by Chico Sunne

If you missed the recent Idle Hands CD release party at Vino's, don't feel bad...just feel awful. Embrace the gloom and drain the dregs of anguish from your wretched cup of sorrow. Shriek at the approach of anyone daring to call you FRIEND. Your bitter wails of lament should discourage most consolers.

So much for the pretty talk.

The attending throng, on the other hand, should feel smugly superior, adopting the righteous swagger befitting only those in harmonious step with their creator.

Idle Hands opened with two original sets comprising their fourteen- song CD entitled, "OverTIME". Most of these tunes were offered up publicly for the first time. Still, the audience attentively followed storylines of alien serial killer romance gone good, Siamese triplet separation dilemma gone bad, surf lechery, teen nightmare scenarios (Mom dates unpopular high school principal), Unabomber family dysfunction and other light-hearted tales of heartbreak, betrayal and despair, as represented in these lines from Idle Hand's "Single Blue Female":

"Stepping from her human skin,
An insect glare, mocking where her face had been
She hiked the skirt, spiky arms came whipping out
(She wrapped around him twice)
Drawing Hacksaw up into her poison mouth
She slithered, triumphant..."

"We threw in a few dark numbers as well," quips longtime keyboardist, Rick Scott. "You could strangle on all the sweet stuff around these days."

Bassist Tom Bertram adds, "There's so much self mutilation around. We thought it refreshing to hearken back to a time when people cared enough to express this urge upon others."

"Over Time" was recorded at Stoneledge Studios in Maumelle, owned in varying degrees by Idle Hands members.

"Why did they lock me out?" inquires IH vocalist, Vince Castiglia. "I quit stealing everybody's stuff about three weeks in."

"Why didn't they lock me out?" confesses drummer Paul Edmondson. "I got more stuff than Vince!"

"Despite personal tragedies and moral defeats, the recording process ended and, with nothing left to do," guitarist Keith Nash confides, "it was time to summon the beer wenches!"

Two new faces of the female variety graced Vino's stage along with this line up of obviously very troubled men. The mysterious duo of Angelyn Jolly and Betty Filbert (like the nut), provided visual and aural stimuli heretofore in painfully short supply at IH headquarters.

The remaining bandsman, Hand's poet laureate and the culprit responsible for the lion's share of the psychotic lyrics, El Jimmy Bob, was off somewhere preening and not available to contribute to this story. (Ed. Note: Good grooming is key to any band worth its salt.)

Angelyn's lead vocals on the two Rick Scott compositions were, for many, the evening's highlight. For others, it was just the beer.

Those on hand had nothing but praise for the band's music and its execution. Mark Johnson of Little Rock described the music as "Neily Dan", a cross between Neil Young and Steely Dan. Most crowd comments were in this vein with many looking forward to the completion of next year's CD "Do Zygotes Lie?" The band promises it to be "embarrassing recollections from our most shameful life moments, stark self effacements, rambling and laden with pointless narrations replacing all instrumental sections...a sarcophagus of Pink Floyd-meets-Monty Hall-isms."

Perhaps the most confusing observation gushed from country dentist, Dr. Martin Zildesky. "Them boys and girls were hopped up like vampires who'd just found the keys to the blood mobile" There were many more coherent comments than his, but you never know when you might need some free bridgework, right Doc?

A visitor from LA, identifying himself only as Col. Fog, summed the night up this way: "The band was hot, the beer was cold, and the tunes were cool. Do yourself a favor and buy this CD and come back next year for more!"

Rounding out the show was the excellent cameo performance by old "Smilin' in the Dark" band mates Paula Long and Chuck (aka Chet) Gilbert.

[originally published in Little Rock Free Press]