Let's get lost in an original sound
I heard a band that was better than the last one around
This hasn't been done before, this hasn't been done before...
"Original" from Vegas Car Chasers
Although the tongue-in-cheek lyrics from Vegas Car Chasers address the often impossible challenge facing artists to create something fresh, both musically and lyrically, Silage - a young, hard hitting Northern California quartet with a penchant for witty-yet-subtly-profound lyrics - has managed to carve a heavy dose of originality into a genre-mixing foray that includes modern rock, rap, and power-pop influences.
While lead vocalist/guitarist Damian Horne (23) gets a lot of the attention as the primary front man, it's vocalist/guitarist Lance Black (also 23) who dreamed up the cryptic album title - literally.
"I'm kinda the wuss in the band," Black says over audible background chuckles from his Silage mates. "I've always written songs on my own - girly-type songs. But I woke up from a dream with the words 'Vegas Car Chasers' in my head. It's about chasing Babylon, the things of the world. We're trying to say that it's easy to point at Vegas and forget that sin is everywhere. It symbolizes greed, so I decided to make a really simple song out of it."
Simple isn't quite the word for the album title track, though it's highly stripped down compared to the other songs. With a clean backbeat, minor-key quitars, minimalist lyrics, and chant'like background vocals, "Vegas Car Chasers" closes the album like a relentless mellow dirge - a stark funeral march for mankind and our self interests.
As Silage headed into the studio in early 1998, thay secured the talents of The Gotee Brothers, and under the guidance of one of Nashville's most noted produciton teams, freed themselves to move into new directions creatively.
"We were burned out on the ska-punk scene," says Horne of the kind of sounds Silage was making when its debut, Watusi, was released last year. Although the record garnered radio success and solid sales, the band was anxious to grow mnusically. "At one point, I felt like I just couldn't pick up my guitar and be creative. But now we're more into what we're listening to."
That has included the likes of Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Beck, Beastie Boys, U2's Pop, and even snatches of Smashing Pumpkins' debut, Gish - a far cry from the hard-edged ska stylings Silage had been emplying. "We knoew what we wanted the new record to sound like," Horne says. "Less ska and more experimental. Hard rock with loops."
Industry veteran Chuck Cummings (Aunt Bettys, Dakota Motor Company) was also heavily involved with Vegas Car Chasers, through both songwriting and creative direction. Cummings has since joined the group on percussion. Shane Black rounds out the group's roster on the bass guitar. While the album's main drag sticks to tight and heavy grooves, the fringes of Vegas Car Chasers are filled with adventurous side roads (a false ending here, the odd trombone solo there, R&Bish guitars, DJ record scratches, and a guest rap on the '70's-tinged "Verb" by Grits member Knowdaverb that Silage didn't even know about until after the final mixes were completed.) They also wrote the bulk of the music as a combo, which was not the case with Watusi - a Horne-penned project for the most part.
the lyrics were also a collaborative effort. Horne and his writing partner, Lance Black - who helped Horne build Silage from the firm foundations of their high school youth group worship team - share lyric credits with Cummings. And the lyrics are perhaps the most startling elements of Vegas Car Chasers - hip yet not trendy, intelligent yet not unapproachable - all subtly wrapped around broad, lofty concepts such as greed and materialism.
Case in point includes the first single, "Billboards," which hints at the evils of shallowness and judgemental attitudes. It opens with a hip-hoppish beat and, beleive it or not, a Tex-Mex-styled guitar solo before segueing into Horne's vocal/rap: "Life in the bubble, there ain't no trouble/we like to judge our books by staring at the cover..." By the time Silage lunges into the chorus, thick with raging, staccato guitars, Horne's world-weary frustratoins are frayed like raw nerve endings: "Billboards and pillars is all that I see/will someone please show Jesus Christ to me..."
"Credit Card" is another standout track. "When we went full-time as a band," Horne explains, "we went from having pretty good incomes to moving out of our apartments and back into our parents' houses! We all hit financial lows. 'Credit Card' talks about not letting that stuff get to you. We've come to realize that if we stay in the word and in prayer, and remain financially responsible, God will give us a peace and take care of us."
The birth of the "Credit Card" lyrics came when Silage was fast asleep in a Florida church after playing a gig there - except for Horne and Black. Horne says they both were writing lyrics to "Credit Card" unbeknownst to each other and "by morning we both had lyrics. They synced musically and lyrically. It came together pretty naturally."
Now armed with a new, all-grown-up sound, Silage is probably on the road as you're reading these words. They churned out 150 shows, including a 40-city tour with third Day, and put 70,000 miles on their tour van last year. The pace isn't likely to dwindle.
"It's pretty messed up, almost surreal." Horne says of Silage's cross country pilgrimages to festivals and out-of-the-way shows. (They've actually done a nonstop, 60-hour drive from New Hampshire to Washington state just to play an important show.) "But we have a brand-new extended cargo van now, and it has a mattress in the back, so it's easier to sleep and take turns driving." Horne says with mock relief. "Hopefully soon we can graduate to a bus!"
Maybe that bus will even make it to Vegas.
Discography
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