Orchestra-lite

Crown Electric Company do the love thing

by Brett Milano

I can't say for sure what you heard at midnight last New Year's Eve. But if you were at Charlie's Tap in Central Square, what you heard was "Auld Lang Syne" rendered in a '70s funk style. Then you heard it again. And again. In fact, the band on stage played the song five times in a row. Typical behavior for Crown Electric Company, a band who hate to settle for having just a little fun.

Founded by the husband/wife team of Wayne and Linda Viens (formerly Wayne Podworny and Linda Price, respective frontpeople of Valdez the Sinner and the Children of Paradise), Crown Electric Company are a good example of what can happen when local-scene veterans stop gunning for a record deal and start playing exactly what feels good. (Their name, by the way, is a great in-joke that you'll recognize if you're up on Elvis Presley history.) An 11-member band with four singers and impeccable fashion sense, Crown are the best and only local group specializing in obscure '70s dance covers. They insist they're funk rather than disco, but you'll probably hear equal elements of George Clinton and Disco Tex & the Sex-o-Lettes. The musicianship is for real -- sax ace Ken Field and guitar hero Rich Gilbert (on keyboards) are in the line-up -- but there's a healthy sense of camp. It's hard to see a '70s band fronted by a husband/wife team with a sexy/goofy repartee and not think just a little of Sonny and Cher.

So far Crown have almost avoided the usual career moves of releasing tapes and playing clubs -- their new CD single, "Party Is a Groovy Thing" (a song taken from an old People's Choice album), is the first thing they've put out after four years. And they usually skip clubs for alternative venues; for a time their home base was the VFW Hall in Porter Square. Now that that's closed down, they're doing a February 15 show at the Green Street VFW, 288 Green Street in Central Square; they intend to play there every two months. They're also booked into the Middle East on the 28th.

"We wanted to approach playing from a different angle -- having parties for our friends, basically," Wayne says. "If you play a place like the VFW," Linda adds, "you can control the money, you can control the energy of the room, and you can play two hours instead of 35 minutes. To me the energy isn't fresh in the clubs anymore, and my peers have been going out for 20 years or so. We wanted our gigs to be more like sock hops, to have that kind of innocence. We have the sense of being a hometown theater troupe."

Crown Electric are as obsessed with '70s dance music as, say, BR5-49 are with hillbilly oldies, and the underlying philosophy sounds pretty good in these cynical times. "We play off the fact that Linda and I are married," Wayne points out. "That's a positive message, being in a relationship and staying together."

"We're not afraid to be over-the-top silly," Linda adds. "For instance, the girls [back-up singers Denise DeZito and Carolyn Kaylor] want to do something with plastic fruit for the next gig. But we're not a joke band -- we do give it to the people, we lay down a serious groove. I'd say our philosophy is to get a diverse audience together and get a tribal thing happening; as P-Funk said, one nation under a groove. The band reflects the relationships we have with each other, and we've got a serious love thing going on."

SECOND BRENNAN

Dennis Brennan has written many kinds of songs in his time, but the happy love song was never one of them. On his second solo album, Iodine in the Wine (Upstart/Rounder), the former Push Push frontman finally takes the plunge. Of course, "The Pill of Love," a countryish tune on which Jenifer Jackson duets, wouldn't fit most people's ideas of a sweet romantic sentiment -- not unless that involves the singers asking questions like "If I sign your prenuptial agreement, will you hate me less in the end? If you turn your back on me for a minute, will I make a pass at your best friend?" It's typical of the smart, jaded, survivor-like tone that you'll find in much of Brennan's songwriting. He'll celebrate the album's release tonight (Thursday) with a gig at Johnny D's. One of the album's guests, ex-Story member Jennifer Kimball, opens.

"There are a few hopeful things on this album, but most of it is the usual `ass-backward look at life' thing," Brennan explains. "The title song kind of sums things up by saying that you don't have anyone to blame but yourself, that we make the bed we sleep in. It's just approaching life realistically, that's all." The above-quoted song starts by name-checking a bunch of writers who've championed love as a grand concept -- Carole King, Andy Partridge, Cole Porter -- before Brennan takes his own nitty-gritty view of things.

"I was thinking about how nobody writes songs like that anymore. I realized how writing a great love song is a once-in-a-lifetime thing -- and people like that can get up in the morning and write one before breakfast. What a big heart that must take; how do they manage to do it?"

The music of Iodine in the Wine builds on the strengths of Brennan's solo debut, last year's Jack in the Pulpit: This time the rock numbers rock harder (the band's secret weapon, lead guitarist Kevin Barry, gets unleashed a good few times) and the rootsy numbers stretch out farther. There's an Appalachian number, country-rockers with fiddles and horns, and a pair of epic ballads, all showing the solid songcraft that Brennan developed in his years with Push Push. And though you wouldn't necessarily hear it in his music nowadays, he still acknowledges the influence of punk rock. "I think it's a matter of emotional directness, and you really can't get more direct than the Clash or the Sex Pistols. It's not that far from the R&B that I loved when I first started listening to music, the James Carr and the Bobby Bland stuff."

Has country become more of an influence lately?

"Yeah, but not what they're calling country now; I can't stand that. Those people are just singers; they could as easily be on Star Search. Oh well, there goes my career in Nashville."

Along with folks like Charlie Chesterman and Asa Brebner, Brennan is at the forefront of a local niche for grown-up rock and roll, something that was less prominent when his solo debut came out.

"I'm not going to say it's not been nice to have people come up to me and say things like `I really liked your record.' " I long ago gave up on the idea that the music business owes anybody anything; it's music that matters, and you can't think about the business. If you think that way, you're less likely to get screwed up."

LANSDOWNE DOES ABBA

Now we know what all the hip local scenesters were really doing in the '70s. Consider that last week on Lansdowne Street there were simultaneous appearances by a genuine Ramone (drummer Marky with his Intruders at Axis) and an ersatz Abba (the tribute band Björn Again, at Mama Kin) -- and though the Ramone had maybe three dozen people, the Abba show was packed. The latter was an undeniable kick, however. Playing it absolutely straight (well, except for doing Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" in mid set), Björn Again performed about two dozen Abba hits in full look-alike costume, all leading to the big, emotional final encore of "Dancing Queen." "This is a real guilty pleasure," noted one of the more unlikely faces I saw there, Tim Katz of Roadsaw. "I also own Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, but I don't tell anybody about that, either."

As for Marky Ramone, he played behind a pretty good band of young neo-punks doing some obscure Ramones numbers ("Have a Nice Day" and "Outsider," along with Richard Hell's "Blank Generation," which he played on before joining the Ramones) and some new originals in a catchy-punk Green Day/Queers vein. Worth catching the next time he hits town.

PORTER MOVES ON

Chris Porter has been part of the local scene in nearly every way possible. He's managed bands (Classic Ruins, Miranda Warning, and Permafrost), run the Presto! label, and booked three clubs: Bunratty's, the Middle East, and Mama Kin since its inception. This week he heads west to take a job at One Reel, the major booking agency in Seattle.

"It's a big upheaval, and I've had to do a little soul searching about it," he admits. "For personal growth and to further my career, it seemed like the right move at the right time. One Reel has some great people, and they work with a lot of good [alternative] performers, so it's not like I'm joining some big corporate rock concert company."

No word yet on who'll be taking his job at Mama Kin. Porter's swan song -- literally -- was last weekend's Swans concert at Somerville Theatre. We wish him the best of luck and hope he gets to wear flannel, drink great coffee, and hang out with Peter Buck.

COMING UP

The buzzed-about Apples in Stereo play the Middle East tonight (Thursday); Boy Wonder play the Attic in Newton, and Powerman 5000 hit Mama Kin . . . Here on a residency from New Orleans, Royal Fingerbowl play Club Bohemia tomorrow (Friday) along with Zen Lunatic. Meanwhile, Curtain Society play Bill's Bar, the soulful Holmes Brothers hit Johnny D's, Mistle Thrush and Lumen are at T.T. the Bear's Place, Roadsaw are at the Linwood, and Pooka Stew are at the Attic.

The big Safe and Sound event hits the Paradise Saturday, with sets by Tracy Bonham, Tanya Donelly, Jen Trynin, Juliana Hatfield, and Kay & Mike from Letters to Cleo. Meanwhile the Devotions, Butterscott, and Max are all at Club Bohemia, the Toasters are at Mama Kin, 3-1/2 Girls are at the Linwood, Barrence Whitfield plays the Attic, the Hornets play the Rat, and Orbit celebrate their new album at T.T.'s with Quivvver opening . . . The Cardigans begin two nights at the Paradise Sunday . . . The Pale Brothers are at Charlie's Tap Monday while Jesus Chrysler begin a February residence at Bill's Bar . . . Legendary UK folkie and ex-Pentangle member John Renbourn comes to Johnny D's on Wednesday, and there's a live presentation of Schoolhouse Rock at Mama Kin.