The Fauntleroys are not your typical supergroup. There are no marquee names to inspire platinum sales figures and Rolling Stone cover shoots, just a New Wave/Punk/Glam quartet comprised of cultish personalities with impressive pedigrees and superhuman talent levels.
There’s Ivan Julian, former Richard Hell and the Voidoids guitarist/vocalist in the snotty ’70s, who’s fashioned an incredibly diverse solo catalog; Nicholas Tremulis, who’s gigged in several bands and led an Avant Rock orchestra under his own name; and Linda Pitmon, Zuzu’s Petals drummer in the early ’90s, touring beatkeeper for Freedy Johnston and Amy Rigby (among others) and current rhythmatist with Steve Wynn’s Miracle 3 and The Baseball Project. The Fauntleroys are completed by the incomparable Alejandro Escovedo, the ex-Nuns/Rank and File guitarist, whose stellar solo career led No Depression magazine to cite him as the best songwriter of the ‘90s. The Fauntleroys’ organic origin myth reflects their collective knack for right place/right time occurrences.
“It’s kind of Nick’s brainchild,” Pitmon says. “He’s done projects where he’s pulled together people he thought would be an interesting combination. He goes way back with Alejandro, and he really wanted to do something with him. They discussed whom they should pull in and Ivan was the choice; Ivan goes way back with them as well. Nick said to both of them independently, ‘Who do you want on drums?’ and they both said, ‘Linda.’ It was just coincidence. Absolutely I was going to be a part of this.”
If assembling The Fauntleroys was slightly ramshackle, recording their debut EP, Below the Pink Pony, was a kamikaze mission for seasoned pros.
“We booked four days at Ivan’s studio,” Pitmon says. “There were no demos passed around, it was, ‘Bring whatever you’ve got and we’ll see what happens.’ Ivan had a couple from his past that the Voidoids didn’t record so he was like, ‘I’m gonna dust this off and see what happens with the Fauntleroys.’ It was very spontaneous.”
Below the Pink Pony’s highlights include the Glam/Punk charged “I’m in Love with Everything” and the Punk/Wave shimmy of “Suck My Heart Out With a Straw,” but its brevity begs the question: What do the Fauntleroys do for a set?
“We play [the EP] seven times in a row,” Pitmon says with a laugh. “We do a Reggae and a Speed Metal version … no, we’re augmenting with people’s back catalogs. We all have common backgrounds in what we’ve played and love, and we have a divergent aspect, which is making this band so much fun.”
THE FAUNTLEROYS play at the Taft Theatre Ballroom Friday, Oct. 3. Find tickets/more info here.
