Rum diary

Thrasher Magazine, August, 2004 by Oakland L. Childers

COTATI, CALIFORNIA'S The Rum Diary has the unfortunate peculiarity of being too interesting. It's a curse, not because making an oddly disjointed collection of songs and putting them on the same album is necessarily wrong, but because most people just don't have the patience to put up with it.

"Were not the kind of band thal's trying to write songs and put out albums to win fans," says Jon Fee, one of the bands two bass players. "None of us have ever wanted to be the 'summer of 2003' band that kind of represents the scene at that moment."

The Rum Diary is in no danger of becoming that band With a finely honed sense of musicianship and players with the creativity and talent to realize it, the band manages to craft one song after another that sounds nothing like the one before it. Some are last and precise, others are slow and murky The eight songs on The Rum Diary's sophomore album Poison's That Save Lives hardly seem like the work of the same group of musicians, in the course of its 60 minutes, the album sways from swirling pop to shoe-gazing weirdness. With two drum kits, two bass guitars, Moog synthesizer and Farfisa keyboards, along with guitars that are alternately jangly, overdriven or noodley, The Rum Diary's music is hard, soft and everything in between. The idea can be a little baffling.

"It's an album," says fee. "The concept of an album to me is 10 songs that take you around the world."

Tough the band's direction is sometimes hard to follow. Fee insists the process is purely organic.

"It's not like we're out to confuse anyone," says Fee. "We didn't set out to be who we are, we just kind of said 'Let's develop our own sound. If it sounds good, it sounds good.'"

Endlessly moving forward, The Rum Diary followed Poison's with a split release with Brooklyn's Kilowatthours The five songs the band contributes to the release are--surprise, surprise--as not a whole lot like anything else it has done.

The Rum Diary's unorthodox style hasn't earned it an excess of fans, but it has gained it the respect of fellow musicians and made the band an underground media darling.

"You kind of end up being a band's band," says Fee. "We've been really fortunate to get lots of great press, but what does that mean if people don't come to our shows? For me, having a fellow musician appreciate your music is better than having a bunch of screaming fans."

Fee has no illusions about the kind of future being in a forward-thinking, hard-to-categorize rock band holds.

"We're definitely serious about what we're doing," says Fee. "At the same time we re realistic about what we can or can't accomplish. Unless a big movement takes off it's going to be hard to be successful at what we're doing.

So this is a challenge Music isn't always meant to be swallowed in big gulps. Sometimes you have to take little sips, slosh it around and let the flavor sink in. The Rum Diary is looking for a few good fans. Are you up for some fine dining?