darth vato: growing up in public with their pants down

so steve steward got his favorite hat back, and darth vato finished their new e.p. it's a goodun, too.

time was, i used to look at 4-song e.p.'s by local bands as nothing more than a holding action until they got the money together to record the inevitable full-length. that was before a significant amount of the music i listen to was only available on burned cd-r's. now i see things a little differently. maybe, i'm thinking, the 4-song e.p. is the new vinyl single: the coin of the realm in d.i.y.-land. ya think maybe?

the darth vato boys had a high mark to hit, too: while their initial e.p. aloha chingaso sounded tentative and lacked _something_ -- direction, focus, spark -- their premiere full-length havoc impressed a lot of people, both within and without the 817 area code. and they've done some growing up since then, too. press kerry dean and steve steward and they'll admit to being, well, a little _embarrassed_ by songs like "ain't got no" and "another ska song" -- e.g., by their band's most crowd-pleasing, um, "hits."

a common misconception about the vatos is that they're a reggae band. sure, they have that influence (via sublime), and they've employed the services of pablo and the hemphill 7's justin pate on keys. hell, eric dodson -- the vatos' obsessive-compulsive formalist -- even drummed for pablo when damien stewart stepped out for a minute a few months back.

(since groove became an essential element of rawk back in the '90s, it seems like young whiteguys have used reggae as a way of acquiring the craft of playing -- as opposed to just beating the shit out of their instruments -- in the same way as their predecessors usedta use blues for the same purpose a generation ago. which is why i loved it so much when the beastie boys sampled the blues project's "flute thing" on ill communication. it was an incredibly self-aware move -- '90s noo yawk jewish kids making a bundle off the latest innovations in black music, sampling '60s noo yawk jewish kids who made a somewhat smaller bundle doing the same -- and not as quaint as the red hot chili peppers telling the host of mtv's 120 minutes that "we like to play like we have big dicks." mailer-inspahrd white negro-dom lives!)

but scratch a sublime fan and underneath, you'll find a punk aficionado, american '80s division. so kerry grew up in houston, listening to bands like 30 foot fall, good riddance, and face to face before sublime led him to reggae and u.s. punk originators like the descendents and minor threat. meanwhile, steve grew up in lodi, california, going to locally promoted indie punk shows (a v.f.w. hall, a keg, a band -- what a concept!). the two collided at tcu, and with the addition of eric dodson (ex-24 days, woodeye, circle theory) on traps, they've evolved from a dorm lounge annoyance into a kickin' live act and major draw.

right about here is where you might wanna stop reading if your take on the vatos is that they're a fun party band and that's all.

okay: for me, what's made observing the vatos' progress over the last coupla years _interesting_ is the way their development has reflected kerry dean's growing self-confidence, and how that in turn has affected the personas he's adopted. it's not surprising, really; i mean, what american in their mid-'20s _isn't_ obsessed with identity? all same-same, it's been instructive to watch kerry morph from goofy tcu kid to dickies-bedecked gangsta wannabe (and yes, yes, i _know_ that reggae was the original gangsta rap). just dig the succession of hairstyles he's adopted for different shows: from curls 'n' ballcap to whiteguy cornrows to edward scissorhands mohawk. (meanwhile, steve steward, who plays mike watt to kerry's d. boon, has undergone a similar transformation: from shaved head to molestachio to watt-inspired merchant marine beard and back again.)

and from the evidence on the new e.p., kerry's confidence is at an all-time high. for proof, check out the prominent position his vocals occupy in the mix (and the absence of effects thereon). sonically speaking, this new disc is an unqualified great leap forward for darth vato. the big news here is the gtrs, which sound _huge_, including a cameo by sorta's carter albrecht, who contributes some queens of the stone age-ish harmonized rifferama. j. pate on keys and the riddim boyzzz do their respective jobs as flawlessly as we've come to expect (at least when they're sober).

what's been a little problematic for me has been the disparity between the dancehall riotin' persona k.d.'s inhabited onstage and on disc and the "real" kerry, a quiet, self-effacing guy who teaches high school math. (hunh?) sure, i'm familiar with the old "trust the art, not the artist" copout, too, but some of d.v.'s most effective songs (like "police dub" and "ftw") kinda beg the question, "when is this cat gonna drop the mask and start telling his _own_ stories?" (since it's highly unlikely that he's gonna start trying to actually inhabit the role he's created a la eazy e or the notorious b.i.g. aka r.i.p.).

the jury's still out on that one, although the new e.p.'s rip-roaring lead-off track "war on the westside" (which pits the vatos as working-class yoof against the collected bluehairs, botox and collagen-implant victims of monticello) is a step in the right direction. it's followed by a toon that mixes nautical and bling-bling images, then by an ode to fucking in the van (indeed, there are enough f-bombs on this rec to cause a stir if anybody at kerry's j-o-b is listening) that veers from hardcore blast to supple skank and back.

the good news is that they're moving forward: in no way could anyone accuse them of merely rehashing havoc. and in the process, they've revealed more of their punk roots -- another step toward becoming more fully themselves, whoever that winds up being. in future, the vatos plan to record more of these short-form bulletins, which may encourage kerry to write more and faster. and, as they have a gig booked at red rocks next summer, they have good reasons to stick around for a few more of them, too. we'll be listening.