Seedy Gonzales CD

Seedy GonzalesJohnny Riley - vocalsJason Orans - guitar, vocalsBrian Devine - drums, vocalsJack Devine - guitar, bass, everything elseThe Story of Seedy, Part One: The Seedy Gonzales EPThere are serial killers, serial novels, serial poets-and now with the Seedy Gonzales self-titled debut EP, a serial record with a little bit of killer (of time, anyway), novelist and poet among its five tracks. The first of a two-part series, Seedy Gonzales embodies a laid-back "downtown" vibe, a literate-but-not-literal look at city life through the eyes of a sad, cheeky poet. It is, to be sure, exactly what you'd expect from "a cranky ex-pat writer from Prague [singer Johnny Riley] who sings like Lou Reed" and "a New York filmmaker who sings like Lou Barlow [singer-guitarist Jason Orans]."Riley, Orans and drummer Brian Devine met in Los Angeles while they were all working in the film industry. After losing touch for some years, Devine and Orans discovered they had both relocated to NYC. Devine was playing in his other project, Spanish Speaking Psychics with his cousin Jack; Orans and Riley were co-writing songs across the Atlantic while Riley observed a self-imposed exile in the Czech Republic. When Riley came Stateside to visit, Devine dragged his friends into the studio. It was just fun at first. "Next thing we knew," Orans recalls, "we had an album."They had tracked five tunes: A Stones-meets-Junior Kimbrough number "Just Killin' Time (Before Time Kills Me)," the Reed-y story-songs "Italian in NY" and "Maddie's Day," the brooding "Kerouac & Burroughs" and "Love's Theosophy" (an adaptation of Percy Shelley's poem "Love's Philosophy"). The Lodge's Emily Lazar (Jeff Buckley, Lou Reed, Clem Snide) mastered the tracks, and the band christened themselves Seedy Gonzales. Orans explains the name: "Cedric Douglass Gonzales III was the band's first road manager, (back when we were called Up 2 No Good). He died in a tragic accident, and the band continues on in his name as a tribute." That's a lotta hooey-but goofiness and mirth are as much a part of Seedy Gonzales as despair and harsh reality. Throughout their joyous, quirky indie pop is a wry sense of humor that tempers the more serious aspects of their writing and achieves the funny-serious balance found in all accomplished art. "Many of my favorite songwriters are funny," states Orans, listing Randy Newman, Warren Zevon and Vic Chesnutt. "I don't think there's enough smart humor in music these days, and that's what I like best about the band and what makes us a little different. I'd really love to play to an audience who gets us and laughs and cries at the right parts of the songs, you know?"(To Be Continued: stay tuned for part two of the Seedy Gonzales saga, Bird That Sings, due later this year)

Adapter: Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Seedy Gonzales: Jason Orans (vocals, guitar); Johnny Riley (vocals); Jack Devine (guitar, mandolin, harmonica, keyboards, bass guitar); B. Devine (drums).

Recording information: Gigantic Studios, New York, NY.