There’s a scene in the movie “Singles” where Bridget Fonda’s character is dancing and rocking out in a robe while her mint face mask is doing its magic, then promptly making a sex call to her love interest. This has always been a pre-getting-ready-to-go-out ritual for me since high school and continues to this day. You know the drill, your ass is dragging on a Friday, but your friends are calling and you need a handy, legal pick me up when you’re out of coffee and your dealer hasn’t return his page.
That’s where The Exies come in.
The fact that their single “Ugly” was used as the theme song for World Wrestling Entertainment’s “Survivor Series” should tell you something about the amp level of this LA band. Taking their moniker from the shorten version of what John Lennon called art students from Hamburg, the Existentialists, the band does have a tendency to lean on those rockers before them. I was able to pick up on Scott Weiland’s vocal style and Dean DeLeo’s tornado guitar style before I ever peaked into their press kit. To that end, that doesn’t deter me from finding more unique qualities than not; enough to crank the knob and piss off my neighbors (although I could do without The O.C. school dance charm of “Tired of You”).
This is rock and roll, pure and simple. Vocalist Scott Stevens really does have a set of pipes on him (isn’t bad on the eyes either AND is a supposedly a Colorado transplant) that takes him from simmering to the fiercest tirades with a flick of a riff. The sexy and hook-filled guitar comes to us compliments of David Walsh; Dennis Walsh goes long and big on the skins, with a heartbeat bass back up from Freddy Herrera.
The Exies posed a comical comment in a Rolling Stone article that, “We sound nothing like Tracy Bonham.” Kidding or not, thank God for that. No offense intended, and I do like the string chick and all, but I don’t think I’ve ever rocked out in my panties to little Tracy.
