Flood Making New Sound Without Any Old Baggage

Club Preview

Flood, playing at The Crocodile Cafe, 2200 2nd Ave., tomorrow, 9:30 p.m. Also on the bill: Sister Psychic and Sourmash. $6. 441-5611. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Amy Stolzenbach, guitarist for the band Flood, knows when things are going right.

"It doesn't always go that way," she says, battling a burrito at La Vaca's in Greenlake. "In my last band, Charlotte's Web, it didn't go that way at all. We had to beat down doors to get work. We had nasty names for bookers. Now I can call up people and I know them on a first-name basis. We can just talk."

Stolzenbach joined Charlotte's Web in its waning months. She thinks that although the band changed, they were stuck with an established style. Flood, however, isn't struggling with any old baggage.

"We don't fit into any particular musical genre. I could say we're alternative heavy pop, but that's not really what we are. We're a combination of a lot of different sounds. We don't even know what they are. We never knew what we sounded like until we recorded, and then we were just shocked. We did our first tape in my basement when our drummer had only been with us two weeks. We recorded the new tape in London Bridges studio. That's a big deal for us, going from my basement to London Bridges." In fact, tomorrow's performance at the Crocodile is the band's official tape release party for the newly recorded "Shallow."

Stolzenbach founded Flood with bassist Laura Bell, who also played in Charlotte's Web. The drummer is Christian Hamilton - the only male in the band - and Christine Rhinehart is the groups lead singer.

"Singers are a whole different breed," says Stolzenbach with a chuckle, "but Christine is very normal, She's almost too normal. I wonder about her. Actually, she's really quiet, she's pretty mysterious. I think that comes across on stage. People are drawn to that."

If Rhinehart is mysterious, Stolzenbach is pragmatic. Originally from Columbus, Ohio by way of Michigan, she is a piano student turned guitarist. She moved to Los Angeles five years ago to pursue a rock 'n' roll dream. She managed to get into one band.

"It was a pretty stupid band," she grimaces. "It was an all-girl band. That was the gimmick. I wasn't interested, but I landed up filling in for their guitarist anyway. It was called Tabletalk, although no one really knew why. One thing I learned living in LA was what not to do."

After a couple of years there, Stolzenbach moved to Seattle and went to work for American Music. It was there she eventually connected with her future band mates.

"We've been lucky enough to get a good following and to get on good shows where we're exposed to more people. It really is a lot of good luck, this isn't all my doing. Things just happen.

"But the whole thing is a big gamble. You can't count on things, you get too disappointed. You have to learn to be patient. And you have to be professional. If you demand a professional attitude, you're going to get it."

Stolzenbach says the band plans on recording again at the end of summer, but really just wants to play more live shows.

"We want to tour. Not that our studio stuff is bad, but I think we're much better live. You get the whole thing. I'd love to do more all-ages places, too. We want to do everything . . .

"It's like when you start your band, you hope that you'll get to this place. But when you get here, you just want to do better."