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The Beat: Ant Farm Crawling Its Way Up Charts
By: By Chris Macias -- Bee Pop Music Writer - Sacramento Bee
December 9th 2001 4:45pm
"Smooth Criminal" has been both a blessing and a curse for new-school rock band Alien Ant Farm. The group's cover of that Michael Jackson tune has helped launch Alien Ant Farm's major-label debut, "Anthology," into platinum sales. Then again, incessant playing of "Smooth Criminal" on rock radio and MTV has led to a bit of musical typecasting. "Don't pass us off as a Michael Jackson cover band," said guitarist Terry Corso, in a phone call from Houston. "Look into our history and listen to our music." On Monday, Alien Ant Farm performs as part of Boomer & the Dave's Christmas Concert, sponsored by KWOD radio (106.5 FM). As the band prepares to rock the River City, it's hoping to shake its Michael Jackson connection with the re-release of its first single, "Movies." Call it just another hurdle for the Riverside-based group, which includes singer Dryden Mitchell, bassist Tye Zamora and drummer Mike Cosgrove. For starters, Alien Ant Farm spent much of the past few years scurrying through Southern California's music scene in hopes of landing a record deal. "We had been doing showcases for every major label in town," Corso said. "I hated it. It was more disappointing than it was exciting. You'd be nervous as hell because you're at the Viper Room and there's no one there except your manager, your attorney and a couple of people from the record label. Then you have to get up there and do good, and they're whispering back and forth about who knows what." While major labels including Atlantic Records and Interscope passed on Alien Ant Farm, the band hit a bright patch with the release of its self-produced debut, "Greatest Hits." The record won best independent album accolades at the 1999 L.A. Music Awards. "It was cool to win that for our record," Corso said. "But the funny thing is that we came to find out almost immediately that that kind of thing doesn't mean (anything) when you're trying to get a record deal. The labels don't take it seriously." But better help in the music business came from Vacaville's Papa Roach and its frontman Coby Dick. The two then-fledgling bands had first connected through mutual friends and soon started swapping shows, with a half-kidding promise that the first band to hit paydirt would help bring the other along. "The first time Coby and I talked on the phone, we hit it off and talked for over an hour," Corso said. "They had the same kind of work ethic we did. So they brought us up for a show and we kept going back and forth. In the meantime, we were just messing around doing stupid friend stuff -- having barbecues and sleeping on each other's couches. We were just like some kids who had a lot of the same (stuff) in common, the same sense of humor, and got along great." Once Papa Roach reached the big time with its multiplatinum-selling "Infest," the band started lobbying movers and shakers in the music industry about Alien Ant Farm. Eventually, Alien Ant Farm was signed to New Noize, Papa Roach's imprint label on DreamWorks Records. "We all know that Coby has a tremendously huge mouth and he was very vocal about us," said Corso. "Him and the whole band had a whole lot of faith in us, and they'd push us on just about everyone they came across. It was great." Alien Ant Farm released "Anthology" in March and had a modest hit with its first single, "Movies." But within a few months, "Movies" had been obscured in popularity by the band's chunk-styled cover of "Smooth Criminal." "Just as 'Movies' was starting to do good, K-ROCK in New York picked up 'Smooth Criminal,'" Corso said. "They're a major trend-setting station, so everyone followed, and sure enough it turned into a Frankenstein's monster and eclipsed 'Movies.'" Though the band hasn't had a face-to-face meeting with Jackson, word came to Alien Ant Farm's camp that the King of Pop approved of its homage. The band was also given an invitation to perform at the all-star tribute "Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration, the Solo Years," held in July at Madison Square Garden. However, the band was ultimately uninvited for no apparent reason. "We got invited to play his gala, then uninvited, then re-invited, then re-uninvited," Corso explained. "But what's the first word that pops in your head when you think of Michael: 'weird.'" With "Smooth Criminal" past its peak, Alien Ant Farm is working "Movies" once again as a single. The band has also re-shot a video for the song, with the members cavorting through homages to such flicks as "Ghostbusters," "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Karate Kid." So far, "Movies" hasn't reached the same success as "Smooth Criminal," though the single is starting to climb the charts once again. "It was kind of risky (to re-release 'Movies'), but the cool thing is that it looks like we're going to pull it off," Corso said. "Now's the time to distance ourselves from Michael."
 Copyright 2001 Sacramento Bee. All Rights Reserved.
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