Jayhawks liven Pontiac with 'Sound'

PREVIEW
	The Jayhawks Sunday night at 7 p.m. Clutch Cargo's in Pontiac $12.50 in advance

"The grapes are bitter / I'm no quitter," the Jayhawks' Gary Louris sings defiantly on "Big Star," a rocking track from the band's new album, "Sound of Lies." To the listener familiar with the band's recent history, the line seems to be a pointed reference to departed co-founder Mark Olson.

In late 1995, following the tour that supported the band's critically acclaimed album, "Tomorrow the Green Grass," Olson quit, splintering the nucleus of one of the Midwest's best-loved bands of the last 10 years. Though the move came as a shock to fans, bassist and founding member Marc Perlman said in a recent interview that band members saw the situation coming to a head.

Jayhawks' Gary Lourdis brings the band back to life with "Sound of Lies."

"If Mark didn't leave the band, Gary would've left the band or I would've left the band," Perlman said. "It was just getting to the point where there just wasn't enough room for everybody. Gary and I and (keyboardist) Karen (Grotberg) and (drummer) Tim (O'Reagan) were more of a like mind to go a certain way musically, and Mark was of a mind to go a different way."

And so, after a monthlong break, the band reassembled in its hometown of Minneapolis and got back to work, enlisting a couple of friends from the country-rock supergroup Golden Smog (of which Perlman and Louris are founding members) - second guitarist Kraig Johnson (also in Run Westy Run) and violinist Jessy Greene (formerly of the Geraldine Fibbers). The resulting sessions were different from any in the band's 10-year history, Perlman said.

"Basically (the attitude during the recording of) this record was more like, 'Let's try that,' instead of, 'No, that won't work,'" he said. "We never had experienced that before. Everything that we learned we didn't enjoy doing from our last records we took to heart and wound up not making those same mistakes again. Now, it's much more of an open book; I think Gary's just much more inclusive (than Olson) as far as songwriting and arranging is concerned."

The finished product, "Sound of Lies," is a departure from the countrified rock and twangy vocal harmonies that were the trademark of the Jayhawks through its first four albums. Instead, the band stretches the boundaries of its sound, covering territory from the wide-open pop-rock of "Big Star" to the hard-edged, snare-driven "Dying On the Vine"; the psychedelia-tinged "Think About It" to spare, fragile ballads like "Stick In the Mud" and the album-closing title track.

But while the music is an adventurous exploration of varied new sounds, the thematic focus of Louris' lyrics is more cohesive than any previous Jayhawks album.

"The record is more unified as a direct result of the fact that you don't have that songwriting team," Perlman said. "(But) Mark and Gary never really wrote as much together as people think they did. They contributed to each other's songs, but it was always five of Gary's and five of Mark's. One of the reasons Mark and Gary split up is because they had too many songs to put on one record, and thematically they were going in different directions."

Louris' direction on "Sound of Lies" is inward. The album's lyrics detail the complicated process of breaking up with an intimate partner, hardly surprising given that the songs were written when Louris was struggling with both the loss of Olson - his close friend and artistic collaborator - and the painful dissolution of his marriage.

"Gary likes to write about himself a lot," Perlman said. "(While) I don't think that there's a lot of songs about the breakup of the band, I'm sure he wrote about his interpersonal relationships."

Much to his credit, Louris treads this well-worn path without veering into cliche, exploring in detail every stage of a breakup - the initial doubts and mistrust ("The sound of lies rings funny against the truth," he sings), the confrontation ("Seems it's high noon and I ain't got no gun"), the difficulty of returning to one's independence and forging an identity without the partner ("I don't feel like me today, I'm dying in the shadows"), the ultimate catharsis and the realization that life goes on ("I'm flat busted, wild-eyed and free"). And on the rare occasions when he sings a mundane line, like "You've got me down on my knees / Begging you, please, don't leave,'" he is saved by his high wail that echoes with sincerity (and more than a little Alex Chilton).

Despite its lyrical literacy, heartfelt vibe and wealth of melodic hooks, the album has met with little commercial success to date. As a result, the band cancelled much of its summer tour and is only now returning to the road.

"This record just didn't take off like we thought it would," Perlman said, "and we sorta pulled the plug on a lot of the wasting of time and money. We spent that time doing much more constructive and creative things, rehearsing and working on new material," continued Perlman, who tends bar when he's not being a rock star. "It's a lot easier to sell beers and write songs than it is to go on the road and not make any money, playing the same songs every night. ... It'd be nice if everything worked out according to some master plan and went along perfectly, but life doesn't work that way. We're too wise for that now."

While this last comment might seem to be the natural result of the well-publicized, label-related legal and economic headaches that have dogged the band for a number of years, Perlman disagrees.

"That's too much of a story," he said, "and the only people who seem to be enamored with it are the press. Read Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly or whatever. All these magazines, they're not interested in music at all. We've done interviews where every question is about our business stuff, and we're just like, 'Wow, obviously you haven't listened to the record!'"

If that is indeed the case, the writers for those corporate rags are missing out on an excellent rock record. Overall, the album not only holds up favorably alongside previous Jayhawks efforts, but ranks among the year's finest pop releases.

"This is definitely my favorite Jayhawks record," concurred Perlman. "It was my favorite Jayhawks record to make and to listen to."

10-03-97