I was walking around the Asylum tent this past summer at the Cornerstone Festival in Illinois when I was struck by an odd sight. It was around 1:00 in the morning and standing outside the tent was this scrawny little guy with an acoustic guitar and an odd looking suitcase. He seemed antagonistic at first saying that he could play something gothic for us (the Asylum being C-Stone's central Gothic hangout and all), but it turned out to be far more humorous than malicious.
He walked up to us playing a song he simply called "The Boogeyman". It was a charming title, so we gave it a listen. He interspersed the song with equal parts soft acoustic picking and whispering (the scared little girl in her bed) and heavy growling and frantic strumming (the boogeyman himself). It seemed as if it were a cleverly written shot at any given hardcore band that had copped its sound from any given seventh generation imitation that had taken their own sound from a band the generation before. After a few more numbers, I was sold and quickly became friends with this fellow.
Throughout the week, we terrorized Cornerstone with late night porta pottie raids (we sang to disoriented campers who had stopped in for a midnight restroom break) that actually earned us quite a following by the end of the week. All the while we were selling copies of this record he had put together entitled Skulls and Chains.
Scott Potter's music is equal parts bratty humour (Calibretto), acoustic raunch (Violent Femmes) and straight ahead goofiness. The songs aren't all that serious with their clever swipes at popular rock bands with baritone vocalists (i.e. Creed) and other pop culture idiocies. For the religious minded, he does give an altar call on the emotionally-hyped "Who Needs Pants When You've Got Jesus?". The production is lo-fi but that's part of its charm. Let's face it - D.I.Y. recordings aren't supposed to sound as if they came out of polished hip hop producer's studios. As if the Neptunes would touch this anyway right?
Regardless, this record is excellent and definitely worth the listen. If for nothing else, to bring to mind the festival that half of us seem to align our entire calendar around every year.
3/4
