Hell On wheels

Jucifer’s mobile home brings the rock

Like many bands, Jucifer says its home is on the road. But this duo really means it. Since 2002, a well-worn Winnebago has been home to former Athens residents Amber Valentine and Edgar Livengood, plus their pets Roo, GoGo and Fresh Prince, a roadie and a trailer full of equipment. “We’ve put about 190,000 miles on the odometer,” says Valentine. “I think I drove about 185,000 of those miles!”

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And if the mental image of the unconventionally striking guitarist/singer driving a 15,000-pound recreational vehicle with a 5,000-pound trailer in tow is unnerving, just put yourself in the place of their road-mates and fellow campers. At pit stops, the Jucifermobile has seen a number of the most colorful places in the U.S.

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“Life in RV parks is an amazing microcosm of the world,” Valentine says. “Only everyone gets along better!” Usually, the easygoing band makes friends with its temporary neighbors. “But there’re a few bad apples out there.”

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Like? “Well, like the guy who was furious that we arrived on a winter Sunday and interrupted his day. His wife had mistakenly listed their park as ‘open all year,’ which was somehow our fault,” she laughs. “He shook his fist at us and threatened to sue us for making a ‘rut’ in the swampy lot.”

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Cue the “Dueling Banjos” of Deliverance for the park in Missouri where Livengood and roadie Brent made a faux pas by playing basketball. They were informed by another tenant that shooting hoops “wasn’t a white sport.”

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“That night at about 3 a.m., we were awakened and pulled out for a search by local police,” continues Valentine. “We were supposedly suspected of robbing a convenience store two miles away.” Now, that would’ve been a smooth move for the hard rockin’ ne’er-do-wells whose only means of escape is a big, white RV. The guys were harassed for a good 30 minutes while several non-officers hung menacingly just outside the circle of flashlight visibility.

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“Oddly, the facts police gave to back up their suspicions kept changing,” she recalls. “‘The guy had long, black hair. Oh, wait, these guys don’t have black hair? Well, long hair.’ Edgar finally asked to be taken to police HQ for a comparison to the guy on the surveillance tape. ‘Well, the tape’s really fuzzy.’”

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As they were released, the main officer said that if any of them had been wearing a black sleeveless shirt — or even if one had been found inside — they would’ve been sent to jail. “For a couple of weeks following that experience, we laughed every time we saw black sleeveless shirts,” she says. “Uh-oh, they’re goin’ to jail!”

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Despite a few bumps in the road, Valentine and Livengood love the mobile life, even writing material, including all of their newest release, If Thine Enemy Hunger, on the run. The album, filled with a cast of deceptively beautiful and alluringly horrible characters, will be four days old when Jucifer pulls into the Star Bar’s Moreland Avenue lot this Friday.

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“We compose all over the place,” she says. “Sometimes at campgrounds, in parking lots, even while driving.”

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A visit to the historic battle site of the Ludlow Massacre was the initial spark for the album. “The stories in our minds began there and branched out to include other similar incidents, fictional and real, and the concepts of faith and vengeance.”

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The Civil War period piece “Antietam” is a disturbing and stunning highlight, told from the hellish perspective of a young, terrified nurse in a makeshift wartime hospital. Valentine’s thoroughly unnerving screams are among the most evocative and risky performances she’s ever recorded.

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“Having read a lot on the subject, I could call graphic, terrible images to mind,” she explains. She nailed the verses in one take and wailed the choruses, including the anguished shrieks, on a separate take. “I knew I’d have to get the choruses right away because it was shredding my voice and my mind! I was crying, really hysterical. But that’s how it needed to be.”