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Tangled up in blue
Where ’90s Boston alt-rockers go to die
BY CHRIS RUCKER
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Seems you can’t go anywhere without bumping into something to do with Blue Man Group: bald freaks banging drums in TV commercials, posing on billboards, rolling deep on taxi placards. It’s more pervasive than Cats. But like the orchestra pits of Broadway for New Yorkers, the Blue Man franchise has proved a boon to Boston’s unemployable musician classes. Take Billy O’Malley: in 1991, his thrash-metal band Seka (who also included Roadsaw/Antler dude Tim Catz and later, after they changed their name to Strip Mind, Godsmack’s Sully Erna) won the Rumble, and one of the judges — Sire’s Howie Klein — signed the band on the spot. O’Malley also played with future Weezer bassist Mikey Welch in the way-underrated glam/grunge band Jocobono. But when hard rock failed to pay the bills, he took a job with Blue Man, engineering the BMG album Audio, building instruments and props, and, for the past five years, playing strings in the Las Vegas BMG band. He’s hardly alone: Todd Perlmutter, who played drums for Jocobono and Orangutang, broke into the BMG circle as a substitute drummer, went on to produce both BMG albums (one of which was nominated for a Grammy), and is now BMG’s company-wide musical director. In the mid ’90s, Chris Dyas could be found leading at least three bands: Orangutang, 1996 Rumble winners Trona, and the Ray Corvair Trio. Now Dyas is one of BMG’s music directors, Trona/RCT drummer Nick White is a drummer for the Vegas production, and Orangutang/Cherry 2000 alum Dave Steele serves as music director for BMG’s Toronto outpost. Stompbox/Chevy Heston guitarist Jeff Turlick is a BMG music director in New York; Roadsaw/Quitter alum Hari Hassin can be found drumming for the Boston production. O’Malley, at least, hasn’t quit rocking: his latest band, Thirsty, have taken up right where Jocobono left off, playing heavy, twisted, metallic glam-punk with a dark, pre-Nevermind-Nirvana edge. You can hear tracks at www.myspace.com/thirsty or, better yet, catch them tonight (June 9) at the Lucky Dog in Worcester or Friday at the Abbey Lounge. NEWS AND NOTES. Fans of Bane, Comeback Kid, and Reach the Sky take note: Boston hardcore act Have Heart have signed to Salem’s Bridge9 Records; look for a record by year’s end. . . . Just shy of their 10th anniversary, local punks Kicked in the Head have called it quits, according to a post on their Web site; look for a farewell show in August. . . . Crash and Burn have been added to a handful of East Coast shows on the Warped Tour; check www.crashandburn1.com for dates. . . . Special Teamz, the Boston rap supergroup of Edo G., Jaysaun, and Slaine, have a new single, " Main Event, " with production by DJ Premiere; Slaine will also be on NEP this Sunday to talk up his new mix tape, The White Man Is the Devil, Vol. 1. Chris Rucker is the host of New England Product, which airs Sundays from 9 to 10 p.m. on WFNX 101.7 FM.
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