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Second comings

The return of Todd Spahr and Chris Ewen

by Brett Milano

You've got to feel a little sorry for the guys who used to be in the Cavedogs. By all rights, that band should now be canonized as the godfathers of a scene -- the Mission of Burma of pure pop, if you will. Instead, all three ex-Cavedogs have to their credit at least one perfectly good spinoff band who didn't get off the ground. Singer/guitarist Todd Spahr and singer/drummer Mark Rivers couldn't find many takers for Merang, despite a handful of Cavedog-quality songs. The same fate befell Rivers's Poundcake, now defunct despite one of last year's best local albums (Aloha via Satellite). And the high-quality songwriting on Bran Stevens's solo album easily deserved more attention than it got.

So it's no wonder that Todd Spahr kicks a little harder on his new band the Gravy's debut -- which ain't just pop, it's Hangman's Pop (Q Division). The album's lyrics are as gothic (in the pre-fashion sense) as the cover photo's dangling torso would suggest. There are lots of battle and plague references, along with sentiments like "For a song to be meaningful, the singer should be dead." But Spahr hasn't let go of the Cavedogs' pop formula, he's just given it a sinister twist. He was responsible for the old band's heavier tunes, the ones descended from the Who rather than the Beatles. That trend continues on the Gravy's album, where "Memory," "Absolution," and "Sissy Blood" (the latter two being Merang holdovers) all sport big, ringing hooks.

What's new here is an approach to arrangement that verges on prog-rock. Spahr spent exactly one day in the studio cutting the basic tracks and nearly a year working on mixes and overdubs, segueing songs into each other and adding structural tricks. "Pretty Krishna," the catchiest thing here, includes a left-field bridge that takes a flying leap out of the song's basic structure, before a turn in the lyric slides it back in. The closing "Embrace Your Plague" is three minutes of what Spahr calls "the crazy stuff" -- a horror-movie-inspired collage that has more in common with "Bohemian Rhapsody" (complete with a cappella break) than with the Cavedogs. The fun experiments wind up undercutting the dourness of the lyrics; you'll seldom hear a band sound so wide-eyed and jaded at the same time.

"My one worry is how accessible it really is," Spahr explains. "People don't seem to be too scared by it, but some of them are. A lot of things were happening with me during the period of time the album was made -- it was a record to work through a lot of things with, I'll say that. Maybe it is a pretty sad record; it was a pretty sad time. But it's still melodic, and I think it still feels pretty good."

Besides, his real inspiration for the album's cut-and-paste approach was an upbeat one, namely the Beach Boys. "The idea was to have that `Good Vibrations' feel where something gets pasted together. `Plague' started out as a little progression that went down a half-step every time it ended; I liked the idea of it spiraling down into infinity. By the end I had three different versions of the album, all sequenced and edited. I was thinking in terms of a two-sided vinyl album before [producer] Jon Lupfer reminded me I didn't have to do that. The last edit was me finally throwing my hands into the air."

One of the album's spoken-word bits, "Concerning Mr. G's Missing Digit" (i.e., Jerry Garcia's lopped-off finger), was demo'd for the Cavedogs and got blank stares all around. The title and cover idea also stem from those days. "It came to me when the Cavedogs were dissolving before my eyes. Everything we did got stuck with that evil P-word, like it was a noose around our necks. If you tried to do anything that the reigning royalty of pop lovers thought was a little crazy, you were always chastised. That happened with Soul Martini [the second, more heavily-produced Cavedogs album]. And now the Gravy album is nothing but the crazy stuff."

He points out that his newer songs are moving back to the Cavedogs feel, and recent live shows bear him out. But he's aiming to play most of the album at this Saturday's CD-release party at T.T. the Bear's Place (which will also featuring their stylistic cousins, Gravel Pit), even doing a live version of "Embrace Your Plague" for the first and probably only time. The Gravy lost their drummer recently when Tom Polce was lured away by Letters to Cleo; Spahr and bandmates Glenn Brown (bass) and Michael Jordan (guitar) will be joined by Mark Rivers on drums. Rivers is moving to Los Angeles soon, so this will be the last chance for a long while to see two Cavedogs on stage at the same time, since the full band seem about as likely to reunite as, well, Mission of Burma.

"There aren't any lingering bad feelings from that band, it just gives you a lot to live up to if you're still hanging around here," Spahr says. "It just seems that everyone's aware of it."

ANOTHER GUY

you have to feel a little sorry for is Chris Ewen, the keyboardist/songwriter behind the Future Bible Heroes' Memories of Love (Slow River/Rykodisc). A former member of Figures on a Beach and current Man Ray DJ, Ewen wrote and performed all the music on the album -- a smart, tuneful homage/update of the glory days of synth-pop. And he brought in two high-profile friends, Stephin Merritt and Stephin's Magnetic Fields partner Claudia Gonson, to share the lyrics and vocals.

Despite Ewen's integral role in Future Bible Heroes, Memories of Love has been praised as "the latest project from AM radio fanatic Stephin Merritt" (Musician), "a side project from Stephin Merritt and Claudia Gonson" (Musician), and "like Merritt's efforts with the 6ths and Magnetic Fields" (Entertainment Weekly). Details even credited the songwriting to Merritt. Most of the reviews don't mention Ewen's name -- but then, neither does the sticker on the CD cover: "Featuring Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields."

"It doesn't bother me at all -- to me it's both of our record," Ewen asserts. "A lot of the focus has been on Stephin, but I think that people have been figuring out my involvement later on."

It doesn't help Ewen's profile that the album really does sound like a Stephin Merritt record -- especially his '95 disc with the 6ths, Wasps Nests (on which Merritt's role was just the opposite, providing backing tracks for other people to sing on). True, Ewen has a different approach to synths: his arrangements are lush and orchestral, whereas the ones on the 6ths album tend to be spare and mechanical. But he and Merritt share a number of highly untrendy reference points -- among them the Human League, OMD, and those eternal icons of synth-pop, Abba.

As usual with Merritt-related projects, the album keeps you guessing as to what's serious and what's ironic. Gonson gets to sing most of the heart-on-sleeve songs, which Merritt counters with deadpan delivery of tracks like "She-Devils of the Deep."

"What interests me is that a lot of the music is happy, and the lyrics take you down different roads," Ewen says. "Stephin is very good at that, so they aren't these pop songs with `I love you, baby' lyrics. Some people may see that as irony; I see it as adding more depth to the music.

"Stephin and I both like the straight-ahead stuff, and we both like unique producers -- you can drag out obvious people like Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, and Lindsay Buckingham. But I don't hear a great resemblance between my things and his. I think we've always looked to each other for honest critiques about what we do, which is difficult to find if you do electronic music. Whether we agree with each other is another thing, but at least we can always get an honest opinion from each other. He's into the concept -- and I tend to agree with him -- that if you're using synthesizers and electronics, you shouldn't be trying to make it sound like a live band."

Expect a slightly different slant when the Bible Heroes play tonight (Thursday) at the Photographic Resource Center with Combustible Edison. It's only the third live show they've ever done. Merritt and Gonson will be playing keyboards as well as singing, and a guitarist and cellist will be added. (Magnetic Fields will turn up on their own tomorrow -- that's Friday the 15th -- at the Middle East.)

Ewen admits under prodding that the Bible Heroes album has an '80s-like sound, but he says that happened by accident. "It wasn't an intentional thing. The point is that synths and electronic music aren't really used in America for pop songs. The electronica movement uses them for dance grooves; Prodigy isn't really a song band, none of them are except Stereolab, who are more of an indie rock band with synthesizers. So the retro feel doesn't necessarily happen because we sound like Human League, but because we use the electronic formula to write pop songs. Believe me, I could have really gone whole hog with the '80s thing if I'd wanted to."

THE SHEAGLES

If you thought you'd heard every possible angle on the subject of women in rock, try this one: why would a bunch of self-respecting writers and musicians call themselves the Sheagles and devote themselves to playing Eagles covers?

"Because somebody had to do it sooner or later," explains singer/drummer Donna Henley.

Close examination reveals that singer-guitarists Josie Walsh and Glenda Frey are Melissa and Bethany, the editor-publishers of Fresh & Tasty magazine; and Henley is really Kristina Kehrer, late of Quivvver and the only Sheagle who'd ever played her instrument before. "They hounded me to join this band back when I was seven months pregnant," she says.

The Sheagles have two gigs scheduled for the weekend: Friday at Club Bohemia and Sunday at Mama Kin. Expect them to approach the Eagles catalogue with the respect it deserves at this point. In other words, you can draw your own conclusions. Suffice to say it'll be more a spirited trashing than a tribute.

COMING UP

The buzzed-about alterna-country band Whiskeytown hit Bill's Bar tonight (Thursday), Fuck play upstairs at the Middle East, former John Mayall guitar hotshot Coco Montoya is at the House of Blues, and PermaFrost are at the Attic . . . On Friday it's Verago-go and January at the Linwood; Swizzle's single-release party with the Magnetic Fields, Methadone Actors, and Ultrabreakfast at the Middle East; Bim Skala Bim with a video-release party at the Paradise; and rockabilly legend Ronnie Dawson at Mama Kin . . . The Rat remains closed for evening shows, but its punk matinees continue this Saturday with Blanks 77 and Showcase Showdown. Saturday night 6L6 play O'Brien's, and Crown Electric Company and Jayuya are at the Middle East . . . Ska legend Desmond Dekker of "Israelites" fame makes a rare appearance at the House of Blues Monday . . . And Wednesday brings Bedhead's Kadane brothers to T.T. the Bear's Place and Crypt punkers the Oblivians to the Middle East.