| The Lasso -- Denton, TX
Crowd at Cool Beans get Punchy-drunk with Austin rock band's music
BY: Yvetta Limon -- Originally published on: 2002-07-07
Only in Austin does an unemployed drummer scan the back pages of a weekly publication "looking for a good band with a bad drummer" and come up with Punchy.
Although Texas music capital critics have previously pegged Punchy as laced with shades of Soul Asylum and Wilco, what rocked Cool Beans' rooftop last Friday was a band dripping with its own attitude fro what they do best: live music. In the band's own words, they're "playing what we like, where we like and as often as we can," and doing it well.
The group runs the gamut of rock, pop, punk, and even mainstream melodies, but they're nobody's weekend cover band. Songwriter/lead singer Fritz Beer and guitarist Errol Siegel punch their own lyircs and song arrangement, crafting a montage just a tad bit grittier-and a whole lot tigher-than typical indpendent rockers.
"We spend most of our time on stage-that's what we do," Beer said about their extensive tour dates this summer. "We're not the type of band to spend all its time in a studio for days on end. By the time we get ready to record, we've already been playing the songs live for a long time. That's a real benefit."
While the guitars are big, the vocals are raw, and the group's chemistry on stage is exceeded only by Beer's pervasive vocals. Punchy's style vaires, with enough chewy beats to keep the house alive, making them a natural with the audience.
Beer, responsible for punchy's original lyrics, admits to indulging a bit in what several critics have considered the band's more prominent influences, like the Clash, Elvis Costello and The Replacements. His songwriting is solid and sprited, and adapts well to its surroundings.
Errol Siegel's strong lead guitar matches the band's talent for no-nonsense arrangement, neither lacking in acoustics nor excessive in electrical representation. "I just want to play guitar," Siegel said, and does so effortlessly, with bassist Matthew Hunke, and drummer Armando Reyes, right in time.
The group's current release, "Just My Type," carries a true rock & roll approach that is all its own. The song, from the album of the same title, is currently on the rotation on Texas Internet Radio (the site plays up-and-coming Texas music 24 hours a day).
Some of the group's other morepraiseworthy titles include "Fear and Trembling," "Take a Little," and "Worry Tomorrow," and the band has been regular performers at Austin's SXSW music festival for the last three years.
People try to label Punchy's music, but Siegel said, "We're a rock band, but you can't leave it at that. We're a little bit of roots, we're a little bit of pop and punk-rock, we're British and Americana, blues and country, but that's really what rock is, the bastard child of all music. We're not trying to be eclectic or deep, we're just playing music."
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to score a hit single," Beer added, "but the stations [in Austin] have all this totally heavy stuff that's not really us. We're a working band, and we all wanted a gropu that was getting out there and playing as much as possible. That's what we do."
Along with a flavor that is uniquely Punchy is the band's ability tomarket its music autonomously, self-promoting by way of a hip website called "Bitter Kitten Media." The site is mastered by Siegel and friend Jeff Rosenberg, and links to just about everything including audio samples, tour dates, pics, CD sales and "Road Dirt."
To hear Punchy's latest single, "Just My Type," visit www.bitterkitten.com and click on "Punchy", then "Audio," or vist the web site www.texasinternetradio.com.
Back to list of articles. |
|
|
Copyright 2001 Bitter Kitten Media