 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
From the November/Decemberr 2002 issue of MAGNET...
MAGNET
"Isn't it every kid's dream anymore?"
Oct/Nov 2002
That's how Bigger Lovers singer/bassist Scott
Jefferson justifies four grown men chasing the perfect
pop song like 30-year-old rookies. Huddled around a
cluster of pints at a local bar, the Philadelphia quartet
is fielding questions and running the perfunctory band
drill of discussing locations for a new practice space.
It may be a brilliant career on a smaller scale, but the
Bigger Lovers--Jefferson, singer/guitarist Bret Tobias,
guitarist Ed Hogarty and drummer Patrick Berkery--
don't really question their assignment.
"It's difficult to put my finger on the reason we're
willing to go broke for the pleasure of playing toilets
and sleeping on college kids' floors night after night,"
says Tobias, "I guess I feel we can make some small
contribution to the dying art of the pop song. You
don't need to listen to the radio for very long to feel pretty chuffed about the songs we're writing."
Tobias and Jefferson defected from shared indie-
rock outfit the Diane Linkletter Experience in 1997,
and when the pair discovered the discrete joys of
vocal harmonies, the Lovers' course was clear: liter-
ate guitar-pop the likes of which hasn't been brushed
under the mainstream carpet since the Soft Boys,
Zombies and Big Star.
"We're a cult band in our own town," says Berkery,
who, as a moonlighting music critic (for MAGNET and
other publications), cares deeply for rock's arcanum.
"Our fans tend to be bespectacled guys who like
to get loaded and talk about the Move," says Tobias.
The title of the Bigger Lovers' 2001 debut, How I
Learned To Stop Worrying, was both a nod to
Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and a hint at the music-biz
fiascoes that delayed the album's release by almost two years. The relief is that the record provided enough roughed-up hooks and classic tunes to catch critics' ears. The Bigger Lovers' new album, Honey In
The Hive (Yep Roc), is all about getting to the sweet
stuff after you've been painfully stung. Aided by producer Thom Monahan (Pernice Brothers, Beachwood Sparks) and engineer Brian McTear (Mazarin), the record comes to a near-soulful simmer with soft
touches of keyboard and thick layers of vocal harmonies. As befits a band called the Bigger Lovers--named not for any size-matters concerns, but rather
after Tobias' obese cat--the songs are pathologically
geared toward crushed romance.
"I've tried many times to not let the big L creep into
songs, but it always comes back to it," says Jefferson.
"I guess love is bigger than all of us ... man!"
--Matthew Fritch