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Makin'
Noise
The
Trigger Locks' New Album
Blasts
Country Convention
By Joshua Kors
St.
George, UT -
Classify the Trigger Locks at your own risk.
Recently the readers of the Salt Lake City Weekly dared to do just
that, labeling the quintet "Utah's Best Country Band."
Nate Torgerson, the group's guitarist and singer, couldn't help
but chuckle at that distinction: Sure, he and his bandmates wear
boots. But Torgerson has always insisted the Locks stand for rock
jams, not hoe downs.
Now he has an album to prove it.
"Gold @ Anything," the Trigger Locks' sophomore release,
provides a string of tunes so diverse, it plays like a compilation
CD from a host of rock talents. While songs like "Messenger"
stroll along with the folk-country feel of their first album, "Broken
Halo," other tracks like "Show a Little Leg" march
to a thrash-influenced drummer. The album even sports the ditty
"Loaded Gun," which -
far from sounding country-esque -
plays like a title from a lost Beatles record.
Which
is just the way Torgerson likes it. "The only thing I care
about," he said, "is not making the same record twice.
Cause if you repeat yourself, what's the point?"
It's
that adventurous spirit that drives the band, said Sean Taylor,
who strokes the black and white keys on the Trigger |
December
28, 2001 |
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Locks'
new album. Especially in concert, he said, the band
members
play without a destination in mind. They go where the
music
takes them, and the result, in Taylor's words, is "raw, unpolished."
"In
Utah there aren't really many 'let go and have fun' bands, but that's
what we do," Taylor said. "We're no frills and no gimmicks.
We're makin' noise. None of us goes out there pretending to be somebody
they're not."
That means you'll never find Taylor donning the zebra-print pants
and designer gold chains of the common rock star. Which is just
as well: He would hardly be able to afford them anyway. Like his
four bandmates, Taylor keeps a day job to pay the rent. Actually,
the pianist keeps two -- one as a welder, the other as a trucker
for Kings Trucking in St. George. The trucking company gives Taylor
cargo to haul from gig to gig, including stops to the stages of
Odgen, Logan and Sacramento, Calif.
Along that route, the band has picked up its share of devoted Trigger-heads.
Ryan Sevy liked the band so much, he moved in with two of its members.
"They're the Rolling Stones, but more modern -
rock 'n' roll, but danceable. I've watched them go from a 'just
mediocre' band to something really awesome," said Sevy, who
estimates he's been to 10 Locks concerts in the last year. "Their
harmonies are really tight and their lyrics are catchy. I listen
to their album all the time."
Apparently he isn't the only one. At their concerts down in Dixie,
Sevy said, he notices a lot of "girl groupies," all of
whom know all the songs.
But Torgerson knows that making it in the music business will take
more than a clutch of fans -
it'll take sales, too. And as an independent band without the name
recognition of MTV's stars, the Trigger Locks have an uphill climb
in that category. The band has struggled to turn "Gold @ Anything"
into anything resembling gold.
At the CD Warehouse in St. George, the store has sold only one copy
of the Locks' latest album. Jacob Smith, a retailer at the Warehouse,
said sales are always slow for Dixie-based bands. Smith placed "Gold
@ Anything" in a prominent rack by the cash register -
alongside "Home Grown 2," a compilation by local artists
-
but his efforts, he said, have been for naught.
"I try hard to support local music, but it's hard. All people
care about are the Britney Spearses and 'N Syncs of the world,"
Smith said. "Local music just doesn't fly out the door like
other albums."
Torgerson has a theory why that's so: His band hasn't penetrated
the radio like the top commercial bands. "It doesn't matter
if the music's good," he said. "If it gets played on the
radio, people are going to buy it."
Torgerson has been working, then, to stake his band's claim to the
FM dial. Already the Trigger Locks have secured some airplay on
Salt Lake's KRCL 90.9. They are also getting their sound out there
by performing twice a week.
"St. George needs some culture, some tradition," Taylor
said. And the Trigger Locks, it seems, will do anything to provide
their share of it. Last New Year's Eve, when there were no venues
left open, the band built their own stage in Washington Fields,
along Old Dam Road. "We built it out of lumber, then pulled
a trailer in and a flat bed truck and told people to come,"
Taylor said. "It was word of mouth, basically. And it was my
first show with the band. We probably had about a 100 people out
there."
This New Year's Eve the Trigger Locks won't have to work nearly
as hard: They're already slated to play St. George's Homegrown Stage
on Tabernacle Street, part of the official First Night festivities.
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