Ann Arbor band cruises home for Blind Pig show

Courtesy of Sony Music Dina Harrison, lead singer of Getaway Cruiser, has a nice smile.

"We're not a Detroit band, we're an Ann Arbor band!" said Chris Peters in response to rumors of Getaway Cruiser establishing a home base in Detroit rather than Ann Arbor.

Peters is guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and one of the two workaholic Peters brothers in Getaway Cruiser. The group will play a show at home tonight at the Blind Pig as part of its whirlwind U.S. tour. "What happens is if you get out of the area, people associate you with the closest big city so people think we're from Detroit. Its easier to do that but we are still an Ann Arbor band."

And what an Ann Arbor band it is. Fronted by the charismatic femme fatale Dina Harrison, and using turntables as well as other assorted electronic toys to flavor its sound, the group has recently done quite a bit. In the past year, it recorded and released its Butcher Brothers-produced debut album on Sony/550 music, had Pras and Kool Keith make guest appearances on the record and got supportive reviews everywhere. As if that was not enough, the group, especially brothers Chris and Drew Peters, are not slowing down for anything. "We go out, do a lot of shows then come back, hit the studios, then head out all over again!" Chris explained.

With the support of a major label, the band is now free from the restraints of a day job, but the status this group earned did not come without paying its dues. "I graduated from the (University) and worked in a group home after that, so did Mark (bassist, Dundon). They were these houses for severely handicapped adults, which was cool," said Chris.

"All the clients in the house were just great. It was kind of like: get to work at six in the morning, cooking breakfast, hanging out, getting people to where they had to go and hanging out with everybody. Not that there were not times when you would be going nuts because somebody would start smashing shit."

Despite the group's sound having a foot firmly in rock music, the band is never shy to collaborate with musicians in other genres of music. "In addition to doing all the shows we have been doing right now, my brother and I just did a remix for Ruth Ruth and produced a track for King Sun, an old-school New York M.C. who's on the new Funkmaster Flex record. That guy is legendary, he's awesome. King Sun came to Ann Arbor for a couple of days and we produced some tracks," Chris explained.

He then continued, "We also mixed some tracks for this R&B singer named Christian Urich. We got Slump Village on that. Slump Village are a rap group from Detroit who have an album coming out. They are actually going out with the Beastie Boys and A Tribe Called Quest, so they are doing a show with us before they go. We've been doing a lot of collaborations, remixes and a lot of other stuff. Oh, we're also doing a cover of "Gigantic" for a Pixies tribute album that's coming out."

All this cross-genre collaboration may seem a bit strange, but Chris actually explained that it was quite normal. "Rock and roll has always been, from day one, white kids in the suburbs listening to their own music and black music. That's what Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley were doing. Its really not different from what they did. Our generation was exposed to all the great hip hop stuff."

With so much genre inter-breeding these days, it's a wonder that rock bands have not yet adopted the old M.C. custom of friendly competition. "It would be cool if it was done for all the right reasons," said Chris about the matter. "I think what prevents most towns from ever having cool scenes is that most bands are not into having everybody come together. Its always 'everybody hates the next guy's band.' It would be cool if there was more support going on, but at the same time it's cool to have a little friendly competition among friends."

Tonight, if you're in the mood for some slick grooves and catchy rocking tunes, check out Getaway Cruiser's Blind Pig performance with opening acts, Slump Village and Flash Pap'r.

The group will also do an in-store at Tower Records on the same day at 5:30 p.m.

10-02-98