Squirt: Not Afraid To Play Bad Music

Who is Squirt: Richard Rossetti, vocals, bass Eric Olson, guitar M.C. Nelson, drums Electric Vee Vee Roark, lead guitar It was like Jekyl and Hyde.

By the light of day, the guys playing catch with a mutilated football in Richard Rossetti's front yard seemed harmless. Just your average 20-something guys with a slightly alternative twist.

But get them in their dark, dank basement studio with cement walls and bare light bulbs and they rupture into chaos.

M.C. Nelson, who didn't say more than two words above ground, became a sweating demon drummer fiend. Richard Rossetti's persuasive used-car-salesman voice screamed into action while Eric Olson and Electric Vee Vee Roark just smiled happily and jammed along.

By day, Nelson is a painter, Olson is a salesman for Rand McNalley maps, Roark heads the production department of a back-massage machine company and Rossetti . . . well, Rossetti calls himself an unemployed Rock Hero.

By night they are Squirt.

"It doesn't mean anything perverted, it's just a word that sounded good," Rossetti said. "All the good names were taken. But if something happens to this one, I'm going to call the next band Buzzard."

Both Rossetti and Roark were in another band, Bloody Mary, before "we became the rock heroes we are today." They left and formed Squirt about two years ago. Olson joined the band, moved to Spokane for a time, but came back to the band when he returned to Seattle. In his absence, Squirt picked up Nelson as a drummer.

"We sound like T-Rex meets the Sex Pistols meets Slave," Rossetti said. "Its rock-plus-one. Sometimes people think we're a joke because we like to shake people up and have a good time. But we take our music very seriously."

Rossetti produced their first releases, `Blow Yourself Up' and `See you in Heck' under the label, Red Rocket Records, and also acts as the band's manager.

But if the band weren't together, they all agree they wouldn't be in the music business.

"Everything sucks about this business except playing," Roark said. "There are lots of bands out there who get breaks not because they are better than we are, but because they have more business experience. We are our own worse enemy in that sense."

Squirt says its long-term goal is the adventure of its next tape or the next big band they're going to meet. The short-term goal, Rossetti says, is just to meet the long term goal.

But no matter how bad it gets, band members say they always know why they're together.

"We've forgotten more music than most bands ever write," Roark said. "We've written hundreds and hundreds of songs, and they work because we're not afraid to play bad songs.

"And the kind of music we play, we'd play no matter where we were or what year it was. We're too stubborn and old to change. A song is real easy if you don't make it hard."

Lyrics? Flip a coin, sometimes they're understandable, sometimes they're not. Either way, it doesn't seem to matter much to the band.

"Our songs don't have any messages because I don't have anything to say," said Rossetti, who writes the music and lyrics. "Other bands take care of that. `Lose the Nose Ring' is probably our most political song to date. We do have lots of songs about food."

And never has a band made `pizza, chicken, burgers' rock this well. McDonald's should have it so good.

Where to hear Squirt: Squirt plays at RKCNDY (1812 Yale Ave.) tonight and the Off-Ramp (109 Eastlake Ave. E.) on Saturday night.