Duane Lavold is a bit of an enigma. I guess you could call him a Renaissance Man -- or, maybe more appropriately, a Renaissance Dude. With his video banned from MTV airplay, well, that must make him an authentic Rock 'n' Roll Artiste! ‘Hey Mister’ tops CD
of Custom-made hits"Fast"
Custom (Artist Direct/BMG)By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comThe Canadian-born Lavold originally made his name as an independent filmmaker. He even made a low-budget feature with the late INXS singer Michael Hutchence, which has yet to see the light of day (or the dark of a theater), out of respect to Hutchence's family. Lavold's notoriety primarily comes from a cheaply made, digitally shot music video for his first single, "Hey Mister," made under his musical moniker Custom.
It's a great song. Like much of the album, it's a graceless shuffling of raspy-voiced rock and hip-hop (with an occasional touch of nü-metal for additional laughs) that is a dead-on ramble of every father's nightmare, which is meeting the smart-ass boy who's having "relations" with his daughter.
The video for "Hey Mister" is pretty darn innocuous visually compared to the bulk of MTV-aired videos, stuff filled with scantily-clad, gyrating bodies. But it's the song's content with which the network's Standards and Practices department's had problems, with charges of pedophilia and misogyny flung Custom's way.
Custom (neé Duvold) has explained in the music press that MTV misunderstood his intent. Initially inspired by watching a couple of guys trying to pick up his younger sisters at a club, Custom told NY Rock that the song is a representation of that mindset.
He said in the interview that "it is the comedy of every one of us who has gone to meet their girlfriend's parents and having that kind of guilty feeling in the back of your head, because of what you were doing to the daughter the night before. Smiling and shaking their dad's hand (while) he is giving you the look ... like I know what you are up to."
It's no surprise that the song has garnered Custom increased radio airplay and downloading. His homemade music (made in a newly built studio in his New York City loftspace) are filled with the kind of stoner musings only numerous cigarettes, a bottle of Stoli kept in the freezer and God knows what else can produce. But it helps when he recruited the help of people like Duncan Sheik, Billy Howerdel from A Perfect Circle, Josh Freeze of Queens of the Stone Age and engineer Michael Patterson (Notorious B.I.G. and Beck) for his debut album. You'd have to try real hard to mess that up!
(I also suspect Lavold could be some kinda trust fund baby -- the shaggy, disheveled guy's got a whole bunch of toys, including a collection of sports cars, skateboards, snowboards and a motocross sports bike that he likes to ride up and down the streets and sidewalks of New York. Could his parents be actually helping their talented son with his slacker indulgences?)
"Fast" contains moments of sincere, emotional confusion -- i.e. the album's last three tunes "One Day," "Crawl" and "120" -- that brings whatever angst he has into brief focus. Custom's takes on love have a cold edge to them as well -- "May 26" has a feeling of lazy ennui, with love/lust amounting to "just midnight meetings in random motels/illicit dealings with nothing to sell," and "Like You," co-written with Sheik, that mixes fresh-faced feelings with an unresolved darkness.
The funnier, dumber songs on the album are the easier sell. Besides "Hey Mister," there's the self-explanatory "Mess," the wordplay of "Daddy" (with a clever chorus arrangement for the line "you can call me daddy!") and the hilariously apologetic "Morning Spank," and its well-earned truism that "there is no piece of ass worth a friendship."
I have no idea what the future portends for Custom, and I believe he doesn't either. But I don't think he's losing any sleep over it.
Custom's video can be viewed at www.teamcustom.com,
rollingstone.com and launch.com
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