| SWEET 'SEDATION' Roughly three years after the release of their debut full-length Jim Waters Presents ... The Deludes (Deluded, 2004), beloved local power trio The Deludes finally release their much-anticipated follow-up this week. Sedation Nation will appear on Mudhouse Records, the label started last year by Jake Mahoney, who played drums for the recently defunct Beta Sweat, and its release will be feted this week with the requisite release party. Like The Deludes' debut album and the EP that preceded it, Sedation Nation was produced by Jim Waters at his Waterworks Recording Studio, and props must be given to him for coming closer than ever to capturing the band's explosive live performances. Singer-guitarist Larry Wawro has always written great songs, sung them with Jaggeresque conviction, and played devastatingly passionate guitar, while his rhythm section--bassist Scott Alexander and drummer Ryan Nixon--delivered a solid bed for those songs to lie upon. But much of the band's sound--straightforward rock 'n' roll equally informed by the '60s British invasion and blues-rock revivalists like the White Stripes--hinges on Wawro's sharp but huge guitar tone, which is conveyed here beyond expectation. As usual, the songs themselves are top-notch, and many will be familiar to anyone who's seen The Deludes perform live in the last year or so. Album opener "The Back Beat" is the type of song the Stones wish they could still write, while "Strip Mall Blues" suggests what Golden Earring might have sounded like if punk rock preceded them. "My Luck" is a rare, affecting ballad made more powerful by Wawro's cracking vocals, and live favorite "Cry Baby" is a short, jumpy thing propelled by jagged, pulsing guitar stabs. Sedation Nation, then, delivers on all fronts. It's an improvement upon The Deludes' previous releases, and nothing is lost along the way. It is, quite simply, the sound of a great band getting better. |
| Deludes to Showcase New Album Next time you're ordering your spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy's, be sure to thank the drive-through server for the new Deludes album. She won't have any idea what you're talking about, but the national hamburger chain inadvertently helped pay for the recent printing of the band's LP "Sedation Nation." The local trio was contacted by Wendy's around January about using its song "Blessed Be, Queen of Darkness," from the 2003 release, "Jim Waters Presents...The Deludes," in an upcoming Internet ad campaign. "It was perfect timing," guitarist and singer Larry Wawro said. Thankfully for us, the advertising money helped yield a solid, bare-bones rock outing to be showcased Saturday night at Plush. If you've never seen the Deludes live, imagine Australia's Wolfmother playing tight-knit garage stompers conjuring acts like the Ramones, Mick Jagger, and the Stooges. Sitting in the back of Epic Cafe on a recent Wednesday, Wawro, 27, drummer Ryan Nixon, 29, and bassist Scott Alexander, 37, all seemed confident with the latest effort. Clocking in at nine songs and almost exactly 30 minutes, "Sedation Nation" has a rainy-day feel while keeping things catchy and to the point. "It's definitely a harder, darker album," Wawro said. From the meaty guitar hook of opener "The Back Beat" to the punk drumming on "Cry Baby" to the snaking bass on "Enough to Get Through," the Deludes have crafted an exciting listen, front to back. The band has been collecting songs since its 2003 release, but the Deludes may work even better under pressure. The album's centerpiece, "The Long Way Home," was written weeks before recording at Waterworks Studio in Tucson. The song starts out as a slow, folky tale of a lonely man who goes to a bar, meets a pretty girl but declines her advances, as he's already in love with someone else. Three-quarters through, the tune transforms into a punk number, rewinds and recounts the same tale at breakneck speed. Wawro, who is married with a child, said his lyrics are partially autobiographical. For instance, he said the bar in "Long Way" is Che's Lounge, although he does take some creative license. "I was going through some rough relationship stuff at the time," he said. Not that the rest of the Deludes can typically understand Wawro's ventings anyways, mostly due to the band's loud practice space and raucous shows. "We have to wait for the album to come out to find out what he's talking about," Alexander joked. And now the city gets to hear "Sedation Nation," destined for plays on local jukeboxes like Che's for lonely guys and beautiful girls. "I'm really anxious to see how everyone around town takes it," Nixon said. |
| Concert showcases local
bands Deludes, Bob Log, Sweatband enthrall crowd It was one of the finest shows the city has seen this year. Three of Tucson’s befinest bands in full flight, sharing one stage. The date was Saturday, April 9, and the setting was 4th Avenue’s Plush, where the Deludes, the Sweat Band and eccentric surf guitarist Bob Log III shared a bill. With one album and a four-song EP under their belts, The Deludes have already started to generate a buzz that’s pretty special for a band barely 3 years old. Their high-energy live shows – generally at Plush, Vaudeville, Che’s or Club Congress – are already somewhat legendary among local music afficiandos. “I had been looking to form a band for a long time,” said lead singer and guitarist Larry Wawro of the band’s origin. After asking around Tucson for a while, Wawro teamed up with drummer Ryan Nixon. They were jamming together, Wawro remembers, when Nixon’s roommate Scott Alexander came into the room and asked if they wanted him to join in on guitar. “It just took off from there,” Wawro said. The Deludes’ latest show consisted almost entirely of new material, with only a few songs from the band’s first album, making many fans eager for them to head back into the studio. “We’ve been talking about recording a new six-song EP for a while now,” Wawro said. “The problem is just getting the money together to record.” The set included two songs that the band had composed in the previous 24 hours. “I’m a little bit of a perfectionist,” Wawro said. “We usually test new songs for at least a month before we play them, but this time they sounded good, so we just had to throw them out there.” With their crisp melodies, tough riffs and delightfully snotty singing, The Deludes are reminiscent of nothing so much as the Rolling Stones of the mid- ‘60s. “A lot of people have made that comparison, but I actually didn’t start listening to the Rolling Stones until people started saying that,” Wawro said. “It’s become kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, because now we do sound a bit like them,” he added, laughing. The Deludes weren’t the only local band on fire that night. Power-rocking trio The Sweat Band opened the show. They delivered a stunning performance that lived up to every ounce of the hype that preceded them. Lead singer Marina Cornelius sang with a fury that would have knocked the people in the front row out of their seats if they hadn’t been standing up. Leann Cornelius, her bass-playing sister, was no less impressive, while drummer Jake Bergeron kept a firm, steady beat going behind the other two. Having just celebrated their first release – an EP – with a party at Club Congress, the Sweat Band are clearly set to become one of Tucson’s musical treasures. That title already belongs to the artist who closed the show, Bob Log III. Rocking back and forth in his chair, his head encased in a motorcycle helmet fitted with a distorted microphone that makes his voice sound like a Martian’s, Log lived up to his growing reputation as one of the most unusual acts in town. His music calls up a number of influences – surf guitarist Dick Dale, ‘80s hardcore punk, and blues singers as varied as Skip James and Captain Beefheart. But this doesn’t come near to doing justice to the originality of Log’s sound. No matter how good a band is, there’s always a few people who aren’t paying attention. When Log took the stage, though, it’s safe to say that all eyes in the room were on him. The Deludes will play on the CD City Stage at 10 p.m. this Saturday, April 16. The following night, they’ll open for Kings of Leon at City Limits. Bob Log III is set to tour Japan next month. |
| Jim Waters Presents ... The
Deludes (Deluded Records)
The debut full-length from rising local rock phenom The Deludes is a case study in the correct approach for a self- released record. Their first, and wisest, move was to affiliate themselves with someone like renowned local producer Jim Waters, an expatriate New Yorker who moved to Tucson because he wanted to live somewhere "that didn't smell like urine." Next, they opted to place a priority on producing an aesthetically pleasing package; the design, courtesy of The Solace Brothers' John Polle, is clean and crisp, and only loses points because it's somewhat derivative, as it's based on the "Hi Fidelity Sound" design trope borrowed mostly from jazz and easy listening LPs of the '60s. But the songs, you say, how are the songs?! The 10 tracks on ...The Deludes make for an auspicious debut. "A Fine Mess" sets the tone from the git, a hooky pop song that features clever, syncopated interplay between the guitar and bass lines over workmanlike drumming. It's here that the listener should first start to notice the uncanny similarity between the tonal qualities of Larry Wawro's voice and Mick Jagger's. It's not intentional, merely unavoidable. "Fight Night" is reminiscent of some of the poppier stuff that came out of D.C. in the early '90s: jangly guitar, bouncy bass, jaundiced vocals--a college radio staple. "Production Line" is the odds-on favorite to be a hit-- minor key progression paired with uptempo rhythm and "work sucks" lyrical beefing. Just try not to air-drum to this song. |
| The band played flawlessly. Their sound
is straightforward New Rock, but since
I just cringed writing that overused
piece of cliché crap, I will now refer
to New Rock simply as “Kevin.”
The Deludes are straightforward “Kevin,” sounding similar to bands such as Jet, or Hot Hot Heat, or those trendy upper east- siders, The Strokes. But The Deludes is no clone of any one “Kevin”-style band. Larry Warro (guitar and vocals) is a superb songwriter, and though his tunes usually incorporate the clever snare- ridden changes and Gibson-powered sixties pop appeal of the "Kevin" sound, it wouldn’t be truthful to tie them to "Kevin" alone. Raunchy tones and clever changes are what made "Kevin" popular in the first place, but The Deludes offer more. Their 2003 release, "Jim Waters Presents … The Deludes," is a virtual masterpiece. The abusive guitar tones that springboard the live shows from good to great are replicated almost exactly. Anyone who is not thoroughly impressed with Warro’s innovative guitar style, vocal energy, and all- around top-notch songwriting is a moron. Warro is accompanied by Scott Alexander on bass, and Ryan Nixon on drums. |
| Many have said there's nothing new to
be done with rock music, that all the
ideas are already out there, and the
only thing a band can do is find new
ways to rehash them. One band that
obviously took that theory to heart is
Tucson power trio The DeLudes.
Three of the four songs on the band's debut EP, all varied in style, contain elements of other, more familiar songs, but are swiped so briefly and subtly that the very theft becomes artful (and, quite possibly, even unintentional). Nowhere is this more apparent than on the disc's opening song, "Bad Advice," a choppy-chord guitar-pop tune that reminds of a time when a band didn't need keyboards to be called "new wave." Inserted into the song's bridge are two lines that ape the melody of Billy Joel's own ode to new wave, "It's Still Rock & Roll to Me," but the excerpt passes so quickly that the end result is one of instant familiarity with the new song, as opposed to cries of "ripoff." Elsewhere, "Up For Some Down Time" nicks the guitar riff of The Replacements' "Bastards of Young," while completely rewriting the melody and structure; and the sparse, aching ballad "Poison in the Well," echoes April Wine's power ballad of yore, "Just Between You and Me," minus the "power" (until its final 30 seconds, anyway). The ultimate effect, then, is comparable to rap music's use of sampling: Would you rather listen to De La Soul concoct a work of art around two notes of Steely Dan's "Peg," or hear P(enis) Diddler rap over a CD-R of The Police's "Every Breath You Take"? To borrow from one of their own song titles, The Deludes are no mere charlatans, but impressive songwriters who know their way around glorious and inventive guitar-pop songs. |
| On September 4, the DeLudes opened for
local disco pop maestros The Beating at
Plush. The very original sound of the
DeLudes immediately grabbed my
attention. The winding, sometimes
thoughtful guitar breaks from Larry,
the band's guitarist and lead vocalist,
weaved in and out of the melodic music.
He would break away from the standard
playing and would just jam and the rest
of his band followed his lead with
precision. It was such a neat flow. The
DeLudes managed to avoid the
typical "desert rock band" moniker with
their magic live set. It was the
DeLudes that stole my heart that night.
Now that I have their four song EP, I popped it in my computer. Having a good mood and an open attitude toward their music was a smart way to listen to this disc. I was also waiting for some really great tunes to accompany the image that I had of the band on the Plush stage. The DeLudes did not let me down. Though you can hear influences from seasoned rockers like The Rolling Stones and John Mellencamp within their music, the DeLudes don't emulate them; they utilize these influences and make them their own—and they do this very well. The whole album has this neat jump-rope-skipping drum and guitar rhythm that holds true. It's hard to deny the smooth vibe of Scott's bass as it forces the hips to shake during "Bad Advice," and then thuds nicely to Ryan's drumbeat during "Poison in the Well." The DeLudes almost have that "new" garage rocker sound (see: The White Stripes and The Vines). The only thing that I found missing from the disc was the technically creative, ethereally delicate guitar structuring that I heard on the Plush stage from the DeLudes. I understand that the DeLudes can't replicate their live show on disc, but some of the work that Larry was doing would really enhance these recorded songs. Overall, each track blends nicely into the other with a creative thread through each song. Not once do you hear what could be mistaken for someone else's guitar riffs or overly high- pitched strings. My suggestion is that if you find that you are somewhere where they DeLudes are playing, take some time to listen to their set. You just might be surprised at how precise and groovy they are. Check out their EP and hear this local Tucson band in all their glory. |