Phoenix alternative pop-rock trio Bad Lucy has been staying out of trouble by keeping a full schedule.
After making an appearance on Channel 15 and performing at Downtown Phoenix Street Party last week, the band recently unveiled a new radio single and are gearing up for a free show tonight at the Yucca Tap Room in Tempe.
Before the show, singer J. Miller will appear on KWSS' The Morning Infidelity, where he'll talk about the new track, "The Only Thing," and some of the conversations he's had over the past couple of days while joining protesters at Occupy Phoenix.
What's new: J. Miller: Well, we've actually been quite busy lately. Last Thursday, we did a quick segment on Channel 15 promoting our appearance in the Downtown Phoenix Street Party on Friday, October 15, where we played three solid hours of music in support of the downtown scene and the local businesses there. I'll be joining Beef Vegan of The Morning Infidelity to talk about "The Only Thing" and probably play "Celebrity Jeopardy" or something. Then we are playing with Radio Moscow and Tele Speak tomorrow night at Yucca Tap Room. The next show on our calendar is in November at The Roxy on Friday, November 4, with L.A.-based band [via the UK] Purple Melon and local band Banana Gun.
About the new moody single, "The Only Thing": Moody is good for a song, right? Believe it or not, the first verse of that song came to me in a daydream four or five years ago when I was homeless in Boulder, Colorado.
I remember I was listening to a lot of Jeff Buckley and Townes Van Zandt at the time, so I don't think the blues influence came from the specific musical landscape I was traversing but more through my experiences during that period.
I have always gravitated to roots music and southern music though, maybe due in part to my upbringing. I was born about 40 miles outside of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, so maybe there's some eerie mystical connection between my birthplace and my love for southern roots music. Even though they were Brits, I was obsessed with Led Zeppelin in my teens because I loved how they could transition rhythm and blues to folk and then seamlessly ease into rock and roll and back again -- all with heart, balls and swagger.
Wilco is another band that does this very well. As a three-piece -- where all of us have very different backgrounds from jazz to folk, rock, and soul -- that sort of transformation just seems natural I guess. So when I first introduced this song to the band, it just kind of clicked.
On Occupy Phoenix: My formal education is in social studies [and] history education. My natural state is questioning how things are. The main thing I would say about the Occupy Phoenix effort . . . the main take-away for me is: Educate yourself. It may sound trite, but knowledge is power.
There are many things I do know that I won't get into in this forum that really piss me off, but there are also lots of things I don't know. I spend more time trying to identify the things I don't know and researching them so I can form a useful opinion and then ask myself, "What can I do specifically to help the problem?"
There's no reason in trying to address a problem if you don't understand it. Understanding goes a long way in every situation. What has impressed me the most about the Occupy Phoenix folks is how much heart they have.