Merry Go Drown


	Local rock is on a roll as young bands come of age 03/29/02 By Keith Spera Music writer/The Times -Picayune In the late 1970s and early `80s, The Cold, the Red Rockers and Zebra carried the flag for local rock. In the mid-1990s, Better Than Ezra's debut for Elektra Records went platinum, and Cowboy Mouth signed to MCA. Not since Ezra and Cowboy Mouth -- neither of which is still with the label that originally signed it -- has a local rock band had a shot at full-blown major label stardom and all its trappings. Making it as an original rock band in a town that celebrates jazz, rhythm & blues, funk and other roots music has never been easy. In recent years, rappers from the Cash Money and No Limit camps have represented New Orleans on the national scene. But local rock is staging a comeback, led by 12 Stones. The young north shore band signed a lucrative deal last year with Wind-up Records, the New York label whose roster boasts the mega-selling Creed. 12 Stone's self-titled debut arrives in stores at the end of April. If 12 Stones takes off, other bands from the area will likely get a hard listen from the majors as well. There are numerous candidates: Overtone. Aphony. Sub 7. Catch Velvet. Ground Fault. The Drive. Bitter. A clutch of heavier bands, which often perform at Zeppelin's, includes Dead Boy & the Elephant Men (featuring former Acid Bath vocalist Daxx Riggs), Merry Go Drown, Shanni Sane? and Suplecs, which is already signed to an indie label. In their infancy, Howie Kaplan booked many of these bands at the Rock `n Bock in Metairie. He's charted their progress as they've graduated to his current club, the much larger Howlin' Wolf. "I think the scene is a lot stronger than people realize," Kaplan said. "There's no one band that's come up and been a major part of the scene, like Cowboy Mouth and Better Than Ezra. But a lot of the bands are building their own followings, and the followings are starting to cross over. There's an Uptown scene, a Metairie scene, a Quarter scene, all these different bands doing different things, and they're starting to realize that there are people willing to go out and pay money to see original rock bands." Both Ezra and Cowboy Mouth followed a similar blueprint, building a fan base on the road, releasing an independent CD and selling enough copies for the majors to notice, but many new bands take a shortcut. Rather than tour on a shoestring -- 12 Stones had never performed outside Louisiana before showcasing for labels -- they focus on writing and recording a professional demo, then getting it into the right hands. Youth is a common denominator. The singer in Sub 7, a buzzworthy band founded by former 12 Stones drummer Pat Quave, is a senior at St. Paul's High School in Covington. The singer and principal songwriter in Aphony is 19. Three members of 12 Stones are too young to drink. Many of these players grew up on the north shore, where a generation raised on MTV has come of age. In the relatively affluent suburbs there, instruments are easier to come by. And Mandeville's Dave Fortman has emerged as a key catalyst in this local rock renaissance. Fortman enjoyed a bout of MTV stardom a decade ago as the guitarist in Ugly Kid Joe ("Everything About You" and a cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" were the band's big hits). After years in California, he returned to the north shore and opened Balance Recording studio in Mandeville. Balance is the preferred workshop for a litany of young bands. Fortman has recorded demonstration CDs for 12 Stones, Aphony, Catch Velvet, Sub 7 and veteran New Orleans band Tom's House. More than simply recording songs, Fortman helps bands streamline them into the concise, radio-friendly arrangements that make record label execs perk up their ears. His propensity for trimming the fat has earned him the nickname "Swamp Butcher." "Nobody's going anywhere," Fortman said, "without the proper songs, period." He believes a host of talented frontmen are emerging locally. "There's a whole bunch of these guys who are young, just out of high school, that are potential star lead singers and are also good writers," Fortman said. "For some reason there seems to be a crop of these kind of people. They write great, emotional lyrics, the desperation-style writing. That's the kind of stuff that gets signed, and always has." A healthy rock scene feeds itself. "The biggest thing about Rock `n Bock was the musicians came out to see other musicians," Kaplan said. "There's a lot of that again. They're all starting to support each other, and that's how a scene starts." Already, Kaplan senses a ripple effect from the 12 Stones signing. More major labels are calling the club asking about area bands. "There's more interest from the labels, and not just the rinky-dink ones," Kaplan said. "We didn't see that last year." Kim Stephens, the Atlantic Records artist & repertory/promotions rep who helped launch platinum acts Collective Soul, Matchbox Twenty, Seven Mary Three and Edwin McCain, has called the north shore home for most of his professional life. His job requires him to know the local rock scene intimately. He's always wanted to sign a band from this area, but hasn't yet. He sees promise in a rock scene that is coming alive for the first time in years. "It seems like there's a little buzz on the north shore," Stephens said. "There's stuff that, down the road, can be something. Is this anything that's going to become huge? Don't know. But success breeds success. If one or two happen, everybody in the world is going to be turning over stones to see if there's something else that somebody might have missed." Says Fortman, "The proof is only if other bands get signed. And that looks really positive right now." 03/29/02 © The Times-Picayune. Used with permission. Copyright 2002 New OrleansNet LLC. All Rights Reserved.