Listening to Icewagon Flu is like dipping your hands into your trick or treat candy - you never know what flavor you'll encounter, but you'll be guaranteed a sweet treat every time. To prove a point, listen to this pop hodge-podge as described by singer Kevin Adkins.
"We've been recently been doing that eighties tune 'Safety Dance' in our set, along with a bizarre medley of Fine Young Cannibals' 'She Drives Me Crazy,' Pat Benatar's 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot,' and rounding it off with Boston's 'More Than a Feeling.'"
Their new CD, The Great American Something, has a similar oddball approach to power pop. Many of these pop references are crammed into one song, with hairpin musical turns expertly navigated by George Leo Smith III (vocals, bodhran, keys), Kevin Adkins (vocals, whistles, banjo, harmonica), Martin Bristow (guitar), Tim Murray (bass, mandolin) and Christopher Speich (drums, percussion).
The disc opens with "Clowns and Jokers," a tentative political tune disguised as a Dave Matthews jam. They definitely worked really hard on the arrangements. "Look for clowns for smiling and joking/let them lead you your smile will be broken," sings Smith over a rubbery funk melody.
"George came in with the ideas around that song," explains co-lead singer Adkins. "It's his frustration on our political situation. At the time being, there doesn't seem to be a good choice. He came in with the idea of being led by either clowns or jokers, neither one of them a good choice when you think about it."
"Blue Number 9" has that alt country groove that you'd expect from REM, while "Little Red Devil" has a jazzy, reggae-fied feel to it.
In short, if you can't find something on this disc that tickles your fancy, then you probably don't like pop music. I spoke with Adkins about the Icewagon Flu voodoo they do so well. Here's how it went:
How would you describe the sound of Icewagon Flu for someone who has never heard your band?
George just started calling it "melting pop," because it's a melting pot of pop. One of our Baltimore fans called it "psycho cabana," so it's something in the middle there.
What influences shaped your sound?
I give a lot of credit to Martin the guitar player. He is a big fan of Andy Summers and XTC. I started a band called Small Fry and we were more along the lines of pop punk like Green Day.
We were big into the Pogues and started out learning the trad tunes and rocking them up when we left that band and came into this one, so that is where the Irish connection comes from. We grew as a band and found out that we could do more than just different takes on Irish music, which is what you hear on this CD.
I did notice that this album takes you one step further from your Irish roots. Are Irish songs still part of your live act?
Absolutely. We love taking the trad tunes that we grew up with and putting a new spin on it, and that works especially well in a live setting.
"Waxy's Dargle" is the one we're doing it lately. That song was done so well by the Pogues and more recently by the Young Dubliners, and people respond really well to it. We did it at the Celtic Fling in Pennsylvania recently and it went over as gangbusters.
We also do a reggae version of "Whiskey in the Jar." Old guys in kilts were grooving to it, which is always a good sign.
Off the Wagon is still one of our biggest sellers, and that has the Irish songs like "Tell Me Ma" on them.
How have the new songs been going onstage? Have they changed much once they left the studio?
All of our songs continue to grow and change as you play them and you do things in the studio you can't do live. So, you have to build things up in a live setting. Some of the songs "Blue Number 9" and "Wild Irish" go down really well, and then the more complex ones don't always go down as well.
In addition to the band duties, you guys regularly produce concerts under the Irish Rock Night name. How did they come about and how are they going now?
We have been putting them on since 2004. As we were touring around, we noticed all these bands doing different things. We wanted to bring everyone together to show that there is a common thread even though we've all had our musical differences. We did them in Hoboken and Manhattan. We had the Prodigals and Ruffians there; we did four bands each night.
Connolly's was interested in doing something more regular, so we started to do it once every couple of months in 2005. That was a lot of work, so we did it quarterly. It's gotten to the point where we don't really have to be involved to make the night a success, so I guess it's taking on a life of it's own.
Our last one was in Pittsburgh with Ceann and Jackdaw. We might do one in December in Hoboken. We'll let you know!
For more information, log onto icewagonflu.com