Once a badge of honor, ”classic rock” has become a synonym for push-button nostalgia, a radio-station format that reduces the history of rock to three long songs-”Stairway to Heaven,” ”Free Bird,” ”Won`t Get Fooled Again”-and about 700 shorter ones.
With its slashing twin-guitar attack and the smoldering vocals of songwriter John Easdale, Dramarama reminds listeners of what ”classic rock” originally referred to: the explosion of creativity in rock and soul that surged in the late `60s and continued through the early `70s.
The Los Angeles group, which headlines Tuesday at Cabaret Metro, lets its roots show-flashes of everyone from mid-period Rolling Stones to Mott the Hoople-but blends them in unexpected ways and splashes them with contemporary lyric colors.
The quintet`s newest member, former Blondie powerhouse drummer Clem Burke, says he was impressed by Dramarama`s eclectic approach.
”They`ve got one foot in the `alternative` side and another in the more traditional `rock` side of things,” he says. ”Their music sounds as good played next to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath as it does the Pixies and Matthew Sweet.”
Burke joined after Dramarama completed its fourth release. Its title,
”Vinyl” (Chameleon), pays homage to an era when the word ”album”
referred to a 12-inch record instead of a shiny compact disc.
”We called it `Vinyl` because they don`t make it anymore,” says Easdale with a laugh. ”That era went by so fast, it seems. I liked the big pictures on the album covers, I liked just reading an album.”
If the singer sounds as if he`s living in the past, the new song
”Classic Rot,” addressed at you-know-which radio format, sets the record straight.
”Everything we do is in some way influenced by things we`ve listened to before,” Easdale says. ”We have a great appreciation for the true classics, but not the way they`re being packaged on radio.
”These stations play only one or two songs by Jimi Hendrix, one of which Bob Dylan wrote, and God forbid that they would play anything off `Cry of Love.` It`s like all these great careers have been reduced to one or two songs.”
Easdale says Dramarama is conscious about not merely regurgitating its album collections when it comes time to writing songs.
”A band that comes immediately to mind that does that is the Black Crowes,” he says. ”I get a kick out of them bringing back some of that stuff, but at the same time, I`d rather see Mick Jagger or Rod Stewart doing it.”
So when Dramarama found itself working on ”Vinyl” with one of its heroes, former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, it didn`t have him do the obvious by playing on a cover version of Mick Jagger`s ”Memo From Turner,”
which is included on the album.
Instead, Taylor played lead and slide guitar on ”Classic Rot,” which might have made a nice ”in” joke if the playing on that song weren`t so ferocious.
Dramarama believes, perhaps naively, that a great song played with intensity is all that`s necessary to get by in the music business.
”We`re in no danger of selling millions of records,” Easdale says.
”The fact that we can`t be filed into a perfect little niche has probably hurt us. We don`t wear outrageous clothes, and we don`t pull any stunts that might bring us notoriety. But I don`t think we`d feel comfortable doing that, and I think the bands that do inevitably paint themselves into a corner.” Look at the Stray Cats-no matter what else they do, they`ll be rockabilly forever.”
– St. Patrick`s Day approaches, which means the six members of the Drovers will be playing until they, or their audiences, drop from exhaustion over the next few days: Thursday at Durty Nellie`s in Palatine; Saturday at Otis` (5 p.m.), the Abbey Pub (8 p.m.) and Schuba`s (11 p.m.); Sunday at the Heartland Cafe; and Tuesday at the Park West (6:30 p.m.) and Biddy Mulligan`s (10 p.m.).
With its fondness for traditional Irish instruments such as tin whistles, fiddles, accordions, bodhrans and the like, the Drovers can provide an ethnic thrill or two for the green-beer crowd.
But for four years, it`s the mongrel variations the band spins out of those Irish roots that make it one of the city`s top acts in any genre.
Judging by the brilliance of the band`s second album (and first studio recording), the Drovers are deserving of far more than local accolades.
The disc, to be put out March 26 on the group`s own Tantrum Records label, is a richly expressive outpouring of soulful singing, beautiful melodies and combustive instrumentals.
If the band has a sonic signature, it is Sean Cleland`s fiddle playing and Kathleen Keane`s dusky alto, hauntingly reminiscent of Sandy Denny, especially on such more traditional fare as the ballad ”When Fortune Turns” and ”In a Mist.”
But even more impressive is the range of the band`s attack, the breadth of its repertoire.
The Drovers` secret weapon is songwriter and guitarist Mike Kirkpatrick, who deftly blends the acoustic approach of ethnic music with the dynamics of psychedelic rock.
In ”The Boys and the Babies,” Kirkpatrick brings together the worlds of rock and reel with a long, spiraling guitar solo over Jackie Moran`s sympathetic, syncopated drumming, before fiddle, flute, harmonica and accordion join the fray.
It sounds like a great Fairport Convention outtake, but on this album, it`s just one facet of the Drovers` musical personality. ”New Ice Age,” for example, would have fit nicely on R.E.M.`s last album, while the ”Good Life” is reminiscent of the Pogues` punkish enthusiasm.
– The results are in for the annual Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics Poll, in which 300 rock critics from around the country voted on the top albums of 1991.
Nirvana`s ”Nevermind” was an overwhelming winner, followed by (2)
Public Enemy`s ”Apocalypse 91 . . . The Enemy Strikes Black,” (3) R.E.M.`s
”Out of Time,” (4) U2`s ”Achtung Baby,” (5) P.M. Dawn`s ”Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience,” (6) Richard Thompson`s ”Rumor and Sigh,” (7) Matthew Sweet`s ”Girlfriend,” (8) Metallica`s
”Metallica,” (9) Chris Whitley`s ”Living With the Law” and (10) the Mekons` ”The Curse of the Mekons.”
My Top 10 also included Nirvana, P.M. Dawn, Sweet and the Mekons, plus Green`s ”White Soul,” Pulnoc`s ”City of Hysteria,” Pere Ubu`s ”Worlds in Collision,” Jimmie Dale Gilmore`s ”After Awhile,” Smashing Pumpkins`
”Gish” and Fatima Mansions` ”Viva Dead Ponies.”
