The only things Tripping Daisy have to show for the last three years are a modest hit ("I Got a Girl," from the band's major-label debut, I Am an Elastic Firecracker), a successful tour supporting that album and two years off. Not bad, but the rock beast must constantly be fed to survive -- or at least to prevent it from eating its own spawn. |

To that end, lead singer/songwriter Tim DeLaughter and Tripping Daisy recently proffered Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb. Now, the group is preparing for its first tour in two-and-half-years (kicks off Sept. 9 in Nashville) to support that record, but DeLaughter isn't interested in talking about the extended time off or the songs from his band's latest.

"I don't really want to talk about that, to tell you the truth. It kind of bothers me, this biography crap. I'm more interested in talking about what I think about what's going on in music today." (For the record, the band needed to regroup after spending the better part of '95 and '96 on the road. After a while, DeLaughter had much on his mind. The studio seemed the logical place for him to vent.)

"This record ... is the most honest record coming out in the last few years," DeLaughter says. "It's overlooked. It's like other things that are going on today, as far as radio goes on. It's in bad shape. It seems like art's completely overlooked. It kind of [makes me] distraught, since I'm a contributor and completely aware of what real art is going on and seeing it completely missed by big corporations." And one more thing: "Not to say how disgusting I think it is, not just the magazine [Rolling Stone], but radio today is pretty much shattering what's been going on, the real thing going on, real music."

DeLaughter may be angry, but he's not unaware of his position as a songwriter signed to a major label. "I'm taking advantage of having the privilege to be able to play music, to be able to reach people," he says. "I'm taking advantage of that opportunity. I'm giving them something that's from the heart, from the soul, that I consider is real, American music." And the part about being signed by a big corporation (Island is owned by multimedia giant PolyGram), isn't that antithetical to raging against the death of art?

"You have to become what you despise to be able to have something to talk about," DeLaughter responds. "I became what I despised; I was part of that marketing scheme," DeLaughter says of the first heady days of big-money-supported tours and calling the career shots. "I was part of that, God -- 'Here, do this and you will get this,' and 'Do this and you will get that' -- and that whole sort of, like, large mentality of playing part of the predictability game. I realized that it wasn't about that. I kind of got back to where I got started in the first place."

Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb and its upcoming tour, then, are DeLaughter's statement. But elaborating on that statement is not part of his plan. "I'm simply going to rely on word-of-mouth. I'm simply going to rely on honesty to prevail," DeLaughter says of promoting the new album. "That's my new attitude. I don't have to promote myself, I've already done it. It's gonna be, if you hear this, I'm relying on the person that truly, like, loves music and is seeking out what they're not getting ... I'm relying on them to tell somebody." (Marie Elsie St. Leger)