MUDVAYNE: Not just in it for the money

By John Benson

When talking to bands about an upcoming tour, often the musicians become used-car salesmen.

If they’re not describing how their band has never sounded better, then they’re extolling the high-powered nature of the bill. After conducting one mindless interview after another, that’s what makes honesty stand out like gold in a storm sewer. It’s also the reason Mudvayne bassist Ryan Martinie scored boffo points early on in a recent phone call to discuss The Pedal to the Metal Tour 2009, which comes to Youngstown for a Wednesday show at the Covelli Centre.

After being asked why Mudvayne wanted to co-headline a tour with Black Label Society and openers Static-X, Suicide Silence, Bury Your Dead and sideshow review Hellzapoppin, Martinie gave the most honest answer possible.

“The money,” Martinie said, laughing, calling from Concorde, N.H. After a brief pause, he turns on his “dude” voice and quips, “Aw man, we wanted to go out with our bros, and it’ll be the coolest tour ever.”

He added, “Actually, it is going to be cool, and it’s a great group of bands. It’s just another opportunity for us to connect to fans and hopefully make some new ones. I think we have some crossover people that wouldn’t maybe necessarily go to a Mudvayne show who are Black Label fans and vice versa. So that exposure will be there for us and Black Label. I think that’s a very valuable thing going into a tour like this.”

With a career retrospective set list planned that includes obscure material from the band’s early catalog that has never been played live, Mudvayne is already looking ahead to a follow-up to 2008’s studio effort “The New Game,” which found the band exploring some basic rock structures. Considering in the past this quartet has toyed with genres ranging from nu-metal and alternative metal to hardcore punk and thrash, where does Martinie see the new album, tentatively due out later this year or early 2010, taking the group?

“It’s a different sound,” Martinie said. “I’ve heard other band members say it’s a deeper record, and that’s pretty subjective. I don’t know what everybody takes away from it, even in the band, but I do feel there’s a consensus in the band that this record has a little bit of a divergence from what we’ve done in the past with a little bit maybe of that retro vibe to ‘L.D. 50’ and ‘The End of All Things to Come.’ I like it. I think there is some cool writing, and people will be happily surprised with the twists and turns on the new record when it comes out.”

For now, Mudvayne is focused on The Pedal to the Metal Tour, which possesses a mini-Ozzfest feel. In fact, considering Ozzfest is on hiatus, Martinie feels this high-powered bill (wink, wink) provides a great opportunity.

“You know, we’re playing some of these side markets, these locations that tend to be what are considered B and C markets, but that’s our bread and butter,” Martinie said. “That’s the fan base that we have always worked for and gone back to. So for us it’s an opportunity to reach people in some of the places where big festivals don’t go.”

And playing off the tour name, what sort of vehicle is being driven with the pedal to the metal?

Laughed Martinie, “Hypothetically, man I think it’s part hot rod and part F1. It’s going to be an event, and we’re stoked about the whole thing.”

If you go

Who: The Pedal to the Metal Tour 2009 featuring Mudvayne, Black Label Society, Static-X, Suicide Silence, Dope, Bury Your Dead and Hellzapoppin

When: 6 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Covelli Centre, 229 E. Front St., Youngstown.

Tickets: $33 at the box office; also available at Ticketmaster outlets.