Barn burners

Chelsea on Fire aren't afraid to go there

by Brett Milano

If you want to know what makes Chelsea on Fire so danged intense, look no further than singer/guitarist Josey Packard's explanation of her songwriting. "You know how people are always saying `Don't go there'?" she asks, prodded over beers with her bandmates at the Middle East. "I never had a problem with going there."

An early contender for the year's best local release, Chelsea's second album, Once Is Never (Curve of the Earth), is the sound of a band boldly going, uh, there. The music is a big improvement on last year's homonymous debut, whose flat production didn't catch the power of their live sets. This time the sound treads that line between polished attack and raw tantrum. Working with their live engineer, Monte McGuire, Chelsea get a full-throttle rock-band sound, with Packard playing some ripping leads along with the grunge chords she's fond of. (Drummer Adam Simha and bassist Amy (just Amy) remain a solid whomp of a rhythm section in the Sugar/Zulus mode.)

At the same time, a slight pop tinge has sneaked into the arrangements, with Amy singing some harmonies and Packard no longer venting at full tilt all the time -- only most of the time. There's even an acoustic number to close the album, though the prettiness of "Carousel" comes out more unsettling than reassuring. "It's a different approach," Packard says. "Instead of punching you on the face, it's more like massaging your temples and then squeezing a little." The band celebrate the new album at T.T. the Bear's Place this Saturday, May 3, with Roadsaw and Vic Firecracker.

No matter how accessible they get, however, Chelsea on Fire are never going to be an easygoing band. Not as long as Packard's idea of a love song includes lyrics like these: "You -- you're mine, you're mine/Another bitch to BBQ for me/You're mine, doesn't that make you happy? Huh?" Packard doesn't need to extend her anger to wider social issues, since there are enough people who've fucked her over right in the backyard. If "You're Mine" doesn't seem corrosive enough, consider "7:11," which looks at the same kind of relationship from the other side: "I'll eat scraps from your plate/Pick me up and squeeze me/I want you to dominate me, really hate me/What's it like on the other side?" The least ironic love song, "Lost It," finds an ex-lover turning up at the singer's house -- only problem is that the ex-lover is now dead.

"I've had a long, antagonistic relationship with the idea of sounding beautiful," Packard points out. "You can't fight your nature. I was singing pretty for a long time before Chelsea on Fire, but I prefer what's coming out now." Is she singing from experience? "Oh, sure. Years and years. But I wouldn't say that you can take everything at face value -- I'm less interested in having people know what the songs mean than in having the songs prompt a reaction. It's hard to do something very much of yourself and not have it sound self-absorbed." Adds Amy, "They're less angry songs than `We really like our life this [fucked-up] way' songs. You'll notice that we smile a lot."

To these ears, though, the frank lyrics are part of what takes Chelsea out of the "angry women's rock band" (or insert your own favored euphemism here) genre -- anyone who's ever come through a screwed-up relationship can relate. "It takes double the effort for us to avoid labels and just be considered as a rock band," says Amy. Packard adds, "We're into rock, basically, and we spend a lot of time trying not to be pigeonholed. We play to a diverse audience . . . " "And we do very well with meatheads," Amy finishes. And the preferred reaction? "I have a co-worker who sees us sometimes," Amy says. "She says that when we play `You're Mine,' she looks down afterward and her beer's gone."

LOUD FEST SIGHTINGS

We can't claim to have caught every worthwhile act that played the Loud Music Festival last weekend. Then again, neither can anybody else; that's the beauty of such events. In its first year since transplanting from Northampton to Boston, the festival was a fine music splurge despite some glitches early in the weekend. The industry panels at the Liberty Café suffered from the lack of a moderator (and hence, direction), and one of the first bands we wanted to catch, Verago-go, failed to show up for their Saturday-afternoon set at the Middle East. Meanwhile, the "Loud Lounge" downstairs at the Cantab suffered from an overcrowded, un-loungelike atmosphere -- partly because the club was directing the overflow from the upstairs Little Joe Cook show down there.

All was forgiven, however, by the time we got to Saturday's most happening event, the "Rockabilly Ball" at the Greek American Hall on Green Street. (And the hall's high-school-gym-like feel was perfect for the occasion; we half-expected to see the boys and the girls in folding chairs at opposite ends of the room.) Opening band the Raging Teens (who covered a few songs from the local compilations of that name on the Norton label) were a hoot, featuring a lead guitarist who looked as if she'd wandered in from the Beverly Hillbillies but sounded more like someone who'd come from Sun Studios. And the night's ringer act were the Puzzles, a long-running band who apparently cut their teeth in the '60s, backing strippers in the Combat Zone. Although not a rockabilly band, they provided a glimpse into a forgotten corner of local history while playing some solid blues in its own right -- complete with sleazy sax and stage patter ("This one's called `Snatch a Little Kiss' -- and who said vice versa?") that showed off their performing roots.

Come and Fuzzy were both in prime form, offering sets composed mainly of new material. Dambuilders member Dave Derby's band Brilliantine played a mostly acoustic set of Derby's melancholy pop and a fine cover of Fleetwood Mac's "I Know I'm Not Wrong" (bassist Winston Ryan gets special mention for playing in all three of these bands). Returning to a three-piece rock format, former Scarce leader Chick Graning did a set that was so Scarce-like, it made us wonder whether he shouldn't just call up Joyce Raskin and retract their break-up. The Japanese punk band Guitar Wolf -- who looked and sounded as if they'd just discovered their parents' old Ramones albums -- packed the Middle East upstairs on Sunday, but we were more impressed by Saturday's closing set by the Prissteens -- an all-female New York act who are reviving '60s garage rock (complete with Sonics covers) once more, with feeling.

NEW DIRT MERCHANTS

Unlike other local bands signed to that label, the Dirt Merchants haven't been dropped by Epic/Sony. But they're taking their time making their second major-label album, and they've produced a surprise in the meantime: Swiss Bank, a mini-album (10 songs, 27 minutes) released on their own label in a numbered edition of 1000. Far less pop than the material on their official album, Scarified, the disc revives the experimental streak that made me like them in the first place -- though the noise-guitar sound of their early tapes is replaced here by a spookier, near-ambient approach.

A handful of instrumental soundscapes visit Eno-like territory, despite the band's use of acoustic instruments instead of synthesizers. (The last song, "Smoky Remains," uses a skipping record as its rhythm track and is truly eerie.) "Lone Star" has a Cowboy Junkies feel to it, though the slide-guitar outburst toward the end is something that band would never allow (it's also what makes the song). The longest track, "Blurry Eyes," plugs into the Pink Floyd-like floating groove they've become fond of lately. Not everything works, but the best numbers -- notably the title track and "What Gives" -- create a simmering tension that undercuts Maria Christopher's increasingly spectral vocals. One hopes the Merchants can combine this abstraction with their more accessible side when the official album rolls around.

COMING UP

Swizzle and Nana are upstairs at the Middle East tonight (Thursday) while the downstairs room stages a celebration of the Kids at Heart compilation with Gigolo Aunts, Vision Thing, and a reunited Poundcake. Shonen Knife play the Paradise and Girl on Top are at the Phoenix Landing . . . Tomorrow (Friday) finds ex-Velvet Moe Tucker playing with Magnet at T.T. the Bear's Place. Sleepy LaBeef checks into Johnny D's, Barrence Whitfield is at Harpers Ferry, the Racketeers are at the Linwood, the Boo Radleys and the Pills are at Bill's Bar, the Bee Charmers are at the Hard Rock, and Young Neal & the Vipers are at the House of Blues . . . The Push Kings and Jumprope are at the Middle East Saturday, the Ducky Boys have a CD-release at the Rat, the Steaks have a CD-release at Club Passim, and Sonny Rhodes is at the House of Blues . . . Batten the hatches and stay up late, this year's WBCN Rumble begins at the Middle East on Sunday. Meanwhile Freedy Johnston hits the Paradise; Amy Rigby's old band the Shams open . . . Lounge dictators Maximum Leader play the Green Street Grill Monday . . . Sister Machine Gun are at Axis Wednesday.