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Weird Lovemakers
WEIRD LOVEMAKERS HAVE a song called "Kate Moss" on their recent 45. It's a sarcastic romp through fashion industry culture that starts off with a reprise of Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" then concludes thusly: "They pay her millions to play dead: lights, camera, submission/ Big-boned, zaftig, rubenesque, they're so out they're sin/ Fuck Cosmopolitan!" While one may debate the lyrics' profundity, the song has a caffeinated zip and fuzz-buzz guitar sound that's impossible to resist.
And as far as the Lovemakers are concerned, the whole point is to get in and get out quickly and efficiently--to have a slew of hookish, two-minute pop-punk ditties that are fun for the band to play and fun for the audience at gigs. As bassist Hector Martinez puts it, "In Tucson you have a lot of time to play--house parties are the best--and to write songs. We've got, I think, sixty songs already."
Weird Lovemakers are: Martinez (bass), Gerard Schumacher (drums), Greg Petix (guitar, vocals) and Jason Willis (guitar).
"We've been together since about April of last year," says Martinez.
Adds Schumacher, "Hector was in Skolliwoll, and they won Best Punk Band last year, so he's got two notches on his belt! They broke up, though. And me and Greg were in the Lonely Trojans, but they broke up about a year ago too. Jason was in a band called Textile Industry; he's currently also a member of Rocket No. 9... This band didn't really form, it just sort of evolved. Greg and I had started a band when we were in Chicago and called it the Weird Lovemakers. Then, here, we were using some different musicians and we were called Irving. So when we got Hector and Jason we said we should use the name we always wanted. The name comes from a really funny '60s sexploitation movie--'The Weird Lovemakers: They Do Everything!' So we want to be a band that did--everything!"
To date the band has made appearances on the aforementioned single (on Ghost Town Records, it's a split 45 with A Band Called Moss) and on the Third World Underground Echoes From Tucson compilation with a track called "The Winding Down."
In addition to being stalwarts of the local house party scene, the Lovemakers' name has frequently appeared on the Downtown Performance Center calendar as opening act for such prominent touring bands as Superchunk, Girls Vs. Boys, Thee Hypnotics and others. Currently, the plan is to record another seven-inch this summer and get it released pronto, finances willing. ("By October, maybe," deadpans Martinez.)
And then, of course, to use it as a calling card to enable the band to tour this big, wide world.
--Fred Mills
Helldriver
RUNNER-UP HELLDRIVER HAS an automotive fetish. As if the name wasn't clue enough, the band's two contributions to the Gouramie Records Fish Sauce compilation last year were called "Don't Burn My Clutch" and "Top Dead Center." The new four-song EP, Third Leap Of Five (Gouramie) is pressed on, get this, "tire-shaped, tire-colored vinyl." Songs include "Cherried Out," "Octane Baby," "Hot Rod Don," "Sugar Fuck." Okay, add "girls" to "cars" and you've got the Helldriver formula.
The group--Scott Bushey (vocals), Mike Bushey (rhythm guitar), Herb C (lead guitar), Darren Johnson (bass)--is anything but formulaic, however.
Some fans hear Motorhead (the gruff, Lemmy-esque vocals); some hear Bad Religion (the full-tilt, thrashy rhythms); some hear classic Pistols/Damned/Clash (the insistent, anthemic, melodic underpinnings of each song). In any case, Helldriver is one of the most over-the-top, charismatic, and, dare we say it, driving bands in the Old Pueblo.
--Fred Mills
