Noise-pop royals

New Radiant Storm King up the song thing

by Brett Milano

Maybe it's a western-Massachusetts inferiority-complex thing. But of all the club shows I can remember seeing over the last 10 years, there are two that stand out as being the most ear-blisteringly loud, and west-Mass bands were responsible for both.

The first was a late-'80s Dinosaur Jr. show at the Rat, which I swear could be heard in parts of the Fenway. The second was a New Radiant Storm King show earlier this year -- and though that one took place at the Middle East, I'd swear it could still be heard in parts of the Fenway.

Dino Jr. may have changed their ways over the years; in fact, J Mascis was barely audible when he hit the Middle East for an acoustic show last year. But New Radiant Storm King are still committed to the big guitar blur.

"We do pride ourselves on being loud," says bassist/singer Matt Hunter, calling from a pay phone somewhere outside Chicago during a tour last week. "Either that or we just can't help it. I can't speak for the rest of the band [singer/guitarist Peyton Pinkerton and drummer Garrett Fintes], but it's hard for me to be really enthusiastic unless I'm being assaulted by what's coming out of my amp. Our songs nowadays are more on the mellow side -- at least not as abrasive as we used to be -- so the volume is a crucial part of the sound. It's the only remaining abrasive element, for the most part."

Sure enough, the new Hurricane Necklace -- a major-label debut of sorts, since their label, Grass, is now distributed by BMG -- tilts the noise/song ratio a little differently from what they've done in the past; the pop structures and the guitar outbursts are now on equal footing. Which raises the question of whether they'll do a Buffalo Tom and wind up with a largely acoustic sound three albums from now.

"God, I hope not," replies Hunter. "I suppose anything's possible, but if we whip out the acoustic guitars, I hope that's not what we turn into. The difference with this album is that we used to write songs around instrumental dynamics, and the focus this time was more on coming up with an emotionally satisfying piece -- that's a sign of our aging, I suppose." (In fact, these guys are in their ripe old mid 20s, having graduated from Hampshire College two years ago.) The band hit the Middle East for a CD-release party this Saturday, November 9.

If you're thinking that the idea of distortion-filled pop songs with nonlinear lyrics is familiar by now -- well, you're right. What Storm King offer is a well-built mousetrap rather than a sparkling new invention. Comparisons with Volcano Suns, Polvo, Archers of Loaf, and Sonic Youth wouldn't be far amiss. But they bristle at the "lo-fi" and "slacker rock" descriptions that have been thrown at them in the past. The first because it was never accurate in their case, the second because nobody's sure what it means. "We think that `slacker rock' means `it sounds like Pavement but we don't really want to say that,' " Hunter offers.

They did, however, inadvertently inspire one of lo-fi's defining moments, the Guided by Voices song "I Am a Scientist," whose lyrical idea was cribbed from a Storm King song. "When we first met [GbV's] Bob Pollard, he said that he heard the words `I am an astronaut' in our song `The Opposing Engineer Sleeps Alone' and took that as the idea for `I Am a Scientist.' So we thought it would be cute and clever if we did the split-single thing."

Indeed, a single of the two bands covering each other's songs came out on Chunk last year. And though they don't sound much alike musically, Storm King share GbV's attraction to lyrics whose secret meaning may be anyone's guess. "I have times when I don't figure out a song until six months later," Hunter admits. "On the new album, I wrote the words to `Drool' about 10 minutes before it was recorded. Listening to it now, I realize it's about insomnia."

As for the danger of getting lost in the loud-guitar shuffle, he notes that "there's nothing you can do about it; the industry is more willing to take a shot on things that are generic. Loud bands with pop songs are a dime a dozen nowadays, the difference being that the vast majority of them aren't worth a shit." New Radiant Storm King are.

DANDO DOES ALCOHOL!

Whether you enjoyed the Lemonheads show at Avalon last week probably depended on what you thought of the recent car button cloth (Tag/Atlantic), since that's the majority of what they played. I'm partial to the darker numbers on the new album myself -- "Losing Your Mind" made an especially good guitar demolition on stage -- but the cheers were louder whenever the band kicked into an older number from the 1992 commercial breakthrough, It's a Shame About Ray. (Interesting to note that the album in between, Come On Feel the Lemonheads, was ignored save for "Into Your Arms," and that the whole set clocked in at barely an hour.)

The line-up has already changed since the new album's release, with former Lemonhead/Blake Baby/Antennae member John Strohm (or "John Fuckin' Strohm, man" as he was frequently introduced) coming back in on guitar -- a good choice, since working arena-rock guitar moves into a pop context was always Strohm's specialty.

Most notable, however, was the Big Local Rock Moment that ended the show: after doing an acoustic song to start the encore, Dando brought on "a real fuckin' rock star"-- namely Gang Green leader Chris Doherty -- who joined him for a sensitive, acoustic version of that band's classic "Alcohol." You've never heard two guys sound quite so earnest about the timeless sentiments expressed therein (particularly on the song's generation-defining chorus: "You got the beer/We got the time/You got the coke/Gimme a line" -- which they performed while pointing at each other). At the Rat a week earlier, Dando paid similar tribute to John Felice by covering a Real Kids number.

On stage Dando still comes across as a fuck-up, but a likable fuck-up. There were a lot of long digressions between songs as he apologized for the quality of his voice (which had occasional hoarseness, but nothing too noticeable). And at one point, after giving an especially crude reason why he prefers post-teen women, he noted, "Hey, everybody knows that teenyboppers don't go to see the Lemonheads anymore." They probably won't after this tour, but the band will be back to play WBCN's Christmas party next month.

PENDULUM FLOORS

You want serious weirdness? The Pendulum Floors got it. Imagine two sisters, one a punk poet and the other a psychedelic garage rocker, recording an EP in their bedroom using a Sony Walkman. Their EP Whatever Happened to the Pendulum Floors? (on Villa Villakula) fits six brief tracks onto a seven-inch, including some spontaneous spoken-word bits, a couple of skeletal rock songs, and a strange digression or two.

Why should you care? Because the sisters are Audrey Clark, of the recently-disbanded 360s, and Laurie Kramer, late of the Paper Squares, whose best work has always been psychedelic in spirit if not in sound. "A Bedroom Song" features Clark playing the optigan, a cheapo American keyboard that was briefly marketed in the '60s and sounded like a mellotron, except tinnier and spookier. "Prozac" is a scary reading of Kramer's that deals with a manic-depressive episode, with some appropriately grisly guitar played by Clark. Don't look for the 360s' polished garage rock on this EP, just for the weird spirits that always lurked in the corners.

COMING UP

Since he last hit town with Come for back-up, Steve Wynn has assembled a killer band whose members include our own Rich Gilbert on lead guitar; he's back at T.T. the Bear's Place tonight (Thursday). Mistle Thrush are at the Middle East with Poundcake and Incinerator, and Tree headline the Rat . . . Despite what the ads say, it's not quite the "original" Stranglers who play the Rat tomorrow (Friday) -- frontman Hugh Cornwell jumped ship a few years ago -- but the long-running Brit-punk trailblazers are otherwise intact and should be worth catching. Meanwhile, New Orleans's Cowboy Mouth, who tore up Mama Kin two months ago, are back with the Mudhens co-headlining. The Spies and the Varmints are at Club Bohemia; Black #9 play the 935 Beacon Club. And the non-talking Heads begin two nights at the Paradise.

Underball's CD-release party is at the Rat on Saturday, Chinstrap are at the Linwood, and Buffalo Tom play some new material at T.T.'s with Buttercup opening . . . Janet LaValley and the Candy Butchers play an AIDS Action party at Mama Kin Sunday; the much-hyped Kula Shaker play the Paradise with the charming Rasputina . . . Country hero Jim Lauderdale is at the Middle East on Monday . . . Cake are at Axis Wednesday; the Fixx attempt a comeback at the Paradise. And Simon Townshend, who plays in his big brother's rather famous band at the Centrum this week, hits the House of Blues.