Portland Band Hazel Delivers Prickly Pop

Hazel with Zipgun and Kill Sybil, rock music, tomorrow night at the Colour Box, 113 First Ave. S. 340-4101. -----------------------------

Sometimes the dance does make the difference.

Last time Portland's Hazel performed here at the Crocodile Cafe, dancer Fred Nemo was there but too sick to perform. And while the band's show was tight and hyperkinetic, it lacked the theatricality of the show before that, at the Weathered Wall.

Nemo, a scruffy unreconstructed hippie, whizzed around the stage, dancing on chairs and columns of speakers, stripping off multiple layers of clothes, coming perilously close to poking audience members in the face. The force of his presence gave credence to Hazel's insistence that they are a four-piece.

But not to worry - singer/guitarist Pete Krebs says Nemo is back in commission, and having finished a national tour, they're bringing their prickly pop back to Seattle tomorrow night.

Hazel has elements of the best of alternative rock: punk pacing, carving-knife guitars and wafting male-female harmonies. Bassist Brady Smith's lines fluctuate and flower more than merely provide support; drummer Jody Bleyle sings backup a la the B-52s while hammering out high-impact rhythms. Combined with huh-what lyrics like "It makes no sense at all, like a fridge in a hallway, like a hollow Wednesday" (from "Calliope"), the music whips you around until you're too disoriented to do anything but enjoy.

Hazel first formed late in 1991, when Krebs and Smith recruited Bleyle, a student at Reed College, after seeing her perform at an on-campus music festival. They decided to do a show and asked Nemo, who had been dancing (and becoming persona non grata in a few clubs) in the local scene for 25 years, to participate. Nemo appeared bedecked in a tutu, heart-shaped glitter and a Cupid's arrow, and the band immediately claimed him as their own.

For a band that was supposed to be a one-off deal, especially in the roiling milieu of rock band lineups, Hazel has certainly surpassed anyone's predictions. Krebs said "we're old friends. Each of us has a totally other life outside of Hazel, so it hasn't reached the overkill point yet." Part of Krebs' outside life is as a washboard player in two Portland blues bands, Brooklyn Trio and the Jim Boyer Trio.

"I really enjoy playing with guys twice my age who are all amazing musicians - that's 180 degrees away from Hazel," Krebs said. "This is my opportunity to play that kind of music. I don't think I'm technically proficient enough to do that on guitar, so washboard's a pretty accessible thing."

Like many good bands from Portland, Hazel is freshly signed to Sub Pop, which recently released the single "Jilted"/"Truly" and will issue a full album in August. Smith said Pond drummer Dave Triebwasser, with whom Krebs was in the band Thrillhammer, was "instrumental" in getting the ball rolling. This will considerably augment their recorded offerings, which now consist of tracks on a few compilations and the single "J. Hell/DayGlo Joe Louis Punchout" on Cavity Search.

This recent tour was the first to take them to the Midwest and East Coast, where in New York they played the legendary punk club CBGB's. "If anything, it tightened us up considerably," Krebs said. "Being so far away from home is a litmus test as far as personalities are concerned. It really tightened us up as friends."

For now, Hazel will concentrate on recording the Sub Pop album, and Bleyle will release two songs from their early demo as a seven-inch single on her own label.