Still no idols

"How much about me have you heard?" asks the former Bullet LaVolta drummer before telling the sordid truth. "I thought everybody knew how bad I was doing. I must have run into five different people on tour who looked at me and said, `I can't believe it -- you're alive?' They all assumed I'd died when I lived in New York." Such things happen when you've had a 10-year dance with Mr. Brownstone.

That was then, this is now, and Phillips is a card-carrying ex-junkie with a lot of musical turf to recover. So far, he's not doing badly. He's got his old job back as the drummer in Juliana Hatfield's band and will start recording her new album next month. And he's formed a band of his own; they'll make their live debut at Green Street Grill on the 22nd. So far the line-up comprises just two people -- him and Dambuilders violinist Joan Wasser -- but it's a serious (if unnamed as yet) project with label interest to match. Phillips was wined and dined by label folks in LA over the holidays, and he plans to have his now-finished album -- on which he plays bass, guitar, and drums, with Rich Gilbert and Hatfield guesting -- in the stores by late spring.

If, Dave Grohl aside, the idea of a drummer taking the lead also sounds farfetched, Phillips points out that he considers himself a better guitar player, and that he co-wrote a number of LaVolta songs. "I Got No Idols," on Hatfield's Become What You Are, was also his. He describes his new effort as "Gram Parsons meets Wire," though to these ears the downcast countryish feel of a three-song advance tape suggests Palace or American Music Club, and Wasser gets to play in a more traditional vein than she does with the Dambuilders. "It started out as my baby, but I was enthralled by what Joan added," he says. "If I ever get a deal, I'm giving her 50 percent of everything."

Now 27, Phillips was the youngest member of Bullet LaVolta, and perhaps the hardest hit when their 1990 RCA album Swandive lived up to its name. "It was devastating, especially for me because I was so starry-eyed. When you work that hard on something and it dies, your insecurity level goes way up." The death of LaVolta is still a sensitive topic for the members, who include Smackmelon leader Duke Roth, Chavez member Clay Tarver, solo rocker Ken Chambers, and singer-turned-drummer Kurt Davis, late of Kustomized.

"I had a drink with Kurt a couple months ago, and we were still getting all teary-eyed about it," Phillips says.

Does he hear a lot of LaVolta's punk-metal influence nowadays?

"Yeah, but I don't know if the world needs another Helmet record. When we were together it was different -- I remember playing one triple bill where Mudhoney played and we said, `God, we're so rock and roll compared to this.' Then Soundgarden came on and we said, `God, we're so punk compared to this.' "

He bounced back fast from LaVolta's break-up, beginning a tour with Hatfield the same week. Phillips stuck around for her commercial breakthrough before other habits got in the way; Hatfield fired him in '94. "She couldn't see me destroying myself anymore. So I was in New York, bottoming out as far as I could go. Two friends of mine died; the others were abandoning me one by one. I was so alone and I weighed 111 pounds. I called a friend at Atlantic, and within 24 hours I was in the hospital. As soon as I got there, I was thinking of ways to escape." Phillips has been clean 14 months now, and he gives part of the credit to his mysterious sponsor. "He's the leader of an important, seminal alternative band that I shouldn't name. I used to party with him but didn't know he'd cleaned up. When he first called me at the hospital, I thought he was going to help break me out."

Hatfield was among the first people he reconciled with. She was going through her own changes at the time, having abruptly pulled out of last summer's tour. "I can't say what was happening with her then, but I think she's more comfortable with me behind the drums -- when she's unhappy musically, it affects her entire being. She's very healthy and upbeat at the moment. I just got some new demos from her and they're very intimate, kind of hymnal-sounding."

He expects to stay with Hatfield full-time while getting his own band off the ground. "I'm just glad that I'm healthy enough to do this project. I think I'm like Pete Prescott or John Doe, the people who keep doing music because they have to." He's also moved back to Boston after a few years away.

"I went from the four-star-hotel lifestyle to working a little retail job; I started at Allston Beat selling clothes. And you know what? It wasn't that bad."

MIRACLE LEGION. Early last year, the Rhino label released a new batch of its new-wave nostalgia series "Just Can't Get Enough." Take a look on Volume 14, right next to such period-piece acts as Art of Noise, General Public, Murray Head, and Corey Hart . . . and you'll find "Backyard," by the long-running New Haven band Miracle Legion. "We didn't feel too good about it at first," admits singer Mark Mulcahy. "I mean, the company was okay except for Corey Hart. But we felt like, `Damn, we're being presented as something that was around at one point.' "

Still around and well, Miracle Legion are about to play their first local gigs in exactly a year, hitting the Causeway on the 12th; Mulcahy also plays solo at the Phoenix Landing on the 16th. The band's low recent profile is due partly to record-label blues: they spent most of a year getting off the floundering Morgan Creek label (which released their Drenched album in '92) and another year making a new album that they plan to release with money raised on their current mini-tour. Initially R.E.M.-influenced, Miracle Legion moved to a more personal take on rustic folk/pop mysticism. The Morgan Creek album found them rocking out in uncharacteristic arena fashion.

"We were out to not be a folk band on that album. The new one has a little of that sound, but it's a lot looser and a little bit more beautiful -- hope so, anyway. We'd like to keep this band going for a long time, like Pere Ubu or the Mekons, whom we feel a kinship to."

Currently Miracle Legion lead a double life. A fan at Nickelodeon brought Mulcahy in to write soundtrack music for the kids' show The Adventures of Pete and Pete, and most of the band appear on the show every week in the guise of the fictional band Polair (Michael Stipe, Iggy Pop, and Syd Straw have also been on the show). Now Polair are about to make their vinyl debut -- make that cardboard debut, since the record will be on a cereal box. "You'll be able to get it by buying Frosted Mini-Wheats," says Mulcahy. "I had mixed feelings, because that's about the most corporate thing I've ever seen or heard of. But really, you don't get a chance to get your picture on a cereal box that often."

RECOVERING. Laurie Sargent and Morphine drummer Billy Conway sustained multiple skull fractures and a shattered leg, respectively, after being hit by a speeding snowmobile in a sledding accident on New Year's Eve. A benefit show was held for them at Johnny D's last week; another is expected soon. Meanwhile, the Conway/Sargent Benefit Fund has been established for their medical expenses. Interested parties can contribute c/o Doug A. Jones, Cambridge Trust Company, 1336 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge 02138.

PIXIES REUNION. Not really. But this is a sneaky way of pointing out that three-quarters of that band was at least under the same roof at T.T. the Bear's Place two weekends ago. The Martinis -- the new band of David Lovering and Joey Santiago -- were headlining, and Frank Black was spotted in the audience. Not that a man of Black's stature in a small place like T.T.'s would be that hard to spot. Mr. Black was also seen at Charlie's Tap for the Upper Crust on New Year's Eve. His new solo album is said to be far more Pixies-ish than the previous two; it'll be out in early spring.