Most bands celebrate their sameness...taking pains to look the same, act the same, mouth the same attitudes, and naturally, have all the same musical tastes and influences.
Throttle Back Sparky prefers its differences.
"You know, I don't think any of us have any of the same CDs in our collections," ruminates lead singer/chief songwriter Allen Lulu, glancing over in particular to rhythm guitarist and noted KISS aficionado David Holcomb, who's noodling away on a Lynyrd Skynyrd riff. "Well, maybe a few. But not that many."
Yet it's the sum of those differences that ignites the proceedings on Throttle Back, Sparky, the band's hard-charging, incessantly melodic follow-up to its first collection, Great Big Mardi Gras Head. Containing galloping bursts of pop ("Another Hoop"), stuttering surf-punk ("Joey Enough"), heavy blues-metal ("Age of Consent"), twisted rock ("Pyrite") and over-the-top glam ("Hellraiser"), Throttle Back Sparky is an 11-song testament to the strength of diversity. Throw in a lighters-required arena ballad ("A Thousand Years"), a revamped cover or two infused with characteristic Sparky abandon ("She Bop") and paeans to pop-cult icons Angylene and Joey Ramone, and the result is a lot like listening to the best-stocked jukebox in LA...or anywhere around for that matter.
Or in short, it's just what'd you expect from a band whose six members pledge differing allegiances to Southern rock, ambient jazz, '76 punk, theatrical pop, acoustic melancholia and '90s alternative. And whose overriding mission is to make it loud, fast, and recklessly fun.
"This is about energy and stoopidity," says Lulu, invoking a credo from the CD's producer, LA pop figure Robbie Rist (Sparkle Jets U.K., The Andersons). "No idea is too dumb. In fact, most of the time, the stupider it is, the better it sounds."
Sparky, as the band calls itself, got its bearings as an after-hours collaboration of several musically inclined actors who simply wanted to scratch their rock star itch. But quickly, their efforts evolved into a group whose purpose became to trespass into different genres, plunder the musical goods and use them to "Spark-ify" everything in its path (or as lead guitarist Iden Kamishin calls it, "Putting everything through our taffy machine").
Such results not only are evident in the rave-up kaleidoscope of Throttle Back, Sparky, but also in the band's blistering live performances, which shift effortlessly between winning pop, insouciant punk and hard rock swagger, and which invariably have fans dragging back friends to the next show while exhorting, "You've gotta see this band." Gigs like these have earned Sparky the sobriquet, "the thinking man's party band" from fans from L.A. to Las Vegas, as well as from audiences at the South By Southwest and International Pop Overthrow festivals. "If someone pays $10 to see us, I want to deliver a $50 show," says Lulu adamantly. "You've got to flaunt it. People deserve a show." Adds vocalist Crystal Keith: "When we take the stage, we want to burn it down."
On that at least, the members of Sparky, which also includes bassist Scott Brown and drummer Pat Godwin, claim common ground, disparate influences notwithstanding. "It shouldn't work," says Lulu of the band's make-up. "On paper, this is a terrible idea. But rock 'n' roll is only about three or four chords, anyway. It's all in how you play them. Queen and the Sex Pistols and the Smashing Pumpkins in one band? Sure, why not? After all, we're that band."
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