, you're never going to get it.

To obtain the album's roughed-up sound, Lucas felt obliged to mangle his vocal chords before each take for "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?"

"Before we'd record a song (for the last record), I'd stand in the corner and scream my head off," says Lucas in a gravelly voice. "I'd just try and cash my voice out until it was 70 percent gone, then do the vocal. If you listen to a song like 'Halcyon Days,' my voice is almost completely gone, and that's probably my favorite vocal on the record."

Lucas finishes the thought by giving props to an unlikely source: "I think Rod Stewart is probably the best singer of all time. How does he do it? He always sounds like he's got laryngitis. It's great."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Here's a recent SignOn profile I wrote on Courtney Love and her upcoming show at 4th & B. Click on the screen shot to view the full page. 

Nixon at the tables during a house party at our San Diego pad.