Heart and Soul: the Vice Rags

Paul Rosevear won’t hesitate to tell you he’s not the first person to play the kinds of music he does. Nobody knows better just how well-traveled is the road on which he rolls, along with the band of which he is part, the Vice Rags.

“We play in a well-worn, simple tradition,” Rosevear confirms, talking by telephone to Garagerocktopia from his New Jersey home. “It’s three chords and the truth, as some might say. There’s nothing new about what we’re doing.”

What makes the difference, however, is how he and the rest of the band do it. Yes, the Vice Rags music does have a familiar feel, one of good old-fashioned New Jersey power pop, usually hard-driving yet melodic. The Vice Rags are just the latest band out of the Garden State to further establish it as one of power pop’s epicenters.

Late last year, the Vice Rags released their first EP, a self-titled debut that, if there’s any justice in the world, should make rock and roll fans all over sit up and take notice. Along with vocalist and guitarist Rosevear, the band includes Jack Roberts on guitar, drummer Joe Chyb and Gay Elvis on bass.

While the Vice Rags as a band is new, the members that make up the combo are anything but. Some members have been playing together on and off since high school and all are veterans with lots of gigs under their belts. Band members have been a part of several great combos, such as the Anderson Council, Mars Needs Women, Mercy Circle and Blake. As credentialed as those bands are, Rosevear said he feels the best things lie ahead as part of the Vice Rags.

“The first time we played together, I just felt and heard something that felt good, that felt right,” Rosevear remembered. “Being a musician for 20 years, you have the ability to dial in and notice when something special really stands out.”

The music is decidedly more beer-and-pretzels than pheasant under glass, which in our view, is what rock and roll should be. If it’s fancy-schmancy you’re after, go dig out your Miles Davis or John Coltrane discs. When you want to really feel alive, get your hands on some Vice Rags music.

All five songs on the EP are solid, but for our tastes here, the upbeat, vaguely snarly “Jersey Boy” is a good one to start with. The very-slightly mellower “Alright by Me” is also a highlight. “Out on the Street” is a solid rocker with just enough East Coast edginess to be noticeable. There’s also a capable cover of “Lucille,” but the band’s original material is by far more interesting.

“The music we make comes from that earthy tradition of rock and roll,” said Rosevear. It’s one part Robert Johnson and one part Hank Williams. It’s not highbrow by any means.”

Rosevear has, on more than one occasion, made clear that one of the band’s main inspirations has been the blues. It would be a stretch to call the Vice Rags a blues band, but Rosevear detailed those qualities of the blues the band has folded into their own music.

“The blues are the same three chords,” explained Rosevear, “and tons of artists are playing those chords, and yet they all have their own personal expression and their own unique sound. And even though the music itself is simple, the phrasing can be very sophisticated.”

Rosevear shared his own experience of learning the guitar, seeing the simplicity of the blues, and completely underestimating the difficulty of really getting into what the blues are all about. It has often been noted that anybody can play the blues, but very few can play them well.

“A lot of guitar players get into blues early on,” Rosevear recounted. “You’re 13 years old, and the blues seem like the easiest thing to play in the world. You plug in, and you think you’re a real hotshot.”

“Later, I spent years complicating the living hell out of everything I wrote – cramming chord or note into every song.”

“But I figured out that the simple stuff really isn’t easy. Later, though, you realize you were just beating those licks to death with a club – no taste, no nuance, no life experience, no steeping in tradition and it’s then that you really see it’s a whole new world that goes into making that sound.”

“Now I see that, while the barrier of entry is low and it’s the people’s music, you can spend your whole life trying to get it right.”

The very first contact we had was an email from Gay Elvis proclaiming the band’s Asbury Park home base. Bruce Springsteen is only the top of the list of legendary performers, which also includes Southside Johnny and Bon Jovi, who either hail from the fabled town on the Jersey shore, or who apprenticed many nights in clubs there to perfect their craft.

Being from a city with such a legacy could conceivably produce a bit of stress. But Rosevear says it’s all good.

“There’s no pressure,” said Rosevear. “It’s actually very cool to be a part of a place that has such a music tradition. Asbury Park has its ups and downs, but right now we’re going through a period that has a great scene, loads of bands, and lots of places to play.”

One thing that’s not so cool is how some – most notably across the bay -- take delight in disparaging New Jersey. Rosevear admitted sometimes that attitude can be annoying, but he and the band ju-jitsu it to their own advantage.

“We’re here in New York’s shadow and we know Jersey gets ragged on,” Rosevear explained. “We know we’re the underdogs, and that just makes us scrappier. Every day we hear about somebody from Manhattan looking down their nose at us, and it gives us that attitude that makes that working-class sound.”

We have some other features already in the works here at Garagerocktopia. Artists have been sending us some very cool stuff. As always, we don’t make any guarantees in stone but we’re happy to say we’ve gotten a lot of very promising music sent to us, and we’re always happy to spread the word about about bands that are playing the way-out kinds of music we profile here. Send us a line and we’ll talk.

Also, we do have a Facebook page for this blog. We don’t put personal stuff on it – no pictures of grandkids or our dinners or politics or anything like that. What we do post are announcements about upcoming features, maybe extra stuff about the bands, and any cool music, movies or TV Shows we stumble across that might have even the most tangential connection with the music featured here. While we don't spend all day thinking about it, we do like "likes" if you're so inclined ...