Circus of Power

Rip It Up, Issue 191, 1 June 1993, Page 4

Circus of Power

Circus of Power (of the infamous 'Motor' song, the one that lovingly compares a woman's body parts to those of a motorcycle) have just released a new album, Magic and Madness, and it's a humdinger, if you dig raunchy, blues-based rock with lyrics that revel in rock mythology: evil women, swamp devils, tequila mamas, backseat mamas, trash queens — you'll find 'em all in the songs of Circus of Power. But three albums into their career Circus of Power are still a little- known commodity here, and in America, although they've just finished a three week tour with Alice In Chains and Masters of Reality, they're hardly a household name. "Slow and frustrating" is how guitarist Gary Sunshine describes their progress over the phone to me from their new home in Los Angeles (COP hail from New York originally). But things are better now they've switched labels.

Gary is remarkably subdued, polite and matter-of-fact — it's hard to get a rise out of him. When I ask him if the band lives the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle they write about in their songs, he says simply "Not necessarily as much as we did at first, I think you kind of have to pace yourself on the road, same old story with everybody." adding, "I guess that's part of the language of rock and roll and the blues, it's hard to avoid."

As for the perception of the band as a biker band (hardly surprising when you consider the lyrics and the photo of them grouped around a couple of Harleys on their first record), Gary says it's not accurate. Some of them ride, some don't. Music is more consuming right now and they have neither the time nor money to indulge their taste for bikes. Oh well. Funny that you can count Iggy Pop amongst your fans (he wrote a

song specially for them on their first record even though he'd never met them) and still be broke.

This time lan Astbury does vocal honours on a song called 'Shine', another celebrity COP fan. An idea they cooked up when they bumped into him at a Raging Slab show in LA. Appearing together on an animal rights bill a few weeks later (animals are a passion for singer Alex Mitchell who counts a wolf dog called Tonka among his best friends) lan sang some Neil Young and Beatles songs with the group and subsequently recorded 'Shine', on which lan (to quote Gary) "sings his ass off".

Circus of Power have also toured Europe with Black Sabbath ("it had Tony lomi but it wasn't really the full Sabbath so it wasn't what it could have been. It wasn't Ozzie singing or anything like that") and America with Blue Oyster Cult, the original dudes, but past

their prime. But Gary does get enthused when asked if he digs the blues. "Sure, absolutely, no question, it's where all rock music starts. Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, Albert King. We certainly have a deep affection for it but we're not limited by it. We like all kinds of other things, jazz and punk bands. I have personal favourites from different styles —

Albert King, John Coltrane — there's a few that are just the greatest musicians that ever lived and those are my personal inspiration. But as far as bands — the Ramones are always an important band, and the Clash and the Stooges and the Beatles." And will Circus of Power be gracing these shores with their presence any time soon? "It's possible," concedes Gary with a sigh, "We're supposed to go everywhere."

DONNA YUZWALK