Periodically Entertaining

Judging from the daunting scientific scope of The Elements' three-CD, 119-song release Periodically, one might expect the group to consist of a bunch of serious-minded academics playing rock ‘n' roll on the side as an antidote for stressful days at the lab. But bass player, vocalist and songwriter Bill Ardison says none of the band members are or have ever been actual scientists.

“It's really just a vehicle for having lots of fun and drinking high-end whiskey and that sort of thing,” says Ardison, who also plays bass for local rockers Nug Jug.

Periodically is the latest experiment from Dog Ball Land Fill Studios, a loose-knit collective of local musicians responsible for a string of humorous and offbeat recordings made at the home recording studio of drummer Doug Campbell, who also plays in local outfit The Ghosts. Drummer Jason White rounds out the essential core of The Elements.

Ardison says that the album Periodically, which is described on the DBLF Web site as “a musical exploration of everything in 119 parts,” was inspired more by idle curiosity than scientific intrigue.

“Last February, a year ago, Doug Campbell and I came up with the idea of doing one song from every element on the periodic table from the first person point-of-view. We like to learn about stuff that we don't know anything about, and we didn't really know a whole lot about that,” Ardison explains.

Ardison and Campbell composed the bulk of the music for the project, a musical and lyrical tour de force that, despite its smart-assed irreverence, is based on honest-to-goodness scientific fact. One need look no further than the lyrics for “Chlorine” to gain an understanding of the Elements' tongue-in-cheek approach to science:

"Misunderstood is all I can say/without me you'd have a crappy day/I purify water – that's pretty cool/neutralize urine in the swimming pool/bonded with sodium I taste great/plastics, insecticides and household paint/but most people scorn me, such bad luck/ 'cause if consumed I'll kill you dead as fuck."

Approximately 30 local musicians contributed to the project, which was recorded between February and June of 2007. The result is a sprawling alchemy of musical genres that is as entertaining as it is educational.

“We consciously tried to explore every musical genre that we could think of,” says Ardison. “Obviously, we're rockers, so that's where our roots are, but certain songs just begged to be reggae songs, or kind of loungy jazz standards or a capella songs. We got an operatic voice major from the University of Kentucky to come and sing an operatic piece.”

Though the Periodical recording was intended mostly as an exercise in fun, Ardison says the project turned out to be a learning experience for the group.

“In the process of writing those songs, you couldn't help but learn all about – I can't tell you about how many wonderful things I've learned about Promethium and Rutherfordium, you know, that I would have never run across before this,” he says.

As has been the tendency for each successive DBLF project, Ardison and company will also present the material at a one-off live performance March 14 at Barley's Tap Room and Pizzeria. Under the guise of The Elements, the band will present a sampling from Periodically, which will also include actual scientific experiments conducted on stage.

“There are 20 songs from the project that we're going to perform,” says Ardison, “and generally speaking, they pretty much are indicative of what the entire project is about, insomuch as far as the different styles and the different musical approaches that we took in the project itself, we tried to select 20 songs that were not only playable and translatable to a live environment, but that also represented the project as a whole.”

In addition to Ardison, Campbell and White, the group will also include John Baker (formerly of the French Broads) and Barrack Weinstein on guitar and Anika Toro and Erika Watson on backing vocals and percussion.

Ardison will be pulling double duty at Barley's, playing also with openers The Noble Gases, which is essentially Nug Jug without pedal steel guitarist Tom Pryor. Pryor is currently on tour with the Johnson City country/folk outfit The Everybodyfields.

Jason Ratliff, Noble Gases/Nug Jug drummer, says the absence of pedal steel has forced the band into a more rock-oriented direction.

“When Tom's there, there's this distinct Appalachian flavor,” explains Ratliff. “It still exists [without Pryor] to some extent, but we're more rock- and pop-oriented now, so it's more straight up classic rocker. It's a little less country-Appalachian – we got away from the 2/4 bluegrass beat and things like that.”

Nug Jug, which also includes guitarists and vocalists Steve Smith and Chuck Watt, will release a new CD this spring titled For Those Who Have Recently Rocked. The band will still play the occasional show as Nug Jug whenever Pryor is available, but they will, in the meantime, continue to perform as the Noble Gases, possibly adding Ratliff's brother Doug to the lineup as a “utilitarian type person.” The band also plans on recording their first CD under the Noble Gases moniker once they write enough material.

The limited release three-CD Periodically is available at Disc Exchange or may be ordered from www.dblfstudios.com, which also offers an MP3 version. Or, says Ardison, “If you catch one of us drunk at Naples or something, you might be able to work out a deal.”

The Elements w/ the Noble Gases
Friday, March 14
Barley's (200 E. Jackson Ave.) / 10 p.m.