REVIEWS

Daily Egyptian, January 30, 1998 review, entire text:

If Frank Zappa had ever started a band with Pete Townshend of The Who in some alternate universe, the result would probably sound like The Good.

Guitarist/vocalist Tony Rogers said the Zappa-like facetiousness that The Good deliver is something that naturally comes out from the band members' collective humor. The group will be striding on stage Saturday night at the Copper Dragon Brewing Co., 700 E. Grand Ave.

"It's almost something that we can't stop ourselves from doing. It's like an outgrowth of our personalities," he said. "I don't think we could fake it. But there's a fine line between being a novelty band, which we definitely don't want to be, and incorporating humor into our songs, which we definitely try to do."

Some of this humor is essential to the Chicago-based quintet's original songs. The sexual, guitar-driven uncertainties of "Shame" or the direction The Good take classic rock staples is wink-nudge hilarious.

"We throw in some novelty songs like a country and western version of [Queen's] 'Fat-Bottomed Girls,'" Rogers said.

On the flip side of The Good's style is the Townshend-esque rocking side that comes about as an influence from the heavier side of popular music.

"It might sound pompous, but what we try to do is make pop music-but pop music in the vein of Queen or The Who," Rogers said. "You would probably call them pop bands, but they're definitely on the rock 'n' roll side of pop music.

"It's guitar-heavy rock 'n' roll, but it works on a lot of different levels."

Some of those levels are exploited on the Milky White album The Good released last year. The band responds on the album to classic rock act Ten Years After with a song of the same name questioning the reasoning behind the lyrics to the rock anthem, "I'd Love to Change the World."

Along with the fervency of songs like "Popular Notions," The Good downshifts gears to electrified funk in "Hang" or to John Lennon-structured acoustic rock with Phish-like lyrics in "Harry and the Mushroom."

But a strong album cannot always launch a band into superstardom or even gain the band a following unless it can back the album up with an impressive live show. Rogers said putting on a worthwhile show is an essential ingredient of the whole Good package.

"Some bands just get on stage and hammer away without thinking of the show on any different levels. And we really try to think about entertaining in a broader sense," he said. "We make it more of a fun rock 'n' roll show than a band just pounding away at their instruments."