Huck on the Verge, Worcester Magazine, April 25, 2002

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The best band in the city

has a new CD and may be

ready for national fame.

But can a Worcester act

make it to the big time?

Huck on the vergeHuck on the verge

B y C h a r l e n e A r s e n a u l t

Scott Ricciuti, before his recent haircut.

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W O R C E S T E R M A G A Z I N E A P R I L 2 5 , 2 0 0 2 1 1

As far as some people are con-cerned, the members of Huck are already stars. “As a kid there were songs that perma-

nently tied themselves to an emotion of my adolescence,” says Nicole Langlois, an avid Huck fan who rarely misses its shows. “Whenever I hear [Abba’s] ‘Dancing Queen,’ I actually feel what I felt when I was 12. Well, Huck will be that for my 20s. But instead of awkwardness and insecurity, I’ll feel giddy and joyful and remember my days of care-free dancing in the crowd, singing back to the band.”

He says he’s here to stay: Huck’s latest bassist, Paul Dagnello.

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Thunderbirds. Duke Levine played with country great Mary Chapin Carpenter.

And the truth is, why not Worcester? Why not Huck, for that matter? Why isn’t some smarmy executive doing lunch with frontman Scott Ricciuti to refer him to a new set of stylists, or describing how the label will convert him into a Tiger Beat boy with sensa-tional hair and leather pants?

While lots of barely-passable tunes clog FM radio, every city has got a few knockout bands that could wiggle their way into the hearts of millions of they were given half a chance. Worcester is no different. In fact, the city has prov-en for years to be an exceptionally fertile breeding ground for musicians — a remarkable phenomenon in itself.

“I think there is a lot of talent here because there are a lot of hungry peo-ple,” says Roger Lavallee, frontman for the band The Curtain Society and the man who recorded Huck’s records. “The depressed nature of this area makes people want to try harder. And it’s not just bands and musicians. It’s people like Rod Libbey and Phil Davidson, the crème de la crème of soundmen. In my opinion, Huxley

[another Worcester band] is as good as any CD that I’ve bought by any band. Huck is as good as any band I’ve bought on CD, and I’m a snob.”

Bewkenheimer. The Curtain Society. Guilford. Roger Salloom. The Deal. Joanna Connor. Preston Wayne. Thinner. The Belmondos. Rick Blaze. Jimmy and Joey D’Angelo. Rich Falco. Zonkaraz. Albatross. The Orleans. Hothouse. Emil Haddad and Dick Odgren. The American Standard Band (see sidebar, page 14.) The list of exceptional artists who have come and gone, and who are still cranking on the scene, is amaz-ingly extensive for a working-class mill town.

“I always told people that if you were an ambitious A&R guy,” says Ricciuti, “you could really mine the talent here. There’s nothing else to do here. There’s smack, or start a band. Ok, that’s a bad quote

— there are a lot of things to do in beautiful Worcester. This town just has a hard time pull-ing itself together, but we’re doing better.”

Part of the reason Huck hasn’t broken out beyond

Worcester is that it doesn’t make music designed to follow the trendy hits. They play what they like, “another problem with people not breaking out more,” says Lavallee. “Guilford [anoth-er local act] is a perfect example. These are creative people. They are not pro-motions people. I mean, The Curtain Society definitely has aspirations to be as big as we can, but on our own terms. Huck is the same way. It’s not about selling out. We do what we do. We’re offering you what we do. A band like Huck — what they do just happens to be fantastic. I don’t think Huck is going to do something specifically because it will be commercial.”

If only that were the sole barrier. There are plenty of other factors that might block a band from getting noticed. Huck, frankly, has historically been a little passive about marketing and touring. You gotta want it bad to break through the static.

Huck is one of the first bands that ambitious A&R guy who came to Worcester would, and should, snatch up. With a CD

release this weekend (their fourth


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From left:

Huck’s Dan Lucas, Scott

Ricciuti and Paul Dagnello with buddies in The Curtain Society (Duncan

Arsenault, Roger Lavallee and Ron Mominee) at the Tremolo Lounge.

Huck may be as big as Abba to a

fan like Langlois, but to the

world, it’s unknown. So far, any-

way. Yet if there were any justice

in the universe, this band will be famous. Ask

anyone who has heard it. Listen yourself to

the smiley pop of “Motorbike,” and you’ll

wonder why Britney Spears or Creed is gob-

bling up so much of the airwaves while a

band like Huck is still lugging its own amps

to Ralph’s and The Lucky Dog.

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Maybe that’s the problem. It’s not like Worcester is New York or L.A. or even Detroit when it comes to produc-ing stars. Huck may be the ones who prove the naysayers wrong, those who believe no homegrown band can break out of the local scene.

Huck isn’t the only act looking to get past Worcester and make it to the show. There’s a local musician named Marc Copely who’s sitting on the edge

of a breakthrough as we speak. The Worcester native’s RCA album is set to come out sometime in June and is said to be a smash in the making (these things are predicted nowadays).

And there are others. Vertical Horizon (see sidebar, page 17) did it their way. Troy Gonyea consistently dents the national blues scene and just signed on to tour with the Fabulous

Huck’s man on percussion, Dan Lucas.


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takes a careful alignment of the planets to shoot for the stars. Vertical Horizon had put out three of their own releases and toured extensively for 10 years before RCA signed them. “They got signed because of their own hard work, and talent, and luck,” says Puccio. “And they pounded the old pavement.”

“You’re not going to get signed by never leaving Worcester,” says local guitarist Cliff Goodwin, whose group The American Standard Band cut a two-record deal with Island Records in 1979. “Now, Scott [Ricciuti] happens to be a fantastic songwriter, so he war-rants a career even if not with the band, or a publishing deal at the least.

His songs are just great, and you can do a publishing deal from anywhere, but you have to be connected to somebody in New York, L.A., Nashville, or Memphis.”

Copely’s road to RCA was slightly dif-ferent, in that he hadn’t released his own material first. Before the label showcases began, Copely was a stun-ning R&B guitarist known as Marc


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A little help from their friends

Local guitarist Cliff Goodwin, whose group The American Standard Band cut a two-record deal with Island Records in ’79, knows the roller-coaster ride of the music business well.

At the time, the band was reportedly the largest American signing on that particular label. Irish hopefuls U2 were signed to Island the same year.

Connections had gotten American Standard to the Island deal. By hiring the right manager in the first place, the group (Goodwin, John Riley, Derek Dyer, Howie Hersh, Kevin Falvey) nabbed a gig as Joe Cocker’s recording and touring band for years (their career with Cocker spanned from ’76 to ’88).

“We had already been on the road with Joe,” says Goodwin, “and, without a doubt, that opened doors. We were in Miami recording Joe’s album Luxuries You Can Afford. The producer was Alex Sadkin, and Alex was leaving to join as staff producer for Island. He was impressed with the band and the work we were doing with Joe, so he brought us to Island Records.”

Sadkin introduced American Standard to Island owner Chris Blackwell, who was impressed immediately. Island Records sunk a ton of cash and push behind The American Standard Band, which went on a dozen tours with U2. The first time American Standard toured with U2 it head-lined. The second time, U2 did. The first album by American Standard hit record store shelves. The second one, however, didn’t.

“The time wasn’t right,” says Goodwin. “How many acts do we know were fantastic, but weren’t as big as Led Zeppelin? Let’s face it — the kid that goes into the record store has to choose between the new Cars, Led Zeppelin, or U2 album. At that point you either sink or swim.”

Goodwin estimates The American Standard Band sold around 200,000 copies of its debut. Now playing guitar with the Mohegan All-Stars and Wilbur and the Dukes, he has no regrets and says he and the band were never delusional about where it was headed. While he brushes his teeth in his bathroom, he still glances at the gold records on his walls in there — from the Cocker recordings to the Robert Palmer album Secrets that he played on. It still makes him smile. “All the mega-stars retain their humility,” he says. “As Bob Dylan says, ‘You’ve got to serve somebody.’

“I remember we were playing with U2 in the early ’80s, and Bono said to Joe, ‘Don’t you get tired of playing ‘Feeling All Right’ and ‘You Are So Beautiful?’ And he said, ‘You should be lucky enough to have a hit.’ And then when we played with them again, they were headlining, and I said ‘Hey Bono, how do you feel about ‘Pride (In the Name of Love)’ now?’ And he chuckled. You just can’t ever get bored with what you’re doing.” ❏

--C.A.


Now that I’ve been with the band a few years, I want a little more of the take:

Bassist Paul Dagnello (right) chats with frontman Scott Ricciuti.

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independent), it represents the quint-essential struggling local band. It has an avid fan base and plays relentlessly around the area. Any clubgoer has at least heard their name. And the CD is getting good buzz. “This is the best pop record to come out of Worcester, ever,” says Lavallee, “and probably one of the best to come out, period.”

Does Huck deserve fame and for-tune? Most definitely, when measured

in terms of talent. But deserving does not equal achieving. It takes a mix of unrelenting drive, pride, business savvy and luck.

Take Copely, for instance, or Vertical Horizon. Worcester attorney Frank Puccio, who still works closely with both of these acts (he says he’s the “ultimate authority” on all legal mat-ters that concern the artists), knows it

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Ricciuti, Lucas and Dagnello with Lavallee,

“Huck’s fourth member in the studio.”


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Barnicle. One day in the late ’90s, shortly after a major car accident involving a moose, Barnicle sat down with Puccio to talk about his musical future. “He was a bit bent out of shape physically and men-tally,” says Puccio. “I said that I think it’s important that you get out of Worcester and write your own music. I went to see him at his first performance at the Plantation Club. He had music and lyrics propped on a music stand. It was a good first effort, but he had a long way to go.”

Copely’s path from there involved a short stint with Mary Lou Lord, record-ing demos at the Tremolo Lounge with Lavallee (who went to NYC this summer to help finish the RCA debut), and then performing solo, which is where luck played a role.

“He was out in a club in Provincetown,” says Puccio, “and someone gets up and says ‘I’d like to be your manager.’ He was from the Invasion Group in New York City. I negotiated that. Marc never did much touring, which is the opposite of most of my experiences. The manage-ment team did an excellent job. They hooked him up with the songwriter David Werner, got him some showcases, so that’s how he got hooked up. One thing I’ve always told people — you never know who is going to be in that audi-ence.”

Ricciuti, though he’d essentially like to


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Scott Ricciuti at the mike, with his

trademark Rickenbacker.


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The event of Vertical HorizonLed by Worcester natives Matt Scannell and Keith Kane, Vertical Horizon

had a long-lasting No. 1 hit with “Everything You Want” (off the album of the same name). If you had a radio last year, you heard the song.

It took the group about 10 years to land a record deal with RCA. Within those 10 years, Vertical put out three of its own independent releases, selling about 800,000 copies. The band also toured relentlessly. As the band’s lawyer and past manager Frank Puccio explains, Vertical Horizon’s breakout was the result of talent, knowing the right people, and being in the right place at the right time.

“They had built a strong fan base by touring a lot,” says Puccio, “particularly in the mid-Atlantic and south Atlantic area and across Texas. That helped get a number of labels interested. Eventually, they hired a management company through playing out with Jackopierce. And then they met their business man-ager at a show, and she’s been with them ever since. That was just the luck of the draw.”

Non-stop touring, and its manager, led Vertical Horizon to the prominent South by Southwest Festival in Texas, where a number of labels expressed inter-est. One was RCA, which then led to a label showcase in NYC. RCA presented the most attractive deal, so Scannell and the boys signed it. The debut, Everything You Want, eventually went platinum.

“I think sometimes bands think it’s just ‘Well, I want to get signed,’ ” says Puccio. “They just don’t have the concept of what’s involved. I don’t think [Worcester musicians] are being held back by some negative sense of where they’re from. Most young kids don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘I’m going out on the road, and to hell with my day job.’ But sometimes, that’s just required.”

Vertical Horizon did have that luxury, and ended up saturating the charts with three hits last year: “Everything You Want,” “You’re a God” and “The Best I Ever Had.” The band is presently recording its second RCA record in California.

“You just have to suck it up,” says Puccio. “People like Scannell and Kane, music is their life. They were willing to make the sacrifices to get where they are. Most people don’t want to go through all this crap. They want to be handed the brass ring and get on the merry-go-round. The amount of effort that goes into this is just amazing. I keep talking about headaches, but if you do make it and the checks start rolling in, it makes the headaches more palatable.” ❏

--C.A.

see the same thing happen to Huck, doesn’t think Copely’s story parallels his. “Musically, it doesn’t do much for me,” says Ricciuti. “It doesn’t seem as real to me. He seems to be doing well, and that’s good. It will be good for the city if he makes it. I’ll be the first one to see him play at the Centrum. It just doesn’t seem that he’s cut his teeth with his kind of music in the local clubs as much as he should have. I don’t think I deserve it more, but I think it’s a little closer to the heart with us. I think we have a little more honesty in what we do.”

Huck, in fact, has showcased for about a dozen labels, recently for MCA in New York, where Ricciuti was stricken with laryngitis the morning of the show. They played and the execs thanked them kindly for coming. In ’94, the sec-retary for Mercury Records told the band that the label’s owner had thrown the band’s first disc My Boy Joe in his bag to take on a skiing trip to Switzerland. Months later, Ricciuti read in Rolling Stone that the exec had just signed some other act as the next big thing after hearing that one’s disc while on vaca-tion in Switzerland. The label still told Huck to keep in touch.

Ricciuti also recalls a time at the Mercury Lounge, where Huck played for a Mercury Records peep that had been Nirvana’s manager. “She hap-pened to show up about halfway through the set,” says Ricciuti, “so I jok-ingly said to her, ‘You mean your only



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to get our music out to the so-called right people. We’re trying to, but you’d think after four albums ... you know, the boxed set will be coming out next year.”

Long a Mark Twain fan, Ricciuti formed Huck with his steadfast drum-mer and former UMass/Lowell room-mate Dan Lucas in ’93. It was shortly after their run in Childhood, a band that rocked Worcester through the ’80s. Huck has since been a regular favorite on the local and underground pop scene. Four full-length records and a couple of EPs later, the crowds are still multiplying and the band still lives to sweat and smoke on that stage (par-ticularly Dagnello, who often dangles a butt from his lip during a perfor-mance).

Ricciuti obviously appreciates the songsmanship of ’70s mainstream pop, and has since he first learned chords on his brother’s Yamaha. He half-jokes that “Hot Child in the City” is the greatest rock song of all time and the band put Hall and Oates’s “Rich Girl” — a set-list regular — on the last disc. He loves the melody of bubble gum classics (“Sugar Sugar” is still a live mainstay), grew up idolizing The Who and The Beatles, and fell into a serious obsession with The Pixies in the ’80s. All of it shows, clearly, in his songwrit-ing.

This Saturday night (April 27) at the Lucky Dog Music Hall, Huck cele-brates the official release of Motorbike Fire Lovesong. The CD was created, as

Huck’s last three were, at the hands of Lavallee at Tremolo Lounge in Boylston. It’s been a long time in the making, particularly with producer Lavallee off in Manhattan this summer recording Marc Copely. “I left in June,” says Lavallee. “It was for five months and time stood still. I left Huck’s record. I left our [The Curtain Society’s] record and five other records unfinished. I brought a CD of every-body’s rough mixes. All summer I’m just listening to it, and it’s building and building. I’m there working for this big major label record company thing and all I wanted to do was go home and work on the Huck record.”

Motorbike Fire Lovesong marks not only Dagnello’s first Huck recording, but also an evolution in style for the whole band. Compared to Grudge, Motorbike has a grittier effect, partial-ly because of Dagnello’s youthful, aggressive attack on the bass. Matched neck-and-neck with Lucas’s heavy-handed, stated percussion, it is power-ful pop.

With command over the hook essen-tial to pop, Ricciuti has concocted a melodic framework that wraps sugary tones around his poignant, sometimes dark, pen. “When I write a song, I try to write something I’d like to hear,” he says. “If I think it’s kind of boring or not working, I’ll just keep working on it until it’s more interesting. Until it’s mo’ betta. For instance, lately I’ve been trying to put more minor 7th chords and major 7th chords in there. It’s an effort to try to be better and to listen.”

The inspiration for Motorbike Fire


job is to go out and check bands out and you can’t even get here on time?’ I’m such a laugh riot, but unfortunate-ly she didn’t take it that well. What can you do?” Bass player Paul Dagnello has also recently taken on much of the marketing duties, along with de facto manager Colin Butler.

“Worcester has such a great punk scene, too,” says Ricciuti, chasing a nip of Yukon Jack with a Beck’s on a recent night at the Tremolo Lounge. “You could say that a lot of the punk

bands should be played on the radio rather than Green Day. Well, maybe not Green Day. I like Green Day.”

He thinks a bit. “You know, it’s just the luck of the draw. I mean, do I want to be famous? Yeah, everyone wants to be famous. I want to be a wicked rock staah,” he says, in his best Wustah dia-lect. “But I’m having a blast playing with him and the other guy. We could probably be more aggressive, but at this stage of the game, time is sort of limited. We’re doing everything we can

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Huck on stage, and in the studio.

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Lovesong evolved from a conversation with former Huck bassist Dave Robinson, who happened to say the word motorbike. Ricciuti just loved the sound of it. The idea developed into a sort of “concept album,” with a batch of tunes about relationships gone right and wrong. “That’s Love,” “Mill Town Girl,” “Don’t Tell Mary,” and Dagnello’s “Leaf” jump into your head. You can feel “Motorbike” rev.

“You can’t really easily put Huck’s sound into a package,” says Lavallee, “and say it’s this kind of music or that kind of music. But the fact that they tend to have the ’70s golden era of pop music influence — whether it be Joe Jackson or whatever — there is some-thing about a Huck song that has that kind of sensibility that catches people.”

What it needs to catch is certain people — A&R people in New York and California. “I don’t think anybody in the business would pay attention to anything unless you grabbed them by the collar and dragged them to you,” says Lavallee, “I mean, I don’t think there is any label looking at Stamford, Connecticut, either and thinking that that’s the next hotbed.”

Puccio believes Worcester breeds and breathes as a cocoon, and to assume the world will notice is self-defeating. “Personally, I think it’s irrel-evant if you’re from Worcester,” he says. “I’ve been to numerous clubs around here, and there are excellent musicians here, but they won’t go any-where staying around here. You have to get your face out and get people talking to you and make contacts. I

don’t think it’s Worcester’s fault. It just doesn’t happen around here. Any band that wants to progress has to get out.”

Although the members of Huck would love to quit their day jobs, they simply love to be on that stage —whether it is in the corner at Vincent’s or at the Worcester Centrum. To Ricciuti, just seeing that one fan sing his words along with him in the audi-ence makes it worthwhile.

But surely Huck is trying to step beyond these walls of Worcester. “Lately we’ve been talking about get-ting better management,” says Ricciuti. “We’ve been sitting back on our lau-rels. We want to make it a habit to go to D.C. and as far as we can. We’re not at the level of touring all the time, but we’ll do something that makes sense - like take a week here or there, without losing our jobs. We need to set up more showcases. It’s time for us to step up to the next level.” ❏

Charlene Arsenault may be reached at [email protected].


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Documents

Huck on the Verge, Worcester Magazine, April 25, 2002