music

If you didn't know better, you might accuse Erik Appelwick of being something of a slacker. And not just because of the near-empty fridge and sparse furnishings inside his loft apartment in St. Paul's Midway area.

"This record has been in the making for quite a while," Appelwick said, talking about the third album by Vicious Vicious -- the bouncy, vibrant, flirtatious pop-rock band he created a half-decade ago (and remains the only original member of).

Doing the math in his head, the 34-year-old local music vet added with emphasis, "Yeah, it's been a long time."

Titled "Parade," the warm new CD took a slow march into the light of day. Much of the songwriting started around 2004. Most of the recording was done over the winter of 2005-06. But it would be another year and a half before tonight's Vicious Vicious release party at the Varsity Theater.

Of course, the truth is that Appelwick has actually been one of the busiest musicians in the Twin Cities since the spring of 2006. That's when -- with a hasty, life-changing decision that he shows no signs of regretting -- he joined Tapes 'N Tapes.

"I've always wanted to be able to play music full time and get out on the road, so here it is," Appelwick said at the time.

A year and a half later, he marvels at exactly how full time the Tapes gig proved to be. He joined the nervy alt-rock band just as it signed a major-label deal with XL Recordings/Beggars Banquet. His first gigs included the Coachella Music Fest and "The Late Show With David Letterman." Since then, he has literally crisscrossed the globe with Tapes 'N Tapes, touring right up until their Lollapalooza gig last month.

"I'm just now catching my breath and starting to process everything that's happened," he said two weeks ago after returning home from an afternoon rehearsal with TNT.

It wasn't as if Appelwick was just a hired gun. Back when his name carried more weight locally than Tapes did, he produced the band's album "The Loon," the one that XL reissued after it wound up getting rave reviews in Rolling Stone and essentially every music blog read by more than 100 people.

Appelwick was the logical choice to come aboard when the band and original bassist Shawn Neary abruptly parted ways.

"I knew all the songs inside and out already, and they were friends of mine who needed help, so it was a pretty easy transition," he remembered.

It was rough on Appelwick's own musical ventures, though. To join Tapes, he had to quit another of his bands, the Hopefuls (nee Olympic Hopefuls), which he led with fellow South Dakota native and longtime friend Darren Jackson. And obviously he had to put Vicious Vicious on the back burner. But, as he said then, "I can't really break up with myself."Parade" proves that Vicious Vicious deserves whatever life-support Appelwick can give it. The band's previous album, "Don't Look So Surprised" -- No. 2 on our year-end Twin Cities Critics Tally in 2005 (eight spots above "The Loon") -- was something of a breakup album. This one sounds like it's more about the hookup.

Appelwick channels Prince, Beck, McCartney and other romance-sparkers in such songs as "Ho Baby" and "Stay With Me Tonight," which starts out with a bossa-nova-like bounce and features winking lines such as, "Haven't I seen you here before?" and references to tight jeans and dirty dreams. It's sexy stuff, not in a do-me-baby fashion, but in more of a doe-eyed, sweet sense. And musically, there's a bouncy, youthful playfulness accentuated by piano, organ and synthesizers playing a more prominent role than guitars.

Appelwick's primary collaborators were longtime drummer Adrian Suarez and Hopefuls bassist Heath Henjum. Because the disc was also co-produced by Darren Jackson, there clearly aren't many hard feelings with the Hopefuls, who carried on without Erik. (Conversely, keyboardist/drummer Martin Dosh no longer performs with Vicious Vicious because of his own big-league commitments touring behind Andrew Bird.)

Perhaps the most noteworthy song on "Parade" is the next-to-last tune, "Charmed Life," which comes off as a celebration of a rock-starry life, but was inspired long before Appelwick actually was living one. He pointed to another life-altering decision he made a couple years before joining Tapes 'N Tapes, when he abruptly walked out on a "soul-sucking job" at a bank, intent on becoming a full-time musician.

"It was April 15, and it got up to 95 degrees -- so it was absolutely gorgeous when I went outside for lunch," he remembered. "I just said, '[Screw] this place,' walked out and never looked back.

"Since it was April, it then proceeded to rain for about another month straight, but I made the jump anyway."

If a music career was what he was after, he obviously made the right move. Now, though, Appelwick knows full well that his own songs have to take a back seat to Tapes 'N Tapes material.