Another band from Boston -- this one being a trance unit fronted by two twins (Martin and Ryan Rex) that's been together for about four years. Originally considered an offshoot of Philidelphia-based pop munchers Influence, the trance groove thing eventually seized total control of their minds and so they were forced to move to Boston (everybody moves to Boston sooner or later, don't they?), where they attempt mightily to brainwash the masses from the local stages. For more deep thinking, DEAD ANGEL takes you now to the hollow core of Moon Unit Central, where the Headless Sno-Cone Girl serves drinks (just that non-alcoholic O'Douls for moi, thanks) as we discuss that which is... Lockgroove Lullaby....

DEAD ANGEL GOES INTO A TRANCE WITH LOCKGROOVE LULLABY:

DA: Okay, I have to ask the obligatory when/where/why poop here...

MR: Poop: Ryan [Rex] and I [Martin Rex] formed Lockgroove Lullaby in 1994 after the breakup of the Philadelphia-based band we were in called Influence. Lockgroove is basically a representation of the stuff Influence was doing towards the end of its existence. We came to Boston in '92 and tried to make the poppier Influence work, but couldn't manage to keep a steady lineup and eventually the band sort of dissolved in '94.

Lockgroove Lullaby was basically formed conceptually when my twin brother Ryan and I were turned on to a little band by the name of Spacemen 3, which opened up our eyes to the absolute beauty of repetition, in fact its necessity in creating soulful rock music.

And now we're just trying to do our part for the cause.

DA: So you're from Boston -- tell me about the music scene there.

MR: It's really diverse. Lot of punk bands, lot of power pop bands, lot of straight pop bands, a healthy number of metal bands, a lot of hard rock bands, hip-hop bands, blues bands, jazz bands, whatever. Nothing really stands out as a dominant type of music, which is probably why Boston gets less attention than other cities where you can pin down a definitive sound, but the diversity is also why it's a cool music scene... Allston is very punk, though......Berklee college of music is here, so you've got a lot of technicians with drum sticks jammed way up their asses, but a few amazing ones as well.

Not much of a minimalist/trance rock scene, though. I don't think there are any local bands playing out right now that are into trance rock like Spacemen 3/Spiritualized stuff. Lockgroove is the only one at this point that I know of.

DA: Do you ever bump into the old guys from Aerosmith at the grocery store?

MR: Seems like everyone I know has bumped into Steven Tyler except for me. Apparently he's really small and very skinny, and a really nice dude.

Fuck him, man.

DA: Speaking of radio dinosaurs, which rock star would you most like to beat to death with a baseball bat? (I'm for Alanis or Mariah)

MR: Joan Osbourne. That song ["What If God Were One of Us"] sounds like a third grade poem to me. It fills me with an insatiable inner fury that warrants, via aluminum baseball bat, a beating to death.

I mean, Jesus, you know?

DA: So what possessed you to move from Philly to Boston?

MR: We were playing in Influence for about five years in the Philly scene, back when we were high school kids. We knew we wanted to get the hell out of our hometown (Downingtown, PA), and originally came to Boston to check out Berklee college of music, and the town seemed pretty cool. We eventually came to our senses and realized that going to Berklee would be a very bad idea, but moved up to Boston anyway.

Having not gone to Berklee we are consequently really shitty musicians and therefore decided we'd form a band in which you're allowed to play one riff over, and over, and over, and over, and over and over and over and there you have it, ladies and gentlemen: Lockgroove Lullaby.

DA: The tape NEVER SATISFIED totally crushes... how long have you guys been working on that material?

MR: The recording of Never Satisfied took five months or so, between April and September of '95 in Allston.

The material had been floating around in our heads, though, long before that time, basically ever since we first heard Spacemen 3 and started doing heroin.

DA: I notice you did all the recording yourself; what do you find to be the benefits of recording at home rather than in a pro studio?

MR: We did NEVER SATISFIED on our own because we didn't have any money to go into the studio and we couldn't be fucked at this stage in the game to deal with anyone who wasn't into our stuff. Obviously there are advantages to working in your own private studio: I like to drink and smoke pot a lot when I'm recording. I also like recording in short bursts, not long hours. Ryan likes to go for long periods of time...you can come down in the middle of the night to lay down a track if one strikes you in your sleep, if you want -- shit like that makes it cool.

Bottom line is, no one's there to fuck with you and if you fuck up the equipment it's your own equipment. You're running the show when you record on your own, and only have yourself to blame if the songs don't work out.

The down side is that outside opinions from a producer are often good, regardless of how idiotic they seems at the time. Producers are more detached than the musicians, so they're more objective. A good producer can take a tone you've got in your head and make it happen based solely on your description of it.

This album is purely Ryan and I, though. We're twins, so there isn't too much of an outside entity controlling the direction we went on NEVER SATISFIED. That was very good for this album, we needed that. As far as working with a producer down the road who we personally choose and who is into our music, though, that would be fucking great, I could use someone else to bicker at besides Ryan.

DA: Have you considered working with an outside producer in a "real" studio?

MR: We recorded a couple of albums in a "real" studio for Influence called SQUIRREL LEVEL ROAD and WINDING WORDS INTO SOUNDS. Some cool shit on those albums... going into the studio was cool but at that stage we were still in a situation where the engineer/producer wasn't necessarily hip to our shit, and therefore couldn't be fucked to put in the time or effort to get the right tones for certain parts, etc. -- many bands go through this. We didn't know how to produce that well back then, so we left production basically to the engineer. So the recording ended up sounding very clean and pussyish. Very antiseptic. (No room noise, though. Whew! Thank God for that.)

Recording and producing ourselves, we've now got a little more room noise, but a lot cooler tones. I think that's a hell of a lot better.

DA: Given the trance-style grooving, I'm kind of curious as to your influences... might the Band of Susans be one of them?

MR: Don't really know much about Band of Susans, actually. The influences for Lockgroove Lullaby are first and foremost Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, Spectrum. Pretty incestuous there, but those guys are just amazing. It's a cliche these days, but the Velvet Underground, of course, is an influence. Sonic Youth is an influence, but doesn't really show up in our sound.

To an extent Luna, Stereolab, Bedhead, bands like that also influence Lockgroove. Lockgroove Lullaby is actually a name of a Stereolab song.

I'm personally a huge Smiths fan, love old school R.E.M, alot of Cure stuff, the Pogues, Janes Addiction. Lately we've been really getting into Girls Against Boys in a huge way -- just saw them last night, actually, and I almost shit myself, it was so good.

Skullflower doesn't show up too much in our sound either (aside from the repetition in their music) but we've been getting into them a lot lately as well.

Isn't just saying Skullflower enough? [tmu: OF COURSE....]

DA: What do you think of the Cure's PORNOGRAPHY, surely one of the most "minimalist" and trance-inducing pop records o' all time?

MR: The Cure is great, my favorite album is DISINTEGRATION. PORNOGRAPHY is quite minimalist, very interesting. Robert Smith is a nut.

DA: How important is playing live to you guys?

MR: Playing live is ridiculously important. I absolutely love playing live. I'm one of those guys like Flea who just thrives on it. I almost puke before every show.

Right now, though, we are trying to find a fourth member to fill in some of the peripheral parts on NEVER SATISFIED (second bassline on "never satisfied," two organs on "thoughtless," multiple guitars on "say it's time," etc.). We're also trying to relearn the songs, because first of all we forget what the fuck we played, second we have to teach the parts to the other band members, and third we want to rework the songs to make them kick ass live. So playing live isn't in the immediate future, unfortunately. Couple of months, hopefully.

DA: Do you stick to "official versions" on stage or do you just go hog-wild improvising? I'm guessing the latter...

MR: We'll go pretty darn hog-wild, but I don't know if the term improvisational is the right word. I think of the fucking Grateful Dead when I hear improvisational. We are very opposite from a Grateful Dead type mentality.

DA: Any plans on touring and further releases, trance orgies, world domination, that kind of thing?

MR: Trance orgies. Wow. [tmu: Hey, it sounds good to ME....]

Right now the plan is to make Lockgroove Lullaby into an intense live band, rework the songs, write some new songs and play live as often as is humanly possible. Hopefully, we'll create enough stir in Boston to get a record deal, so the next album is probably going to be recorded in the aforementioned "real studio," hopefully with a cool producer.

We've got about 8 or 9 new songs in the works right now, and dozens of riffs to be worked into songs as well. We've talked a little bit about releasing a 7" with three or four of the new songs on it.

Anyone who wants to check out NEVER SATISFIED, send me like $5 ($3 for tape, $2 for stamps) and any other crazy shit you can think of to Lockgroove Lullaby: 8 Pratt Street, Allston, Ma, 02134 and I'll get it to you real quick. NEVER SATISFIED is seven songs long, and pretty darn good if I may say so myself. [tmu: This be true; see the review....] We only have cassettes right now. Sorry, no vinyl. Ironic, I know. Our next release will surely be on vinyl, though, I promise.

Let me know if you would like to see a 3-song 7 inch. If there's enough interest we'll definitely put it out.

DA: Stupid question time! Which revolutionary leader in history most closely embodies the spirit of Lockgroove Lullaby?

MR: Hitler. In a good way, you know? no... um... yeah.... I don't know... Snake Plissken? ...What? hmm........