String queens

The sound that this Bomb make is pop

by Laura Kiritsy

Influenced by the pure funk of the hieroglyph Formerly Known as Prince, the R&B of the Brand New Heavies, the smooth vocal stylings of Chicago, and the British anomaly known as Chumbawumba, the Pleasure Bombs have fashioned their own unique blend of hip, danceable pop that has some calling them "the B52s of the '90s." They are pure pop and proud of it. "I think the only place we react in a knee-jerk sort of way is when people try to put us in a rock category because we're not," says lead vocalist and lyricist Charles Paul. "There are a lot of rock expectations in the club scene in Boston but the response from audiences has been great."

Not since the Singing Nun traded in her rosary beads for a guitar and a bullet on the Billboard top 40 in the 1960s has a musical act had more curious beginnings. In the early 1990s Fulbright scholar Paul had been studying in Berlin, Germany. After abandoning a gig translating Berlin poets' work, Paul embarked on an illustrious and, some would say, lucrative career as a composer of heavy-metal lyrics. "It was kind of comical," he chuckles with a hint of embarrassment. "I'm sitting in my apartment in Berlin and very long-haired Peter Frampton-types are coming by and asking me if they can pay me in pot for the next lyric." At that point the wordmeister decided to turn his phrases for himself. Drawing on his taste for vocally based pop sounds, Paul worked with two Berlin musicians and laid the foundations of the Pleasure Bombs in, of all places, the underground of the Berlin music scene. "There wasn't really the type of pop music that we're doing in Berlin at the time so we were kind of underground," Paul says. "The mainstream was techno and rock and neo-neo punk."

When the opportunity to record in Boston presented itself, Paul returned to the States, with Berlin bandmates following soon after. Recruiting Boston-area musicians to fill out their funky sound, the Bombs exploded at the 1997 New York International Film and Video Festival, their auspicious debut gig on American soil. "It was kind of shocking because it was the first time that I personally ever performed in the US," Paul says of the performance at La Bar Bat. "That was exciting and now it feels like the real work is beginning."

Several personnel changes later, the Pleasure Bombs now include the voice of Alexis Casano, guitarist Justin "Silky" Slusher, keyboardist Joel Adams, bassist Idan Ireland, and Kathleen Dona on drums. And the real work has paid off in the form of their debut CD, Food Plus Sex Equals Nature, released in fall 1998. The disc is glossy and chock full of funky rhythms and R&B-flavored hooks that highlight the soulful vocal interminglings of Casano and Paul. The goal here is booty-shakin' and free-flowin' fun. In a genre in which lyrics appear to sometimes be an afterthought, what sets the Pleasure Bombs apart are Paul's smart, introspective and always free-spirited lyrics.

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For complete listings of the Worcester Gay Pride Festival check out Listings.

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"Music, sex, politics, pleasure in all its forms -- I think they're all gonna come up in lyrics, and I think that's one good thing about being a pop band with a capital P is that we have some freedom to move around with the lyric topics," says Paul, referencing one of the Bombs' favorite tracks, "On the Loveliest Weed," inspired by a Berlin judge who refused to throw potheads in jail for taking a leisurely toke. "That was a lyric I wrote to describe the perspective on the marijuana issue without just coming out and saying, `We wanna get high so high,'" he sings. Surely even those Frampton clones are groovin' when Paul and Casano let loose with pop's longest hook line, "That people have the fundamental right/To feel however the hell they please/In their own free time/And yes that means/That many are gonna be gettin' high/On the loveliest weed."

"The thing that I liked about it initially was that it had a kind of shuffle-groove," Paul points out. "And the shuffle groove created the shuffle in the lyric." But just to make sure that Tipper Gore isn't lurking about with a stack of Parental Advisory stickers, Paul quickly adds, "It's not to say that we think everybody should smoke, that's not the point of the song, but people should be able to feel the way they want to feel on their own free time. That much we can definitely sing about."

The Pleasure Bombs appear at this Saturday's Gay/Lesbian/ Bisexual/Transgender Pride Festival in Institute Park.