Even if you've seen singer Tim Hansen display his particular brand of lunatic charm in Old Man Hansen or Uncle before that; and seen Pete DeGraaf jamming heavy rhythms in Cast Iron Hike, Villain, or 9Volt Superhero; or caught Ed Paquette at the keys playing heady, New Wave-y pop with Cary the Zero; or enjoyed the down-and-dirty antics of Brainless Wonders and The Pathetics, which respectively held guitarist Danny Carbona and drummer Rich Scales, none of it prepared you for what these guys do in their new band, The Black.
The Black is, in DeGraaf's words, "Just rock 'n' roll from the hip."
And what that exactly means is that The Black's music sounds both passionate and nonchalant. How else to explain a song like "The Best of Luck"? The tune is a rollicking bit of vintage FM fare reminiscent of Joe Walsh at his booziest. You just don't hear much stuff like that around these parts, and The Black is doing it with an earnest, albeit loose, conviction.
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"The Best of Luck" is one of the songs The Black posted on its MySpace page (
www.myspace.com/realblack), and other missives from the year-old band are gathered on the four-song CD "Dead Love Songs," which the band releases Friday at The Lucky Dog Music Hall, 89 Green St., Worcester.
Cool vintage bands flit like shadows across The Black's music. "Caroline," for example, sounds like lost Aerosmith funk; "Sad and Lonely You" conjures Axl Rose fronting the Faces.
The songs are catchy, but dirtier than underground pop and explosive without being punishing.
DeGraaf said that big, boisterous rock is simply what came out of the band-room jams that gave birth to The Black.
"Rock 'n' roll is supposed to be fun. It doesn't have to be mind-blowing all the time," DeGraaf said.
"Green Eyed Girl," which opens "Dead Love Songs," attests to that statement, with The Black running a reckless route of bad attitude. "Young Girls," a song Hansen co-wrote with Average White Boys' Al Bombs, is another bit of buoyant sneer.
DeGraaf gave a lot of credit to Hansen's songwriting for The Black's basic sturdiness. Hansen and Carbona worked out a lot of tunes as an acoustic duo that would make impromptu appearances at The Lucky Dog when Carbona ran a Tuesday night showcase there.
DeGraaf, who engineers sound at The Lucky Dog several nights each week, liked what he saw on stage between Carbona and Hansen, digging the contrast to all the uber-heavy sounds he usually witnesses. He soon wandered onto the stage from the sound board.
The band built on the songs, adding DeGraaf's bass, Scales' Stones-y drumming and Paquette's distinctive and rhythmic keyboard playing. DeGraaf said The Black is simply a fun hang.
"There are some guys you just enjoy jamming with and you want to jam with, just like there are guys you want to have a beer with and guys you don't want to have a beer with," DeGraaf said.
DeGraaf also runs M-80 Recording Studio in Worcester and handled production duty on "Dead Love Songs."
DeGraaf's studio work led to another band job as the bassist stepped in to join Clear the Way as he was recording the group. Clear the Way is among the opening acts joining The Black on Friday. Paquette's other band, Carry the Zero, is also playing that night, as is Cocked N' Loaded from Brighton.
In The Black, the music is attacked from many different directions at once, DeGraaf said.
"It's just the right people in the right alignment," he said.
Scott McLennan can be reached at
tgmusic1@yahoo.com