Nothing can stop the Necronauts
By CHRIS FANNING
Get Out

Billy Goodman never thought his music would be confused with that of Elton John.

But when the singer/guitarist of eclectic Mesa rock band The Necronauts popped in his group’s new CD, fresh from the manufacturer, Sir Elton’s 1970 self-titled album came out of the speakers. One thousand CDs came back with the correct artwork and packaging, but the wrong music. Still, Goodman sees the humor in the situation.

“It’s funny,” he says. “Now there are 1,000 Elton John albums out there with Necronauts on them!”

Billy Goodman is joined in the band by his brother Dale Goodman on drums and bassist Andrew Pangus. The Necronauts have built a strong local reputation and opened for national acts such as Built To Spill, Frank Black and Hank Williams III. Their new self-titled CD is the group’s third album and they'll celebrate its release with a Saturday show at Modified Arts.

The CD snafu is nothing compared to what the band went through in August when Dale Goodman was nearly killed in a freak accident on the way to a show in Tucson.

“It’s been a weird past few months with Dale almost dying,” Billy says. “That’s weirder than Elton John being on our CD. The Elton John thing is a joke compared to my brother almost dying in front of me.”

As their van headed south on the I-10 at 80 miles per hour, a car fan blade crashed through the windshield and stuck into Dale’s chest as he drove.

“Everybody (else) was laying down in the van,” Billy says. “I was almost asleep and all of the sudden it just sounded like a shot gun went off inside the van. When I looked up, glass was still coming back into the van. Nobody knew what was going on for the first few seconds and then we just heard Dale start screaming.”

Billy managed to get control of the steering wheel after Dale suffered a bruised lung and cuts to his chest and face.

“If that blade had hit him two inches higher, it could have been all over,” Billy says.

Recently the Necronauts added guitarist Carlito DeMasio to their lineup to give them more room to experiment and expand their music.

“From the time I heard these guys on Local Band Hell in the basement of (now defunct Mesa club) The Nile I knew they were an awesome band,” DeMasio says. “There’s no better band that I could be in. I’m just happy to be a part of the noise.”

The Necronauts
‘The Necronauts’

The third CD of original material in three years from The Necronauts — a self-titled disc — is their best effort to date. With “Melodic Array of Change” in 2002 and “Aire Fresco” in 2003, the Mesa band started to show the promise of a great group just getting started.

On the new album, their sound is mature and solid, but in the same style that they’ve always showcased. Released on their own label, High School Football Records, the disc takes the listener from the keyboard-driven mid-tempo rock of “Bound to the Ground” through the sexually funky “Coitus” to the straight-up pop rock of “Gail's Deal” and ends with the country-
blues-meets-hardcore-style of “Blue Song.” The only unfortunate thing about this album is that there are just eight tracks. A-

— by Chris Fanning, Get Out