Thevenot
Won't Kick His Sugar Jones By Jim Silver Sugar Jones is still evolving, Chad Thevenot said. He should know -- he's the band's main member. Thevenot, a DC resident, is spending time this month in a South Arlington recording studio, working on songs for his second album as Sugar Jones. He's also playing a Luna Park Grille this weekend. The live show, and sessions for the new album, have been shifting away from the pop-funk on his first album, "Bring Your Own Insanity." "We're not really a funk band anymore, but funk is still behind it," Thevenot said. "It's much more rock and roll, more guitar-oriented." On his first album, Thevenot recruited George Porter Jr., bassist for the 1970s New Orleans funk band The Meters. The new album also looks toward Thevenot's native Louisiana for inspiration, but with a different kind of sound. "I call it Southern-fried indie rock," he said. "The tradition of Southern rock is two guitars and a roadhouse sound. I think what I'm doing takes something from that, but it's swampier." It's a mix of that sound and more cerebral lyrics than many Southern rock songs. "I don't have any inclination to sing about dancing or my crotch," Thevenot said. Instead, he hopes the music answers the question, "What if David Byrne had gone to LSU instead of the Rhode Island School of Design?" Thevenot came to the DC area from Austin, Texas, six years ago looking for a less saturated local music scene. But life as a full-time musician wasn't making him happy. While his plans for "Insanity" coalesced, Thevenot took a job working on drug policy reform. Shortly after "Insanity" was released in 2001, he married his long-time girlfriend, in an October ceremony in Louisiana -- inspiring a song for the next album. "I've
got all the things people want: a job, a wife," Thevenot said.
"But I can also do what I want in music, not despite those
things, but because of them. Music doesn't have to provide my income,
or my social life, and a certain freedom comes from that." |
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The new album also looks toward Thevenot's native Louisiana for inspiration, but with a different kind of sound. |
