Vicious Vicious: Mr. Soul

Wednesday 05 January 2005 @ 16:04:02

by Rob van Alstyne

Erik Appelwick’s time is now. After years spent honing his craft—in his native South Dakota, on the coffeehouse “scene” of Montana, and finally in the more fertile creative grounds of the Twin Cities—Appelwick (under his recorded guise Vicious Vicious) has made a record guaranteed to turn heads and shake behinds. There’s only one catch of course—it’s not quite out yet.

“I haven’t really ironed anything out yet in terms of a release date and record label [for the new Vicious Vicious album],” explains Appelwick over early evening drinks just days before his other band, the Olympic Hopefuls (which he co-fronts with Darren Jackson), is to play before a sold-out crowd at the Uptown Bar. “A couple of the guys from [chart topping pop Hip-Hop producers] N.E.R.D. are sort of shopping it around right now. I’ve talked to the biggies, talked to some people around town. I’m sort of just waiting right now to see what happens.”

What’s been happening for Appelwick lately are plenty of good things. The Hopefuls—a band started on a lark as a basement recording project with Jackson—have seen their popularity skyrocket locally and nationally since the April release of their debut album, The Fuses Refuse To Burn (with Appelwick’s single “Let’s Go” recently featured on Fox’s 21st Century “Beverly Hills 90210” update “The O.C.” and added to rotation at local commercial radio giant Drive 105). The band’s even started making some of their first touring forays away from the already won-over home crowds. As the buzz has grown, however, the bulk of Appelwick’s writing efforts have been focused away from the spritely pop songs and orange jumpsuited buoyancy of the Hopefuls and on a proper follow-up to Vicious Vicious’s well-received 2001 debut album, Blood & Clover.

“The tough part for me with the whole Olympic Hopefuls thing is that a lot of my songs from that first record are at least four years old—most of them I wrote in like 1998 when I was still living in Montana,” admits Appelwick. “I can’t even really write like that anymore. I’m more about like grooves and slamming bass funk shit right now—that kind of stuff.”

“Grooves” are indeed the definitive aspect of VV’s recently completed sophomore seven-song minialbum, tentatively titled Don’t Look So Surprised. Everywhere you turn—the grooves are there. Whether it’s the slinky warm keyboard lines of album opening “2 Much Time On My Hands,” the funkadelic bass of “Serious Thing” or the pulsating drums behind “Here Comes The Police,” Don’t Look So Surprised is an album defined by its incessant rhythmic drive.

Appelwick reveals himself as a truly versatile faux-soul front man, a one-man band (handling all instrumentation except drums, provided courtesy of local ace Martin Dosh)—capable of both sincere romantic balladry and playful strutting. Don’t Look So Surprised sounds like the album Beck was reaching for (and didn’t quite grasp) when he cooked up Midnight Vultures. It’s an intoxicating crossbreed of ’80s-ish new wave wrapped up in funky rhythms with genuine soul—unlike Beck’s calculated silliness—driving the whole enterprise.

Appelwick’s more than aware of the inherent dangers in white boys tackling R&B. “It’s sort of like the spectrum [of white people performing R & B-influenced music] runs from Justin Timberlake to Beck … and it’s like how far to either side do you really want to be?” asks Appelwick, stifling a laugh.

“If you listen to the record I think the subject matter is pretty serious. There is some pretty personal stuff on there. I don’t intend for the music to come across as kitschy—I don’t mind if it makes people smile. I think listening to the record is kind of like tickling somebody. Some of the grooves are really laughable just because they’re so absurd and over-the-top. At the same time it’s not meant to be delivered as a joke. The album itself is kind of a story and it has a flow and point to it.”

Repeated listening to Don’t Look So Surprised bears Appelwick out. What starts as a fun party disc over its first half slyly morphs into something darker and deeper by album’s end, as the songs begin to stretch out into more chilled-out melodies and longer running times. “It just kind of ended up that way as it was being recorded,” explains Appelwick of the album’s myriad moods. “There were a lot of things going on in my personal life at the time I was making the album that sort of ended up vomiting themselves onto the record. I wrote all of the songs really recently and at the same time and they were all being influenced by the same set of events.”

With the record now in the can and pending release, Appelwick is anxious to unveil the new tunes—and his new live backing band—to the public. It’s been over 18 months since Vicious Vicious’s last gig and Appelwick’s current lineup of supporting players features bassist Heath Henjum (Beatifics, Olympic Hopefuls), keyboardist Martin Dosh (best known for his solo instrumental work and drumming with the Fog) and new drummer Adrian Suarez (The Amber Estate). What happens once the release of Don’t Look So Surprised is finally sorted out, however, is anybody’s guess.

“I’m old already,” offers Appelwick when I ask him about his goals for the new record. “I’m not in that sort of like 23- to 26-year-old ideal age rock star sort of thing anymore. I just think good things are going to happen … but I’m not really concerned about when they’re going to happen or what magnitude. If anything, it’s good to stay hungry, it makes you more creative. A little bit of adversity’s not such a bad thing.”

September 12, 2002

Skating rink soul from Erik Appelwick

By Lyndsey Thomas

There is plenty of the usual, boring background stuff that Erik Appelwick is sick of talking about. But there are also plenty of Minnesotans who don't know his music. Once he was convinced that the basic essentials of his story are really essential, Appelwick divulged the following info about his one-man-jam. Appelwick grew up in South Dakota where he started writing music as a teenager. He "studied" English at USD ("well, I was registered…") and after graduating, sadly realized that he knew how to speak English in the first place. Noticing a lack of big, loud rock bands in South Dakota, he headed east to the big city. For the last two years, he's performed with locals Kid Dakota, Camaro and Alva Star. By himself, he is now Vicious Vicious.

In June, he self-released Blood and Clover, a fourtrack ode to summer vacations spent chilling out and getting down. Describing his music as "white guy soul," Appelwick likens it to something you might hear in a roller skating rink. It's heavy on organ, which seems more at home in a church revival than a pop song, but in the tongue-in-cheek land of Vicious, it works.Thomas Whisenand For example, take the mellow groove of "Shake That Ass on the Dance Floor." There's an instruction in the title, but it casually suggests rather than demands, and it even references ABBA. "It's an album for shaking ass and drinking malts. Good clean American fun," Appelwick said. "Or smoking a bong, listening to headphones and sitting in one of those ’70s eggshaped chairs."

After one session of leaning back and nodding along to the hip-hop beats (with or without feeling the effects of a drug-induced stupor), it becomes obvious that there is nothing vicious about this music.

"One day I thought of Vicious Fishes and thought 'That's what I'll call it!' But then I found out some other jackass was already using it," he said. "A girlfriend in college suggested Vicious Vicious and I thought it was the stupidest fucking idea but in the end it was the best name available. I mean, Hoobastank was already taken."

Appelwick spent five months recording nearly every instrument on the album, but in his dreams, he's not alone. His fantasy back-up band features Lenny Kravitz on guitar, Bootsy Collins on bass, Stevie Wonder on drums and Paul Schafer on keyboards. Vocals? "Al Green would sing back-up. No, Al would sing lead and I would just lip sync," he said. "That's the line-up for the 'I Think I'm Touring Japanese' tour in Japan. For the Midwest tour, the Flying Burrito Brothers would back me up."

Vicious Vicious does play live; Appelwick enlists the help of Lateduster's Martin Dosh and Kid Dakota's Darren Jackson. The exposure recently earned Blood and Clover a nomination for the Minnesota Music Awards' Best Rock Album, landing Appelwick in some impressive company. Pitted against Ed Ackerson, Mark Mallman and legendary ex-Replacement Paul Westerburg, Appelwick isn't getting his hopes up for a win.

Instead he's focusing on his next album with the help of Alva Star frontman John Hermanson. And he still dreams of the fame that roller skating music could one day bring. "I would love to do (the soundtrack for) Xanadu 2," he said. "I don't think anyone wants to make it but if they come knocking, I'm up for it."