the RUDDS: GET THE FEMULINE HANG ON

All songs written by John Powhida Produced by Tony Goddess (Papas Fritas) and John Powhida Mixed by Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade (Radiohead/Hole)

Featuring guest appearances from: Probyn Gregory (Wondermints/the Brian Wilson Band), Mike Gent (the Figgs/Graham Parker) and Columbia/Aware recording artist, Bleu McAuley.

John Powhida made waves upon arrival in Boston, 2001. Having broken up his hometown Albany band, the Staziacks, he quickly formed the RUDDS and released a self titled record, co-produced by Figgs/Graham Parker guitarist Mike Gent, that made longtime Boston rock journalist and author, Brett Milano’s year end list. He became a vocal ringer for local studios. That’s him singing the hook on the Click 5’s Paul Stanley cowrite, Angel to Me. The band headlined their own shows and opened for Urge Overkill. Now John and the RUDDS are releasing their new album, Get the Femuline Hang On.

The record is a quantum leap up from an already great height.

Jpo: “I didn’t have a real game plan for the new album besides the basic desire to branch out more musically. I didn’t even know whether it could work as a RUDDS album or if I should just cut it under my own name. On the first album I wanted to keep it focused on the rock and roll side of things to prove we can go toe to toe with any of the other live bands on the scene and also to not scare people away. I wanted to bring them in before I let it all hang out.”

The record opens with Tony Savarino, a hilarious one-minute-long philosophy quoting “Hello There” styled rocker about revolving door bandmates: “A man never steps in the same river twice/and that’s curious like the band/As one door closes another flies open and there with a guitar stands/Tony Savarino”

The potential singles start with track two, Oh No! (They’re Gonna Make Another One) an awesomely funny indictment of bands having to make the oh-so-lame follow up record and an incredibly personal examination of being an artist.

Track three, Something Great, was the first single released from the record. An instantly catchy two minutes and forty two seconds with great vocals, double- tracked tom toms and an overall sludge that sounds more like the Move playing a Prince song than anyone has a right to

Goddess: “Anyone who’d seen John play solo around town knew that, in addition to his RUDDS originals he was just as apt to perform Rock With You alone on acoustic guitar. Or cover Robert Palmer’s cover of the Gap Band’s Early In the Morning. Or an old Joan Armatrading song, or Joni, or Smokey or Randy or Warren, or Todd. And these covers are clues to the size of John’s musicality. In trying to get this album on tape, that was my goal--to put all of John’s musicality front and center on the widescreen—the rock and the soul, the humor and the heartbreak-- to make sure everything got in, but that it was still a flowing, focused, balanced album.”

The album succeeds greatly, nowhere more so than the second single, track four, Stand a Chance. A funny and poingnant relationship song with a heartstopping bridge, it features Probyn Gregory of the Wondermints and the Brian Wilson Band.

Goddess: “That was a great night. Probyn was in town and came down. I introduced the two and they instantly began singing Todd songs, which quickly turned into overdubbing on this one. It was effortless for those two to sing together.”

The song doubles as critical bait, heading the “influences” debate off at the pass with its direct relationship to Todd Rundgren’s I Saw the Light:

Goddess: “Look, it’s a II-V-I played with eighth notes….simple as that. I know it seems complicated, but that facts are, all music consists of the same basic elements. And, artists have used the same harmonic materials for decades to write different songs. It’s the same as Darlin’ by the Beach Boys too, or Duke’s Satin Doll, or a whole bunch of Carol King songs. That’s what happens when you write a song—you get inspired, hit a chord progression, whether it’s a common one or not, find a new melody and write a new song John succeeded. So what if he looks like Todd”

Track five, Roslindale, the first of the album’s four ballads, has echoes of Steely Dan and Parliament in its do-wop variant chords and ridiculously irresistibly ridiculous male/female chorus.

The title track, The Femuline Hang On, follows and brings the first side’s rock and soul sound to it’s furthest conclusion with it’s dadaesque lyrics and unique Sly and the Family Stone style mix-gender stomp.

Powhida: “We’re flying our freak flag as high as possible in hopes that listeners will embrace their male and female sides, their rock and their soul, their happy, sad and sexy in-between. That way we can have the most fun together.”

“If a loose meat sandwich don’t do it/Domo arrigato avacado pit……Keeping it non-traditional/letting me be your femulne hang on”

No other band writes or sounds like this today.

The sped up funky humor of Always Cool flips the record and leads us straight into what may be the album’s most rocking cut, Astrological Sign Choker. More than just a surprising title and a great riff, it is a moving acknowledgement that we have to draw strength from where we can, regardless of how others may see it. Track nine, F # Over C, was the cut produced by John and Tony the night they first met at a record store in the summer of 2004..

Powhida: “That song came out of a Paul Kolderie session. I had called in my brother to play keys on the date. He’s a lifelong R&B player who can get really difficult with other musicians if they don’t know their shit. The song is literal…I’d seen him lose his temper when other players couldn’t follow the changes. I was worried.”

Needless to say his brother kept his cool but the Kolderie sessions remain in the vault. Still, John got a unique and evocative song from the experience and had started his next record.

Goddess, late of the band pApAs fritAs, had taken time after the demise of that group to pursue publishing and producing and had established a studio underneath Disc Diggers, a local record shop in Somerville, MA. Over the next month seven new songs were completed with different players sitting in: Longtime guitar player, Brett Rosenberg contributed his incredibly raw yet melodically composed solos and great background harmonies. New drummer, Nathan Logus, late of Thirsty Ear recording artists Baby Ray, laid down the tracks that weren’t started as Powhida solo tracks. Goddess engineered and played bass on many of the songs as they were constructed in the studio, in contrast to the band’s essentially live debut. Mike Gent was again around for numerous vocal and instrumental overdubs. Columbia/Aware recording artist, Bleu McAuley lent some keyboard lines and early mixes to the project. Ultimately the band ran out of funds and set about gigging again to get up the scratch for more sessions. One lucrative gig offer was the opportunity to perform as Cheap Trick for Halloween. “I was afraid of being known locally as the guy who does Robin Zander, but at the same time, how could I resist!” Sensing that their current bassist didn’t have the time or the interest to learn the proper changes for Surrender, the band asked Goddess into the fold. “I knew Tony loved the material, could learn all the songs in a second, and he had the Petersson hair.” From there, it wasn’t long until he accepted the RUDDS bass chair full time and they set about finishing what they had started last summer.

The next two tracks, the roots groove, Older Girls and the storming Hot Child, were retrieved and finished from an outside session cut in fall 2004 and added to the seven already on tape. Fourteen more songs were demoed and detailed until, after much editing, the twenty three proposed tracks were whittled down to the thirteen which comprise Get the Femuline Hang On.

The striking, Philly Soul styled falsetto showpiece, Keep My Love is next.

Goddess: “Basically, John is the real deal. He believes in little more than singing and songs, in art and soul. Not trends or styles that come and go. And I think the reason other musicians react so strongly to him is because he has the goods. He CAN sing those songs. He cut his teeth playing the classics in GB bands. He studied and is dedicated to the art of music--as a singer, songwriter and performer. And he’s been doing so long enough to have learned that if you’re good, influences are beside the point: all the greats stole and recombined. Smokey learned from the Beatles who were learning from him. The first British Invasion wanted to be black. Prince wanted to be everyone under the sun. The best bet is to take all the influences, mix them up, and write songs from your own experiences in hopes of adding to this massive part of all of our lives.”

Rock and Roll Napoleon ends the album as a decidedly more rocking ballad than which it follows. Written by John for his lead guitar foil, Brett Rosenberg, on loan from his own great band, the Problem, this track, like so many of his and so many of the greats, achieves the perfect pathos inducing balance of humor and heart. Simultaneously poking fun and professing his respect, John’s heart is on his sleeve for the record one last time before ending in a massive build up of guitars, drums and voices.

The record was completed in the spring of 2005 and mixed by noted Radiohead/Hole/Dinosaur Jr. producers Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade. Singer Andrea Gillis, already a veteran of the albums recording sessions, and keyboard player, Dave Lieb, were added as the new songs were worked out for the stage.

“Now’s the time to bring it out. We’ve had a nice run locally and we’re continuing to grow here in Boston with strong support from the press and radio, but now, with the record we’ve made and the band I’ve assembled, I think we’re ready to start hitting the other towns. To start bringing our rock and soul revue out and proving it to the people. We want everyone to Get the Femuline Hang On. We’ll all have a lot more fun that way.”

The RUDDS, Get the Femuline Hang On will be released in Boston and on the www.therudds.net on July 30th. The band will celebrate with a performance at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge and will be appearing readily over the next few months throughout Massachusetts, New York and other towns on the East Coast. .