If you haven't heard of Bang! Bang! , you will soon. Their latest album, The Dirt That Makes You Drown, is their fourth, and their good old-fashioned rock and roll has caused others to compare the group to the likes of Devo and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Not that Jack Flash, guitarist (he also shares the vocals with bassist Gretta Fine), minds. At least, not that much. "All in all, I would say it's good company to keep. All those bands have a kind of quirkiness to them. The only thing that I would say maybe irks us a little is that we feel there is much more in our sound. It's surprising to me how many influences get overlooked."

"I think many critics tend to go for the obvious surface similarities without delving into other areas. I mean, as one of the people actually writing the music I can tell you we've had elements of Richard Hell, PJ Harvey, Bikini Kill, Nirvana, John Spencer, Lost Sounds, The Contortions, Television, Sonic Youth, Pixies… But, hey, it could be much worse....we could be getting Dave Matthews or something."

They certainly don't sound like all the other indie rock bands coming out of Chicago. Jack is an early glam fan, and Gretta loves early 90s riot girl bands, and these influences have absolutely crept into their sound. "Early glam is undoubtedly one of the original building blocks of Bang! Bang!. Things like: Bowie, T-Rex, New York Dolls, etc... [Riot girl bands are] another overlooked influence. Gretta was weaned on that stuff and she carries it in her heart and often times it bleeds out through her bass and vocal chords… Chicago is filled with introspective, arty, cerebral indie music, and that's great, but we wanted to go in a different direction and we felt there was sort of a void to be filled here."

They also have something else on their side that many of the other indie bands don't have: time. Bang! Bang! has been a group since 2002, and although most bands would have fizzled out, Bang! Bang! kept going out of... "pure stubbornness. That and love of what we do, this band is our baby and we don't want to kick it out of the house yet. And lest I forget....our die-hard fans that stand by us and make the shows so much fun to play....you know who you are."

The band has been evolving and growing since its infancy. "I think it's essential in one form or another. People grow and change, so why should bands be any different. Bands need to evolve in order to get over the obstacles that get in their way," Jack says, and for him it carries into a group's sound as well.

"I personally like it when you can follow a band through the years and hear an evolution occur. For instance, the new album has a darker element to it, while keeping the playfulness. It's also a little more organic and experimental in places than anything we've done before. It has heavier, faster songs, and also a couple of really mellow ones.

"That's because A) we had a line-up change and Nick and Rachel had a ton of input and B) because Gretta and I were getting itchy to try out some new ideas and start adding more layers to our sound. We're proud of all the music we've made, but we're in a different place now than we were four years ago. We certainly will always have specific elements to our identity, but we also don't feel obligated to be bound by them. We make the records we want to make at that particular time. Just like a "snapshot" of a particular moment, just because you have short hair in one and long in another doesn't mean they're not both you."

However, from the band's beginning to present day, one element of its sound and attitude has remained constant: the sex rock. "We came up with Sex Rock, so that's our fault isn't it? It was a way to preemptively categorize ourselves before someone else did it for us. Image wise, it certainly fits. But here's the secret to Sex Rock: it's just another way of saying Rock 'N Roll, which is what we really play anyway.

"It's just that Rock 'N Roll is so passe, right? I mean we all need to add a prefix to it in order to describe it, otherwise it could mean anything! So we just picked our own."

What about music is there that, if they can get away with it, Bang! Bang! won't recreate in their own way? Not much, if anything, that's for certain. But who says that's a problem? It's served them well for the past five years—and the future's looking bright.

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Jack   |2008-01-16 22:11:17 Boy that's funny.....if we were making money doing this maybe your argument would hold water. But we don't and it doesn't. The "niche" comment is taken out of context....we OF COURSE love what we play! The fact that no one was doing what we were (at the time and place) only made us want to do it more. We obviously do not do it for money (unless y'know, you call making NEGATIVE $3,000 a year "making money"....we scrape by and cart our asses all over the country to do what we love and that is the only reason we're still around while other bands break up left and right. And who are you to judge me?? Why don't you tour the country and play 400+ shows in your band before you talk about something you obviously know nothing about. You're the phony. Reply 0   0

josh   |2007-11-26 08:50:06 nothing is worse than seeing a band say they looked to fille a "niche". play what you love not what can make you money. bunch of phonies. and then compare yourself to nirvan, the pixies or sonic youth is a slap in their face. what a clown. Reply 0   0

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."