Preview
DROWNING POOL
Wednesday, May 12
MacEwan Ballroom
So you’re throwing a cage match and you have no idea what to use as theme music? Try Drowning Pool. Yes, the perfect combination of enthusiasm and violence. Having furnished soundtracks for Wrestlemania and The Punisher, Drowning Pool has become Hollywood’s background grind-du-jour.
The Dallas-based quartet’s latest release Desensitized represents a rebirth of sorts for the band, whose first album Sinner shot to platinum in 2002. Drawing plenty of attention when they signed on for Ozzfest that summer, the scrutiny only intensified by the shockwave that followed when lead singer Dave "Stage" Williams was found in his tour bus bunk, dead of natural causes at 30 years old.
The remaining members of the band, guitarist C.J. Pierce, bassist Stevie Benton and drummer Mike "Miguel" Luce, were determined not to let Drowning Pool slip away. After screening hundreds of demo tapes and auditioning five singers, they finally "clicked" with hard-hitting Californian Jason "Gong" Jones. It was an easy match, Jones’s Soundgarden-esque arias and ultra-aggressive yet radio-friendly growl are perfectly suited to the group’s macho, overblown, hyper-commercialized, superficially satanic cult of testosterone.
"I’m just so stoked that I’m finally getting to do a fucking record," says Jones. "It’s what I’ve been waiting for my whole fucking life, you know. I love it. I didn’t feel any pressure when we went into the studio. I’m my own person. This is my fucking debut. It doesn’t feel like a ‘sophomore effort’ to me. We tried to take this album in a different direction. We didn’t want to get locked into alt-metal. We did it old school – no auto-tuning. We mixed it up with elements of the stuff we used to listen to, like Metallica, Crue, Slayer, Anthrax, KISS, ’80s hair bands," Jones says chuckling. "We combined it all with newer stuff like Tool into an awesome, big rock show. Basically, it’s four rednecks beatin’ the hell outta shit!"
Perpetuating Drowning Pool’s love affair with their Wind-Up Records label, Jones has developed a deep affection for Jessie, the Pamela Anderson clone who graces (?) the cover of Desensitized, sporting nothing more than a black bikini with upside down pentacles on the breasts, and a baseball bat swathed in duct tape – a kind of Walking Tall meets Chocolate and Cheese affair. Speaking of affairs, unabashed by this provocatively tasteless choice of artwork, Jones remains confident that the hot chick has a thing for his scruffy tattooed ass. Apparently, a life of excess can have that effect.
"The new cover? It’s great. She’s my girl! She can beat the shit out of me all day with that bat, as long as I get to look at her. I’ll have two black eyes when you see me, man. Have you seen the video we did for "Step Up?" I get to totally make out with her in that video," says an understandably smug Jones. "That’s what it’s all about! Havin’ fun. Hyping it up. I don’t sit around on my own worrying and bitching and whining about my parents and shit. We’re not on an all-serious trip. We just wanna drink some booze, hang out and act like ’80s pigs. I’m having a great fuckin’ time. But, the important thing is – I’m not giving anything back to society." |
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