International harvesters

Hope and Adams separates Wheat from chaff

by Bob Gulla

The new Wheat record, Hope and Adams, walks into a music collection like an uninvited guest who quietly and unassumingly steals the steals the party. Maybe it's because he's got great stories to tell, maybe it's because he's mesmerisingly beautiful, or maybe it's because he's got a voice that soothes as it hypnotizes, like a glistening pendulum, as he chooses all the right words. As Hope and Adams sits in the middle of my collection, my party becomes its party, my music collection pauses while Wheat spins its yarns.

It hasn't always been this sublime. Bandleader Scott Levesque, formerly of the Taunton-based Blair's Carriage (remember them?), had tried his hand at making pleasantly acoustic-based pop for a while before taking a step back and realizing that it just wasn't working. "They were still decent pop songs, I guess," says Levesque of his teeth-cutting experience in Blair's Carriage. "I think that when you're in a relationship that's not working it's really hard to let go. You make $500 playing to a bunch of kids and it's hard to let go. For the last few years it wasn't a really good thing." Still, Levesque feels like those years were well spent. "I don't hate that stuff. It was a good process, learning how to write songs and everything. It was something I needed to go through."

After Levesque left Blair's Carriage behind, he, Ricky Brennan, and Brendan Harney formed Wheat. The year was 1996. During the course of the next twelve months they recorded their first full-length, Medeiros, for upstart indie Sugar Free. It was nearly unanimously praised and established the band as one of indie rock's loveliest surprises, with their Yo La Tengo meets Sparklehorse sound, sullen and beautiful, painful and tense, with delicate overlay.

"Our reception's been really great," says Levesque, "ever since our single, `Death Car,' came out in Europe." That song, a lo-fi, pastelly wash of rich noise and melody released on East Tiger Records, earned "Single of the Week" from Britain's New Musical Express and sold out its initial printing of 1000. Subsequently, Hope and Adams became highly anticipated. European dates in London and Holland sold out and Wheat had, in a relatively short time, become a relevant band, so relevant that they're headed back to the continent later this month for more dates in the UK and Germany. Levesque and Wheat are not exactly what you'd call a local band anymore.

"There's certain good and bad to being real local," he says. "You get good shows and folks recognize you at Shaw's, but a lot of things have changed, especially in Providence. The old Met, the old Living Room were great places to play, but we don't see much excitement in town anymore. We didn't try to sidestep the local thing. It just happened that way."

For the first time, Levesque is busy enough not to have to worry about where the work's coming from (now there's a novel concept). "Tomorrow things could change," he says. "It's nice because Wheat takes a lot of effort now so there's no time to worry. With this band we don't have lots of down time."

Since their second show, after which they signed a recording contract with Sugar Free, Wheat hasn't really had to deal with the rock 'n' roll malaise of having too much time off. "It's been steady growth and pretty steady activity. But what we really want to do is become successful enough to continue making records. As you make a few records, you have to try to make records good enough to warrant making another one."

Not that Hope and Adams plays it safe to accomplish that task. Like every band that ever was, Levesque and company make the kind of music that reflects its influences, which range from the Beatles, Brian Wilson, and Velvet Underground to newer bands like Television and Codeine. But they also take some interesting sonic backroads, with normally obedient guitars feeding gently but persistently back, and some rich but startling washes of noise entering and exiting without warning.

"We did take some pretty big risks," admits Levesque. "I think there are a lot of people who aren't gonna like this record. But if you're gonna worry about this stuff you get stagnant creatively. It was a conscious choice for us to go out on a few limbs."

Hope and Adams reflects for the first time what Wheat sounds like as a more than one-man-band. This time out, Levesque has shared the writing responsibilities with his bandmates and the result listens like a multi-hued mosaic rather than the pleasantly one-dimensional songs Levesque offered up with Blair's Carriage.

"The first record was my writing," he says, "but this new record features skeletons of material with the group pitching in to round them out. It's much more of a group effort. It's cool because you get to share some of the blame and the success as well." With Wheat making albums like Hope and Adams chances are there will be more success than blame to go around.

WANDERING EYE. Lizzie from AS220 is happy about her booking tomorrow night of Special Goodness, a band that consists of Pat and Mike from Weezer Also on Friday at 7:30 p.m., That Little Coffee Place in North Kingstown hosts a poetry night for all you aspiring bards.  Everyone's invited to read and/or listen. The Fabulous Itchies will play Trinity Brewhouse on Friday, debuting new guitarist Dennis "Boss Fuel" Kelly, who'll replace the recently retired Stephen Prouty. Well-known 'round these parts, Kelly will add his gas-huffin' blues riffs to the Itchies' already high-octane sound. Also on these gigs will be Eric "the Whip" Fontana from Mother Jefferson on Farfisa. The Itchies hit Hoboken on Saturday if you're up for the road trip. Sounds like good fun to me.

Got some points of interest? Contact b_gulla@yahoo.com