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The Bangs
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The Bangs are living la vana loca -- the good life, touring in a van. The band's most recent success has been as the opening act for the suddenly red-hot grrrlies, Sleater-Kinney, and they've been winning over their sold-out audiences in droves, the last show at Cleveland's Grog Shop.
"We've had five dates on tour with them, and it's been awesome," says guitarist Sarah Utter, in transit to the band's gig in Cambridge, Mass. "They're real fun to play with, and they attract the kind of crowd that's really good for us -- younger kids, lots of girls, and they're really excited about hearing music. Not like the jaded adults."
It's only been a couple of years or so since the Olympia, Wash., trio shivered and shouted into existence, but the path from then to now has been particularly momentous. Utter had taken a sabbatical from music after a couple of Olympia-area band experiences, and once she was ready to get back to playing, she remembered that Maggie Vail had played with a number of like-minded bands over the years and asked if she would care to try it again. After recruiting drummer Jesse Fox, The Bangs began making local, then regional noise. Their first album, 1998's Tiger Beat, garnered good press as did their subsequent supporting live shows, with comparisons to everyone from the Runaways and the Donnas to The Go-Gos and Pat Benatar. And then it was back to their alternate realities.
Utter side projects with a rotating cast collective called Witchypoo, but she's also a graphic designer, while bassist Vail has been the publicity queen at Kill Rock Stars -- The Bangs' label -- for the past six years, in addition to drumming and guitaring for other bands in the Olympia area currently as well as previous to joining Utter in The Bangs. All of these things commanded the band's attention once it returned home.
And, of course, you can't have a band without some kind of internal upheaval. Before The Bangs began work on Sweet Revenge, its just-released sophomore album, drummer Fox was shuffled out and new drummer Kyle Ermatinger was installed.
"Our first drummer was technically a good drummer, but his style was a little too Thud Rock or something," explains Utter. "He just hit so hard without much finesse. Plus we didn't really know him very well before we played with him. We all didn't really have that much fun on tour, and now we have a lot of fun. Our personalities just work better."
Other than the mere physical shift of bodies, The Bangs grew considerably since the release of Tiger Beat, and that growth was tangible when it came time to work on Sweet Revenge.
"We took a lot more time writing the songs and recording them," says Utter. "On the first record, I was just really excited to be playing music again, so I didn't take too much time to organize songs or think about melodies or anything. We recorded the actual tracks in two days, but on this one we took more like five or six days, and I think that made it sound a lot different, and I'm really happy with that sound."
One thing that did remain from Tiger Beat was producer Scott Swayze, who once again manned the board for Sweet Revenge. As it turned out, Swayze got involved at the last minute.
"Actually, we were going to go up to Seattle this time to do the new one at one of the studios up there," says Utter. "That sort of fell through at the last minute, something got miscommunicated and so we didn't get to do it. We called Scott up, and he said that he'd do it. And it turned out to be really great, and now I'm actually glad that we didn't go to Seattle. It's so much better, after spending all day in the studio, to just drive to your house that's only 10 minutes away. Besides, I think he made it sound really great."
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to recording and touring with this second album is accommodating the band members' aforementioned hectic individual work schedules.
"It's pretty tough," says Utter as she considers their routine of late. "Maggie seems to have the most to do. She works nonstop. And then she plays in a couple other bands. As for myself, I just quit my job a while ago, so I'm jobless, and I have all the time in the world. Kyle works about a half-an-hour out-of-town, so we try to get together about twice a week in the evening, and practice. I usually spend a lot of time by myself at home writing songs, and I'll bring them in and we'll try them together."
The Bangs' touring schedule is the biggest outlay of time this summer. After finishing with Sleater-Kinney last week, The Bangs continue on as headliners and then hook up with Sub Pop's glammy Makers to open a handful of dates for them in June, including a series of dates in Texas, and a one-off show in Alaska. The one thing that will remain common to every single show on this tour? The way that Utter and Vail are completely fixated on Cheap Trick, as evidenced by the lo-fi version of "Southern Girls" that appears on Sweet Revenge.
"Maggie and I are huge Cheap Trick fans," explains Utter. "They are one of the top bands of all time. We've wanted to do a Cheap Trick cover for a while, and that was a simple one to learn. My plan is that I want us to keep doing one Cheap Trick cover on each record, so that they take us on tour with them."
Hey, a Bang's got to dream, doesn't she?
THE BANGS will be at Southgate House on Sunday with The Tigerlilies and Fairmount Girls.
