Local Spotlight
Local Spotlight
originally published October 10, 2001
Originally from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Adams, drummer Nate Hale (also of Cosmic Charlie) and bassist Chris Nace met and began playing all different styles of music together and with other friends in 1992 under the name SVA. Along with a group of friends, they moved to Athens in 1994 while continuing to play various styles of music, from jam-rock to funk, still under the name SVA. In 1996, Adams, Hale, and Nace decided to restructure SVA with a more distinct and directed sound and a permanent line-up.
In 1998 they released their debut album Skunkion Forever, mixed at Elixir Studios on analog tape. Since then, they’ve accumulated 45-50 unrecorded songs and are about to record another album as soon as funds allow. As Adams explains, “We’re so damn poor it’s hard to pull off [but] we don’t want anything half-ass.”
SVA's music is anything but half-assed. The song's themes tend to be structured by personal experiences, poetry, politics, dreams, and according to Adams, “Packets of mustard. Anything and everything I see.”
There's a big difference between the trio's recorded stuff and live stuff, but both are equally entertaining. Live shows tend to be mostly improvisational with a basic song structure with songs lasting no more than eight minutes. SVA not only exudes technical prowess; it marks its sound with unconventional time signatures, angular, hardcore drum patterns and heavy metal guitar riffs with diabolical spoken phrases and throaty hollers - all through a unique blend of dynamic funk, psychedelia, and acid rock. The blend is like mix of Ozzy, Zappa, and John Zorn.
“We’re not very marketable,” adds Adams, who also currently plays with Bo Freeze, Halfula, and One Car Pile Up. “People understand music they hear. They understand where we’re coming from [technically]. It’s pretty interesting. It’s hard to place because our style is different. We don’t fit in a genre. We’re kinda of out there.”
That’s a fair assessment. As far as SVA’s muse, well, Clem explains his: “When the planets are aligned in different months and the moon is just right, this little ventriloquist doll named Johnny Flat Lips will sneak up behind me and stick an ether rag in my face [Johnny Flat Lips is an actual puppet who makes live appearances at SVA's shows now and then]. When I’m good and stoned he tells me exactly what to say and how to play. I’ll probably die telling you all of this.”
SVA plays at the Caledonia Lounge on Thursday, October 11 and at Tasty World on Tuesday, October 16.
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