L.A. punk bands ponder success

By Jim Sullivan, Globe Staff, 9/18/2003

Punk rock songs tend to be terse and bittersweet, like Distillers lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist Brody Armstrong. Just call her Brody. Separated from husband Tim Armstrong of the punk band Rancid, she'd rather go by Brody Dalle, the name her parents gave her 24 years ago in Melbourne, Australia. She hasn't been with Armstrong for 10 months, and the breakup was far from pleasant, guessing from the corrosive songs on the Distillers CD, "Coral Fang," due out Oct. 14. The playlist at Axis tomorrow night could go something like this: "Drain the Blood," "Dismantle Me," "Die on a Rope," "Beat Yr Heart Out," and "Love is Paranoid."

Float the rumor that her soon-to-be-ex has penned a lot of Distillers material, and you're sure to get under her skin. Swearing angrily, Brody says that a) he doesn't and, b) she doesn't care what anybody thinks anyway.

"I write all the songs on a typewriter and an acoustic guitar," Brody says from Los Angeles. "I do complete lyrics and music; I like to string words together and make them sound a certain way. [Coral Fang] is definitely a thinking record, but it's not cryptic."

The Distillers were formed in 2001 by bassist Ryan Sinn and drummer Andy Granelli, and got some attention last year with "Sing Song Death House," a CD on Epitaph Records. They're based in Los Angeles because that's where Brody says she followed a love interest seven years ago. Guitarist Anthony Bradley, an old friend, joined the Distillers in February, and though they were slated to play this summer's Warped Tour, they opted out (Rancid was on the bill) and hooked up with the Lollapalooza tour. They opened their Tweeter Center show with a scathing, hook-laden set that sounded like Courtney Love's Hole, or even Joan Jett. Brody, who sometimes sounds like she's shredding her vocal cords, appeared nonchalant about any typical frontperson conventions.On the new disc, the band made the leap from the indy label to a major, Sire/Warner Bros. On the band's website you'll find a list of things the band did while recording "Coral Fang." It includes : "7) worried about our punk cred and 8) bummed for change to boost our punk cred." Clearly, there's some humor here. This band appreciates the irony of success in a field where success is often suspect. The difference between indy and major labels, Brody says, is distribution and budget. "You have less control artistically on a major. Your artistic license is dangled out on a string in front of your face. But I'm not interested in talking pros and cons. I don't care. I don't have any punk-rock guilt. That's not what it's about for me. I want the record to be sold in Hong Kong, in Poland, I want it global. I want to spread it to the masses."

The band opening for the Distillers is the Bronx, also from Los Angeles. Explaining why they're called the Bronx is like trying to explain a joke, says guitarist Joby J. Ford: "It makes no sense. All those bands like Boston and Chicago did that because that's where they were from. For us, it's just the opposite."

Nine labels sought the Bronx, named one of the top 10 bands of 2003 to watch by Rolling Stone. They recorded the self-titled debut with White Drugs/Island label; former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke was at the production console. It's a rip-snorter, a mass of exploding rejection-fueled punk rock.

Ford, at 27 the oldest in the quartet, trained on piano and cello as a kid; in college he was a top baseball prospect, first as a middle-infielder and then as a flame-throwing closer.

The band's goal is "to get us as many gold records as we can and tour," Ford says. "The only way to [earn money] is to get out of town. This is our sixth tour, and people thought we were dumb to do a tour without a record, but we make enough money to get from going town to town, we built an audience, and you beat the band into shape."