The MichiganDaily - Weekend etc. - Thursday, March 17, 1994 -5
On their first headlining tour, 'Allgood' makes good
By TOM ERLEWINE
Athens, Georgia is alegendary town
in popularmusic. Notonly haveR.E.M.
and the B-52's come from there, but
also have such lesser-known but equally
wonderful pop bands like Love Tractor
and Pylon. The latest band to emerge
from the blessed New South is Allgood,
a Southern interpretation of the hippie
blues rock of Blues Traveler and the
Spin Doctors. Thankfully, Allgood can
jam and groove like the Allman Broth-
ers and their lead singer Corky Jones is
a dead ringer for Stevie Ray Vaughn,
which is what separates the band from
the crowded pack. Currently, Allgood
is back on the road, supporting their
majorlabel-debut, "Uncommon Goal."
"It's a full-blown, do-the-whole-
country thing,"explained bassistMike
Sain. "Ofcourse, we're doing the Mid-
westagain.Wehaddoneitonce,around
this time last year, for the first time by
ourselves and itwent OK. And then we
came back with Big Head Todd, and
this is pretty much his areaof the coun-
try. We opened up 1,000 seat theaters
for him and also we had done the
H.O.R.D.E. tour. So between that, al-
mostevery show we did with them was
soldout.Wehad some greatreceptions
in the Midwest which is what made us
want to come back and do it again and
that's pretty much what we're doing
right now."
Being on their own headlining tour
is a slightly different prospect for the
band. Despite having a warm reception
from audiences and critics, Allgood
couldn't break all the way into radio
and they are still trying to pull people
into the clubs and bars. As Sain ex-
plained, "If you're not that well-known
and Joe Schmoe is having the bad keg
party that night and that happens to be
the crowd of people that would have
come to see you play, you're crowd can
be off. If everybody knows that there's
a buzz on your band, they'll have the
keg party before the show." With tours
like H.O.R.D.E. and the opening slot
Not yet in 'where are they now?' file
BAND
Continued from page 3
obviously in Virginia a lot because
that's where we're from, and nobody
outside of there knew us, 'cause we
didn't have anything out until about
five months ago. In the Southeast I
think we have a really faithful fan
base -people that really get into it -
and I think they spread the word. We
go into places we haven't been before,
up in the Northeast and stuff, and find
that people have been listening to us
for a long time."
The strength of their following
helped the band sign a record contract
with RCA. "In May we're gonna go
into the studio for the first time, so
that's going to be a lot of fun," said
Matthews. "We're going in for a long
time; hopefully, we'll be in there for
the whole project for about two
months. We're excited about that."
Currently, the band has a number
of songs it could release on their album
- songs that were released on their
independent live album, "Remember
Two Things" and songs they haven't
recorded yet. "We'll have to sit down
and discuss it and look at the list of
songs we have. It might be nice to put
out some songs with a stronger version
or a different version, because I like a
lot of the songs that we put on
('Remember') but I think a different
depiction of them might be kind of
cool. 'Recently' is one - that's one
we've sort of been pushing really
hard. I love that song!" he laughed. "I
The AgeofRubens
FEBRUARY 2 - APRIL 24
think we could do a good version of
that. No, in 10 years we'll do another
version of 'Recently'- it'll probably
be like the Spinal Tap reunion. We'll
be residing in the 'where are they
now?' file, playing military schools."
In all seriousness, things are
looking bright for the Dave Matthews
Band. After all, they will have a new
EP out in a few months (through mail-
order and at shows only) and their
first full-length studio album will be
released by RCA, the home of Elvis
Presley. "I'm not a huge Elvis fan -
I never have been, I don't know why.
I was a massive Beatles fan; they just
made me laugh more, I guess. When
I was a little kid I was kind of into
giggling as much as listening to music
and Elvis was always a little too cool
for me. I was an obsessed Beatles fan
from around the age of six until -
I'm still obsessed. I had pictures all
over, I was crazy. When people were
blowing up frogs, I was blowing up
little photographs of the Beatles."
When Matthews was a child
listening to the Beatles, he had some
idea that he would want to pursue a
musical career. "I knew I did (have an
idea) when I was listening to the
Beatles because I just thought that
would be the cool thing to do in life.
I always wanted to do it, but really not
more than wanting to act or wanting
to paint. I was kind of obsessed by all
of the arts. What it is now is not
something that I was dreaming about
a long time ago. I couldn't have
thought this up in my wildest dreams."
THE DAVTI-~AEYr7 ND
will play the Blind Pig tonight.
Doors open at 9:30 p.m.; tickets are
$5 in advance.
for Big Head Todd behind them, as
well as strong word of mouth, Allgood
is beginning to have that buzz.
That buzz should continue through-
out the year, when their second album
for A & M is released in May. "In
January, before we tookoff in the South,
we played a club in Augusta, Georgia
and recorded a live record," recalled
Sain. "With a live record, all you do is
get up there and crank it, you know, and
get it on tape, mix it down, and it's
ready to roll." Sain relishes the pros-
pect of the live album because Allgood
is a band that was born to play live.
"The thing is, we have a hell of a lot
more experience at playing live than
we do playing in the studio," he said,
"so it was very comfortable to get up
there and do our own natural thing. On
this live record we have one song from
'Uncommon Goal,' three songs from
an independent record we did before,
we did an old Freddy King song -
'Sugar Sweet' that I think is off 'Bur-
glar' -and then we had one new song
that we hadn't recorded yet that we put
on there. Technically,it'san EP butit's
about 40 minutes long."
Since Allgood feels the mostcom-
fortable playing live, they try out all
their new songs during their set. "It's
really such a litmus test live because
when you play a song that everybody
knows, they're excited thatyou'replay-
ing a song thatthey know and they're at
the show. It's almost a virginal experi-
ence and it's a very true test to how
good a song is. Also for us, you're
jamming something and all of a sud-
den, sometimes for us, it's like 'Man,
this doesn't feel right.' But you got to
get out there and play it, because play-
ing to an audience and playing in your
"Allgood:" Corky Jones, John Carter, Clay Fuller, Charlie Pruet, Mike Sain.
practice basement is like night and day.
So when you're up there and perform-
ing something and you're like, 'You
know, this part doesn't do it for me,'
then I lookout in the crowd and it's not
doing it for anybody else-let'schange
it."
Although "Uncommon Goal"'cap-
tured some of the band's kinetic live
energy, it does seem a little polished,
which Sain freely admits. "Forourfirst
effort, we did a good job. I think that it
may have been a little too glossy if
you've seen us live, which is why I'm
excited about the live record coming
out because it's mistakes and all, warts
and all but it's got that energy we get
when we're on and the crowd's on. It's
hard to duplicate that in the studio, no
matter what."
ALLGOOD willhit two - count 'em
wo -different Rick's in the state of
Michigan; on Friday, they'replaying
East Lansing and on Saturday
they'replaying Kalamazoo. Catch
'em if you're in that area.
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ALL
An Extraordinary
Exhibition
See this once in a
lifetime exhibition,
organized by Boston's
Museum of Fine Arts,
featuring 125 paintings
by 50 master artists.
The Toledo
Museum of Art
(800) 374-06675a
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Bill Miller
Sat., March 19, 7:30 pm
Highly
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