Buzz January February 2003 Featured Stories: The Rum Diary, Winfred E.Eye, Acid King, Simon Stinger




	The Rum Diary This post-rock noise outfit from Cotati may be the Bay Area’s brightest hope for indie rock. But, despite the media’s glowing praise, they’re still playing shows to ten people. Jon, Joe, Daniel, and Schuyler discuss misconceptions, growing up in Small Town, USA, and tour fiascoes. “We’re not big. I mean, I think we’re all really grateful that we’ve gotten a lot of really good press from a lot of great magazines and all but…. We still play shows with ten people in the Bay Area all the time.”
	Winfred E. Eye We gets down ‘n’ dirty with Oakland’s purveyor of desert swamp. “…I found that by listening to stuff like Bob Dylan and Will Oldham, there was something I could learn by focusing on the songs rather than just trying to come up with a nice jammy part. I mean, I really like bands like Drive Like Jehu, but I think we were just over it at that moment, and were like ‘Well, let’s just focus on doing the song part and let the writing take care of it,’ instead of ‘okay, here’s the song, let’s turn the guitar all the way up.’”
	Acid King SF stoner-rock trio, Acid King, led by Lori S., searches for a new audience, a new label, and new venues to bring fans all that’s heavy. “You can’t really play that much in this town. That’s why I’m not all that worried about the fact that there’s not that many clubs. Now bands can’t overplay.”
	Simon Stinger San Francisco pop band defies classification and the system they seem ready to buck. We dig deep to uncover the details of their amazing story. “We hadn’t even played a show as Simon Stinger when record companies started calling…. [Our] demo blew open so many doors for us and we were so not ready… Jeff Saltzman, Elliot Khan, the guys who made Green Day—they came to our first show. And we sucked!”
Plus... Reviews of live shows: Beyond The Pale @ DNA Lounge Nappy Roots Shake Up Stanford Flogging Molly & One Man Army @ Slim’s Buzz's Bands To Watch: Drunk Horse, Hudson Bell, EE, Mykee Hates Life CD reviews: Avail, Badly Drawn Boy, Beachwood Sparks, Hudson Bell, Bongzilla, David Cross, The Dillinger Escape Plan with Mike Patton, EE, Hot Water Music, Idaho, Iron and Wine, Johnny Marr + The Healers, Minus the Bear, Rocket From the Crypt, Sigur Ros, Steve Von Till, Hardcore Breakout 1,2,3 compilation, Punch Drunk IV compilation, Sucking the 70's compilation, Year of the Rabbit.