Nice... and rough

>> >> The Bell Rays' rock 'em sock 'em soul review

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The Bell Rays debut CD Let It Blast may be the best record you've never heard. Their self-described "maximum rock and soul" sound is ripe with musical references as vast as the Stooges and James Brown, Black Flag and Parliament, Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis and early R&B. With one of the fiercest live shows around, these Californians are catching on like a brush fire.

After being named THE band at Austin's SXSW festival last year and blowing away headliners Nashville Pussy on a recent tour, the Bell Rays are currently riding on a sea of hype. Recording in their rehearsal space and running their own label, they are clearly playing by their own rules, and so far seem to be winning. The Mirror talked to the husband-and-wife team of bassist Bob Vennum and singer Lisa Kekaula from their Riverside, California home and got hipped to their soul/punk explosion.

Mirror: You really seem to be anti-major label, despite being a big buzz band right now.

Lisa Kekaula: I think we're just more anti-corporate, because there are a lot of indie labels that act the same way as the majors. To single it out and say that it's just major labels that dick bands around wouldn't be accurate. The way the music industry is structured is flawed--indie and major. I think there are labels out there that are run by former musicians that still want to give bands a fair shot. But it's like a big snake, little snake thing--both can bite you and kill you.

M: What kind of calls have you been getting from labels?

Bob Vennum: We've gotten a lot of calls and all of them have been kind of the same thing. It's usually people that have been calling up with a deal already in mind. You can tell they haven't researched it, don't know what it is and are just having a kneejerk reaction to something they've read in the L.A. Times or somewhere. They kind of expect you to jump through hoops and stuff. If you're an A&R rep and your whole existence is based on just going out looking for bands, you would at least go to a show and find out what it's about before you call up and ask for a tape.

M: You charge A&R guys for tapes, right?

BV: Well, yeah. These guys have a budget, so I just tell them if they want a tape they can drop 10 bucks in the mail. It's that kind of imperious thing of looking down from above that we really don't like.

LK: My goal is to sell a million records, and if we have to sell them one at a time then that's fine.

M: Was the lo-fi recording a statement or just a necessity?

BV: It was a necessity, because it was all we had available at the time. When you have the freedom of recording in your rehearsal space we knew we would have no restrictions, and when you listen to the music, the lo-fi quality is not a factor at all.

Sooooul shakedown

M: You initially started as a more traditional soul band, right?

BV: I think the punk influence was always an intent, but we didn't have the people in the band at that time that could really understand what it was we were trying to do.

LK: Once Tony (Fate) came on board, Bob sacrificed playing guitar to play bass because nobody else could cut it. The real backbone to our songs is the rhythm. In any really rocking band you know they're going to have a kickin' rhythm section. I mean, look at the Who or Led Zeppelin.

M: What do you think of the mainstream announcing a rock resurgence?

BV: Well, we see a lot of really good rock bands in clubs but I don't think that the mainstream has really embraced it yet. Instead we see watered-down versions like Buckcherry.

M: Are you getting sick of the "MC5-meets-Ike-and-Tina soul review" comparison yet?

BV: I kind of think of it as a compliment, especially when Wayne Kramer (MC5) came up to us after a show and said nice things about us. It's like a childhood icon that you've grown up saying "wow" about your whole life. When he said he really liked us I just thought, "Man, this is living."

LK: When I see live footage of Ike and Tina Turner or listen to the MC5 it's an explosion, it's a dangerous thing happening and I think that that's what people are getting from us.

BV: The MC5 started as a soul band. What the MC5 was trying to do was create some explosive, high-energy stuff and that's what we do. But I also see that with the Ike and Tina Tuner Soul Review, old Who and Little Richard shows from the early '60s as well. Have you ever heard a Temptations show from the '60s? It wasn't all just "My Girl," this was intense shit played loud, distorted and fast.

Doin' it our way

M: A lot of your influences stem from earlier on. Do you think music has gone downhill since the mid-'70s?

LK: Oh yeah, but it's what has been brought up to the mainstream that is really bad. Now you've just got to dig a bit more underground to get to the good stuff that is happening now.

BV: Good music is just not being served up at all in the mainstream, especially by the people who are in a position to do it. They just want something that has been filtered and diluted until it comes out with no energy level or personality. Popular music is in a sorry shape when true talent is not really rewarded.

LK: Look at Hanson, my God.

M: It was definitely hard to find your record.

LK: It's our goal to get it in as many places as we can but it is also our goal to get it out there on our terms.

BV: If it's got to be underground then it's got to be underground.

M: Do you think that people make too much of a fuss about a black woman playing rock music?

LK: I think people naturally put too much focus on singers anyway. We're a band that is putting out a shitload of energy and musicianship and if people are just focused on me being a black woman playing rock then... whatever people think about this band I really don't give a fuck. The one message that this band puts out there is we don't give a fuck what you think. We have been doing this shit forever when no one was paying attention and now that we're getting attention we can't really change. We're out there for us. :

With les Playmates at Jailhouse Rock on Thursday, June 15, 9pm, $7