The weirdest

Chevy Heston make pop that's absolutely perverse

by Brett Milano

There are few easy ways in the world to get people's attention, much less to give them a queasy feeling in the pit of their stomachs. But we're glad to report that quoting Chevy Heston lyrics remains a dependable way to do both. This, then, is the complete lyric of "The Agony of Kevin Dyer," a track from their just-released CherryDisc album Come to Sterilized: "His stomach appeared at the edge of his bed and as he moved to grab it, his stomach fell to the floor/And he remembered his smiles as he got down on the floor where Heather was smiling/But now his kidneys floated on up to the ceiling with no other place to go."

Unless you knew the band, you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you that those words occur in an accessible, even radio-friendly setting. But that's the weirdest thing about this very weird band: some groups want to be perverse and some want to be pop, but hardly anyone wants to be both at once. Anyone could write about flying body parts, but who'd write a hummable ditty about it -- more to the point, who'd want to?

"We really are out to make pop music," insists drummer/guitarist Zephan Courtney, who writes Chevy Heston's material with singer/multi-instrumentalist Matt Martin. "It's just that when we get a track that we think is really great, we get more excited about it and want to put stronger lyrics on it. And to us a stronger lyric is one that tells people to fuck off in one way or another. It might keep us off the radio, but I hear profanity on the radio all the time -- in fact I heard Roger Daltrey say `Who the fuck are you?' on the radio just this morning." To Courtney's mind, it's the F-word rather than the flying kidneys that stands between Chevy Heston and the radio. As for the imagery, "I see that as comedy, I don't think it's disturbing at all. When I read some of this stuff back I was chuckling -- we're gonna try to put this in a song? And when we do it, it makes me chuckle even more."

But Come to Sterilized is almost tame compared to the last Chevy Heston release, Destroy -- an album that included the word "pussy" 50 times. And though its songs averaged only 90 seconds in length, there wasn't one without some unsettling sex/dismemberment reference. "CherryDisc would have dropped us on the spot if we'd handed them another Destroy, and we should probably admit that had some subconscious thing to do with the new album's content," Courtney says. "But Matt and I were writing differently as well. While we were on tour, we got embezzled -- somebody cashed a phony check on us when we were running out of money anyway. We started to feel a bit like cops, running around tracking down leads. Which made us think we should write a record about cops; but instead of making them into pigs, we'd have our characters be the cops."

Having settled into a full-band line-up, Chevy Heston have taken on a more polished sound. There's still a lot of Guided by Voices in there, with brief, interconnected songs that introduce hooks without resolving into choruses or solos. (Only two of the album's 27 tracks are longer than two minutes.) But there's a handful of slow, slide-guitar passages that bring mid-period Pink Floyd to mind; and Courtney cops to the Meddle overtones, even admitting that Come to Sterilized's cover art (a visual non-sequitur with flying flamingos) is a homage to that album.

Otherwise, making the new album was a typical recording process for Chevy Heston -- taking too many drugs, hating one another's guts, blowing up the studio. And Courtney admits that some of the hatred hasn't worn off yet. "We're still in the process of recovering from that trauma. It never got to the point where fists were thrown, but Matt and I were both about to leave at different times -- not enough sleep, not enough food, people getting offended at their ideas not being listened to."

There was one night when they did hit a good groove in the studio; then things got out of hand. "Our engineer had gone to play a wedding in northern Maine. But that night we did some of our best playing, and it went straight to DAT. We had some levels that were up a little too far, then Matt pressed the wrong button and we blew up these $18,000 speakers. The studio was pissed off at us already for various reasons, like cigarette holes in the floor." The speakers got repaired, but it's unlikely they'll record at Big Sound in Westbrook, Maine, again. "Our engineer came back and we told him it was all his fault; we said it was his job to do the babysitting. And he told us, `But it's not your job to go tripping and blow up the studio.' And I thought that was our job -- we're creative people, right?"

NEW QUIVVVER

Now that exuberant singer/drummer Kristina Kehrer has left the line-up, anyone who liked Quivvver was likely wondering if they'd be recognizable as the same band . . . and they're not, if their recent set at the Middle East was any indication. Opening for Scrawl two weekends ago, Quivvver were different in almost every respect: different songs (about half new, plus a tune from Carol DeFeciani's former band, Augusta Furnace), different groove (much darker and bluesier), different image (the thrift-store dresses are back in the closet, though bassist Julie Hardin still wears her sunglasses at night).

Sounded to me as if they'd done the right thing by going for a different direction instead of pretending nothing had changed. And it appears the new Quivvver are going to be as appealing as the old one. The main problem with the old line-up was that DeFeciani, whose songs and vocals were the best thing about Augusta Furnace, often got overshadowed. With this line-up she displays a distinctive singing voice (and a deceptively deep one: two people I was with that night asked who "this new guy on vocals" was) and is free to wail away on guitar, giving her wah-wah pedal a proper workout.

New drummer Gabrielle LeFon has a much funkier style, and the band got into a few surprisingly swampy guitar jams. (If that makes you think of Come, you're in the right general neighborhood, though Quivvver still have a playful side that wouldn't work in that band.) For comparison's sake, take a song the two line-ups had in common, the traditional "Sally Go Round the Roses": whereas the old Quivvver keyed into its playfulness, the new group take a more sultry and sinister approach.

NEW VENUE

There's a new Friday-night music venue in the 835 Beacon Street club. Its "All American Fridays" aren't necessarily going after the trendiest bands in town, but they will provide up-and-comers with an unpretentious place to play: there's not even a stage per se, just a cleared-out spot in the back of the room. "Our ceilings are pretty low, so if we had an elevated stage it would cause problems if there were tall guys in the band," notes co-manager Che Condon, who says that the club's main goal is to counter the cover-band trend by giving new original groups a shot. Opening night two weeks ago featured Chinstrap and Blau Zur and was co-promoted by Worcester's WAAF. Tomorrow (Friday) features Dowdy Smack, who played the small stage at last summer's HORDE tour.

COMING UP

Reggae legends Black Uhuru play Mama Kin tonight (Thursday), former Roomful of Blues frontman Greg Piccolo brings his Heavy Juice to the House of Blues, Barrence Whitfield hits the Tam, Sara Wheeler plays the Hard Rock Cafe, and Gravity Kills, who in my mind have replaced Moxy Fruvous as the worst band in the world, play the Middle East . . . Johnny D's gets funky on Friday with Chuck and Slide; Pooka Stew pop up at T.T. the Bear's Place, Deb Pasternak plays the Dogwood Cafe in Jamaica Plain, the DeNiros and Time Beings rock Jacque's, and Spent are at the Middle East. Meanwhile Club Bohemia begins a two-night surf festival with the Fathoms and Ray Corvair; following suit on Saturday are Surficide and Seks Bomba.

Also Saturday, the still-scorching Jason & the Scorchers play Mama Kin with Health & Happiness Show opening, cult popsters Jessamine and Olivia Tremor Control play the Middle East, the Helmet/Murphy's Law spinoff band Handsome are at the Rat with Tribal Wisdom, Vision Thing and Huck are at Bill's Bar, and the Dambuilders are at T.T. the Bear's Place. Meanwhile Connecticut's long-running rockers the Reducers hit Mama Kin with the Johnny Black Trio . . . Supporting a fine new album, indie-label graduates Archers of Loaf arrive at the Middle East Sunday . . . Brian Setzer brings his 17-piece band to the Paradise Monday . . . And Riders in the Sky do the cowboy thing at Johnny D's Wednesday.