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Big pop

The further adventures of Poundcake and Fuzzy

by Brett Milano

" . . . I know," Rivers replied, holding up his hands. "Don't say it."

Odds are I was merely going to tell him it sounded pretty good. But Rivers was afraid I was going to say it sounded like XTC, a comparison I'd already brought up in print. The kinship to classic Brit-pop is a monkey on the back for Poundcake, who include ex-Cavedog Rivers, bassist Josh Lattanzi, and singer/guitarist (and former Aimee Mann sidekick) Clayton Scoble.

Poundcake's new album, Aloha Via Satellite (title courtesy Elvis; disc out next week on Q Division), is the work of a band who are obsessed with pop music and pop culture and can't do a damn thing about it. There are enough left-field chords and dirty guitar sounds to sneak Poundcake onto alternative radio, but the classic references usually shine through. Just as the band's essential niceness comes through the jaded humor in the lyrics. And, yes, they still sound like XTC and the Beatles on more than one occasion, though the resemblance has gotten less pronounced since original bassist and diehard Anglophile Rick Griffin was replaced by Lattanzi (whose tastes run more toward Guided by Voices). Still, "Big Brother Dandelion," which producer Jon Lupfer apparently had to talk them into recording, would have made a good Andy Partridge song with its psychedelic wordplay and all-directions chord changes.

"We've got to get better at making inflammatory statements. Like, `The Beatles suck, they were the worst band ever,' " joked Rivers when the band gathered last week at the Middle East. "There's a happy medium between admitting where you come from and getting trapped by it," Scoble added. "We're moving away from that classic Brit-pop, which is neither resisted nor consciously encouraged. In all honesty, the last band that inspired me enough to make me want to rip them off was the Amps. I loved the fact that Kim Deal doesn't work with classic song structures, but there's still a payoff in terms of pop satisfaction."

Another female songwriter inspired one of the album's better tunes. "Statue of Liberty" stems from Scoble's friendship with Jennifer Trynin, and his observation of how the industry would have loved her to conform to the current, allegedly nonconformist ideal of a "woman in rock." Taken on that level, it's one of the most deliciously nasty songs about the music biz to turn up in a while: "We picture you with a white-hot fuse and a chip on your shoulder/Pardon if we can't choke back the drool . . . We're not complete till you're angry and sweet/Lip-synching 'bout sex acts/Rude and crass with a thoroughbred ass." In a similar vein, "Kick the Can" lobs lyrical darts at someone who'd bought into the alternative myth: "You're so rare, maybe one in two/And Liz Phair will fall in love the day that she sees you." Characteristically, Poundcake set those lines to a tune so catchy that they might slip by unnoticed the first time through.

Poundcake's members have had their own run-ins with the music biz. The outfit was born when Scoble had a major-label demo deal fall through. Rivers's career misadventures with the Cavedogs and Merang have been well-documented. (Although all songs on the album are listed as collaborations between the two, they actually do most of their writing separately, à la Lennon and McCartney.) But Scoble at least is relishing the idea of an indie-rock tour. "I'm the one saying, `Cool -- we get to sleep in the van!' " Do they feel a stigma about being a pop band?

"I can't figure out what that is anymore," says Rivers. "Everything's pop, it's just a matter of how loud they make the guitars."

Maybe so. But following last week's interview, Poundcake went next door to the Middle East bakery to play an acoustic set at one of Skeggie Kendall's loosely knit, singer-songwriter nights, sharing the stage with Kendall's band and guest singer Tanya Donelly. Meanwhile, the heavily hyped They Might Be Giants spinoff band Mono Puff were playing downstairs. After a few trips up and down the club staircase, it was hard to avoid contrasting the self-consciously clever sound that Mono Puff were putting out with the clever and convincing songs Poundcake were playing. Proof that all pop is not created equal.

FUZZY MEET PAPA JOHN

"We thought we'd have lunch with him in LA and take it from there," reports co-singer/guitarist Chris Toppin. "He picked a health-food place called the Source, and in all honesty, the food really sucked -- not that I'm down on health food, but this just wasn't good. But I'm standing there, and to my right I see Fabio and to my left is Joan Osborne. I thought it was unusual; they're all famous and have lots of cash, and they were eating at this stinky place."

Over lunch Phillips announced that he'd written a song with Fuzzy in mind. "He said, `Want to hear it?' Then he broke into song, right in the restaurant, very loudly and proudly. People I know just don't do that. And the melody of the song was great, beautiful, exactly like the Mamas & the Papas. But the lyrics were a little questionable for us -- a novelty-type thing about wanting to join a convent. And there were sexual terms in there, something about needing six inches."

Fuzzy were hoping to keep the tune and change the words, but Phillips wouldn't have it. "He really wanted us to do this nun song, telling us, `You girls need to shake things up.' He even had a video concept in mind. The part about the six inches made me want to run away screaming. I was wishing I was in Quivvver; they can sing something like that and pull it off."

The band went to a studio with Phillips later that day and instead cut a country song that he'd written in the '70s. Unfortunately nobody in the studio was able to speak English, so manager Brian Dunton had to do a quickie engineering job. "One of Phillips's fingernails on his strumming hand was too long, so I got out a nail clipper and gave it to him," Toppin recalls. "He shook his head no, held out his hand and made me do it. It was a little disgusting, but kind of cool -- how many people get to cut John Phillips's fingernails?"

Now back from their tour, Fuzzy play the Middle East this Saturday. Requests for the nun song are strongly discouraged.

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