NEW ZEALAND MUSICIAN MAGAZING (Apr 07) The Clean spur US musician to tour NZ
American pop-rock artist Greg Franco recorded his latest offering 'Southpawwest' in Dunedin with David Kilgour, Robert Scott and Tane Tokona and he is returning to our shores this April to promote the album which was released in New Zealand via Powertool Records in 2006. This series of gigs begins in Auckland and rolls downs to Dunedin; accompanying him on tour are his US band Rough Church and he has an impressive array of local supports in each centre.
"It all started when my band Ferdinand played with The Clean at the L.A. Knitting Factory back in Sept. 2001. We got a call from the Knitting Factory booker to open up for this band I'd only heard of, called The Clean. What I had heard was that "The Clean" were New Zealand legends.
Ferdinand opened the night. Luckily, Hamish Kilgour came out from the dressing rooms and was watching us closely. He took special interest, and because we were the first band that night, The Clean could have easily missed us by staying backstage. I think Hamish either called Bob and David out to listen, or he told them we were cool or something, I can't say, but it turned out to be a nice mutual admiration society kind of thing.
After we played, there was another band, and finally The Clean played. As they started, I was like moth to the flame. "Very special" I thought. I loved the shaman-like drumming style of Hamish and the optimistic and aggressive thump of Bob's bass. I also liked David's dark and strange but beautiful guitar, and in addition, David's voice and lyrics express his thoughts and images so well. The Clean's music is organic, mature. Timeless, really I got hooked.
To make a long story short, David and I killed a few days here and there in sun-soaked L.A. after he finished the 2002 Lambchop tour. He was exhausted, so we mostly just rested and bummed around, renting movies, eating good dinners, visiting people, and shopping a bit.
The Clean toured again in 2003 with Yo La Tengo. It was in San Francisco at the Phoenix Hotel, after a gig at the Fillmore, that I got a chance to play some new songs for them.
Back in L.A. a couple of days later, I took them over to the Huntington Gardens and casually popped the question about coming over to NZ to make a recording with them. They liked the idea. I guess New Zealanders are men who are true to their words because in April of 2004, it was all worked out. Schedules were cleared, dates were established, and a studio called "Tin Shed" was hired. Tom Bell runs the studio and it turned out to be the perfect choice. I felt confident enough to come halfway around the world and that the job would get done."
FERDINAND
...We'd have liked them if only for their husky-boy lead singer's Split Lip Rayfield tee. He shrieked several pissed-off songs about being pissed-off, and they frequently came off like a crunchier Wilco, full of rip-snorting Telecaster fury, among other assorted whatnots. Especially loved their humpa-humpa cover of the old Sparks tune 'Angst in My Pants.' (Rich Kane, OC Weekly)
Honest-to-goodness Indie Rock with huge guitar breaks and sensitive guy vocals. This L.A. band of office geeks turn their corporate angst against the listener and come up with blistering anti-anthems that'll have you pumping your fists and lighting your cubicle on fire. (listen.com)
Each song is a different brightly colored, tightly wrapped piece of candy on Ferdinand's debut CD, Demoted to Greeter (Rubber Band Ball). Some are gushing and sweet, others bitter and lemony, while still others are salty at first, leaving an aftertaste that mutates by memory into cinnamon. 'Lively as the Day' is a tumbling carnival of cotton-candy keyboard twists and midway trickery, while the sardonic title song leans casually against Laura Smith's undulating bass throbs, in no special hurry to leave its confident, buoyant groove. During 'Any Loose Parts?', singer Greg Franco's voice trails off as sheafs of Chris Chandler's guitar accumulate like clouds, alternately stormy and reflective. Most tunes have beguiling, simple verses that shift tectonically into powerful choruses a la the Pixies and the Cure, while certain songs, 'Joining the Professionals', '2-1-93' and 'His Head in the Mouth of a Lion', evoke Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips' surreal, hazy dreaminess. The truth is, these loose reference points just demarcate the arrival of a gifted, idiosyncratic, intelligent songwriter in Franco, backed by a clever, propulsive indie-rock band finding hooks in unexpected places. (Falling James, LA Weekly)
Many of the songs on Ferdinand's debut CD, Demoted to Greeter, are by now longtime staples of the band's repertoire, bashed out at countless gigs at Spaceland, the Silver Lake Lounge, and the Garage, among other venues, by core members Greg Franco on vocals and guitar, Laura Smith on bass, and Chris Chandler on guitar. Of late, Chandler has been replaced temporarily by David Guerrero of Third Grade Teacher (with whom Smith also plays bass), while, over the years, Ferdinand has included a veritable cavalcade of drummers, six of whom appear on this CD.
But after several years of hearing these tunes performed live, Demoted to Greeter is still a surprise, containing as it does definitive versions of many of the songs, yet with so many textures and colors, from the shimmering country feel of 'Any Loose Parts?' to the unsettling, jerky funk of 'Decal Stickers'. Ferdinand's sound is difficult to pin down; one could use stock phrases like 'roots music', 'early '90s alternative', or 'guitar rock', but they really don't do the band justice. However you categorize their music, it's devoid of cliches -- except when the band is having fun with them, as on the wild sonic bombast of 'Sad Eyes From Van Nuys'.
Demoted to Greeter starts on a high note, with the bouncy yet bitter, '60s-soul tinged 'Guarantees'. Another highlight is the aforementioned 'Any Loose Parts?': At times slow and silvery, replete with lap steel, the song periodically explodes into spooky, cacophonous interludes, with Franco's voice full of dreams and grit. On the anthemic 'Joining the Professionals', Smith's bass lines make a graceful counterpoint to Franco's aching vocals: 'Joining the professional losers tonight...such a lovely feeling, no amateurs here.' The album's emotional tone (as well as Franco's vocals) veers between wistful and pissed off -- often in the same song, as in the soaring 'Costume Disappointment'.
Perhaps Ferdinand's most arresting number is 'Sad Eyes From Van Nuys'. It begins amiably enough, with Smith's bass and David Burk's carnival-like keyboard ambling along, but the song slowly builds into a ferocious, roller-coaster ride. Ferdinand's sound is like that: It evokes the open road, long freeway drives through the middle of nowhere, and then arrival. It is at times meandering and ruminative, at times breakneck fierce; this dynamic makes for exhilarating listening, and it makes for an album that wears well, a collection of songs that are heartfelt, intelligent, and off the beaten path. (Gwynne Garfinkle, New Times Los Angeles)
Rock and roll mainstays in a sea of mealy-mouthed puke-rock bands. Ferdinand does for rock and roll what potatoes do for the Irish. So eat up!(y records)
...Articles include the Tour Diary of recent visitors to these shores Greg Franco & Rough Church...