Pet sounds

If live shows make him gag, the prospect of experimenting in the studio gets him off. Dragonetti's done his time on stage. He was the lead guitarist in Paula Kelley's post-Drop Nineteens band Hot Rod, and a couple of Jack Drag line-ups have played out in the past few years -- but his idiosyncratic pop took shape via the four-track machine that he keeps in his Somerville attic.

"It's all cheap stuff, a cassette machine with some cheap effects," he notes. "What I'd love to hear is hip-hop done in a cheesy '60s kind of way. You know the song `Pet Sounds' [from the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds]? Think of that breakdown in the middle of the song" -- he hums its oddball bass/bongo riff with obvious relish. "That's the kind of thing I'd like to achieve."

If the notion of a reclusive pop writer shutting himself away with a four-track makes you think of Guided by Voices or Sebadoh, guess again. For one thing, Dragonetti claims he's never heard GBV, though he'll admit to being a fan of Sebadoh's leader Lou Barlow. And whereas the GBV folks are addicted to four-track, Dragonetti's making the most of what he's got while itching to get into a bigger studio.

"I've become so spoiled with my four-track that if I ever went into Fort Apache, it could get real expensive. I'm pretty anal about getting sounds; my approach is to spend time getting just the sounds you need, then slap a mike in front of it. Some of the drum tracks on my album were done with nothing but a floor tom and a snare. I don't like recording with cymbals. My theory on that -- like Lou Reed's -- is that they wash out all the intricate guitar parts.

"If I was in a bigger studio, I'd still love to get things like the kids' drum set in, then mix it with the major-studio dynamic. Making records is always going to be my true passion; sometimes I write songs right when I'm recording them. And that won't change, even after we make that suicidal plunge into the major-label world."

Over the past two weeks. the one-man version of Jack Drag has made its CD debut (Jack Drag, on Dragonetti's own Devil's Weed label, is drawn partly from a demo tape that placed in Demo Derby last year) while the live-band line-up has ventured back to the clubs. And here's the big irony: to judge from a Middle East show two weekends ago, the live version of Jack Drag blows the studio one out the door.

The album still amounts to a superior demo (there are, however, a couple of stabs at a more rhythm-based sound, including one instrumental, that don't work as well as the pop numbers). Dragonetti's songs are full of interesting riffs and hooks, and he provides different textural settings for each track -- more through his guitar work than through his studio equipment. On stage the same songs (and a handful of others) became three-dimensional. His guitar cuts loose in earnest, providing the right contrast to his breathy, just-this-side-of-wimpy vocal style. Backed by the sharp rhythm section of Joe Klompus (ex-Orangutang) and Jason Sutter (late of Juliana Hatfield's band), his set showed an unusually good grasp of dynamics: soft and spacy bridges would give way to power-chord bursts and you'd feel the jolt.

The "suicidal plunge" is likely coming soon. Dragonetti's long been tight with the local pop crowd: a couple of Gigolo Aunts and Throwing Muses bassist Bernard Georges have backed him up at different times; Q Division honcho Jon Lupfer did some mixing on his CD. More recently he's scored a publishing deal with Sony, and label offers are starting to come in.

That's a prospect that Dragonetti has mixed feelings about. "Having been around for a while, I've seen just about everyone I know go through the wringer. The arrogant side of me says, `I'm sure I can beat this system,' but I'm sure that I'm in for a ride."

MARDI GRAS SLIDE

But the music should be worth going out for, since it amounts to a roll call of the club's favorite bands. Organist-turned-lawyer Mickey Bliss plays with his instrumental combo between regular sets by Jaye Coats, the Jesters, and the wild trash-rockers Rattle Heatre. And headlining are Slide, who're celebrating the release of their debut CD Forgiving Buckner (on their equally wonderfully named Your Name Here, Baby label).

Slide have as good a grasp of New Orleans music as almost any homegrown band. I've seen them pull off Meters and Dr. John covers with ease, and Suzi Lee is the best (and probably only) regular accordionist in a local rock band. The stumbling block is that their original material leans toward a retro, Southern-rock sound that they mine with varying success. The CD's best songs rework familiar styles, but there's no shame in that. "Pray for Rain" is a fine evocation of Robbie Robertson's haunted-ballad style. "Rise Up" borrows its funk-and-chant setting from the Mardi Gras Indian tradition. On the other hand, "Cool Papa Bell" and "Crackerjack" have Doobie Brothers overtones we could have done without.

The disc might have been better if it had focused on the band's jamming rather than the songwriting. Unlike certain overrated groups in town, Slide really can work a groove and get somewhere hot with it -- leaving one disappointed that the disc's longest track is 5:04 (and that Lee's accordion and Hammond organ take a relative backseat in the mix). Maybe that's what live shows are for, especially on Mardi Gras.

RESOLVE

The best song on their tape, "Timothy," is also the standout. Offering fuzztoned encouragement to a kid who's been institutionalized, it's the sort of thing Paul Westerberg hasn't written for a while. Hiding within Resolve's hooks are some jaded looks at the rock-and-roll game (my favorite: "I'm gonna lose what's left of my hearing/Then you can whine about crap, and I'll nod and smile"). What they can't do yet is pull off a ballad; there are a couple of ponderous ones toward the end. And if they thought they'd get away with the "Losing My Religion" guitar kickoff on "Pilot" . . . well, they didn't. Nice work on the loud jagged pop, though.

COMING UP

It's time for one more round of "Alcohol" when Gang Green rise from the dead to hit the Rat Saturday. Boston Rock Opera's Sgt. Pepper runs through Saturday at Mama Kin's Playhouse; Dub Syndicate play the club's music hall that night. And the man with more indie integrity than anyone in the world, Thurston Moore, plays T.T.'s in a guitar collaboration with drummer Tom Surgal . . . Even though they think Boston sucks, one should still see the Cheater Slicks when they make a rare local appearance at T.T.'s on Sunday. Grind open for Gage at the Paradise that night . . . No word on whether he's got the killer band who backed him last time, but Warren Zevon should still be worth catching at the Paradise Tuesday with new Interscope signee Phil Cody opening. Also, Naked Lunchbox are at Bill's Bar, and Crazy Alice are at the Phoenix Landing.