DATE: Saturday, November 1, 1997            TAG: 9710310079

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SUE VanHECKE, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   63 lines

ALT-ROCK BAND PUTS NEW SPIN ON CAREER

NEW LABEL. New album. New bassist. Things are feeling pretty fresh for Love Spit Love, the band fronted by former Psychedelic Furs frontman Richard Butler.

Like the group's 1994 self-titled debut, the new disc ``Trysome Eatone'' is a thoroughly evocative affair, steeped with Butler's signature smoky croaks and croons and shrouded in guitarist Richard Fortus' lush textures.

The dozen songs were penned by the two Richards primarily on acoustic guitar at Butler's apartment in New York's artsy East Village.

``I'll come in and just keep shoveling out ideas until Richard responds to something - just keep presenting things to him until he reacts, and then we go from there,'' Fortus said of the songwriting process. ``He'll put a rough vocal idea down, and then he'll slave over the lyrics.

``The thing is trying to find out what he likes. I'll come in with one idea come back a month later, play the same idea again and he'll say, `No, no, no, let's try something else.'

``Then I'll try it again a couple months later and he'll say, `Hey, what's that?' It really just depends on what's turning him on musically at the time.''

``Trysome Eatone,'' which was recorded in Massachusetts, overdubbed in New York and mixed in Michigan, is Love Spit Love's first album for Maverick, the label headed by pop diva Madonna.

Fortus first became acquainted with Butler several years back when his former band, Pale Divine, opened on the Furs' farewell tour.

``We got to be friends, and about six months after the tour, he called me - at that time he was planning on working on a solo record - and asked me to write some songs with him,'' Fortus said. ``Eventually, it got to the point where he said, `This isn't really a solo record, it's more of a band record. Why don't we make it a band?' ''

As a longtime Furs fan, Fortus was flattered. But any trepidation he might have felt - the Psychedelic Furs practically pioneered alternative rock, and Butler's stage persona is certainly enigmatic - vanished once work began.

``He's not mysterious at all,'' Fortus says. ``But who is when you work with someone every day?''

For the first album, Butler's brother Tim, who played bass in the Psychedelic Furs, joined the Richards and drummer Frank Ferrer. He has since been replaced by Chris Wilson.

``We were looking for a bass player even before we recorded the first record,'' Fortus said. ``We just didn't find the right guy, so Tim did the record with us.''

Fortus feels Tim Butler never wanted to be a full-fledged Love Spit Lover. ``He just resented the fact that Richard broke up the Furs and didn't really want to be a part of this. I think he's still waiting for Richard to reform the Furs.''

And is that in the cards?

``Doesn't seem like it,'' Fortus said. ``But you never know.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MICHAEL HALSBAND

Love Spit Love guitarist/songwriter Richard Fortus

Graphic

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