Adam Evil

Music Preview Adam Evil Creates A Great Lost Classic Of The '70s
Thursday October 13 2005
By Ed Masley Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Adam Evil Can See Why A Person's Initial Response To The Bowiesque Drama Of His Debut Album With The Outside Royalty Would Be To Call It Glam. Adam Evil Left Admits To Having A "glam" Feel.
Click Photo For Larger Image. Adam Evil & The Outside Royalty With Gary Musisko Country Music Gas Station The New Fiction And Chalk Outline Party
Where Rex Theatre South Side.
When 9 P.M. Friday
Tickets $7 412-381-6811 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But Words Like Glam Can Only Take A Person So Far. "We're By No Means Just A Glam Band " Evil Says. "We Don't Rely On Kitsch. I'm Rarely Seen In Makeup. But As Far As The Characteristics And Spirit Of Some Of The Songs The Way They Sound And The Attitude Yeah There's Definitely A Glam Feel There. I Think It's Just About As Good A Category As We're Gonna Find But It Doesn't Capture It All." It's More A Product Of The Time That Spawned The Glam-Rock Era. "It's Very Much Early '70s British Music " Evil Says. "I Just Sort Of Took An Honest Assessment Of The Things I've Really Liked Over The Course Of My Life And The Things That Have Always Been Just A Huge Turn-On Forever And A Lot Of That Stuff Is Like T. Rex Bowie The Stones That Kind Of Stuff. And Not Trying To Imitate It But Just Facing Up To The Fact That That's The Kind Of Stuff I'm Made Of. There Are Elements In There That Just Make Music Sound Cool To Me. So I Tried To Make It The Most Authentic Presentation Of All The Things I Love About Music As Well As All The Things That We As A Collection Of Individuals Bring To The Band." He And His Bandmates Came Late To The Music Of The Early '70s Having Not Been Born Yet. "I Was Lucky " Evil Says "in That I Had A Dad Who Was -- And Still Is -- A Music Nut. And He Had Just A Massive Collection Of Records. I Remember I Was 10 Years Old And Won My Dad's Copy Of T. Rex's 'The Slider' On A Bet. I Just Ended Up Naturally Gravitating Towards This Kind Of Stuff. In Grade School I Was Listening To T. Rex The Beatles The Stones. And None Of My Friends Knew Anything About It. I Remember Bringing 'The Slider' Over To Other Kids' Houses Like 'You Guys Have Got To Hear This.' And It Didn't Always Resonate So Well. " Growing Up In Cincinnati The Hits Of The Day That Spoke To Evil 29 Were On The Weird Side "Rock Me Amadeus " "The Safety Dance " "One Night In Bangkok." Evil Put The Outside Royalty Together Here In Pittsburgh In 2003. "We Played Our First Show As A Seven-Piece " He Says. "And We Weren't Really Ready. We Had Seven People Trying To Make A Violin Cello Keyboards And A Bunch Of Guitars All Sound Good Together And We Couldn't Do It. It Was Really Tough. So We Scaled The Band Back For A While. We Went From This Kind Of Goofy Group Of Mismatched Unconnected People From These Different Backgrounds To Finally Figuring Out What Our Own Thing Was. And Then Once We Got More Comfortable As A Core We Were Able To Bring All The Other Stuff Back." These Days He's Backed By Violinist Echo Guitarist Kirk Salopek Cellist Kat Agres Keyboardist Eizan Miyamoto Bassist Jason Guerra And Drummer Brandon Paluzzi. They Had Some Help With The Arrangements On The Self-Titled Album They're Releasing Friday At The Rex From A Man Who Clearly Knows A Thing Or Two About Getting A Very Large Number Of People Down On Tape -- The Polyphonic Spree's Rick Nelson. Evil Met The Violinist/producer Through A Mutual Acquaintance. Evil Handed Off An Early Outside Royalty EP And Nelson Asked If He Could Take A Crack At Doing Something Different With "Yesterday's Girl" -- Recut Some Violin And Cello Do A New Mix Shake Things Up. "We Got That Back And It Was Like 'Wow This Is Awesome ' " Evil Says. "So When It Got Down To Doing The Full-Length I Just Called Him Up And Said 'Hey We Loved What You Did With The One Song. If You Want To Participate Come On In.' And The Rest Was History." Nelson Flew To Pittsburgh For The Sessions Most Of Which Took Place At Mr. Small's In Millvale Playing Violin Viola Bass Guitar Lap Steel And Keyboards In Addition To Producing A Record That Actually Sounds A Good Deal Like The Great Lost Classic Of '70s Rock Evil Wanted To Make In The First Place From Its Pumping Mott The Hoople-Style Piano To The Wistful Bent-Guitar Riff At The Heart Of "Just Past Laughing" To Evil's Theatrical Way With A Vocal. By The Time The Horns Kick In On "Heavy" Three Songs In It Feels Like Anything Is Possible And This Is All Before You Hit The Track That Convinced Them That Bringing In Nelson Was A Great Idea In The First Place -- The Bittersweet Symphony Of The Heartbreaking Highlight Here "Yesterday's Girl." The Only Thing Missing It Seems Is The Year 1973 At The Top Of A Nearby Calender But Evil Isn't Sweating It. "I Tried To Make A Record " He Says "that Would Be Reflective Of The Stuff I Spent My Whole Life Loving As Opposed To Trying To Take A Look At Market Trends And Saying 'Hey You Know If We're Gonna Sound Just Like The Killers We Might Be Positioned Better.' " First Published On October 13 2005 At 12 00 Am
Ed Masley Can Be Reached At Emasley@post-Gazette.Com Or 412-263-1865. read less