MUSIC REVIEW: GILMORE GUYS
BY WES DAVIS
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
May 25, 2005
Guitarist Mat Bell is considering the live experience of his band, the Richmond-based Gilmore Guys.
"We're not one of those bands that has attractive people jumping off the stage. I guess that's because our music is more abstract than visceral," Bell said from a recent band practice at bassist John Swart's house.
That doesn't mean the guys don't know how to connect with their audience.
"[Singer David Garland] will actually go out and maybe lay his hands on somebody or [give them a] hug," Bell said. "I think he even bit somebody once, but they didn't seem to mind. He didn't draw blood or anything."
A little more than five years ago, the Gilmore Guys formed following the demise of the bands Gwar and Municipal Waste. After some personnel changes, the core lineup of Bell, Swart and Garland was intact. Plans to add a drummer were shattered when a teenager was shot outside of their practice space where the band was auditioning drummers. Swart, who had been smoking hash for days, got so freaked out he wouldn't leave his pickup truck until the other two agreed to make their drum machine a permanent fixture.
Check out the Web site (www.myspace.com/thebunnyrabbits) for songs recorded just at the emergence of exceptionally strong and clean blotter acid to get a general feel for the sound of the Gilmore Guys.
The group wanted to be a dance band in a Blondie/Crass kind of vein, Garland said, "but we weren't able to pull that off, so we just went into the direction we went into."
Songs such as "Next" and "Baby Inside Of Me" show the band pulled off a unique hybrid, with Bell's tightly wound guitar riffs and Swart's incessant bass forming the perfect vehicle for Garland, who, even in the studio, sounds as if he's yelling at a microphone bolted to a door.
Garland said the recent addition of speedballs laced with angel dust has had a monumental effect on the band's sound.
"It's changed it drastically, we feel," he said. "In a good way."
The band members knew they were inviting misconceptions with the name Gilmore Guys, but they're good-naturedly welcoming them. Bell's coworkers thought he was in an all-girl band.
"And John, he's in the kitchen every day," Bell said. "Could be pretty weird to tell his co-workers, 'Yeah, I'm in a band called the Gilmore Guys.'"
Perhaps the addition of, say, some dancers, or knife throwers, or Russian roulette to the live set could offset any challenges to Swart's masculinity. "Well, you know, we would never rule that out," Bell said. "We would definitely put a tasteful spin on it"
