"the View From Nowhere"

The last time I caught the Steve Nardella Rock'nRoll Trio, the boys were rockin' out at last summer's Toledo Blues Festival with various national acts including blues legend Otis Rush and others. It was a warm afternoon, a cool breeze was floating off the river, and the crowd, numbering close to 5,00, was boppin' away with the bluesy, rockabilly originals and classic-roots covers Nardella and crew were putting down. The grass in front of the stage was packed with dancers and the Trio played a number of songs from their CD on Schoolkids' Records, "Daddy Rollin Stone." Cool cool stuff that proves once again the band was not just a great roots bar band, capable of blowing away just beer-drinking hipsters, but hot dog-and-coke drinking kids and 80-year-old grandmothers as well.

Cut to February 1995. Saturday night, Ann Arbor. A snow storm hits, the roads are hell, and the wind is a killer. Nobody is going out. There's 20 people maybe, 30 tops, beer-drinking hipsters who are upstairs at the Heidelberg as Nardella and the Trio hit the stage. Outside is winter but inside the club it's another hot summer day. After a warm-up blues instrumental, the band blasts out a set that mixes more blues with a major dose of rockabilly coolness and fire. Gene Vincent's "Blue Jean Bop" and Duke Ellington's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" blend into a set with a couple of early Elvis tunes and a Lloyd Price R&B classic. The Steve Nardella Rock'n'Roll Trio are working just as hard to knock out the handful of hard-core fans out tonight as they did for the summertime thousands at the Toledo festival.

There's nothing wrong with being a great roots bar band (Nardella is that hands down). but there's much more going on here that the rest of the country should be hearing as well. Nardella, since his days in legendary bands like the Vipers and the Silvertones back in the 1970s, has been an Ann Arbor treasure-worth braving a few inches of snow for anyday. Unfortunately, no local club date is scheduled for this month (another tragedy, but don't get me started on THAT...) but while you wait for the next gig, pick up a copy of "Daddy Rollin' Stone" and be reminded how lucky Ann Arbor is to have this legend-to-be around the club scene.

Later that same night at Cava Java, another smallish crowed sipped double caps and quietly watched folk singer/songwriter Steve Leggett and his band The Buzzrats heating up the evening in an entirely different way. This is a coffee house after all for goodness sakes, and it's just before closing, but Leggett's voice and sense of style that brings to mind John Prine at some times and Bob Dylan at others has enough to a bite and angst that, while the softness of the drums and guitar sort of lulls you to sleep a bit, Leggett's vocals and lyrics slap you in the face like an injection of caffeine. One song, "Sid," which I'm assuming is about the late Sex Pistol. bassist, cuts right into your heart. Steve Leggett is still another undiscovered (by most) Ann Arbor treasure worth your entertainment dollars.

The ghost of the Sex Pistols is still haunting the halls of Community High as well, if the new single by the newly broken-up Short Dead Dudes is any indication. Their five-song, seven-inch recors on the Los Perros label, "Gravel To Go," is pure three-chord garage punk with a very heavy SP influence. One-two-three-four time, straight-ahead teen garage band stuff that burns like ignited gasoline. A reunion gig is rumored for the Half Way Inn (possibly for Sat. March 11) so keep an eye on the telephone poles around Division Street for more details.

On the subject of club hopping-three musical events worth investigating this month are singer/songwriter Kari Newhouse (within a breath of being signed to Elektra a couple years back) at Cava Java (March 31), Morsel (art meets rock and art wins with lots of angst) at Cross Street Station (March 3) and WIG (who take pain and loud guitars to a level that few can understand and who will no doubt on Island Records) at the same venue on March 17.

While we're on the subject of Morsel and WIG, "Hollywood Blood Capsules," the debut CD from former Ann Arbor band JAKS, is just out on the Chicago-based Choke Records label. The CD brings to mind the above-mentioned rock and roll outfits to a small degree. There's loads of disjointed keys and time signatures, loud grating guitars that toss out all thoughts of traditional structure and an aura that screams PSYCH HOSPITAL. As for lyrics, vocalist short stories with not a rhyme within a hundred miles. It's painful, brilliant music that doesn't give a damn about anything. Who needs radio airplay? Too bad JAKS had to leave town to get signed to a label.

Historical note: While this is not a film column, don't forget to check out this year's Ann Arbor Film Festival (details in ARTS AGENDA, page 12, and in the CALENDAR). Back in 1966 the Festival was the first place outside of New York City to book the legendary Velvet Underground with cultural icons Lou Reed, Nico, and John Cale (and, of course, Andy Warhol). In this era of governmental anti-art fascism (and its running dog local fellow travelers-you know who you are), the Film Festival is a celebration of free expression in the cinema world in much the same way WIG, JAKS, and Morsel are to the rock and roll world. It all ties together.

First Lisa Waterbury and now Spectra...strange things are coming out of our neighbor the north, Whitmore Lake. Spectra's debut CD, "Never Give Up," doesn't break any new artistic ground like Ms. Waterbury, it's true. It's an overdose of guitar feedback, FM radio heavy metal, and working-class life where the only hope is to pick up a guitar and get a big-time record contract. It's the children of Van Halen as they write tunes in the 1990s. But while most bands sound like second-class rock star wannabes, where Spectra makes the break is in the quality of songwriting. "The Edge" is a rock anthem about breaking down that would sound just fine on local radio. "Broken Love" is a slower -paced lost-love tune that shows lots of class. And the guitar duo of Ken Walters and Bud Johnson is hot hot hot. This is some kick-ass rock and roll radio music that means business. And I promise not to say Whitemore Lake may be the next Liverpool.

And on a final note, the most impressive piece of news in The View From Nowhere mailbox this month is the first release by the newly formed Wintermute Record label. Created to publish and publicize unsigned local bands, Wintermute's initial release is a two-band, seven inch single with Ms. Bliss and Naming Mary. Both are ethereal, spacy and refreshing. Naming Mary seems almost Buddhist-like with uplifting but dense keyboards, while the Ms. Bliss track (the band formerly Second Coming) is more guitar-based-low key, laid back and earthy. Ann Arbor needs lots more record companies that have an ear for cool music and Wintermute could be just the ticket.

That's all for this month. Be sure to send your thoughts on art, music, taking chances, corporate ownership of commercial radio and how this can be interpreted from a Marxist perspective, as well as any CDS, tapes and letters to AGENDA, The View From Nowhere, 220 S. Main St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104.