Locals Only: : Think Locally, Rock Globally

Vinyltones

Vinyltones

I love standing corrected. Especially when someone steps into a staunch liberal’s self-made reality — one carefully padded with AM radio, a good racially/sexually oriented mix of friends and lots of soy — to remind us that even the best intentioned can be missing the point.

I’ve always assumed that if I got a chance to visit the Middle East, I’d be on a rally truck, feverishly scattering peace literature and foodstuffs that I think I’d enjoy if destitute on remote sand.

Delusion can be noble … however, local Rock quartet The Vinyltones are a reminder that there are real ways to serve. They know firsthand.

“It’s not my job to decide right or wrong, politically; it’s my job to try to make good music,” says Craig Dockery of the band’s recent tour of Afghanistan. The trip, organized by AKA Productions (kind of like USO, but independent), allowed them to visit various military outposts near the Pakistani border and play for the soldiers stationed there. “As a group, we tried to look at it apolitically, because we obviously have different views.”

Dockery says he was amazed that some of the soldiers they met hadn’t had any sort of entertainment in eight months or more. According to Dockery, that extreme isolation is something they don’t portray readily on CNN, but he was surprised by the warm response the tiny showcase garnered.

“It felt really good to be giving back for once,” he says. “Being in a band can feel so selfish sometimes. You’re just going around like, ‘Hey, come see my band’ and promoting yourself constantly. This time, even though we were just these measly guys carrying guitars around in the desert, we got a chance to meet people who really appreciated (the music).” Dockery adds sheepishly, “Although I’m sure some of them would have rather seen hot girls jumping around on trampolines.”

In terms of delivering a shining example of what American pop culture can and should be, the Vinyltones are the men for the job, plus some. Few albums in recent memory bleed so red, with such purely American Pop sensibilities as Memoirs of a Songbook, the band’s debut, released last year. The first track, “Hey, Solomon,” winks conspiratorially with the “Aw, shucks” pluckiness of Cracker and soothing, smart vocal harmonies that recall the post Doo Wop mastery of The Turtles. If it weren’t for straightforward guitar gems like “Burst Your Bubble” and “She,” you might guess that the Vinyltones skipped the Superdrag Power Pop tutorial of the late ’90s, but it’s all in there — and with an undercurrent of wisdom that belies their youth.

Everything about the band’s performance, from its vintage, beards-and-flannels aesthetic to its quick turns between gruff Rock and sweet Pop, is a seemingly effortless embodiment of the Indie ideal. Playing the largest of arenas or the smallest of festivals, the Vinyltones, in their mission to deliver visceral, “slow-burning” Pop music to the world, sport cool accessibility throughout.

The band has some of the region’s best A&R people working behind the scenes to ensure that Songbook lands in legitimate hands. Local producer Matt Senatore had been shopping the record when the Vinyltones were approached to sign a modest, one-record deal with a Japanese-based label. Since the prospect of travel appealed to the band, they decided to do their homework.

“We took (the deal) with a grain of salt at first,” says Dockery, “because people are always trying to sell bands stuff. But it turned out to be what we were looking for. It’s good to be making progress and to have such a cool collective of people working with us.”

For the first time in their burgeoning musical careers, Dockery says, they are loosening the reigns ever so slightly to see where their collective talents can take them. “The Japan release of the CD is scheduled for July 12,” he says. “It’s kind of weird, when you’re used to doing everything in-house, to see our disc with the artwork they picked and Japanese writing all over it. Weird … but very cool.”