Color bind

Chuck do their own funk

Cellars by Starlight by Brett Milano

One of the more shameful things about the local scene is that New England, by and large, just ain't funky enough. Sure, crowds will turn out whenever James Brown or any of the Parliament/Funkadelic variations hits town -- some things are universal. And Boston's spawned its share of white-boy frat funk, from G. Love to the recently disbanded Chucklehead. But despite a few signs of life in the '80s (with the Jonzun Crew and Prince Charles), the Hub has produced precious little of the real thing. Hell, for a while the closest thing Boston had to a legit funk act was Extreme.

Which makes it the best and the worst of times for Chuck, who are currently the city's funkiest band -- and would probably be even if they had any major competition. If Chuck have a claim to fame, it's "Bush's Barbeque" -- a righteous groove with a righteously pissed-off lyric that made some local waves on the band's first album (The Importance of Being Chuck), even though George Bush was safely out of office by the time of its release. But that was nearly five years ago, and since then Chuck have had neither a record label nor a circuit of like-minded bands to plug into. (They also lost their original drummer -- Nathaniel Morton, since replaced by John Abel -- to a gig with Chaka Khan.) They've survived by doing regular gigs (at an Irish pub no less; Central Square's Phoenix Landing has been their regular base) and stockpiling material for the next album.

Their long-delayed Funk Noir gets released this week (on their own Zen Chillion label), and a celebration show is set for tomorrow (Friday November 20) at the Middle East. The sophomore disc puts a somewhat different slant on the band. It's less groove-based and more of a singer's album, with as much smooth R&B as street funk; singer Joe Peek shines on the former, and there's a bit more polish on the latter. The politics are less explicit -- no BBQ with Helms or Gingrich this time around -- but the unity message is pumped up. And the closing track, "Children Go Where I Send Thee," shows some real invention: borrowing a chorus from a Christmas song, it's the first hip-hop track I've heard with acoustic guitar as a lead instrument -- and with a riff borrowed from U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday," no less.

"I noticed a trend in hip-hop where people will take a white kind of music and set it to a beat -- like A Tribe Called Quest sampling Lou Reed, or the use of that Suzanne Vega song ["Tom's Diner"]," notes keyboardist/writer Donny Jones. "So I wanted to try that, but not so extreme that I was doing a Puff Daddy thing." At the other extreme, "Sexy Lady" brings memories of Marvin Gaye's later tracks, both for its slinky groove and its flat-out salaciousness. And since some of the band members live in Jamaica Plain, the song takes on a different meaning when they perform there. "It's becoming a lesbian anthem, and we don't mind that," notes Peek. "The lyrics are pretty enticing or titillating, so you can make what you want of it."

The hardest-sounding track is also the one with the most peaceful message. "Gangstar" has been in the band's set for a few years, as a response to the gangsta-rap trend -- which they manage to dis without sounding like prudes or moralizers. Speaking against black-on-black crime, Peek's lyric still drops a few choice putdowns: "Walking around thinking you're too legit to quit, looks like your pants are loaded full of shit" -- a funny line even with the MC Hammer allusion. "The reason for that song is that I do a lot of work with kids as a counselor," Peek notes. "Kids will always listen to some records because of the rebelliousness aspect -- it was the same with me, I used to listen to Blowfly. But with the gangsta records, are they just into the rebelliousness or are they really into the message of those songs? We thought we'd give them a song with a little cursing in it, but the message isn't what you expect when you get down and listen to the lyrics."

Of course, a song like that doesn't make the band's commercial niche any easier to find. The members have had that problem in the past -- Jones was in a ska band, Plate o' Shrimp, about eight years before the trend hit. "Really missed the boat on that one, right? I remember the Bosstones opening for us at Jacks -- I always liked their energy, but at some point it just caught fire." And though Chuck always hoped to play for a racially mixed audience, they've found that the black crowds have been harder to reach. "And I always thought we were tailor-made," notes Peek. "Our whole idea was to combine R&B with the raw energy of a live band. The problem is that African-American artists are usually pigeonholed -- you're either rap or R&B or you're reggae. White artists can get away with mixing styles, like the Chili Peppers doing a rap song. But you hear black music on the radio and it's either one thing or the other, it's hip-hop or it's Keith Sweat -- and kids grow up with that. And it's harder to get the African-American audiences to see you live, in part because the clubs are all on one side of the river."

But the members got some kind of encouragement when they went to the Parliament/Funkadelic show at the Middle East last week. "It surprised me that the crowd was 90 percent white," notes Peek. "So if there's black kids that don't like P-Funk and they don't like Chuck, at least we're in good company."

CHAPTER IN VERSE BANNED?

This is the sort of thing you'd hope would never happen in the Boston area: a popular outfit getting banned from a club because they have a gay following. But the groove band Chapter in Verse claim it happened to them after they filled the Joshua Tree in Davis Square three weekends ago. According to the band, they were then informed by owner Joey Arcari that they wouldn't be asked back because there were female couples in their audience. The band have become a popular draw, selling out the Paradise and Bill's Bar, and their partly (repeat: partly) lesbian fanbase has ruffled no feathers in the past -- the New England Patriots, who had them play a pre-game show last year, had no problem with it. In terms of out-ness, you'd hardly mistake Chapter in Verse for Team Dresch: the lyrics lean more toward a hippie-ish togetherness vibe. Dangerous stuff indeed.

According to singer Rachel Clayton, "We literally packed the place -- there was a line outside to get in, they were screaming for encores at the end of the night, and I heard they never had higher bar sales. So our manager called him [Arcari] a couple of days after the show and asked what he thought. He said, `Yeah, the sales were great, we liked the band, but we can't have them back in our bar.' So she asked why and he said, `Well, there were some lesbians in the audience.' He said they drew a very local crowd and couldn't have that kind of people in the bar. Which amazes me, because we made them so much money that night -- they drank well, tipped well, and I think we have one of the nicest fanbases you'll ever see."

Clayton continues, "We're not a gay band. We have a very mixed crowd in our audience. There are women who follow us because we have strong women up front and they think it's an attractive thing. So we never wanted to be the poster-child band for a gay audience, but this happened to us and we want to stand up for the people that were in the audience that night. So screw the Joshua Tree -- we'll go down the street and make a lot of money for Johnny D's instead." (Chapter in Verse play there on December 5.)

When asked about the band's charges, Arcari denies that such a thing happened. "It's completely not true, everybody's welcome at the Joshua Tree." So why was a top-drawing band not invited back? "Because I wasn't crazy on them." He adds that the club plans to stop booking bands altogether after this weekend, going for a DJ format instead.

WEEPING IN FITS AND STARTS

If I were to guess the circumstances under which the Weeping in Fits and Starts album Blue Tunnel World (on Rhubarb) was recorded, I'd say it was two in the morning, the house was deserted, lots of clothes and empty bottles were lying around, and an angry message from an ex-girlfriend was blinking on the answering machine. Singer/writer Greg Jacobs, who plays nearly everything on the disc, has departed from his usual pop format and turned out something more interesting: an album that surrounds the conventional songs with sonic and emotional clutter.

It begins with a long and spooky instrumental intro -- think of R.E.M.'s "Airport Man" without the singing -- and proceeds through songs about failed love, massive insecurity, and worse. (Try this for an opening line: "When I was only six years old, I had a lobotomy/Think it had an effect on me . . . ") Although recorded at Zippah Studios, the disc has the intimate feel of a homemade demo, and there are enough solid hooks (notably the Loud Family-ish "Thomas on Fire") to prove that Jacobs has no trouble writing those. He stretched things a little thin by putting 19 songs on the disc -- his voice has a nerdy, They Might Be Giants quality that wears thin after an hour-plus -- but there are enough emotional tangles to make it grab hold. The release party is at Charlie's Tap this Monday, with a bill including the Phantom Sea Chanties (ex-Swirlies/Syrup USA) and the Kletter Sisters (who recently did a beautiful/miserable album for Rykodisc); expect a rewarding night of uneasy listening.

COMING UP

Karate play upstairs at the Middle East tonight (Thursday); the eternal Skatalites are downstairs. And Clarence Gatemouth Brown is at the House of Blues . . . Former New York Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, who made a couple of good solo albums in the early '80s and hasn't toured since, reappears at Mama Kin tomorrow (Friday). The great NRBQ are at the House of Blues, Come play T.T.'s with Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley's band Two Dollar Guitar and Shiva Speedway, My Favorite Relative are at Bill's Bar, and Mike Duke & the Soul Twisters are at Cool Blue's . . . Say happy birthday to the sharp roots-rocker Asa Brebner, who's at Toad Saturday. Texas guitar hero Junior Brown is at Johnny D's, Dennis Brennan plays the Lizard Lounge, the Gravel Pit rock at the Middle East, and King Memphis and Raging Teens do the rockabilly thing at T.T.'s . . . Team Dresch spinoff the Butchies make their local debut at the Middle East Sunday . . . Luther (Guitar Jr.) Johnson plays the House of Blues' anniversary on Monday . . . Bim Skala Bim play the Middle East Wednesday, and Tidy Wave and the Vic Morrows are at T.T.'s.

OOPS!

Last week we told you that former Dambuilders frontguy Dave Derby (whose latest project is the soundtrack for the new indie film Who's The Caboose?) would be bringing his band Brilliantine to the Middle East this Friday. Actually, Brilliantine will be headlining T.T. the Bear's Place tonight (November 19) with English indie-poppers Statuesque opening. Call 492-BEAR.