Saccharine Trust, "Free
Band"
by Steve Fritz
In the heat of the moment, you can
forget details. In this case, I don't remember what song it was, but what I
do remember is seeing Joaquin Brewer, vocalist of Saccharine Trust, jumping
off the stage and limping slowly, steadily into the heart of the audience.
The audience cleared a path for him, giving this screaming, wounded madman
plenty of room to move.
Joe Baiza's guitar shimmers throughout this torrential attack, while
drummer Tony Cicero keeps a powerful beat. New member Bob Fitzer's bass
moves with the punch and delicacy of this band's close friend, Mike Watt of
the Minutemen, and, all the way through the audience and nearly up to the
bar, there's Jack.
The length of the mic chord is amazing, it's a full 30 or more feet out
there, and still it gives no sign of letting up on this man's lame act.
Will Jack Brewer get up to the bar to scream for and extra beer through the
PA? No. Suddenly, with a speed that catches all completely off guard, he
veers wildly to the left, and dashes for the left
hand corner of the stage, climbing back on to continue his verbal assault
from a higher vantage point. Thing is, in going back, he's snared the
entire left half of the audience in the mic chord and, while still singing,
has me and maybe 50 other people tightly ribboned off in a know that won't
release itself.
It's a truly physical way of telling how Saccharine Trust's own music gets
across. Strange; off the wall; hard; fast; and entrapping- - seeing and
listening to this band gives you only one message: they're going to get
you...one way or another. And this audience truly enjoyed it.
After the set, and before the headliner Black Flag went got on stage, we
decide it's time to talk. As we all set down in the back room, Joe sees
that there's something in my briefcase besides the tape recorder. All he
has to do is see the title of my book, when his hand snatches it out of my
brief before I even have the machine out.
"I've always been interested in this kind of music." Joe comments as he
quickly starts pouring over the biography of Charlie Parker. "I've been
trying to incorporate elements of this sound into Saccharine Trust now."
He looks up at me, "I was really into Charlie Parker; he's what got me
originally turned on to jazz. Even before I was even playing guitar I was
fascinated by the beat movement. The music made me feel good, and I used to
read about the people all the time."
I noted that there was a big difference between their first LP, Pagan
Icons, and their second and most recent, Surviving You, Always.
"That's the jazz influence," agrees Joe.
"Well one person asked me to compare the two albums," Jack counters, "and
I said that the first album was more 'social' compared to the second's more
emotional. Nothing on the outside really exists on the second except for
the fact it should be taken from how one sees the world from the inside.
Nothing is there, and yet everything is there at the same time."
"Our songs have always had a personal element in them," Joe expands.
"It's just I want to feel things more deeply," Jack concludes.
Joe and Jack are the founding and only original members of the band. the
first band suffered major setbacks after their national tour (again with
Black Flag) when, after their return to their native L.A., they almost
immediately lost their original bass player and drummer. It took nearly
three years to get Saccharine Trust Mach II off the ground (with Tony) and
the record Surviving You, Always. The band still had some member
shake-ups; after their second tour, the bass player who they recorded their
second LP with and went out on tour with left, to be now replaced by Fitzer.
But with each shake-up, each jolt,
Saccharine Trust
seems to come out one step better, even more together than they were
the last time out.
"It's now like the music were playing, we're all playing from the inside
too," stated Tony. "We dig each other more as people, and as such we play
amongst ourselves better. I mean we respect the fuck out of each other as
musicians... and that really helps."
"These tours have really helped us get ourselves together as a band,"
picks up Joe. "It's like the thing that we're all standing on the stage and
we all have to do it now. Just the feel between us, we feel like we can
read each other's mind for the first time. It's so intense that it's like
being reborn."
"We play more like a unit than we ever had before," continues Jack, "this
is not a case of four individual members."
"'Cat Cracker' is the first song that the entire band wrote together,"
beams Jack.
"It's like our old bass player came up with this bass line," explains
Tony, "during a sound check before one of our shows. But at that time it
was really fast and we didn't care for it that much. Then he started
slowing it down and I automatically thought of this beat and we all ended up
playing it."
"It's the only words I ever wrote for this band," beams Joe, "I also sang
the lyrics to it. All Jack added was the line 'I inhabit the world of
concrete systems'."
"Actually 'Cat Cracker' stands for Catalytic Converting Tower. I used to
be employed in a refinery and my job was as a fire watcher. I was working
12 hours a day, 6 days a week on top of that tower that was about 250 feet
high. I was getting feelings that I described in the song because the view
was so beautiful up there. You could see everything. I mean even though it
was located in El Segundo, you could see all of Los Angeles."
" So here I was perched on top of this tower, keeping an eye on all the
welders, making sure that any sparks they made didn't start a calamity. I
was standing there with really nothing to do, and that song caught the mood
I felt. I was trying real hard to not fall asleep or space out and fall
over."
"There's a sax player in that song too," breaks Tony. "He's really into
free music and has played with us in L.A. a couple of times. We have a
couple of other guys who are also going to be playing with us the next time
we record. One plays cornet."
The jazz element?
"Right. What we're developing is minimal riffs, and then letting them
come in on top. I mean one thing that I can do really well is hit these
minimalistic, repetitious kind of grooves. Then that leaves these guys who
really can play plenty of room to jam. Maybe one of these days we'll be able
to afford to take those guys with us," Tony dreams.
"The influence is there within the music," Joe counters, "but I'm not
saying that we're jazz musicians or anything like that."
"We're a rock band first and foremost," agrees Jack.
"But the ideas of freedom of expression is there," adds Tony. "We're a
free band, everybody gets their thing, so to speak."
"I think it would be really great if we could all get to the point where we
could all improvise and still know what direction we're going in," continues
Joe. "The more we're playing, the more we're reaching that goal."
"By the way," interrupts Tony, "our new bass player, Bob, had only five or
six rehearsals before we had to leave for this tour. Still, he's the best
bass player we've ever had."
" In the song 'Our Discovery,' I made a statement about the discovery of
two people finding each other," comments Jack. "But the real matter is the
person who inspires the situation is what's important. When I write
something, it's me discovering something that's important to me... yet it's
not selfishness, I'm bringing out my emotion for everyone."
"The things Jack writes down," states Joe, "I can feel it... without them
being obvious."
"It's like a weird thing," Jack philosophizes. "You smack me in the head
accidentally, and I'm going to tell you hey, my head hurts. But your hand
hurts also."
"No matter," he shrugs, "we both hurt, and I try to make it so that
whatever I write, you too can feel it."
"It's like the band starts a small flame, and then we see how many logs we
can get you to throw into it," states Joe.
"The core of it is in the song 'Lot's Seed,'" continues Jack. "I sing
'Don't look back," and I mean it. This band is growing, and we want to
share our experience with everyone. I want to tell it all to everyone, and
I think now, with this band, I'm going to do it."
