Published: March 25, 2008 12:17 pm            

Band’s primitive acoustic sound challenges musical customs

INDIANAPOLIS — You wouldn’t know it by hearing and watching The Born Again Floozies’ archaic brand of vaudevillian music, but band foreman Joey Welch has taken the conventional route before.

But when the potential to challenge the status quo presented itself, the longtime musician gleefully took advantage.

The Indianapolis-based Floozies started when Welch’s then-girlfriend, now-wife told him she had tap-danced for 11 years. Welch had long regarded Bulgarian and Irish folk music for its stomping aesthetic, to the extent that a friend of his built a hollow platform and miked it so he could mimic the sound. Welch quickly set about building a new musical persuasion around her abilities.

Instead of a basic drum set, have “basically someone banging on (stuff),” including glockenspiels and flat sticks. Instead of a bass, use a tuba. And for Welch’s part, play the guitar like a piano. It’s a technique he developed while raising three children. He used his left hand to hit the strings and pull off, like hammers on a piano, while his right hand was fixing dinner and changing diapers.

“This is the approach I wanted to take for this band — take every aspect of a modern rock ensemble and move it just a little bit left of center,” Welch said.

Such a naturally cacophonous sound calls for special ears to properly capture its essence. One of Welch’s all-time favorite records is the Pixies’ “Surfer Rosa.” After discovering Steve Albini produced it, Welch called and told him about the Floozies. Soon the band was en route to Albini’s Electrical Studios in Chicago to record what would become their debut full-length, “7 Deadly Sinners.”

Despite Albini’s notoriously acerbic demeanor, working together proved so fruitful that the Floozies have already recorded another longplayer with him that has yet to be released.

“Steve Albini (doesn’t mince words), and our work ethics matched up well,” Welch said of the 12- to 14-hour workdays.

The commitment is paying off. Lately the Floozies have been attracting hundreds to their shows, pretty good for an act that plays all originals. It helps their mischievous sound and theatrical performances attract young and old and translate in venues as disparate as pubs and libraries.

At a Danville, Ind., show two years ago the performance almost didn’t happen. Townspeople were complaining about the band’s name. One of the complaints Welch heard from the promoter was, “How could you possibly invite a bunch of filthy-minded heathens to play in our town?”

Welch was able to calm the powers-that-be enough to prevent cancellation. Good thing. The packed house included patrons as young as 6 up to senior citizens. Afterwards girls were asking about the tap-dancing, others were curious about the instruments, and the Floozies, once potential pariahs, were invited back.

“It was great to see such an age spectrum really like the show, especially when the odds were stacked so fiercely against you,” Welch said. “When there’s an audience that you’re connecting with, that is fantastic. It feeds the music, and the music becomes something else.”

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Online:

www.bornagainfloozies.com

        

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