Why the heck would anyone name their band after a dusty po-dunk town - especially when they aren't even from there? It's utterly deceptive and incongruous. But then again so is naming a town in northeast Texas after a metropolitan European city.
If you're a band like Paris, Texas, who doesn't care for the confinement of symbolism, then why the heck not?
The members of the rock band hailing from Madison, Wisconsin claim on their Web site that they took "profound pains to avoid facile cultural references to say, contemporary French cinema or dusty southwestern cities." But after speaking with vocalist Scott Sherpe and guitarist Nick Zinkgraf, one might conclude that the guys just like to defy all preconceived notions. Their decision to name their band after a city located more than 900 miles from their hometown, was only their first act of defiance.
"I wish that we could turn it [a description of our sound] into a sticker," says Zinkgraf during a recent afternoon cell phone interview. " And some how take aural listenability and turn it into text."
Zinkgraf explains that when you're trying to compare two entities as different from each other as music and language, you will indubitably come up short.
"Different people use different guidelines to define things so there's a lot of weird translation," he says. "My parents could walk away from a show and describe it as 'a lot of guys jumping around who sweat a lot.'"
Paris, Texas, who will be playing at Modified Arts in Phoenix this week, is stuck in the same musical purgatory that is inhabited by many other bands currently trying to make it big. Although they say sometimes critics and fans are quick to categorize them with a stifling label, their music doesn't necessarily fit into any certain genre.
"We're definitely not pop punk," Zinkgraf says. "When I think of pop-punk I think of bands on Fat Wreck Chords [The record label for bands like Less Than Jake and Lagwagon] you know, high school kids in cut off camo[uflage] shorts."
Zinkgraf says he has respect for these kinds of bands, but he just doesn't see a lot of their style in his band.
"That's just not where we're coming from, " he says. "There are definitely punk elements in there but we have more rock elements than anything else. We have that punk attitude as far as doing things on our own low-budget and underground."
So, when someone tries to get a grasp on the sound by asking about musical influences, Zinkgraf replies hesitantly.
"We may be influenced by Phil Collins but we don't let our drummer sing," he explains, chuckling. "Especially now since I think I broke his rib when he asked me to crack his back last night."
A band that can break each other's bones and then laugh about it has to have quite a bit of solidarity. Zinkgraf, and the injured drummer Sam Vinz along with lead singer Sherpe were roommates as undergrads at the University of Wisconsin Madison. They decided to start a band and recruited their friends Matt Tennessen to play bass and Matt Mangan to play guitar [Mangan has since been replaced by Nolan Treolo].
"At the time there weren't a lot of all ages clubs to play around Madison," Zinkgraf recalls. "So we played a lot of shows in people's basements."
They started playing shows around Madison and eventually recorded an EP with Polyvinyl records. Amidst all of the success, Sherpe was faced with a decision that would be potentially lethal to the band. His long-time girlfriend was leaving Madison to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Arizona and he was determined to go with her.
"I was like, 'I'm moving, how are we going to make this work?,'" Sherpe recalls.
Normally this would lead to a nasty band break up in the Yoko Ono tradition, but once again, the band was able to do things their own way and make it work.
Through a process involving a lot of digital music jargon [Pro Tools, MP3, Wave, 8-track], Sherpe is able to send sound files back and forth to his band mates in Wisconsin. He says that while the final products of these transcripts are not up to par for recording, they allow the band to get an idea of the direction they'd like to take their songs in when they meet in person to record and rehearse.
"Its kind of like a long distance relationship but without all of the smoochin'," Sherpe jokes. "And when we see each other we don't get all excited and want to climb into bed with each other."
From Wisconsin to Texas to Arizona, this band's cross-country romance may actually be one of the most successful long-distance relationships to date.
Reach the reporter at Joy.Hepp@asu.edu.
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Paris, Texas with Fifteen Minutes Fast. 10:15 p.m. Friday at Modified Arts in Phoenix $5. |
