DRH in Austin-American Statesman, 1991

Sounding like leaders
Follow For Now bridges musical styles to stand out among black rock bands

by Don McLeese

The band's name is Follow For Now, but don't expect it to play follow the leader. Though the Atlanta band's attempt to reclaim rock as a black musical birthright inevitably invites comparison with the likes of Living Colour, its forthcoming debut album shows the ambition and audacity that marks the most determinedly original music. Within its funk grooves and rock dynamics, Follow For Now plays with the urgency of a trailblazer.

Austin can hear a sneak preview Friday, when the band opens for Ian Moore at Liberty Lunch in the midst of making its first trip to Los Angeles. The gig represents a triumphant return for Follow For Now, which created a significant stir when it played South by Southwest in 1990. A few months later, the band signed with Chrysalis, which will release the Follow For Now debut on Sept. 10.

Though the range of the band's music reflects influences such as Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix and George Clinton, it additionally incorporates more contemporary elements from hardcore metal to rap (the band's name comes from a Public Enemy number). Rather than an assortment of influences and attitudes, however, Follow For Now impresses most through the strength of its songcraft, which fuses these disparate musical elements into a coherent whole.

"We didn't have 10 songs that would have made a single-style album," explained 23-year-old David Ryan Harris, the band's singer, lead guitarist and primary songwriter. "I think it flows very well, but we didn't make a conscious effort to stay in one general area . . .

"Before the band started, I had never been in a band that played out in the music scene before," he continued. "I was just sort of holed up in my room, listening to a really wide range of stuff. When I put the band together, it was like a child really knows no difference between black and white. I like all these different types of music, so what's the big deal?"

Like most of the emerging black rock acts - from Living Colour to Fishbone to Austin's Chris Thomas - Follow For Now finds itself playing music that is steeped in black consciousness and influences for audiences that are overwhelmingly white.

"I think a lot of it has to do with urban contemporary radio (the latest euphemism for what was once known as `R&B' or simply `black' radio), where they make it seem if you're black and play guitar, you're freaky," said Harris. "Radio is just so pigeonholed, and I think that black radio is the worse for that. If it's not drum-machine, new-jack-swing stuff, then it doesn't get played.

"I think that bands like us, Living Colour and Fishbone can kind of turn things in the proper direction, little by little, chip by chip, but we're by no means on a mission to do that. I think the youth can listen to what we do and hear strains of things that are in hip-hop songs. Like hip-hop songs will take things from James Brown or Sly Stone or Parliament-Funkadelic, and it's really popular. Now here's a contemporary band doing those things, but playing their instruments for real."

This week's calendar additionally marks the return of a couple of other bands that made career breakthroughs with South by Southwest showcases. The Cannibal Club could promote its offerings as a class reuniuon of SXSW '89, with Milwaukee's Spanic Boys playing tonight followed by Arkansas' Gunbunnies Friday.

South by Southwest was the start of an extended Cinderella story for the father-and-son team of Tom and Ian Spanic. Midwest bar-circuit regulars since forming a band in the mid-'80s as Those Spanic Boys, the Spanics arrived at SXSW as comparative unknowns, but left as the featured act in MTV's conference coverage and with an offer from Rounder Records in their pockets.

From there, things have continued to snowball for the Spanics. Their Rounder album caught the ear of Saturday Night Live, which booked the Spanics as a last-minute replacement when Sinead O'Connor cancelled her appearance. Making their first trip to New York, they found themselves pursued by both Rolling Stone and Entertainment Tonight, both of whom did features on the band.

While the novelty of a father-and-son band creates an obvious hook, the bedrock traditionalism and yearning harmonies of the Spanics show a staying power beyond novelty fare. They remain one of the world's great bar bands, and the Cannibal's a great bar in which to hear them.

As for the Gunbunnies, their fairy-tale coach turned into a pumpkin when Virgin Records dropped the band after a single album which received little promotion and even less airplay. When the band returned to SXSW this year, it was back in the ranks of the unsigned hopefuls, though the Gunbunnies' quirky brand of Southern soulfulness merits another shot.

Apparently, the days when a band is allowed to develop its music and its audience over the course of a few albums are long gone, at least at Virgin. Syd Straw, appearing at the Cactus tonight and Friday, was also a victim of the label's quick hook, when her terrific solo debut failed to find the audience it deserved.

For those whose love of music extends to more than an overnight return, it's almost criminal when a label that professes enough faith in its artists to sign them doesn't show enough faith to sustain them. An industry that once prided itself on developing careers has become way too focused on the instant sensation, the popular hit as disposable commodity, a quick-fix strategy that threatens severe musical damage over the long haul.


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.