The Boston Herald
by Sarah Rodman
Tuesday, June 1, 1999

Salad Set For Toss To Top

"I think it was Billy Squier who once said, 'It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.'"

So qouth Whelan on the phone from a Minnesota stop where his band is touring to support its newly minted, self-titled major label release.

Whelan is repeating the words of wisdom by way of explaining why the members of Angry Salad made the leap of faith to quit their day jobs in 1996 and commit themselves full time to successful music-making in Boston. A town for musicians, he said, is "a great litmus test."

"Aside from the obvious benefits of almost complete population turnover due to colleges every four years, you also have people who've come to expect a certain level of entertainment," Whelan said. "That forced us to get our chops together."

The band, which celebrates its CD release Friday at the Middle East, also took a page from the grassroots, do-it-yourself handbooks of relentless road dogs such as Phish and the Dave Matthews Band. Through bare-bones, nonstop road trips, the band--including drummer Hale Pulsifer, guitarist Alex Grossi and bassist Brian Vesco--cultivated audiences throughout the Eastern seaboard.

"There are clubs up and down the East Coast that you can actually play on a Tuesday or Wednesday night and people will go out and see you," Whelan said. "I don't know what people do for jobs down there, but they'll stay out until 1 or 2 in the morning on a Wednesday night."

All that hard work paid off when the group was signed to the independent Blackbird Records. Through a Byzantine set of business circumstances, the group's members were ecstatic to discover that Blackbird was able to align with the behemoth marketing machine at major label Atlantic Records.

"We giggled like schoolgirls when we got our test pressings back," said Whelan, still sounding giddy at the sight of the famed Atlantic logo.

The disc, a turbo retouch of its indie album "Bizarre Gardening Accident" by veteran mixer Tom Lord-Alge, solidly relates the band's sturdy, melodious pop songs. With catchy, radio-ready hooks and smart lyrics, Angry Salad appears to have a chance of breaking the Boston curse, which in the past few years has seen bands signed to majors flame out with increasing rapidity.

"When the day is done," Whelan said, "if we were to fall into that large recycling bin that is Boston bands who've seen the promised land and for whom everbody had high hopes, we would be able to say that we did everything we could. Fortunately, we've got another record in the deal and we'd go at it again."

Besides, what other local band has literally been blessed by rock'n'roll royalty?

While vacationing in the Caribbean during high school, Whelan and his brother were trying to hash out band names. "This guy at the end of the bar yelled out, 'Callit Angry Salad'. And we looked over and saw the unmistakable overbite of one of the greatest frontmen of all time."

That's right, the late, beloved Freddie Mercury of Queen gave the band the moniker. And it has proved to be a good luck charm. "For some reason," Whelan said, "people have a tendency to remeber the name."