If you go What: The Toluenes When: 8 p.m. Friday Where: The SoundFactory, 812 Kanawha Boulevard E. Cover charge: $5 * FYI: The bandalso will be in the area for three other summer gigs - June 24 atGriffs Too at South Charlestons Riverwalk Plaza, July 10 at TheEmpty Glass on Elizabeth Street and July 18 at Tomahawks on U.S. 60in Jefferson.
Jamon Scott is a singer, songwriter, filmmaker and jewelrydesigner - and one half of the explosively named duo The Toluenes.
It's a hectic existence, sure, but Scott sure knows how todiversify.
"We're just trying to hang on for dear life," he says with alaugh from Nashville.
Funny thing is he knew bandmate Dan Crawley back in high schoolin Kentucky, though not as a friend.
Crawley describes it this way: "Actually, he hated me and Ididn't know who the hell he was. It's a very long story, but there'sa girl involved. You know how that goes."
They both laugh now at that memory. And when the two - who hadmade separate trips to Nashville trying to make it in music -crossed paths again and decided to form The Toluenes in 2003, theyfound out they were a good match, both in musical style and in theirdetermination to produce original music.
Their music has been described as southwestern country rock, andthey're known for clever and funny lyrics. Their name comes from aRoger Clyne song, "Heaven on the Highway out of Town," that mentionsthe chemical - a liquid hydrocarbon that is used as a solvent and anagent in gasoline. The explosive TNT is derived from toluene.
"If you Google us, the band stuff comes up and then there's abunch of stuff on toluene," Crawley noted.
Crawley and Scott have paid their dues on the free club circuit,playing open mic events until they got into the "inner circle," asScott describes it.
"Everybody down there thinks that every time you go out, you'regoing to get discovered, so everybody plays for free and the clubsknow that," Scott said. "So we did that whole thing until we gottired of playing for free."
They've resisted playing anyone else's music.
"I've never played in a cover band," Scott said. "That's not whyI got in this business."
Folks in Nashville still seem surprised that Scott and Crawleyeach write songs on their own.
"It's a weird way to do it - in Nashville, everybody co-writes,"Crawley said. "He and I are not necessarily dead set against that,but we feel like we're good enough to finish a song on our own."
They freely critique each other's work, something Crawley saidmakes them better.
"We're our worst two critics."
He credits Scott for being the creative mind behind an indie filmfeaturing the two of them that is being shopped as a TV pilot - andfor a line of jewelry called Sanchos Blues that also will include T-shirts and other items.
"I kind of tag along on that," he said of the film project,called "Bottle Rocket."
As for the jewelry, "I pushed him to do that," Crawley said. "Iforesee going into a line of denim stuff, too."
Scott credits his interest in jewelry to a former girlfriend.
"I got interested in it and I'd sneak down to her shop when shewasn't looking and start stringing some beads," he said. After theybroke up, he made his way to the bead aisle in a hobby shop.
"I start stringing these things like crazy and people startedbuying this stuff," he said.
As for the film, he and a good friend who is a standup comic,Buddy Scott Sullivan, conceived the idea in a sort of "Seinfeld" and"Tim Allen" way.
"We tried to find a way for years to combine his act and my act.We've tried to do some really strange stuff, and then finally wedecided, what if we did a TV show about two guys doing what we'redoing? Basically, we play ourselves."
"We started making our rounds to the film festivals."
The film won independent film awards, was screened in Las Vegasand Cannes and was named one of the best TV pilots in 2007.
"We have a rep pitching it for us, and we're keeping our fingerscrossed," he said.
COURTESY PHOTO Jamon Scott, left, and Dan Crawley make up TheToluenes. They describe their sound as southwestern country.
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