There's nuttin' stoppin' Weapon of Choice creates nutty new style
Los Angeles-based band blends range of musical ingredients; manufactures unique, creative sound
By John Sabatini
Daily Bruin Contributor
Just when it seemed that the music industry had exhausted its supply of innovative new bands, Los Angeles-based Weapon of Choice arrived on the scene to provide some spark. Tomorrow night at the Alligator Lounge, the eclectic eight-piece musical experiment will exhibit its unique sound which has been bending rules and turning heads.
Drawing upon a range of musical influences including such artists as Sly & The Family Stone, Frank Zappa, and Fishbone, Weapon of Choice has created an unusual funkadelic-alternative mix. The style was so original, in fact, lead singer/bassist Lonnie "Meganut" Marshall coined the term "Nut*meg" to describe the new sound.
"It's pretty much just music without any limitations, in a nutshell," he says. "We have eight people in the band with various musical backgrounds and influences that range from jazz to rock to punk to hip hop. We just bring all of that to the party and call it Nut*meg music."
Even Weapon of Choice's tour mates have represented an impressive variety of musical genres. After getting its first break by opening for alternative giant Pearl Jam, Weapon of Choice has since played with such bands as Primus, Tool, Living Colour, Ice Cube, House of Pain, and even Run DMC.
"Everywhere we've played, we've gotten a good response because we have all those different flavors and colors in the music so it appeals to just about anybody," Marshall says. "We haven't seen too many people playing possum in the audience when we take it to the stage."
Although the heavy funk influence of the Nut*meg style gives the music an eccentric and electrifying flavor, the term itself has a rather inauspicious origin. The word simply preoccupied Marshall during a song-writing session for Trulio Disgracias, an offshoot band that also includes members of Fishbone and Parliament/Funkadelic.
"You know how there are certain words, when you hear them, they strike a chord? 'Nutmeg' was one of those words for me - it always made me laugh," says Marshall. "A few years ago we were writing a tune and all I could hear was the word 'nutmeg.' From then on, everybody around started coming with the nut jokes and the nut concepts."
While Weapon of Choice's music is heavily inspired by a tremendously diverse range of genres, Marshall's strongest personal influence is the '70s funk flavor of such greats as George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic. After all, Marshall literally grew up with funk all around him.
Because a friend's father was Parliament/Funkadelic's treasurer, Marshall would frequently hang out at the band's World Funk Headquarters in Hollywood and visit backstage during funk festivals. Marshall even appeared on stage during the last major funk festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum in the early 1980s.
Although Marshall was profoundly influenced by the funk sounds of the '70s, he and the rest of Weapon of Choice harbor no regrets about being too young to perform during funk's heyday.
"I think we were born right on time," says Marshall. "These are the nutmeg-nutties and everybody seems to be prime for Nut*meg music and its anything glows approach because of the staleness that you find in today's radio format. People are just ready for music without any limitations on it."
One of the unique elements of the band's style is Marshall's penchant for humor and wit. Regardless of the severity of a song's original inspiration, Marshall always finds room to lighten the situation with clever and intriguing lyrics.
"The main thing is just have fun and not be serious," he says. "I like to get the jokes in as much as possible, no matter what the subject matter of the song is, because I think everything has some kind of joke in it somewhere."
Marshall derives particular delight from toying with words and meanings. With lyrics such as, "The thrillsvery glow boy is thrilled to breath to be rollin' in dough with you, igloo in the snow with you, no matter what we do, we're in the moment with you," Marshall loves displaying his linguistic deftness.
Pondering this enchantment with metaphors and word manipulation, Marshall traces his behavior all the way back to a high school English class. Faced with a class exercise in which students were expected to make sentences out of a list of words, Marshall began his experimentation.
"I flipped every word around and got an 'F' as a result," he says. "I think I've been rebelling against that teacher that gave me the 'F' ever since, subconsciously."
Marshall has come a long way since then. After Marshall founded Weapon of Choice in 1992 with keyboardist Keefus Ciancia, Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard saw a videotaped performance and quickly signed the band to his new label, Loosegroove Records.
The band's first album, "Nutmeg Sez 'Bozo the Town," was released in 1994 and drew comparisons to Weapon of Choice's own influences such as Frank Zappa and George Clinton. Now, a year later, Weapon of Choice is already prepared to release its second full-length album, entitled "Highperspice."
Actually, the band went into the studio planning to record only one song for a compilation record. But things quickly got rolling, and soon the single had become a 15-track album.
"We ended up just making something out of nuttin' like there was nuttin' to it,." says Marshall. "One thing led to another and we had a whole gang of songs. (We) decided we got too much brand nutrition to stop, so we took that Nut*meg potty plunge to the other level and just put it down. The rest is highperspice."
As for the future, everything looks bright and pretty nutty. Asked for his expectations in the coming months, Marshall slipped into a classic case of tongue-twisting nutspeak, promising plenty more Weapon of Choice lunacy still to come.
"Butter say whatness, sheer utter nutness from here to utter nuttiny. Yeah, we'll be nuttin' up in nineteen ninety-kicks til nutever," he says. "We're just excited that the album's coming out and really looking forward to the opportunity to share prop with the peeps all across the land. Get the Nut*meg potty jumpin' off."
CONCERT: Weapon of Choice at the Alligator Lounge, Friday, Feb. 2 at 9 p.m. TIX: $8. For more info, call (310) 449-1844.
The band Weapon of Choice includes back row (l-r): Tom-Bone, Audra, Mark, D-Rek, Finn and front row (l-r): Meganut, Jellybeen and Keefus.
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