Here are a couple of Kalamazoo Gazette stories from last year. Both were written by John Liberty and originally appeared in the Kalamazoo Gazette's the Ticket Magazine:
Courtesy of Hillary Moczerad with manipulation by Michael Smith.The local rock band Mesa are, from left, Chad Houts, Joel Wick and Matt Helt.Returning to their roots
Members of Mesa are relaxed and ready to play loud rock
It was right about when Mesa drummer Matt Helt tempted me with a ranch-dressing-covered, deep-fried cheeseball on a toothpick that I knew I was dealing with rock professionals.
On Friday, I sat with the members of Mesa -- Helt, guitarist Chad Houts and bassist Joel Wick -- on the patio at RJ's Sports Bar and Grille, in Portage, and essentially listened to the longtime friends and musicians talk about everything from the death of "indie rock" to Houts' taste in T-shirts. Sarcasm hung in the air like a lazy fly ball to deep right field.
"(Big sigh) I want to apologize right now," Wick said. "This may be one of the hardest interviews you may ever have to transcribe because we are a bunch of sarcastic (jerks). It just happens. I'm sorry. I'm totally sorry."
One of the reasons for the meeting was Wick, who booked shows at Club Soda in the early '90s, including Nirvana in 1991. He's a full-time member of a band for the first time in almost four years, he estimated. He joined up with Houts and Helt last summer, but a wicked knee injury to Helt during a softball game put the band on hold until now. The trio will perform with Kalamazoo's Hornet and Kalamazoo AC/DC tribute band 74 Jailbreak at 10 p.m. Saturday at Kraftbrau Brewery.
So far, the band has been fluid and sans stress.
"I love playing live. It doesn't matter if there's five people or a million or whatever. I love playing live. I feel very lucky because I have this great opportunity to play with my two best friends. It makes it easy," Wick said.
As soon as the tone turned serious, Helt jumped in.
"We're really good at hating each other for short moments and then we just laugh and call each other names," Helt said.
When asked to describe their sound, Wick answered, saying they don't sound like Bright Eyes. This led to musicians saying "independent rock" has been stolen by "hot-topic people" who are "less about the music and more about the haircut."
Mesa finds the members playing the instruments they first learned as lads (Just don't ask them how old they are, they won't tell you). What Wick did say about Saturday's show is that it will be "rock 'n' roll based and a little bit loud." He suggested ear plugs.
You'll have to bring your own deep-fried cheeseballs, though.
Link: http://blog.mlive.com/kalamazoo_gazette_extra/2007/05/ad_lib_1.html
A thunderous release
Posted by jliberty October 11, 2007 10:05AM
Local rock band Mesa to debut new EP "Child of Thunder" on Friday
By John Liberty
jliberty@kalamazoogazette.com..
388-8579
PORTAGE
Before the members of the local rock band Mesa fully set up their equipment, the guys decided it would be best to talk about the new EP at a sports bar around the corner from the dingy, white house where they practice.
Bassist/vocalist Joel Wick, guitarist Chad Houts and drummer/vocalist Matt Helt and I loaded into Helt's 1957 Chevy Bel Air, painted flat black with red flames on the sides, and rumbled down Centre Street in Portage, as a fat orange sun sat just above the tree line behind us.
"I like the fact it's October and really f-ing nice out," Wick said from the back seat.
We pulled into the bar's parking lot and a guy turned and flicked us off. Helt pulled the Bel Air into a spot and pushed the shift knob -- a gutted microphone he rigged to the stick -- into park. He had to let me out because there aren't handles in the back seat. In fact, the interior lining of the whole car was gone.
Mesa -- all wearing black shirts and blue jeans -- picked a picnic table in the bar's back patio. Kid Rock spewed out of the speakers and it didn't take long for the band members to take shots at him. We sat down at the table. Houts ordered fried pickles and Helt asked for fried cheeseballs.
I put the new EP, "Child of Thunder," which will be released at 9 p.m. Friday at Kalamazoo's Kraftbrau Brewery, on the table and asked them to talk about it. Wick, a longtime musician who has also ran a local record label and booked shows in the area for years, said he had the word "thunder" stuck in his head and the phrase just came to him.
"Thunder is loud and so are we," said Wick of the album, his first since 2001 when he was a member of the band Quixote.
Houts said an instructor of his came to a recent show and said, "You guys were so loud, you altered my heart beat." The trio smiled like they had stolen something. To them, the comment was a grand compliment.
The rambling conversation between the three longtime friends meandered to lyrics and eventually to Wick's forceful use of a cuss word on the band's song, "Desert Run," which is about two men being taken on a "desert run" to be "taken care of." It's not on the EP.
Courtesy of Scott BadhamMesa bassist/vocalist Joel Wick, let, and guitarist Chad Houts jam during a show at Kraftbrau Brewery last month. The band will release the new EP, "Child of Thunder," starting at 9 p.m. Friday at Kraftbrau Brewery.Helt told Wick when he uses the naughty word, he sounds "so metal." Wick nearly blew a gasket.
"They know they can get my goat in a couple ways -- 'Joel that song's totally metal,'" is one of them, Wick said.
The group isn't stressed about what comes from the EP. They've each played in bands for at least a dozen years. They've released albums and gone on tours. They have a slew of music-industry friends at independent labels and they also have strong opinions on what is real rock and what isn't. As a preface to a quote from Henry Rollins that fits their rock canon, Wick first said how much he hates Rollins, and then shared the line, "the more smoke and lights you have, the less you rock."
Helt, Houts and Wick are polished, veteran musicians and they know it. At the rehearsal later that night, the trio played some of the new songs. Houts' fingers quickly danced along the fret, but his face showed no strain. His lips were pressed together and he'd stare at Wick's hands as he strummed the bass. When he wasn't singing lyrics, Wick pressed up against the amp with his back slightly arched, his blond hair dropping over his eyes. In the room's corner, a sweaty Helt pounded on his kit. After a lengthy jam, Wick gives Helt a glance and a nod and they smoothly transition into "Child of Thunder," a three-minute, gritty rebel anthem. It's the kind of rock song you want blaring when you peel out of the school parking lot as you play hooky for the first time. The song fits the band's attitude.
Courtesy of Scott BadhamMesa drummer/vocalist Matt Helt came up with the Queen-inspired album concept.They probably know more about music than you do. They don't mean to sound arrogant, but it comes so naturally. They are one part confident, two parts sarcastic. When they get together, they bounce album titles back-and-forth like it is a musical version of ping-pong. And they are funny.
They talked about the "live" song "Dusted" from the EP and started grinning when they said it was recorded in a desert. They'd have failed a polygraph.
"You can hear the live notes bouncing off cactus needles," Helt said.
We continued talking at the bar. Wick mentioned some of the bumps in the making of the album, like when the analog machine busted at the tail-end of the August recording session at Jim Diamond's Detroit studio, called Ghetto Recorders. The album's done now and they're happy with whatever comes out of it, even if it's nothing more than a few gigs in town.
"We've paid our dues, so something may come out of it, but I just want to put out good music," Houts said.
The album will be released on CD and seven-inch vinyl, including 100 copies on "blood-red vinyl," courtesy of the local label UFO Dictator Records (www.ufodictator.com).The mention of vinyl albums gets Houts hot. He hates CDs and iPods.
"Vinyl is a permanent document of what we did ... If you really like Mesa and you want it to last for the rest of your life, buy the vinyl," Houts said.
His bandmates picked up from there and talked about the amount of work they put into making a solid product, including both sound and appearance. Helt silk-screened the CD's cover art in his home. The vinyl cover image, borrowed from Queen's 1974 album, "Queen 2," nails the personality of the band -- a blend of cockiness and self-deprecating humor. After almost an hour, the interview starting to wind down and Helt offered a conclusion.
"Amongst all the rambling ... the bottom line is, we want to have a good time and do something we believe in," he said.
Ticket stub
Mesa, CD/7" release of "Child of Thunder," 9 p.m. Friday, with Swedish Headaches, Kraftbrau Brewery, 402 E. Kalamazoo Ave., downtown Kalamazoo. $6. 384-0288.
Link: http://blog.mlive.com/kalamazoo_gazette_extra/2007/10/a_thunderous_release.html