Bass instinct

Catching up with the Amazing Crowns

by Michael Caito

Mansfield native Jack "The Swinger" Hanlon is the instrumental constant in the Amazing Crowns. The bassist brought us up to date with the Velvel recording artists' most recent doings and future plans from his home not too far away from that Great Woods barn where they may play in a few short months.

Jack Hanlon: We're right back in with practicing, writing songs, doing demos. We've got a little recording machine, so as we get ideas we tape right there and get a pretty good clean-sounding recording. It's an eight-track thing, and it records directly to hard drive, we get eight to play back and each track has eight virtual tracks, so you have limitless possibilities. It's a good songwriting tool more than anything. Makes nice little demos.

Q: I saw news of a holiday bootleg on your website.

A: It wasn't in stores, we sold it at shows, it was just an idea to put a song out and put some live stuff on disc. We haven't put anything out in a long time, so we had an opportunity to go into the studio, cut a song, and release it real quick. The song was originally gonna be used for a compilation, but that compilation is now coming out next year. Instead of going through the label we just released it, no label, no name, and we just sold it at shows, and the label was cool with that. They went pretty quickly.

Q: Settle on a studio yet?

A: Sound Station Seven in early-to-mid March. TBuck is definitely gonna be involved, co-producing and I think maybe doing some co-engineering as well. Joe Gittleman from the BossTones will also be involved with the production, him and TBuck together. We wanted engineers we knew and trusted.

Q: As the other instrumentalist, with a coupla drummers and now a different guitarist, was there a big adjustment for you in the differing styles of J.D.and Jonny?

A: Not really. Greg -- J.D. -- just fell right into position. He came to the audition and nailed like eight songs that first night. Nailed them. His guitar tone can be clean but he can also be a little grittier. J.D. can play anything, and it's been cool, we've had lots of opportunities to explore different songwriting ideas. He had the right guitar and everything. No problem at all. He was up and running on the set list in two weeks.

Q: This is the first band where you've played acoustic bass. Was that a huge leap for you?

A: I feel like for what we do I'm comfortable with my playing ability now. It's been almost five years since I started playing acoustic bass all the time, and then Ididn't have a lot of time to learn. Always under the wire. But we're always learning. There are techniques now I might not have been using two months ago. As you write more songs, you find something else that helps you play easier. Sometimes the old tried and true techniques work, sometimes it's just "I've gotta find an easier way to play this," or "There's gotta be a way to do this to make this sound better." I feel comfortable now so if I have trouble, after a week or so of batting it around I find a way to do it.

Q: Which are the sleeper bands to watch for this weekend, maybe bands that don't play around here too often?

A: There's something for everybody each night, and to lead into that that's why we wanted to do three days. Last year when we did two shows the Met was pretty crowded, so three nights we figured wouldn't be as packed. Thursday, the Speed Devils from Boston, psychobilly kind of band. Friday Demon Speed from New York City are really good. They've got this metal-ish kinda sound with a phenomenal groove on the drums. They call themselves a swing metal band. They take the real catchy riffs of metal, and the guy has this sweet baritone voice, really rich. Saturday, Frantic Flat-Tops, never played here before, from Rochester, are a great band, and also Clowns for Progress, who I don't think have ever played Providence -- great punk rock with elements of power-pop. There are a lotta tried and true names too: Allstonians, Big Bad Bullocks, Brass Monkeys, Ducky Boys. LUVS, can't forget them, and Brunt of It from Providence, Dennis [Kelly]'s band the Pull Tabs have sounded real good lately. It's all in there: ska, punk rock, rock and roll, rockabilly. Something for everybody.

Q: Personal or band goals for '99?

A: Well, definitely the first one is to get that goddamned record out. Tour dates, there's talk of sending us to Europe again and, maybe Japan too. Several extensive US tours, I'm sure. Canada too, definitely. We're shooting for this record to be out by late June, early July at the latest, hopefully. US and Canadian tours after that, then Europe will most likely follow.

The Providence Payback, hosted by the Amazing Crowns, happens Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Met Cafe. Six dollah. Call 861-2142.

STARS & BARS. One of the under-rated elements of WaterFire is the music, and those selections reveal that Barnaby Evans, like Philharmonic MD Larry Rachleff and Civic Chorale & Orchestra leader Ed Markward, has ears keenly tuned into leading 20th-century composers. The latest instance happens Saturday at Grace Church, when the Civic Chorale and Orchestra put up Ancient to Modern: Music From WaterFire. The night includes Rhode Island premieres of works from from Henryk Gorecki and Arvo Part, true giants among contemporary composers. Gorecki, born 65 years ago near Katowice, Poland, has had two recordings by the Kronos Quartet devoted to his work, 1993's String Quartet Nos. 1 and 2 and 1991's Already It Is Dusk. Part of the 1960s "Polish School," Gorecki's "sound mass composition"  or "sonoristic composition" was an attempt to reduce music to purest sound involving no other elements than tone color. Jumping off from Bartok and Szymanovski and often in spiritual tandem with his contemporaries Serocki and Penderecki, Gorecki found dissonance and harshness no strangers to his work in the 1960s. Later Gorecki's most-recognized work, his Third Symphony, enjoyed impressive commercial success, continuing his attempts to marry the spirituality to emotion by culling inspiration from as far back as a 13th-century conductus or a polyphonic piece from the 1500s, with dissonance taking more and more of a back seat as time progressed. Gorecki can also boast of impressive quotability: "Music is one of the domains that people really need, and its importance only depends on whether one knows how to receive it." The place is Grace Church on Saturday at 8:15 p.m., when Barnaby Evans will offer an intro; info at 521-5670.

Elsewhere:Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys headline the 7th Annual Cajun & Zydeco Mardi Gras Ball at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet on Saturday (with Chris Ardoin & Double Clutchin', and Balfa Toujours, tix are $25, call 783-3926), and Miniwatt appear at AS220 on Friday with Lincolnville, the Bronchitis Brothers and Larry Marshall. Miniwatt (formerly Broadcaster) are joined by uniformly impressive Rhody bands Arson Family, Ashley Von Hurter & the Haters, the Double Nuthins, Highway Strippers, and Thee Mr. Rogers Project on Ron Lacer's fourth Runt of the Litter Volume IV (Fan Attic) New England punk compilation. This 37-track treat will be the best sawbuck you spend this month, and honestly, it isn't cheerleading to say the Ocean State dominates this Volume. Fan Attic's at PO Box 391494, Cambridge, MA 02139, though it should be noted that their first two Volumes are sold out. Nice work again Ron, thanks Ted, and we're outta room.