PC or not PC

Rock comps to help kids and a vampire

Cellars by Starlight by Brett Milano

A pair of local benefit compilations are being released this week, and they present an exemplary choice of good causes. Depending on which disc you purchase, you can donate your money to homeless children or to a brainsucking, goat-killing monster.

If you choose the former, you're probably a nice person, which means you'll appreciate the friendly mix of pop stylings on A Place To Call Home (Reverse Curve) -- a benefit disc put together by the busy local producer Pete Weiss, who's donating all the proceeds to MARE (Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange). And if you pick the latter, you're probably a wise-ass, which means you'll love the young, loud, snotty material on Benefit for El Chupacabra (Polterchrist) -- a comp put together by Quintaine Americana bassist Marc Schleicher, who swears he'll donate all the proceeds to the creature in question (for those who don't read the tabloids, El Chupacabra is a monster that's being blamed for a rash of dead, fang-marked goats around the Mexican border). But if El Chupacabra doesn't show up, or if he/she doesn't have a bank account, Schleicher plans to pocket the funds himself and channel them into his just-launched vinyl/CD label.

Of course, any bug-eyed creature that sucks the life juices out of dogs, cats, and goats is bound to be all right with a bloodthirsty band like Quintaine -- especially if it offers a novel theme for a compilation album. "I was getting really sick of Boston rock compilations, and I figured there'd at least be something different out there if I made a mockery of one," Schleicher admits. He's even put a mailing address inside the CD for the El Chupacabra Outreach & Survival Foundation, though we doubt that the area code for Kansas City is actually 00666. "If El Chupacabra really does show up, I'll try to keep him in the luxury he deserves," Schleicher promises.

No surprise that the 75-minute disc is weighted toward the loud and nasty shit. The surprise is that Schleicher has wheedled some prime tracks from bands who usually record for bigger labels -- in fact, this set is a better listen than the recent New Alliance/Ten Years After compilation, even though it features many of the same bands (Honeyglazed, 8-Ball Shifter, Half Cocked, Planet Queen) and covers much of the same territory. What the two comps have in common is that Vic Firecracker's deep-thinking introversion sounds out of place on both. Otherwise, the Chupacabra set makes even fewer concessions to pop; and it's saying something that the tracks by Quintaine and Slughog are two of its more tuneful entries -- unless you count the banjo version of Van Halen's "Jamie's Crying" (by the Bluegrass Mutantears), which should satisfy anyone who didn't get enough Halen dissing on last year's Everybody Wants Some (CherryDisc). Among the newer bands (Claymore, Barbaro, Moveable), the prevailing sound isn't so much guitar- as bass-heavy, built less on noodly riffs than on a big, grumbly bottom. And on the subject of bottoms, 8 Ball Shifter's "Wedgie" is both the most tasteless and the best track -- not just because the sole lyric is "Hey Mom, I've got a wedgie!" but because singer Ian Adams sounds as if he really did.

Schleicher doesn't have any grand designs for his label; he wants to keep it local and put out small-edition releases by bands he likes. At the moment there's a split CD scheduled for Cracktorch and Los Conquistadors del Rock followed by a full Claymore CD. Since Quintaine are currently unsigned, there's also a chance that Schleicher will release something by his own band -- at least an EP while they shop around for a bigger label. "I'd like to go with the early Sub Pop attitude, where people knew they'd probably like something if it was on the label. Definitely loud rock, but a little twisted at the same time. It's a much bigger burden than I expected, but I'm enjoying it so far. I've made a little bit of money back but haven't been able to put a down payment on the Beamer yet."

A two-night release party takes place this week, with the loud stuff -- Planet Queen, Claymore, Los Conquistadors, and the final gig of Ass Tractor -- playing at O'Brien's on Monday the 30th. Then on Thursday (December 2), a more eclectic bill hits the Lizard Lounge, with Honeyglazed, the Bluegrass Mutantears, and X-rated comic Ducky Doolittle.

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It's Sunday night at Mama Kin two weeks ago, at a release party for the Place To Call Home compilation; and Pete Weiss is busy as usual. He's just gotten off the stage with his Rock Band (a wry pop trio including drummer Emily Jackson and guitarist Stephen Fredette), he's made sure a half-dozen other bands got to do their 30-minute sets on time, and he's helped the MARE folks set up an information booth. Seeing that he's being interviewed in the upstairs hallway, a number of disciples wander up from the Robert Fripp show that's just let out from the Music Hall next door to ask Weiss whether he knows where they can find their hero. In fact, Weiss was hoping he could find the guitarist himself, since he wrote a song called "Do the Fripp" a couple years ago and wanted to pass it along.

"I like experimental stuff, but I was a Beatles nerd growing up," he explains. "Then I got into Let's Active and listened to everything Mitch Easter did. Those are my roots." Today Weiss is part owner of Zippah Studios. Like Easter, he specializes in giving straight-ahead pop an interesting sonic spin. The compilation came about when Weiss realized he had a song or two left over from most of the album projects he's done over the past couple of years -- Baby Ray, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Seks Bomba, Boy Wonder. The leftovers were usually the more left-field ones, hence his favorites. "I'm also looking to move beyond Zippah as a producer, so I figured this disc could be a calling card -- partly for my own amusement, partly to shop my wares around. Then I thought, why not take the high road, so I looked at a bunch of different charities. I think MARE does good work, and its budget was slashed by the state last year."

Three tracks especially stand out, the first being the overdue debut of Peter Prescott's Peer Group, who combine his usual toothy songwriting with proudly obnoxious punk/metal riffage. Their track is the disc's longest at 5:29, and on stage last week they managed to build a half-hour set out of three songs. More concise is Charlie Chesterman's "King Size Cigarette," a remake of a great rockabilly song that he wrote for his pre-Scruffy the Cat band the Law (the Dogmatics also recorded it). It's the first time lush production has been added to Chesterman's trademark rootsy sound, and Weiss says that's a teaser for the forthcoming album. "It will be our first attempt at a vaguely commercial-sounding record. We're going for a radio sound on it. Charlie's over his writer's block, and he's got a bunch of jangly pop gems."

The real shocker is a track by Doug Yule -- the very same guy who replaced John Cale in the Velvet Underground circa 1968, got cut out of the band's history because of longstanding bad blood with Lou Reed, and has barely been heard from since. "He was always my favorite Velvet," says Weiss, who found him after doing a session with his ex-bandmate Moe Tucker. "I've got to say he's the most grounded guy, with a little of the aging-hippie thing happening. Whatever he was into, he cleaned up years ago." Recorded with Chesterman, drummer Malcolm Travis, and steel player Tim Obetz, Yule's "Beginning To Get It" is a catchy, jangly country tune -- but you'd never guess that the singer had ever heard the Velvets, much less been one.

THE ELEVATOR DROPS

A few years ago, The Elevator Drops figured something out: playing for club kids is fine, but it's more fun to play for drag queens. Thus they wound up at Jacques, where they opened the downstairs room and helped launch a rock/drag crossover that thrives there to this day. They left the club and hit the road soon after, touring hard to promote their albums on Time Bomb, but they'll make a return to Jacques tomorrow (Friday).

The theatrical pop subversives have played every kind of gig in the last couple of years, opening national shows for the Butthole Surfers, Garbage, and Pulp -- when those went dry they started playing high schools. "That was the best part," notes frontman Josh Hager. "We even played my own high school, and the kids were freaking out -- either they were really enthused or they'd developed an acute sense of sarcasm. It was funny to see that the kids were basically the same as when I went to high school -- half were goth kids and the other half was the mainstream rock crowd."

If the band have been low-key lately, that's partly due to disputes with Time Bomb, which is currently Hager's least favorite topic. "You don't even want to know," he says when the label's name is invoked. "I could probably give you 10 pages of negative comments. Let's say we're not the right band for them and vice versa."

DENNISON MOVES ON

An era in Boston club life ends this month with Lilli Dennison's departure from Charlie's Tap/Green Street Grill, where she's booked the free Monday-night shows for the past decade. Dennison has been part of the circuit since she first hit Boston in the late '70s -- she got a job waitressing at the Rat that same week -- and has been visible as a band manager, booking agent, mastermind of the Central Square World's Fair, and all-round scene booster. We wish her the best as she moves into civilian life.

COMING UP

Stay inside and eat more turkey tonight (Thursday), because nobody of note is playing anywhere. Tomorrow (Friday) things heat up again with Kid Rock at Axis and Mogwai at the Middle East. And the fine punk/pop band Underball play their last show at T.T. the Bear's Place, with Full Powered Halo opening . . . It's old-school heaven on Central Square Saturday night with the Lyres headlining the Middle East upstairs and the Outlets (with Boys Life tribute band Two Doors Down and Boys Life spinoff band the Deniros) at T.T.'s. Beatle Juice are at Johnny D's, and cult-hero rockers You Am I are at Mama Kin . . . WFNX celebrates its 15th anniversary on Monday night with Liz Phair and Tracy Bonham -- you can get tickets by listening to the station . . . WBCN takes over the clubs for its promo shows on Tuesday; highlights are the Cherry Poppin' Daddies at Axis, Marcy Playground and Amazing Crowns at the Middle East, and Better Than Ezra with the Pills at T.T.'s . . . Anthrax rip up Mama Kin on Wednesday, and ska meets rockabilly at the Middle East with the Slackers and Raging Teens.