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A
Family Affair
Knoxville rock bands just keep on cross-pollinating: tonight's Superdrag
show will feature opening act The High Score—a recent
collaboration between ex-Mustard guitarist Chris Cook,
ex-Faults guitarist Robbie Trosper and drummer Jason
Peters, and David Walker, a bassist who previously played
in a band called Teenage Cockring.
"We have all played in various combinations before,"
Cook says, "but never all of us in this one
configuration."
No kidding. The Faults rose from the ashes of the V-roys,
as the 'roys Mic Harrison, Jeff Bills (who at one time
was the drummer in every existing Knoxville band) and Paxton
Sellers got together with Ramblin' Roy's Trosper. They
cut a record on Bills' Lynn Point label (in Superdrag drummer
Don Coffey, Jr.'s home studio), and Bills soon decided to
leave the band to focus on that business venture. Peters, also of
Ramblin' Roy extraction, joined thereafter.
Both The Faults and Mustard (featuring Rambler Cook) quickly
started playing large venues. Mustard opened for Southern Culture
On the Skids, and The Faults opened for Superdrag at the Tennessee
Valley Fair and Sundown in the City.
When a three-piece High Score consisting of Trosper, Peters, and
Walker began cutting an album, they brought in Cook to lay down
guitar tracks. Cook is now an integral part of the band, sharing
singing duties with Trosper.
"It's kind of a huge realization—why haven't we done this
sooner?" Cook says. "Something happens whenever we play
together. It just clicks."
Cook says The High Score's music is in keeping with their
Knoxville heritage of "flat out American rock 'n' roll,"
with one twist: the use of two guitarists adds a Thin Lizzy-Judas
Priest element. The band's been shopping this sound around the
Southeast in preparation for their Nov. 5 release, Sexy Losers, on
Lynn Point records.
The High Score will open for Superdrag along with Apolloswitch
at Sundown in the City tonight (Aug. 29).
—Emma "Would You Like to Know a Secret?" Poptart
with Tamar Wilner
August 29,
2002 * Vol. 12, No. 35
© 2002 Metro Pulse
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