THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 7, 1996 TAG: 9611070033
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 74 lines
ON THIS TOUR, the Dummies will be heavier.
Lyrics to ponder and that already patented bass-baritone voice won't be the only ``heavy'' things leader Brad Roberts and his band Crash Test Dummies will bring to the Boathouse tonight.
Following the release of its newest, and third, recording, ``A Worm's Life,'' the band will offer a sound that's quite a departure from its mainly acoustic debut of several years ago.
``This new record is much more aggressive and harder than our previous work,'' Roberts said by phone from Orlando, one of the band's early tour stops. ``We're even bringing along an extra guitar player.''
Roberts said the group's weighty new sound is both a natural progression and a calculated musical move.
``The new album has more guitars and bigger drums,'' he said. ``It's natural for me to play heavy music. That's the style I grew up on as a teen. But I didn't want to fall back on any heavy and stylistic cliches. It's our own sound that grew and developed with major input from the rest of the group.''
Roberts, who earned a master's degree in philosophy and English literature, was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was turned on to popular music via those classic K-Tel greatest hits albums that were the rage a few decades ago.
``The first album I ever bought for myself was one of those K-Tel records,'' he said. ``From there I got into Alice Cooper, KISS and all those other bands.''
The band's first album featured an acoustic sound that helped propel his unique heavy voice and lyrics into the hearts of the record-buying public. The band - Roberts on vocals and guitar, brother Dan on bass, drummer Mitch Dorge, harmonica player Benjamin Darvil and keyboardist/singer Ellen Reid - finally caught on nationally and internationally with its sophomore release ``God Shuffled His Feet'' which bore the worldwide hit ``Mmm, Mmm, Mmm.''
After touring to mainly sold-out shows and critical acclaim, the group took time off to take care of personal matters, rest and work on various solo projects. Bibliophile Roberts dove into a mess of new non-fiction books and visited a friend in Prague.
Throughout his travels and tours, Roberts kept a running notebook of words, phrases, conversations, concepts, ideas and story/song fragments. From these jottings, musings and observances he formulated ``A Worm's Life's'' new songs.
``I take these bits, these germs of ideas, and create the songs while collaborating with the other band members,'' he said.
They introduced the new songs in concert.
``We played a little club in Dublin for a week, it was called Whelan's and it was a nice little venue to play,'' he said. ``It had this intimacy. We knew we could sell it out over the period of a week. There we tightened up quite a bit. Then we took our tight sound into the studio.''
Roberts and company recorded ``A Worm's Life'' layer by layer at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas.
``I'm really into overdubbing,'' he said. ``I like to weave together sounds and textures. We take each part of a song and build on it.''
The group will be touring the U.S., Europe, Australia and compass points in between for the next 18 months. The Hampton Roads concert will be an early stop.
``We'll weave together a lot of material mainly from our third and second albums,'' Roberts said. ``The concert will be harder and louder than previous shows, you can count on that.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color file photo
Crash Text Dummies' new sound is quite a departure from its mainly
acoustic debut of several years ago.
Graphic
WANT TO GO?
What: Crash Test Dummies with Ashley MacIsaac
When: 8 tonight
Where: Boathouse, Norfolk
Tickets: $14.50
Call: 622-6395 by CNB