Chicago bandleader acts more like a subhuman than a SubPop recording artist

Meat man needs attitude adjustment

BY MIKE USINGER

Vancouver Courier

Tim Rutili has an attitude every bit as ugly as the sound that's made his fellow Chicagoans, the Jesus Lizard, famous.

Reached long distance at his Windy City home, the Red Red Meat singer/guitarist isn't exactly in the most talkative of moods. Miserable and confrontational is a more accurate description. You almost wish you could stick your fist through the phone lines and let him have what he so richly deserves.

red red meat an attorney, jesus, a true jerk and a clown named binky

Rutili starts getting testy when the subject of SubPop records comes up. The recently released Bunny Gets Paid is Red Red Meat's second outing on the Seattle label which launched the careers of Nirvana and Soundgarden. The way Rutili sees things, it's his sunny personality, not SubPop media manipulators, which has helped boost the profile of his band in the past two years.

"Look, if you want to know about SubPop, why don't you phone their offices and they'll tell you all about running a goddamn record label,' he spits through 2,000 miles of fibre-optic cable. " I'm not here to talk about SubPop, I'm here to talk about music."

That said, Red Red Meat's latest album, Bunny Gets Paid is a lot more enjoyable than a conversation with someone with a boulder-sized chip on his shoulder. Obsessed with slide guitars, and wounded, Exile-era Stones riffs, Red Red Meat pledges no allegiance to the sound that made Chicago infamous.

Forget the black cancer cacophony of the Jesus Lizard and Big Black, Red Red Meat wants to be alternative America's answer to Blind Willie Johnson. Imagine Ry Cooder fronting Royal Trux in a hotter-than-hell, Paris, Tex., watering hole, and you've got a good idea what you're dealing with.

Not coincidentally, Cooder's dreamy, languid Paris, Texas soundtrack has been a big insipitation to Rutili.

"It's such a cool record because it's all about atmosphere. It's about creating a feel and a mood, which is what we try to do."

Something else Red Red Meat tries to do is adapt to its surroundings. If people don't show the appropriate amount of interest at a gig, Rutili and his band mates like to act just as bored as the audience. Sit on your hands Wednesday (Nov.29), when the band hits the Starfish Room, and Red Red Meat will drag the barstools on stage.

"We sometimes do sit-down shows where we do all the songs really quietly," Rutili admits. "It doesn't really bother me when we have to do shows like that. It actually makes for a nice change of pace. I think I've gotten to the point where I really don't care how the audience is responding. For the most part I'll just turn away and watch my band mates or something."

Spoken like a true jerk.