The Plain Dealer on Cleveland.com, May 9, 2002,
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Music News

If your brain’s been bugged, give a listen to this album
05/09/02

John Soeder
Plain Dealer Pop Music Critic

As a member of the Kinks, rock ‘n’ roller Dave Davies was a key figure in the British Invasion of the 1960s. Now he’s into space invaders.

For his latest solo project, ‘Bug’, the singer-guitarist has cooked up a doozy of a concept album about how our lives are manipulated by mind- controlling implants. And who planted those nasty devices in our noggins, you ask? Why, the aliens, of course!

“It’s tongue in cheek,” Davies says, not entirely convincingly. He’ll perform tonight at the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern, backed by a four-piece band.

‘Bug’, which came out Tuesday, is “a metaphor for getting rid of all the negative things holding us back,” Davies says during a recent phone interview. “It’s very much a rock ‘n’ roll record. … But I also try to address some issues, like electromagnetic pollution.”

The title track, “True Phenomenon,” “Whose [sic] Foolin’ Who” and other new tunes embrace sci-fi themes and conspiracy theories, with plenty of crunchy, Kinks-style power chords ringing out throughout the album. If the Weekly World News ran CD reviews, this one would get five stars.

The 55-year-old Davies “very much” believes we are not alone in the universe. “I’ve been fairly involved with some UFO research groups over the years,” says this dedicated follower of paranormal activity.

Apparently, extraterrestrials have been fairly involved with Davies, too. In his autobiography, ‘Kink’, he recounts how “strange voices” struck up a telepathic conversation with him before a 1982 concert.

“The intelligences did not tell me who they were,” he writes, “but two of them said they had always been my spirit guides and two others were entities that were not of this Earth, but were involved in missions here as watchers and nurturers of our race.”

Twenty years later, Davies is still coming to terms with his “epiphany,” as he describes the close encounter. “I was fortunate to have been given a lot of information all at once,”
he says. “It takes a long time for some of this stuff to actually seep into the conscious mind…. It’s all related to my personal growth, to a consciousness shift.”

On a less metaphysical note, the good news for Kinks fans is that Davies recently has been communicating (via e-mail, not telepathically) with his sibling rival Ray, the band’s frontman.

“We’re not quite sure what to do, but we definitely want to work together on something,” Davies says. “I don’t want it to be a purely retro thing. I’d like it to be something new.”

The oft-bickering brothers haven’t teamed up for a Kinks album since “To the Bone,” released in 1994 in their native England and two years later in the United States. It featured stripped-down reworkings of “You Really Got Me,” “All Day and All of the
Night” and other classic-rock keepers from the Kinks catalog. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Alongside selections from ‘Bug’, Davies has been dusting off Kinks favorites during his solo gigs.

“I’m very proud to be associated with such a body of work,” he says. “Ray and I work best when we give each other space to create… I’ve always tried to nurture his ideas, because he’s a special person, as well as being an [expletive].”

Contact John Soeder at:

jsoeder@plaind.com, 216-999-4562