Catchy Tarantella checks comics to Murakami

Mike Newmark Assistant News Editor

Tarantella—the Vassar three-piece consisting of keyboardist/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Jeff Alford ’06, guitarist/vocalist Chris Sparks ’06, and bassist/vocalist Mark DeWilde ’06—specializes in a kind of music that Sparks calls “sleaze pop.” It’s hooky, it’s sweaty, it bumps, and it grinds. It’s college rock filtered through the lens of vintage dance-pop, with shimmering synths, careening guitars, and fat bass lines stomping to the propulsive beat of a drum machine. I dare you not to dance to this stuff—it’s nearly impossible.

Interestingly, Tarantella’s background is not in dance music. All three musicians are classically trained, and their old hard-rock band Chelsea Smilers utilized somewhat of a singer-songwriter approach. After two Smilers left the band, Alford, Sparks, and DeWilde continued to play together and realized that they were heading in a new direction.

“We decided as [Tarantella] to stay away from acoustic guitars and notebooks of poetry and focus more on constructing catchy, dance-y songs,” said Alford. He wasn’t kidding; infectious jams like “Sha-Ha-Ha” and the alien funk of “The Field Well” are miles away from scrawled notebook confessionals. So is their unabashed adoration of comic books, classic literature, and B-list sci-fi movies. They sample the dystopian sci-fi flick Soylent Green in “Bride of the Monster” (which takes the title of an Ed Wood film), and other songs reference such novelists as Dostoyevsky, Haruki Murakami and Ayn Rand.

To achieve their overflowing sound, the band members bury themselves in a throng of instruments: guitar, bass, as many as three synthesizers (including an Alesis QS88 that Alford acquired in seventh grade and an Alesis Micron for “Nintendo-meets-early-hip-hop” tones), a slew of effects pedals, a Korg Electribe drum machine, a xylophone, an accordion, and a sampler the band dubs “Dr. Sample.” They also plan to outfit their sound man, Corey Rosen ’06, with a snare drum and call him “Little Drummer Boy.”

Tarantella tours frequently, having played seven campus shows last month, and anyone who has attended a Tarantella show knows that they’re incredibly danceable affairs. To make things interesting, their shows also feature “Cover-Song Tourette’s”—a process patented by the Afghan Whigs—which involves sampling wildly divergent songs within their own music. But while they note that touring is a blast, they’ve decided to take a break to record. “We’re not really an album band, since our songs are so different from each other,” said Sparks. So, in lieu of a full-length album, the band is planning to record three EPs packaged together. The EPs will feature artwork by DeWilde, who contributes artwork to all Tarantella posters, CDs and clothing.

One of the band’s favorite moments exquisitely demonstrates Tarantella’s devil-may-care appeal. In spring 2005, Davis Rhodes ’05 asked Tarantella to play the Prince-themed “Purple Party” at his Terrace Apartment. Sensing an opportunity, Tarantella morphed into the Tip, an all-Prince cover band. The Tip was so successful that after security broke up the Purple Party, they were urged to set up shop at South Commons and continue playing there. “It seemed that everyone at the TAs had journeyed all the way out to So-Co for us,” said Alford. “By the end [of the show], everyone was singing “Purple Rain” drunk with us, and it felt like karaoke. It was a gas.”

Tarantella will be playing the Greenhaven Prison Reunion in the Main MPR on December 3. Check out Tarantella on the web at myspace.com/tarantellamusic.