Oklahoma Gazette
Sweet spot
January 31, 2007

Indonesia may not be their first choice for a fan base, but with a new album, Sugar Free Allstars will take exposure wherever they can get it.

Chris Wiser and Rob Martin of Sugar Free Allstars chuckled to each other when they talked about their efforts to get their music in movies and on television. They've had some success recently on a film that, well, isn't exactly Oscar-worthy.

"A friend of ours who writes movies in Lawrence, Kan., re-edited this really bad movie and did the soundtrack, and we were on it," Wiser, who plays organ, said.

"We watched the first 10 minutes of it and we couldn't finish it," added drummer Martin. "It's yet to be released in America." "But it's been released in Indonesia, which we are kinda more proud of that," said Wiser.

The duo is putting out its first album in two years, "Return of Dos Machos!" it's a funky and fast-moving collection of witticisms that sound like passing thoughts expanded into entire songs, such as when Wiser sings of his longing for a pair of parachute pants.

The tracks pack a heavy punch in the instrument department, with the pair managing to do more with just an organ and a drum set than other bands can do with a full rhythm section. They recorded the album with Trent Bell, an old friend they boast of knowing well before he was the "producer Trent Bell of Bell Labs" and even before he was "Trent Bell of the Chainsaw Kittens." Bell taps them regularly for studio work.

"It's a very good opportunity to work with Trent down there, especially since he's getting more known every day as a recording engineer," Martin said.

Martin recently recorded with Steve Burns (aka Steve from "Blue's Clues") on a "top-secret project" he couldn't go into, but he did divulge that "it was the most fun I've ever had in a studio."

The Allstars will be busy this year as the band mates tour across the country and prep another release: a children's album they're getting ready for a summer tour of libraries. In June, they will be playing for the Pioneer Library System, followed by the Metro Library System in July.

They are also expanding their fan base among the jam-band set, though their music is tightly constructed pop songs much closer to The Beatles than the Grateful Dead.

"We aren't a jam band in any sense of the word, but that crowd has a good attitude towards what we do, and if you can get in with those kids, they are very loyal," Wiser said. "And it's not all jam bands in that scene, The Flaming Lips are big with them and they are definitely not a jam band."

Martin and Wiser also knew The Flaming Lips before they were big, with Martin even sitting in on a few songs in the mid-Eighties when the then-drummer bolted before the set was over. They've gotten to play with lots of musicians, but their favorite session was with Fred Tackett of Little Feat, who worked with Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa.

"That was the funkiest we've ever been, "Wiser said. "We haven't been that funky since."

"We won't ever be that funky again," Martin smirked.

-Charles Martin