Making it on Their Merits

There are two basic ways to get a new musical act lots of publicity (well, three, but putting rock reviewers on the company payroll is usually not discussed in polite company). One way is to perform free before lots of people; the other is a high-powered media blitz and publicity hype that attempts to stampede the reviewer into writing up the star-to-be before everyone else does and he loses his scoop.

The Young Radios opted to try the first method, which makes sense for most bands without financial backing from the huge record corporate conglomerates. The Radios began as a band only three weeks ago, and they got their first real exposure at Monday's student boycott/rally in the Yard. As an alternative to classes, the Coalition for Awareness and Action had organized a two-hour program of events to take place on the steps of Memorial Church, and after all the conga drums and mime had finished came the rock music of the Radios.

The band is composed of saxophonist/lyricist/band leader Ruskin Germino, guitarist Gardner Roberts, bassist Robert Cormier and drummer Chip Fontaine. There's also a keyboard player who couldn't make the rally and who may not stay on with the band.

Germino wrote the four tunes the Radios did in their 20 minute segment Monday. Unlike most of the music churned out these days, Germino's tunes are political, dealing with the danger of nuclear power and the atrocities of apartheid instead of with his lost love or his unrequited love or his jealous love or whatever.

While the band did have problems Monday, and while their lyrics and arrangements may not be the most sophisticated around, they are new and they're still working out their problems, like, for instance, the need for equipment. Right now they are using borrowed equipment, and they won't be able to buy their own until they begin getting gigs. In the meantime, Chip is finishing school, Rob and Gardner are working and Ruskin is spending all his time trying to make his band a success.

"I was going to school in Virginia, doing that to live, but I had an ultimate goal of playing in a successful band, and I'd been thinking about political music for a while," Ruskin says. "Cambridge, especially with Harvard up in arms, seemed like a good place for it."

So he came north, got a place to live in Somerville, started putting together a band, and talked to a few friends who go to Harvard about getting a chance to perform here. His friends, in turn, put him in touch with people in the Coalition for Awareness and Action, who put him and his band up on the steps of Mem Church to get people in the right spirit to begin Monday's march past the River Houses.

That spirit never fully formed, but that can be blamed more on the problems with the whole rally than on the Young Radios, who played with a lot of energy, intensity, and spirit of their own. After an instrumental bit and a quasi-reggae tune called Scratching (Ruskin: "say sort-of reggae, don't put down that I said quasi-reggae"), the Radios launched into "Modern Day Leper Man," a song about the Three-Mile Island near-disaster, before finishing up with "South Africa." Because the march was not ready to start on time, they did "South Africa" again, a little stronger the second time.

"It was the first time we played those songs before people. We are inexperienced and had a few technical problems, but I felt the spirit was good," Ruskin said. "We're working out a complete repertoire now."

That's one way to get a band publicity: Play. The other way is more obnoxious but often more effective: Hype.

I keep getting mail extolling the virtues of a new singer/songwriter named Rickie Lee Jones. I first received a copy of her record, entitled ingeniously enough, Rickie Lee Jones. Then I got a press release telling me that I probably already knew how great Rickie was. While I was digesting that, I got a big full-color poster of Rickie with some philosophical comments about her life and work and ideas on it. And to make sure I was aware of their new talent. Warner Records sent me a postcard (they must have only one picture since they put it on the postcard too) telling me to be sure not to miss Rickie when she appears on Saturday Night Live in early May.

The first reviews of her record have already appeared, and she seems destined for a warm reception. I admit she is real good, with a very interesting way of seeing things, a great voice capable of making subtle shadings, of hitting a wide range, and of conveying the underlying emotions of a piece.

I further admit that she manages to combine the best features of a whole pack of other musicians (although different reviews have used different musicians to create the montage they think Rickie is). Given the rarity of female musicians on major labels, especially women who write and perform their own music instead of parasiting off everyone else, she is especially welcome.

But I hate feeling hyped, and my instincts are to be less favorable to her because of all the publicity (the same way I'll never buy a product with an especially obnoxious TV commercial). Then again, look at all the free publicity I just gave her.