Breakup? What Breakup?
That's Just The Booze Talking

After The Booze opened for Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las at the EARL in late 2008, guitarist Randy Michael indicated that the band was splitting up. Weary from dealing with an irresponsible drummer, Michael told me he was moving to London to join former Pipettes drummer Joe Van Moyland's band Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong. After a farewell Booze performance at the Star Bar last April, that's exactly what he did. "I brought all my records with me, because I didn't intend on coming back," he says.

By Christmas, however, he was back home in Atlanta. London turned out to be a letdown, as did the new band. Rejuvenated with a fresh face behind the drum kit, along with a dozen new songs penned by Michael while in England, The Booze swiftly recorded their third album during January and will celebrate its release with a show Feb. 20th at Vinyl. Badda-bing. Rebirth of the Cool, indeed.

"We knew he would be back," insists Booze vocalist Chaz Tolliver. "Even though I had no idea this would be happening now."

Known as much around town for their sharp fashion sense as for their well-crafted, mod-informed R&B and Merseybeat, The Booze certainly stand out. They insist they're not trying to be a tribute act, any more than your average Vice-hyped act has a gimmick, and the supply of insanely catchy original material they've pumped out backs up that assertion. They want to sound good. They want to look good. For the most part, these are simply a few misfit young folks genuinely disillusioned with the overall modern state of rock 'n' roll, creating music that speaks their language. And if that language is from forty-five-odd years ago, so be it.

Randy first encountered Chaz on the brink of adolescence, during gym class at Lilburn Middle School. "There was an open jar of Vaseline on the floor," Michael laughs, "and he was sittin' on the fuckin' bleachers. And I said, 'Hey, man, I'll give you a dollar if you throw this across the room.' Ha ha!"

"It hit somebody in the back, and then the Vaseline kinda flew out and went all over the floor in front of the entrance to the locker room," Tolliver continues. "Nobody saw me do it. They were just like, 'Where'd this Vaseline come from?'"

They both laugh when I suggest that from that moment onward, Randy knew he had Chaz under his thumb, to quote one of their favorite bands. "Yeah, exactly!" blurts Tolliver. "And here we are sittin' here!" But it's obvious that Randy – tall, handsome, cocksure and glib – leads The Booze. By contrast, his faithful school chum Chaz seems fairly quiet and reserved, although you might not realize it during one of the band's unrepentantly entertaining shows, while he's belting out some uptempo R&B rave-up with a tough, soulful voice recalling Them-era Van Morrison with a little Peter Noone and a lotta Jagger, his look borrowed from the latter's early Stones years.