Sweet jams

Krakow: European name, American rock and roll

by Don Fluckinger

The whole Krakow thing started out fine: a few years back, lead vocalist Brian Chaffee was hanging out at

Friendly's with the band. Guitarist John Kleber was talking about how Krakow, Poland, was the region's center for culture and the arts hundreds of years ago. Riffing on the concept, the group decided to name themselves after Krakow and to tack on the random number "1445" to confuse the masses. Confusion did, in fact, set in. They quickly decided "Krakow 1445" was too much, so they shortened it. Unfortunately, some people have incorrectly connected the name to the white-supremacist movement -- because of the city's prominence in Schindler's List as a stop en route to Nazi-run concentration camps.

"People who don't really know what they're talking about will start asking, `Oh, wasn't that a concentration camp?'" Chaffee says. "Then you gotta go through the whole schmeil for some people that just aren't smart enough to look it up, or don't want to take the time to go out of their way, who just get you pegged as being some sick Nazis or something like that. Not to that extreme, but there's just always controversy around the name, which is one of our biggest problems. There's so many times we thought about changing it and we just haven't."

For the record, they're not Nazis. They're far from it. And the laid-back music they play isn't the aggressive punk associated with the skinheads who get their kicks out of identifying themselves with that ugly movement. Instead, Krakow play whimsical jam-band fare anchored in American rock and roll. Elements of Pearl Jam and Robert Plant can be heard in Chaffee's singing. He, by the way, has a penchant for breaking into Blondie- and Beastie Boys-style raps. There are also undercurrents of the Doors, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and even Steely Dan and Miles Davis percolating below Krakow's grooves. If there's any supremacy involved with this band, it's that good-time party groove reigning over all.

Although the group have had several drummers come and go, and at one time a sax player and a harmonica player, the nucleus of bassist J. Barry (the liner notes call him J., his mother calls him Jason, and his friends call him Jesus), Kleber, and Chaffee have played together for six years. Drummer A.J. Sausville recently joined the band to round out what will likely become the long-term, four-piece line-up.

Krakow are now settling down with members who want to be in it for a longer haul and who are serious about taking the band to more widespread, regional popularity and beyond. Right now they concentrate on playing University of New Hampshire, Keene State, Worcester, and their hometown, Templeton. Because expanding into greater New England would be the next step, the group are considering taking time off from performing, starting in February, to write more music and record a second CD.

Upon their return, a new album would be released, and with it would come a remade Krakow with a new repertoire, a renewed resolve to widen the band's appeal, and possibly even a new name.

"Doing anything other than playing my music in my life is not going to happen, because I don't have the energy or the attention span to do anything else," says Chaffee, who is dedicated to keeping the band going. "[But] we're really not what Krakow was. So we might come out with a different name; we'll play some of the same songs. . . . We just want to come out and kick some ass as a new band."

Krakow play at 9:30 p.m. on January 22 and 27 at the Plantation Club Drafthouse. Tickets are $2. Call (508) 752-4666. They can also be seen with the Arthur Dent Foundation at 9:30 p.m. on January 28 at Killion's Pub, East Templeton. Tickets are $5. Call (978) 630-2229.