Why We Fight
Neighborhood Bullys – so, are they any good?
By Chris Morris
Where the fuck were you last Thursday night? Maybe gaping coolly at some trendy beardo in Silver Lake, or lovin’ up some tattooed metal dog at a pay-to-play gig on the Strip. Or checking out all that Tivo’ed American Idol shit. Or Web porn.
Well, I was at the Cinema Bar in Culver City, watching THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES, and you weren’t. Unless you’re Todd Kivi, who lives in the joint, practically, or one of maybe 15 locals, drunks, or curious indigent types.
So who is THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES, you ask? It isn’t Billy Boy On Poison. But they’re pretty great, too. Saw them at a little gig at the Roxy a couple of weeks ago. They’re barely out of diapers; the lead singer is 16, and he was wearing a gnarly T-shirt and gym shorts, and had duct tape around one ankle. He spit water on the crowd. They lathered up the joint in a very glam steroidal-T. Rex stylee. But they are not THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES. Yet.
No, THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES is unable to draw flies at the Cinema, the tiniest friggin’ watering hole on the Westside (maybe that’s the problem), on a Thursday, a point in the week at which most people have already given up on their shitty jobs and want to get the hell out of the house and rock. But you didn’t rock there. You rocked elsewhere. I’ll ask you where you were when I see you. I’m taking names.
No, they didn’t draw flies. (’Ceptin’ barflies, and they’re always buzzin’.) Gnats, even. I don’t get it, and I’m not even new in town. But you haven’t missed your last chance: THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES is playing at the Cinema every Thursday night in April. And, trust me, it’s worth crossing the 405 to see ’em. Hell, it’s worth crossing the International Date Line to see ’em.
By now you are most assuredly wondering, who the fuck is THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES? Thought you’d never ask. They’re the NEIGHBORHOOD BULLYS. They’ve been around for a couple years. You weren’t at any of those other gigs, either. I’m trying not to hold it against you. After all this time, I feel … close to you. So I’m forgiving. Loving, even. But my patience is not infinite.
So again, you ask: Who are these Neighborhood Bullys, who you claim are THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES? Well, Davey Meshell’s the front man/lead singer/bassist/principal songwriter. You want credentials, Joe Skeptic? He’s played with Shelby Lynne, Peter Case, John Lee Hooker, and the House of Blues house band, ’mong others. For the academically inclined: he graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music. Good enough?
But it takes more than one good dude to be THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES. That’s why them call them “bands” – they involve several individuals. You follow? The Bullys also include guitarist Michael Hays, of the Larks. Don’t let his boyish looks (gals take note) fool you: he is one bad string bender. The other guitar chair is usually filled by the fab Eugene Edwards, but he’s been acting like a new dad lately, so Meshell’s Berklee buddy Geoff Pearlman has been letting it rip on stage right lately. Geoff’s played with everyone and their mother, okay? Drumming is my onetime neighborhood homey Joey Galvan, who plays like Keith Moon – or like Keith Moon would, were he not deceased.
So why are these guys THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES, eh? C’mon, Mr. Critic, cough it up! Well, for one thing, this group can blow your head right onto the Cinema’s back patio (a shot with a high degree of difficulty, since it requires a tough bank off the back end of the bar and out the rear door), even on a night when the saloon is utterly fly-free. They can get four drunk chicks (three semi-hot ones, one just okay) and one homely guy (wallet?) stopping by for a nightcap to get up and grind it like pole-dancers at Cheetahs. They even impressed the crackhead who wandered in and asked me, “Sprechen Sie Deutsch?”
These boyos pump out some kind of ass-blastin’ tightly wound post-punkoidal yet chopped ‘n’ channeled consumer-friendly razor-rock, with a little bit o’ fully funk-tional soul on the back burner and the bottom end. Yep, they’ve got power and chops to spare, and Davey Meshell sings like the top of his head’s on hinges and is going to flip open and expel his brain at any second. But THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES does not live by juice alone, friends. They’ve got the tunes. Bags full of ’em. Did I mention that Mike Chapman, august producer of Suzi Quatro, Blondie, and the Knack, is co-producing the Neighborhood Bullys’ album? I didn’t, did I? Well, he is. And he knows tunes when he hears them. Though I never liked “My Sharona.” Drove me insane, actually. But I won’t argue.
Among the punch-out tunes THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES played to its humble but suitably worshipful audience were the punky two-minute killer “Lead With Your Lips” (co-penned by Silver Lake goddess Eleni Mandell), the aptly attitudinal “Sux 2 B U,” the lovers’ anthem “I’m Bored Let’s Fight” (best song title ever), and the kleptomaniacal “Why I Steal.” R-A-W-K, Sluggo.
“But, Chris,” you say, “my girl likes ballad-type songs.” Are you pussy-whipped or something? Fear not, you wimp. Davey Meshell’s a soul nut, and he writes the finest neo-Stax back-beating balladry you will hear, chief: “Alive” (co-authored by Tracy Bonham, no less), “All the Way Down,” “If I Have to Ask.” Killers all. And an essential component of THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES’s repertoire. (Didn’t think I’d work that into this graf, did you? Sucker.)
The Bullys wrapped it up ’round 1 a.m. with “Soldier Blues,” a fat-ass antiwar screed that is part J.L. Hooker’s “Boom Boom,” part Having a Rave-Up With the Yardbirds, and 100% skull-stomp. I went out to the patio, picked up my head, screwed it on, and left. But I’ll be back at the Cinema every Thursday this month. Why, you ask? You have so many goddamn questions. Because [dramatic pause] THE NEIGHBORHOOD BULLYS ARE THE BEST FUCKING ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND IN LOS ANGELES. Yeah.
To repeat ourselves: The Neighborhood Bullys’ Thursday-night residency continues through April at the Cinema Bar, 3967 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City.
Chris Morris hosts Watusi Rodeo on Indie 103.1 every Sunday at 9 a.m.
Published: 04/09/2008
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