OK, you’ve heard it all before. A quick review of Adult.’s makeup reads like plenty of other bands. A husband-and-wife duo from Detroit who makes retro music does not sound unique, but make no bones about it, Adult. does not sound like the rest. At all.
First, the band is no longer a duo. It added guitarist Sam Consiglio at the start of this year. Second, this is a real-deal marriage, not a publicity stunt. Last, retro may be a way to describe Adult.’s sound, but garage and rock have nothing to do with it.
Adult. — yes, that period is supposed to be there — makes music fueled by singer Nicola Kuperus’ sneering, raspy vocals and Adam Lee Miller’s blippy, spiky electronics. Add to that Sam Consiglio’s guitar stabs, strums and strokes, and you have an idea of the music Adult. makes.
The band’s new album, Gimmie Trouble, is a bit more incendiary than past releases. With song titles like “Disappoint the Youth,” “Scare up the Birds” and “Strange Mistakes,” Kuperus notes this album may have a bit of an agenda.
“I think we’re pretty reactionary and it’s a little bit of a commentary on people who don’t ever want you to change or do what you want to do,” Kuperus said. “It’s kind of like the idea of: This is what we’re doing and if you’ve got something to say about it, then that’s fine. I think we’re always: Either you’re with us or against us. A real love-hate kind of thing, and I think that just kind of makes a really clear statement. And I think it also works on other social, political levels as well. Kind of just about the way the world is going right now.”
As far as sharing a nearly identical album title with indie music’s “it” band, Spoon (who released Gimme Fiction this summer), Kuperus just laughs at the serendipity of it all.
“It was pretty funny because the way record stuff works is you have everything finished between four or six months in advance,” Kuperus said. “So, everything was completed on our album and then we see an ad for Gimme Fiction, so we thought it was funny. But I think there’s a lot of songs and things throughout history that have used the word ‘gimmie’ in it. Plus, we spell it different than them anyway.”
When it comes to their fans, Adult. has a loyal but occasionally demanding bunch of followers.
“There’s a bunch of people who like the new album,” Kuperus said. “But then there are those that are like, “Why don’t you play blah, blah.” And then, we don’t. It generally happens in the cities that we don’t go to a lot. So, for those people there’s like a time lapse for those people because they haven’t seen us in like three years. A place like Tucson, we’ve never played there before, so I think it’s going to be really cool and I hope that maybe for people in Tucson, their first introduction to us is Gimmie Trouble. And I think there’s like a pretty good underground, weirdo, art-punk scene there.”
She’s got us pegged. However, not only is Kuperus a talented musician, but she happens to be an accomplished, professional photographer who shoots the band’s album cover photos. She also manages to balance a successful marriage on top of that, and she is content with worlds colliding.
“I’m one of those people that when we got married it didn’t really seem that different anyway,” Kuperus said. “I think it’s kind of nice because we both love what we’re doing, and it’s not like we work these separate jobs and come home and talk about how boring work was and complain about it. It’s really exciting. We obviously have our differences and we’re certainly willing to duke them out, but it’s cool. It’s probably annoying for the rest of our traveling party, traveling with an old married couple.”
To see the most rockin’ old married couple on the face of the earth, check out Plush, 340 E. Sixth St., on Wednesday. The 21-and-older show is $8 and starts at 9:30 p.m. with Genders and Numbers opening.