Major chords

The Gigolo Aunts get a second chance

Cellars by Starlight by Brett Milano

If ever a band had reason to pat themselves on the back, the Gigolo Aunts do now. They've survived a five-year dry period that saw a record get shelved, legal battles ensue, and half their personnel change. They've just released Minor Chords & Major Themes (E Pluribus Unum), a terrific set that may even have commercial potential. They've got a powerful ally in Counting Crows leader Adam Duritz, who seems to have as much invested in their career as he does in his own. And after a successful residency at Hollywood's happening Martini Lounge, they're prepping for a relocation to Los Angeles, where they enjoy a popularity that's hardly ever granted to Northeastern pop combos.

Still, this band never miss a chance to be self-depreciating, and they're not going to let a little success stand in their way. "We'll be back in town with our fuckin' tails between our legs so fast you won't believe it," notes singer/guitarist Dave Gibbs at the Middle East, over a late lunch with bandmates Steve Hurley (bass, vocals) and drummer Fred Eltringham (lead guitarist John Skibic is still on the road). "Besides, I think you were hearing us wrong," he deadpans. "When we said we were moving to LA, we just meant we were going to Lower Allston."

"At least, we'll probably wind up back there," adds Hurley. "In fact, I'm having a contest with some other songwriters" -- he names a few local bands who narrowly missed the big time. "We're going to see who can write the saddest song called 'Moving Back to Allston.' "

Pressed a little further, Gibbs admits that things are looking considerably brighter. "Actually, I am pretty optimistic, but it's hard -- I hope that something good comes of this, and I have the feeling it probably will. But you have to think that it's still okay if nothing does. Hell, we just spent four days driving in our stupid little stinky van, and it was fun. That's why you get into a band." Mostly, he's concerned that their Boston fanbase won't feel it's being kissed off. "Make sure people know this -- I love Boston more than anything. It must be hard being a Gigolo Aunts fan, since we've played at T.T. the Bear's Place so many million times with nothing new. Our fanbase may not be the biggest in the world, but it's the nicest."

One could well say the same thing about the band -- in fact, the Gigolo Aunts remain the only local group who've ever thanked me for a negative review. That came about in 1986, when their long-deleted debut album, Everybody Happy, revealed the Aunts (then recently arrived from New Jersey, and comprising Gibbs, Hurley, brother Phil Hurley on guitar and Paul Brouwer on drums) as a very sincere but very green band whose R.E.M. influence was still way too evident. Then again, notes Hurley, such modest debuts were more accepted back then. "If you came from the pre-Nirvana era like us, what you wanted was different. You don't expect to work with a big producer or go platinum right off. Me, I just wanted to be as big as the Feelies."

The band's proper debut (after a second, import-only album) was perfectly timed: released in 1994, Flippin' Out (RCA) appeared during the heyday of Boston pop. The Lemonheads, Belly, and Juliana Hatfield were all at their commercial peak, and the Gigolo Aunts were having as much fun as anybody. During live gigs at the time, they'd jokingly try to pass off Mission of Burma's "That's When I Reach for My Revolver" as a new original. And if they didn't get the national recognition of the above-named bands, they did have a few other things going for them -- notably a cult fanbase in the UK and Japan, and a publisher who got their songs in some profitable films. Maybe "Where I Find My Heaven" didn't make it as an American single, but there was no damage to the band's fortunes when it landed on the soundtrack of the Jim Carrey film Dumb & Dumber.

Everything was looking good by '95, when the Aunts booked T.T.'s to play a batch of just-written songs and went into the studio with producer Fred Maher (who'd done the benchmark '90s pop album, Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend) to record them. That second RCA album was the real turning point of the band's career -- it never came out and never will, and it started the legal battles that kept them tied up for years.

That may sound like the typical story of a band getting muzzled by its label, but the truth is just the opposite: feeling that it sounded lifeless, the Gigolo Aunts pulled the plug on their own album. Both RCA in the US and Creation in the UK were hot to release it, and they didn't want to see their investment go down the drain. Nine out of 10 bands would have bitten the bullet, released the album, and apologized later if it flopped.

"It just wasn't good," says Gibbs. "The RCA thugs will break our legs if we talk about it too heavily. And the English label lost a huge chunk of income, so they were really pissed off." "I threw my own copy away because it was driving me insane," notes Eltringham, who joined before the sessions. "If you're a band like us, all you've got is your integrity," concludes Gibbs. "Who wants to be a shitty band selling 100,000 records?'

But even during the RCA fallout, the band had Adam Duritz in their corner. He first bonded with the Gigolo Aunts over their mutual love for Big Star and has since proved willing to do just about anything for the band. He helped them with legal battles, had them open Counting Crows gigs, and signed them to his new E Pluribus Unum label, and he sings back-ups on their album -- hell, he's even let them crash in his house. Because the E Pluribus label is distributed through Interscope, the Gigolo Aunts are the first Boston band to be signed to the new Seagrams/Universal conglomerate -- but they've got Duritz to run interference. And his friendship likely does wonders for their social lives in Los Angeles. "Yeah, he's the alpha male of single Hollywood guys," notes Gibbs.

Still, there are no traces of a slick Hollywood sound on Minor Chords & Major Themes, which was produced here in Boston at Q Division by long-time supporter Mike Denneen. Emotional and melodic, the album sounds nothing like the cranked-up, big-guitar sound that's been familiar in their live sets of recent years. Also missing is the cynical wit that turned up in songs like "The Sun Always Shines on Somerville" (from the aborted RCA album) and "Wishing You the Worst" (from the stopgap Wicked Disc EP Learn To Play Guitar).

"We got really sick of the ironic songs," says Hurley. "We're living in ironic times, and too many people are afraid to say what's really on their minds." Adds Gibbs, "Not to sound like hippies, but a lot of the interim songs were mean-spirited, not coming from a good place. For a time we were trying to dazzle people with volume and energy. Plus, we were really pissed off and that manifested itself in volume."

The loud-guitar sound was also a carryover from John Skibic's previous band, the punk-metal 6L6. If it was a surprise to see him join the Gigolo Aunts, it's downright shocking to hear the tastefully textured parts he plays on Minor Chords, though he can still cut loose with the big chords when required. Skibic replaced Phil Hurley soon after the RCA sessions -- replacing his own metal hairdo with a Beatle cut as a rite of passage -- and the bandmembers admit that their relationship with the elder Hurley brother took a while to recover. But he's since guested with his old band on stage, and he sings back-ups on the new disc.

You can't get less ironic than the new album's lyric concept, which traces a love relationship from an elated start to a miserable finish. The former songs have the necessary pop sparkle, but the latter ones -- notably "Fadeaway" and "Residue" -- are where the band shine (the single, the doubt-ridden "The Big Lie," sits comfortably in the middle). In a sense the album is truer to the indie-rock aesthetic than anything they've done before. The uncluttered arrangements and sparse production let nothing get between you and the song.

"We're getting a lot of talk about how mature and focused this album is -- fuck that, man! We want to be dangerous and sexy," notes Gibbs. "Really, we talked about it a million times -- how can we keep the integrity of a song and still sound like a band? One thing Adam told us was, `Stick the vocals way out front. If you have something to say, say it.' If you listen to Flippin' Out, you can hear how we buried the vocals, trying to draw attention away from our vocals and what we were singing. Now we're not hiding behind anything, whether it's clever lyrics or walls of guitars. It's more like, `This is ours, we hope you like it.' "

The band won't be living anywhere for most of the next year. Touring begins in earnest this spring, when they'll open for an ambitious Cracker tour that will include Duritz and Joan Osborne as Cracker members. And Gibbs lets on that they're being savvy about promoting themselves. "We want to be as careful as possible -- if that sounds really calculated, that's because it is. RCA was like, 'We're going to hit MTV, then we'll put you in the Worcester Centrum.' Forget that -- we want to win people over one at a time."

And if success catches up with these noble underdogs? "No problem, we've already got the next album written. So just in case success happens, we've got another batch of loser songs ready to go."

COMING UP

Anal Cunt go sensitive for the first and only live performance of their Picnic of Love album at Club Bohemia tonight (Thursday). Quintaine Americana and the Vehicle Birth are at the Middle East, the Raging Teens are at Bill's Bar, Louisiana bluesman Kenny Neal is at the House of Blues, jazz drumming great Elvin Jones begins four nights at the Regattabar, and the Red Telephone wrap up their weekly residency at the Lansdowne Street Music Hall . . . NRBQ hit the House of Blues tomorrow (Friday), Star Ghost Dog and Caged Heat are at the Linwood, the Mudhens are at Lansdowne Street, Vermont rockers Chin Ho and Canine are at the Middle East, Nash Satterfield and Slide are at the Lizard Lounge, and the Nields are at the Paradise . . . Jack Drag, Ghost of Tony Gold, and Wheat are all at T.T.'s on Saturday, Purrr and Planet Queen are at the Linwood, Cherry 2000 and Baby Ray are at Bill's, Betwixt are at the Lizard, Mike Welch and Vykki Vox are at Harpers Ferry, and the Swinging Steaks are at Johnny D's . . . The Braniac/Skeleton Key spinoff Enon are at the Middle East Tuesday, and Wooden Leg play the Skeeter Johnson revue at the Lizard.