Metro Pulse/Music/Flesh Vehicle

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What:
Flesh Vehicle with Agent Zarkov

When:
Thursday, Jan. 16, 10 p.m.

Where:
The Pilot Light

Cost:
$5

Post-'drag, Tom Pappas and friends keep plugging away with Flesh Vehicle

by Mike Gibson

In retrospect, it was a stroke of good fortune for Rawk lovers everywhere that former Superdrag bassist Tom Pappas left the band in 1999 to devote more time to his own project, the musically evolving, membership-revolving entity known as Flesh Vehicle.

The former is still going strong, of course, based in Knoxville and recording for a widely distributed independent label. And Pappas's Vehicle, meanwhile, now based in Nashville, has just released its second full-length effort, Double EP on Memphis's Wrecked-em Records.

"I've always called Flesh Vehicle a collective, because I'm the only one in it for the permanent haul," says the ever-chatty Pappas during a recent phone interview. "I want as many band members as possible. I've had an amazing caliber of players, some of them in better-paying gigs than Flesh Vehicle. They're all good cats."

FV's current line-up includes bassist Mark Robertson and drummer Steve Latination, both of whom have their hands in several other pots; Latination is also drummer for the enduring semi-legendary punk-rock outfit Agent Orange.

Even Pappas himself has other musical commitments, as a sideman to Nashville artist Bobby Bare Jr., who had a minor alt-rock radio hit a few years ago with the single "You Blew Me Off." But while the man with indefatigable mop-top admits he'd like to spend more time on his own work—he calls FV "a seven-year side project"—he says the promiscuity of his Nashville musical relations creates opportunities he wouldn't have otherwise.

"It's been up and down," Pappas says of his move to Nashville from Knoxville. "When I first got here, people were ambivalent about what I did. Then I got in their face, played with other people like Bobby. That's when people started listening. That's when people start to like you."

There's a lot to like about Flesh Vehicle. Though the music is certainly possessed of elements appropriated from Pappas faves such as the Stooges and the Flaming Lips, FV really has no obvious paternal antecedents. The Vehicle sound is as close as pop music gets to originality without straying into obscure territory, into the brackish waters of unlistenability. Like Pappas himself—a raucously exciting performer, with the on-stage demeanor of a hyper-animated pogo stick—FV songs are nearly always frenetic in their pacing, energetic in their execution. The singer-guitarist calls his music "'50s arena rock with murder-pop tendencies. It's very in-your-face, but poppy at times.

"The new record, especially, sounds huge," he continues. "But the guitars aren't too fuzzy. There's still a little jangle in them. So you can still hear a little Chuck Berry."

Right now, Double EP is available mainly via Internet: check rockbandmerch.com, [email protected], or wrecked-em.com for more information. Wrecked-em is a fledgling indie begun by Knoxville expatriate Mike Condon out of Memphis, and distribution is still uncertain. Pappas has high hopes for the label, though: Wrecked-em will also release a CD of pre-Superdrag material from his days in Knox rock band the Used, as well as new music from Knoxville's Pink Sexies and underground West Virginia rockabilly legend Hassel Atkins in the coming months. "Mike was always a big supporter when he lived in Knoxville," Pappas enthuses. "He always came out to Used shows. We'd hang out and get high.

"He works for his dad's company, makes enough money where he can afford to invest in stuff. It's very cool he's doing it, because I need all the help I can get."

Pappas's immediate future calls for a handful of Flesh Vehicle dates, then another stint with Bare beginning in February. Depending on how long the singer-songwriter requires his services, he'll return to FV later this year, hopefully by recruiting a small radio promotions company to hawk his sonic wares to broadcasters. "I want to get some stuff out to college radio mostly," he says. "Just to get a roots following, to get a few people out to shows. I'm promoting this Vehicle thing a little at a time. I think it's good to do things in small increments."

For his retooling of the old Used material, Pappas has solicited input from former Used-mates and current Superdrag members John Davis and Don Coffey. Unsurprisingly, Davis and Coffey served as the original bassist and drummer, respectively, in the Flesh Vehicle collective.

"I played with those guys for years," Pappas says in reference to his amicable departure from Superdrag. "They're as big an influence on what I do now as the Stooges. I can point to specific Flesh Vehicle songs with certain parts or certain moods and say 'That came from Superdrag.'

"I was listening to them today, as a matter of fact, rockin' out to 'Rocket' (a song from Superdrag's Elektra release Regretfully Yours, on which Pappas played bass). That's classic, baby. Classic Rawk."