IMPLE PLEASURES
by Chris King
(of the RiverFront Times)

 

The Imps are a unique sonic experience. Their driving, melodic pop music is not common in this town. We mostly get rootsy pop along the lines of Wilco or the bloated alternative variety once typified by Pale Divine.The Imps stray from the paths of '80s pop not often taken, at least not here, not lately (unless I'm missing something, which is quite possible). They groove like the Smiths did when Johnny Marr was still in love with Morrissey's melodies (all three of them). The Imps have more than three melodies. Singer Frank DiPiazza just wanders around, goes all over the place, and he has just the voice to get him there.

Drummer Dino Nicastro, who happens to have matinee-idol good looks, and bassist Steve Nowels, who grew up around the Webster Groves ska scene, play together, tight, smooth and clean.Guitarist Mike Grasso winds around them with wonderful harmonic inventiveness; he holds his guitar as high as his neck, and his playing makes me think, sometimes, of Tom Verlaine. Over those three, DiPiazza comes swooning and crooning. The guy could be Bono-he's that soulful. The best pop singer in town, I would say. And, fortunately, he does not fetishize his voice the way Bono does, even did at his best. It's just like, that sweet shit is what happens to come out of the guy when he sings. When he speaks, that's a different matter, which adds greatly to the uniqueness of the sonic experience. The band grooves you into lush, harmonic pop heaven. Then they stop, and the singer, who just made you think of angels with electric guitars, starts to chatter like some Brooklyn busboy. When he tells his audience "This song, it's a beautiful song" we don't feel crowded by ego; we feel charmed by a naive but sweetly talented kid who knows he deserves better than balancing dirty plates on each other. I can see why they are thinking of calling their upcoming CD Innocence is Full of Pleasure.

The Imps' origin story is a familiar one. They grew from cover bands and chance meetings in music stores. Unlike most local rock bands, they can claim some jazz training -- guitarist Grasso and drummer Nicastro both did some time in SIU-Edwardsville's jazz program. They've been playing together as the Imps about three-and-a-half years. They write together at practice, using ye-olde-dread-jam process: constant improvisation as a jam-box tunes in , followed by careful review of the tapes to see what worked. Recently they recorded with Adam Long of Clayton Studios, a gentle oddball whose shock-white legs and carrot-red hair belie the fact that he is our city's busiest rap engineer. The CD should be ready in mid-December.

The Imps play the Side Door Thursday, Dec. 4, opening for Coward. "See," Di Piazza says, sounding like that Brooklyn busboy with his eyes full of stars, "we are starting to open for national acts. And that's good!"

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