A Thing Like Any Other

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		Swimming Herward	4:16	Play
2		Spasmatron	2:51	Play
3		Breathing In Vain	3:01	Play
4		Daguerreotype	3:46	Play
5		Accidental Physics	2:15	Play
6		U.V.A.	4:43	Play
7		Innard Yank	3:13	Play
8		Mashed-Potato Sky	3:21	Play
9		Mullet Boy Enumerates	2:21	Play
10		Life-Size Stencils	3:20	Play
11		Beneficial Neglect	4:46	Play

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Description

The members of the Persians have been friends for years but only began playing music together in 2001. Todd Hunt (drums), John Brocato (vocals and guitar), and Clam Fumass (bass) met in the late 1980's when we all played in Starkville-area bands.

I played in Skeleton Crew and, years later, Men from Nantucket; Todd played in Jonestown Survivors, Gypsy, and Identity Crisis, while Clam has played in a staggering number and variety of bands: Feet of Clay, Skeleton Crew, Torture Orchid, Identity Crisis, Go Dog. Go!, the John Black Attack, Men from Nantucket, Law of Nature, Holy Diver, Fuelman, and probably lots more.


I found the name in 1993 right after I broke up with Skeleton Crew (called Torture Orchid at the time - blech). While contemplating some name other than the obvious for my solo days, I saw "The Persians" on a banner advertising a history lecture at the California Institute of Technology (where I worked at the time) and thought it was perfect.

Our use of "The Persians" carries no political, social, or cultural significance. I chose and lobbied for this name simply because it's a beautiful-sounding word. It may as well evoke a herd of cats or a fleet of flying carpets instead of Zoroastrianism or a large gulf surrounded by contentious Middle Eastern countries.


After writing and recording largely acoustic material for eight years and finding that it just didn't rock enough, I teamed up with Todd in the summer of 2001 to play much louder music. We began regular recording and production work on some of the songs we'd been playing, but we also got noticeably louder and better and eventually came to two natural but critical realizations: (1) We must practice during the day so we don't get arrested, and (2) We must play this music live.

Over the last two years, we've played a bunch of good shows, including opening slots for Ingram Hill; a big ol' festival at Mud Island in Memphis; a killer "Starkville" night at Hal & Mal's in Jackson with Young Agent Jones and the John Black Attack; and an amazing Halloween 2003 show at the State Theatre with the Puerto Rican Rum Drunks. We also finally released our debut CD, A Thing Like Any Other, in September 2003. Go to http://www.cdbaby.com/ to buy this album.

The hardest question any band has to answer must be "What kind of music do you play?" or "What do you sound like?" And, like most bands, we have no idea how to answer this in less than 400 words. So perhaps some definition-by-negation is in order:

1. We're not a jam band. We don't sound like the Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic, Dave Matthews, or any of their myriad, watery clones.

2. We're not nu-metal/rap-rock. We're as far away from Korn, Staind, and Limp-stinking-Bizkit as my kitchen sink is from Alpha Centauri.

3. We're not country. Please - even if you hate us for some reason, don't insult us like that.

4. We're not punk, although the influence of early 90's "punk" (Nirvana, et al.) is, I think, readily apparent. But we bathe, we eschew piercings (so far), and none of us have permanent wrinkles on our foreheads or histrionically plaintive yelps in our throats, so comparisons here will only go so far.

5. We're not jazz, nor do we exhibit any overt, for-the-sake-of-being-cool jazz influence. (Besides, we all know by now that, ahem, Johnny hates jazz.)

6. We're not emo. Wow, where do I start with this one? None of us have unkempt sideburns. None of us sport wallet chains, ugly black-frame glasses, or ironic t-shirts (my "NASA" shirt looks ironic, but it's not). None of our underwear (purposefully) sticks out of the top of our pants. None of us is pathetically attention-deprived.

To put it more positively, we're a power trio - guitar/vocals, bass, and drums. I love and am influenced by old Billy Joel, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Billy Bragg, Elvis Costello, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Pavement, Weezer, Guided by Voices, Foo Fighters, and Catherine Wheel, and I think this comes through in my songwriting. Clam is a fan of every type of music in existence. Todd listens to too wide a range of music to represent easily, although it's definitely significant that he has a dog named Bonham. The music is melodic, hard, and full of words.

Our goals are relatively simple: we want to play live as much as possible, we want to release CDs of our music regularly, we want to make some money at both of the above ventures, we want to be both respected and somewhat famous, and we want, above all, to rock.

John