On The Rocks

The Worcester Phoenix
Sept. 8 - 15, 2000

[On The Rocks]

Daydream believers

When the going gets tough, Snakes and Ladders get into the studio

by John O'Neill
It was 34 years ago last month that the Monkees scaled the top of the charts with "(Theme from) The Monkees." Retrospectively it was no small feat that the Prefab Four got there -- Revolver, Pet Sounds, Aftermath, "96 Tears," and "Walk Away Renee," were also vying for the public consciousness that August. Immediately
dismissed as an industry creation thrust on a gullible public, the Monkees nevertheless went on to run eight more tunes up the Top-10 (including three more to Number One) in less than two years. After that it gets ugly. Suffice to say that it's taken nearly all 30 years since for the once-alleged musical hacks to matriculate from guilty pleasure to full-fledged, okay-to-celebrate-influence.
For Snakes and Ladders songwriter and guitarist Steve Blake, the Monkees have always found a home in his heart, and he's darn proud of it. As Blake readily admits, "I watched the show and said, `That looks like a good job!' Nobody seemed to work and there were no adults around. I wanted to live in a beach house and have a groovy red GTO."
The point of all this Monkees business (sorry) is that Blake's latest studio endeavor, Come Out and Play, bows towards the feel-good pop of Davey, Mickey, Mike, and Peter while simultaneously serving up darker lyrical musings on life, love, and screwing up. It's an almost-subversive pairing where bleak and brooding subject matter tap-dances to a soundtrack of jingle jangle guitars, hand claps, and sha-la-la choruses.
Come Out and Play was recorded when both the group and Blake were discovering fabulous new lows. Having just begun to establish themselves on the club circuit, the band was dealt a double blow that put the kibosh on Blake and drummer Greg Sullivan performing live for almost two years.
"Our bass player, Dean McQueen, had some emotional problems and had to leave, and I had a collapsed nerve in my hand and wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to play guitar again," Blake reflects. "It was a real low ebb so we figured what better time to start an album!"
Enlisting long-time pal Peter Zolli to produce the session and fill in the bass parts, the band headed into Blake's basement studio to see what would stick to the wall. It should also be noted that Zolli played alongside Blake in Narcotic Effect, as well as the extra-riotous, shoulda-been-DIY-legends the Roy Hinkley Trio. Recording two full-length albums in two days, the promising RHT imploded after their first live gig with such magnificence that Blake retreated to the studio, while Zolli ended up turning his life over to Jesus. Having patched up their differences ("You can only get that angry with someone you love dearly," explains Blake), the Come Out recording session represented a chance for the two friends to put their egos aside and produce an album they could be equally proud of.
"We decided to try and do something that we wouldn't be dissatisfied with and represented both of our personalities," Blake says. "I think we pulled it off."
Opening with the mid-tempo "Scrapbook," Blake articulates his doubts and fears through straight-forward lyrics and then heaps a healthy dollop of shinny, happy guitar and a chorus of sighs on it. "Don't Know Why" is recorded in mono, bounced down to two-tracks for an extra-compressed sound, and then nicks the ending to the Who's "My Generation" just for good measure. "Little Luck" mines the Joe Jackson/Elvis Costello school of delivery, "Favorite Day" answers the angst with semi-psychedelic pop, and "7:15 a.m." comes off like a lost Cavedogs out-take. Filthy Lennon-inspired solos, Byrds-induced jangle, Cobain-was-here distortion -- all are represented subliminally at some point. The disc's real kicker comes with the obvious Monkees send-up "Bother Me." Stealing the bass line from "Pleasant Valley Sunday," and the harpsichord solo from "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," Snakes and Ladders deliver the tune with such silly glee that only the hardest of hearts would contemplate copyright infringement.
"It was an affectionate tribute," says Blake. "There's a lot of Monkees influence rolling in and out of [the album]. Pete's steel-guitar playing is a Mike Nesmith tribute, except Pete plays better steel than Nesmith did. You can try to hide your influences or you can be cheeky about it. We try to be cheeky.
"I'm one of those traditional little mutant, smelly slobs that everyone hated in high school, and I try to write songs for other little mutant, smelly slobs," says Blake explaining the writing process. "Most of the songs are sorta dark but the approach is upbeat. Everything's upbeat in the end. It's like the band. We've been through the poop but we're pretty sure that there's good stuff at the end of it. I hope there is."
Snakes and Ladders have begun the long road back from hand surgery and nervous breakdowns to grab their slice of the local obscurity pie. Noah Dennis has signed on for bass duty, the band is gigging out regularly (including an upcoming residency at the Above Club), and they're in pre-production for another disc. And, while it looks better than where he was standing a year ago, Blake figures it's all for giggles anyway.
"We're gonna go back in and do a new album that will alienate everyone and be totally unlistenable. But it will be fun. I've been doing this quite a while with limited to no success, so I can't take it seriously. If you do, you can get a little dull around the edges. Our goal is world domination but our band motto is, `We try not to suck.' "
Wo(eful)Mag
If you needed a more pointed difference between the Phoenix and our pals across town, look no further than the readers' survey winner of Best Band in their August 30 "Best of 2000" issue. Probable Cause continue a long tradition of tribute bands copping the top spot, which, if nothing else, means our readers get out more. (Prove it, by filling out the Worcester Phoenix Best ballot in this issue.) Oh, and we always look forward to WoMag's smells-of-desperation shot at the Worcester Phoenix home office -- and why shouldn't they be desperate. If not for the keen ability to transform advertisers into feature copy and pander exclusively to the West Side's white, upper-middle class, we imagine they'd become completely inconsequential.
Heavy Dates
Every so often you get cracked over the noggin good and hard from where you least expect it. Case in point, a little power-pop outfit called Go! Made up entirely of individuals who normally make those with an eye toward the future of the human race despair -- namely GB and tribute-act musicians -- these guys get their rock and roll sins absolved with this tight, crafty, hook-laden foursome. As a matter of fact, their own tunes are so damn good that the few covers they toss into the mix end up being the weaker points of the show. Check 'em out this Friday at the Plantation Club. Hey! Ho! Let's Blow! It's Boston Big Deals Babaloo, who tout themselves as the number-one practitioners of "punk mambo." We love punk. We dig Perez Prado. We loath Babaloo. So, is mixing punk and Latin rhythms just too much of a good thing? Probably not if its done well. Anyhoo, they play the Tammany Club, with Flip 55, on September 8. This Saturday, Philly anti-folk troubadour Adam Brodsky makes his third trip up to the Worm City and to Cool Beans to sing his twisted little ditties about meeting Mojo Nixon, getting dumped, and bedding lesbians. Needless to say, except for the getting dumped stuff, Brodsky is a bright kid with big dreams. Long-time heavy hitters Tree headline the Lucky Dog, but we've always been partial to Local All-Ages Hall of Famers Eastcide, who are also playing there this Saturday (along with Clearview 77, Tunnel Drill, and Dog Leg). Okay, so we've made it an occasional habit to pick on tribute bands (see Go!, above), but it's usually for a good reason. We'd much rather spend the night listening to rotten original ideas than some hits we can find in rotation on the radio. So, it was with genuine surprise that we found that Substitute stirred our heart, especially seeing as the Who quit mattering circa '67. Maybe it's that we can dig anyone who drums (and isn't really a drummer) until they blister and bleed all over their 505s, or maybe it's because they manage to pull the whole thing off as a trio. Or maybe raw passion can overcome the notions of even the most jaded music scribe. They split the bill at the Above Club, Saturday, with psych-popsters Snakes and Ladders. Meet the future of metal at the Palladium with the return of local grads Shadows Fall. They anchor a 10-band throw-down alongside All Out War and Chimaira the same night. Meanwhile, Sunday at the Palladium brings Skate 2000, which is on it's third promoter in three years. This installment reflects a change of direction with more punk action on tap. Face to Face, Saves the Day, Weston, and the Amazing Crowns highlight the event.

John O'Neill can be reached at johndelrey@yahoo.com..