Listen up, babies: Albert Bouchard of the Brain Surgeons puts on his pants the same as you guys, one leg at a time. Except, once his pants are on, he makes gold records — gold records featuring, you guessed it, that subject of Hot Topic T-shirts everywhere: the cowbell.
Bouchard, who wrote, arranged and played drums (and yes, cowbell) for moody/mysterio 1970s rockers Blue Öyster Cult, is now firmly entrenched in his latest band, the hard-touring Brain Surgeons, who have now released seven records on their cheekily-titled label, Cellsum. The associate Surgeons also boast an impressive vitae: Deb Frost, an ex-rock critic and part-time publicist, is the band’s full-time singer/axe-slinger, and David Hirschberg ably holds it down on bass.
The big story here is the band’s newest member, lead guitarist Ross the Boss (Dictators, Manowar), who has added an additional layer of muscle around the band’s heart — still Bouchard’s percussive, machine-like drumming. Thankfully, Frost does a nice job of smoothing out the rough edges so the band doesn’t come across as sounding like, well, fucking Manowar. (The latter, incidentally, Guinness Book record-holders for world’s loudest band, and perhaps the only band on earth that ever had Orson Welles appear on its record).
Fans of the ostensible Stendhal tribute “The Red and The Black” and “Astronomy” (the latter notably covered by Metallica) — hell, BÖC in general — would do well to check this show out. It’s not BÖC (though the band’s not averse to dusting off a few nuggets every now and again), but all things considered, it’s still PDG, IMHO — pretty damn good.
The Brain Surgeons will appear at the Milestone on Aug. 16; 8pm; $8. For more information, log on to www.themilestoneclub.com or www.cellsum.com/Artists.htm.
This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2006.
