Stumm eventually signed Scissor Sisters to A Touch of Class, which released a trio of songs that eventually helped the band snag a licensing deal with Polydor/Universal: the new-wave-synth-pop swerve "Electrobix"; a warm, digi-funk cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb"; and the hi-NRG discotheque scream "Filthy/Gorgeous." But what he remembers from those early days illuminates quite a bit about the band's success.
"They were talented insofar that the singer, Jason, has a very good singing voice, a lot of energy," Stumm says today. "Scott has a lot of talent in creating music and accompanying Jason. We could feel the chemistry between the two. We also liked that they were not coming too much out of clubland. It was more pop music than just another DJ act or something. They were writing real pop songs, and we liked that about them."
That sense of craft powers last year's Ta-Dah, the Sisters' sophomore effort, especially the galloping piano frolic "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" — a song co-written by John, whose 1970s catalog has clearly influenced the band. The single made some noise in the United States, but Dah lacks anything destined to become as ubiquitous as "Take Your Mama," the bar-band semi-hit from the Sisters' 2004 self-titled debut. Because it's not an immediately poppy record and isn't really danceable overall, consumers and critics alike greeted Dah with shrugs and scratches of the head. It didn't fit the mold of what Scissor Sisters music should sound like. But Dah does sound like an album created by a group of musicians who are completely on the same wavelength — something that drummer Boom confirms.
"The first time around was more of a Lennon-McCartney thing with Jake and Babydaddy," he says by phone from the UK on a recent Saturday afternoon. "It [Dah] really came down to being a band and performing — just a lot more instrumentation, a lot more of a band feel. The first record was written generally in pieces. Some of it was written without certain members. We went from two to three to four to five [members], and now we tour as a six-, sometimes eight-piece, band. The second record was written with everybody in and out of the studio, presenting different ideas, bringing different songs."
Diversity is certainly evident on Dah, if not its strongest asset. Shears does his best Rufus Wainwright impression on the lushly orchestrated Broadway vamp "Intermission" (also featuring contributions from Sir Elton). "Kiss You Off" is a Technicolor romp that sounds like it could break into "Knock on Wood" at any moment. The bustling "Ooh," with its percolating percussion and bass, conjures the polyrhythmic moments on Talking Heads' Remain in Light (perhaps because Boom has studied traditional African music in Guinea and Senegal). And "Paul McCartney" is the sonic equivalent of a raging party, full of peppy horns and manic-panic beats.
The best song on the album, though, is "The Other Side," a slow, moody number with muted synths and a throbbing pulse. Shears ditches his falsetto for a creepier style, and the result is as sleek as any Roxy Music track, with a dramatic, blazing guitar solo that seems plucked from an episode of Miami Vice.
"That's so funny you say that — that's one of my favorites, too," Boom says about the song. "That was one that sort of came out of left field. Songs like that sometimes tend to go over people's heads sometimes. That's an example of another direction that the band can go in — sort of the moody and melancholy instead of upbeat and fun."
Indeed, Scissor Sisters doesn't get enough credit (in America especially) for being a band of proper musicians with aspirations for longevity and a desire to transcend the pop realm.
"People have to come see the show," Boom says. "Then you get sort of the full picture. There's a lot of razzle-dazzle appeal that people think is just some sort of pop thing that doesn't have much substance. But the heart of it, it's a band — now more so than ever because we've toured so much and spent about three years on the road in the last four years."
Much of this touring has occurred overseas — which has contributed to the Sisters' superstar status in the UK, the place where the band first rose to prominence in 2004. (Boom notes that people went "absolutely bananas" in Japan on a recent tour as well.) But if one reads any piece of American press on the band, the big question seems to be: Why aren't the Scissor Sisters more successful in the United States? Besides being a tired conceit — after all, is success defined by album sales? radio airplay? MySpace friends? ticket sales? — it's also an insulting question that overshadows meaningful discourse about the band and its music.
Moreover, the corollary to this question is almost as bad: Can the notoriously gay-friendly band connect in the flyover states? (Justin Kujawa, talent booker for the Pageant, says,"We're very happy with the [ticket] count and where it's at, especially on a Monday night.") A Touch of Class' Stumm disputes the band's supposed lack of U.S. popularity — and has a theory as to why it has connected with so many: Perhaps Scissor Sisters has encouraged people to dance again.
"They fit into the new style of what we call dance-rock — where people actually go to see a show, and they can dance, and it's like a party," he says. "It's like a modern-day DJ, but it's a band. Especially the UK picked up on that — you had all these dance bands, like Franz Ferdinand. People would go to a concert like they were going to a party, and the Scissor Sisters fit into that thing. Maybe that's not that popular yet in the U.S."
Boom isn't offended by questions about Scissor Sisters' American success. Why should he be? After all, heroes such as Dave Grohl are coming to see him play ("I attribute him being there to having some problems afterwards. I played so hard, I blew a gasket in my neck or something"), and the band made a hilarious (and hilariously awkward) appearance on the soap opera Passions this year. (Shears is a fan.)
"It is what it is," Boom says. "We go with the open door, and the open door happens to be the UK and Europe. People just love to compare things — categories, lists. It could hit in America. It could stay the same. Who knows? In the meantime, we have a very successful band, so it doesn't really matter to me where we go."
