7#S$ DDDD N XXjxD )*S)))S)))))) FACTS: Who: Goober and the Peas When: Wednesday, March 1 Where: Mercury Theatre by Wenley Quick After March 1, the city of Detroit may again be known for its music as well as its auto production. That day will mark the first Knoxville appearance of Detroit-based band Goober and the Peas at the Mercury Theatre. The boys are touring in support of their new album The Jet-Age Genius of Goober and the Peas on Detroit Municipal Recordings. The band first made a big splash at the 1993 SXSW Music Conference in Austin, Tex., and have been acquiring a solid fan base throughout the U.S. and Europe, touring with such buzz bin luminaries as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Morphine. Much has been made of Goober and the Peas in the press: Possibly the most exciting live band in America. (The Austin Chronicle) The best band out of Detroit since The Stooges. (The Gavin Report) Goober and the Peas are a great band who might single-handedly put Detroit back on the alternative map for the first time since the MC5 and The Stooges. (Philly Rock Guide) So what the hell is this? Goober and the Peas are at the very least extremely interesting. Twisting together traditional country music and punk, with a touch of the patented late 60s raunch of Detroit forebears the MC5 and The Stooges, they retain a sound of their own that croons, wails and rocks uniquely. One of the reasons we started the band was because of country music, says frontman Goober Miller. It was a combination of liking punk bands like the Gun Club who have a weird sort of country influence to them, as well as being really big fans of Hank Williams, Sr., and a lot of traditional country music. Vocalist Miller can sound like Henry Rollins, Dean Martin, and Hank, Sr., or a combination of all three, often in the same song. Guitar slinger Junior Hendrickson strokes his six-string with equal parts melodic picking and punk fury. Bassist Shorty Currie and drummer Doc Gillis underpin the songs with a firm rhythmic punch whether its loungy fake jazz or mosh-pit thrash. Their songs are insightful, intelligent and often downright hilarious. Regarding the bands songwriting methods, and the eclecticism of its output, Miller says: We cant really control what we write, because we just jam. We have to pick the best songs, and if it happens to be a swing jazz number, then thats what weve got to go with. The first number on the new record, Cordially Invited, sounds like something Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds might play if they performed at weddings and learned to laugh at themselves. It comes across as an almost debonair update of Detroit son Alice Coopers Welcome to My Nightmare. Jumpship, crooned in masterful lounge lizard style by Goober, could almost be an out-take from South Pacific (albeit a pretty twisted one) with its swing rhythm and Holiday Inn Lounge chord changes. The band shows its political stripes in two hilarious numbers, Alienation (Peer Group), and Killing Is Bad. Alienation comes complete with cheesy New Wave synthesizer riffs and backing vocals (a la Modern Lovers) by the whole band. Killing Is Bad is their politically correct song, written, surprisingly enough, at the insistence of the record company. We had the record done, and the people at our record company heard it and thought it wasnt exactly what the kids like, and said You guys gotta get in there and write a PC song. So we went out and bought a USA Today, Wall Street Journal, tried to read up on what was going on, and I guess we screwed it up, says Miller. In the space of four minutes and twenty seconds the band manages to make fun of everyone from sloganeering vegetarians to congressional committees over blazing guitars and a dance-rock beat. I think it still drills the point home that if you do shoot and kill someone that its a negative thing, says Miller. The band is excited about visiting our fair city, admitting to having visited before on business we cant really discuss, according to Miller. So come on down. Youll see Detroit has more to offer than just transportation. u3Copperplate29bc3Copperplate30bc3q m(]m  w w @@!:QRb*o8S S 9 '! P @  HH(FG(HH(d'@=/R@H-:LaserWriter 8 New YorkQQQE-