The Good!!
THE GOOD
Chicago's Answer to PowerPop!!
by Thomas Durkin
In a gyro joint in Chicago's South Loop, the conversation between five guys collectively known as The
Good and one curious rock scribe turns to, of all things, rock's legendary supergroup, Blind Faith.
When you look at the covers of The Good's first CD, Oft Interred With Their Bones, and that of Blind
Faith's lone album, the similarities are deceptively staggering. Both covers have the blue sky/slanting
green landscape, and both prominently feature an unclad female holding symbolic objects that could
mean more than meets the eye (in the case of the Good's CD, it's Tony Rogers' dog Mabel holding a
bone inscribed with the Good's name).
Our Interviewer: I thought it had to be some sort of tribute there.
Tony Rogers: That would be nice, I wish we had thought of that.
John Scholvin: Well, Mabel has nicer breasts, I mean that girl is like only sixteen.
Dave Russell: There was a special on VH-1 that if they put out that album today they wouldn't have been
able to put that girl on the cover.
OI: They weren't able to put it on even back then! They had to change the cover even back then! So the
covers were totally coincidental?
Tony: Totally.
OI: Whose idea was the cover?
Tony: Well, it was sorta a collaboration.
Devin Arkin: What actually happened was (that) I wanted to name the album Oft Interred With Their
Bones. It's a quote from Shakespeare. There's a eulogy in Julius Caesar in which Mark Antony says,
"Friends, Romans, and countrymen, lend me your ears. I have come not to praise Caesar, but to bury
him. The evil men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones." And Tony really wanted
to put his dog on the CD cover!
Tony: (sarcastically) because no one's ever put a dog on their CD before. We found out after we did it
that, like, every other band had a dog on their CD.
J. Scholvin: Go to Tower Records some time, and go through the stacks. You'll find dozens of dogs!
Devin: More than you can shake a bone at.
Tony: But they don't all quote Shakespeare.
Devin: Ay, there's the rub. So we realized that if we used Mabel with the bone in her mouth, and it said
The Good on the bone, she'd actually be burying The Good, which is interring The Good, which is
exactly what the line is saying. So we had our album cover.
But that's the kind of band the Good are. While other Chicago powerpoppers The Bad Examples are
more likely to draw comparisons to Squeeze and Crowded House, The Good are more likely to thunder
along like the Who and the Posies. While Ralph Covert of the Bad Examples (I use them as my yardstick
because they are perhaps Chicago's most recognizable powerpop group) is comfortable singing
yearning songs of love and loss, Tony Rogers and Devin Arkin, the Good's songwriting pair, would be
more likely singing offbeat-themed tunes that effortlessly name-drop Harry Truman, Atticus Finch, and
Craig T. Nelson, to name a few. They're that kind of band.
OI: So the first official question, I guess, who's who and what's what?
Tony: Alphabetically, or clockwise around the table?
J. Scholvin: Tony Rogers and Devin Arkin, singer/songwriters.
Tony: I also play guitar.
J. Scholvin: John Goodman plays the drums, John Scholvin plays the lead guitar, and Dave Russell, the
newest member of the band, plays bass.
OI: Why the name The Good?
Devin: (to Tony)You know, we really oughta make up a cool answer for this one.
J. Scholvin: The best answer is, "why not?"
Tony: Devin had that name a long time ago.
Devin: I thought of it in college. "If I ever have a band, I'm gonna call it The Good."
Tony: I wanted a name that didn't mean anything until you see the band, like the Beatles, or the Who.
John Goodman: But those names were already taken.
Dave: And your last name wasn't Jovi.
Tony: I wanted a name that didn't conjure up, you know, that was when you had groups like the
Screaming Turtle Weasels (sic) and all those kind of band names, and I didn't want people to come in and
think we were a joke. I wanted people to have no idea what we were about 'til they saw us.
J. Goodman: And then they could leave.
Tony: But only after they saw what we were about. I mean, the Who, you can't get any preconceived
notions what they're gonna sound like.
J. Scholvin: Now, Metallica, you kinda get an idea.
Dave: Well, what kinda band name wouldn't be (non-descriptive or vague) like that?
J. Goodman: Well, Queen.
Devin: Besides, if you call your band The Bad, it says something different about your band than if you
call yourselves The Good.
OI: How was The Good formed? I mean like, way back when, a long long time ago?
Tony: Devin and I used to work at a company that wrote the jokes for Happy Meals. We used to play in
the company band together; we'd play a bunch of covers for the Christmas party, became friends, and
realized we liked all the same music. We just sorta started it as a hobby, bought a four-track and wrote
songs. We ended up with these really elaborate four track demos, and played them for friends. We felt we
got better as songwriters, and got great response from our friends, so one way we decided we should try
to put a real band together. There's not much that amazing to the story about how we pulled the band
together. Actually, John Scholvin we found when my wife mentioned to a friend that her husband was in
a band that was looking for a guitarist. And the friend said, "My roommate's a guitarist." And that was
John Scholvin. He came in and blew us away with our first audition. And then John Goodman was a
friend of John Scholvin's from Northwestern University.
J. Goodman: We'd played together in a bunch of bands, the most famous being Even Steven.
Tony: When we lost the bassist from our last CD.
J. Scholvin: Tragic gardening accident.
Tony: We put out an APB for a bass player. When Devin called me up and said that Dave had
responded, he said, "This will be the guy."
Devin: We went through a million phone calls. Luckily, you're able to weed out a lot of them over the
phone.
OI: Would you guys consider yourselves a powerpop group?
J. Scholvin: Well, for lack of a better term, probably.
Tony: Yeah, it doesn't say that much. Whenever club owners try to ask what kind of music we play, I tell
them we're a pop band, but the way the Who was pop or the way Queen was pop. I'm not saying that we
sound like the Who or Queen, because those bands are pretty untouchable, but those are bands that try to
do the same things we try to do. We have different personnel, and different songs, but I think we think
like them, in operatic terms, in broad terms, they think a lot broader than most pop songs do and I think
we try to do the same.
J. Scholvin: The term I've been trying desperately to force into the rock writers lexicon [OK, let's humor
him this once.-ed.] is "stadium pop". It's like power pop--
OI: (interrupting) Now how can you say that without necessarily conjuring up images of Motley Crue, and
Poison, and...
J. Scholvin: See, I'd classify them as glam, and hair metal. We're definitely poppier than those guys were
ever. But I think our pop is BIG! See, whenever I hear the word pop, I think "wimpy".
OI: As a powerpop aficionado, I often have to explain it this way: there are two totally unrelated "pops",
the Mariah Carey variety, and the Beatles/ Big Star/ Kinks variety, and they're totally unrelated. You guys
fit into the second category.
Tony: I think that what John is saying is, when we play a bar, we're aiming for a sound higher than the
bar, not just for our careers but musically, shows that would not seem out of place in a stadium, in a
larger concert hall.
Devin: But because we are playing this show in a bar, we've had to make the show "bar-friendly". People
are there to drink and get laid, people are there to have a fun time at a Good show. But eventually--
Dave: We've already ordered the big inflatable pig!
Tony: We've got the pig on backorder.
OI: Why do you guys load up your songs with a good healthy dose of comedy? Why not just play it
poker faced, like every other band?
Tony: Because we can't resist.
J. Scholvin: When you're as naturally, hysterically funny as we are, it just kinda comes out that way, you
just can't get around it. I take it you mean the live show?
OI: Well, lyrically, too. I mean, there's definitely humor there.
Tony: I can't resist, that's my answer.
J. Goodman: If you can't have fun playing music, then you really shouldn't be playing.
Devin: I think there's room for both seriousness and comedy. Sometimes you'll hear something or see
something. I wrote "Harry and the Mushroom" around the time of the 50 year anniversary of the
dropping of the bomb. I probably could have written a funny song about that, I don't think there's
anything that's really taboo. It didn't come out that way, because I just was thinking about it really
intensely.
Tony: I think it's also just an extension of the kind of people we are. We're not really a serious bunch; the
bad jokes abound, we're always sorta loose, so I think that comes out.
OI: Devin, why is Marion Barry such a favorite target? I mean, you speared him twice, once on the first
album ("Georgia Avenue") and on the new album ("Atticus").
Devin: Well, I grew up in a suburb of DC, I just couldn't believe Marion Barry just keeps coming back. I
guess when you talk about intensity and justice, it just drives me crazy that such a man has power. Then
again, I consider myself a liberal, but I cannot suffer the notion of someone like Marion Berry just
claiming oppression as a black man. He takes no responsibility for the violation of trust of the people who
voted for him. The black community that Washington DC rallies around him is a disgrace. And that liberal
thinkers are afraid to say that about him because they fear they'll be labeled racist for saying so is the very
problem I'm talking about. Jews that refuse to criticize Israel when Israel is doing bad things piss me off
too [Devin himself is Jewish]. Same sort of thing here. And finally he was gone! And he came back!!
The band's latest CD is Milky White, a stunning (and generous) collection of lyrically unique powerpop
gems that rarely misses. You have to admire an album that isn't afraid to take on Abraham and Isaac
from the Old Testament, to use the movie (and its subsequent TV series) Poltergeist as a launch point
for a look at capitalizing on those that have gone before. And it's not afraid to try to make you think.
The album is also their first for Chicago's Whitehouse Records.
OI: How did you guys end up with Whitehouse Records?
Devin: Camped out on their front lawn, and refused to leave until they signed us. For so long, we'd heard
such great things about Whitehouse. We just kept sending them letters, sending them demos, kept sending
them stuff.
Tony: We met them through Ralph Covert, didn't we? [Ralph Covert, lead singer/songwriter of the Bad
Examples, co-owns Waterdog, one of the sister labels to Whitehouse Records.]
Devin: Ralph set up the meeting with Whitehouse. At the time, they didn't have room for us, but we kept
going after them. Finally I think we wore them out. They've been terrific. There's been such a difference
in how we've developed as a band. Because of the exposure they've given us, we've gone to another
level. It really pays off to have an ally like them.
Tony: Definitely, since we've been on the label, we've been playing [concerts] a lot more, getting airplay
all over the midwest, so we're able to play places like Iowa City, Champaign, Minneapolis, Milwaukee.
One of the centerpieces of the album for me is the first song, "Tinky McVieux", a rather cryptic song
about a woman who cavalierly changes her ethnicity as if it were a new pair of shoes. It starts off with
an eccentric marching chant similar to XTC's "All You Pretty Girls" (a comparison that surprised the
band but flattered them, as they admired XTC).
OI: OK, I gotta ask is "Tinky McVieux" written about a real person?
J. Scholvin: Yes. Next question.
OI: (plunges on oblivious to the tension in the last response): What's the real story about the person it's
written about?
Tony: The real story about the person it's written about??
OI: (finally realizing he's hit a nerve) Um, to the point you're comfortable (asking Tony's bandmates) Is
he going to squirm on this one??
Tony: I'll just say in general it's about somebody denying their ethnic heritage, for whatever reasons.
J. Goodman: For the fashion of it.
Tony: Well, if somebody's a mutt like I am, it's embracing one small part of their heritage, like it's cool to
be Irish on St. Patrick's day, or whatever's fashionable. It's not a damning song, it's kinda a silly song.
J. Scholvin: She has no idea it's about her.
OI: So I take it you prefer the person, whoever it is, to remain anonymous. I respect that.
Tony: Well, it was inspired by this person. Somebody I know was a launching point for the song, but the
song, clearly, goes off in a lot of fictional directions.
J. Scholvin: And this person is a pretty good friend whom we hold in high esteem. It's not somebody we
don't like. It's not a bash, a rip.
Tony: No, it's just an observation. That's a good question. Somebody asked me once if that song was a
veiled reference to Timothy McVeigh, and I was so disappointed that I couldn't say yes. Good guess, but
no.
OI: What made you guys choose Chris Shepard this time around? [Chris Shepard has done work with
Smashing Pumpkins, KMFDM, and Wilco, to name but three.]
Tony: Well, we were looking to find someone to beef up the sound from our first record, which we
produced ourselves. We had a great engineer on the first one, Scott Ramsayer, so we were looking for
someone who could be a really great sonic craftsman. Chris was actually recommended by Scott. Chris
had great credentials.
J. Scholvin: There were certain sounds we wanted on the first record that we just didn't know how to get,
we wanted to find somebody who knew how. He'd obviously worked with people, had the experience in
getting those types of sounds. When he played us some of the stuff he'd done, the real icing on the cake
were the early mixes for the latest Wilco record, Being There.
Devin: From the beginning we saw that this guy was willing to take some chances, and we're not just
going to be going at it in the typical verse-chorus-verse.
J. Goodman: We did go to a lot of producers and a lot of studios, and he was also the guy who was the
coolest. A lot of the guys we talked to gave us the creeps in one way or another. They'll all remain
nameless! And a lot of the places where the other producers fell short was the drum sounds. Chris had
great drum sounds on his tapes.
OI: Another production question, how did the dog end up on "Tinky McVieux"?
Tony: Well, half of the album was recorded in my hot apartment.
J. Scholvin: That was just an accident. We recorded the vocals at Tony's apartment, and, was it Mabel?
Tony: It was Mabel, she's a barker. She'd hear something from across the apartment outside and just race
to the window and bark her head off.
J. Scholvin: And it was so perfectly in time with the music.
Tony: The first time she did it was on the down beat.
J. Scholvin: So we decided to leave it. It was so perfect, we couldn't possibly get rid of it.
Tony: Most people don't notice it.
OI: Here's a goof question for you: would you guys ever do a rock opera?
Devin: We don't think that's goofy at all.
J. Scholvin: (to Tony and Devin) You know, I wouldn't be surprised if you were working on one right
now, would we? You are? See? We are that type of band, you could tell!
Tony: In my book, there's only been four great rock operas: Tommy, Quadrophenia, The Wall, and Jesus
Christ Superstar.
Dave: Does Hair qualify as a rock opera?
Tony: No, there's dialogue.
J. Scholvin: But what about that great Styx album with Mr. Roboto? (laughter)
Tony: You know I had to think long and hard to exclude that one from my list of classic rock operas. I
think all of us are fans of those records. Another one is Queen, even though they didn't do a rock opera
proper, it's a very operatic band, one of our favorite bands as well. That's the holy grail. If you can make
a rock opera, tell a whole story, create the kind of emotion that makes it work as a whole. I mean, how
often do you sit down and listen to just two songs from The Wall? You almost can't. You might try to,
then you're sucked in, and it's always an emotional experience, it's always totally powerful no matter if
you're in the car or whatever. To do that, I think we're capable.
J. Scholvin: All we need is a major label deal to fund this project.
Dave: Our first major label album will be a rock opera!
Tony: Or we might be the first independent band to release a rock opera, who
knows.
Devin: One of the things that's nice about being a writer of songs is that you can write a song, play it for
the band, and you can play it the following weekend, get that feedback. You write a book and the
chances that anyone will be able to read it are slim unless you get published Pete Townshend, Pink Floyd,
they took it to another level, they said I'm just gonna write a bunch of pop songs, string them together, get
this huge giant story! It's so much more difficult to do that than to just write an individual pop song.
Having twelve of those pop songs to tell a story seems bigger than us. Really, I don't know that I have it
in me, it's such an awesome task. I so admire those people for doing that.
OI: Finally, what do you hope the future holds for the Good?
Devin: Multi-platinum sales.
J. Scholvin: (starry-eyed) Stadium tours.
Tony: Well, we're really in it for the long haul. Right now, we're doing great with Whitehouse Records,
but it's their goal and our goal to get us onto a bigger label. We want to put ourselves in a position where
we're doing this the rest of our lives.
J. Scholvin: And quit our day jobs!!
Devin: There is no limit to what we want to achieve.
Dave: We want to write that rock opera!
J. Scholvin: Yeah, we want the rock opera to be our third of ten. There is nothing we don't want.
Devin: What he says about doing ten records, it's not that we're looking for chicks, drugs, money, I mean
all that stuff.
OI: Not even in the littlest?
J. Scholvin: Well money, yeah.
Devin: But the ability to make more records, have this be the way we live our lives, how we make our
livelihood, the incredible dream. Record after record after record!
Special thanks to the Good for allowing me to inadvertently snark their images to decorate this article. If they object, please let me know, djmurphy@yahoo.com.
