Blue Meanies

For the better part of a decade, BLUE MEANIES have toured the U.S. and the world, cementing their status as a powerful and brilliant live act. Recordings such as Pave the World (No Record Co., 1993), Kiss Your Ass Goodbye (Fuse/Asian Man Records, 1995/1999) and Full Throttle (THICK Records, 1997) also established their reputation as one of the most forward-looking bands of any generation. BLUE MEANIES fashioned a career and a singular sound out of knocking down the barriers between the styles and genres they explore.

The Post Wave (MCA/THICK Records), the band's newest album, has found the MEANIES still looking to expand the boundaries of punk rock. With its heady layers of vocal acrobatics, keyboards, horns, guitars, bass and drums, The Post Wave once again shows the MEANIES true to their form: looking forward to the unpredictable. The MEANIES are no sugar coated, over-tattooed and over-pierced flavor of the month "pop-punk" band. No, this is not glossed over adolescent boys singing in brain-dead synchronization about porn stars or their ex-girlfriends. The MEANIES have always stressed the music over the image - but still manage to look good doing it.

The band and producer Phil Nicolo (Cypress Hill, Urge Overkill, etc.) spent the better part of two years working on The Post Wave, a kaleidoscope of musical expression which can be described as left of center garage punk-rock and roll. The Post Wave maintains the band's signature density and depth, but is far more cohesive than anything the MEANIES have previously released. The songwriting that went into 'The Post Wave' found the band putting pressure on itself to focus on melody and harmony.

"Most of our previous releases were about us being loud and angry, and almost every song we played went by you at hyper-speed," says front man Billy Spunke. "But we've changed, and some of our attitudes about music have changed. We've sort of grown up in the last couple of years, so naturally our music is starting to reflect the changes we've gone through."

However, not all went as planned for the MEANIES and MCA. Shortly before the release of The Post Wave, the band's A&R rep and long time booking-agent, Rick Bonde, resigned from his job at MCA Records, leaving the band without a champion in the world of the Vivendi/Universal music conglomerate. The band has since followed Bonde, opting to leave MCA behind.

"Being the singular band that we are, it was pretty obvious that we were a target to become a tax write off at MCA," says Spunke. "We had the option of leaving the label and we decided that it was in our best interest to do say goodbye to them. But the MEANIES are nowhere near finished. We will have some line-up changes, and pretty soon The Post Wave will have a home on a new label of our choice. Once we get ourselves in order, we'll be back on the road later this year, and a new record will probably be out before too long."

BLUE MEANIES put out their first single 1991 and in the interim have released 5 LPs, 2 EPs and appeared on countless singles and compilations. They have added and subtracted a total of 22 musicians, killed half a dozen touring vehicles and played countless sold-out performances and tours all over the world.

Love them or hate them, you must admit that they are a band with an insatiable habit for the power of RAWK. BLUE MEANIES are the band that is impossible to pigeonhole and even harder to kill. Look for the BLUE MEANIES to continue to shake up the music world in 2001 and beyond.

- Burnt Motor

www.bluemeanies.com

?