Thursday, January 02, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Music: Underrated underground

Local hardcore band Curl Up and Die succeeds quietly

By Brock Radke

With all the comings and goings in Las Vegas music in 2002, the collapsing venues and new bands and much-hyped major-label albums, it wasn't easy to keep track of who was kicking ass and who was getting their asses kicked. Several local bands reached new heights at an as-yet-undetermined price, but at least one band accomplished big things without having to stray from its underground ways.

There's never been any question which end of the ass-kicking Curl Up and Die falls on. You only need to hear five seconds of music from the unnervingly hardcore band to establish that.

Not only did Curl Up and Die release its second full-length album, Unfortunately We're Not Robots, on Revelation Records in May 2002, but the Vegas-based thrashers earned accolades from the Alternative Press as one of the "100 Bands You Need to Know About." CUAD also toured consistently outside Las Vegas, including a headlining jaunt in October and a stint with Thrice and Hot Water Music.

And yet the brutal foursome doesn't seem to be very well-known in its hometown, outside of regional hardcore circles and diehard rock scenesters, which is fine with frontman Mike Minnick.

"I wish that whole Sin City, `we're from Vegas,' thing wasn't played up so much," he says. "Every interview we do we get asked these questions like, `Do you live in a hotel?' It's ridiculous. And they think we started a band just because we were bored, which is kind of true. But there are people here, you know? We could be from anywhere."

But Minnick, guitarist Matt Fucks, drummer Jesse Fitts and new bassist Gustavo Mendoza do happen to hail from Sin City, which does mean at least one thing: No one in the music industry is going to give them any slack. Luckily, they haven't needed it much.

"We're happy where we're at," Minnick says. "When we did our first EP with Status [Records], that was the label we wanted to be with. Everything has just been a stepping stone to becoming more comfortable with each project and expressing what we feel.

"We made some mistakes. It hasn't been perfect. But we definitely want to stick to this route so we can control what we're playing, play to kids that want to see us and play with bands we like, and not sign with some big label that's so ridiculous and business-related that we sign away everything we're about."

The indie road has been kind to CUAD thus far, and the band plans to continue to take advantage of it. In addition to headlining the Huntridge tonight and doing some weekenders in Southern California, the group is hitting the studio to record two more EPs--one for Status, You Can Be Through With the Past, and another for Revelation, But the Past Isn't Through With You.

"It's kind of a comic book concept, like a two-part story," Minnick says. "We were supposed to do one EP but we wrote so much it's more like a full record split in half."

Being in good standing with both companies affords CUAD the freedom to do such things. And after running up and down the West Coast over the past 10 months, the band has enough buzz to hit the road again in the spring. Minnick says there are plans to tour between the two records' release dates.

Success has done something for the collective confidence of the band as well. While the new material is still hardcore as hell--and influenced more from comics and films than any band or genre--there will be a few nips and tucks in the style.

"It's a little different...we're putting a little melody in there and trying to fuck it up a little," Minnick says. "And the last record...I was changing all the lyrics and making them up halfway through. This time, I'm a little more confident with my voice and what I have to say, so more of it will be decipherable."

But don't worry, he'll still be screaming.