Gigolo Aunts
Hey, do know
what the weirdest thing in the world is? Well, yeah, that skinny chick
on that Fox show, but do you know what the second widest thing is? Lately
I've had a strange kind of amnesia. I can't remember anything about anything
except what I was doing in the spring of 1997. Weird, huh?
And it's so vivid, too. I was living in a small apartment in a bedroom
community of Boston. I said wicked cool all the time, and no one picked
on me. I had never seen an episode of Friends. I had a huge CD collection,
including the Counting Crows, August and Everything After (yeah, the only
difference between me and the rest of the world, is that I'm not afraid
to admit that I bought that album), a bunch of Morphine, and Gigolo Aunts,
Learn to Play Guitar (Wicked
Disc).
The Aunts (and yes, I pronounce it Aw-nts like a normal Bostonian) were
a very cool local four-man band that got a lot of air play on stations
like WFNX, and press in The
Boston Phoenix, and their single "Kinda Girl, " was so catchy, with
its pop hooks and quirky lyrics (...she's singing in the hallway and dancing
in the shower...), that it seemed our very own Aunts were poised on the
very edge of wicked mega huge success.
And then--nothing. It was like they had disappeared. Weird. Then, all
of a sudden, they popped up in San Francisco for a show at Slim's last
Wednesday, and guess who else was there. Counting Crows singer, Adam Duritz.
How weird is that? Not very. Not when you figure that the Counting Crows
and the Gigolo Aunts are old buddies, touring together in the days before
the Crows mega-success and the Aunts near-descent into oblivion. Or that,
being a buddy and a fan, Duritz helped the Aunts leave their old stifling
label, and, heavens be praised, brought them on to his label, E
Pluribus Unum.
So, are things better for our heroes on the new label? Well, the Aunts
released a new full-length album, Minor Chords and Major Themes, last
week and their Slim's show was so well publicized that when frontman,
Dave Gibbs, asked the strangely animated San Francisco crowd if they'd
ever heard of the Gigolo Aunts before, quite a few admitted they hadn't.
Which was just fine with the crowd, who were so charmed by the Aunts essential
melodies, and power hooks, they seemed tempted to sing along to the songs
that they'd never heard before.
My friend actually did sing along with "Super Ultra Wicked Mega Love,"
partly because he thinks I'm the only one who says wicked, and partly
because it's an upbeat rocking little pop tune about the diverse joys
of romance ads ("Biker girl seeks biker boy a fetching SWF toy/ piercings
are a plus but not necessary"). Super Ultra isn't indicative of the rest
of the tone of Minor Chords and Major Themes, however. Most of the songs
explore dark themes of loss, self-doubt, and regret that add a bit of
grit to the Aunts double-coated pop shine.
Especially telling of the bands recent struggle and professional helplessness,
"Everything is Wrong" is an unabashed lament of confusion and pain and
"...it's been so very long / but everything, everything is wrong/ lost...."
But the Aunts are not a lets-all-get-depressed-together kind of band,
and at last week's Slim's show, they didn't give anyone any reason to
be depressed, with Pretenders and Neil Young covers, and their own hook-heavy,
guitar-god songs. For almost every song, Gibbs purposely announced the
song's theme and chords. And the crowd loved them for it.
I loved them for it. I even love Adam Duritz (cheesy dreds or not) for
it. And I loved everyone and everything when they played "Kinda Girl"
(horror-movie girlfriend C, G, Eb, etc...).
Melinda Whitehouse
The 1999 California Music Awards
Other local bands:
Other stuff:
Hating living in the Haight.
Neighbors. Jenny's neighbors. Neighborly attitudes in San Francisco.
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