Gathering nuts

When the band showcased at CBGB's during the CMJ music convention in New York last September, there was already a big buzz about Example having what it takes to make For Squirrels the next Live, Silverchair, or Better Than Ezra. That gig was the last Vigliatura and bassist Bill White would ever play. The following day, a little after 4 p.m. on September 8, the band's van had a blowout on I-95 in Midway, Georgia. Vigliatura (21), White (23), and the band's road manager, Tim Bender (23), were killed; drummer Jack Griego sustained a neck fracture; guitarist Travis Tooke walked away with only a broken elbow. The accident adds unsettling poignancy to lines like "By the grace of God into the great unknown" and "Send me off to the morgue/I'm ready to be buried," both from "Mighty K.C."

Ordinarily this is where I'd point out that the world doesn't need another Live, Silverchair, or Better Than Ezra -- that one of each is more than plenty. As a writer you know you're never going to sway the program directors at modern-rock radio one way or another. But you can hope that your thoughts might help foster the creation of more challenging, less predictable music by somebody, maybe even the band in question.

In For Squirrels' case, you can hear the seeds of something promising and original in even the most derivative tunes on Example. "Orange Worker," a gritty salt-of-the-earth anthem, is buoyed by a droning 12-string guitar riff that sounds like an inversion of R.E.M.'s "Green Grow the Rushes." But the band add a quirky rhythmic refrain and some melancholy piano tinkling to the mix. And "8:02 p.m.," the disc's rousing opening track, layers some thick Smashing Pumpkins guitars under Vigliatura's Stipe-ish croon. It's still a bit too easy to spot the influences -- not that Silverchair's analogous tendencies were causing them much of a problem the last time I checked the Billboard charts. At least For Squirrels, who formed back in 1992 and released the self-produced disc Baypath Rd. the following year, seem to be using R.E.M. as a starting point, an example on which to build, rather than an end in itself.

"R.E.M. is an obvious comparison," admits Tooke, who's holed up at the Sony building in New York with Griego for a day of phone interviews. "We were totally influenced by them and inspired by the way that they do things. You know, four guys who are extremely talented but their musicianship basically sucked when they started. They just knew how to write very meaningful, great, catchy music. That's the same idea we started with: we had no clue how to play our instruments but we knew how to make up neat, meaningful songs. So it's flattering when people compare us to them. It's better than being compared to Mötley Crüe."

Tooke and Griego have resolved to carry on with For Squirrels with a new bassist, Andy Lord, who was a high-school pal of Vigliatura. Tooke is learning to handle the vocals, and Griego has recovered well enough to resume drumming.

"I suffered a pretty dramatic injury in the accident," Griego explains. "I have some nerve damage to my right arm. But the physical therapist I'm working with devised a pulley system that's like some big medieval torture device. It holds the weight of my arm up and I can move it from side to side and actually play drums. Anything I can't play I fake."

KROC out in LA, the modern rock station that everyone's paying attention to these days, has already picked up on the single "Mighty K.C." And the new For Squirrels line-up is readying for a small tour early next year.

"We plan to get out on the road again in February or March," says Tooke. "We're already booked to play the South by Southwest music convention in Austin in March. We had our first practice a couple days ago and it was slow going, but we're getting back into the swing of things. We're at a garage-band level again, but we're committed to moving on and making more records in the future. Our heart is in the same place, so to speak."