GIRLS AGAINST BOYS
Tuesday, July 26. The Rivoli.
by
JASON ANDERSON

This is classy stuff, cheeto, just like the sign says. Direct from the second stage of the Lollapalooza freak show to the Rivoli comes a band from D.C. (now based in New York) with the low end that'll make you throb. Yes, briefly escaping from Smashing Pumpkins' playground are Girls Against Boys, not a polysexual queercore band -- as avant- garde music mag The Wire inexplicably alleges -- but four young men serving up vitriolic, sultry and innovative rock.

Three of the four served time in Dischord act Soul Side, but with Girls Against Boys' unique line-up of guitar, bass, drums and the manic hardcore stalwart Eli Janney trading off between another bass guitar and a sampler (flailing madly even when attached to the latter), they've become a much different beast. Blasting through a set of songs culled chiefly from last year's fabulous Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby and the recent "Sexy Sam" single, they matched high- velocity, highly evolved punk rock with deranged samples, vocals growled by lead singer/guitarist Scott McCloud and Janney and a sweet punch from the extra-strength rhythm section of bassist Johnny Temple and drummer Alexis Fleisig. Live, they are debonair monsters -- The Fall, Fugazi and Henry Miller in one dinner jacket.

Over pre-gig dinner, McCloud and Fleisig fail to divulge much Lollapalooza gossip besides the number of Billy Corgan's limos. They do attest that Cruise Yourself, their third album out in October on Touch And Go, will be -- as GVSB's reputation demands -- "real sexy."

"Too sexy," jokes McCloud. "I think we're going to have to stop touring."

McCloud says that Cruise Yourself combines the funkier, more experimental styles on earlier material with the power of Venus Lux. Despite the originality of their approach, neither he nor Fleisig have much use for the term "post-hardcore."

"I don't know," says McCloud. "Post-hardcore, post-Suede, post-The- Next-Thing. It used to be post-punk ... We started off playing pretty much straight-up hardcore, but we also quickly deviated from that. Soul Side was groove-oriented in a lot of the same ways this band is, but a little faster. The scene in which Soul Side played was exclusively a hardcore scene. So we'd do shows with real hardcore bands and people would stand around and say, 'Oh ... those guys are interesting.' "

Which is exactly what most of the Rivoli audience did. Post-gig, McCloud was so frustrated at the strangely immobile reaction to such a vulgar display of porno-core power that he hardly noticed that half his band had absconded with his champagne.

But McCloud's faith in Blue Magic -- to which he credits Girls Against Boys' imminent success and limitless sex appeal -- remained unshaken.

As he explains, "It's hair pomade that's blue. It looks like gasoline that's been sitting in a gutter for a very long time. You put it on your head and it's glorious ... I put it in once a week and I'm just fucking lubed for a week. I got a real good lube going -- soooo shiny."

Says Fleisig, "We're always a little worried about smoking cigarettes too close to Scott's face."

True, but there's nothing like tragedy to raise a band's profile.

"Yeah, it's really cool," says Fleisig in awestruck indie-kid tones. "They have this flaming singer. It's insane, man."

"Yeah," says McCloud, "I heard they were practising this weird ritual called 'Blue Magic.' "

Even though their hair care sponsorship deal is but a dream, we agree on one possible slogan: Girls Against Boys are Blue Magic, baby. That's for damn sure.