The Bad Penny (beta)

Memo to Cheap Trick: You’re not the only worthy band from Rockford, Illinois. In fact, sooner than later, you might have some serious competition.Say hello to Geronimo – or, rather, Geronimo! Indie rockers through and through, you could say they have it all: a rambunctious, fuzzy sound; a strong DIY ethic; and a spot-on sense of sarcastic humor.

The trio just self-released their first record, Fuzzy Dreams, a blitzkrieg of crashing post-rock, eight-minute psych odysseys and even a poppy moment or two. With percussionist Matt Schwerin setting the table, KJ Blaze scissors into his guitar and Benjamin Grigg dabbles with keys and horn throughout the nine ear-friendly tracks. All the while, Blaze and Grigg volley back and forth on vocals so closely attuned that it becomes difficult to distinguish one singer from the other.

Beyond the LP, the three amigos have squirted out an EP, A Different Kind of Greatness, and bagged a couple of regional tours too.

“So far, plan A of hopping on a tour with either the Foo Fighters or Alicia Keys has fallen through,” Geronimo! wrote in a hilarious post on their MySpace page. “The band was contacted by Aerosmith, but who wants to hear ‘Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing’ night after night. That’s the REAL Armageddon, am I right?!?!”

Their gig history also includes a show with another acerbic band from the area: Local H.

Grigg recently checked in with the Bad Penny and passed along an especially memorable memento from the second Geronimo! jaunt, leaving no doubt to their penchant for humor:

“It’s a long story, but basically, we were on tour in Columbus, Ohio and the nice fellows we were staying with had this order form on their mantle. Needless to say, it was the cause of countless belly laughs for the rest of tour. To this day, I think the mere mention of Baby Jingles gets a laugh out of us. Yup. It’s for real. Baby Jingles. Allow me to quote: ‘A whole new way to fall in love with babies.’ Unreal.”

Here’s the full Memento:

More Mementos:

• Research Society’s “2001” obsession, Lego’d
• A card from Wanda Jackson – and a matchbook too
• Branden Daniel’s Amazing Technisound Dream Vest
• Salme Dahlstrom’s coffee-centric contribution
• The Moog’s hairspray
• The Bad Penny’s button collection

This entry was posted on 06/14/2010 at 2:20 pm and is filed under Features, Mementos with tags Geronimo!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.