Scotland`s funky rock band the Soup Dragons seems firmly planted in a
`60s version of the Space Age.
”We want to be the first band to play on the space station Freedom-and be the first band to play in outer space,” says lead singer and guitarist Sean Dickson, lobbying for a berth on the $40 billion NASA project expected to be operating about 1999.
”Somebody will take us seriously along the way,” Dickson adds. ”It`s the cheapest way to get on the thing, I think.”
Told that singer John Denver had already expressed interest in space flight-and even pledged millions of dollars in an unsuccessful (so far) bid to participate in a space shuttle flight-Dickson sighs, deflated. ”Oh. Well, we could maybe come up with about 10 bucks apiece.”
Dickson and his compatriots-guitarist and backup singer Jim McCulloch, bassist Sushil Dade and drummer Paul Quinn-will settle for a show at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Cabaret Metro, 3730 N. Clark St. The opening act will be Catherine Wheel, an English band.
Wah-wah guitars and even a few cosmic new age sampling techniques pervade the Glasgow-based Soup Dragons` latest album, ”Hotwired” (Mercury). Many of the tunes find a common ground between the grunginess of T. Rex, the goofy ensemble singing of the Cowsills (1968`s ”Indian Lake”) and a twangy Mountain Dew commercial.
”Our music is kind of melodic and electric, an adrenaline rush,” says Dickson. ”We take melody and rock `n` roll one step further. It`s music made for the future. We want to have songs that are on a radio station playlist 10 years from now.”
He points to the band`s current single, ”Divine Thing,” as illustrating the album`s topical focus. ”I wrote the song while I was in New York City,” he says. ”There are some really interesting characters, but the people on the streets were far more interesting than the people who thought they were far more glamorous. It`s almost a defiance of beauty-about the beauty of all people (not) just those people of stature. Me, I`d never trust somebody who looks like an angel. It used to be I always trusted them, but now I never trust a do-gooder. I always trust those who are more like a snake.”
Another song from the album, ”Forever Yesterday,” melds uncharacteristically lush symphonics with a biofeedback message of ”breathe deeply.”
”It started out like a joke,” says Dickson. ”It`s got 72 tracks, mostly of percussion. We tapped on milk bottles-anything-to get the sound. It sounded even better with 30 or 40 string players. We wouldn`t use synthesizers, just acoustics. It just sounded good, a little relaxing.”
Noting that the band typically (and not unjustly) is lumped with United Kingdom contemporaries such as the Charlatans and Inspiral Carpets, each of which has a `60s aura, Dickson says: ”We`re far more rock `n` roll, far more guitar-oriented. We play a funky sound. I`d say we`re far heavier. There is no association whatsoever” with the other acts.
Taking its name from characters in ”The Clangers,” a 1970s British children`s TV show, the band recorded two albums on the Sire label, ”Hang-Ten!” in 1986 and ”This Is Our Art” in 1987.
After leaving an acrimonious relationship with Sire, the troupe`s 1990 album, ”Lovegod” (Polygram), sold more then 300,000 copies in the U.S., riding high on the reggae-spiced ”I`m Free,” a remake of the Mick Jagger-Keith Richards collaboration. ”It gets played to this day in Jamaica,”
Dickson says.
Promising a formula that adds two female gospel singers and a 16-mm filmstrip to the mix, Dickson says the group`s current 25-stop U.S. tour is its best yet.
”We have abstract images that go along with the sound-but try to take them out of context with lyrics,” he says. ”We`re just trying to get you to listen into the music. We want to take you one step forward in your consciousness.”
Not unlike the mind-altering space warp the Soup Dragons seem to be trapped in. ”I`ve always liked science fiction,” Dickson says, ”especially aliens, UFOs and space travel. Somebody once told me that I only wrote songs about space and about sex.”
If the band ever gets a gig in space, he says, ”we`d put on a great laser show. Definitely.”
