Music Preview: Adam Evil creates a great lost classic of the '70s
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Thursday, October 13, 2005
By Ed Masley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Adam Evil can see why a person's initial response to the Bowiesque drama of his debut album with the Outside Royalty would be to call it glam.

Adam Evil, left, admits to having a "glam" feel.
Click photo for larger image.
Adam Evil & The Outside Royalty

With: Gary Musisko, Country Music Gas Station, The New Fiction and Chalk Outline Party
Where: Rex Theatre, South Side.
When: 9 p.m. Friday
Tickets: $7; 412-381-6811

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But words like glam can only take a person so far.
"We're by no means just a glam band," Evil says. "We don't rely on kitsch. I'm rarely seen in makeup. But as far as the characteristics and spirit of some of the songs, the way they sound and the attitude, yeah, there's definitely a glam feel there. I think it's just about as good a category as we're gonna find, but it doesn't capture it all."

It's more a product of the time that spawned the glam-rock era.

"It's very much early '70s British music," Evil says. "I just sort of took an honest assessment of the things I've really liked over the course of my life and the things that have always been just a huge turn-on forever, and a lot of that stuff is, like, T. Rex, Bowie, the Stones, that kind of stuff. And not trying to imitate it but just facing up to the fact that that's the kind of stuff I'm made of. There are elements in there that just make music sound cool to me. So I tried to make it the most authentic presentation of all the things I love about music as well as all the things that we as a collection of individuals bring to the band."

He and his bandmates came late to the music of the early '70s, having not been born yet.

"I was lucky," Evil says, "in that I had a dad who was -- and still is -- a music nut. And he had just a massive collection of records. I remember I was 10 years old and won my dad's copy of T. Rex's 'The Slider' on a bet. I just ended up naturally gravitating towards this kind of stuff. In grade school, I was listening to T. Rex, the Beatles, the Stones. And none of my friends knew anything about it. I remember bringing 'The Slider' over to other kids' houses, like 'You guys have got to hear this.' And it didn't always resonate so well. "

Growing up in Cincinnati, the hits of the day that spoke to Evil, 29, were on the weird side: "Rock Me Amadeus," "The Safety Dance," "One Night in Bangkok."

Evil put the Outside Royalty together here in Pittsburgh in 2003.

"We played our first show as a seven-piece," he says. "And we weren't really ready. We had seven people trying to make a violin, cello, keyboards and a bunch of guitars all sound good together, and we couldn't do it. It was really tough. So we scaled the band back for a while. We went from this kind of goofy group of mismatched unconnected people from these different backgrounds to finally figuring out what our own thing was. And then once we got more comfortable as a core, we were able to bring all the other stuff back."

These days, he's backed by violinist Echo, guitarist Kirk Salopek, cellist Kat Agres, keyboardist Eizan Miyamoto, bassist Jason Guerra and drummer Brandon Paluzzi.

They had some help with the arrangements on the self-titled album they're releasing Friday at the Rex from a man who clearly knows a thing or two about getting a very large number of people down on tape -- the Polyphonic Spree's Rick Nelson.

Evil met the violinist/producer through a mutual acquaintance. Evil handed off an early Outside Royalty EP, and Nelson asked if he could take a crack at doing something different with "Yesterday's Girl" -- recut some violin and cello, do a new mix, shake things up.

"We got that back and it was like 'Wow, this is awesome,' " Evil says. "So when it got down to doing the full-length, I just called him up and said, 'Hey, we loved what you did with the one song. If you want to participate come on in.' And the rest was history."

Nelson flew to Pittsburgh for the sessions, most of which took place at Mr. Small's in Millvale, playing violin, viola, bass, guitar, lap steel and keyboards in addition to producing a record that actually sounds a good deal like the great lost classic of '70s rock Evil wanted to make in the first place, from its pumping Mott the Hoople-style piano to the wistful bent-guitar riff at the heart of "Just Past Laughing" to Evil's theatrical way with a vocal. By the time the horns kick in on "Heavy" three songs in, it feels like anything is possible, and this is all before you hit the track that convinced them that bringing in Nelson was a great idea in the first place -- the bittersweet symphony of the heartbreaking highlight here, "Yesterday's Girl."

The only thing missing, it seems, is the year 1973 at the top of a nearby calender, but Evil isn't sweating it.

"I tried to make a record," he says, "that would be reflective of the stuff I spent my whole life loving, as opposed to trying to take a look at market trends and saying 'Hey, you know, if we're gonna sound just like the Killers, we might be positioned better.' "

First published on October 13, 2005 at 12:00 am
Ed Masley can be reached at emasley@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1865.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05286/587541-42.stm#ixzz0O6RiUpBN

"ST" from "Adam Evil & the Outside Royalty" can only be described as a confusion of tracks. This Pittsburgh-based seven piece (including cello and violin) have such a wide range of styles that there is no common theme to their CD.

It was quite refreshing to listen to tracks that might be considered an amalgamation of Bowie with Manson (Get ready (get right)) and then to switch swiftly into a track like "Heavy" which would not have sounded out of place on Sgt. Pepper!
"Just Past Laughing" and "Welcome to the Underworld" were both fast-beat, heavily distorted guitar tracks with Adam sounding like Mike Monroe.

"Love song at the end of the world" is perhaps one of the oddest tracks I have ever listened to. Metallica S&M meets the bass line from "Grease"? The song moves from a pop-like beat to heavy beat, changing tempo several times. I suppose at the end of the world you would have all sorts thrown together.

"Goodbye" and "Desperate Angel Soul" were both ballads, the former much in the style Hendrix and the latter being one of those power ballads that starts slow, builds up and up and then fades back, never really getting up to tempo but with an innovative instrumental bridge that I had to listen to several times to work out what was going on.

"Liquid Leather Lover" and "Imogene Remembered" make the best use of the extended line-up with Echo's violin coming through loud and clear. Heavy, fast, aggressive stuff.

The CD is finished off with the 10 minute "Peace of Mind". In all honesty I was not sure if I was up for 10 minutes of Adam Evil & the Outside Royalty, a slow beat with the violin and cello over the top - more Fusion than Glam.

Many styles, many instruments played extremely well and there is no one genre that Adam and the band fit into. This will appeal to people with all sorts of tastes in music but if I had to put the CD into a slot then it would be Fusion. The Quality of the mastering on the CD can only be described as top notch.

Not on my Christmas stocking list but a well-deserved 6.5/10.

by SJ Skyline

Adam Evil & The Outside Royalty Images could be found here at this Location: http://www.emayhem.com/profiles/profile.php?profile=489&offset=0