Growing Pains: Baby Ray Take Giant Steps

Stuff at Night, February 1, 2000
Music: Jonathan Perry

Sometimes life really does imitate art. Given the topsy twists and turvy turns of Baby Ray's music, it stands to reason that sooner or later something unexpected might happen to the band. Baby Ray thrive on the unpredictable, and when one walks the sonic high wire as often as they do, risk is a big part of the package. So perhaps it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to discover that the group recently made the bold move of leaving their new York-based label, Thirsty Ear, when the imprint elected not to pick up Baby Ray's option. The band had issued two critically adored discs with Thirsty Ear, 1998's Monkeypuzzle and last October's stellar Do I Love America EP. According to singer guitarists Erich Groat and Ken Lafler, the parting was amicable.

"In many ways, Thirsty Ear was a good fit because they took a long-term view of us," says Lafler, who is nursing a horrible cold. We are seated with Groat at the 1369 Coffee House in Central Square, having afternoon coffee and tea. "[But] we thought some of the stuff we had put out had more college-radio potential, and we talked to them about bringing in some outside promotion, and those were ideas they were never very warm to....And to go out on tour for any amount of time is really expensive. We were hoping, at some point, that the label would pick up that end of things and just assist us. We were willing to work hard, but that wasn't something they were in a position to do, or it just wasn't the way they did things."

Even as we speak, Baby Ray have a nearly finished album in the can, and they're shopping it to several labels. Interested A&R scouts -- as well as the rest of us -- will get the chance to hear the band when they settle in for a residency at the Lizard Lounge every Wednesday night in February. In addition to playing with a bushel of great bands this month (Francine, Auto 66, Banjo Spiders, Jules Verdone, etc.) there's a good chance that the Babys will be previewing their batch of new material. Seems the group's split from their label hasn't kept the creative juices from flowing.

"Nope" Groat says. "We got into this in the first place because we did nothing but record songs all of the time, and we were just trying to have a vehicle for getting them out there. With the EP, we didn't want to wait forever for the next album to come out, and we had a whole bunch of songs sitting there -- some left over from the Monkeypuzzle sessions, some from other recording sessions that we did, just making demos."

It took some time for Groat and Lafler to develop -- and believe in -- those work habits. "Futzing around with music is something I've always done, but for me it was just writing one particular song ["Snipe Hunter"] and making a decision that I'm going to write songs assuming that I'm on the same level as any other songwriter that I admire," Groat says. "Once you give up aspiring to do something, that's when you can do it." Lafler grins impishly. "Me? I'm still futzing around," he says.

In fact, that's pretty much the way Baby Ray began. During the mid '90s, Groat and Lafler -- who've been friends since their days at Williams College and have played in several bands together -- decided to move away from the deadly serious approach of their band at the tine, Brain Helicopter. They formed Tweety U.K., a project that restored a sorely needed sense of adventure and humor to the music. Those elements -- plus ace musicians drummer Nathan Logus and bassist Paul Simonoff -- later became the core of Baby Ray. "The idea [of Tweety U.K.]," says Lafler, "was to play instruments we had never played before and see what would happen. And I think it was a good head-clearing thing. With Brain helicopter, the music didn't have much fun in it, and we weren't having much fun. And y'know, if you're not having fun playing rock, then please: stop."

Baby Ray still claim to play rock. And though their multifaceted melodies and sharp, left-turn time signatures also roll, pop, swoop, and soar gloriously, Groat and Lafler are quick to point out that they do so within the confines of a standard two-guitars-bass-drums line-up. "A lot of bands are trying to stretch that with unusual instrumentation, or by crossing rock with other genres like dance, which has sucked away a lot of the energy from what used to be rock music," Groat says. "Everybody's experimenting, and that's fine -- that can be really productive. But after a while, everything gets crossed with everything else, and you have this mass of not-very-bold stuff anymore. We're just sticking with pop-rock music, and we're not trying to stretch the dimensions of it. We're just trying to write better songs."