Paranoid Social Club

Is it punk? Is it indie pop? Heavy rock? Worldy ska-licious psychedelic? Some terrific melding of all the above… that’s what it is. Blending genres like this could confuse the mind, but I like that Paranoid Social Club is different and unexpected, and because I happen to love indie pop rock as well as garage and punk and heavy rock—well, it all works for me! It’s kind of like a carnival of sound. This is really like nothing I’ve ever heard before and I can’t say enough times how utterly refreshing it is to hear unpredictability yet consistency. I realize I’m lavishing compliments here but it’s a bit difficult to break down because of its wonderful musical eccentricity. I was going to call out my favorite tracks like I often do, but honestly each song holds something so groovily interesting, I love them all. Based out of Portland, ME, and started by members of Rustic Overtones, Paranoid Social Club are four ambitious, creative, highly talented musicians who now have a new fan named Debbie Catalano. - The Noise

Everyone knows Dave Gutter. As frontman for Rustic Overtones and Paranoid Social Club he has been on our radios and on our stages here in Portland for 15 years, whether with his spiking primal scream or smoke-tinged breathy croon. - Dispatch

Finally! After much hard work by many awesome people, we've released our first print issue. We kick things off with a great feature on acclaimed Maine artist Dave Gutter (Rustic Overtones, Paranoid Social Club). Additionally, you'll find a ton of recent album reviews, exclusive interviews with Maine musicians, and what's in store for this summer. - Dispatch Magazine

Finally! After much hard work by many awesome people, we've released our first print issue. We kick things off with a great feature on acclaimed Maine artist Dave Gutter (Rustic Overtones, Paranoid Social Club). Additionally, you'll find a ton of recent album reviews, exclusive interviews with Maine musicians, and what's in store for this summer. - Dispatch Magazine

Finally! After much hard work by many awesome people, we've released our first print issue. We kick things off with a great feature on acclaimed Maine artist Dave Gutter (Rustic Overtones, Paranoid Social Club). Additionally, you'll find a ton of recent album reviews, exclusive interviews with Maine musicians, and what's in store for this summer. - Dispatch Magazine

After too long a wait, Paranoid Social Club is back with its most consistent, focused record yet. "Axis IV" busts out of the gate with three cracklers, brimming with confidence and fluent in many rock dialects, Foo Fighters bullheadedness and island skate pop swimming in the same soup.

"Count on Me" is an effortless anthem, expertly crafted pop atop Tony McNaboe's breakout kit work, and one of the best chorus releases this year. "Paranoid" follows, dressing up a Black Sabbath cover with big Black Keys riffs and newly diseased goth rags. Sounds like these guys have done this before. "Stick Up Kid" is a great lyrical play, as you will surely have your hands in the air with a dirty, dirty snare riff and impish blues piano.

It helps that a) Dave Gutter's got one of the most versatile, likable rock voices in the game, and b) he applies it with ambition all over "Axis IV." Check out the spacey troubler "Suicide," a Rustic Overtones reinvention in which Gutter now muses all sweet and falsetto-like inside a Maroon 5 terror show. The lyrical content may drive away the thin-skinned, but that's part of why it works -- it's just this side of sanity.

"Flower Child" wildly oscillates between dizzying dirge and sun-soaked floater. Truth is, Paranoid Social Club can write and record the ever-livin' pants off of a song, which is why these verses and choruses offer such potent point-counterpoint.

So how do you close an album that oozes know-how? Self-deprecation, of course; here in the form of drunken doo-wop. "Our Band Sucks" poses as a throwaway, but makes room for a couple of angsty roars and endearing tales of a failing band. A tune like this shows that the veterans in PSC know to keep the been-there, done-that swagger in check.

No matter how many shows you've played, your fans will always only love you for the hunger.

HOW IT RATES

PARANOID SOCIAL CLUB: "AXIS IV"

LABEL: Self-produced

*****

Based on a five-star scale - Portland Press Herald

Well, it took almost six years, but Axis IV is finally here. The new full-length from Portland, Maine’s Paranoid Social Club is one of the most exciting and refreshing releases of the year. Now a four-piece, the band sounds bigger, tighter and more focused. The raw grit and energy of the first three Axis albums have been harnessed and channeled into eleven new tracks that showcase the band’s diversity, talent and unique vision.

“Count on Me” opens the record in absolute diesel fashion. It’s the heaviest song the band has ever written, and yet none of the power comes from overly distorted guitars or forced down-tuning. Tony McNaboe is a beast behind the drums on this track (and several others on the album) and it’s a shame he’s no longer playing with the group. “Cut In,” “The Fuzz,” “Flower Child” and “Party Girl” are all solid tracks that show PSC’s ability to fuse rock, funk, soul and psychedelic with Dave Gutter’s story-driven lyrics. “Suicide,” once a peppier Rustic Overtones tune, gets the Flaming Lips treatment here with a slower groove and experimental synths alongside Gutter’s new found falsetto.

Two other stand out’s are “No Fear” with a great 90's grunge-esque riff and outer space synth line and “No Antidote” that masters the loud/quiet dynamic and builds to a soaring chorus. While the songs on Axis IV often span multiple genres, the arrangements are excellent and all of the tracks are accessible. It’s hard to pick apart such a solid album, but I would have moved their trippy cover/remix of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” later in the track listing sequence, and “Stick Up Kid” sounds like a self-titled album B-side that has a melody pretty similar to “The Cable Hookup.”

Bottom line: do you like original and creative music or shit? You can settle and give in to radio brainwash garbage or support local, independent artists that produce passionate and interesting art. Axis IV gives me hope that not all of America is dumb. Which brings me to the self-deprecating album closer “Our Band Sucks.” Surely the song is not autobiographical, but the lyrics seem to suggest that if you’re not successful in a mainstream sense, that your time is just not worth it and you’ll end up regretting the wasted effort later. Tongue in cheek? For an indie band from Maine who has had an up and down decade, maybe. If a band makes a record and no one hears it, does it make a sound? I just hope Paranoid Social Club don’t believe their own song because they certainly do not suck and Axis IV feels more like a rebirth than a swan song.
- chefdiesel.com

Hopefully by now you've heard the first single from Paranoid Social Club's new Axis IV, "Count on Me," and you don't need a whole lot of convincing that this is the record you'll be listening to all summer. With an artful combination of raw power and delicate melody, it is PSC in microcosm: On one hand fueled by preening bombast, on the other vulnerable and unsure and more than a little jittery.
That skittery snare work from Tony McNaboe (now replaced in the drum chair by Planeside's Craig Scala)? It'll put your heart off-beat and give you the sweats.

More than anything else, though, this record is impossibly fun. I'm no psychologist, but it wouldn't surprise me if paranoia and mania were intimately linked. Though not everything here is up-tempo, just about all of it is turned up to 11, drenched in the brightest of sunlight, seen only through the zoom lens.

PSC back their opening single with a cover of Sabbath's "Paranoid," a nod to the "Paranoid Social Club" band anthem from their first album, and an indication of their full investment in the aesthetic here. Long-time Dave Gutter fans will be pleased: It opens with one of his trademark, chord-shredding primal screams and proceeds into the meanest, grimiest cover of the song you're likely to hear, all of the drama and metallic opera stripped away and replaced with a dystopic detachment, voices blending into a chorus of Cylons, nuclear energy rippling off like a swarm of bees.

It'd be the perfect anthem for those fucked-over aliens in District 9, surely.

Like that flick, the special effects here — the slow-jam disco of the morbidly funny "Suicide" or the digital blur bassist Jon Roods layers onto all kinds of backing lines — are a backdoor into the human psyche. The chorus of "No Antidote" is an explosive indictment of the modern malaise that infects that swath of the public that sits around waiting (and wailing) for someone else to fix the economy, the system, whatever it is that's wrong:

"Did you think it would be that one thing that was pure?/Did you think it would be that one thing that could cure? . . . You wait for it to come and it don't, and it don't, and it don't/There's no antidote."

The digital whir lends a futurism, a look forward, a weight that shows they're not looking just for the easy hook. What will be the impact of a disinclination by the general public to put in their 10,000 hours?

Perhaps a continuing raft of pathetic stick-ups of bank branches and pharmacies, as we've seen here in Maine as the painkiller epidemic spreads. PSC take the theme explored by Natural Born Killers (and the Bay State, actually) and make it Brand New Heavies fun, Bloodhound Gang fun: "What you're looking at here are some desperate men/Who are sick of seeing people living better than them/I was even thinking of hitting the ATM/Why's it gotta cost me five to take out ten?"

If they don't play this song live this weekend, it's a crime. It's built for crowd frenzy. Good thing they brought on Trent Gay to turn this trio into a quartet. There simply has to be someone to pair this piano part to the bass progression.
- The Phoenix

It's a little unfair that Portland, Maine's Paranoid Social Club have put out the raging party album of the year and not packaged it with a viable hangover cure.

Because the trio's self-titled national debut is way too much fun to not come with any consequences - it's got the soulful exuberance of James Brown, the intensely catchy vibe of Sublime, and the crunchy grooves of funk-mode Beck, all tied up neatly with lyrics both frequently funny and ridiculously easy to sing along to.

So, yeah, throw this record on in the immediate vicinity of a keg and watch that thing get drained like Britney's checking account during a Federline trucker-hat shopping spree. From the woozy, boozy, rocking anthem Wasted - a song dedicated to "lushes looking luscious" and "the dead-to-the-world and the plastered and pissed" - to the slyly funky stomp of Two Girls and the lilting, laid-back Rhythm Is, these guys are fully committed to providing an infallible soundtrack to good times you'll barely remember in the morning.

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"We basically just want to affect people in a personal way, not in a huge, epic 'we want to change the world' kind of way," says frontman Dave Gutter, who also pens Paranoid's lyrics. "We try to make every song like an anthem for whatever it may be about - somebody's theme music. Like, 'that's my song right there, I'm the guy that always gets wasted!', or, 'I'm the girl that's always moody, so Two Girls is my song.'"

Of course, it's all meant to be taken with tongue planted firmly in cheek - a fact clearly established by the hilarious opener The Cable Hookup, which presents a lyrical portrait of a stoned slacker basking in the glow of his girlfriend's flat-screen tv all day while she's out bringing home the bacon ("If I'm just changing channels she don't take it to heart / Her entertainment center's just so state-of-the-art").

Gutter - whose vocals ever-so-slightly recall Smashmouth's Steve Harwell - insists that the song's just a caricature, although he admits wouldn't mind living the lifestyle he so wittily describes. "My fiancée won't have that at all," he laughs, "But I have a friend who's been single forever and he's said he's looking for a girl that works nights and has cable - that to me was really funny, so I created this picture of that typical kind of male fantasy."

That's not the only male fantasy that gets its due on the album, though. Gutter's favorite song on the disc, Gangster - which opens with a sampled blaxploitation-movie guitar lick before launching into a bouncily soulful rhythm - muses comically about living the good life, Tony Montana-style. "It's kinda just like, daydreaming about what it would be like if you weren't always stepped on, like if you could be empowered by all the gangster flicks you watch," he says of the song, which includes choice couplets like "I'd shoot up a restaurant on Valentine's Day / Just 'cause they don't cook Italian my way."

For all his comical pining for the thug life, though, you can't imagine that being a rock star is such a bad alternative. In fact, the Paranoid Social Club has worked out pretty well for Gutter and bandmates Jon Roods (bass, keyboards) and Marc Boisvert (drums), as they've become almost legendary in their up-north hometown just a few years into their career, earning loads of accolades from the local music scene and the Portland Phoenix weekly.

And the guys (high school friends and musical collaborators since way back when) almost had their brush with big-time success once before, as members of the eclectic seven-piece combo Rustic Overtones - best remembered in this neck of the woods for sharing the Meadows stage with 2 Skinnee J's and assorted alt-rock heavyweights at 1997's Radio 104 Fest.

But as a three-piece band with different sounds and different goals to work with, Gutter says he, Roods, and Boisvert from the start have been focused on creating something that hadn't been heard before. "We searched for a new identity, a new personality for the band on purpose," after forming Paranoid, Gutter says, "So that we could kind of start fresh instead of beating a dead horse." The band released two albums prior to the current one - 2002's Axis II and last year's Axis I & III - and while both efforts earned them significant radio play, fan commitment, and critical nods from the Phoenix, Gutter says the self-titled album is the one that really nails down what the band is all about.

"The two records we released previously were us kind of searching around for the sound that would be our identity - from song to song it was very different," he explains.

"This new album is some new songs, and a compilation of some of the stuff we've been playing live over the past three years. We went back and kind of figured out what songs connected with the audience and which were kind of cohesive - one thing rather than a bunch of different styles."

Don't think there's anything monotonous about the disc, - PLAY

CD: PARANOID SOCIAL CLUB S/T
On Entertainment.
Rating: 9 Out Of 10 - Reviewed by Bam-Bam

A band that sounds like Sublime and 311 mixed with G Love is not normally something that I’d find myself warming up to, but Paranoid Social Club makes it so easy. Probably one of the best lyrical bands I’ve ever run across, they lay down what they do with such comfort and ease that it’s instantly recognizable (even though you’ve never heard it before) and easily likeable. Tunes like “Wasted”, “Two Girls”, and “Gangster” are just downright hilarious, but so true, and instant party anthems. The whole album could be the soundtrack to your next kegger, but it still exudes a touch of class that bands like Sublime never had. Hints of reggae, funk, ska, punk, and more, this one is as eclectic as it is comical genius. I’m totally impressed and recommend this one highly to any and everyone who still loves for their music to be as fun as it is sonically enjoyable. In stores on August 23rd or available at the band's website: PARANOIDSOCIALCLUB.COM.
- awayteam.com

Okay, so I'm just going to have to say it: Damn, white boys got soul!

Seriously, I don't know how these guys did this, but they are awesome. It is the complete lack of boundaries that make Paranoid Social Club so appealing; nothing is sacred as, musically, everything is game. Rock, you got it; funk, its there; rap, you know it; dance, some to spare. It is this amalgamation across the album that kicks it beyond mere records into its own private universe and makes it an instant classic. If I had to compare them to someone, the closest I could say would be Jamiroquai, although I am probably just set on how the lead singer sounds like him.

Another win for this band is the deft line they walk; being musically proficient, yet providing tongue-in-cheek witticism that nails the mood without ruining the vibe. Every song is a potential single that should be played on every college radio station across the country, something for everyone. "Wasted" and "Headphones" being my particular favorites, although I also loved the twist to the love song genre presented in "Two Girls", as an upbeat song that shows the lyrical charm of the songwriter. Production is key to making this three-piece sound a lot bigger, and the keyboards in particular distinguish the feel between individual tracks - such that no two songs hit the same sound, making things interesting as the record progress, never boring.

A must have party album, these guys simply create an intelligent, accessible, free-form record that no one else will ever come close to matching. A nonchalant, all-over-the-place action.

-bishop

- Hybrid Magazine

The liner notes to Paranoid Social Club's debut demo, Axis II (the first edition, given to people like us and some people at shows, and some "contest" winners), don't even name check God:
"we'd like to reserve our thanks
in case some of you are dragging us down --
as we have yet to accomplish anything"
A message from three overconfident assholes? I'd say more of a tongue-in-cheek awareness of just where these former Rustic Overtones knew they stood in the scheme of things at the time prior to their debut album's release. Dave Gutter, Jon Roods, and Marc Boisvert, when they were with Rustic O., were signed to Arista, had recorded with David Bowie, toured internationally, released three albums and an EP, and had the best name recognition of any Maine-based band ever. Starting from scratch after 10 years in a band (in the case of Roods and Gutter) is hard stuff, and Paranoid Social Club knew all too well that, compared to Rustic, they hadn't accomplished much.
Well, it's a year on, and PSC put a thank-you list together for the album's wider release. That's good because they've now accomplished plenty; there were a slew of great albums released in the past year (it was the strongest year for local releases in memory), and PSC's debut was numero uno.
So how's this for a thanks back:
Thanks go to the guest musicians who played on the record: Kate Prideaux (of Sleepy Bo'weevil), whose smoky, sassy vocals wrap tightly around Dave Gutter's on the tail ends of the verses on "Headphones"; Joe Brien, for his backing vocals on the summer love song, "She Gets Me High," and "Theme Song"; DJ shAde for killer cuts, samples, and breaks on the skewed party-college anthem "Wasted"; Jon Wyman, for backing vocals on the super catchy "Evolution," and for producing and mixing the album; Walt Craven and Poverty for making "Bully" so incendiary; Tony McNaboe for his contributions to the Dave Matthewsish "Love is Strange"; and all their family, friends, fans, and, of course, God. –Josh Rogers
- Portland Phoenix

Paranoid Social Club is getting out of hand and that’s just fine with them. If you haven’t heard this tenacious power trio from Portland you may want to want to crawl out from under that rock! In October of 2002 the band released their first record, Axis 2 which won Best Album in The Portland Phoenix’s annual music poll. Since its release local and not-so-local radio have put it in heavy rotation while the band tours up and down the east coast in support of the CD.The band is made up of three former members of Rustic Overtones. Dave Gutter handles vocals, guitar and programming. Jon Roods plays bass, keyboards and vocals. Gutter and Roods have been making music together since they were kids. Gutter explains, “my parents would drive us to play at bars when we were twelve years old. We would play Beatles songs and others for all these drunk people.” The lineup is rounded out by Marc Boisvert who plays both drums and percussion.That early start may be responsible for Paranoid Social Club’s intense kick in its live performances. The band went from playing with seven pieces in Rustic to only three in Social Club. The three have developed into harder players now, they want to carry it off as well or better than the larger size band. Boisvert hits one of his drums and triggers a keyboard for extra effect and Roods sometimes plays keyboards while playing his bass guitar. No pyrotechnics needed when these guys perform, their shows smoke all by themselves! They totally picked up the weight when they needed to.Most every music fan in the Northeast knows the story of the enormously popular Rustic Overtones. Rustic had a very loyal following and garnered a lot of airplay, including being featured in some successful motion picture soundtracks and on MTV. David Bowie even joined them on their last record! While the record company did what they sometimes do best—sit on a project—the band requested out of their contract and finally was granted their wish.Doing what they enjoyed most the band returned to the studio to begin recording a new record. Many in the band had found new avenues to get their music heard and Gutter, Roods and Boisvert seemed to be the only ones with time to record. Everyone else was enjoying new pursuits and all agreed that maybe they needed a change. Gutter says “everyone started finding new things.” I asked if he genuflected and jumped into this new idea. He said it was “a short jump.” The three had laid down some basic tracks for a new album but it seemed that Rustic had dissolved without any of them noticing until it had already happened. “[Axis2] actually started out as a Rustic Overtones record,” Dave explains.Axis 2 is a clinical term for paranoia. Each of the twelve songs on the new CD contains subject matter that plays on the album’s title. “Save Me,” “Ricochet,” “Headphones” and “Bully” fill the prescription. “Theme Song” is a clever piece about a place called The Paranoid Social Club where “maybe you didn’t make the cut, didn’t make the grade, maybe you’re just afraid…open up and discuss the pain, get it off your chest, I know sometimes you feel like there’s nothing left but you’re not alone.” Gutter’s lyrics are non-typical. He says “I started writing songs at ten years old. The poetry stuff got really old. When I write I try to paint a picture. One of my favorite lyricists is the rapper Nas.” Much of Gutter’s phrasing is short, staccato jabs that hit hard. The band’s music comes in like a tag-team and if you don’t hold onto the ropes they’ll knock you out!“Wasted” is a song about, you guessed it, getting wasted. “There is this club in Hilton Head, South Carolina that we played a few shows and they are very loyal fans. They have Axis 2 and play it regularly. When the D.J. plays “Wasted” everyone goes to the bar and does shots. It’s an electrifying atmosphere. Well, these guys who produce films just happened to be in there and thought it was really wild and want to do a video of it. On January 16th we will be at Riders Lounge in Hilton Head to film the video to “Wasted.”I found it interesting that over a year has passed since its release and Axis2 is still doing so well. So well in fact that the band ran out CDs, more copies were being pressed as we spoke. The album continues to sell at a good speed. I asked if any major labels had shown any interest “We haven’t aggressively shopped for a major label to pick us up. I would rather have fun and do what we want. And say what we want. We want to build a bigger fan base and have an audience for our music. I would prefer the record company need us more than we need them.” I asked about influences. “My influences are everyone. Everyone. The Beatles, Hendrix, The Clash, everyone.” I wondered what was on his CD player. “Django Reinhart. He is a guy from Paris, a jazz guitarist. He had a fire at his home and he saved his family from it, but he got burned badly and only has two fingers on his left hand. You oughta hear him. I listen to everything. I ha - FACE Magazine

You might be tired of rock and hip-hop artists using samples to open songs and albums; they get old on repeated listenings, and they’re usually only funny/deep for the performers themselves, anyway. The clip chosen to open Paranoid Social Club’s Axis III, however, is better than average.

Some zealot or other from the ’70s — I searched and searched, but only came up with the fact that this clip has also been used by one Jason North, an electronica producer from Portland, Oregon (no less) — is foaming at the mouth about the influence of rock music. You know the type: "Nineteen hundred and seventy-four is the year that they are now planning for sex on the street in every major city from coast to coast. And get ready for a shock: The music that they’re planning to use to crumble the morals of America is this rotten, filthy, dirty, lewd, lascivious junk called rock and roll." Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a secret "they" planning to get us all to fuck in the streets? A "they" planning to crumble the morals of America? As if they needed crumbling.

But that’s all standard stuff. What I love most about the sample is the way PSC have presented it, with an airy hip-hop beat and some delicate synths. Then, when the speaker delivers his kicker — "the fertility rites of the jungle are the same beat incorporated into this modern rock" — they pepper in some congas, right as he says "same beat." Most importantly, there’s the message you’re left with: "It’s not just the lyrics, it’s the beat!"

I couldn’t agree more. Why is this double album, Axis I and III, the bookends to PSC’s debut Axis II, so amazing? Well, it’s not just the lyrics, it’s the beat. This is the most rhythm-driven album I’ve heard since Superfly, cast with the imagination and incredible vocal delivery of frontman Dave Gutter — himself primarily a rhythm guitarist.

With 25 songs all told, there’s enough here on the two discs worth writing about to fill pages of this newspaper (and I may revisit the album sometime in the future, just because I’ve got a million angles on it). But first, a word on what this numbering of Axes is all about: The terminology comes from the DSM-IV, what you might call the dictionary of psychological disorders (you know this if you’re taken Psych 101, so you can skip ahead a bit, if you want). Axis I disorders generally involve schizophrenia or mood imbalances like depression, actions that are repugnant to the person doing them; they can’t help themselves. Axis II disorders are more stable and long lasting, like personality disorders, and are generally unnoticed by the actor; they think they’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing. Axis III problems are physical, like hypertension or high blood pressure, which can lead to or make worse psychological problems.

So, you could say that PSC were just being themselves (i.e. paranoid) with their debut, and that they’re exploring foreign territory on these two follow ups. But I’d hazard that they’ve got a touch of multiple personality disorder, and they’re lucky to be prolific enough to take what might have been an uneven album and turn it into two themed albums. Not that it matters much.

Axis III is an explosive mix of hip-hop and R&B stylings coupled with rock aggressiveness and pacing (riffing on the hypertension angle). But this isn’t the sort of rap-rock hybrid you’ll find coming out of 311 or Linkin Park because instead of being a forced collaboration, where they seem to have rap and rock switches that they turn alternately on and off, PSC have simply absorbed the sounds and melded them, so that Gutter isn’t first rapping then singing, but rather his delivery is clipped and staccato with sung timbre and pitch. The rhythm section cycles back upon itself like repeating samples, but has soul and ad-libs. Or the songs will be sung entirely, but the verses go on and on like the ambling mind of the freestylist, and with similar rhyme scheme.

III’s standout track is "Righteous," something to get the religious nuts fired up about and a great bump-and-grind number. Opening with some discordant synths, it’s metallic and cold, then quickly warmed by a lilting vocal riff of seven steps. When they lyrics hit, the song’s all about where you might find God: "the strangest places," like on the streetcorner dealing drugs, or paying a prostitute to get clean. PSC are heathens, sure, but their brand of heresy is appealing. God is everywhere and everything and they’ll be righteous any way they choose. After all, "God’s too busy for church/ Keeping the devil down in the dirt is hard work."

"Some find God when they meditate," sings Gutter in his trademark melodic rasp, but "what if it’s all just in our mind." He’s disdainful, the words spit out. "God if you’re just in my head, then why won’t you set me free?" For "free" he lilts up toward the heavens into a heart-stopping falsetto, then descends to wonder "If he hears my prayers, why do I always get it wrong?"

Of - Portland Phoenix June 4, 2004