Below Sound Makes Music Loud To Delight Of Its `Decibel Disciples'

----------------------------------------------------------------- Club Concert

Below Sound performs with Milk & Money, Thread and Grama Joe, at The Off Ramp tonight, 9:30. $4 -----------------------------------------------------------------

Writer, metalmeister and part-time landlord Jeff Gilbert, who soaks up volume easier than beer nuts, says Below Sound is the loudest band in Seattle, if not the universe.

"I'm a decibel disciple," says Gilbert, "and they feed the Frankenstein in me. They're loud because they know no other way. It's a way of life. Once they were playing the Weathered Wall and they got a complaint from the Westin Hotel across the street. So someone takes a note up to the band that says they can play two more songs if they'll just turn it down. They said, `Nope' and turned everything off. It's all or nothing with those guys, especially Paul.

Paul is Paul Larkin, who started Below Sound with drummer Tim Gibson five years ago. The current lineup, solid for two years, includes singer Randy Kilmer and guitarist John Fay. The band recently released the CD "Undercool," five tracks of dark and driven sound. Larkin says Below Sound is a very collaborative unit, but nonetheless he plays the bass, writes material and produces.

But that's the Larkin style. He's a musician, into real estate, owns a rehearsal hall and can hire out as an electrician. "I've pretty much got my finger in any pie I can chase with a beer," says Larkin. In the case of one soon-to-open tavern, he means that literally. Larkin traded a finite amount of electrical work for a lifetime's supply of free brew. "They'll come to rue the day they ever made that deal," he says.

Even though his brand of recorded music is hard and edgy with a dangerous disposition, he considers himself a new wave musician.

"Actually I take the negative approach to the music I do now. I don't play what I love so much as I play the stuff I don't hate. It works out fine.

Larkin also has a side band, strictly a recording project, called Dark Load. "We're just finishing up a track ("Brewicide") for a `Guitar World' magazine compilation disc. It's basically an excuse for all these guitar stars to be on one record. Ace Frehley (Kiss) is there and Ted Nugent. I wrote our cut and Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) plays on it. Bill Rieflin, who used to be in Ministry is the drummer. He's a great, great drummer."

Larkin says although he doesn't think he'll get rich off the deal, he's done all right.

"Like most Seattle bands, when you get a cash advance on something like this, you try to cut the record as cheaply as possible, split up the rest of the money and then sneak off and spend it foolishly."

Asked if Below Sound does any Dark Load material, Larkin laughed and gave an emphatic "No."

"For one thing, the song we just recorded is only the second song Dark Load has done (although there is talk of an EP) and there's no way we'd be able to duplicate it. The best I could hope for is that it land up being the B side on a Soundgarden single."

Would that be such a bad deal?

"No, not at all. This is the way I've always wanted to make money: Where they just give it to you and hopefully you won't have to give it back."