Medium-loud, please

Buttercup go for the grocery-store sound; Peter Prescott returns

by Brett Milano

Of all the local rock bands I've ever interviewed -- and suffice to say there've been a few -- Buttercup are absolutely the only ones who have ever compared themselves to Phil Collins. And singer/guitarist/writer Jim Buni is the only local musician I've found whose highest career aspirations involve convenience stores.

"Grocery stores -- to me, that's the most emotional place to listen to music," he explains over a pitcher at the Middle East. "They play emotional music like Phil Collins in order to get people to shop. Customers hear the songs, start thinking of their families, and spend money. So that's the goal in writing a song: how best to stir the emotions of the masses. It's a non-generational thing. Everybody goes to the grocery store, and the music you hear there speaks to more people than some 22-year-old college kid."

Let it be said that Buni hasn't yet lost his hair, done beer commercials, or played drums in an art-rock band. In all, he's a lot closer to being a 22-year-old college kid (give or take a couple years) than he is to being Phil Collins. But that at least gives you an idea of the sound he's after. When most local bands say they play pop music, they're really talking about loud guitar rock with some debt to the Beatles. What you get from Buttercup is medium-loud guitar rock with some debt to the Bay City Rollers. Given the choice of a cheap-thrill hook or an abrasive alterna-rock move, they'll go for the hook every time.

This Sunday marks the last of four consecutive weeks that Buttercup have hosted a show at the Middle East's upstairs. The feel of the nights so far has been looser than a regular show but tighter than, say, Skeggie Kendall's bakery residencies at the same club (where Buttercup were a frequent guest). Fuzzy and Jack Drag were last week's guests. Two weeks ago Liquorice -- the less-consistent second band fronted by Tsunami's Jenny Toomey -- played the most satisfying set they've done in town. And this week's out-of-town guest is Amy Rigby. The shows are something of a coming-out party for the band, who have sparked an insider buzz in recent months. Guitarist-about-town Mike Leahy (Shelf Life, Pell Mell) liked them so much that he joined up.

Buttercup's recent CD Gold puts them in the crowded ranks of local bands whose albums aren't as good as the bands themselves are. Recorded more than two years ago, it's an appealing-enough disc, but the production's a little thin and the songs aren't as catchy as they want to be. The new material they're playing on stage hits the target more often, and the band have thickened into a wall-of-sound approach -- which, along with the decided lack of showmanship (Buni's more of a stand-still-and-sing type), puts the songs up front. Leahy has always been good at enhancing other people's songs; steel-guitarist Tim Obetz, whose sound is not remotely countryish, functions more as a keyboard player or a third guitarist. Singer/bassist Colleen MacDonald and drummer Dan Lech complete the line-up.

"Those recordings [on the CD] don't always sound like it, but I had a good idea of the sound I wanted: an indie-pop thing, but more fleshed-out, more produced in the '70s sense of the term," says Buni. "Getting closer to that full-bodied grocery-store sound. Although we've been working at this for three and a half years, we haven't really done that much. It's more been a process of making friends, having people express interest rather than seeking them out and asking them to." Taking the low-profile approach to extremes, Buni moved clear out to Santa Barbara after Gold was sent around as a demo tape; the CD emerged after he dropped out of grad school and returned here a few months later."

Much of Buttercup's songs are about love affairs -- they're pop songs, after all -- but Buni points out that none of said affairs were his. So can a smart indie-rock guy really write old-fashioned pop numbers without at least a little irony? "Sure there's some irony involved. When you're playing rock music, there's always going to be some degree of ridiculousness in it. That's why I make an effort to write songs I'm not too emotionally involved in. They're serious songs, but it's still a rock thing. Not to take anything away from the bands who take themselves too seriously, but we're not one of them."

PEER GROUP

Since the demise of Mission of Burma, drummer-turned-singer/guitarist Peter Prescott has now fronted three bands (or five, if you count the three incarnations of Volcano Suns). The bands may be different, but his personality is still recognizable. If you like Prescott's stuff, then you like it. And since I like it, I'm glad to report that his new Peer Group -- who made their local debut at T.T. the Bear's Place two weekends ago, and who include the Flying Nuns' Pat Lynch as lead guitarist -- are a departure from his last band, Kustomized . . . but not that radical a departure. (Rich Wentworth from Bald Guys is the keyboardist; the rhythm section of Nick Blakey and Jim Siegel is the same one that stood in for the last round of Kustomized gigs.)

Prescott still writes jagged, dark-humored, catchy songs, but now they have longer instrumental breaks and trickier chord changes, which allows for even more screaming than usual. If at times there seem to be more screams in his new material than there were actual lyrics, you'll hear no complaints from us. The addition of a keyboard to Kustomized's two-guitar sound has changed the reference points somewhat. Instead of the Troggs and the Stooges, now it's psychedelic-exploitation soundtracks and early Pere Ubu. And this is the first of Prescott's outfits that prefers to work a lengthy groove instead of shifting gears every three minutes.

"That's why I want to be in a rock band now, to thump on that central snake, that groove that runs through everything," he explains. "And I'm as white as can be, so I'm not talking funky, but about the rock version of that big drone."

He has an album of songs already written, and he's looking to get it recorded before playing the next batch of gigs. "I would love to make a killer record right now. The last Kustomized album got closer and closer [to what I envision], and I hope we can make this one even more of a listening experience. All I want to do right now is play in a good band. As usual, I have no aversion to fame and money, but that gets to be less and less of a point. If you're 40 and that's your whole point of playing in a rock band, it's kind of pathetic."

Unlike the members of Kustomized -- who really were a peer group in the sense that they were all safely out of the alternative-rock demographic -- Prescott's current bandmates are a fresh-faced bunch. "They're a peer group in that we're all friends and we're in a band together, but they're all a minimum of 10 years younger than me. So the joke there is very intentional."

HOFFS CANCELS KENDALL

For someone booking music at a smallish club, there can't be a worse nightmare. Say that you've booked nine nights with a pop star on the comeback trail, and it stands to be the highest-profile event that's ever taken place at your club. Now imagine that your star comes down with laryngitis and pulls out of the engagement a half-hour before the first night's soundcheck.

That's what became of ex-Bangle Susanna Hoffs's gigs, which were booked into the Kendall Café over the last two weeks. (Plans are now being made for a make-up show, but on a smaller scale. At this writing, the tentative dates are the Kendall on March 21 and Bill's Bar the following night.) "The whole situation just handcuffed me," says Kendall booker Eric Marcos (he's also the singer/songwriter/guitarist who fronted Everyday Moses), still sounding a little shell-shocked. Hoffs had just finished a similar small-club residency in Chicago before her voice gave out. "She was drinking tea and trying to get her voice back, but it didn't work."

Some of the club's best-known regulars, including Jules Verdone, Merrie Amsterburg, and Todd Thibaud, came in to make up the dates. "But we still get people calling every day about Susanna Hoffs. Our lines were absolutely crippled the first few days, so I'm certain it would have sold out." As a goodwill gesture, Hoffs gave the club a few dozen autographed posters. "We keep them around to give to people who show up for the dates looking especially bummed out."

COMING UP

Jonathan Richman begins two nights at the Somerville Theatre tonight (Thursday); Roger Miller and Willie Alexander are upstairs at the Middle East with Neptune while the Lunachicks and Green Magnet School appear downstairs. Jeff & Jane Hudson, whose new album, Zeta Brew, is about to hit stores, play the Linwood; Ultra Breakfast and Tugboat Annie are at Mama Kin, and the Devotions are at the Rat . . . Options to the sold-out Blur/Papas Fritas show tomorrow (Friday) include Todd Spahr's band the Gravy at Kendall Café, Susan Tedeschi at Johnny D's, the Dirt Merchants at T.T. the Bear's Place, and Ray Mason at Mama Kin. . . . Laurie Geltman plays the Attic in Newton on Saturday; Nuno Bettencourt is at the Paradise, Juliana Hatfield and Merrie Amsterburg are at the Somerville Theatre, Barrence Whitfield plays the House of Blues, and Talking to Animals are at T.T.'s. Last week's delayed show by Smithereens leader Pat DiNizio takes place at Mama Kin with Machinery Hall headlining . . . Chuck is at Phoenix Landing on Sunday; Dub Station bring the reggae to Bill's Bar . . . Pere Ubu's David Thomas brings his Two Pale Boys to the Middle East on Tuesday . . . On Wednesday, Chelsea on Fire, Verago-go, and Cherry 2000 play Axis; meanwhile Simon Townshend hits the House of Blues.