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"We're 21-years old, what else are we going to write about?" asks Brian Bruemmer, bass player for Langus in regard to his band's favorite subject, sex. But, if you dig deeper, you also find that Langus is a very professional, dedicated, tight band — whose members happen to like sex. A lot.
But, to focus solely on Langus' libidos sells them short. Singer Chris Rook, guitarist John Parnell and drummer Todd Chumbley have been together as Langus since 1999 (Bruemmer joined the band in 2001). For their young age, that's quite an accomplishment. It also says a great deal about their drive that they were able to continue on following the death of their longtime manager, Rudy Szlavi, from cancer in August 2004. Chumbley and Bruemmer picked up the management and booking duties after that.
Langus began as a cover band and gradually mixed in more original songs. Eventually, the grind of the cover circuit got to them, and they decided to switch to all originals last year.
"We really didn't care so much about the money (made doing covers) as we did the music," says Parnell. "We did covers at first to get our feet wet."
"And we started to drown," adds Rook.
Their decision to play all original music does not appear to be rooted in the "peer pressure" present in Cincinnati's original music scene. It came from a genuine desire from within for people to hear their sound and their lyrics, rather than interpretations of others' songs.
"Dealing with a weekly cover gig is like getting up every day, going to work for 40 hours a week in a cubicle ... that's what it felt like for us," Bruemmer says. "We'd get up onstage and fake it as best as we could so it would look like we were having fun."
Their frustration with doing covers had a positive effect: The band began to have fun onstage again when they began to play solely their original songs. And fun seems to be the top priority of the band now. As does sex (can't forget about that). With their new CD, Pass The Time (as per their lyric "Everything that we do is just something to pass the time until we have sex again"), it's a little difficult to forget that Langus likes their nookie served up hot, fresh and as often as possible.
But the band is (mercifully) free of swaggering, frat-rat loutishness. They're well aware of the clichés of Rock and use that to a most charming advantage. Rook is very conscious of how it looks, but says, "It's a parody of Cock Rock. Everybody gets a kick out of it." Well, almost everybody. There are still a few boyfriends in their crowd who haven't audited the Rock Star 101 class yet.
Langus is four young, normal, decent guys who play unabashed, straight-ahead Rock with a beer in their hands and an eye out for any obliging ladies who happen to be in the vicinity. Yet, for such carefree guys, they're very serious about their music, which falls somewhere between better '80s Metal (e.g., Guns 'n' Roses) and '70s Glam (e.g., Queen). Rook's voice is very reminiscent of Freddie Mercury's, albeit lower and not as conducive to silver spandex unitards. Langus' cover band years have sharpened their chops to a fine edge, yet their newfound freedom as an original band allows their heart and sheer joy of living to come through in their music.
Then, there's the band name — where did that come from?
"There used to be a friend of ours that used 'langus' as slang for weed," says Parnell. "We liked the word, so, we took it for our name. It doesn't mean anything, really."
"We went for clever instead of intelligent," cracks Rook.
I'd say they went for both.
LANGUS (
Dale M. Johnson
Langus
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"We're 21-years old, what else are we going to write about?" asks Brian Bruemmer, bass player for Langus in regard to his band's favorite subject, sex. But, if you dig deeper, you also find that Langus is a very professional, dedicated, tight band — whose members happen to like sex. A lot.
But, to focus solely on Langus' libidos sells them short. Singer Chris Rook, guitarist John Parnell and drummer Todd Chumbley have been together as Langus since 1999 (Bruemmer joined the band in 2001). For their young age, that's quite an accomplishment. It also says a great deal about their drive that they were able to continue on following the death of their longtime manager, Rudy Szlavi, from cancer in August 2004. Chumbley and Bruemmer picked up the management and booking duties after that.
Langus began as a cover band and gradually mixed in more original songs. Eventually, the grind of the cover circuit got to them, and they decided to switch to all originals last year.
"We really didn't care so much about the money (made doing covers) as we did the music," says Parnell. "We did covers at first to get our feet wet."
"And we started to drown," adds Rook.
Their decision to play all original music does not appear to be rooted in the "peer pressure" present in Cincinnati's original music scene. It came from a genuine desire from within for people to hear their sound and their lyrics, rather than interpretations of others' songs.
"Dealing with a weekly cover gig is like getting up every day, going to work for 40 hours a week in a cubicle ... that's what it felt like for us," Bruemmer says. "We'd get up onstage and fake it as best as we could so it would look like we were having fun."
Their frustration with doing covers had a positive effect: The band began to have fun onstage again when they began to play solely their original songs. And fun seems to be the top priority of the band now. As does sex (can't forget about that). With their new CD, Pass The Time (as per their lyric "Everything that we do is just something to pass the time until we have sex again"), it's a little difficult to forget that Langus likes their nookie served up hot, fresh and as often as possible.
But the band is (mercifully) free of swaggering, frat-rat loutishness. They're well aware of the clichés of Rock and use that to a most charming advantage. Rook is very conscious of how it looks, but says, "It's a parody of Cock Rock. Everybody gets a kick out of it." Well, almost everybody. There are still a few boyfriends in their crowd who haven't audited the Rock Star 101 class yet.
Langus is four young, normal, decent guys who play unabashed, straight-ahead Rock with a beer in their hands and an eye out for any obliging ladies who happen to be in the vicinity. Yet, for such carefree guys, they're very serious about their music, which falls somewhere between better '80s Metal (e.g., Guns 'n' Roses) and '70s Glam (e.g., Queen). Rook's voice is very reminiscent of Freddie Mercury's, albeit lower and not as conducive to silver spandex unitards. Langus' cover band years have sharpened their chops to a fine edge, yet their newfound freedom as an original band allows their heart and sheer joy of living to come through in their music.
Then, there's the band name — where did that come from?
"There used to be a friend of ours that used 'langus' as slang for weed," says Parnell. "We liked the word, so, we took it for our name. It doesn't mean anything, really."
"We went for clever instead of intelligent," cracks Rook.
I'd say they went for both.
LANGUS (langus.com) presents a CD listening party (followed by an acoustic set) for their new album, Pass The Time, on Thursday at the Cock & Bull in Covington; the album will be released with a show at Covington's Radio Down on Jan. 29. On Saturday the band plays at The Holy Grail in Corryville.