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4/19/05

Amp’d (Review by Peter Conners)
As published in ArtVoice

The problem with most rock-n-roll books is that the bands they're about have already made it. In fact, chances are that the books were written specifically because the bands were so commercially successful. But commercial success isn't rock-n-roll. Struggling, sweating, grinding it out in greasy dives night after night while you pray that your disintegrating van makes it to just one more gig...now, that's rock-n-roll!

Gary Fincke got a close-up look at that struggle via the bands his son Aaron played in between 1992 and 2003. Because this book is nonfiction, I was prepared for a generation-gap story. But Fincke seems to be the rare parent who can support his kid's creativity, even bankroll it, while not using his backstage access to pole-vault his own midlife crisis. Ostensibly, the career high point for Aaron comes when his band Strangers With Candy wins MTV's Ultimate Cover Band contest. Fan sites pop up on the Internet, CD sales soar, and soon the band is signed to a major label recording contract. To outsiders, this might seem like the final success, the end of the story. But the big difference between bands that are signed and independent bands has nothing to do with music. It has to do with money. Once you're signed, you either make money for your label or you get dropped. This is just one of the hard lessons that Aaron and Gary learn as they bounce from hometown bar to club to arena and back to bar again.

By book's end, Aaron has played in four different bands in as many years and, miraculously, signed two major label recording contracts with two different bands in one year. With colorful musicians, wild-eyed fans, screaming feedback, and brushes with celebrity, Amp'd is a moving rock-n-roll journey that father and son take together.