Countrified!
The northern insurgence of 40 Rod Lightning
Just one
drink. I was gonna poke my head in the joint, press the flesh, dig
whoever was playing, down a sarsaparilla, and go home.
I curbed the jalopy
across the street and headed toward the Spy Bar on State. Music spilled out —
country music, good country music. 40 Rod Lightning was just rockin’ the joint.
I stayed all night.
I danced, I threw
darts, and had a natural ball to music, the likes of which I hadn’t heard since
Hank III last blew through town.
40 Rod Lightning is Rochester’s buzz band
right now. Not everyone has seen it yet, but has heard the name
enthusiastically uttered by those who have. Hear this band once and you’ll see
why.
40 Rod Lightning is genuine, long-haired subversive country; the post-Nudie suit, pre-Nashvegas strain of Willie and Waylon and Johnny and George
and Billy Joe. You know, outlaws. OK, so they don’t
look all that country. There’s a cowboy shirt here or there, but most of the
band wears sneakers. And 40 Rod doesn’t fly the Stars and Bars. But the sound
is 100 proof country.
“Insurgent north country is what we are,” says singer Tom Jones.
40 Rod pays tribute
to the aforementioned heroes and legends, pens its own tunes, and takes music
by bands like Metallica and Pink Floyd and Dixie fries it.
It was all kind of an
accident.
Singer Jones and
guitarist Jon Lundberg formed The Futon Clan two years ago with drummer Joe Bonfiglio.
Don Anonymous was
throwing a 64th birthday party for John Lennon at WaterStreetMusic
Hall with Rochester
musicians paying tribute to the fallen Beatle.
“Don suggested we do
‘Because,'” Jones says. “But we couldn’t get it together. Finally the day of
the show I said let’s just play it as a country kind of thing.'”
It clicked and the
band dove into its new sound.
“We were essentially
trying to do the alt-country thing,” Jones says. “I like all kinds of music.
But I didn’t really like country growing up so much because of what I was
subjected to.”
That’s because the
country sung by Jones’ heroes hasn’t been on the radio for 30 years. Johnny
Cash had to die to get back on the
so-called country airways, for cryin’ out loud.
Brian Killigrew was the next to sign on. His mandolin and
lonesome lap steel playing further solidified the band’s rural sound. Bassist
Chuck Larsen joined soon after when a want ad caught his eye. Larsen did a
double-take.
“I couldn’t believe
that I saw an ad for an alt-country, insurgent band playing Uncle Tupelo and
Johnny Cash stuff that had a mandolin anda lap steel,” Larsen says. Larsen had been heavy into
Southern rock and had been listening to “A lotta, lotta, lotta Hank III for the
past coupla years,” he says. The Futon Clan was
perfect for him. The name, however…
“Playing country… it
had that ‘clan’ word in it,” Larsen says. “And we were kinda
scared of that.”
“It was a play on
Wu-Tang,” Jones points out. “But we figured a lot of people that are going to
be listening to this band aren’t maybe gonna know
Wu-Tang Clan.”
So the switch was in and 40 Rod Lightning was born. Besides, there was still plenty room for
irony and humor in the music, since 40 Rod Lightning’s sound and theme is a
perhaps a little out of place up in these here parts.
“We’re northern white
boys,” Jones says. “Country people aren’t gonna think
we’re country, so we’re trying to be our own thing. We have fun. Some of it’s
tongue-in-cheek; you know, ‘whiskey and killin’.'”
We’re getting up
there,” Larsen says proudly. “We’ve got threekillin’ songs.”
And then there’s the
rock covers the band countrifies. These are tunes that
have a classic country, two-steppin’-on-sawdust
swagger with lyrics that seem all too familiar. You’ll be in the middle of your
promenade before you realize you’re dancing to Judas Priest.
And that’s exactly
what happened at a benefit the band played recently at The Elk’s Club in
Henrietta; guys went nuts when the band broke into “Breaking The
Law.”
“But there were
grannies dancing, too,” Jones says.
How to Countrify a Rock Song 101: “I just play the cowboy chords I know,” Jones says.
“It’s gotta be a song that fits into easy chords,” Lundberg
explains. “In general it can’t be a ‘rock’ riff. It’s gotta
have a melody that works. There’re certain country rhythms; you vamp on a chord
and put those rhythms behind those chords and all of a sudden it doesn’t sound
like the same song anymore. Jazz guys do this stuff all the time.”
Rudiments and theory
aside, 40 Rod Lightning just has a great sound, a great rhythm, a great tone.
You don’t have to be a hillbilly to dig ’em. But like
some of the band’s country heroes, the group catches hell for skating the line between heaven and hell. Classic country
has always agonized over temptation and redemption, salvation and damnation.
When the band played
its original tune “Jesus Was A Winner” at a bar out in Hamlin, some folks took issue. Some sample lyrics:
“I’m telling you, Jesus was a sinner
Sure he meant well
He saved you from hell
But he put you in here
Full of boredom and fear
Jesus was a sinner”
“There were some
God-fearing folk in the audience that took offense to it,” Lundberg says. “And
let us know it.”
“As most church
people that are in a bar at 1:30 on a Saturday night would do,” Larsen adds.
But for the most
part, the response has been great. For its first gig, 40 Rod Lightning played
the clean-up slot after The Ferndocks at Monty’s Krown in March. Despite the late hour, intoxication levels,
and the audience not knowing exactly what to expect, the band was well
received.
“Better than we
should have been,” says Lundberg.
“I was surprised,”
says Jones. “A good amount of people stayed to the end. I’ve been in a lot of
bands in Rochester that were pretty much underground, so I’m used to getting
three people in the bar wishing you’d shut up so they could talk.”
Now they’re talking
about 40 Rod Lightning.
The boys’ll hit the studio this winter and will be gigging more
and more around town as the word hits the street. Jones has started bringing
his banjo to practice. Onstage he can us it to fend off incoming panties. He is
Tom Jones after all.
“It’s only happened a
few times,” he says.
40 Rod Lightning plays
Thursday, January 18, 10 p.m. at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que,
99 Court Street, 325-7090, no cover.
This article appears in Jan 3-9, 2007.
