Melissa Auf Der Maur Goes For Sabbath And Morrissey

06/28/02 5:30pm

by Aaron Brophy (CHARTattack)

Black Sabbath will be appearing at Edgefest. Sort of.

There'll be no appearance by Ozzy Osbourne or Tony Iommi, but the pioneers of devilish stoner rock will be well represented by Melissa Auf Der Maur's Sabbath cover band, Hand Of Doom.

Auf Der Maur, the ex-Smashing Pumpkins, ex-Hole bassist, says this semi-serious side-project was cobbled together with friends to bring the fun back into music.

"It's kinda tongue and cheek but at the same time it's serious," says Auf Der Maur. "We love Sabbath so we're not making fun of it or anything. But it is kinda like an art slant on Spinal Tap. We're all a little too smart to be doing this... but still.

"And we have an amazing band. My girlfriend Molly Stern plays bass. She basically picked up the bass a few years ago and said, 'How can I learn bass really fast?' And I said, 'Learn Sabbath.' And she said, 'Will you be the singer in my Sabbath band?' I had the year off and I was relaxing and wanting to enjoy music and I was sort of getting ready to make my album and I thought, 'Well, I should get out there and sing a little more.' So it was perfect for me to get out there and be Ozzy and not think about chord changes."

Speaking of albums and chord changes, apparently MADM has a couple on the way. To start, Hand Of Doom will be putting out a live record.

"We just recorded a live record in L.A. on the Sunset Strip," she says. "It'll be Hand Of Doom Live In Los Angeles and we played a bunch of shows in March at the Whiskey, the Troubador, the Viper Room, a bunch of legendary places and just did a novelty live album. It's sooo stupid for a cover band to be doing an album at all, let alone a live album, let alone a female singing Sabbath."

Then there's Auf Der Maur's more serious project, um, 'Auf Der Maur,' which she's just finished the recording for with a bevy of rocker friends. Helping out on the solo record will be Nick Oliveri and Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age, Jordan Zadorozny of Blinker The Star and Steve Durand from her old band Tinker, John Stainer of Tomahawk, James Iha from Smashing Pumpkins, deep breath,  Eric Erlandson of Hole, Atom Willard of Rocket From The Crypt, Brant Bjork of Fu Manchu... you get the idea. With such a diverse list of musicians, the result will no doubt be interesting. Auf Der Maur says it'll be a combination of her appreciation for both heavy and wispy music.

"The thing is is that my music reflects both equally. And it started making sense that I was using both, both colours of paint or whatever. Because it really is two styles together," she says.

This amalgam can perhaps be attributed to the fact she's both a metal fan and obsessed with Morrissey and The Smiths.

"Me and Chris Goss [producer for the Auf Der Maur album], our biggest bond is The Smiths. We love Kyuss and we love Sabbath but man, if you love Morrissey and I love Morrissey... we would sit and listen to Morrissey solo albums so loud in the studio for hours going 'That lyric! Oh God!' Morrissey is really one of my angels. "Me and Chris' big scheme was to get him to sing on the record. He was probably around in L.A. when we were recording actually. I asked a couple people. They didn't know how to get in touch with him so I just went, 'Oh, I don't know...'

"I don't know if he would guest appear on other people's things. So I got nervous, I didn't call and I asked Mark Lanegan instead," she says.

On another guest singer note, Auf Der Maur says she'll have a surprise in store for the folks who witness Hand Of Doom at Edgefest. See, even though she can do the Ozzy songs, she doesn't sing the Ronnie James Dio-period Sabbath songs, leaving them for special invitees.

"We do him [Dio] with guest singers," she says. "Our show in New York we had James Iha. So it was Ronnie James Iha was our Dio singing 'Mob Rules.' And then in L.A. for our live album we had Nick Oliveri. Where the hell is our Dio in Canada? Who's going to be our guest Dio?"

Folks will just have to watch at Edgefest to find out.