Worth tuning in to: Radio Knives

By Kerry Purcell/ Meet the Band
Boston Herald Features Reporter
Friday, October 6, 2006

"Everybody's trying to be a big Boston band, but I wanna be a big band from Boston," said the Radio Knives' bassist Alan Levesque.

Radio Knives:
Earlier this week, Boston Conservatory grad Levesque and I dined at the Six House in Southie, where we chatted about theRadio Knives' "sinister pop hits."

"It's the ultimate primal music," Levesque said. "It's the kind of thing that makes cave men jump up and down."

Think MC5, the Replacements and other gritty garage rockers.

Originally named TV Eye, the almost 1-year-old band changed its name when a member split from the group while recording its full-length debut, Cursed. After perusing a book of electronic terms in the studio, the band decided on the Radio Knives, an electronic tool that sonically cauterizes skin.

Levesque hopes the band will "cut through the radio waves" to give its name a double meaning.

Drummer Daniel J. McCarthy left the band once Cursed was finished, but Levesque and guitarist Steve Fay hired Paul Reynolds to hit the skins and struggled to keep the band alive, hence the album title.

"We managed to survive every one of our curses," Levesque said. "A lot of people want to be in bands to meet girlfriends, do drugs and drink. I'm done with that part of it so I was like, "Let's make records."

The former associate publisher of Northeast Performer magazine, now a sales representative for the Weekly Dig, Levesque was convinced he could get a pressing and a distribution deal.

"We have songs that are marketable," he said. "I treated it like I was closing a sale."

After contacting a short list of garage-rock labels, the 'Knives signed with California-based indie Dionysus. Now they're about to tour the East Coast. Following the tour, the 'Knives head back to the studio to start their sophomore album. What will be on it? "Catchy tunes," Levesque said, like, "I'm Trying Not to Lose but I Just Can't Win."

"The next record will be way more accessible," Levesque said. "It'll have that same grainy energy but I think people that hear the songs will be like, 'I can't get that out of my head.'"

MEET: The Radio Knives

The band: Steve Fay (voice, guitar), Alan Levesque (voice, bass), Paul Reynolds (drums)

The sound: Primal garage rock. You can almost hear Mom screaming "Turn it down and come inside before the neighbors call the cops."

The show: The Radio Knives play tonight, with Killer Abs, Muck & the Mires and Downbeat 5, at the Abbey Lounge in Somerville.

The music: Listen to and download tracks from the Radio Knives.. debut full-length album, Cursed, at www.bostonherald.com or www.myspace.com/theradioknives.

Knives are ready to rip and roll
By Jonathan Perry, Globe Correspondent ..|.. October 6, 2006
If you've seen the new Mustang Shelby Cobra and its looks hit you right where it counts, it's a sure bet that your knees will also buckle when you hear the Radio Knives , which has a similar effect. Like Ford's entry into the retro automotive sweepstakes, the Boston trio's furnace-blast garage-rock is a retooled update of a bygone era that's now back with a vengeance.

The Radio Knives' debut album, ``Cursed, " out now on Dionysus Records, is a fast-paced collection of hot-wired, rock 'em-sock 'em roll that's muscle-car mean and lean (the whole thing roars by in less than 40 minutes). No wonder that a couple of the band's principal influences -- the MC5, the Stooges -- are Motor City madmen. What's more, the Knives formed from the ashes of singer-guitarist Stephen Fay's and singer-bassist Alan Levesque's previous band, TV Eye, which was named after a Stooges tune.

Get Fay, Levesque, and newly added drummer Paul Reynolds philosophizing about the music they love and the word ``energy" comes up often.

``If you like the record, you're going to get punched in the face by the show, because we do try," says Levesque over afternoon drinks with his bandmates at the Silhouette Lounge. ``We're not staring at our feet, and we're going to win you over, one person at a time."

The Radio Knives will have a chance to prove it tonight at the Abbey Lounge in Somerville , where the band shares a terrific CD-release double bill with its Dionysus labelmates Muck and the Mires. The latter's independently produced album, ``1- 2 -3 - 4" is being re released by the California label. Also on the bill is the Downbeat 5 and Prime Movers . (Both the Radio Knives and Muck and the Mires will jointly host a CD-release party at Jake's Bar & Grill in Providence tomorrow night.)

With the clutch of tough, taut tracks on ``Cursed" -- ``Red, Red Rage" and ``Bad Feelin'" are odes to primal urges set to loud guitars, bashing drums, and unhinged vocals -- the Radio Knives may soon take their place at the front line of new Boston bands carrying the torch for the city's hallowed garage-punk tradition. That torch was ignited, of course, by past and present royalty such as DMZ, the Lyres, Classic Ruins, Prime Movers , and the Real Kids.
``It's been an honor to play with these people," says Fay, a self-described music junkie who grew up in Green Bay, Wis., and spent his adolescence soaking up the heartland punk of the Replacements.

There's something galvanizing about a band employing a switchblade-sharp riff, a strutting melody, and a defiant stance to sing about bad relationships and worse luck. It makes life's biggest bummers sound and feel good, and it's something Radio Knives do with exuberance and old-school aplomb, both live and in the studio.

``I hate it when I see a band live and the show isn't even close to their record," Fay says with a mildly disgusted look. ``I never want to do that with this band. [``Cursed"] is authentic, no punches pulled. That's what I like about it."

That doesn't mean that the Radio Knives sacrificed well-arranged songs for pure adrenaline. Good material, they insist, comes first.

``If the songs aren't catchy, they're not worth playing, because the world doesn't have enough of an attention span to care about me or some no-name band," says Levesque, a former editor at the Northeast Performer music magazine. ``If I have 30 minutes on stage to either win you over or lose you forever, I'm going to try to [win] you."