Although their cheeky name, taken from a Syd Barrett song, doesn't let on, the guys in the Gigolo Aunts are bona fide romantics. On their new album, Minor Chords and Major Themes, those bottled feelings of loves lost are uncorked and flowing free. The result is an album that plays like a tear-stained journal. Although introspective and personal, the Aunts tap into affairs of the heart with honest, straight-ahead accounts of failed romance and squandered potential. The acoustic album-closer, "Residue," finds lead singer Dave Giggs posing the question, "What can I do to get the trace of you off of me?" amid plaintive guitar strums and dulcet vocal harmonies. No beating around the poetry bush here.

"We really didn't want to be ironic and coy," bassist/vocalist Steve Hurley says of the album. "We're just hoping there's somebody out there's who has felt similar, who is going to be able to relate to it."

As products of Boston's burgeoning music scene in the early Nineties, where they rubbed elbows with the likes of the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr., the Gigolo Aunts know a thing or three about trying to relate to the shifting sands of audience taste. "When we first moved to Boston as a band, some local bands had a big influence on us, but we were on common ground with them," Hurley says. "Now, I think it's really moved into a different territory. There's not too many other bands like us in Boston right now."

These days, the Aunts are likely to be found buddying around with their new record label executive, Counting Crow Adam Duritz. "[When] we were on the bigger record labels, they would take you out to dinner, but you had to eat dinner with people you didn't feel like eating dinner with, which is one of the ironies of being on the big labels," Hurley explains. "But [at E Pluribus Unum], our A&R man is Adam and he's been a fan and a friend of ours for a long time."

On Minor Chords' first single, "The Big Lie" Duritz cameos along with Adam Schlesinger from Fountains of Wayne. "We did the single and Adam Duritz sang background vocals for the low part," Hurley says. "And we still wanted to get a high part on there and Adam [Schlesinger] said he'd sing that part, so we have the two Adams on the choruses."

And the star power isn't limited to the Aunts' record company ranks. Hurley seems pleased with his band's recent magnetism. "A lot of celebrities will come to these gigs we've been playing, friends of Adam," he says. "Like, last Saturday we were playing and Alyssa Milano was standing right in front of the stage, like, rocking out. And we saw Rod Stewart too, that was a pretty big moment. Rod is pretty high up on the rock food chain."

But when they're not hanging with the celebrities or playing in their local softball league, the Aunts can still be found spinning their Alex Chilton records and pondering all things amorous. As Hurley says, "Life's difficult for romantics."

LIZA GHORBANI
(February 12, 1999)