SCAMPER by Shithead
First of all, you indie/emo/whatever's- just- underground- enough- to- be- cool- although- it'll- be- on- MTV2- in- five- minutes snobs can just put down this magazine right now and go back to categorizing your sweaters or whatever else gets you off these days, because this is full-blown, unapologetic, shit-eating-grin-inducing POP in all its bouncing, melodic glory, complete with sing-along choruses, chiming guitars, hopeful lyrics, and boundless energy. Scamper's new album makes no bones about turning up the shine, turning on the charm, and turning those sugar-sweet moments into a sparkling, shiny piece of candy. Expertly produced by Tom Polce (former member of Letters To Cleo whose local resume includes Baby Strange, Loveless, Bill Janovitz and Crown Vic), Leave Your Glasses On radiates like the smile of a 19-year-old blonde on Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale and is virtually guaranteed to plaster a dopey grin on your face from start to finish. I propped up a mic in front of the Scamper boys to see what I could get.
Noise: How do you define your own music?
Nate: I think we used to be afraid of the term power pop for some reason, but I've totally accepted that recently, because that is what we do. It's unabashed, you know? Why hide from it?
Keith: We had an interesting conversation with the producer of our record, when we were trying to figure out song order, and what song to put on the radio, and I had a certain idea of which songs I thought were most representative and he told me, "Look, don't kid yourself -- this is a pop album. You know, you should put out the two poppiest songs." So, you know, I can live with that.
Brendan: Bubble gum tastes really good. That's why people like it.
Mike: I think it's a good combination of all the music we grew up listening to. When we formed the band we all liked Weezer, so we said, "I guess we're going to sound like Weezer, " and that didn't happen -- but if you look at the album, you can hear some Def Leppard, you can hear some Weezer.
Nate: There's Journey harmonies on this album.
Brendan: Three words: Hall & Oates.
Keith: When it comes to Nate and I, who do the songwriting kind of in tandem, we have different styles that we bring to it. And I think for me, the natural thing that comes to me is the pop choruses of these songs, and the natural thing for Nate has a more melancholy twist on things. So you put it together and that's what we've got.
Noise: Teen movie soundtracks?
Nate: I'm ready.
Brendan: I love music that sounds like it would go great in a movie. You're driving down the street and you hear that pop song that's just perfect for the driving down the street scene, I love that!
Noise: So rather than be upset by that comparison, you guys wholly embrace it?
Nate: Love it.
Mike: I have no problem with being a catchy, poppy band because we never came out as anything different. We've never been hard rock, we never said "We'd have a chance to be famous if we write really catchy songs," we're just playing the songs we've always been writing. I would think it worse if we decided, "we're going to try and sell out and do this once and for all."
Nate: Yeah, we sold out from the get-go.
Noise: What are the songs about? Are these real or imagined situations?
Nate: Mine are all real, straight out of the heartbreak. That's the only time I can write. Can't write when I'm happy.
Brendan: Luckily, he's never happy.
Keith: Mine are a healthy mix, a good four out of six [on the album are autobiographical].
Nate: Because he's always happy. He has to dig into an imaginary place [for heartbreak].
Keith: I think it provides a good mix for us. I don't want a record that's all up or all down, I want to ride the wave and go different places.
Noise: Who are some of your songwriting heroes?
All: Hmmmm...
Noise: You weren't expecting that.
Brendan: MUSIC questions? What the hell?!?
Keith: While everybody else was listening to regular '80s music, I kind of missed the boat, as they always remind me. I was listening to a lot of punk back then.
Nate: Irony of ironies.
Keith: And Nate and I sort of fell into that early nineties grunge scene at the same time.
Nate: So, of course, we decided to start a band.
Keith: If Kurt can do it, so can we.
Noise: So, naturally, it sounded like this.
Keith: Yeah! (laughs) Whatever happened before that, it was that era -- the early nineties guitar rock and into the more power-pop things of the mid-nineties that gave me my songwriting juices.
Nate: I think Teenage Fanclub, be they a ripoff of Big Star and other such bands from the '70s, are one of those bands that... that's the songwriting that I'm trying to go back to, more so than just straight up catchiness. I don't know where I'm going with this.
Brendan: Yeah, shut up.
Noise: What's Tom Polce's level of involvement on the record?
Keith: We've worked a couple of times in the past with producers who are engineers, basically. I've always wanted to work with a producer who cared about the songs as much as I did, just to see what that would be like. Nate and I had produced our songs for a long time, and taken them to where we could take them, and it was so refreshing to find Tom, who bought into the project, really liked the songs, and really wanted the thing to sound amazing -- as much as we did. So he was really involved. We went through a month and a half of pre-production, he would come to rehearsals, we would go through every part of the song, and he would offer suggestions. Sometimes we would explore what he suggested, other times we would push back and say no -- it was a good give and take. He cared.
Nate: He said to me once that he's doing his job if he adds in the things that we forgot to do. Mike and I dug up a tape of Sophie, the most bubblegum of all the songs that you've heard, from 1997 when Keith and I had written it and it's top to bottom the same song. The notes in the solo are all there... seven years ago now. Seeing it having stood the test of time and be cleaned up by Tom, it was just... (long pause)
Brendan: Exactly. He's an excellent kisser, too. He's caring, he's not just sexual. He's tender.
Noise: Anything new that Tom made you try out in the studio?
Mike: For me, there was a lot of work. He basically had me play in a totally different style than I had before, and thank God we worked with him because even if the album didn't come out with us being as happy as we are with it, I feel like I'm playing better than ever before. He totally changed my style, taught me how to hit the drums the right way for recording purposes.
Keith: For at least three or four of my songs on the album he moved the key of the song up a step and a half. That was just a habit in the last ten years, I would write lower in my range and he would let me know, you know, that if you want this pop song to soar you've really got to belt it out, so move it up. And it really helped me train my voice more than before. I'm hitting high A-sharps on the album, which I had never gotten to before...
Nate: "No more being lazy with the vocals" is what it came down to.
Brendan: He did a lot of work with these guys on their vocals. You can even hear the difference live now, it's like re-teaching them how to sing...
Keith: "Re-teaching" is a strange word...
Nate: First vocal lessons we ever had.
Noise: When you play live do you keep the songs in the same keys he changed them to?
Brendan: Yeah. And the high notes go to me now. Thank you, fellas.
Nate: Yeah, we passed off all the high harmonies to the new guy.
Brendan: It's good, though, because I'm a castrati, and I always wondered why parents would cut off my testicles, but it's good because now I can reach the high notes. So thanks, Mom and Dad, if you're reading The Noise. Do you know how to spell "castrati"?
Noise: You guys are going to catch a lot of flack for on the scene for putting out an unabashedly pop record, but the songs are the kind of pop rock that could go worldwide. Any thoughts on that?
Brendan: This is the first time I've been in a band in Boston and I'm not allowed to go on The Noise Board anymore. I went on there once and I was like, "cool, they're talking about Scamper!" and 99% of it was really nice, but there were a few little things and I was so hurt! And I didn't even play on the record! I was like, "How can they take this?" So I'm not allowed on there anymore because I'm too sensitive. Why are you guys being so mean to my friends? (laughs)
Keith: If I can make one person like a song, then I'm happy. I want to make a great record, and somehow try to fund the next one. And if some people like it that's fantastic, and the other people won't come to our shows. There are a lot of people in Boston. I do think there's some crossover appeal. As pop as these songs are, it rocks as well.
Mike: We did a little tour, Albany and New York City, and in between the shows we went up to Springfield. We were sort of thrown on the bill and the music scene out there is hardcore metal, and we walked in there thinking, "they're going to hate us, they're going to crucify us." We played our show, and when we got off stage a bunch of people walked up to us and thanked us; "Man, you guys are a breath of fresh air. Please come back anytime." Ever since then I've had a different outlook on it.
Brendan: It's why they have chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Because you like shitty ice cream.
Noise: You're like Mr. Soundbyte.
Brendan: I can't actually play. We pump in the bass from off stage. But really, the hipsters can go stare at their shoes somewhere else.
Noise: What would be your dream bill?
Brendan: I'd love to follow KISS.
Nate: Avril Lavigne.
Keith: Hillary Duff.
Nate: This whole bill together, actually. Hillary Duff, Avril Lavigne, and us. That's a winner. And KISS.
Brendan: Maybe it's because I've been away from it for so long, but it's an honor to have an audience. I always try to remind these guys in a non-obnoxious way that these people are taking their time and their money to come and see you, and it's an honor, and you should honor them.
Nate: This is turning into the "Very Special Episode" part of the interview, but it's true -- having a new, fresh persective in the band. I don't want to think of ourselves as jaded, per se, but...
Keith: It can be tough out there. Paying our dues in Boston, we played on a lot of bills that did not make any sense. You try to get on whatever bill you can and you end up opening for Limp Bizkitor whatever, and now that we're a little bit more matured and can put together our own shows, playing with other bands on a bill that makes sense stylistically makes for a much better night for me, and for the fans.
Noise: What's the dream cast and plot of the teen movie you'll undoubtedly provide the soundtrack for?
Nate: The name of the movie would have to be Sophie, played by Mandy Moore...
Brendan: And she has to donate her ovaries to her dying mother.
Mike: Why?
Nate: Why indeed?
Brendan: She has to deal with the fact that she may never have a baby, and then Chris Klein, who is a daredevil that gets crippled, so you've got the girl with no ovaries falling in love with the cripple, both dealing with the fact that she's never going to have a baby, and he's never going to be a daredevil again...
Nate: This is not a teen summer movie!
Brendan: What are you talking about? This is genius!

Scamper releases Leave Your Glasses On at the Middle East Downstairs, Thursday 12/2/04 with The Halogens, The So & So's, and Fooled By April. And Avril Lavigne.

Defend Yourself
Scamper
by MICHAEL BRODEUR

No matter how you might feel about moustaches, one thing can’t be denied: They bring people together. Why, just look at what’s going on at the Abbey this Thursday, as the suddenly kind-of-creepy pop-rock studz of Boston’s own Scamper sport pushbrooms and power chords at their 2nd Annual Moustache Show. I recently got all up in guitarist/vocalist Keith Michel’s inbox.

So … moustaches, huh? I thought those were for law enforcement officials, the very large, the super-gay or any combination of the three. Whose idea was this?
As radio-friendly power-popsters, Scamper is always looking for opportunities to prove our virility. We're also wearing loincloths under our pants.

Is there an ideology behind your coordinated cultivation of moustaches?
With the rising cost of gasoline, Scamper thought that this would be a great way to raise awareness for alternative methods of transportation, such as Moustache Rides, which are only a nickel.

Who are your moustache role models, and likewise, who should have a moustache that currently does not?
Rafael Palmeiro has a moustache with integrity—the kind of moustache even our president can get behind. Dakota Fanning could pull it off.

I asked a few of my homegirls what they think of moustaches. One said she had "a visceral reaction against them" and that "they do not help with breeding." your response?
Girls are gross. Did you know that they menstruate every month?

Three separate people told me that moustaches invariably remind them of their uncles. Are uncles sexy?
If two brothers marry two sisters, their children are "doubly-unclified."

Totally. What about Aunts? Some aunts have moustaches. Light, downy ones.
Excellent point.

What’s your favorite part of this whole endeavor?
How much Brendan looks like a child molester. Mothers pull their children closer when he approaches. Seriously.

Why should people come to your show? do they need moustaches?
If moustaches were a requirement to attend this show, our entire audience would be Robby Road Steamer and that dude from Night Rally. That would be awesome.

Defend Yourself
Scamper
by Luke O'Neil

Scamper, you are a power-pop band from Boston. Tell us what makes your Scamper show at the Middle East Downstairs on December 2 any more exciting than, say, the absence of that show?
Nate Rogers, guitars/vocals: Haven't you heard? You pay your cover charge, and you get our new CD free. With your newfound money, you buy beer. That's like free beer. So without this show, you're drinking expensive beer at home in an absolute and terrifying silence.

Better song: Ash's "Jack Names the Planets" or Weezer's "No One Else"?
Keith Michel, guitars/vocals: Ouch. While the Blue Album is way high up on my list of influences and car trip discs, I'm always just floored by Ash's Tim Wheeler. He's one of the brilliant pop talents of our generation. And damn, he was a young'n when they came out with "Planets." Free All Angels, 1977 and the new Meltdown - go buy these albums now.

How important is the synchronized jump in your live show? That sort of rules every time, against all odds, doesn't it?
Keith: I think it means more to the other guys than to me at this point, but I do it anyway, or else they won't help me move my gear after the show. In any case, it shows that we, at least once, have rehearsed these songs together as a collective unit. There is no "I" in Scamper.

Would you describe your band as more of an "Against All Odds" type of band or an "I Can't Dance" type of band?
Brendan Boogie, bass: Oh, we can dance. Scamper's dancing skills are not to be trifled with. Nate has a little coffee in his cream, if you catch my drift.

Why does God hate us?
Brendan: Because we smashed up the set of his talk show “The Flower Shop.” Oh wait - that's why “Adorable” Adrian Adonis hates “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, circa WrestleMania III. God hates us, because we can't stop watching Hell Comes To Frogtown on cable.

Best rock & roll facial hair ever?
Nate: Besides the Scamper moustache show of August 2004?* Rivers Cuomo's I'm-an-emo-pensive-woodsman beard. Color Me Badd. Johnny Damon.

*Actually Happened