Status seekers

Thinner get fatter on Sonic Dinner

by John O'Neill

It was a story that seemed too good to be true. Thinner walked in off the street (with offspring in tow), plopped a compact disc on the counter -- hoping we'd be interested -- and wandered back out toward Route 20. Sixmonths later, they picked up their plaque for Best Local Punk Band (voted so by Wormtown's adoring public), and their mugs graced the Worcester Phoenix cover.

Thinner took the equivalent of a victory lap by hammering out a set at last year's poll party. The boys, who made the disc to prove to their kids they were indeed a band, were a success story -- despite their lack of motivation. Heinekens flowed, eardrums quivered; and the kid standing next to me, drunk and happy, revealed that the bass player, Neil Lucey, was his high-school soccer coach. He seemed somewhat proud, if not a little incredulous; and lord knew, I was proud that he was proud -- one less generation gap to bridge.

The next morning the sun mercilessly ripped through the blinds, Frank Sinatra had just passed away, the final Seinfeld episode was being analyzed by Sarah Edwards. And Thinner pulled an immediate David Copperfield routine. Like so many bands before them, they grabbed their award and disappeared from the scene.

"Yeah, the kids in my class call our music `happy rock' cuz we don't say `fuck' enough," chuckles Lucey when reminded of the soccer-coach line. It's exactly one year to the week of their punk coronation, and the band are ready to reclaim their status as hard-rockin'/hard-drinkin' weekend warriors. Having just put the finishing touches on their sophomore release, Sonic Dinner (the reason they've been so low-profile), Thinner are again ready to stir things up. And, this time, they're taking it a little more seriously.

"That last disc we never intended to put out," says guitarist Dan Rugburn. "This new project -- we actually went after the mistakes and did it over. Well, we left some of the mistakes in cuz it's rock! If you took them all out it'd be fluff. Our philosophy is, songs are fresh when they're brand new. It has a rawness you can't get back if you play it a hundred times. There are glitches [in the music], but we like it that way."

Recorded with Boston punk veteran Dave Minehan (ex-Neighborhoods and the man who almost saved Westerberg from mediocrity) at Woolly Mammoth Studios. A natural pick as knob twister with his rock-and-roll pedigree, Sir David also gave the album its unusual title after scribbling Sonic Dinner on a rough mix.

"He just puts silly names on rough tapes and sends them: Three Times a Lady, the Westboroughs. We thought Sonic Dinner was perfect," Lucey says.

Opening with the loud, snotty, and quick "Lava," Thinner are off to the races with a song that picks up right where their self-titled debut left off. When you get to the next number, "Let It Go," the New Thinner make their first appearance. Still rough and gritty, the song is an example of things to come. "Invited" pulls a Goo Goo Dolls-style bash and pop. "This Time" is their first foray on the acoustic side of the tracks. And "Yellow," with Lucey's excellent Brit-twang vocals and Rugburn's less-is-more guitar solo, reaches back to the '80s to shake hands with the DB's. The real shockers come with "Today" (a rumbling, psychedilia-charged quasi-anthem) and the wide-open-spaces gallop of "John Deere." The band are actually attempting to vocalize with, gulp, sincerity.

But that doesn't mean the band have lost their edge. "Blue" still kicks shins with the hardest of them, and "Pretty Thing" is the same three-chord rave-up that first melted our cynical hearts. An already astute band -- you could easily trace the 25-year time line they were riding with the first album -- Thinner are a more complete group by adding nuances and brush strokes that would have been steamrolled by the same threesome a year ago.

"We had sessions where we were into experiments. We went in with a lot of ideas, and when we got there the ideas went one way and we went the other," says Rugburn. "There's a lot of atmosphere but it fits together well. I still like standing in front of my amp and hearing that guitar."

"Dave's just awesome. He knows how to maximize anyone," adds Lucey, who on "Today" ended up singing through a three-foot hunk of PVC pipe at Minehan's request (that's called trust, folks)."We can't wait to get back in the studio with him again. We've got seven or eight songs that are better than anything we've done. It's the classic story of, now that the finished product is out you're ready to move on."

That's a moot point. Last year's winners have left the confines of punk for larger pastures. It's summed up best on "Rippin Pictures," a song that again delves into psychedelic territory by way of Detroit. Still toothy and tuff and, frankly, centered on the same subject matter lyrics-wise, the band have succeeded in mashing all that influence into one three-minute slab of steel. It's smart stuff that still retains a lot of attitude.

"We joke about how if `real musicians' could see us write," says Rugburn. You can take the boy out of punk but . . . you know how the rest of it goes. "I play [guitar] where the dots are because I don't know the name of the chords. If I learned to play guitar properly, I probably wouldn't like it."

John O'Neill can be heard previewing the weekend events, Friday mornings on WTAG (580 AM) on Hank Stoltz's show. Tune in and join the Trivia All-Stars.