For Rockers Who Like Their Rock Rockin'
And Still...A Younger Audience Awaits The Blues
By Sam Guzzetta

As an RFB volunteer, I also have to hold down a day job. But I have a supervisor who is fairly RFB sympathetic. He lets me get away with all manner of shenanigans and RFB-related stuff during work hours. This supervisor, who is a serious artist in his own right, shall remain nameless, lest he incur the wrath of the corporate demon-managers, who would sap the very soul from his being were they aware of his subversive activities.

Supervisor "X" uses a pet-sitting service, run by a local artist couple. One of this pair is the guitarist for a local band, ODDO, the leader of which, Oddo, has a prominent spot on a local top-rated talk show.

And so it was that I was introduced to Disco Scottie, the guitarist/artist behind ODDO, the band hyped and promoted to comedic lengths on "The Philips Phile," Orlando's most listened to afternoon-drive radio show, on which Oddo, lead singer of ODDO, produces the show and provides witty asides along with the rest of "the Phile" in response to host Jim Philips' rants and observations.

Supervisor X obtained a copy of Never Odd or Even, ODDO's debut demo-of-sorts, a 6-song, locally produced CD from Disco Scottie, who along with his wife, was watching the supervisor's cats. Supervisor X could not stop talking about his new music discovery in the cubicle-farm that is our workplace. Raised on Judas Priest, KISS and a host of other metal acts of the late 70s and early 80s, Supervisor X had seemingly rediscovered his head-banging ways, sold on the power of ODDO.

So I began corresponding with Disco Scottie at Supervisor X's urging, as Supervisor X knows of my love for music, particularly of the home-grown variety. I borrowed the supervisor's ODDO CD in order to give Disco Scottie a no-holds barred review, as after a few emails, we had discovered many common musical likes and dislikes. Cutting his teeth on Boston and King's X, Disco Scottie sought commercial appeal for ODDO, and he wasn't afraid to admit it. He wanted "hook" and radioability. He wanted to reach the airwaves, grab a crowd and make 'em jam. Commercial success.

So my wife and I were planning a drive out to Oviedo from our place, which I figured was about ODDO CD distance, and we brought along the release to listen and examine, to see if we could find what Supervisor X had found.

The CD's opener, "Sick," instantly jarred. Crunching, driving guitars reminiscent of any number of songs from Aerosmith's Pump came rolling from our 6-speaker Japanese car stereo system. It was a nice night out and we had the windows down. A guy in an open-topped pick-up drove by. I half-expected him to flash us the devil-horn sign and shout out, "ODDO ROCKS!" It was fitting. Rock in the warm February air of Florida. We listened, smiled and almost laughed as it brought us back to a rockier time, when guitars were mean and drums punched. The production was clean, as in Rush-clean. Breaks, chords, vocals, echoes, all synched, hard, smooth and melding well.

The second track, "I Am Done," immediately brought up images of Joan Jett in black leather, sneering and demanding that her boy by the record machine put another dime in the jukebox baby, because she loves rock and roll. It was tough, ballsy (as was Joan), and it spoke of arenas and hair and panties and bras flying on stage.

But something was missing. Those old Arena-rock groups sang of sex, drugs and rock and roll. They sang of rocking all night and partying every day. They sang of running from groupies trying to slap them with paternity suits. ODDO was growling out something else. ODDO had the blues.

As the third song commenced, I was aware that ODDO was one pissed- off and fed-up band. These were emo-rockers ahead of their time. Lyrically, ODDO would best be described as "searching," in a U2 kind of way. "Still haven't found what I'm looking for, what's this life for, why do things have to suck so bad, let me off this stupid blue marble, I want answers NOW!" Crunch, crunch, punch, punch.

Cut #4, in my opinion, rules this album. "Dig My Way Out" starts slow and Creedesque, with a touch of Chili Peppers thrown in for good measure. Disco Scottie's guitar intro begs to be listened to. He's almost Jimmy Page as he stretches for that melodic hook that carries on later, the kind where you remember the intro to the song more than you do the song itself. (Like quite a few Zeppelin songs, now that I think about it.) A few moments later, the song breaks into a chorus and hook worthy of any modern-rock-alt-emo song aimed at a young-demo-skewed audience. The kids should eat this stuff up. Disco Scottie has found his hook. He is Tom Scholtz of Boston, a long-haired geek in his home studio, attempting to tap into the American kid-psyche with guitar and fuzz. But again, the difference is ODDO's lyrics. As Boston sang about smokin' and tokin' and boogie tonight, ODDO is crying out for help.

I'm living my own shame
Got no one else to blame
It's not my family
It's just the fault of me

Can you hear the 15 year-old-girls singing along?

Production-wise, Never Odd Or Even is as clean as it gets.The one thing missing, sadly, is a bass. While Disco Scottie is credited on the liner notes with bass, it's almost undetectable on this album. As a fan of Geddy and Flea, I like my bass prominent, and this one was almost nonexistent. One wonders what a hard thumpin' bass would do to these tunes.

Vocally, Oddo carries this album like a born-to-rock Delaware Destroyer. But ODDO is an Orlando band, and while he may display Ozzy tones and influence, Oddo can't disguise his Southern Rock roots. I don't know where he's from, but Oddo wants to scream, he wants to howl, and yet deep down, I think he's a Southern Bluesman in the tradition of Mac Powell of Third Day and maybe even Van Zant of Skynyrd. He's got a Creed-like, pent-up something that's not quite satisifed. This afternoon-drive producer is one fed-up mo' fo', and he might as well be naming himself Sonny Oddo Gimp Williams. He's got blues credentials. Scottie's lyrics help, of course, but Oddo understands them.

As ODDO the band matures and releases new material, I hope that Oddo the man, along with Disco Scottie, tap deeper into that bottomless well of teen angst, that endless reservoir that is the blues. That hookable, commercialable sound and feeling that they found on track 4. It's OK to say farewell to Ozzy, KISS, Boston, Zeppelin and Aerosmith. Your influences are great, ODDO, but you can look beyond them. Further back. To the blues. To the guys that influenced your influences. Let it growl, let it roll, find a bass and crank it up. Find what you're looking for.

ODDO's Never Odd Or Even is a must-have for Supervisor X. I personally can't wait for ODDO, Unplugged at the Apollo.

Oddo's Site
Disco Scottie's Site
Disco Scottie's Pet-Sitting Service Site
Philips' Phile