The good fight

Serum and SBC fight on

by Brett Milano

There are a lot of parallels between being in a rock band and being in a romantic relationship, but the most obvious one is that things are always different the second time around. Sometimes it's more intense. Sometimes you've got more scars. Or maybe you're just more determined to get it right this time.

All of the above is true for Siobhan McAuley, the former Trojan Ponies singer who now fronts Serum. She's well aware that her first band probably would have been successful if the members had stuck together. They were loud, original, charismatic, and three-quarters female -- all the ingredients for big-time attention. But they had an acrimonious break-up just around the time major labels started knocking. And that remains a difficult subject to this day. "It was a horrible break-up and I took it rather personally," McAuley says. "I got pretty upset, and a lot of the first Serum songs were about that. It's only lately that I can look back and realize how great a band it was." Three years after the Ponies' demise, Serum make their overdue debut with Dirty Girl Scout (on their own label).

The new line-up is by no means a clone of the Trojan Ponies. McAuley still favors the full-throttle vocal approach, a bit reminiscent of PJ Harvey, but her songs have a melodic quality that wasn't always there before. And instead of playing fast and hard all the time, Serum experiment more with dynamics. Their rhythm section carries most of the instrumental weight, with drummer Jason Dumont (a Ponies holdover) and bassist Tristram Lozaw (yes, the local rock critic, who met McAuley while interviewing her for the Herald) showing King Crimson-esque tendencies that offset the raw venom in McAuley's words. (Initially McAuley was also the lead guitarist; then Mark Lax joined midway through the album.) At best it's a fresh, edgy mix of pop and art-rock elements; but the quieter numbers have a moody airiness that brings early Tribe to mind. And though McAuley tends to cover them over with non-sequitur song titles ("Church of Elvis"), love and betrayal seem to be a running theme in her lyrics.

"And in my entire life," she notes on the roof of the Commonwealth Avenue apartment she shares with her boyfriend. "Falling in and out of love with people is a huge source of change, and of inspiration. And I'm not just talking about boyfriends and girlfriends -- you can fall in and out of love with friends, with siblings, with yourself and who you are. Every song I write is deeply personal, every word of it. But they're not necessarily about a guy that left me, even though they may sound that way. They could just as well be about a dog that left me."

A longtime Dublin and London resident before a broken-off relationship led her to Boston, McAuley is an intense character by nature, the type who stares people directly in the eye when performing. But she says that the version of herself that people know now is the toned-down PG-rated one. "Believe me, before I started playing music I was out of control -- drinking way too much, doing whatever drugs came along, going with guys who made my life a soap opera. I haven't needed to be that way since I went on stage." So like Lou Reed's heroine, her life was saved by rock and roll? "Most definitely -- I'm serene compared to the dervish I was. It's painful being the person I am. I've been accused of being too sensitive, being melodramatic; but maybe I can experience things on a different level. I'd rather be me than be married with three kids in the suburbs. But maybe some of the people I surround myself with wish I was."

Serum's CD went through every misfortune in the book before its release. The original tapes were partly destroyed in a studio flood. Tracks were remixed and re-recorded after Lax joined. Then a Connecticut pressing plant refused to handle the album when it discovered the lyric "Baby, you sure know how to fuck me" in "Babylove" -- though the people there deserve credit for listening that closely. They probably didn't like the disc's title, although it refers only to a drink that the band discovered in a downtown bar. "I was never a girl scout, but I probably would have been a dirty one," McAuley says. "That phrase is like me, a little innocent and a little sullied."

Serum play their disc-release party at T.T. the Bear's Place tonight (Thursday), along with Planet Queen (the new band from Grind's Sandy Cohen, who guests on Serum's album) and Chelsea on Fire.

SAM BLACK VERSUS TAANG!

It's practically a local tradition for Boston bands to have legal battles with major labels. But the hard-rocking Sam Black Church have broken the mold by having a legal battle with an indie label. Last April they sued their way out of a contract with Taang!, the label that was a local institution before owner Curtis Casella moved it to San Diego in the spring of 1995.

The move coincided with the release of SBC's second full-length album, Superchrist, and that's when the band's troubles began. "We were pretty happy with Taang! when they were still in Boston, but then it was impossible to have any communication," manager Sean McNally explains. "Getting Curtis on the phone was a challenge and a half, to put it kindly." Meanwhile Taang!'s distribution deal with Caroline had fallen apart. Superchrist was near-impossible to find in stores, and it didn't match the sales of its predecessors.

"We did interviews with people who'd never heard it was out. And some of the attendance at shows was horrendous. Curtis would always say that he didn't have to promote us because we were already established." Making matters worse, Casella had cut the recording budget for Superchrist from $15,000 to $4000, so the band could afford to make only a 35-minute album. Then he claimed it was only an EP -- meaning that he'd still have SBC under contract. (Their contract, however, specified that a disc 30 minutes or longer was an album.) Meanwhile Geffen was interested in signing the band, but Casella refused to let them go.

"We had no idea why," McNally says. "He claimed he never saw a penny from the band, and we never saw any. We offered him points on the Geffen record, so he could have made money and still said he won. He really could have made out like a dog, but he just sat there."

Reached at his West Coast office, Casella gives a very different take on the situation -- pointing out that though Superchrist did run 35 minutes, it had only five new songs and was padded with a Queen cover and a hidden live track. "There was never any intention of doing an album. We had tons of money, they can check our bank account. But they didn't have the material at the time. When I put it out, we agreed to call it an EP. Two years later they claim differently."

He also says he was kept in the dark about their negotiations with Geffen. "They weren't just trying to get off Taang!; they sued me for money and catalogue royalties, and they got nothing. If that's winning a case, I don't want to know what losing is. If they'd offered us points [from Geffen], I would have taken it in a second -- because I wouldn't have wanted to put out another Sam Black Church record. I'm sorry I put out the ones I did." As for the claim that he couldn't be reached: "They could have tried leaving a message."

The band spent $20,000 to bring Casella to court, but it was a qualified victory, since the Geffen A&R reps who wanted to sign SBC had left the label by then. Still, McNally believes that label reps will be present in force when the band play the Middle East on the 28th. Meanwhile they've released their third album, a potent effort appropriately called That Which Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Stronger. Confirming the band's belief that their last album should have sold better, the new one was Newbury Comics' top-selling indie disc the first week of release. All eight songs were originally Geffen demos; the release may ultimately be licensed to a larger label. Meanwhile it's on the band's own label, Untangled -- pun definitely intended.

TIDAL WAVE

Lonely Guy & the Tidal Waves' homonymous release gets my vote for the worst cover photo of the year -- it makes them look more like a bowling team than a rock band -- but the disc is big fun. Recorded over some four years, it's a mess of spirited punk & pop with hooks, trasherama lyrics, and lotsa twang bar (the closing "King of Kool" appears to be a tribute, in both music and lyrics, to Dick Dale). Gang Green's Chris Doherty guests on "Hollis," a rocker that proudly lifts the opening riff of AC/DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie." The band also get away with a ballad (the Kiss-like "Summer Song," shaky falsetto and all), but they sound best when they crank into rockabilly mode. "Now that was a rocker," singer/guitarist Lonely Guy exclaims at the end of "Shambles' -- and it is. They open for the Dickies' 20th-anniversary show at the Middle East tonight (Thursday).

COMING UP

The Nighthawks are at the House of Blues tonight (Thursday), Dale Watson is at Johnny D's, Skeleton Key are at the Middle East upstairs, Inhale Mary and Ape Hangers are at the Linwood, and Jen Trynin plays a preliminary release party at Bill's Bar . . . Jen's party continues at T.T. the Bear's Place tomorrow (Friday), this time with virtually everybody from Q Division (Merrie Amsterburg, Expanding Man, the Gravy, Jules Verdone, Gravel Pit, and more). Showcase Showdown are at O'Brien's, Piewacket and Silver Star are at the Kirkland, and Halifax pop faves Sloan play with Boy Wonder at the Middle East while Cherry 2000 and Chevy Heston appear upstairs. Tracie Smart is at Club Passim, and reggae's Michael Rose (the former Black Uhuru lead singer) is at the Somerville Theatre . . . Vehicle Birth are at O'Brien's Saturday, the mighty Skatalites are at the Somerville Theatre, and Push Kings are at T.T.'s . . . Big fun in Central Square Sunday as the Grifters, Amazing Royal Crowns, Lyres, and scads of others play the Central Square World's Fair starting at 1. Murphy's Law are at the Middle East that night . . . And Scissorfight bring the "Planet of Ass" to the Paradise on Tuesday.