Strangest Places has gone through some changes -- especially in the somewhat tempestuous bass player role -- but Milwaukee band is still going strong and to prove it, the quintet recently self-released its fourth CD, "Exit Strategy."
The disc was launched at a CD release party in late summer at the Cactus Club, not long after the quartet that recorded the disc expanded to a quintet with the addition of Damien Legault, who took over as bassist from Dave Clay. Clay now plays guitar in the band that also includes singer and keyboardist Jonathan Granger, drummer Joe Kopnick and guitarist Timothy Johnson.
During that transitional show, Legault says the band took its first steps in its new incarnation.
"We played two new songs with the new lineup at Cactus," he notes, adding that he arrived with some experience playing with these guys already. "I've been playing with Dave, Joe and Tim with my other band (The Lambs of Abortion) for about a year and a half as well, so we're comfortable together, which makes it a lot easier than if I was coming in without having that experience."
So it was an easy transition?
"Yes and no," says Legault, who has worked as a freelance photographer for OnMilwaukee.com. "Dave's playing style is drastically different than mine, he approached his style more like lead guitar playing, since he's traditionally a guitarist, whereas a lot of my influences come from early '80s punk and hard rock, and I've always pretty much just played bass.
"That being said, this is one of the reasons I was asked to join, as we're trying to go in a different direction with the newer music we're writing than what's been done by Strangest Places in the past, so it makes it easier to not have to try and play just like Dave did. I think the biggest challenge for me is going to be combining the two stylistically, where it sounds similar enough to be recognized as Strangest Places, yet different enough so that it's not exactly the same as what they've been doing."
Strangest Places has been doing what it's been doing for more than a dozen years now.
"The band's seeds were planted around 1996, after (guitarist) Tim Johnson and I left a garage band to start something of our own," Granger told OnMilwaukee.com in 2003. "It was a two-man writing/performing show for years, until we started enlisting our friends to play instruments we physically couldn't play live. We were called Nowhere Fast at the time ... a very telling moniker. We just couldn't get the ball rolling."
By 1999, Strangest Places had issued "Hiding the Igniting Girl." Clay joined on bass in time for 2002's "Very Loud Thoughts" and the group's third disc, "Optional," was released in 2004.
"Exit Strategy" is the band's most cohesive work yet, with 11 songs that are melodic, sometimes epic, stadium-ready rock and roll that has the soaring vibe of U2, mixed at times with the eeriness of Joy Division's "Closer" and the plaintive vocals of a group like Elbow.
Although the title of the new record sounds ominous, Granger says the band isn't calling it quits, although it was a possibility for a while.
"The album title is definitely not coincidental. We thought, for a while, this would be our last record. Time was flying by and we were feeling frustrated with our creative direction and the music scene as a whole. We also found ourselves writing more politically-charged material. The title not only captured what we were saying lyrically -- with our rancor for the Bush administration -- but also the future of the band.
"Just when we were about to call it quits, an old musician friend of ours (drummer) Joe Kopnick, joined the band. His addition proved to be the catalyst we needed to soldier on. We're now revitalizing our sound with fresh ideas and influences."
