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Don't Cry for Me

By Andrew Marcus

Onion Flavored Rings

Steve Funyon’s lyrics, with their wounded observations and clear-eyed sense of futility, do not supply what pop music is supposed to — not inspiration, in the conventional sense, nor even romantic gloom. “What I offer instead is, um ... nothing?” suggests the Onion Flavored Rings frontman and guitarist (who works as a programmer by day). “It sounds kind of grim now that I stop and think about it.”

Onion Flavored Rings’ music, though, is hardly grim. On Two Minutes’ Enlightenment, released last year by the influential Florida label No Idea, notes of lyrical pessimism are picked up and carried away by infectious, semi-acoustic skiffle-punk, much like the Violent Femmes, or East Bay fixture the Mr. T Experience. In a slightly nasal midrange, the singer delivers lines like Your open hand doesn’t make the situation better/Was once a fist, and I’m not a very good forgetter, but fits them so snugly to bright hooks that they could be mistaken for upbeat.

Funyon (presumably not his real surname), a former Floridian who lives near Twin Peaks in SF, credits the tension between his lyrics and melodies to somber-edged folkies like Joan Baez and Phil Ochs. But the band’s overall sound he credits to bassist Paul Curran and drummer Erick Lyle; veterans, respectively, of local punk-scene bands Crimpshrine and Allergic to Bullshit. “They’re both such good musicians, they give the songs more kick than if it were just me on an acoustic guitar,” he says. “My contribution is that I can sing and play guitar at the same time.”

If skeptical of his own aptitude, Funyon allows a hint of pride that his music offers something beside pop’s standard seductions. “I think the songs are more accepting of reality on its own terms, even if they’re neither favorable nor ideal,” he says, “and nihilism can be liberating.” True — particularly when it comes with a hook and a kick.

Taste for yourself this Friday at 924 Gilman, with the Phenomenauts, Ghengis Khan, Los Creepers, and Sweet Nothings. $5. Info: 510-525-9926 or 924Gilman.org
Date/Time: Fri., July 7, 8 p.m.
Price: $7

924 Gilman
924 Gilman St.
Berkeley, CA
510-525-9926
http://www.924gilman.org

(onion flavored rings)