No Goats, New Glory

Maxx is back with Black Landlord. Here's your two Munfs notice.

by A.D. Amorosi

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Published: Jan 23, 2008

Michael T. Regan HERE'S A PAYBACK: "We're getting up in age," jokes Maxx. "I can't see how many more bands I'm [going to] want to start after this." (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

During his time with rap-rock progenitors the Goats and Incogengro, Maxx Stoyanoff-Williams had a reputation for being a goof, a drunk and one of the most cutting and humorous rappers this city's ever known.

His pal Bob Bannon, of heavy metal thunderers Omegalord and Psyclone Rangers, had a similar rep as a drummer.

But the '90s are over and the two have learned some new tricks for their suave, horn-driven, eight-piece hip-hop band Black Landlord: wizened maturity and dependability.

How dependable?

"We were here 10 minutes early, mothafucker," laughs Maxx, sitting at a table at Chinatown's Golden Phoenix. "Dare I say, we're professionals."

Their Ropeadope Digital debut Munf to Munf Lease — a short album or really long EP — proves as much, with the hard, slick punch lent to live raunchy Landlord faves like "Dear God" and "Grandmoms."

"We're taking everything seriously," says Maxx, the man once known as Blue Maxx Goat and MC Uh Oh. "We're getting up in age. ... I can't see how many more bands I'm [going to] want to start after this."

"Rock 'n' roll's about going for broke," says Bannon. "But neither one of us wanted to wait tables or serve beer forever."

That's only funny because it's true.

Their two-guys-walk-into-a-bar scenario occurred when Maxx, just back from Berlin in 2006, where he made music under the Hack Tao moniker, reported for work at the Society Hill Hotel only to see Bannon putting his jacket beneath the bar.

"Total what-are-YOU-doing-here shit," says Bannon, his blond hair hanging in his face. He and Maxx were total cronies before the rapper left for Europe six years ago.

"In classic Bannon fashion, Bob took two seconds before yelling, "Duuuude, I have to play music," says Maxx, his eyes widened in puppy-dog mode.

Each needed the other. Bannon wanted to get away from heavy metal. "When you're the guy in town who plays the double bass, you're the guy in town that plays the double bass," says the drummer. Playing soulful hip-hop with Maxx allows him to stretch his muscles.

"I'm the anal retentive fuck in this band," laughs Bannon. He's Black Landlord's manager and organizer. Having eight guys in a band means a wrangler's necessary. "There wouldn't be a band if it wasn't for Bannon," says Maxx.

Maxx needed Bannon to lift his sound from punk-rock-hip-hop and the poli-satire "Columbus destroyed more Indians than Hitler killed Jews/ But on his birthday you get sales on shoes" (Goats' "Tricks of the Shade") to the deeper, warmer, funnier story lines and fuzzy brassy sound he created in Germany.

"I didn't want that identity," says Maxx.

Maxx left Philly because this town beat the shit out of him. "People expected me to always run around naked." In Europe, he could make music on somebody's dime (the Music Hybrids label) and take himself out of the Philly fracas and the poli-sci tirades.

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

"But in Berlin, I couldn't call my boys and get them to play."

Back in Philly and with the sympathetic rhythms of Bannon and bassist Bruce Reckahn (Delta 72) Maxx formed a trio to forge his fast-forward notion of adult hip-hop.

Though Hack Tao was solo and synthetic, it had bright brass and fuller sounds written into its arrangements. So the trio brought in Goats' ex-stage manager Al Tango as background vocalist and hype man, "old heads" Ken Bune and Mike Tramontanato to play sax and trumpet, respectively, and became Black Landlord.

"I'll never play anything without horns again," says Bannon. "Plus I like playing with all these guys. I know Maxx can talk about the tension within the Goats. But I've been in bands with two other guys where I hated the rest of the group."

The smartly emotional lyrics by Maxx's estimation aren't about "stupid shit" like violence and jewelry but struggles with rent, depression and having kids they can't handle. But it's not maudlin. "There's an element of smoking weed and drinking beer in the words — maybe I did this, maybe I screwed that up," says Maxx with a smile, pointing at songs like "Mea Culpa." "But now the idea of 'maybe I need to rethink what I'm doing' is part of the outcome."

So the songs themselves are less about murder and viciousness than they are the silly mayhem of daily existence; have more to do with Seinfeld's "that's a show?" ideal than they do Three 6 Mafia-style prattle. "Besides," says Maxx with a grin, "if I tried to talk about guns, the guys at the barbershop at 17th and Huntington where I grew up would know I was lying."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

Black Landlord release party for Munf to Munf Lease, Sat., Jan 26, 9 p.m., $10, with Iron, Johnny Brenda's 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 866-468-7619, johnnybrendas.com.

 

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