Evolver

What started as a joke isn't so funny any more. For one thing, the threat of legal action hangs over Michael Tierney and his band. For another, his four-piece outfit is successful - and notorious - beyond what anybody could have expected based on its roots.

The band's legal limbo is both hindrance and help. If the group releases another record, it might be inviting a lawsuit from a major corporation. Yet the controversy has also turned the ensemble into a minor cause célèbre.

The group is Beatallica, and its music is the surprisingly happy marriage of classic pop melody and heavy-metal posturing. The tunes of the Beatles are presented in the style of Metallica, with a bad attitude, meaty riffs, twisted lyrics, and a dead-on James Hetfield impersonation. Beatallica will be at Quad City Live on Friday, and will be embarking on a European tour this fall.

Beatallica was formed on a lark, as a band to perform at the 2001 edition of Spoof Fest in Milwaukee. Performers get to choose a band to cover, and Tierney selected Metallica - but only after another artist decided not to perform the stalwart metal band's songs. "We almost didn't get to choose Metallica," Tierney said.

Tierney was also looking for a twist, something different from just covering the band's songs. One of his cohorts was struck by the chorus progression of the Beatles' "For No One" and thought it could be done Metalli-style, and an idea was born.

Call it a happy accident. Tierney wasn't looking for just any pairing - "I didn't have any intention of forming Steely Danzig," he said - and this clicked.

In advance of the show, Tierney and a friend recorded a CD, A Garage Dayz Night. That seven-track slab of inspiration - with "Sgt. Hetfield's Motorbreath Pub Band," "The Thing That Should Not Let It Be," and " ... And Justice for All My Loving," among others - made its way to the Internet, unbeknown to its creators, and the positive reaction transformed this spoof band from a one-time joke into something more.

A second, self-titled disc - Metallica's "black album" meets the Beatles' "white album" - was released last year. It opens with a slow fade-in of the melody of "Hey Jude" done in the style of "Blackened." Once the drums kick in, Beatallica rip into a garage-rock version of "Back in the USSR." The band began performing live on a regular basis last year.

The group's music has the goofy charm of Metallica's covers collections - particularly the early tossed-off "Garage Days" sessions - and on the quality of Tierney's voice, you might be forgiven for mistaking Beatallica for the Bay-area bashers gone '60s.

Tierney said Beatallica isn't a gag any more. He argues that there's a real art to the live-music mash-ups that his band creates. "You can't take it as a joke," he said. "You can take it as fun."

Well, somebody hasn't taken it as a joke. Sony, which holds the rights to the Beatles back catalog, in February sent a cease-and-desist order to Beatallica's Webmaster and ISP, claiming copyright infringement. Beatallica's Web site was taken down for more than a month, and although Sony hasn't sued the band yet, Tierney and his mates are wary; a third Beatallica disc is ready for release but has been shelved.

"We are attempting to go through the proper legal channels," Tierney said. "We're trying to fully right the ship."

In its struggle to record and release unfettered, Beatallica has found a somewhat surprising ally: Metallica. The same group that spearheaded the effort to shut down music-sharing services such as Napster because of piracy has stepped in on Beatallica's behalf. Tierney has even talked to Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. "They've been nothing but helpful," Tierney said.

Tierney believes his band's music has the legal protection of parody. "We think we're making something new, especially lyrically," he said. "It's definitely a creative process. ... Legally and, creatively, stuff like this hasn't been done before." (DJ Danger Mouse's celebrated Grey Album remixed the Beatles and Jay-Z, but Beatallica doesn't sample.)

The fusion of Beatles and Metallica is inspired and fun, but it's also at this point a novelty that can wear out its welcome. "Hey Dude" goes on for an eternity, but then again, so does the original. And while a first listen provoked something akin to giddiness in me, the spell dissipates quickly. After spending enough time with Beatallica, Tierney's Hetfield emerges as the best thing about the band - amazingly consistent and accurate.

But at its peaks, Beatallica amps up the Beatles and uses melody to strip away some of the metallic harshness - finding some compelling middle ground between pop and hard rock. "We Can Hit the Lights" might be the best song the group has to offer, because it captures Metallica's thrash roots while also replicating the complexity and harmony that distinguished the band's Master of Puppets and ... And Justice for All. It is in that track that it's easy to see Beatallica as more than a joke - a band with genuine artistic potential.

Beatallica will peform on Friday, July 29, at Quad City Live. For more information on the band, including music available for free downloading, visit (http://www.beatallica.com).

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