No-Refill
Published: June 2003
Story: Jeff Royer
Photo: Fly Magazine photo by Shanin Goelz
______________________________________If you're a faithful listener of 105.7 The X, chances are you have heard the No-Refill song "Me and My Dreadlocks," a riff-heavy rap-along anthem, at least once or twice.
And chances are, like many people, you have no idea that No-Refill is actually an upstart local band from Etters. There's been confusion on the issue ever since the band's first single elbowed its way onto radio and they started landing gigs with national acts touring through the area.
"Our second show as a band, we opened for Tantric," chuckles No-Refill frontman Vitu. "It was Tantric, Jimmie's Chicken Shack, Familiar 48, Darcie Miner. And out of the whole lineup ... every band has been on MTV except us. So that was a shock. We weren't even stage-experienced yet.
"People had heard the 'Me and My Dreadlocks' song, so they thought we were national. So we're walking on-stage, and there's cameras flashing. I'm like, 'Are they taking pictures of us?'" he continues. "We hadn't played yet, and there's all these 14-year-olds screaming." Part of the confusion lies in the fact that No-Refill's music sounds like most of the major-label singles rattling around hard-rock radio these days. "It's kind of weird, because there have been some people drunk in the club, thinking that we're playing covers, thinking that the songs that we're playing - and they're our songs - that they just don't know them," Vitu says.
The band draws on a variety of influences, the most obvious of which is Rage Against the Machine. The end result is what might happen if somebody sewed Bob Marley's head onto Fred Durst's body - all the rap-rock you can handle, with some brains and style thrown in for good measure. "Put together Rage Against the Machine with a twist of Sublime," Vitu says of the band's music. "I'd say it's rap/heavy metal with a twist of reggae and punk."
Vitu, who first played with guitarist Andy Linn and drummer Matt Davis in local punk band Last Chance, recruited his former bandmates about a year and a half ago to form No-Refill. Bassist Jason Brown soon joined the fold, and the quartet began work on their original catalog. "We just wanted to be one of the first bands that stuck to playing originals and got out of Central Pa., just to change every kid," Vitu explains. "Right now, every kid in a garage is playing covers because they believe Fuel went that way. At the end of the day, you get people by the age of 25 who can't even write a basic rock song." Such is the plight of cover bands.
Fortunately for No-Refill, people seem to be taking to their originals. And that, says Vitu, is what really counts.
"The motivation is the people," he says. "Anybody can make noise and there'll be a mosh pit. You can just crank up your distortion and have the drummer pound the drums, and kids can go nuts. But it's awesome when we play shows, all-ages, and kids will be dancing. It's something you don't usually see. It's either a mosh pit or they'll stand there, but not dance."
For more info, visit the band on-line at www.no-refill.com.
Lates,~MellyBelly~
