Pressure’s on Little Caesar to Deliver

Little Caesar is under the gun--or, more precisely, under the Guns N’ Roses.

The Los Angeles hard-rock quintet won’t even start recording its debut album until early next year, but already the band is being called “the next Guns N’ Roses.”

That’s heady billing, considering that GNR’s debut album has sold more than 6 million copies since being released in 1986. To make matters worse, Little Caesar was signed this fall by Geffen records, which is (you guessed it) the same label that is profiting from GNR’s phenomenal success.

Too much pressure too soon?

“Probably,” admitted Tony Ferguson, who co-manages the band with noted producer Jimmy Iovine (U2, Pretenders, Simple Minds). “But unfortunately, that’s one of the hazards of living in Hollywood.”

Little Caesar lead singer Ron Young agreed that the heat is on.

“But it’s a pressure we’ve all wanted to feel for a long time,” he said. “Everybody in the band is really motivated and obsessed with the music. So the pressure that you have to come across with the goods is what we want anyway.”

Young stresses that the comparisons to GNR should not go further than the fact that both are L.A. hard rock bands. Rather than the neo-Aerosmith/Zeppelin sound of the Guns, Little Caesar draws on soul roots as much as rock--among the band’s favorite cover songs are Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools” and the Temptations’ “I Wish It Would Rain.”

Young also said that Little Caesar does not aim to project GNR’s living-on-the-edge image.

“With GNR, people are waiting for them to self-destruct,” said Young, 28 (all of Little Caesar’s members are in their late-20s or early-30s--mature by hard-rock standards). “There’s a certain charisma in watching a Jim Morrison type. With us it’s more like when you drive down the street and see a bunch of guys who look straight from the gutter. They look like they have some sense, but you don’t want to cross them. . . . Sort of the appeal a motorcycle gang has.”

But Young does fear that the Guns N’ Roses phenomenon may have resulted in some people setting their sights too high.

“It’s funny how people are changing their thinking, like a band has to come out of the box and go triple-platinum,” he said. “Everybody’s looking for the next band that’s going to be the giant-slayer.”

Geffen A&R; representative Mio Vukovic, who signed the band, insisted that the company will not be disappointed if Little Caesar fails to match GNR’s debut success.

“We never expect that much from an artist’s first album,” he said. “Realistically, a first album is just a set-up to make people aware of the group. No one is looking to do the unexpected.”

TELEGENICS: Local quintet American Martyrs has also gotten some heady attention without having a record out. A video for its song “President” won MTV’s Basement Tapes (a competition among unsigned bands) in November and was apparently such a hit among the channel’s decision-makers that “President” was accorded far more visibility on the cable network than most winners.

“Normally these get shown for the following several weeks, maybe once a week at a very late hour,” explained MTV vice president of music programming Tom Hunter. “We used ‘President’ several times a day several days a week for a few weeks.”

What made the difference here was a combination of topicality and quality. The song’s political theme (the clip portrays a political candidate as a cynical magician) related very well to the election campaign. And Basement Tapes coordinator Bruce Gillmer has nothing but praise for the work of first-time music video director Cecelia Minucchi, who crafted the striking visuals on a minimal budget.

“The only way a winning clip can get show with that frequency is if it had quality like that,” he said. “This is probably one of the better Basement Tapes videos we’ve had.”

Winning the Basement Tapes isn’t necessarily a ticket to stardom, but for American Martyrs--which has a full guitar sound and dramatic bent that elicited comparisons to both Oingo Boingo and Wall of Voodoo at a recent Club Lingerie appearance--the exposure ha provided a boost. At least one major-label A&R; rep was drawn to the Lingerie show after seeing the video. And director Minucchi has gained employment with a major film company in Los Angeles through exposure from the video.

Said Mike Kelly, the Martyrs’ charismaticly quirky frontman, “It’s funny how a little thing like TV can open the doors and legitimize you.”

RIP: The Real Impossibles have broken up after having decided that “after five years of playing music that wasn’t commercially popular it might be time to try something new,” according to singer/guitarist Marc Platt. In those five years, the band, which carried a post-power pop sound, released an EP and single itself.

Platt, meanwhile, has recorded a solo album of mostly acoustic music with help from Peter Case (who produced the Impossible’s EP) and local country-rocker Kimm Rogers. He hopes to release the album this spring. The other ex-Impossibles--Robbie MacDonald, Steve Kobashigawa and Jim Hammers--have been concentrating on the Horse Soldiers, a group that performs Civil War-era songs and also features ex-Furys member Jeff Wolfe and ex-Zipper Bob Willingham.

BUZZWORDS: The Ringling Sisters are holding its third annual Christmas “Fun-Raiser” benefit for Hollywood’s needy children Thursday at Raji’s. Featured will be electric sets from the Lovedolls and the Fuzztones, plus a host of acoustic performers including the Holy Sisters of the Gaga Dada, the D.I’s and the Havelinas. Donation is $7, or $4 with a toy.