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"TWO 'TONES" |
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| Artist: | "THE DEFTONES" |
| Title: | "AROUND THE FUR" |
| Label: | Maverick/Warner Bros. |
| Release Date: | 10/28/97 |
| Available: | Any Major Music Store |
| Rating: |  |
| The core of the Sacramento, Ca. band "Deftones" goes back a
long way. Vocalist Chino Moreno, guitarist Stephen Carpenter, and drummer
Abe Cunningham all attended the same high school. However, Carpenter, three
years older than the other two, did not always aspire to be a musician.
In fact, up until the age of fifteen, skateboarding was his passion, and
his visions of attaining skateboarding glory were the sole obsession that
drove the middle-class Sacramento kid from dusk to dawn. "I'd skate
to and from school, and then go out and skate all night, and I'd do that
every day," he recalls. "I loved chicks like any other guy, but
that wasn't my thing. I wanted to skate." The dream spurred him on until one fateful day when Carpenter was fifteen. He was hit by a drunk driver, and landed in the hospital for two weeks. "The guy was doing like 60 miles an hour when he slammed into me, and I wrecked his car," he states. "I never saw, heard, or felt it, and I've never had any pain from it, but physically, I should have died. It's weird. I woke up in the street, and I felt totally normal other than the fact that my leg was snapped in half. It was a definite changing point in my life in the way I looked at things." Carpenter's eventual realization that he was lucky to be alive changed his direction in life. States Carpenter, "After a couple of weeks went by, I realized I could have been dead, and from that point on, I didn't care about skateboarding anymore." Carpenter was released from the hospital a week later, and when a friend came over with a guitar, Carpenter's accidental discovery of how to play a power chord forever sealed his destiny. "It only took me a couple of weeks to get to where I could fake it and sound like I kind of knew what I was doing," he says. "I didn't learn anything but a power chord until I had been playing for about four years." A few years later, Chino Moreno and Abe Cunningham entered his life, and the groundwork for "Deftones" was put into place. Carpenter knew Moreno from the local skate scene, and when Moreno discovered that Carpenter knew how to play guitar, he and Cunningham arranged a jam session. The chemistry was right; the trio began jamming, and never stopped. Once the decision was made to form a band, they began to buy equipment with the settlement money from Carpenter's skateboarding accident, and the search began for a bassist that would successfully round off the group. The year was 1988, and several bassists would come and go before the band would settle on Chi Cheng. His winning credentials? His hair was long and his equipment passable. "Deftones" finally began penning original compositions, committing four of them to a demo that, two years later, landed in the hands of an A&R man at Madonna's label, Maverick. A deal was signed soon after, and "Adrenaline," their debut album, was released in 1995. After the release of "Adrenaline," Deftones remained in constant motion, touring with such acts as "Korn," " L7," "Ozzy Osbourne," "White Zombie," and earning a spot on the Warped Tour. Three rounds of headlining their own U.S. tour rounded off the thirteen-month gap from the release of "Adrenaline" to the time that they returned to the studio to record their second effort, joining once again with co-producer Terry Date. "Around The Fur" is "Deftones" crowning achievement to date, according to Carpenter. "I just can't help it," he says, "We sit in the car all the time freaking out and listening to our new stuff. I love to play it for anyone who will listen because I'm so happy with the songs we came up with. I would call this record a progression, but not in the respect that it's better than the last one, it's just different." "Around The Fur" has been described as a more powerful, jarring album than their first. As Stephen Carpenter says, "(It) is passionate, heavier - it has more feeling than "Adrenaline." It'll be just as destructive on your stereo." A few selections to look for include "My Own Summer (Shove It)," the first track to stereo, which begins the album, and is punctuated by vocalist Chino Moreno's frenzied shriek of "shove it" throughout the song. Moreno says that he writes lyrics with certain phrases that fans can easily pick up on, even if the rest of the song's lyrics remain enigmatic, as evidenced in this case. The title track, "Around The Fur," deals with Moreno's perception of the dark and seamy side of the fashion, glamour, and prostitution worlds. "It's basically about being infatuated with the dirtiness of life," he divulges. "I'll do anything to get into it and understand it, because I want to see where everyone is coming from." "Be Quiet And Drive(Far Away)" is an hypnotic, yet hard-driving song that evidences Moreno's growing interest in female vocalists and the devices employed by them in order to use their voices as tools of expression. "Lately, I've been more into that as opposed to the strictly hard-core style of singing. I just like the way that girls can make their voices sound, and I know I can't really do that, but I try to write in that way." In the track "MX," which deals with similar issues as in "Around The Fur," Moreno satisfies his wish for a female voice to underline his lyrics by trading off lines with Abe Cunningham's wife, Annalynn. And yet another track of interest is "Headup," featuring Max Cavalera, formerly of "Sepultura," playing "a Brazilian tribal instrument that makes an odd twanging sound." To sum up, "Around The Fur" is an interesting offering, sure to please those devoted fans of the band who have stuck with them through thick and thin. It is alternately dark and wistful, melodic and vengeful. It depicts the rage of many different moods in conflict, yet in its more introspective moments, is hypnotic. For fans of this genre, this album is a must-have. The diversity and passion of the compositions should hold many delightful surprises for the devotee. If this particular sound is not your cup of tea, however, steer clear. The intensity may be a bit much for those not aware of what to expect. |
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Club Rio Tempe, AZ 10/30/97 |
| Since the release of their critically acclaimed debut album "Adrenaline"
in October, 1995, the "Deftones" have been riding a steadily climbing
wave of popularity both in the United States and overseas. On October 27,
1997, this four-man band from Sacramento, CA kicked off its "World
Annihilation Tour" in support of its second Maverick Records release,
"Around The Fur." The Winter '97 tour is scheduled to continue
through mid- December, and covers much of the United States from coast to
coast. Having heard a considerable buzz about the band recently, but never having had the opportunity to catch them live, I was anticipating, at the very least, an entertaining experience - especially since the last time the band appeared in Arizona, Deftone fans and non-fans alike were treated to a riot when the management of the venue in which they were appearing decided to end their set after only four songs because members of the audience continued to stage-dive after having been warned to stop. I wondered briefly if the magazine photographer, Virginia Zavala, and I would stand a chance of getting out of a similar situation alive should it happen again. But after examining the sturdiness of the high-heeled shoes we both wore, I decided the crowd was no match for our deadly footwear. I am very well aware of the effectiveness of a sharp heel against a major organ when wielded in self-defense. Unfortunately, what little power we may have had over a potentially rabid crowd was useless when we discovered that the concert, which we fully expected to be held inside the venue, had been moved to a grassy patio area outside - a questionable decision at best, since Club Rio lies directly in the flight path of an international airport, and it would take nothing short of a nuclear warhead to mask the sound of the annoying rumble of a plane flying overhead every two minutes. With heels sinking all the way up in the soft, wet grass - in some spots, we became rooted to the ground as firmly as a couple of trees - we plodded our way to the front of the stage, and waited for the Deftones to appear. At least it was a lovely night for an outdoor concert, and the all-ages crowd of 400-500 people seemed in relatively good spirits. Virginia was briefed quickly on protocol for photographing the band, and to our relief, we discovered a special area had been set up for the media. Photographers would be allowed to stand in a protected, barricaded space directly in front of the stage and freely snap photos during the first three songs of the set, undisturbed by the rest of the audience. As the Deftones finally took the stage to the screaming approval of the crowd, the photographers were whisked away to their "safe" zone to start doing their jobs...and were promptly met with a wave of human bodies being surfed through the crowd and deposited in the very narrow walkway reserved for the media. Some landed on the grass, but most landed on the photographers. While the journalists desperately dodged the steady rain of elbows, knees, and booted feet threatening their skulls and their photographic equipment, the small army of security swarmed on each crowd-surfing offender and marched them out of the barricaded area and back to the mosh pit that had formed at the front of the stage. Trouble was, the crowd began to view this absurd little dance as some sort of game, and soon, the bodies began to tumble over the barricade more and more quickly. By the end of the third song, the security teams' polite handling of the crowd had become far less tolerant as off-limit areas were flagrantly ignored by a crowd determined to have a good time on its own terms, and it became obvious that the real show was happening in the audience, rather than on stage. And that, readers, as sad as it is true, pretty much describes the rest of the show. Despite the fact the band performed with energy and plenty of passion, they were cursed with just about the worst sound system I've heard at a concert in a long time. Some of this may have been due to the venue mistakenly obtaining an underpowered generator for the outdoor show, forcing the band to perform without a good amount of its sound system. Also to blame may have been the area the club chose for the show. It's difficult enough to produce good sound at an outdoor venue built to deal with live performances, let alone a last-minute, makeshift stage plagued by constant overhead air traffic, as well as the sound of nearby road traffic on a busy, congested street about seventy-five yards away. |
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| Whatever the reason, the sound was muddy and indistinct. Chino Moreno's
vocals were a fuzzy, mumbling blur that made it very difficult to pick out
any lyrics with accuracy. Stephen Carpenter's guitar and Chi Cheng's bass
seemed to be battling with each other for supremacy, instead of working
together to produce an even and consistent sound. All in all, it was quite
frustrating to catch glimpses of musical images that seemed intriguing and
promising, only to have them swallowed up in a rush of bad sound, leaving
the musical thought unfinished. Before the show was half over, I found myself
glancing at my watch, wondering how long before this audio assault would
end. And that, dear readers, is a strange feeling to experience - especially
when I was, for the most part, enjoying the visual performance on stage. Which leads me to mention the bright side to the whole situation. Basically, the crowd didn't seem to much care about whatever sound problems were coming from the stage. They were far too busy having a great time, and the large mosh pit that had swirled into existence the minute the "Deftones" struck their first chord soon duplicated itself into a few other mini-mosh pits nearby. The audience's quest to send a steady stream of fans over the sacred barricade at the front of the stage continued strong throughout the show, culminating in one person climbing to the top of the speaker tower and causing it to nearly fall over on top of the audience. That led to the first arrest of the evening. |
| The audience went equally wild when Chino Moreno soared over the heads of the security guards at the foot of the stage, |  |
and landed in the upheld arms of the audience, who surfed him safely back to the stage. |
| And definitely a high point of the evening was the appearance of ex- Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera, lending a hand on the song "Headup," on which he also performs in the studio version on "Around The Fur." |
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| The show ended soon after, with no encores, and Virginia's request for
a songlist from one of the Deftones stage entourage was met with a very
short, rude denial - hence my inability to cite so many songs that were
covered in the set. And as I stated before; unfortunately, the sound was
so bad, it was very difficult to decipher enough of any song to hazard a
guess on the title. In the end, I can't help but be curious as to the outcome of the show if it had been held under better conditions. I, for one, would like to see the band again when they are performing with the majority of conditions working for them, instead of against them. Maybe next time . . . |
SUPERTONES" |
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| Six years ago Jason Carson (23) , drummer and Matt Morginsky (21), lead
vocals, started "The Orange County Supertones" as a rock band.
Along with Tony Taruss on bass guitar, they tried all the current forms
of music, from grunge to disco, before finally realizing that the ska sound
best suited their tastes. So, over a short period of time, they added horn
players (and one guitar player) one by one to bring their number to seven. The rest of the band are Darren Mattler - trumpet, Dave Chavalller - tenor sax, Kevin (Slim) Chen - guitar and Dan Spencer - trombone. All of the members share the same desire to bring music and the Lord to their audience, which has enabled them to keep the music going as they picked up fans and a record contract. Their first release for Tooth and Nail Records got the attention of honcho Brandon Ebel, who chose them to be his first release on his new label BEC, which has distribution ties to EMI and has helped get the current album "Supertones Strike Back" much greater attention. The title cut was made into a video that has seen airplay on MTV, a rarity for Christian rock bands. AMZ caught up with Jason Carson between tours to ask him about the band and its mission. |
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With Special Guests Stavesacre, Ghoti Hook, Squad 5-0 Cuban Club Tampa, FL 11-01-97 |
| There is a large, but often overlooked, concert circuit that features
bands which are to one degree or another "Christian" bands. Often
unpromoted except through church and youth groups, and largely ignored by
the local press, these bands nevertheless attract good crowds as was the
case tonight. Off to a late start, but with a large and anticipatory crowd, local favorites "Squad 5-0" (out of Georgia) got the evening off to a rocking start, playing a short but lively set including, they said, the worst song in rock - their theme song. And they were pretty much right but the crowd went along with the joke. The venue is a large courtyard next to a four story building with a mini-Hollywood Bowl type bandshell and no permanent lighting. Therefore the only lights for the evening were provided by the "Supertones" - a pair of portable towers with about half a dozen lights on each. Luckily good music doesn't depend on good lighting. "Ghoti Hook" then took the stage. This five man band hails from Virginia and were probably the hardest punk group on the bill. They have just released their second album, "Banana Man," which will be reviewed in our January issue, and most of the songs they played were off that album, so all I can tell you is it's hard, fast and definitely punk! There was some bodysurfing and moshing during their set but after a young lady was hurt the bands all called for a stop to both and the crowd complied without complaint and restricted themselves to dancing, which in most cases seemed more akin to running in place. I comment on the crowd because it's not often at punk/rock concerts to see parents and small children, and even more, kids willing to acknowledge that they were WITH them! While the music may be loud and hard the words are clean and family-friendly. "Ghoti Hook" closed with a rousing rendition of Joan Jett's "I Love Rock and Roll." "Stavesacre" was up next, whom I had already seen this past summer with "MxPx," and played much the same set as they did on their last visit (see the June/July issue) and just as well. Finally the act everyone had been waiting for was up. Looking like part of the Men In Black cast, the "Orange County Supertones" wasted no time getting down to business as they played a number of cuts off their latest album "Supertones Strike Back." Opening with "Grace Flood" and "Supertones Strike Back," even a venue with limited lighting and sound doesn't hurt a band with as much firepower as the " 'Tones," with the horns and sax to help push the sound. |
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| The crowd was really into the music and the hit of the evening was their
anthem, "Unite," which had fists pumping and adrenalin flowing.
"Resolution" and "Tonight" followed and then the drummer,
Jason Carson came forward to speak to the crowd. In what can only be called a testimony, Jason shared with the crowd the word of the Lord and kids who might not be in church the next morning were listening with rapt attention. For Jason does have a calling and it isn't just the drums and the Supertones. |
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| For a small moment of time the crowd was one with Jason and no matter
what your faith it was heartening to see such a positive response to his
message. Faces that had been filled with excitement over the band's music
now took on another glow as they clasped hands and sang with Jason like
one giant choir. This was certainly one of the most affecting concerts I
have been to. It was a strange intermingling of the punk/rock&roll/ska
concert feel with that of an old time revival meeting. It certainly shows
that the word can come in many forms including those of the "Supertones."
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