Marigold: Blooming good rock
Robin Whittaker

Marigold, like it's namesake, is a budding talent waiting to bloom. It's petals are jazz, blues, rock, funk, metal, and pop. It's stem is only beginning to stretch toward the sky and beyond its peers. And cultivated in the K-W soil, its roots are fixed deep in accomplishment.

When Marigold busts into Phil's this Friday, expect to see a four-headed hydra of intellectual-pop-rocking-local-band thrills. Just think of the event as nutrient fertilizer for the hungry band.

Songwriter-singer-guitarists Rob Szabo and Steve Strongman, K-W music veterans in their own right, have transplanted their craft into the studio, taking bassist-synthesizarian Cookie and drummer-percussionist Jo D. Cram. with them.

The result are lyrics and instrumentation that demand interest as there's nothing out there like them: funny, multi-syllabic, complex, caring, and musical.

The result is his band's twelve-track treat Benefit of the Doubt, an album that represents musical "extremes," according to Szabo.

Not only does Szabo contribute musical talent, he also eats breakfast.

This writer was thus afforded the opportunity to interview Szabo at Ethel's Lounge, over plates of scrambled eggs and sausages.

"Benefit starts out with something representative of the band, but moody," says the former Groove Daddy legend. "There's three or four strong pop songs, then heavy, and the last three are introspective."

"I like bands that are cinematic in their scope," Szabo explains, citing Queen and Led Zeppelin as bands that were "heavy for their time" but also played acoustic. "They do human emotions from A to Z."

Marigold itself is a relatively recent invention--about a year old, but its members are anything but "new," in a local sort of way. Along with Szabo's ties to the phonetically acrobatic Groove Daddy's, Strongman played for The Tal Bachman Band (yes, the frontman was the son of B.T.O.'s Randy Bachman), Cram drummed for The Shannon Lyon Pop Explosion, and Cookie played in Sing Along with Tonto.

Phil's will be reopening its doors to live acts for the first time in three-and a-half years, having served as the area's alternative dance sweat box in the interim.

The venue's first show is this Wednesday as Monster Voodoo Machine and Noise Therapy grace the friendly confines. Marigold, with openers DJ Vibe and Lindsay Stewart, follow up Friday night.

To write a major feature on a band is close to being something you can tell your kids about, and breakfast just doesn't serve up enough time. Szabo and I therefore drove back to my place in his bland blue touring van, a find of which Laurier's Archeology Society would be proud.

I was pleased as punch it didn't fall out from under us. Arriving, Szabo pursued my collection of CDs, pointing out Change of Heart, King Cobb Steelie, and redd cross as "excellent bands.

But what can you expect to hear from Marigold? Perhaps the question is best answered by citing Szabo's idea of the perfect song.

"It depends on what mood I'm in. Something that I connect with emotionally. Throw a TV through a window, like Black Sabbath's first six albums‚ or one that makes me sad." Szabo cites Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush," and Radiohead's "The Bends" and "OK Computer," as definite influences on Marigold's songs.

Benefit of the Doubt comes on the heels of the band's EP "Bunt" which, despite winning a grant from the loan agency F.A.C.T.O.R. (Fund to Assist Canadian Talent On Record) and selling out in its first run, failed to attract the requisite industry attention.

"We had hoped for more industry involvement," admits Szabo, especially in terms of finding a manager. Still, I think it survived its purpose."

Regardless of how you measure the success of "Bunt," there's no question Benefit delivers the goods, starting with the album art.

The theme is late nineteenth-century Russian circus and it offers band member photographs that place this cheeky, snide bunch right in the thick of decadent and subtly outrageous performance fashion.

"It's freaky, but not really," says Szabo. "Regal."

So listen to the music, look at the art, and smell, taste and feel the Phil's performance this Friday.