Don't Box Them In

07/21/1998 2:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Michael Moses

Remember how the early success of bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam seemed like a positive thing at first? It was the early '90s, and generic heavy metal was slowly going the way of the buffalo, killed off by a burgeoning Northwest movement that featured such acts as Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. Naturally, it didn't take long for the record companies to start collecting Seattle bands as if they were Beanie Babies. Hell, at one point, it seemed as if every shlub with a flannel shirt on his back was landing a deal.

Even Madonna took part in the stampede: The sex-siren-turned-industry mogul had just started her own label, Maverick Records, and needed a hit to help pay for those expensive Mylar covers that wrapped her Sex book. So on a Spring evening in 1992, Maddie flew to Seattle to check out a showcase by a local act with a sizeable buzz called Green Apple Quick Step. On the way to the show, she made a pit stop at a local dive and caught a performance by another bunch of yokels named Candlebox.

She signed them instead.

Critics instantly hated the band. They were dubbed "the Bon Jovi of the grunge scene," and written off as another Seattle act trying to cash in on the flannel movement. Still, somebody out there must have liked Candlebox: their 1993 debut album went on to sell four million copies in the U.S. alone. Say what you will about them being a product of good marketing, but the truth is, Candlebox songs like "You" and "Change" struck a chord among consumers of hooky arena-rock. Now, five years and one sophomore-jinx-of-an-album later (1995's mediocre-selling Lucy), the band is hoping for a repeat performance with new album, Happy Pills. Produced by Led Zeppelin/ Who producer Ron Nevison, the album offers more of the same, its guitar-driven rock mix full of punchy power-chords ("10,000 Horses," "Happy Pills") and melodic, Zeppelin-like acoustic numbers ("Blinders," "It's Alright"). However, the question remains: In 1998, will a new Candlebox record be readily accepted by the record-buying public?

"I don't think the record is going to be readily accepted by the media," says Candlebox vocalist Kevin Martin, "and that's fine. We don't sit down and write a record to please the critics, or to please Details, or Rolling Stone or Spin magazine. We have a solid fanbase. Did you know that we continue to sell a few thousand copies each week of the first and second record? Those are the people that we care about."

And does Martin still read his press?

"I used to, but now I don't give a shit," he says candidly. "It was obvious after the first record that Candlebox was going to continue to be the bastards of the Seattle scene. It used to concern me and upset me, but it doesn't anymore. I'm way past that. I'm 29 years old and got no time for that sort of stuff.

"Besides," he says, "I don't think critics sell records anyway."