NOISE

What's been the biggest challenge for you since striking out on your own away from the major labels?

You don't have the deep pockets that you would if you were at the majors with a corporation. It does take money to be in this business, and it takes money to sustain it and keep it going. We have to be very careful about where we spend the money, which is good—it should be that way, anyway. If ever there's a problem, you just don't have that security of a big corporation's deep pockets. That's about the only drawback, to be honest with you.

You've had success in the past on rock radio and now you're expanding to other formats. Where do you think you fit in the musical landscape these days?

We're a rock 'n' roll band. We've always said that. What people put before and after that is their interpretation of it. It's just a shame that in today's world, there have to be so many subsidiaries of rock 'n' roll. It's just bizarre. We want to be exposed to as many people as we can, and whether that's the pop or ... I don't know where we fit. It's kind of hard to say. Wherever people will listen to us, that's where we'd like to be. To sit there and say we're a "Hot AC" band, it's kind of hard to say that when you see our live show.

You co-wrote some songs for the first time on this most recent album. Is that something you plan to do more of in the future?

Yeah, I hope to do it more with Joel Kosche, our new lead guitarist, I think. He had his own band from the Atlanta area. He was the singer and the songwriter, so I look forward to doing that with him. Also, for so many years it was just expected of me to do that from the guys. And now we've all grown and matured, and they've gotten comfortable with writing, also. I think the next record will have a lot more collaborations on it.

With all of the talk about China posing the next military or economic threat to us, one potential front has been overlooked: the cultural one. Case in point is the Twelve Girls Band. Inspired by all-woman ensembles who played to royalty during the Tang Dynasty, the group uses traditional instruments such as a 25-string gu zheng and two-string erhu to perform a classical-pop amalgamation that goes from Beethoven to Coldplay to Simon and Garfunkel.

Sounds harmless, right? But an in-depth investigation by the Weekly (which consisted of looking at the front and back covers of Romantic Energy and the press kit's enclosed postcard and 8x10 glossy) revealed a deception so calculating, so insidious, that it could only be devised by a communist country. There aren't 12 girls in the Twelve Girls Band; there are 13.

Calls to the Chinese embassy weren't immediately made so we can only speculate on what is behind this fraud being perpetrated upon the American public. In the meantime, watch the skies. Oh yeah, and go check out the band. They're pretty darn good.

Heavy Trash


Heavy Trash (3 stars)

Taking a breather from his 14-year Blues Explosion gig, one-time Pussy Galore scuzz-rocker Jon Spencer channels—what else?—the spirit of Elvis Presley for this throwback set of swampy, rockabilly tunes recorded with buddy Matt Verta-Ray (Madder Rose, Speedball Baby). It's all lively enough but only macabre elegy "Under the Waves" leaves a lasting impression.

El Pus


Hoodlum Rock: Vol. 1 (2.5 stars)

Like a cross between the Roots and Limp Bizkit, Atlanta quintet El Pus combine hip-hop and rock without resorting to rap-metal clichés. When leaders Cufi and Cosmo stick to straight-ahead hip-hop with live instrumentation (like the Roots), the results are often intriguing. But the more rock-oriented tracks (especially when the duo try to sing) are weak, and the overall effect is too schizophrenic to completely work.