Hooks & lanes

The Nines, Verago-go, and the Milky Way

by Brett Milano

Here's a story you've heard before: a band get disenchanted with the sterility they find in the current musical climate and instead dig up something lively from a previous era, wearing their retro tag as a badge of honor. Familiar as it is, this can still be a beautiful thing when a band come along and flat-out, dead-on nail it.

Enter the Nines, whose intent is pretty well summed up by the title of their new CD, The Last Days of AM Radio (Clamarama). I assume they don't mean that title literally -- as I recall, AM radio was playing a lot of Bee Gees during its last gasp in the early '80s. Think instead of some mythical AM station from the late '70s that's still playing a lot of Buddy Holly and British Invasion and has just started throwing in some punk -- the sort of station Joey Ramone was singing about in "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio." That station couldn't have a better program director than Nines frontman Evan Shore, whose songwriting has an "all hits, all the time" sensibility.

Peruse his titles and you'll know what the songs are about: "Can't Stop Thinking of You," "Gotta Getta Outta Yer Life," "She'll Come Around" -- the type of girlfriend-centered songs that have as much fun trashing a bad relationship as celebrating a good one. Shore's had a gift for hooks since his early days with the Voodoo Dolls, for whom he wrote the shoulda-been-classic "This Town Makes Me Feel So Lonely." But with the Nines his songs are nothing but hooks.

"Everybody says you need a good hook, but one's not enough," notes Shore, who admits under prodding that the Ramones are his all-time favorite band. "I think of something George Martin said, that the first 15 seconds of a song has to sell it -- that's not true nowadays, because so many songs on the radio take at least a minute to get started. The good thing about putting so many short songs on an album is that every song's over with fast if you don't like it."

Shore and Nines celebrate the release of The Last Days of AM Radio this Saturday at T.T. the Bear's Place, on a bill with Heidi, Silver Star & the Jukebox Angels, and kindred garage-rock spirits the Fleshtones. As for the disc's title, Shore explains it this way: "I'm really talking about FM radio, but I didn't want to go out there and insult everybody. It's just a statement of disgust for me: `Remember when we had the kind of songs that made you want to pick up the needle and hear it again?' "

It hasn't been an easy road for the Nines, who seem to lose a member whenever they catch some buzz. They descended from garage-popsters the Voodoo Dolls, who made a lot of people happy (or at least made a few people happy a bunch of times) before singer Cam Ackland left a few years back. The Dolls changed the name to the Nines, put Shore up front, and released the Hi Fi Lo Mein EP three years back. Then they were dealt another setback when co-guitarist Dave Harrison, the other Voodoo Dolls holdover, jumped ship (and wound up forming a new band with Ackland).

The original Nines sounded like the Voodoo Dolls with a different singer, but the new incarnation takes a different approach: they've become a power trio in the Jam/Who mold, the kind where all three members play lead. Bassist Bob Skaltsis has become a capable second lead singer; and drummer Linda Koury is a small powerhouse. They've also shifted the focus away from the guitars and onto the tunes, overdubbing some acoustic strums and three-part harmonies onto the disc. "Being a three-piece is fun because I get to stand off to the side again," Shore offers. "I was getting inhibited writing songs when I had to be the one singing everything."

Although the band are still clawing their way up in Boston, they've made some friends in the neo-garage scene at New York's Coney Island High, the favorite stomping ground of the Fleshtones, the Dictators, and lately the reunited Real Kids. They recorded a few tracks at Q Division with the Gravel Pit's Ed Valauskas co-producing, then finished the rest at home -- though the homemade tracks are as polished as the studio ones. In fact, funds for the CD were so limited that they had to use an old cover photo with Harrison cropped out.

"Bands and critics seem to like us more than booking agents do," Shore notes. "So the hell with it. We'll go out there and build our own momentum."

VERAGO-GONE

Given Verago-go's reputation for elaborate shows and memorable costumes, I was surprised that they didn't do any staging for their final show at Charlie's Tap a week ago Monday -- they just played a tight set full of well-written tunes. And that about sums up the band's progress over the last few years: they began as an art-school outfit full of ideas and gradually developed the musical muscle to pull those ideas off.

The timing of Verago-go's break-up wasn't exactly impeccable: the band's second album, Hollywood Hits (Curve of the Earth), was just hitting the stores when drummer John Lakian decided to move to San Francisco. After some consideration, singer/guitarist Isabel Riley and singer/bassist Jen Diamond opted not to continue.

A respectable crowd braved a snowstorm to see the final show. Curve owner Alvan Long sat up front, looking pretty jovial for a guy who'd just lost one of his flagship bands. Diamond plans to form another band; Riley has an art show coming up at the Boston Center for the Arts. So who gets to keep the Sgt. Pepper outfits that they wore a couple of years ago at the Rumble?

ROCK & BOWL

If you've ever been to New Orleans, you've probably had a chance to visit the Mid-City Lanes, the only music club I know of that doubles as a bowling alley. Nothing of the sort has ever happened in Boston (though the Middle East's downstairs room is a former bowling alley), but it's about to: preparations are currently under way to open the Milky Way, a new Jamaica Plain hotspot that will offer seven lanes of candlepin bowling along with seven nights of live music weekly. Set to open sometime in mid spring, the club will be on Center Street in JP, below the Bella Luna restaurant (which will be catering food to the venue) and across the street from bar/music spot the Brendan Behan.

The Milky Way's general manager and booking agent will be Lilli Dennison, the local scene veteran who recently left her booking post at Charlie's Tap. She'll be bringing in some of the local rock headliners who've played the Tap, though the focus will be a little different. "We'll of course be doing some rock, but we also want to have two nights of Latin music per week, since that's such a strong community in JP. And it's candlepin bowling since we're in New England, so it will be more a fun kind of place than one for serious bowling. But the idea of being able to bowl and hear music is a great one."

The bowling alley and billiard hall that used to occupy this spot closed a few years ago; the space is now being renovated to make way for the stage. Dennison hopes the club will be as freewheeling as its New Orleans counterpart, though there'll be one notable restriction. "Believe it or not, there's a Massachusetts law that says you're not allowed to drink and bowl at the same time. We're the only state in the great 50 that has that law." Thus the bands will play in a separate room, though Dennison is aiming for some stage visibility from the alleys.

RIP: JOE HERNON

The club circuit lost a well-liked figure two weekends ago when Joe Hernon, owner of the Kirkland Café (a/k/a Club Bohemia), died of lung cancer. Thanks to Hernon, the club has long been known as one of the more comfortable spots in town, with an atmosphere midway between funky basement and living room -- complete with free food on special occasions. "He was as generous and as sweet a man as you'll find, a born-and-raised true Somervillean," notes Shaun Wolf Wortis, who's played there many times as a member of Slide. "He had a contagious enthusiasm for life and for what makes life worth living -- friends, family, food, and music. How many other club owners have you heard of who would generously feed a roomful of strangers for free with heaping portions of sausages and chicken, pasta, and jambalaya and then go out and cut a rug right in front of the band?"

COMING UP

Nineteen have their CD release party at T.T. the Bear's Place tonight (Thursday), the Bourbonaires are at Bill's Bar, and Larry McCray is at the House of Blues . . . Hot Tuna honcho Jorma Kaukonen hits the House of Blues tomorrow (Friday), Bim Skala Bim play the Middle East, hippie faves From Good Homes are at the Paradise, and My Favorite Relative and the Sheila Devine are at T.T.'s . . . Combustible Edison play the Middle East downstairs on Saturday while Queens of the Stone Age, Half Cocked, and Roadsaw raise hell upstairs, Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson is at Johnny D's, and the Heavy Metal Horns are at Harpers Ferry . . . Superchunk hit the Middle East Sunday; Allman Brothers/Gov't Mule guitar slinger Warren Haynes is at the House of Blues . . . And ex-Animal Eric Burdon hits the House of Blues on Wednesday; meanwhile Louisiana faves Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-Chas are at Johnny D's.