Pop starts

Baby Ray, the Pills, the Darlings, and Jonathan Richman's missing star

Cellars by Starlight by Brett Milano

You might think Boston needs another pop combo slightly more than it needs a hole in the head. But there are still a few good ones who've slipped through the cracks, and two such bands, Baby Ray and the Pills, are set for CD debuts this week. Having slogged it out in the clubs for years, both are taking their chance to put more hooks into the world.

The best and the worst thing you can say about Baby Ray's Monkeypuzzle (Thirsty Ear, in stores this Tuesday) is that it sounds a lot like XTC -- in fact, it sounds more like XTC than did the last Boston band who sounded like XTC (that would be the late, lamented Poundcake). But though it's a cliché to say that every pop group with clever lyrics and fancy time changes sound like the Swindon lads, it's a rare one who really do -- and if Baby Ray's "Buster Pig Man" doesn't bring Andy Partridge into your head, you haven't played Drums & Wires lately (this would be the earlier, more aggressive version of the band). Singer/guitarist Erich Groat's voice can sound remarkably like Partridge's, and Baby Ray's studio sound (mostly achieved by the band's creative four-tracking) recalls Steve Lillywhite's productions of that era. In fact, the acoustic "Little Red Caboose" sounds more like an old XTC number than the last set of bootleg Partridge demos I heard; it even pulls the favorite Partridge trick of referring to a nursery rhyme. Occasionally Baby Ray get to the point where their cleverness outstrips their tunefulness -- but XTC had that problem too. Mostly you admire them for pulling it off at all; and if they remind you of a great band, so be it.

"At least you didn't say we sounded like the Atlanta Rhythm Section," notes guitarist/singer Ken Lafler. "That may be something that follows us around, but there is an element of what grabs you about XTC to what we do -- certain guitar sounds, rapid left turns." Adds Groat, "I was considering telling everybody that we hate XTC and would never sound like them, but I can't do that. We all do like them, so the resemblance can't be a bad thing. It's not that we set out to write XTCish songs, but I know there's a few on the album that are. It's also hard to avoid getting lumped in with XTC if you're an alternative rock band that uses more than four chords."

Baby Ray are unique among local supergroups in that their rhythm section is more famous than their front line: drummer Nathan Logus, who now lives in New York, is a familiar face from his gigs with the Barnies and Jules Verdone, and bassist Paul Simonoff was in Lumen and Chainsuck. Lafler and Groat (who's now a part-time member of the Williard Grant Conspiracy) were members of the Missyous, a pretty good straight-ahead pop band who didn't have room for quirkier songs -- so of course that's what they started writing at home. "And the album's a little more pop than we normally are," Groat points out. "We've done 26-minute space jams, and we can be all over the map. But we wanted to make an album that flowed well. So we said, 'Well, we've got these pop songs; let's make a pop record. But let's throw something in there to show it's not all we do.' "

What Baby Ray also have in common with -- well, with certain other inventive pop groups -- is a maverick approach to songwriting: sticking the more corrosive words into the more sparkling tunes. And they subscribe to a rule that Frank Zappa laid down a couple of decades ago: if a song starts getting too commercial, stick the word "fuck" in it. Both tendencies come out in "M.F.G." (two-thirds of which stands for "my girl"), on which Groat portrays an asshole so effectively that you might think he really is one. "That song came to me in church," he deadpans. "The words fit a stupid chord sequence I came up with; I thought it was amusing, so I went with it. It will probably open us to charges of misogyny, but it's about someone I know who treated his girlfriend crappily -- he's a bit of a rock star himself, so I won't mention names. We don't have a lot of pretty and nice songs, except maybe `Little Red Caboose' -- that's got some of that `being in love' thing that rock musicians can't get enough of."

THE PILLS

"Our album is a lot better than you'd expect from us," notes Pills singer/bassist Corin Ashley when he and bandmates David Thompson (vocals/guitar) and Clyde O'Scope (lead guitar) sit down with me at the Middle East. The self-depreciation shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows these folks, who've long been a likable fixture on the local scene -- the sort of friendly pop band one takes for granted. They're looking to change that with their CD debut, Wide Awake with the Pills (Monolyth), though the disc was unavailable for preview -- in time-honored Boston tradition, it wasn't released in time for the release party at Bill's Bar. But they promise to have it in the stores this week, and the disc offers a number of bright and upbeat tunes I've heard on demo tapes.

"It took us three years to make a 27-minute album," notes Ashley. "It's a cheap-ass record; to say we cut corners would be an understatement. But somehow it all coheres. What we always intended to do was to take the music we like -- '60s pop and new wave -- and give it a more jagged edge. Then I'm listening to our record and I'm thinking, `My God -- maybe we finally did what we intended.' "

Just back from a national tour, the Pills had a bit of an excellent adventure. It started last spring, when they entered a Jim Beam-sponsored band contest at the House of Blues. They won their preliminary, then got flown to New Orleans for the final and won again. "The preliminaries were held opposite the Rumble, so nobody even knew it was going on," notes Thompson. "We weren't up against any popular Boston bands or anything. And in New Orleans we were up against three backwards-hat bands -- they all sounded like the Wallflowers, so we stood out." Ashley picks up the story: "Then they started giving us Jim Beam after we got off stage, and we were pretty legless by the time they announced we won. Then we had to play our victory set: we played the same three songs we'd already played; then we did `Band on the Run.' And the judges were looking like, `Can I take my vote back?' "

For the next two weeks they lived like royalty -- or at least like a bigger band. "We had a tour bus that Paul McCartney had used once, which was great -- we're the band that always has to borrow our girlfriends' cars, and now we've got a tour bus. We'd stop for breakfast and waitresses would follow us out to the bus, because they thought we were rich and famous." The tour brought them to Los Angeles, where they added backing vocals to Powerman 5000's next album (on a Beach Boys send-up that will be a hidden track). And they played their favorite gig of the batch at the Viper Room. "The chick from Dharma & Greg was there," notes Thompson. "And Adam Duritz, who knew the words to our songs because Dave Gibbs [of the Gigolo Aunts, who record for Duritz's label] had given him a tape."

True, the band were a little dubious about playing a corporate-sponsored tour. "The side of the bus that said 'Jim Beam' on it was the side we parked against the curb," notes Ashley. "I'm sure it was part altruistic on their part, and part because they can't advertise on the radio otherwise," adds Thompson. But the tour did get the Pills on some unusual bills, including a Midwest slot opening for -- wait for it -- Sloan and the Village People. "The only one of the Village People we met was the Indian, but at least it was the original Indian," notes Ashley. "He told us that we rocked." And it really doesn't get any better than that.

DARLINGS TO NASHVILLE

Meanwhile, another Boston band have gotten their props from the Jim Beam folks. The company is now sponsoring a contest for country bands, and one of five national finalists is this writer's favorite Boston country act, the Darlings. They'll play the final in Nashville on November 12; if they win, they'll play a major-label showcase at RCA's Studio B -- a spot the band will probably visit anyway, since that's where all the Everly Brothers hits were recorded.

RICHMAN'S MISSING STAR

Although it was cool that Tower Records got Joe Strummer and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones together for a publicity event last week (and even cooler that Strummer hung out in the Middle East for a few hours that night), you might have noticed a glaring omission in front of the Newbury Street Tower: Jonathan Richman's star has been removed from the store's "Walk of Fame," just in time for Richman's latest club swing through town. An evil corporate plot to rewrite local history? Nothing of the sort, the Tower folks assure us: general manager Bob Zimmerman says that Richman's star got damaged while it was being moved to a different spot along the walk but will be reinstalled on November 2, at which time Rob Zombie will also get a star.

COMING UP

Tonight (Thursday), Cat Power headline the Middle East, and Jack Drag play T.T. the Bear's Place, New Orleans bluesman Walter Wolfman Washington is at the House of Blues, Three Day Threshold and Kipper Tin are at Mama Kin, and blueswoman Vykki Vox is at the Linwood . . . Tomorrow (Friday) it's Built To Spill downstairs at the Middle East and an Instant magazine party with Pretty Cool Chair upstairs, Driveway and Binge at Mama Kin, the Allstonians at T.T.'s, Sleepy LaBeef at Johnny D's, and Mikey Dee's Halloween gig and "Kooky Kostume Kontest" at Club Bohemia.

Saturday it's Honkeyball at the Middle East with Bourbon Princess, Slide's extravaganza with Barrence Whitfield (who's re-formed the Savages) and Willie Alexander at the Lizard Lounge, Mono Puff and Double Dong at T.T.'s, the Bentmen at Bill's Bar, and the Love Dogs at Johnny D's . . . A "Femmes Fatales of the Fenway" benefit brings a stellar line-up of female rockers to the Linwood Sunday, including Ramona Silver, Hilken Mancini (Fuzzy), Isabel and Jen from Verago-go, and Mary Ellen Leahy (ex-Trona) . . . Meanwhile the alterna-orchestral Rachel's are at the Middle East, and the Candyskins and Seventeen are at T.T.'s . . . On Tuesday, Jonathan Richman begins three nights at the Middle East and old-school Cambridge folkie Geoff Muldaur returns to Johnny D's . . . Wednesday it's Nashville renegade Robbie Fulks at Johnny D's and Sunny Day Real Estate at Karma Club.