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The group is an eight-piece party, shaking the asses of the most anti-groove music fans. In concert, the organic porno rock that the band thumps out makes dancing a must, not an option. The shows are less of a concert and more of a happening, accomplishing the once-thought-impossible task of getting a crowd of 500 indie rock fans to bop around without a care.
Sounding like a cross between the rhythmic funk and soul of James Brown's backing band and the intensely sexual grit of Girls Against Boys, the band consists of two guitarists, two, sometimes three, percussionists, sax and trumpet players, a bassist, and one energetic singer. At any given moment during a performance, any number of band members will drop their instruments to get down and boogie.
On a sunny summer evening, singer Nic and drummer John joined KindaMuzik in Columbus, Ohio (USA). "Where do you interview indie rock's musical party machine?" you ask. Why, in the most bizarre spot available: under a nice tree, no less than 100 yards from stockyards. !!! is headlining the final night of Columbus' More Than Music Festival, which is oddly housed in the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame. Actually, John expressed a sincere interest in going outdoors, since the band rarely sees trees and dirt since moving to New York City from Sacramento, California.
The band has made a lot of progress since releasing its self-titled debut on Gold Standard Laboratories a few years back. The group recently signed to underground legend Touch and Go Records. "We're really proud to be on the same label as the Butthole Surfers; that's what it came down to," says Nic. "The BHS are f——ing legendary, you know? That's cool." The process of signing to one of America's most respected labels isn't as romantic as one would imagine. "Mario (guitarist) said that Touch and Go was going to be at our show in Chicago. And we were like 'that's cool.' We played (the show), kicked ass, and the next day we hung out at their offices," says Nic. "They seemed mellow, very professional. We were just really excited to be there. There were some pretty important bands on that label; we feel very proud to be working with them."
Certainly, an organic dance-rock band doesn't seem to fit in with a roster that has included the likes of the Buttholes, Big Black, the Jesus Lizard, Brainiac, Slint, and Shellac. "But where do we fit in?" quips Nic. "It just felt like they just know good music," adds John. History certainly backs that comment up.
The band's roots are firmly planted in the same soil that most forward-thinking and interesting music has been for the last 30 years: in punk. "Sacramento was close to the Bay area. When punk and indie bands come to the area, they come to Oakland, they play San Francisco," claims Nic. "(After that) They are done with that area. There is no real point in them coming to Sacramento. Thus, there was never really a big scene there. For the most part, we didn't really get to see much." He adds, "So you buy a couple Sex Pistols records, a couple Clash records . . . you find out about punk, DIY, and stuff. But then it was like, 'What records do we buy?' We mostly learned about music from dollar bins in Sacramento. You end up buying Marvin Gaye and Chic. So we've been listening to this music for a long time, and it got to a point where we were like 'we play punk music, we don't listen to punk music. Why is this?' And so then we gave it a shot and we liked what we came up with."
What the band came up with was a revolution for the time: energetic, gritty rock music with a serious rhythm that anyone can dance to. "(Everything seemed the same) Up until the late '90s when dancing was kind of forbidden. Because it turned into slam dancing or moshing. So not moving was looked at as OK and encouraged by bands," claims John. "So then it just all of the sudden flipped in peoples' minds that it's OK to dance normally, with yourself or with someone else."
At the foreground of this mental flip has been !!!, pushing the limits of indie hipsters' non-dancing cool across America since the band's birth. As one can imagine, it is not always easy to get an unwilling crowd to groove to the beat. Luckily, the band has its methods down to a science. The head professor of this science is singer Nic.
"I (John) feel the best methods are A: Direct interaction with a crowd. When Nic enters into the crowd and starts freaking the crowd, you can see it create a wave of sensation. It's that whole law of the dance party: You need at least one jackass to say it's OK. The jackass is a legendary figure in dance party history," reveals John. "You need one person to say 'look at me, it's OK. No matter what you do you aren't going to look as silly as I do.' (Method) B: What really works is when you break it down into nothing but us. Whether it is us with no instruments chanting or clapping, or us doing something the audience can immediately join in on," he claims, "the band thing is over; now it is just a roomful of us doing something as one."
However, this is not all the band has in its bag of tricks. "We have a few secret weapons that are in the works. They are kind of volatile at this point; we can't release them to the public," jokes John.
Another way the band chooses to go against common rock knowledge is its size. In an era when two-person groups are becoming the rage because musicians are fed up with dealing with the crap that goes along with being in a large group, !!! defy convention by expanding its lineup. However, the band sees great opportunities in the sheer numbers it possesses.
"When you find yourself outnumbered in a town, you have people who will back you up," claims John. "And when you walk into a party that is not that exciting, we can turn it out."
" . . . and if we ever got into a fight — we haven't yet, but — any band . . . eight guys . . . who's gonna take us?" Nic adds jokingly. "I'll take any band at this whole fest!"
On a more serious note, the band does see the advantages of having such a large crew to play with. "We've been together six years, and are still getting together really well," says Nic. "In a band this big, if you are getting sick of somebody, it's really easy to avoid that person. I'll hang out by John, and if I'm sick of John I'll hang out by Tyler (guitar). Not that I get sick of you."
With arguably one of the most original names in rock history and a growing fan base, the group has found some problems with its moniker. Problems like fans being unable to locate them on the internet (www.brainwashed.com/!!! in case you are curious) or in a record store were not considered at the time that the group thought up the name, according to the band. In fact, !!! fears that the entire spirit of the name may be in jeopardy. "I feel it is more of an interactive name and we're an interactive band. We feel it's like no one else, and I think that's really important," says Nic. "Like Captain Beefheart said, 'If you want to be a different fish, you've got to jump out of the school.' I feel we're a different fish and we've jumped out of the school. We don't like being called Chick Chick Chick, though."
"It's becoming the official name," interjects John.
The band encourages fans to refer to them as anything he or she can think of; just steer clear of Chick, Chick, Chick. It turns out, even Touch and Go has a problem with character-only moniker.
"Touch and Go wants us to decide on a name," says Nic.
"They want us to bed down with one pronunciation of the name," adds Allan (saxophone).
"We're single; we can't be tied down," says Nic.
"We're not monogamous when it comes to pronunciation," says John.
"We're playing the name field," finishes Allan.
"It's the perfect name for this band. It's the basic urgency and excitement and happiness that is exploding out of the back of your brain," concludes John. "It does confuse people, and we confuse people. I think it's effective and memorable."
No matter how you pronounce it, !!! is on the move. The volatile combination of exciting music and a well-respected label has the makings of an explosive cocktail. Just be warned that next time you unexpectedly find your ass shaking to the beat, don't be surprised if !!! are the culprits.
On a final note, once Nic found out KindaMuzik is partially based in Belgium, he wanted it to be known that the band loves Belgium. Once, when he and Tyler were stranded in Brussels, a kind stranger offered to take them in and showed them one of the best times of their lives. And for this, !!! is forever in the country's debt.
http://www.kindamuzik.net/achtergrond/1398/1865/1865/
Meer !!! op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/1398
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