Tectonic Rock - The Faults - Knoxville, TN

by Rick Cornell
from No Depression, July/August issue #34

"I’m the granddaddy of this band," laughs Mic Harrison, feeling a bit elderly these days. At 35, Harrison has almost 10 years on the other members of The Faults: guitarist Robbie Trosper, drummer Jason Peters, and bassist/fellow ex-V-roy Paxton Sellers. But Harrison’s proof that you can teach an old lumberyard dog new tricks. "I’m starting to listen to music I’d never listened to before, like The Nerves. I’m digging way back for the power pop because I never listened to that. (Also) Television and the Jam and things like that. I’m kind of opening my ears to some new stuff."

The self-titled debut from The Faults leans quite a bit on some new-sounding stuff – at least when you compare its contents to the music that Harrison used to make and write with the V-roys. That’s not to say there isn’t a little common ground. The album-opening "Dishonest Jenny," with more hooks than a "Peter Pan" casting call, belongs right up there on the trophy shelf alongside the ace poppers that Harrison penned for the V-roys’ JUST ADD ICE and ALL ABOUT TOWN, such as "Miss Operator," "No Regrets," and "Amy 88." (In fact, "Dishonest Jenny" made it to the set list during the band’s final days.) "Whispering Goodbye" brings the V-roys undercurrent of twang all the way to the surface, whereas the acoustic "Pencils and Paper" skips that suits-and-ties period and looks all the way back to Harrison’s solo recording DON’T BAIL.

The rest of the album, however, can be labeled pop/rock, although that rather generic tag doesn’t do justice to Harrison’s catchy tunes nor the band’s adept delivery of them. Serving as the prototype Faults song is "Lonely Place," with a Stonesy intro paving the way for crunchy verses and a harmony-filled chorus. "Let the Angel Lie," "Lazy Eyes," "The Queen Has Spoken" et al are all variations on that theme, and closing things out is "Poison Land," an old-fashioned strum-rock singalong that find the burly voiced Harrison in top form.

When the V-roys called it quits a year and a half ago, Harrison suddenly found himself with some free time. "It was kind of like ‘what the hell am I going to do now?"" he remembers. He, Sellers, and V-roys drummer Jeff Bills played out a bit in Knoxville at first, and Harrison and Bills started dedicating many hours to another music-related hobby. The pair formed Lynn Point Records, envisioning it as an unapologetically homegrown label with the mission of resurrecting some cassette-only, late ‘80s/early ‘90s Knoxville releases from Taoist Cowboys and the Swamis alongside new efforts. (Bills played drums on the album but has since left to dedicate all his time to the label, passing the sticks to Peters.)

With several songs in Harrison’s pocket that he had planned to bring to the V-roys and a new recruit in Trosper, The Faults hit the studio not long after their inception. "I thought ‘Well hell, let’s just put ‘em all down. It won’t be like we’ll sit here and make a full-length record where everything fits. I’m not worried about that. Let’s just get all the songs down here that work," offers Harrison. The band recorded the album in the summer of 2000 with Don Coffey of fellow Knoxvillians Superdrag serving as spiritual advisor. "We were a little nervous," admits Harrison, calling the whole recording process a definite learning experience. "I wouldn’t say we didn’t know what we were doing, but we had some questions."

The album, which came out on Lynn Point in April, offers an early snapshot of a band that’s continuing to evolve. "Robbie’s a writer too, so we’re kind of getting a whole different kind of groove going on here," explains Harrison. "You know, the roots rock guy, me. And the punk rock guy, Robbie. We come up with some strange stuff now."
As the conversation winds down, Harrison speaks highly of another outfit that he’s been listening to a lot lately, Guided By Voices. "They did it all themselves. They started from the bottom, from scratch….I just like the way they did it," says Harrison, before adding about GBV leader Robert Pollard, "And you know he’s an old guy."