Year Long Disaster Is Aware of Its Rock History the Thrashy Blues-Rock Trio Has Quite a Lineage

Home , Karma to Burn, Rich Mullins (bassist), Third Eye Blind, Year Long Disaster

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BUZZ BANDS Year Long Disaster is aware of its rock history The thrashy blues-rock trio has quite a lineage.

September 20, 2007

They know their rock historyIf the recognizable names in Year Long Disaster don't get your attention, the familiarity of the L.A. trio's riffage will -- tight, bluesy metal that sounds as if they swaggered into the middle of a Led Zeppelin-ZZ Top bar fight.

"I like the old stuff," singer-guitarist Daniel Davies says. "You always want to know where things come from. You hear the Stones talk about Muddy Waters and you say, 'What is that?' When I was 12 and Nirvana did a David Bowie cover, I knew I had to check that out."

There's plenty of history in the band's lineage -- the frontman is the son of the Kinks' Dave Davies. Drummer Brad Hargreaves manned the kit for Third Eye Blind, and bassist Rich Mullins toiled for hard rockers Karma to Burn and Speedealer. And Robbie Robertson's son, Sebastian, manages the band.

"As long as you don't have a reality show, you're gonna be all right," Davies says of carrying his famous name. "And if you have the band to back it up."

Not that any of this came at the snap of his fingers. Four years ago, Davies and Mullins were battling demons. "We were living in a room dreaming about starting a band, just wasting days. We were drinking and taking drugs," he says. "I remember I had 76 cents the day my dad left to go back to England. So we went to rehab to try to pull it together."

So far, so good. Year Long Disaster's self-titled debut is due Oct. 9 on Volcom Entertainment, home to hard rockers (and notoriously outrageous showmen) such as Valient Thorr and Riverboat Gamblers, with whom YLD plays tonight at the Roxy. A tour with Turbonegro, which includes an Oct. 7 stop at the Fonda Theatre, follows.

There's a time and place to rockEli and Mary Chartkoff look more like the nice couple who've volunteered as museum docents than rockers who thrash out garagey, 3-minute anthems that sound as if they were kicked off the "Nuggets" boxed sets for being over-educated. But therein lies the charm of their band, the Monolators, who, if nothing else, remind you never to judge anybody by his fitted shirt.

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Their new EP, "You Look Good on the Train," advances the good-humored agitation they set to tune on last year's album "Our Tears Have Wings," and the addition of bassist Andrew Bollas and guitarist Tom Bogdon has quashed those male-female duo comparisons the Monolators heard while the Chartkoffs performed as a twosome.

"That was really a matter of necessity -- we'd had other members but they kept dropping out," says Eli, who, in fact, does work in the library at Occidental College (his wife teaches at Cal State Northridge).

The new lineup has reenergized the singer-guitarist, perhaps in the same way starting the band did.

"I'd been in a series of bands that fell apart in depressing ways, and I'd given up on being in a band," Eli says. "I met Mary at a party, and my ears perked up when she told somebody she played drums. Our first date was playing music together.

"Drummers are hard to find -- that's the genius thing about being married to one."

The Monolators headline the Echo on Tuesday, supported by the Amateurs, Mezzanine Owls and Summer Darling.

Fast forward* Touts: Chicago-based quartet the Ike Reilly Assassination bring its lyrical genius and barroom riffs to Spaceland tonight; the frontman earned some props this summer on a solo tour with Tom Morello. . . . The Besnard Lakes, the Montreal outfit whose music is rich in harmonies and reverb, headline the Troubadour on Friday. . . . Brash young punk-rock quartet Orange celebrates the release of its sophomore album "Escape From L.A." with a show Saturday at Safari Sam's. . . . Ex-Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie plays the Hotel Cafe on Monday. . . . And That 1 Guy (a.k.a. Mike Silverman), who plays an instrument he invented called the Magic Pipe, plays the Knitting Factory on Sunday.