April 28-May 4, 2005

music

Shanghai Surprise

LOVE FROM AFAR: 722's sound is "very different than other rock," according to Haiping Ge, corporate president of International Special Attractions. Photo By: Hanan Saleh

What is Philly band 722 doing in China?

by A.D. Amorosi

From their Fantomas-meets-No Doubt sound to their silly, sweet lyrics, you'd be right to call Philly band 722's aesthetic fresh.

But when Haiping Ge, the corporate president of International Special Attractions Ltd. (ISA), thinks you're down, you're down.

"Their rock music style is kind of unique to [the ears of] the Chinese people," says Ge from Shanghai, through an interpreter.

He thinks so highly of 722 that he's booked the foursome, virtual unknowns here in Philly who've only been playing together since 2002, for two weeks worth of shows for The Shanghai Pudong Music Carnival and Festival, an event organized by the Pudong Culture, Film and Broadcasting Bureau, aimed at promoting international music for the local people as well as celebrate the Labor Day festival during the first week of May each year.

"ISA's been the exclusive company responsible for collecting all the performing groups for the festival," Ge explains. The committee was in charge of curating acts from various genres: country, rock, African music, Irish music and pop. Ge, who picked 722's CD out of a pile of international applicants, found them to be "very different than other rock."

Ge doesn't know the half of it.

Composed of graduates of University of the Arts with majors in music, theater and musical theater, 722 is an infectiously melodic mess, a crowded house full of Sparks-soaked individualists loudly rattling off their influences. "Laughter, dancing, pondering, breaking into the robot, banging your head, that's us, " says Nero Catalano, 722's leader. The four — guitarist/singer Catalano, drummer Jameison Ledonio, bassist/singer Davy Raphaely and vocalist Sarah Linebarger — share a South Philly home. You can hear the bubble of their fish tank through the mad crackle of the title track on on their latest CD, We're Taking Over. "Almost all of our songs were written about the fish tank that resides at the 722 household," jokes Linebarger, a redhead familiar from tending bar at El Vez. Silly, no? You'd expect nothing less from the brassy musical theater major who infiltrated the 722 brotherhood first by working with Raphaely on a dance presentation while at UArts, then moving next door to the band, where they shared a courtyard and all-night jam session parties.

While their storyboarded tales deal with bushy-tailed optimism ("Tomorrow's Now"), addictions both literal ("I Quit") and figurative ("Stubborn Game"), as well as "Foxes" ("just girls look foxy in the wintertime all bundled up with sweaters, jackets and hats," sings Catalano), it is 722's music that's insistently askew.

"The harmonies that Sarah and I do, Davy's animated voice — it's all so explosive," Catalano says. He throws banjo, sitar, keys, cowbell and bouzouki into the guitar-strewn rock rabble, much as he does in another local band, Bebek. "Davy and Sarah have really taught me to get into the character of each song, because we are not the same people in every song, even musically."

Says Linebarger in one breath: "It's as if rock and theater had a child. Not a cute little kid but a crazy hyperactive one with ADD that you don't know what they're gonna do next."

Next up for 722 is that gig at the Shanghai festival. "My voice teacher's sister works for ISA, and they were looking for bands to play a beer festival in Asia," explains Linebarger, who sent music and video clips to ISA and didn't hold her breath. "The day after Christmas, I received a funny message about China and if would we play there."

After tons of phone calls, e-mails and government approval, 722 were Pudong- bound.

"We thought this could be good and interesting," Ge says. "I hope they will have a good time in Shanghai and that the people here enjoy their music."