(sic) = factual error in the text of the article.
"Work Group's Imperial Drag Dresses Debut In '70s Style"
Billboard Magazine - 4/6/96
by Chris Morris
LOS ANGELES--Imperial Drag's self-titled debut, due May 14 (sic) [actual release: May 7] on Work Group, exhibits the befuddled wealth of musical influences one might expect two former members of Jellyfish to bring to the table. Yet the co-presidents of Work Group find the end product original unto itself.
"You wind up in reviewer hell, because everybody says, 'This record borrows from everything,'" says Jeff Ayeroff. "Well, this record borrows from a lot of things, and it finds its own uniqueness in that."
Ayeroff's longtime business partner Jordan Harris adds, "I can [hear] so many things, but when I listen to it, it's got its own sound...They're all things that I love, but they've integrated them together in such a great way."
Indeed, Imperial Drag melds a wealth of rock and pop-rock styles, mainly form the '70s: Sharp-eared listeners may be able to pick out styles of T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, and the Raspberries, among others.
In that respect, Imperial Drag bears some resemblance to Jellyfish, the eclectic Charisma Records group that included keyboardist Roger Manning and guitarist/vocalist Eric Dover in its touring incarnation.
Manning says that he wanted to incorporate Dover's writing into Jellyfish.
"To make a long story short, the band broke up," Manning explains. "[Bandmate] Andy [Sturmer] and I were just kind of on the outs personally. I knew that Eric had a lot of material stockpiled. I said, 'Send me out a tape; I want to check it out.' I thought the stuff he was working on at the time and the stuff I was working on at the time were comparable. I though there was enough common ground there to start working together and start putting a group together."
Dover came to L.A. from his home of Birmingham, Ala., and Manning and Dover put together a 13-song demo. Virgin (home of Charisma) waffled on signing the band, so the musicians approached the Work Group; Harris had signed Jellyfish to Virgin when he ran the company with Ayeroff years before.
However, before a label deal was finalized, Dover got a call to work with Slash's Snakepit, the hard rock unit led by Guns N'Roses lead guitarist.
"I didn't have anything to offer him," Manning says of Dover. "The record deal was in limbo. You know GN'R: Slash basically told him to scream for 55 minutes. And because Eric's voice is really versatile, as you can tell from our record, he could do that also.
Imperial Drag's pop-savvy original material, published by Sunshine Suicide Songs/Virgin Music (ASCAP), runs far afield from Snakepit's no-frills hard rock.
While Manning sidesteps attempts to probe specific precursors, he says of the band's music, "There was definitely a conscious effort on a lot of this material to write music that obviously had a melodic and lyrical hook. But we had already tried to go for songs that had undeniable grooves, dancy albums, in the way that Zeppelin would have done a funk songs or something. Do I dare say 'riff-rock?'"
After onetime XTC producer John Leckie bowed out of the recording project, Imperial Drag (which includes drummer Eric Skodis and bassist Joseph Karnes) entered the studio with Nashville-based producer Brad Jones, who has worked with Jill Sobule and several Music City acts.
Manning says of Jones, "He was only a few years older than us, so when we made references to stuff, he'd understand. At the same time, it was important to us that, although we were inspired by things of the past and present, we don't get trapped in this retro bag."
Ayeroff says, "The last thing that this record is is a retro record. It's a very futuristic record. I think this is a harbinger of what's going to happen."
The Work Group will kick off Imperial Drag with the April 23 release of the single "Boy Or Girl."
"It will go to alternative and rock radio," Ayeroff says. "It's not a record that'll be all alternative. It's a record that can go both ways...It'll probably be a pop record eventually, but we're not going there first. We have to develop a base."
Harris sees cross-format potential for the album: "I feel that it's so refreshing that a lot of different formats are going to respond to it. Already, the reaction at alternative and rock radio has been exceptional."
The album's cover will complement its sound, which is at heart '70s-derived.
"The package is really funny," Ayeroff says. "It's this great '70s coke mirror that one of the guys brought in...The first 50,000 units have a foil-stamp starburst on them. The package is going to be a little deluxe."
Imperial Drag, which is managed by Carr/Sharpe Management in Beverly Hills, Calif., and booked by ICM, has no firm tour plans as yet. However, the group is performing April 13 at a special show for label personnel and industry members at the Viper Room in L.A.
"We're having 'Workstock,'" Ayeroff says with a chuckle. "We're having all our staff come in, and we're having three days of music."
"We're going to bring a lot of retail and radio and press people down to see the band," Harris adds.
On May 7, Restless Records will release a side project by Manning, "The Moog Cookbook," which features synthesizer versions of contemporary rock tracks by the keyboardist and collaborator Brian Kehew.
