October 23, 2008 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of Two |
Chestnut Hill’s ex-’Beatle’ is the area’s only ‘Sexcop’
You’ve got to have a good sense of humor to name your ‘80s high school punk rock band The Beatles. It takes a bit more brashness to deny that another band of the same name never existed. Josh McIlvain, 38, who has long since demolished his version of The Beatles, would rather call his current endeavor Sexcop, a musical revue rather than a band (since he is the only permanent member). And although he’s changed band mates, set lists and venues, his sense of humor remains. The one-man act is a Chestnut Hill resident with a passion for rock and roll, self-written lyrics and dramatic, stylistic live performances. Most of his material is character- or story-driven, which he likens to Smokey Robinson songs. And he keeps performances simple by remaining the only constant member of Sexcop, which he formed in May of 2003. Elvis, Hank Williams and James Brown are his inspirations for live entertaining, but his musical influences run the gamut from Brazilian to Native American to R&B and even country. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill mixture, but his voice is clean and crisp, and his lyrical storytelling is simple and humorous. McIlvain maintains he’s sold his soul to rock and roll, but his musical tastes are not monogamous. “I created Sexcop, which is primarily rock and roll, in the mold of a more jazz standard or country mode, where different guest musicians come up on stage to play on certain songs. Basically, I am the central performer, and I get to collaborate with many different musicians who contribute to different songs, both in the studio and live. “I go through music phases, where I listen to a lot of bluegrass or a lot of African music or I listen to Bjork. I’m not like a super-musician guy. I’m more of like, I’m a singer, and I write songs and melodies, and I can play guitar well enough for my songs, and create enough stops and hook.” This wavy-haired graduate of Germantown Friends School and NYU has performed mostly over the past few years in New York. In fact, it was his New York schooling that led him to the name Sexcop. One night, an artist/poet friend named Heidi Kujac mentioned that she always wanted to name a song “Sexcop,” and the idea was born. For a long time, McIlvain tried in vain to work the word into a song, but to no avail. One day, he realized that Sexcop would be the perfect name for his band that wasn’t quite a band — a name that could have been a song, but wasn’t quite a song. McIlvain has to write down his ideas right away when it comes to song concepts. If not, the ideas can just disappear like the vagrant musicians who come on stage with him; they’re good, but fleeting. He said it’s the same whether it’s someone doing something distracting in the audience that makes him trip up on lyrics or when there’s a loud band playing next door. “It’s kind of my goal not to play in a place where I would be competing with TV or the chatter ... I did play Boston a while back, and I just got there and I knew it was the wrong type of place,” McIlvain said. “It was near Fenway Park, and ... I got down there and realized it was a kind of cover band place. It took them forever to turn off the radio ... It’s stuff like that which can be difficult.” In one New York club he played, “I could literally hear the music next door pounding through the wall.” He’s never going to be the band that makes the walls of the club shake, but he hopes people will start listening a little closer to the storyteller in his songs rather than waiting for their eardrums to bleed. John had been living in New York for a few years, but he and his wife moved back to Chestnut Hill in February of this year. “Although I love New York City too,” he explained, “it gets to be a drag living there. When my wife and I were first dating, she would visit me in Chestnut Hill every other weekend, so she fell in love with Chestnut Hill partly because it was such a respite from the New York scene, so when we decided to move back to Philly, Chestnut Hill became our first choice. We like being able to walk everywhere, being able to train downtown and ride our bikes through the park. We also have 13 more windows in our Chestnut Hill aparment than we did in New York.” Josh’s first CD, Island of Dreams, is available at cdbaby.com, where a physical copy can be purchased; it’s also available digitally through iTunes. His latest release, Sexcop EP, is a three-song sampler of new recordings and can only be purchased digitally via iTunes and cdbaby.com. Limited physical copies of Sexcop EP are on sale at shows only. Speaking of shows, Josh will be performing at the World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., with two other acts, Sweet Soubrette and Erin and Her Cello, next Tuesday, Oct. 28, 8 p.m. Cover, $7. For more information, visit www.worldcafelive.com or email joshmcilvain@yahoo.com.
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