Antic Hay, a huge local favorite, is about to be bad nationwide and in Europe when their long awaited first release entitled "A Few Cuts in Return" hits record stores and various radio stations. The band's extremely unique sound and provocative lyrics will be well-represented on a variety of cuts ranging from established anthems "Spring" and "Cold Steel" to more recent powerhouses. The first pressing will be CD only, and you will be able to have it in your hot little hands any day now, as they themselves informed me.
"So what type of audience would dig Antic Hay?" those of you unfamiliar with the Antic Hay thang may be asking. Well, if you are a fan of college radio type music, for lack of a better term to lump all the non-AOR and non-top-40 alternatives under, Antic Hay is right up your alley. It's not that the band has any kind of trendy progressive sound or weird fashion gimmick that the average joe blow couldn't handle, it's just that they have such an original sound that it defies the easy categorization that FM radio unfortunately seems to find imperative. Which is a shame, because if nothing else, Antic Hay IS a rock band. Tight or loose, soft or hard, fast or slow, these boys live to listen to rock and roll.
Local fans are eagerly anticipating this release because it is the first recording that the Hay boys have put out in the almost 7 years since they formed. Yeah, they had a couple of demo cassettes, and they do have a track ("Kill the Watchdog" which is also on their own CD) that appears on the local March of Dimes benefit CD compilation project called Handprints put out by Earworks Audio, but this is the first all Antic Hay professional quality offering the band has released. Joe Goldsboro is putting it out on his Baltimore-based independent label, Merkin.
Originally, Antic Hay planned on putting out the recording themselves. They went into Folio coverboy Bob Smith's Earworks studio the spring of 1990 and recorded. They turned to Smith, a local entrepreneur, because he is extremely supportive of local musicians and really does a lot to help area musicians attain high quality recordings of their songs. In fact, Smith engineered and co-produced the first Antic Hay demo, and, since it got a good deal of positive response, they knew they could trust him to do a good job with their music.
After all the tracks were recorded, Goldsboro entered the scene. He had already picked up another popular area band, the infamous Buttsteak, for his label. At a record release party in Norfolk for Buttsteak, Gary Ziroli, singer of Antic Hay, approached Goldsboro with a copy of the tape Antic Hay had just completed at Earworks. Goldsboro was very into it and contacted Antic Hay about being signed to Merken as well. Goldsboro, former guitarist for DC band Reptile House, has been accumulating a stable of artists and has approximately 35 to 40 releases already out on Merken which is modeled pretty much after the Dischord label. So now Goldsboro owns the rights to "A Few Cuts in Return" and has contracted with Antic Hay to do a total of 5 albums in the same number of years.
So who is Antic Hay? In their current configuration they consist of Charles Grant/bass, Vernon Guinn/guitar, Gary Ziroli/vocals, Anthony Torres/guitar, and Mike "Nappy" Dugan/drums. For those adolescent types who may be interested, I shall now attempt to do a Teen Beat type description of each of the guys in the band.
Charles Grant is the stone cold gentleman in the group. His mama raised him to be polite around young ladies, which he unfailingly is. He is laid back almost to the point of being catatonic, and, indeed, spends quite a bit of his time sleeping. He loves basketball, Burger King, and his motorcycle. Charlie is quite a dancer and a lot of fun to party with. He also wins the "Best Butt" award for the band. Charlie is inspired musically by great live bands like the Bad Brains, Dump Truck, and early Husker Du.
Vernon Guinn is the ladykiller in the band - he has girls throwing themselves at him constantly, probably due to his macho Italian good looks and his sensitive male affectations, and spends most of his free time juggling women. He likes to surround himself with books, candles, Buddha figurines, and herbal tea. He has thick, dark, soft hair...the kind women like to touch, and he knows it. We'll award him the "Most Touchable Hair" prize. Vernon loves Gang of Four, the Clash, and the Who.
Gary Ziroli is the quintessential tortured artist type. He is moody, sarcastic, articulate, and chronically depressed. He is very creative and talented in a variety of mediums including photography, painting, and writing. He wins the "Incredible Cheekbones" category. Gary's major musical influence was, is, and always shall be the Beatles.
Anthony Torres comes off quite mysteriously to those who don't know him well. He seems to be very quiet, reserved, and aloof until you get to know him and his goofy, obnoxious, playful side becomes dominant. He likes to sit back and observe people and be amused by the things they do. He enjoys spending time with his cat. The "Sexy Phone Voice" award goes to him. Anthony digs power guitar bands like the Rolling Stones and the Ramones.
Mike Dugan is an unknown element. He just recently joined the band, and I haven't met him yet, so I don't have any inane remarks to make about him, except for that Vernon says chicks seem to dig him, and Charlie says his hair is naturally dreaded.
Speaking of personnel changes, now would seem to be the appropriate time to give an expurgated history of the band. It all has its roots back when most of us were going to Kempsville High School together. There was a close knit group of us who had gravitated together by 10th and 11th grade who shared an appreciation for punk/hard core/new wave/underground music and the accompanying politics, fashions, and attitudes. The majority of our schoolmates thought we were a bunch of weirdos and that the music we listened to sucked. At any rate, some of us decided at this point that it would be extremely cool to learn to play instruments and start bands. After all, how much musical talent does it take to imitate bands like the Sex Pistols or the Dead Kennedys?!
So Charlie learned to play bass and our friend David Warshaw learned to play drums, and together with Norfolk Catholic's own legendary freak Beaker (who was dating one of Kempsville's very own Caskey twins at the time, hence the connection) started a hardcore band called Bottom Line. Meanwhile, other Kempsville buddies Jud Rhode, Howard Schwartz, and Vernon Guinn started another hard core band called The Siege in which Jud played drums, Howie sang, and Vernon played guitar. The Siege's 15 minutes of fame occurred when they played the school talent show. Howie burned a rebel flag on stage, and the vice-principal, who just so happened to be one of his relatives, had a total conniption and cut their amps off. It was classic! These two groups disbanded amicably, and various members reformed as Ludovico. We had a lot of fun in those days having huge parties where hardcore high school bands from our school and all over Virginia Beach and Norfolk would come and play until the police came and made us stop. But then we graduated, and some of us went away to college, and the scene sort of disintegrated.
Dave and Charlie, old neighborhood pals, were still living in Kempsville and enrolled in classes at TCC together. They mutually decided to drop out of college to play music full time. So together with Vernon, who was also still in the area, they formed the nucleus of Antic Hay (their name is from a rather witty and entertaining book by Aldous Huxley) and started practicing together in the garage of Dave's house.
Meanwhile, Gary, who was originally from New York, had moved to the beach and put an ad in Portfolio regarding starting a band, which had been a lifelong ambition of his. Sean/Dave/whatever Middleton of Waxing Poetics fame hooked band and singer up, and things jelled right away. They started out doing covers (Echo, Furs, etc) mixed with very catchy originals. They look back and laugh at their old songs now, but obviously they were good enough to get a lot of people's attention because once they started playing out they got popular very quickly.
They had their first real shows at Formerly Dominic's during the winter/spring of '85. A lot of really cool original local bands like Antic Hay and the Poetics as well as out of town acts like Guadalcanal Diary, the Headless Horsemen, and the Kilkenny Kats played Dominic's in those days. Dominic's provided a great opportunity for original bands to play and for local alternative music fans to hang out and catch new music.
At this time all the Hay boys moved into a house together out in Ocean View, and thus commenced the era of fun Hay house parties. Those Hay boys that held down day jobs supported those that didn't. 1985 was the summer of love, so to speak; people in all the Norfolk bands were buddies, and everyone hung out together and got along.
But, as they say, all good things must come to an end. Farewell Camelot. Instead of all their old buddies, the guys started to be constantly surrounded by sycophantic groupie types. They picked up Keith Hollar, a local journalist, to manage them, and, through Keith, got a lot of copy into the local paper. The boys didn't get along anymore; their women didn't get along either. To make a long, sad story short, resentments festered, misunderstandings and miscommunications rankled, and people just plain didn't do the right thing. For whatever reasons, when the dust cleared, David was no longer in the band (he since has formed Giaconda Smile), and he was replaced by Howie, who had come back home from college.
Antic Hay continued along with Howie for the next couple of years. They played here, there, and everywhere, sometimes headlining and sometimes opening for bands like Echo & the Bunnymen, Fishbone, Throwing Muses, Living Color, and The Pixies. They dropped Keith and managed themselves again. In 1989, they decided that they needed another guitarist to strengthen their sound. Anthony, who was dating Vernon's girlfriend's best friend, had played in a band called The Hayburners (coincidental name) that had played with Antic Hay a couple of times. Antic Hay approached Anthony to see if he'd be interested in playing with them. He was, and their first show with Anthony as part of the band was early that December.
In 1990, after they recorded the album, Howie decided that he needed to settle down, quit the band, and go back to school. He left the band on good terms, and they replaced him with Joey Mishofski, who had been local trio The Mockers original drummer and had played with various other groups. Joey fitted in perfectly musically and temperamentally, and Antic Hay played out frequently in this rejuvenated incarnation.
However, Joey was not ready to commit 5 years of his life when it came to be contract signing time with Merken, so the search for a new drummer was on again. They auditioned tons of local drummers, but none really clicked like Joey had. Gary's housemate, Sean Watson, formerly of local bands Treefort and Trailerpark, came to the rescue. He had a buddy from DC who was going to VCU who might work out. Mike Dugan came down, played with Antic Hay, they dug him, he dug them, and that was that. Mike will be relocating to the area in May, so you can expect to see him playing with Antic Hay mid-May or so. Joey will cover all the shows up until then.
Antic Hay shows are never boring, to say the least. When they get together on stage to play, just about anything can happen; they are very unpredictable. Vernon: "Sometimes we stand up, sometimes we fall down." Anthony: "Sometimes we finish!" Vernon: "Sometimes Charlie hits the right notes!" Charlie: "Sometimes Vernon is in tune!" All the members of Antic Hay are very passionate about their music. This makes for a great deal of intensity in performances. It can also create a lot of tension amongst the band. Just about everyone in the band is guilty of storming off the stage at the end of a show at one time or another. All this volatility can create what Vernon calls "extreme emotional fatigue." But over the years they've learned to temper their emotion somewhat with professionalism without losing that intensity which whips audiences up into frenzies. Antic Hay shows tend to be group participation experiences which are emotionally cathartic for both audience and band members. Charlie slaps out incredible, funky bass lines while stomping and dancing and swinging his bass like a near-lethal appendage. Vernon and Anthony trade driving yet melodic lead and rhythm guitar back and forth, Vernon jumping all over the stage bumping into walls, and Anthony jamming in his own little world. Gary was born for the stage with his fantastic voice, commanding presence, terse but evocative gestures, and snide gallows' humor social commentary. You can't help but be riveted by the power of this band's music and the emotional intensity of their performance.
Equally intense and emotional are the lyrics to their songs, all of which are written by Gary and all of which are about the same topic, like their namesake novel, the politics of relationships. "I write about bad things I've done, bad things that have happened to me because of bad things I've done." He's not trying to say things other people can identify with because he doesn't care what other people are thinking. He writes because it's therapeutic for him to complain about life on paper. "My lyrics are self-centered, but then I can't really talk about anybody else with any kind of authority," he says. Gary claims he is consumed with unhappiness and it inspires him to write whereas happy things do not. But don't confuse him with, say, Morrissey, a monumental whiner. Gary doesn't enjoy or revel in his unhappiness, he just writes about it. "Originally when I wrote I was trying to be clever like the people I was listening to. Now I just try to be clever like myself!"
As far as the local music scene goes, Antic Hay has always been extremely supportive of young bands starting out by letting them open for them and get a foot in the door with audiences and club owners. Many other big local bands such as the M-80's, who are putting a must-buy album out soon on Get Hip, and AntManBee had their first shows opening for Antic Hay. The guys are impressed by the fact that there are so many hard working, talented, and dedicated bands in the area, but yet the club scene is so bad that it is depressing. Bars like the King's Head and Lewis's are trying hard, but it is still really hard for even a really good original band to support itself in this area. Vernon pointed for example to Buttsteak who is doing incredibly well all over outside of the area with a release breaking the top 50 on the prestigious CMJ charts (better than the Poetics ever did with their albums) and yet they can't generate equal support at home. A lot of the problem, Antic Hay thinks, has to do with local radio. Since 92.1 changed from a progressive format to a preprogrammed metal station, there hasn't been much of an outlet for cool new music here. WODU has got a market, but various factors prevent them from increasing power and getting an FM spot. Al Mitchell has a cool alternative show on 92.1 Sunday mornings from 10 until noon, for those of you up that early. Carol Taylor and Jeremy Coleman also have an alternative show on 89.5 Friday nights that is good. Antic Hay believes that it is extremely important for local music fans to support WODU and these alternative shows as well as all local independent record stores like Skinny's, Unicorn, Birdland, and Electric Smiles so that big bland radio conglomerates and big bland record companies don't shoulder out all the little, local, independent stations and stores that foster local talent like themselves.
I asked them if they thought that unhip promoters like Cellar Door also contributed to the problem area musicians are having getting heard. At first they replied, "NO COMMENT," but then Gary said, "They make beautiful promises." Vernon added, "They're in the business of making money and they're good at it. But we don't like to be monopolized." Gary concluded by stating, "They're wonderful at taking novelties and putting $20,000 behind them, but take a band with emotion and originality and they don't know what to do." Obviously no love lost there.
Gary expressed a concern that perhaps the CD cover, a hypnotic/psychotic looking American flag originally done as a backdrop for Antic Hay shows by band friend and local artist Sam Sebern, might be controversial in this present wave of nationalism if perceived as anti-American. Vernon took the view point that perhaps by pissing a few people off it would actually generate sales. Gary said, "It has nothing to do with any of the music, although personally I'm sick of seeing the American flag right now. I just hope that the same sort of people who don't want to see Robert Maplethorpe shows wouldn't want to buy this. It's not just a desecrated flag - it's an artistic thing. Why should people make a piece of cloth sacred?" Bottom line: while the band does not shy away from making political statements, this cover is not meant to be one; they just thought it was a cool-looking peice of art.
So what will be going on with Antic Hay in the near future? They are hoping to do a tour of the northern and southern U.S. in support of "A Few Cuts in Return" possibly at the end of May, although nothing is definite yet. Until then, the majority of them will be chillin' like Bob Dylan in the new Antic Hay domicile, which is a former residence of Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, and holding down day jobs. Bill Gaunce, of Channel One fame, is finishing up a video for "Kill the Watchdog." When it is done, Antic Hay plans to submit it to 120 Minutes, maybe sell it at shows, and send it to select record companies and radio stations as a promotional item. They will be doing a benefit show for the homeless at the Virginia Beach Dome with the M-80's and AntManBee April 26. It is an all-ages show, and admission will be 2 canned goods. They hope to get writing songs with their new drummer soon. They would like for their next album to be more focused; they want to spend more time making sure the content is good, that the material relates to some sort of concept. Regarding everything they have done as a band up to this point, however, they say, "We'd like to thank anyone worth thanking!"