50 Reasons To Explode

Never ask a band to describe their sound.

"If you had Led Zeppelin, and you had Superchunk, and maybe Sunny Day Real Estate or Get Up Kids," says Schatzi singer/guitarist Monte Williams, "and you gave 'em all X and you put 'em in a big orgy scene, the spooge that would be left over in the room, the crazy sex smell, the vapors of the orgy in the room, would probably be Schatzi."

A bit graphic for a band whose name is German for "sweetheart," but it works. Focus on the combination of sounds in Monte's metaphor and not the unsavory images of indie rockers coupled with classic rock icons, and you're close to what you get with Schatzi. Williams's fellow singer/guitarist and songwriting partner Chris Kyle nails it, though:

"When it comes down to it, we're a pop band."

The sound reaches its fruition with Fifty Reasons To Explode. Recorded in Lawrence, Kansas with producer Ed Rose (The Get Up Kids, The Anniversary), the disc is bristling with spirited guitar melodies, artfully treading the line between mature sensibilities and youthful exuberance. It's enough to send a fellow searching for synonyms for "rousing."

"Gladys," with its close harmonies and killer chorus, bracing, but sweet in all that it reawakens. "Flush" flirts with new wave power pop, while "Trapped Inside A Sunray" is at the heavier end of the band's sound, its fat bass groove and guitar growl redolent of the band's live show. "Death Of The Alphabet" perhaps exemplifies the band's twin impulses to both toe-tap and headbang, mating lovely backing vocals from The Anniversary's Adrianne Verhoeven with a driving guitar interplay and a pummeling rhythm section.

If "Death Of The Alphabet" sounds familiar, that's because it, along with the rocking "Sucked Into Something," the more wistful "Song For Stephanie" and the beguilingly bitter "The Spider Smells Disaster," were culled from the Fifty sessions for the 2000 Death Of The Alphabet EP. The EP was released locally by the band in Austin.

Local commercial alternative powerhouse KROX got a hold of the disc and soon added "Death Of The Alphabet" to its playlist, where it was a top-5 most-requested song. That was enough to get the band a spot on the bill of the KROX Christmas concert headlined by Papa Roach and noticed by Mammoth Records. The label quickly signed the group and released their EP nationally late last year.

Not bad for a group Chris describes as "a bunch of dorks from Oklahoma."

It was in Oklahoma that Chris and Monte started making music, originally in a band called Brave New World, and later, after it occurred to them, as Monte puts it, “we could start own band and blow that band out of the water,” in a group they named Blunderwheel. It was as Blunderwheel that the duo, flanked by some Oklahoma friends on bass and drums, immigrated to Austin and recorded a self-released disc. A few line-up changes later, they became Schatzi, eventually releasing about 200 copies of the full-length Joanie Loves Schatzi in 1998.

Why "Schatzi"?

"Schatzi was the name of my Grandmother's dachshund," Chris says. "She's been dead for a while..."

The dog?

"Yes, the dog, and we wanted to honor her. I've found that there are many, many pets named Schatzi."

"There's at least one out of four families will have a dog Schatzi or have had a dog named Schatzi," Monte adds.

"We know that we're going to get our asses kicked when we go to Germany and Austria," Chris continues, "because we're this silly American rock band called Schatzi."

That American rock band spent most of 2001 fulfilling Monte's vow to "tour like crazy."

Schatzi has toured with the likes of the aforementioned The Get Up Kids, as well as At The Drive-In, Jimmy Eat World, The Anniversary, Dynamite Hack, and many others.

"If you see us live it's a little bit different experience that listening to it in your car or something like that. That's where the John Bonham/Zeppelin part comes in," he says, referring to some of the further details of his spunky metaphor for the band's music, from which you've been spared.

For his part, Chris says, "There's just a lot of really great pop bands that are coming out right now, and I just want to be another band that provides something besides negative, angry music."

And bringing Schatzi to the people is a big part of that. "We just want to play as much as we can. Every band that I like and respect got where they are from touring. We do music because that's what we do. We've been doing it for years without anything. We just want to play a ton of shows."