figgsite

We are having a great summer. Everyone is doing well. The band worked on record #10 in Philly last week, and things are coming along. We should have a new single up on our myspace in the next couple of months, followed by the new full length in the new year.

We are playing some shows this month. they will feature many new songs, some covers, and maybe a couple of old ones.

08/22/08 Cambridge, MA - Lizard Lounge
08/23/08 Cambridge, MA - Lizard Lounge
08/29/08 New York, NY - Knitting Factory
08/30/08 Easthampton, MA - Brass Cat
10/17/08 Albany, NY - Valentines
10/18/08 Albany, NY - Valentines
10/25/08 Moorestown, NJ - House Concert Dave and Anne Marie’s
02/08/09 Green Bay, WI - Oneida Casino Main Lounge
02/09/09 Green Bay, WI - Oneida Casino Main Lounge
02/10/09 Green Bay, WI - Oneida Casino Main Lounge

Pete D. is playing some shows in August with The Terry Adams Rock & Roll Quartet.
08/14 Florence, MA - VFW Post 8006
08/15 Amsterdam, NY - Amsterdam Waterfront Foundation Concert Series, Riverlink Park
08/16 Woodstock, NY - Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble
08/17 Annandale On Hudson, N Y - SummerScape Festival Spiegel tent, Bard College

Mike is playing guitar with Juliana Hatfield's band for some shows in September to support her new album "How To Walk Away".
09/09 Washington, DC - IOTA
09/10 Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe' Live
09/12 NYC - Bowery Ballroom
09/14 Boston, MA - Brattle Theater

Mike will also be playing this summers Hot Stove Cool Music with Peter Gammons And The Hot Stove All Stars w/ Buddy Guy & George Thorogood.
08/17 Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion

Graham Parker and Mike are doing a show together...
09/11 Somerville, MA - Johnny D's

Celebrating it's 10th anniversary with a very limited (300) vinyl pressing of The Figgs fifth LP. Click here to order now!!

The Figgs Couldn't Get High... 10th Anniversary Vinyl will only be available through thefiggs.net, at shows, and in the New England, area at Newbury Comics.

We have a few more Palais vinyl. These are glossy covers, very rare. Buy one, they are going quick.
Please visit our store where you can pick up the new record, new T Shirts, and "For EP Fans Only". Go Now!!!!!! We are still waiting for Follow Jean on vinyl.....Charles?

The second volume of this live set is now available in the site store for $15. http://thefiggs.net/store.html
Only available through this site and at shows. 16 songs. 3 songs never before released.
Also, check out the price cuts on Vol. 1, and Palais on CD.
Please buy one or two !!!

Mike is 80% done with solo record #3. He's been cutting it at the same studio Mike Viola's LURCH was made with Ducky.
Pete D. finished the new Death Vessel pla-taa. Due out this year on Sub Pop.
Scott's band The Great Bandini have a new record out .
We have no idea what Hayes is up to.

NEW MESSAGE BOARD
Since the sites board was swamped with spam, we have moved the board over to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thefiggs for now. Join up and talk about the band.

Mike Gent, guitarist and vocalist for underrated pop/rock group The Figgs, is the first of three to sit down at the picnic table where we will momentarily conduct this interview. The table is situated in the grassy S. Jersey-an backyard of our House Concert hosts, Dave and Jen, and within easy viewing of the beer-laden porch; its screen door audibly squealing with the in-and-out of early trespassers. A house concert is just what it sounds like. I'm out of context in the fly-ridden heat with a minidress and my Dictaphone listening to bassist/vocalist Pete Donnelly's genu-ine baby girl wail freely up to the sky. It's a sign of the times.

Follow Jean Through the Sea (2006), released on indie label Gern Blandsten, is the Figgs' latest LP to make the scroll-worthy discography on the band's official web page, which covers the bulk of twenty years on the road pushin' so-called power pop.

Admittedly, this is not the expected venue for a live performance that usually sees a cult of twenty- and thirty-somethings jumping and singing back at the stage; or closed-eyedly following figgy beats from three hundred or so slatted seats. So they have a backyard. Drummer Pete Hayes (P. Haze) is inside talking to Dave with long hair; his Jen is intermittently busy with her own mommi-cries; and as we watch two-thirds of the band make their staggered way to the bench I blink away hesitation and mindfully switch "on".

SM: The theme weaving in and out of Follow Jean Through the Sea is what I term "retrospective irony". Regional Hits, for example, talks about how hard it is to get your art out in this business. But instead of just feeling bad for yourselves, you put a record out about it! Does it come down to 'Fuck it - let's play some music' every time?

PH: (Laughs) Sadly, yes. That's what's kept me here for eighteen years. Cause it's fun, you know... words.

MG: The song Chasing After Words is basically about trying to find subject matter to write about in songs. I mean, there's really only a few certain things you can write about in a song: Love, Hate-

MG: It's weird. I guess a lot of the songs come off as whining about the state of music, but it really wasn't that at all. It's part of a story we came up with. Regional Hits is sung from the perspective of an international hit maker complaining about these local dudes.

PH: The lyrics to that song in particular echo the thoughts of a pure musician gettin' stuffed back in the cubicle after - you know, a bad publishing deal. We never had a publishing deal.

PH: It's not biographic, but I think that the bitterness you hear probably comes from something that's inside deep. It's not a bitter song necessarily.

PD: I think we do that a lot, we write songs that aren't about our lives but they end up reflecting things about ourselves, you know, as a writer. You have to include feelings that you've had in order to sing it with any kind of real, true emotion.

PH: I think Miami is a great example of that. Stop me if I'm wrong, but you wrote that for someone else to sing. It was someone else's story entirely. And the way you sing it, Pete, it's coming right from your heart. It's like it's about you.

SM: It sounds like with age you just come to observe it and make fun of it in an artistic form, if you can. Right?

MG: Yeah. Exactly. Breaking Through These Gates is about that same guy complaining about people coming up on his lawn.

SM: Follow Jean also isn't afraid to be poppy. In fact, it's downright danceable.

PD: Yeah, because that was the way we wanted it made! We wanted it to have a party; we wanted to play live in the studio; and we wanted people there enjoying it and having a good time.

SM: When I listen to it I hear the Kinks, early Stones, Tom Petty, G.B.V., but also- forgive the comparison - Arctic Monkeys, The Vines.

MG: The Vines I never really heard except for maybe the singles. So that's cool if you can hear that stuff in our record 'cause I don't think any of us really bought a lot of modern records.

SM: Being a modern band, then, how do you keep reinventing yourselves - without alienating your original fan base?

MG: It's always a good sign when you're playing the songs before they're out and people respond to it. We're not in the situation where we put out a record and people, you know, the masses, are expecting - 'Oh, what are they gonna do to top themselves this time?'

PH: They're just grateful to have one. They don't care what it sounds like. (Laughs)

MG: Yeah, we do like to think of our albums as sets of music. I'd say we were trashed about fifty percent of the record making for Follow Jean.

PD: We played live in the studio. When we cut Miami, I took the different bits of the two days in a row that we played it and made an arrangement. We didn't want to get the band out of the element we're best at, which is playing together.

SM: You also incorporate a lot of your older songs into your sets today. Do you make up the set list beforehand, or is it all on the fly?

MG: It depends. If we're on tour, we'll come up with a skeleton of a set list so we know the first four songs we're going to play every night. And then, if we've been on the road for a while, we can change up a little part and usually know it's at the end. So we have some kind of structure.

PH: For me, there's a five-year window where I'll come back thinking, 'Damn, this is good'. It's always a trough and a valley and a plateau. It's funny, after the test of time they're all good. I love every single one of our records.

MG: More than anyone will ever know. You are what you are and you're looking at what you were. There's no point in being critical of it though 'cause you've moved on.

PH: Oh, absolutely. That's what a record is. It goes up and down. We re-released Ready Steady Stoned a couple years ago and I remember listening to it again going, 'Oh God, I can never play drums this good ever again! What was I doing there? Why can't I play like this anymore?'

SM: How does this coming of age, your family, being a bona fide grownup filter into your music today?

PD: Who ever said we were grownups? (Laughs) I think there's probably maturity in the record. Owning houses, and whatever - it affects the music a lot. I'm only really interested in performing things that I can feel.

MG: There's some reflective shit going on. Maybe more on Pete's part than on mine.

SM: Were there any new influences on Follow Jean that you'd never considered before?

PD: Yeah, our peers. Those are the models. Hanging around my friends and hearing what they're up to inspires me. I get an idea based on what they're doin' and I take that and just run with it.

PH: Yeah. One time we were on tour in Canada playing with this pretty alright band, and they had this song that was pretty good and Pete stole the main hook from it.

PD: Yeah, OK, yeah. I'm totally a supporter of absolute theft. I just feel if you have any -- any originality in your soul, then as soon as you steal something it's completely your own. (Mike and Pete H. laugh) I mean you copy something, and in copying it, you create something new. That's what punk is: white, bratty kids playing R&B. It doesn't sound like R&B, but they're trying to play R&B.

SM: Does that factor into your selection of songs to cover? You're taking the entire song and re-interpreting it.

MG: I look at it as us playing songs that we like and that are similar to the kind of music that we play. And maybe not play note for note, or word for word.

PD: You also always look for covers too that they don't blow [your music] away. That's why covering Beatles and stuff - it's like death.

PH: I'd start with Sucking In Stereo, 'cause that's our most upbeat, peppy, party record. It captures us, especially what we were at a time, very well.

MG: I would say Palais, or Sucking. Palais only because it's got a variety of different styles on it; Sucking is kind of more one thing.

PD: And I say... uh... the anthology we're gonna release next year. (Laughs) Honestly, I hate to say this, but it's usually what CD we have the most of. Palais is collectible right now, so... Sucking In Stereo, definitely the place to start.

SM: Mike and Pete - you co-wrote the title track on Follow Jean. That was pretty unusual for you.

PD: It's unfortunate that it doesn't happen more. We were less open to each other in younger days. And as you're older - you can take any liberty you want with anything I do. Go right ahead.

MG: Right. He had this song that I found on a tape of us just learning songs from a while ago, four years ago maybe. And it was the chorus - (sings) '...information too slow, no no no no no...' Something like that. That melody would randomly just pop into my head for days. I said, 'We gotta do something with this melody, it's just so good.' So I wrote the verses and just re-wrote the words in the chorus, then grabbed the bridge, and put it together. That's one of my favorite Figgs songs.

MG: That just popped into my head: follow jean through the sea. Sometimes I'll think of song titles before I write the song. And then it just flowed out, lyrically. It makes some kind of sense, the words, but it's more of a feeling.

PH: Ben Smith. He's genius. Interesting kid: he was the brother of my sister's best friend and he was given Figgs records at a very young age, maybe nine, and he grew up into this outrageous artist. He works in watercolors and he really wanted to do our record cover, so he did Palais, and then he did Follow Jean.

PD: And it was so cool he didn't put anybody in the boats. That wouldn't have worked.

PH: That cover reminds me of the end of Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. Have you ever seen it? It ends with the body being placed in a boat and being set off to sea.

SM: The only real break in theme is with the grunge-y track City Loft Home - right smack in the middle of the record. Why did you choose that as a bridge?

PD: What most people don't know is, we think of CDs as two sides. So that closes the first side of this album. And it has a tie-in you hear at the end of it. There's a three-chord thing, really quiet, and that's reflecting the three-chord intro of Jumping Again [the first song on the second side].

PH: The next album is generally being constructed while the one before it is being recorded. (Laughs) There's so much stuff that we didn't even use on our last record. There's plenty of stuff.

PD: We went into the studio every day for that record at about one o'clock. No one even talked about music or picked up a guitar till six. Just jammin' -- with people there, and the tape rolling.

PH: You mix instruments into songs; you mix songs into an album. Our best record hasn't been made yet.

Graham has a new record out on 3/13/07 called "Don't Tell Columbus". bloodshotrecords.com
Mike plays drums, guitar and sings on it.

NEW STUDIO RECORD!!!
"Follow Jean Through The Sea".
10 new songs
Out on Gern Blandsten Records 11/28/06

Listen to some new tracks from the record "Jumping Again" and "Chasing After Words" at the bands Myspace page.

Like The Wondermints with Brian Wilson, and The Posies with Big Star, Boston power-pop stalwarts The Figgs got to fulfill their purpose by becoming the backing band for the rock icon they most resemble, Graham Parker. Since they made that transition, The Figgs' own music has become more focused and less rote, though the hooky, simple songs on the band's latest, Follow Jean Through The Sea (Gern Blandsten), still hit the homage ceiling at a certain point. The album's highlight is "Regional Hits," with its cleaned-up version of classic garage-rock shake-and-shimmy, which sounds for all the world like the long-forgotten late-'70s one-off single that it salutes. B+

Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Milwaukee, WI

Jumping Again

Gramma always said that if you can't say something nice... so, we won't talk about the opening band. Okay, here's something: the drummer wore a tie and looked like quite a nice young man. Until.... nope, won't go there.

The Figgs took the stage at what, 11:30? Pretty late for these old working bones.

As a matter of fact, I'm hanging a bit low here this AM.

There was a pretty nice crowd, quite satisfying to see after a few Figgs giggs where Silent Mike and I were almost the only people there. A quite high percentage of ladies, in fact, along with the odd zombie and,...ummm....Kiss.

The Figgs cranked right into a quartet of new songs, all of which sounded superb. Pete D and Mike were spending more time harmonizing, rather than just trading vocals. Their voices are quite fine complements for each other, similar to Pirner and Murphy from Soul Asylum. After listening to the new CD (not available to you normals until Nov 14th) they are mostly-live takes, with the classic, basic lineup of guitar, bass, drums,... and guitar. Punky power pop with hooks that grab your belly like a meathook.

One of the hardest working bands around. They played an afternoon show at Andy's Basement, then came down to play a nearly unannounced show at Linnemann's. When they tour with Graham Parker, they typically play their own set as an opener, then come out to back up GP. After clearing away the debris of the opening band, they just started playing. No real sound check, plug in and go. It's rock and roll, not art. Even so, their sound is crisp and tight, tight as I've ever seen any band. Even when someone fouls something up, the other members just follow right along, making things right.

Mike Gent had a new guitar, a classic black Les Paul, with a funky new wah-wah pedal that he didn't overuse. In contrast, Pete Donnelley plays the most worn Fender bass in the world. There is essentially no paint left on the back, and a fair amount of wear on the front.

No setlist; like the Femmes, I think they just work from a loose arrangement and play what they feel like as they go. Looking at the recent shows on setlist.com, you can see that other than the new cuts they want to emphasize, they play very nearly random samples of their catalogue, going all the way back to Banda Macho.

At no particular loss for their own material (20 years, 12 albums and 121 songs to their credit, not counting their cassette and single releases) They also threw in a couple of covers; a fiery version of Hang Fire with energy that the Stones only dimly remember, and Love Goes To A Building On Fire that emphasized the early punk roots of Talking Heads. The notable thing about these was that appreciative as the crowd was, the most active response was for the Figgs original stuff, not the covers.

The band has found a way to share the work in the last couple of years. For Hey Mr. Moonman, they sat on the edge of the stage and the drummer took a break, with just gentle guitar strumming and allowing the crowd to take the vocals. They did this a few times; the crowd was perfectly willing to sing every single line. At least I was.

They did any number of encores, even switching instruments around just to add a bit of goof. We were fortunate to have a good number of encores; they only did one in Chicago the night before.

As always, just an excellent show. Do The Bounce; Jumping Again, indeed. I told the band members it had been too long, and it certainly was. A Figgs Fixx is indicated every 10 to 14 months. Too much fun for Zorg.

And some excellent news mined from the Figgs web site: at a 2005 show with Graham Parker in Chicago, the set was recorded and will be released by Bloodshot as 103 degrees in June. One of my favorite bands; my favorite label. All good.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Cheap Cassettes

And finally, one of my favorite songs performed live in Green Bay.

Can you tell I'm all the way wired about this show? Well, I am.

Hope they didn't get too wasted in GB last night.

Although the one time we saw them after a raucous GB show, they were STILL better than 90% of the bands out there.

Shit, If Green Day can be huge and not the Figgs, there's no damn justice. Maybe there ain't but the Figgs are still a damn great band.

Idolator Politely Asks: Why The Frigg Aren't You Listening To The Figgs?

NEW LIVE GRAHAM PARKER AND THE FIGGS RECORD
Last year on the last date of the Songs Of No Consequence Tour, the band played at The Double Door in Chicago and part of the show was broadcast on WXRT. Bloodshot Records have released a 16 song live album called "103 Degrees In June". Order is ASAP here at Bloodshotrecords.com

VIDEO
http://www.jimmorrissey.com/draftvideo.htm
Go to this site to check out some cool live footage of Figgs, Gentlemen, and Graham Parker.

If you have footage of the band feel free to post it on You Tube. Just make sure it's good!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006 Milwaukee, WI

Jumping Again

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Milwaukee, WI