End times

By Tom Collins Catalyst

Send comments to: catalyst@wildcat.arizona.edu

Dan Kampner Arizona Daily Wildcat Singer Micah DesJardins, bassist Nathan Strait and drummer David Valenzuela satisfy a hungry crowd as their band, End Transmission, jams at Double Zero Saturday night. The band will play there again at midnight Saturday to usher out the TAMMIES Fall Crawl.

When I was a kid, I was a moper.

A moody, maudlin adolescent with no way to get to the mall. Alone in my room at night I would play a little Depeche Mode; from time to time, I'd look for a Cure.

These days, I still feel, on occasion, sad. Like Morrissey.

So in a town full of wannabe-rockabillies and masters of irony, it's nice to see someone play some good old earnest pop. Old-fashioned pre-Cracker angst, when the men were all dressed up in black and the women were, well, all dressed up in black.

When End Transmission closes the Tammies Fall Crawl midnight Saturday at Double Zero, 121 E. Congress St., they'll bring their brand of what your older brothers and sisters called "alternative music" to the stage.

"It's pop, but it's not pop; it's alternative rock, but it's not alternative rock," said frontman and lead guitarist Micah DesJardins, 23. "It's goth, but it's not goth; it's dance music but it's not dance music."

What it is, is something familiar. Singing with his hair slicked back and his head cocked to one side, DesJardins is a picture of upset - Robert Smith with a hair cut.

The band, which includes bassist Nathan Strait, 22, and drummer David Valenzuela, 27, has been together since February and will release an album at the end of October. The Fall Crawl is an important step.

"It's a big deal for us," DesJardins said. The band attempted to play the April fest, but was rebuffed, he said.

"They said Well, I'm sorry, nobody's ever heard of you,'" DesJardins said. This time, though, the band got a call, he added.

The band members have known each other and played in various groups together for five years, before coming together to form End Transmission, to pursue their art.

DesJardins, for example, said he gave up a $40,000-a-year job to do what he loves. Strait, a local restaurant employee, is "a normal starving artist," while drummer Valenzuela does something with computers.

To say you haven't heard the sound of End Transmission before is a lie. DesJardins' effect drenched guitar is Johnny Maar to the max, while Strait's bass lines propel the group in manner more than reminiscent of Disintegration-era Cure. But the band is unashamed of its roots in New Order or Ministry or anything else. That's important, because it lends weight to flashes of R.E.M.'s "Feeling Gravity's Pull" or Live - you could leave your white makeup at home, but not your heart. And wasn't that always the beauty of a group like The Smiths, that it felt good to feel bad?

Still, End Transmission faces a tough road, the road of many local bands, including most showcased in the Fall Crawl. The group, DesJardins said, puts up 300 to 500 fliers a show to bring in maybe two or three people.

Starting a Tucson band in earnest means one has to "fight the perception that local music is not as good," as nationally known groups, DesJardins said.

Still, there is no Cure tour scheduled to stop by Tucson any time soon and Morrissey probably won't be back for a while. Depeche Mode can't tour.

Until then, with lyrics like "This is what happens when you have no tears left to cry/This is what happens when there are no words left to say/You say good-bye," End Transmission is an excuse to open adolescent wounds.

It does feel good to feel bad.