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Friday, November 22, 2002

By Ed Masley, Post-Gazette Pop Music Critic

Before she moved to Pittsburgh, Sharon Spell was shy and plagued by stage fright.

So she did what any shy girl plagued by stage fright would have done: reinvented herself as a cabaret act -- Sharon "Mama" Spell.

	MUSIC PREVIEW MOFONES WITH: Adam Brodsky WHERE: Quiet Storm, Friendship. WHEN: 9:30 p.m. Saturday. TICKETS: $5.

"What better way," she asks, "to get over my stage fright than to just get up and do it?"

From there, it was only a matter of time before she'd made the move to rock 'n' roll, forming a band with the Man of 1,000 Bands, Mike Shanley -- who, at that time, was the keyboard player in her Mama Cabarets at Sip Cafe.

Calling itself the Mofones, the band made its local debut at something called a New Wave Cabaret in 1999, performing songs by Lene Lovich and Duran Duran.

As Spell says, "It was gonna be a one-shot deal that turned into a way of life."

Tomorrow at the Quiet Storm, the Mofones are releasing their debut -- a four-song-plus-a-bonus-track EP that captures everything the band does best, from Spell's hilarious "Theme From Dean" (in which we learn of the existence of a short-lived '80s sitcom, "Dean") and surefire bar hit "Hysterical Drunk" to Shanley's bittersweet, melodic pop songs. "Failed Attempts at a New Testament" is a tribute to one of his heroes, Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices, but it's Shanley's world view that ultimately comes across in lyrics as inspired as "Never wanted to be high-brow/only wanted to be real," while with "Posthumous Stardom," he's written a song that's sure to resonate with any band that ever "only wanted to be real," with a chorus of "No fame in your lifetime no matter how you try/You won't find success until you die."

Something you won't find on the CD are the epic freakouts you get at a live show.

As Spells says, with a laugh, "We have a couple of eight-minute songs that are crowd-pleasers, you know. My husband doesn't leave the room."

They recorded the album in June with Andy Wright at Plus/Minus. "Hysterical Drunk" and "Dean," she says, were chosen because, at the time, they were the Mofones' most requested songs.

"And 'Failed Attempts' and 'Posthumous Stardom' are also catchy and requested," she says, "but people afterwards are always like 'What's that song you did about being drunk? That was funny. Do that one again.' "

Now, she says, they have some dirty songs that get a similar reaction.

"Not dirty," she corrects herself, "but kind of off-color. Songs about gettin' some. Now, people say 'That song you sang about gettin' some, that was funny.' "

Shanley and Spell are the only original Mofones on the group's self-titled-with-an-exclamation-point debut. Bridget Jakub of Mystery Date, another Shanley band, replaced original guitarist Ron Strelecki, while the beat is now supplied by Kate Romane of Kitty Pryde, the band's third drummer.

Shanley isn't in the cabaret act anymore.

He's been replaced by a machine.

As Spell explains the breakup, "Now I use my Casio. But no hard feelings. Shanley's in about 14 other bands, so he'll find some way to fill the void."

On the heels of releasing "Mofones!" Spell is set to hit the streets next month with a Mama Cabaret CD, which Spell herself describes as a "nonstop laugh riot."

Asked how being in the Mofones compares to Mama Cabaret, she says, "It's apples and oranges, I guess. They're both fruits but they taste different."