THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 6, 1996 TAG: 9605040050
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
LOTS OF MUSICIANS play subway stations in New York. Few end up with national record contracts because of the gig.
But that's what happened to the Hollowbodies, longtime Hampton Roads favorites who found themselves leaving the cover-band-heavy Virginia Beach bar scene two years ago for life in the big city.
``I had just gotten out of a meeting at BMG,'' the company that owns record labels like RCA and Arista, remembered Jonathan Cohen, a former corporate attorney who now devotes his time to managing the pop/rock group. ``And I heard the most amazing pair of harmonies I'd ever heard in my life. I was looking around, trying to find the voices, when I saw Phil and Shea and this drummer playing in zero-degree weather - well, 20 degrees.
``There were a hundred, 200 people standing around watching. I listened for a half hour, then the cops came and kicked 'em out.''
It was the start of a business relationship - rooted in a ``belief,'' according to Cohen - that sees the Tuesday re-release of the Hollowbodies' self-released CD ``Lame'' on giant Polydor Records. The Hollowbodies are also touring nationally with acts like Cast (featuring Briton John Power, once of the La's) and the Posies. They'll appear at Town Point Park on May 23 with the latter.
Phillip Roebuck, the Hollowbodies' songwriter and now a resident of Portchester, N.Y., is naturally pleased with the new lease on life for a disc that sold all 2,500 copies of its pressing on the band's Muna Tea label.
``We started sending our CD around when we got it printed up last year, to just about every record company we could think of,'' he said in a phone interview last month. ``We started weeding people out; we sent CDs to 20 labels, and 10 passed. Then five (more) passed. Polydor was really - they came to, like, six shows.''
Another contender seemed too corporate. ``And when I met with Polydor, it was just really comfortable.''
The company's promotion and publicity scheme for ``Lame'' is a quiet one, aimed at building word of mouth for the Hollowbodies before putting on a bigger push when the second album comes. Roebuck, whose harmony partner and brother Shea is again a Beach resident, would like to keep the next record's sound as stripped-down as this one's.
``We just did demos'' for the album, ``but we really like the demos. We're sure the record company will want us to do a big record for our second record.''
Interestingly, that's not a problem for a guy who said the raw ``Lame'' ``sounds pretty much like I wanted it to sound.'' Phillip calls the Replacements' exceedingly rough ``Let It Be'' his favorite album. (``We're a complete blend of my dad's music,'' Dad being Beach country singer/writer Phil Roebuck Sr., ``and the Replacements' music.'') At the same time, he's ``excited'' about the possibility of delving into a more polished studio approach.
``My opinion on recording has really changed,'' he said. ``I used to think production should be in a limited scope. I think, actually, I'm a lot more open to straying from that.''
Before ``Lame,'' which was a favorite on local radio, the Hollowbodies were in the strange position of commanding a following for their original material, while club owners insisted that they adhere to the cover-song aesthetic. Eventually, the schism drove both Roebucks away from their home town.
``It was really weird; we had really burned our bridges. The clubs kept saying, `Play some contemporary songs people know.' The way I see it is, Virginia Beach is a resort town, and when people come there, they want to relax. It's not the time to deal with things. They want music that's fun and not a culture-oriented environment. And I understand that people need that.
``To be honest with you, at the time we started, I was writing, and we were playing covers. I always thought, `I can't wait until we have enough material that we don't have to play covers.' ''
Eventually, the Hollowbodies won a 1993 Peppermint Beach Club local-band contest.
``Surprisingly enough, there were a lot of people who came to (see) us and got what we were doing. I'm not gonna deny that. But the success on the business side was insufficient. So we moved up to Brooklyn.''
Armed with 16 songs and a new drummer - Anthony Smedile, formerly of the California group Dig - the Hollowbodies recorded ``Lame'' in late 1994. Phil Roebuck's songs are catchier than just about any Hampton Roads rock since Waxing Poetics' heyday. And the tour, Jonathan Cohen assures, is going great.
That's got to be good news to the Hollowbodies, who recall their occasional chances to play large, non-club gigs here as ``the best things that we did in the area,'' according to Roebuck.
``Pretty much what I associate with playing Virginia Beach (is) just playing bars, the normal bar-band sort of thing.'' Outdoor shows were ``refreshing because we were playing like a real band - 10 songs, our best 10. Like playing a real concert.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by KAM SANGHA by CNB