Acetone Tells All

by: Drew Peters

Acetone: A band that rocks
Cindy: Their 1993 debut on Vernon Yard
I Guess I Would: Their recent EP of country covers
If You Only Knew: The next album of original rockers, due in January
No one: Who they sound like
Richie Lee: The bassist/vocalist that I interviewed
Drew Peters: Your host

This piece was supposed to run before Acetone's thursday show with Garbage last week at St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit. But krazy things are going on here at the Review, so now it's running a few days after.

How was the show? For me, great. Both Acetone and Garbage rocked. And yes, Garbage can pull it off live (with the aid of some prerecorded material of coarse). For Garbage, good. First of all, they didn't sell out the 1000 capacity St. Andrew's. Pretty bizarre considering their single "Queer" is unavoidable on the radio as well as MTV. In addition, the stage monitors didn't seem to be working so well for them. For Acetone, the show wasn't so hot. The 500 or so people who were there while Acetone played seemed to be looking for something more "alternative." Insults were exchanged, beer was thrown.... but based on their ultra-short set consisting of some new songs, If You Only Knew is going to be pretty nice and subdued. You aren't like those lame Garbage fans, you'll dig Acetone.

Acetone on...

  • What they sound like:
    I don't venture to describe what we are trying to do, mainly because we are trying to do something that is hard to describe. We aren't a mixture of the Beatles and Rolling Stones or one band mixed with another band.

  • Why they don't sound like another Sonic Youth influenced indie-rock band:
    We've been around so long that we are gonna listen to the old shit. We've got a true history of rock in our music.

  • Why the kids don't like country:
    "If you came from space and got the first 5 rock records you saw, you'd probably have the worst impression of rock and roll. These kids hear the first couple country songs that they encounter and condemn it. They don't realize that there is a lot more to country music than [losers like]* Garth Brooks."

  • Why the kids like Acetone even though Acetone likes country:
    Our music is tempered a little bit, it doesn't sound like country music per se, it sounds like us. So it's a bit easy to swallow.

  • How they came to record I Guess I Would:
    When we were touring for Cindy, country was about all we were listening to.

  • If You Only Knew:
    This new record is much more organic, it still flops around in tempo changes between songs but it's a little more focused than Cindy. And it's pretty mellow, a lot like the country record, only it is our songs. The new record is the perfect middle ground, that's why we put out the country record.

  • The recording concept for If You Only Knew:
    The new record was written pretty much in the studio... for about six months. We wrote about two albums worths of songs and then picked the ones we liked best.

  • The next record:
    For this next record we want to write the songs, then tour with them and come right off the tour and record them. We just want to see what happens when you work a song into the ground before you record it. When you tour with a song you have to put things in the tune that make it interesting to you. You've played it six million times and you have to find a way to play it with some life. Eventually, the song evolves.

  • Being punk rock:
    "The problem is that the punk rock medium (which was the standard of revolt), to play loud hard music, has been totally sucked up. The punkest thing you could do right now is play folky or jazzy music that is really personal. If you are really trying to do something that is punk in attitude you can't play punk right now because it is so played out."

  • Touring with Oasis:
    There was this huge contingent of 8-12 year olds in the audience.

  • Today's rock:
    There is not much music that I like.

  • MTV's 120 Minutes:
    I watch 120 minutes on MTV and it amazes me that that is alternative culture. And this is the shit that is on college radio too. If I had a college radio station I wouldn't play the shit that is on MTV. What are those kids thinking? The kids have this forum to do whatever they want and they are little corporate executives in the making.

  • What's on the soundtrack for hell:
    Surely shit like Hum and Silverchair.

  • The man:
    "A major label doesn't want to work a band and let it become something good on their own. They don't want the band to evolve because that would cost them too much time and money. They put out their little test feelers and see what will sell and that's what you get for the next few months.

  • The future of Acetone:
    I don't know how much longer we are going to survive, unless we figure out some way to sell a lot of records which, of coarse, could happen.

    *Editors note: Richie didn't call Garth a loser, but it is always implied.