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Honeyglazed's two-bass rumble, plus the Texas Dumptruck

by Brett Milano

There aren't enough local bands you can say this about, but Honeyglazed look like an A&R guy's dream. You want image, they got image: three guys and two gals, all bearing something of a rock-star look, presided over by a mad-professor bassist. You want a big rockin' sound, they got a big rockin' sound -- equal parts smart, subversive songwriting and dumb, fun noise. And if you want a gimmick, they've got a nifty one: here's a band playing guitar-oriented rock, only without a guitar.

The mad professor is Tim Catz, better-known as Roadsaw's bassist, who started the band on the simplest of premises: he wanted to play more bass, and he wanted a band with females in it. And, just maybe, he wanted to get rich and famous. Like most of the gang at the Curve of the Earth label, Catz approaches the record business with a bit of a P.T. Barnum sensibility. And he's the first to admit that Honeyglazed's two singers, Dave Kulund and the single-named keyboardist Collage, had an edge because they looked the part.

"It helps to have good-looking people in the band," he acknowledges. "Get some pretty girls up there and it's always an attention grabber. Everytime you see an article on Garbage, it's always about Shirley Manson. Nobody wants to talk to the old fuck behind the drums. I wanted to be the guy up front, but I can't sing, so I approached Dave because I'd worked with his other band [Shake 747] in the studio, and I knew the chicks love him. Put him and Collage up front and you'd really have something. And it's good working with people who are still young enough to get excited about the music business. I get to be the old guy in the back who collects the money -- personally, I'd rather have it that way."

"We like the idea of being entertainers," adds Collage when I catch up with her and Kulund at the Middle East. "Everything's a reaction to the time you're in," Kulund puts in. "We're coming out of a period where nobody wanted to do much of a rock-star thing. People haven't wanted to put on a show."

Pressed further, Catz allows that he had musical motivations as well. "I was writing this glut of pop songs and Roadsaw's not a pop band, so I didn't want to see them go to waste."

The pop tag may be a bit of a stretch, since Catz's AC/DC roots aren't easily shaken. But you wouldn't call it metal either: Honeyglazed's debut, The Trouble with Girls, is a spiritual cousin of the Pixies' Surfer Rosa and the Dambuilders' Encendedor -- albums unified by manic energy (and male/female harmonies) more than by musical style. Although Girls Against Boys comparisons are likely to come up (since they too have two bassists), Honeyglazed are less of a groove band and more of a song band -- only one track on their disc runs more than four minutes, and new-wave roots (think of the Cars' affectionate irony for AM-radio trash) are in there somewhere. Kulund and Collage share the vocals throughout, sounding like a sweet couple unduly preoccupied with crime and violence (sex runs a close third). If the kids who robbed the diner in Pulp Fiction had a band, this might be it.

But instead of machine guns, Honeyglazed have basses, which do all the work normally done by guitars. The ripping wah-wah lead on "Lady Cop"? That's a bass. The fuzztone monster on "True in Tokyo?" Also a bass. And the acoustic strums on "Luger"? Nope, that really is a guitar -- but it's the only one on the album, and you have to listen hard to catch it. Elsewhere they use the two-bass line-up to approximate the sound of a guitar band, with Catz doing the leads and Kris Canning playing the traditional bass lines. Meanwhile, Collage's keyboards play the role Greg Hawkes had in the early Cars -- never quite up front, but chiming in with appropriate melodic bits. But because a hyper-amplified bass has a growlier tone than a guitar, the sound necessarily comes out a little skewed.

"It's basically me beating off," Catz explains. "Just like all the drummers I know want to be singers, but they're all trapped behind drum sets. Most bass players want to get some attention, but they're the last to get noticed. So this band gives me the chance to be the loudest guy for a change. It's totally egotistical, but fuck it."

As for how he gets all the sounds, "I collect a lot of gear. Like some girls go out and buy shoes every week, I go buy effects instead -- weird basses, amps and vintage gear. I've got all these pedals and have to put them to use, so the fun is seeing what I can get away with."

Is Catz the guy in the band who tells everyone else what to do? "I like to boss him around myself, but he doesn't always listen," notes Collage. "But I've only been playing music for a year, so I've learned a lot from him. I like to think we take his metalness and channel it in a different direction."

If those A&R guys haven't come around yet, Honeyglazed have at least gotten within spitting distance: local DJ/musician Janet Egan brought them to MCA when she was working there. They didn't get signed, but they did get enough development money to cut about half the album's tracks. Meanwhile Catz is getting closer to the mark with Roadsaw (who signed with Roadrunner this year and are just back from a national tour), and he's planning to stay full-time with both bands. "It's making my life complete chaos, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll be doing both as long as I can keep juggling -- I gotta get my million somehow." Honeyglazed play the Rumble preliminaries at the Middle East upstairs this Sunday, May 9, at 11:30 p.m.

DUMPTRUCK LIVES

It doesn't take Dumptruck frontman Seth Tiven long to get some bitterness off his chest: "Fucked up everything, took it all for granted" are the first words out of his mouth on the band's new Terminal (on the Texas label Devil in the Woods). But they're said within an exuberant, major-chord hook. And that moment sums up the essence of the once Boston-based band: extreme world-weariness transformed into something oddly uplifting.

Dumptruck were a fixture in Boston throughout the '80s, and for a time they were the city's noblest underdogs (a particularly nasty legal battle with their old label, the now-defunct Big Time, bankrupted them just when their ironically titled "Going Nowhere" was all over local radio). After taking the band through various line-ups (guitarist Kevin Salem, Helium drummer Shawn Devlin, and Buttercup guitarist Michael Leahy are all ex-members), a discouraged Tiven got married and moved to Austin in 1993.

Terminal introduces the Texas version of the band, and it's at least as strong as any that played in Boston -- in fact the sound generally harks back to that of Positively Dumptruck, a streamlined pop set that introduced the band here (original co-singer Kirk Swan, who left after that album, guests on the new one). Tiven retains a solid grasp of melody. And with "Daylight Falls" he's finally written his big soul ballad (it's enhanced by the keyboard work of Ian McLagan, ex-Small Face and current Austin fixture). Many of the words find him dealing with a romantic break-up, so he sounds less misanthropic and more sympathetic than before. But the burst of bad temper on "Tear it Down" -- a garage-rocker ending with some Sonic Youth guitar demolition -- confirms what Dumptruck do best: making you feel good about feeling bad. The album's available from www.devilinthewoods.com.

KIRKLAND'S SOUND

The woman who was spotted in the back seats of Club Bohemia a couple weekends back looked to be making a cell-phone call or playing a video game. Actually it was club owner Ellie Hernon -- who recently inherited the club from her late husband, Joe Hernon -- and she was reading a decibel meter. "This song goes out to everybody who likes loud music," announced singer/guitarist Evan Shore, who was on stage with his band the Nines. "It's called `I Got a Right To Cry Tonight.' "

It hasn't been the smoothest year for the club, which has been having volume problems since its remodeling last fall. As part of the new design, the front wall directly behind the stage was replaced by a picture window, which, as booking agent Mickey Bliss points out, "looks real good but isn't great for a rock club." Complaints from the neighbors died down when winter set in but have heated back up with people opening their windows again. "We've gone out on the street to check it out and it's true, the sound does carry, so the neighbors have a right to complain," Bliss said from his office last week. "That's not a vendetta against us."

Hernon is pondering a few possible solutions, including new soundproofing or a relocated stage. Meanwhile she's negotiating the transfer of her husband's license from the Cambridge Licensing Commission, so the place will be on good behavior for the foreseeable future. "It's never going to be exactly what it was, but I think it can still be a creative place," Bliss says. "I'm telling the bands to keep it turned way down. If it gets past an acceptable level we have to cut them off." He figures that an outfit like the Lyres (who headline May 15) is safe, since keyboard-driven groups cause fewer problems and the audience absorbs sound if there's a decent draw. But bands with loud guitars and small turnouts will have to be on their toes. "Also those operatically trained female singers with piercing voices. But basically we'll be playing it safe -- if a band need to play really loud, they shouldn't be looking for a gig here."

COMING UP

Tonight (Thursday) begins a two-night stand by the Amazing Crowns at Bill's Bar. Bailter Space are at the Middle East, Rod Piazza is at the House of Blues, and the Princes of Babylon are at T.T. the Bear's Place . . . NYC punk godfathers the Dictators reunite at the Middle East tomorrow (Friday). Gravel Pit's Jed Parish plays solo at the Lizard Lounge, and the Racketeers and Helicopter Helicopter are at T.T.'s . . . Jonatha Brooke is at Berklee Saturday, Expanding Man and the Sterlings are at T.T.'s, Beatle Juice are at Johnny D's, Mindflow and Todd Thibaud are at Bill's Bar, and a two-night Cyberarts Festival begins at the Middle East. And the Milky Way begins its first Latin-themed night with a mix of live and DJ music, semi-fancy dress encouraged . . . The WBCN Rock 'n' Roll Rumble begins at the Middle East Sunday and runs through the week with a Wednesday break. Opening night has a strong bill with Honeyglazed, Baby Ray, Cave-In, and Drexel . . . Rumble contestants Monday are Lunar Plexus, Kicked in the Head, the Control Group, and Canine . . . Comedy sensations Vance & Lorna crash Skeeter Johnson's revue at the Lizard Lounge Tuesday along with Suzi Lee and the Buck Dewey Big Band. The For Carnation are at T.T.'s, and the Shods turn everybody else (Jumprope, Gangsta Bitch Barbie, and Cheerleader) into an underdog band at the Rumble.