Subj: articles
Blessid Union of Souls tries to avoid jinx
BY LARRY NAGER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Sunday, June 1, 1997
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What: Q102 One Earth Party.
Who: Music by Paula Cole, Duncan Sheik, Leah Andreone and Blessid Union of Souls.
When: 3-11 p.m. June 14.
Where: P&G Pavilion, Bicentennial Commons at Sawyer Point, downtown. Admission: Free.
Information: 763-5673.
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It took just four months to record Blessid Union of Souls, but the Cincinnati pop band of the same name had been working toward that album for years.
"The second album is the one," admits Blessid Union's lead singer Eliot Sloan. "If you sell a lot of records, you get to keep your recording contract. If you don't, you're gone forever." The old sophomore jinx has turned into a terminal disease. Used to be, bands would deliver a second album not quite up to the level of the first.
Usually it was because the group had had a lifetime to come up with that first disc, then just a hectic year or so for the second. Often the group would get it together in time to deliver a good third album.
But as Mr. Sloan knows, times have gotten tougher in the record business. Nowadays, most bands don't get that third chance.
"It's really wild, he says with a sigh, sitting with his bandmates at Ligosa Studios, the downtown Cincinnati facility where Blessid Union's two albums were recorded. "I remember the days of actual artist development."
"Yeah," guitarist Jeff Pence agrees. "Now it's, 'How much money can you save on the van?' "
But Blessid Union of Souls is feeling pretty confident about the new disc. It's a more cohesive collection than 1995's Home, more straightforward pop with no uncharacteristic country rave-ups like "Oh Virginia," the unsuccessful third single from Home. But keyboardist C.P. Roth says, "It wasn't (out of character) if you heard all 35 songs that were recorded." Back then, he adds, Blessid Union had no "band sound." In fact, it wasn't really a band. "That first album was four guys in a room writing songs." They hadn't even performed live when Home was released, he says. "With this record we had two years of very intensive road work underneath our belts. And everybody (in the band) gets in their ear the way the five of us work as an ensemble and that's going to immediately make the (second) record a more cohesive thing."
A group effort
As the band sits around the studio a few hours after doing an early-morning local TV show, their sleep-deprived personalities are showing. Bassist Tony Clark, the newest member, is also the quietest, letting the others do almost all of the talking.
Guitarist Pence is the most outgoing, enjoying his pop-star status among the patrons of such local nightspots as the Yucatan Liquor Stand. That's where he was, he explains, until just a couple of hours before the TV show.
Drummer Eddie Hedges is intense but quiet, rarely speaking but definitely making a point when the spirit moves him.
Keyboardist Roth has brought his New Jersey attitude with him, his comments colored by an acerbic East Coast sense of humor.
As he is onstage, Mr. Sloan remains the center of attention offstage, thoughtful and laid-back, but without doubt the leader.
In all, Blessid Union comes off very much as a group, with a chemistry of internal give and take that often marks a successful band.
In the end, though, success or failure is up to the record-buying public. And while that's never a sure thing, some members of the music industry think the timing is right for Blessid Union of Souls. "There are no consistent pop hitmakers right now," says Jimmy Steal, program director for WKRQ (101.9 MHz), Greater Cincinnati's biggest contemporary hit radio station.
"We've got a lot of alternative hitmakers, AC (adult contemporary) hitmakers, urban hitmakers," he explains. "But this one (Blessid Union of Souls), with a little bit of smarts from their record label, can be double or triple platinum."
Making radio waves
His station's relationship with Blessid Union goes back to the band's debut single, "I Believe," which WKRQ (Q-102) was instrumental in "breaking" into a hit. That's why the liner notes to Blessid Union of Souls thank Mr. Steal, music director - assistant program director Brian Douglas and the station "for starting our career."
Q-102 remains Blessid Union's staunchest local supporter. Blessid Union's next local appearance will be June 14 at the station's One Earth Party at P&G Pavilion in Sawyer Point.
The guys in Blessid Union know their pop sound has made them the top-selling act of Cincinnati's early-'90s major-label class. They've also seen most of that crowd fall by the wayside. Some, like Ass Ponys or Lazy, were dropped by their labels. Over The Rhine was on I.R.S., which went out of business. Blessid Union is not planning to lose its faithful audience with the new album.
Says Mr. Roth, "The one rule of thumb that we followed that was unusual for us, we said, '850,000 people went out and bought our (first) record. Let's make this (second) record for them.' "
No Dinos here
Soon they'll be hitting the road to play for those folks. The national promotion began with a scheduled appearance on Thursday's Live With Regis & Kathie Lee.
Though Ms. Gifford's marital difficulties have been splashed across the tabloids and radio talk shows, Mr. Sloan remains a defender of his band's favorite female TV host.
"She's in the spotlight and she's a human being, so she's a target," he says. "If she screws up or somebody around her screws up she just gets more of the heat. Everybody screws up, everybody has skeletons."
Blessid Union has experienced some of that here, part of the backlash that follows any local group's national success.
But the band's busy road schedule helps keep gossip to a minimum, Mr. Roth says. "We're not around here long enough to experience it."
When they are here, they can usually be found club-hopping and sitting in with some of the local bands. Among their favorites - the Blue Birds, Soul Pocket and Uptown Rhythm & Blues.
They won't be doing that this summer, thanks to a busy schedule of visits to record stores and radio stations and concert dates. Despite the glamorous image, pop stardom is a lot of work, they say. "People have this Dean Martin idea of success, which didn't even happen with Dean, quite frankly," Mr. Roth says.
But they've been around long enough to know the alternative. "I can't think of one group we were working with two years ago who are on the radio now," Mr. Pence says.
As Top 40 radio swings back to mainstream pop, Blessid Union of Souls has every intention of being around for a while.
"If you remember two or three years ago, everything was so alternative and we were just so massively unhip it wasn't funny," says Blessid Union's manager and Ligosa co-owner Mark Liggett. "I remember the band and I talking about it 10 or 15 times, 'What can we do to hip-ify ourselves?'
"And we realized - nothing. We're kinda what we are, so instead of trying to change to fit into this, let's see if we can generate some plateau for ourselves and just do what we do the best.
"Eliot just writes pop songs. And radio now, you see it coming back to the mainstream. A couple program directors have told me, 'You guys are all of sudden getting to be the thing.' "
One of those is Q-102's Mr. Steal, who says sometimes, the best gimmick is no gimmick.
"Regardless of what you want to label a band or a song, great melodies always seem to make it to the top of the charts. And Blessid Union, they seem to write some incredible melodies. That's always in style."
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