Not-so-merry Merrie

Continuing a Boston songwriting tradition

by Brett Milano

Make a random list of some of the best songwriters to come out of the Boston area and they're likely to have one thing in common: they're not an especially happy bunch. Consider the likes of J Mascis (sad), Lou Barlow (lonely), Kristin Hersh (haunted), Jennifer Trynin (cranky), Aimee Mann (sad, lonely, haunted, and cranky), and Evan Dando (happy, but a little mixed up). There's a melancholy thread that's run through local rock since the early days, when Boston produced some of the only garage bands who could brood while playing "Louie Louie."

So, probably, could Merrie Amsterburg, whose new Season of Rain (on Q Division) is as sad and deep as anything to come out of Boston lately. It's also one of the year's brightest debuts. There's a lot of haunting beauty in Amsterburg's music, which inhabits a gray area between folk and pop. (The Mike Denneen-produced CD keeps an acoustic-guitar base but allows for surprises in the arrangements -- whether it's an electric-lead-guitar solo or, on "Belonging," a mix of plucked mandolin and sampled drum loop that recalls the otherworldly albums Nico used to make.) Amsterburg's singing voice is achingly lovely -- think of Jane Siberry without the grating quirks -- and she does the kind of intense, confessional songwriting that would fall apart if there were any affectation in it, which there isn't. She celebrates the album release tonight (Thursday) at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge.

True to its title, the songs on Season of Rain apparently came from a dark period in Amsterburg's life. They hint at the death of a loved one ("Say Goodbye"), the break-up of a relationship ("Island"), and general despair (the self-explanatory "This Will Never Be My Year," where the self-pity is laced with dark wit). Interviewed at the 1369 Coffeehouse in Cambridge, Amsterburg gets a bit nervous when asked whether all those things happened to her.

"I'm reluctant to say what the songs are about, because I'm afraid that it would make fewer people identify with them. But I'll say yes to all of the above. Whatever happens to you, it's what you do with it that counts. And keeping it all inside would have been much worse for me. Yes, there were songs that I had to rehearse in the living room for a month before I could bring them out [in public]. But the other option, of not doing anything, would have been harder."

Although she's still shy about being interviewed ("I've got to get better at this," she says more than once), Amsterburg's been doing local music for some time now. She moved to Boston from Michigan in the mid '80s. Her first band was Miss Understood (whose very name causes her a bit of embarrassment these days). But she's probably best known as the leader of the Natives, a pop band who played around town for about six years beginning in 1987. Although they released very little music in that time, the Natives almost got signed twice -- the first after a guy claiming to be Gene Simmons called them up at three in the morning saying he liked their tape. Turned out to be legit, but Simmons didn't get his label off the ground in time.

"One of the guys in the band knew a lawyer who got our tape to him. He was such a shrewd businessman and we really liked him. He had nine months to get us to a major-label distributor; it didn't happen so he let us go." And they got backstage passes to a Kiss show to boot.

The second experience was less fruitful; they got involved with veteran producer Richard Gottehrer (who did the first Blondie album as well as some '60s girl-group pop), who produced some tracks that never came out. He also kept the band legally tied up and unable to release anything elsewhere; their break-up was partly a result.

So it's no surprise that Amsterburg says of her current work with the Q Division crowd, "I finally got to work with people I wanted to work with, instead of a producer who thinks he knows how to make hits." And she fits well into that hotbed of singer-songwriters, with guests on her album including drummer Jerome Deupree (ex-Morphine), bassist Greg Porter, drummer Jay Bellerose (Talking to Animals), and Natives guitarist Peter Linton, who remains her performing partner (though he left town for New York before her album was made, Amsterburg also did some work with ex-Cavedog Brian Stevens, playing keyboards and singing back-up in his solo band). But her musical focus had changed by the time she made the solo album. "My writing was changing so it wasn't really rock-oriented anymore. As much as I love rock music, I finally found out that I'm not a rock singer."

WONDERDRUG COMP

The best local-music compilations are always the ones built around a particular style or aesthetic; the bad ones are usually the ones that scatter all over the map (comps put out by studios or radio stations generally fall into that category). By that standard, Take Your Medicine -- on Wonderdrug (formerly the Summit label) -- is one of the good ones. As a label, Wonderdrug has a pretty defined niche; its folks like the loud shit. Label founder Ken Cmar uses the term "pummelcore/mudcore/whatevercore," which sounds about right. We're talking about the low-rumble, slow-tempo, strangled-vocal sound that was pioneered by Slaughter Shack and kicked along by Stompbox, Slughog, 6L6, and Quintaine Americana, all of whom are included.

My usual problem with bands of this sort is that they don't always have the dynamics to support a whole disc. But they sound more potent in this context. The bite-size chunks of Quintaine Americana, Honkyball, and Slughog are all quite satisfying, and the bands who pay more attention to songcraft (especially 6L6 and Swank, the latter of whom sound more metallic with Stompbox's Jeff Turlik on bass) are good for contrast. For local history there's a late-period (1992) track by Slaughter Shack, who'd taken on a faster, more hardcore sound by then, plus the late, great Malachite's extremely bad-tempered "Going Under." Of the newer bands, the standout is Scissorfight, whose members give their names as Jarvis, Kevin, Ironlung, and Fuck You. Their "Planet of Ass" (whose most audible line beside the title is "I wanna fuck you in the can") stands out as an anthem in the making and can proudly bear the title of the most tasteless track out of 16.

CHERONE IN VAN HALEN?

As of this writing, Extreme's Gary Cherone still wasn't the new lead singer of Van Halen -- not officially, anyway. It just so happens that he's been not-too-secretly rehearsing with them for the last few months. And it happens that David Lee Roth isn't getting his old job back after all. A pissed-off Roth even issued a press release last week blaming the band for rehearsing "another lead singer" without his knowledge. Most significantly, it happens that Extreme also announced their break-up last week. The release claimed only that Cherone's "future plans" would be announced soon. Our concern is how Cherone's nice-guy behavior will go down with his apparent new bandmates; one may assume he's being given a crash course in carousing, mouthing off, and not driving 55. Meanwhile, there's absolutely no truth to the rumor that Cherone's old role of Jesus in next year's Boston Rock Opera production of Jesus Christ Superstar will be played by Sammy Hagar.

COMING UP

The Derangers surf into Bill's Bar tonight (Thursday); the Strangemen surf into the Middle East, Chelsea on Fire play with Kaspar Hauser at T.T. the Bear's Place, and Little John frontman Seth Freeman plays the Kendall Cafe; meanwhile the Phoenix Landing brings some surprise guests in for a first-anniversary party . . . Come make one of their infrequent stops into T.T.'s tomorrow (Friday), Miracle Legion celebrate a new CD at the Middle East upstairs while Six Finger Satellite rip it up downstairs, and Jonathan Richman appears with longtime cohort Asa Brebner at the Paradise.

Despite a lame new album, the Specials were hot when they hit Avalon last summer. They're back to do it again at the same club Saturday. You can get a further ska fix at Mama Kin later that night with the Toasters and Beat Soup. Also Saturday, el Dopa and Chelsea on Fire play the Rat, Chevy Heston are at the Middle East, the Curtain Society and Chainsuck are at T.T. the Bear's Place, and Vykki Vox brings her blues to the Tam . . . Graham Parker has been mostly acoustic in recent years, but he'll be rockin' when he hits the Paradise on Sunday with the Figgs backing him up (and playing their own opening set) . . . Primo New Orleans funk/jam rockers the Radiators begin two nights at the House of Blues Monday . . . Psychotica and The Elevator Drops play Axis Tuesday; Velocity Girl -- who have already broken up officially but are doing one last string of rent-paying dates -- hit the Middle East for the last time. And there's a reprise of one of last spring's most trippily enjoyable evenings when a mostly original line-up of Gong hit Mama Kin with flying teapots and pothead pixies in tow. They're back to do it again at the same club . . . The Lilys play the Middle East on Wednesday.