Whoever said the hell-raisin', booze-guzzlin', furniture-smashin' excesses of '80s arena rock ended with the onset of the kinder, gentler Alternative Nation obviously wasn't in Providence, R.I., this month when mall-punk megastars Green Day hit town with opening act Superdrag in tow. According to reports from S-drag manager Jake Ottman, a post-show party in the Superdrag boys' hotel room got a bit out of control, to the point that "most of the contents of the room went out of the window." No band members or other sentient beings were included in the impromptu purging, Ottman is quick to add.

Ottman says the destructive revelry was a prompted by "a bit of typical rock 'n' roll hyperactivity, primarily incited by the Green Day guys." Unfortunately, when five cop cars arrived in the wake of the incident, the Green Day crew "trashed and bailed," leaving our Knoxville boys behind with a $2,500 bill for damages, plus eviction from the hotel.

In a gesture of commendable responsibility, however, Green Day and their management showed up the following day and made full restitution for instigating the melee. "After all, they're millionaires, and we're not," says Ottman.

That minor glitch notwithstanding, Ottman says the two bands are getting along famously (which can't be said for some of the other modern rock poster-boys Knoxville's fab four have toured with in the last couple of years).

In related news, it would seem that frontman John Davis has become something of a latter-day Kilroy on the Los Angeles rock scene. While working on the band's forthcoming sophomore Elektra CD at the city's venerable Sound City studios (now the employer of Knoxville ex-pat, Movement bassist, and up-and-coming sound engineer Nick Raskulinecz), Davis scrawled a poster-sized doodle of the Superdrag members, Raskulinecz, producer Jerry Finn (of Green Day fame) and a drum tech. The unsigned drawing, dubbed "Mulletica, Master of Mullets," depicts the septet all sporting metal duds, appropriately goofy hesher nicknames, and the infamous mullet 'do (apparently that singularly unbecoming short-long coiffure is almost as ubiquitous in tinsel town as it is around Knoxville). Six months later, the poster is still hanging on the wall at Sound City, one of the city's most prestigious recording halls, and reproductions have subsequently made the rounds among city hiperati.

NEVER SAY NEVER

The Nashville Music Awards, a pre-Grammy ceremony held in the Music City since 1994, is a real-deal heavyweight industry event. Sponsored by Leadership Music Group, the nominees are selected by a committee of two dozen music professionals (headed by Sony Nashville executive Paul Worley and publishing veteran Tracy Gershon) and voted on by the people of metro Nashville. Among the nominees for the next awards (to be presented on January 21, 1998) are Tim O'Brien, Alison Krauss, Patty Loveless, Janis Ian, Chet Atkins, Amy Grant, and John Hiatt. For Knoxville fans, however, the real find of the awards may be The Nevers, nominated for the Best Unsigned Band award along with The EvinRudes, Malcolm Holcombe, IAYAALIS, and The Shazam. In case you've missed the Rickenbacker buzz, the Nevers are fronted by rock 'n' roll whiz kid John Paul Keith (formerly of the V-Roys, but back when they were still called the Viceroys) and include Rick Tiller (ex-Leaf) on guitar, drummer Dave Jenkins, and bassist Paul Noe (both formerly of the Judybats and Opposable Thumbs). With a whip-cracking brand of smart, crunchy guitar pop and a fully developed mod sensibility (witness the sport jackets, the skinny ties, three (!) Rickenbackers on stage at once), combined with Keith's onstage acrobatics (particularly on the set-closing "Seven Day Weekend"), the Nevers certainly seem to have the goods to ink a deal, and they've chosen the right city for it. Check out their show at Barley & Hopps on Sat., Nov. 29, and judge for yourself.

MAXIMUM ROCK 'N' ROLL

Local punk-girl-about-town Heather Robinson has been a busy camper as of late. Aside from her usual duties of booking shows, writing articles for several fanzines (including Maximum Rock 'n' Roll), and playing bass in the new pop-punk (emphasis on the pop side) band Michael Michael Motorcycle, she has just made a foray into the business side of the indie rock world. Just last week Heather signed on as Tennessee label representative for Chicago's Victory Records. Victory Records is well-known for it's harder-than-hard-core releases by bands such as Snapcase, Warzone, Refused, and straighter-than-you stalwarts Earth Crisis. (The latest addition to Victory's roster is legendary Rastacore heroes Bad Brains.) Thanks to Heather's involvement with Victory, we can expect a deluge of slammin' shows by nationally known hard-core acts in the near future.

PUMP UP THE VOLUME...IF YOU CAN

A fiery new salvo in the ongoing flyer wars has exploded with an assault on telephone poles all over the campus and Fort Sanders area by 88.3 FM. Proclaiming itself a herald of "all types of underground music and stuff you can't hear anywhere else," especially jazz, hip-hop, and "music you can't define," the flyers recall the glory days of pirate radio with a particularly apt icon of a skull and crossbones and the propaganda slogans "Free the airwaves!" and "Community Radio." Unfortunately, the DIY ethic prevents the widespread dissemination of ideology, and the station is next to impossible to pick up. Although we've heard you can tune it in on a clear day in Fort Sanders, we've come across only a frustrating band of fuzz. Calls to the number listed on the flyer were unreturned; if anyone knows anything, give us a call.

BIG APPLE—UH, FOOT—IN MY MOUTH

Don't ask us how it happened, but a couple of weeks ago I mistakenly reported that Rachel Greena—former promoter extraordinaire of shows at the Foundry—had moved to the Big Apple. Simply put, it ain't true. So quit asking her about it. And, yes, I'm sorry.

—Zippy "When will this week END?" McDuff