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Squirrel Bait Family Tree ~ Reviewed
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Back in the dark days of the early-/mid-90s I came across the hand scrawled list above and felt like I had struck gold. I printed it out and carried it with me during long hunts for new music. Most of what I remember about those days are independent record stores, smoke-filled dorm rooms, and run-down apartments containing nothing but a couch, an ashtray, and a stereo. That’s mostly because those are the only places I frequented. It’s also because I was into anything that felt experimental and the Louisville underground music scene certainly fit the bill. As you can see, Squirrel Bait is at the center of the creation myth that surrounds the music that we now call experimental indie rock, post rock, and math rock, along with a bunch of other forgotten tags like jazz rock and the uglier ones like slow-core and crescendo-core. The point was that this music was different and hard to describe. Best of all; it was good. In this thread I will review albums made by bands that are in the Squirrel Bait family. This will require some limitations because if I were to consider all the bands that employed certain family members like David Grubbs, John McEntyre, Jim O’Rourke, and David Pajo, then the genealogy grows to include huge portions of the Drag City, Touch & Go, Quarterstick, and Thrill Jockey labels among others. Fun as that sounds it’s just too much. So I will try to keep it as close to direct connections with Squirrel Bait as I can but may also include some reviews of bands that contain only cousins of the band. In any case, there is plenty to discuss. The first three albums to be reviewed are: Skag Heaven (1987) by Squirrel Bait Diablo Guapo (1989) by Bastro Umber [+ Star Booty EP] (1989) by Bitch Magnet |
Interesting, I'm aware of these artists yet have nothing from any of them. I'm awaiting your word.
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Squirrel Bait - Skag Heaven (1987)
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Tracklist: 1. Kid Dynamite 2. Virgil's Return 3. Black Light Poster Child 4. Choose Your Posoin 5. Short Straw Wins 6. Kick The Cat 7. Too Close To The Fire 8. Slake Train Coming 9. Rose Island Road 10. Tape From California The players: http://www.chunklet.com/images/uploa...vid_Grubbs.jpg David Grubbs - guitar http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/4518/indie3gk5.jpg Left to right: Clark Johnson - bass, Peter Searcy - vocals, Brian McMahan - guitar http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6098/bendaughtry.jpg Ben Daughtry - drums There is something about Louisville, Kentucky. I have personally never been there (save driving through on the interstate) but I have met several people who have spent time there and romanticize it as a place where urban East Coast mentality meets the Appalachian country way. If that’s true it would explain why the underground bands that came out of there in the 80s and 90s were literate, talented, and serious with a touch of backwoods folksiness. Squirrel Bait sounds that way to me. In fact, if Skag Heaven had been released on Dischord records I’m convinced that it would be considered a modern classic instead of simply that band of high school kids that led to the formation of Slint. But that’s what they are – and it works in their favor. This is bar-none the most talented group of teenage punk rockers that I have heard and I mean that. Here’s why: The album starts with 'Kid Dynamite'. It breaks out of the gates sounding like classic post-hardcore with a slight metallic edge. The song is fast, deliberate, and melodic. Skill is present and obvious from the get-go and it doesn’t take long for Peter Searcy to display his vocals which quickly become the focal point. And they deserve it. This guy has that elusive quality that can make a band famous. It’s an energetic, screamy rasp that remains controlled and melodic. Others who use(d) it include: John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Rick Froberg (Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, Obits), and Ben Nichols (Lucero). I love that shit. If you do too then Peter Searcy’s work here will appeal to you. He will make you feel angry and loved. This album is pretty straightforward verse-chorus-verse structures but it does have accents that hint at the Slint to come. 'Choose Your Poison' has Sonic Youth-ish intro that evolves into a combo of pop-punk and metal riffing. There are vocals that are strong enough to carry the song if it needed it. It doesn’t; the band is more than capable. 'Short Straw Wins' continues to go in that direction. The timing loosens up enough for the band to spread out. This is not post-rock but you can hear the wheels churning in the minds of these guys. 'Kick the Cat' goes hardcore with fast yet nuanced drums backing up the speedy guitar. This song also has the first appearance of the spoken vocals by McMahan that you heard on Spiderland. 'Too Close to the Fire' reminds me of the Misfits somehow and 'Slake Train Coming' goes classic punk complete with a punk-anthem chorus shouted/sung in unison. The closer is a cover: 'Tape from California', the title track from Phil Ochs’ 1968 album proving these kids are smarter than your average punks. Despite how good it is, this album is a footnote. Even as much as I like it myself, I view it that way. It’s too bad that the bands these guys played in later in life were so original and great that they overshadow this band. But that’s the way it is. I love this album but I don’t listen to it regularly. It’s mostly a showcase of the raw talent behind the associated bands that came later. But if you like those bands, and you like melody too then Squirrel Bait is for you. Sometimes you will just want to give Slint the middle finger for being so boldly groundbreaking and cerebral. When that happens you can find peace by listening to Skag Heaven while you sit on the porch drinking lemonade. 8.5/10 |
Always good to see a bunch of obscure artists getting a shout on these boards. I haven't heard of many of them myself, so this is gonna be interesting.
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you missed Rodan:
Jason Noble Jeff Mueller Tara Jane O'Neil Kevin Coultas i wouldn't suggest it but their LP Rusty is far and above my favorite record that this entire clan has produced, you should look into it. this is also the same band that went on to form Shipping News, Rachel's and June of 44. otherwise a fantastic idea for a thread and one i shall certainly be revisiting. i have heard/heard of all of the connected artists so it should as least refresh me on what keeps bringing me back to them. EDIT: shit, Will Oldham is connected to this group? i am officially confused. |
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maybe it's better if you just leave it as is. =) |
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Bastro - Diablo Guapo (1989)
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Released by Homestead Records Tracklist: 1. Tallow Waters 2. Filthy Five Filthy Ten 3. Guapo 4. Flesh Colored House 5. Short Haired Robot 6. Can of Whoopass 7. Decent Skin 8. Enagaging in the Reverend 9. Wurlitzer 10. Hoosier Logic 11. Shoot Me a Deer Lineup: David Grubbs – vocals, guitar Clark Johnson – bass John McEntyre – drums If you hear somebody say, “I like ‘those’ bands but only stuff like Big Black, not the quiet instrumental bands” they are talking about Bastro. This band is the result of our hero, David Grubbs, beginning to come of age. He left Squirrel Bait for college but apparently never stopped making music. This time around he is the front man, responsible for both guitar and vocals. Presumably he wrote most of this too. Bastro started out as Clark Johnson (also Squirrel Bait) and Grubbs playing alongside a drum machine. Before long they recruited the drum wunderkind himself, John McEntyre. This man has the Midas touch; every drum set he touches turns somebody’s album to gold. Well, nobody moved a million units but you get the idea. Diablo Guapo is Bastro as a three piece making smart, brutal music. It is the bespectacled nerd who will kick your ass when pushed. The opener, ‘Tallow Waters’, displays what you are in for: chaotic punk rock held together with a great rhythm section and pushed forward by Grubbs’ aggressive guitar and varied vocal delivery. Like many of their songs, it almost degenerates into noise but ends before that can happen. Next up is ‘Filthy Five Filthy Ten’ that features an angular guitar riff and a big indication of what you will hear come out of the Louisville underground for years. This song is post-rock and math rock before either existed. On top of repetitive heavy riffing, Grubbs seems to vocalize whatever comes to mind. ‘Guapo’ is controlled noise that vaguely resembles a punk song with vocals again yelped at will. The end of the song breaks down with a flurry of brass instruments playing freely over the established rhythm. This is perhaps the first moment that associated the Louisville punks with Jazz. The album contains others bits such as the song ‘Wurlitzer’, an instrumental piece with a freely swinging piano in the lead. The album goes on like this for eleven songs. The main difference among them is whether the vocals go wild and loud or mumbled and quiet. I hate describing bands with comparisons to other bands but in this case I can hardly help it; Bastro sounds like a combination of Slint and Big Black. They also set the bar really high for avant-garde rock bands in the 90s and Diablo Guapo is another album made by the Squirrel Bait family that seems to me like it should show up on more ‘best’ lists and generally get more respect. It gives you something to think about and still rocks hard – what more do you need? If it’s more intellectualization of rock music then just move on to Gastr Del Sol or Brise-Glase. For now just rock out to this handsome devil of an album. 8.7/10 |
I'm gonna have to check some of these out.
I have albums by a handful of these bands. Others I remember reading about in my old Melody Maker reading days but never getting around to checking out for one reason or another (usually either no money and the lack of a good import shop where I live). I do like Slint, but I wouldn't say I rate them as highly as others seem to around here. I did go through a phase of Tortoise loving however, it's ages since I gave them a listen. I already have Umber & Star Booty so i'll be trying to get hold of the other two in the near future. Slow-core, God i've not heard that term used in years, that takes me back. |
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Tortoise was a huge favorite of mine for a long time. I'd like to review at least 3 of their albums here. Anyway, my Bitch Magnet review is coming soon and the next 3 will be the artsy side of the family: The Serpentine Similar (1993) by Gastr Del Sol When In Vanitas... (1994) by Brise-Glase Yona-Kit (1994) by Yona Kit |
Bitch Magnet - Umber + Star Booty (1989)
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Released by Communion Records Track list: 1. Motor 2. Navajo Ace 3. Clay 4. Joan of Arc 5. Douglas Leader 6. Goat-Legged Country God 7. Big Pining 8. Joyless Street 9. Punch and Judy 10. Americruiser *tracks 1-10 are the Umber LP 11. Carnation 12. C Word 13. Sea of Perls 14. Hatpins 15. Knucklehead 16. Circle K 17. Polio 18. Canteloupe *tracks 11-18 are the Star Booty EP http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/2091/traycard.jpg Umber lineup: Sooyuong Park – vocals, bass John Fine – guitar David Galt - guitar Orestes Delatorre – drums http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/6626427.jpg Star Booty lineup: Sooyoung Park – vocals, bass John Fine – guitar Orestes Delatorre – drums I firmly believe that if this band had not named themselves Bitch Magnet that they would have been far more than just a notch on the timeline of underground rock music from the late 80s/early 90s. But that’s what they are and their name will forever be more of a focal point (more like a passing glance point) than the music that they made. And that’s too bad because they made the most interesting, accessible music of all the early branches of the Squirrel Bait family tree. Indeed, it is cheating a bit for me to include this album because not one of the musicians that played on it played in Squirrel Bait. However the connection is strong because our hero, David Grubbs, chose to join this band during the Bastro era. He was a bona-fide member of the band on their later releases and played with them on tour before ultimately staying with Bastro and moving on with them to form Gastr Del Sol (review coming soon!). So that’s why they get lumped in with Bastro and it’s why I went from Squirrel Bait straight to both Bastro and Bitch Magnet. The two bands were active simultaneously and were connected by Mr. Grubbs. Squirrel Bait is the roots of the tree and these two are the big, chunky trunk at the base. Beyond that connection I will stop hyping Grubbs because he is not the star of the show. That is Sooyoung Park http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/9267/sooyoung.gif. He and the other two united while at Oberlin College and while there recorded their Star Booty EP which was engineered by Mr. Steve Albini. He’s quiet about it but I will always wonder what kind of influence Albini had on all of these bands. Like Bastro, Bitch Magnet has more than a slight resemblance to Albini’s own bands. Coincidence? Or was there a tangible connection between smart, casually-dressed punk rockers across America in the late-80s? I like to think so. But maybe it’s just that Big Black was so goddamn good. In any case, Bitch Magnet is Sooyoung Park’s baby and he nurtured it well. I’ve talked about the likes of Big Black and Slint enough (too much) already. But in reference to these Bitch Magnet recordings, I am going to mention another band: Smashing Pumpkins. That’s right, these songs often remind me of Gish-era Smashing Pumpkins. It’s mainly in the melodic, anthemic, heavy guitar style of Jon Fine as well as the bluesy bass lines. I’m willing to bet that young Billy Corgan had at least one Bitch Magnet tape at some point. They are the last 8 tracks on the combined release, but Star Booty came before Umber chronologically so I’ll begin there. ‘Carnation’ starts the EP on a controlled, energetic note – textbook post-hardcore with aggressive but melodic vocals and some spacey guitar noodling thrown in at the end. This leads directly into ‘C Word’ where Park shows off another side of his singing; bored and depressive but still keeping up the pace. ‘Sea of Pearls’ crashes in with a chuggy riff that provides a melody for Park to sing over. Throughout this album, he changes up his style quite a bit. Here he sounds like an upbeat slacker hinting at his future work in Seam. ‘Hatpins’ goes in a different direction altogether. The tempo goes up to hardcore levels and the vocals are spoken and shouted. Less than two minutes later the next song starts. ‘Knucklehead’ has an intricate intro with a pretty guitar melody of the type that I believe inspired Billy Corgan. But the drums kick in hard and the tempo rises as Park blurts out lyrics in a repetitive 70s-era punk kind of way. Over and over he spits “I said I’m sorry” which turns briefly into a group-shout at the end. A nice touch. Next up is ‘Circle K’ where Park is again depressed and monotone. The music is droney and seems more like a jam session than a song. Maybe Park was manic-depressive because the next song ‘Polio’ enters with a tight, energetic and groovy vibe and stays that way. The vocals again start spoken and then go wild and even angry. What’s wrong, Sooyoung? He’s even more pissed on the final song, ‘Canteloupe’, which is as noisy as Bitch Magnet gets, and he simply belts out lyrics from as deep in his diaphragm as he can. Not a lot of time passed between Star Booty and Umber but enough for them to add a guitarist and develop their sound a bit. So, what is it with this band’s name? Obviously the name Bitch Magnet is an ironic gesture for a band of experimental punk rock nerds but their music is not ironic; they come across as very serious in their sound. However, the first song on Umber, ‘Motor’, challenges their seriousness as they sound like an indie-punk version of Motorhead. The music is solid and moderately heavy and Park settles into a controlled spoken/sung growl. It’s mostly in the lyrics here that he reminds me of Lemmy: My motor / feel it burn / my engine / you’ll hear it sing Cause I’m the jack and I’m the king ‘Clay’ is Bitch Magnet gone epic; Slow intro that builds, loud-quiet-loud dynamic, guitar and bass flourishes breaking up the quiet parts. Park lets loose here – not with screams but general confidence. Gone is the insecure J Mascis quality from his voice. He just speaks, sings, growls, and mumbles as needed. Umber is more of a rock album than Star Booty and perhaps more than any in the Squirrel Bait family. Aside from the buttrock lyrics in ‘Motor’ we also have several songs that are peppered with southern rock. ‘Joan of Arc’ is led by a groovy metal riff and Park tries more growling and yelping. ‘Goat-Legged Country God’ goes that way even further with its riffing. But it reels the rock-n-roll back in with a wall of feedback borrowed from Sonic Youth and Park’s humbly spoken words. ‘Joyless Street’ is another very lively affair with guitar work that I think may have been stolen by Billy Corgan. It is bluesy, down-tuned guitar rock washed with feedback. ‘Punch and Judy’ sounds so much like later Shellac to me that it makes me again wonder where the lines are drawn between Steve Albini and everybody else’s music. More lush guitar work appears on the final track, ‘Americruiser’, which is a great example of why Slint is not more special than Bitch Magnet. Overall this is one hell of an enjoyable listen. Forget about all the indie-shit, this album is good for the bedroom intellectual and the summertime road-tripper alike. 8.9/10 |
Gastr Del Sol - The Serpentine Similar (1993)
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Originally released by Teen Beat Reissued by Drag City Track list: 1. A Watery Kentucky 2. Easy Company 3. A Jar of Fat 4. Ursus Arctos Wonderfilis 5. Eye Street 6. For Soren Mueller 7. Serpentine Orbit 8. Even the Odd Orbit Lineup: David Grubbs – guitar, piano, vocals Bundy K. Brown – bass John McEntire – drums At some point David Grubbs decided that rock music was too limiting so he took his band mates from the final incarnation of Bastro and began Gastr Del Sol. The Serpentine Similar is their first release, and here he gets as experimental as he wants to be – which is apparently a lot. The first song, ‘A Watery Kentucky’, is a 9-minute ramble of meandering, slowly swinging guitar with a little bit of bass and some random-sounding percussion thrown in occasionally. It’s topped off with Grubbs mumbling in a sing-song fashion about nothing discernable. The final result sounds indulgent and perhaps a little abusive. Why did Gastr Del Sol use all this studio time and frontload their first album with this piece? It sounds more like a practice session or a loose jam. But, hey, it’s their album so let’s see where it goes. The whole thing is less than a half-hour long so we’re already done with a third of it. Grubbs pulls out his acoustic guitar for ‘Easy Complex’ and does some quick “jazzy” vocals over staccato strumming and scale runs (fans of Kayo Dot should take note). This one starts to remind me of old Pavement but at about one minute long it hardly has time to go anywhere. ‘A Jar of Fat’ is proof that Grubbs loves avant-garde jazz and probably would rather be doing that. Hey, maybe that’s what he thinks he is doing. That could explain a lot. He begins solo on the piano playing runs that conjure Thelonious Monk or Chick Corea although he was probably shooting more for Cecil Taylor. The scratchy feedback thrown in at the end reminds us that these guys are not seasoned jazzmen but simply college students with musical talent who want to create something new. Oh well, it’s still pretty good. ‘Ursus Arctos Wonderfilis’ is another 180 degree turn as Grubbs pulls out some of his guitar tricks. Grubbs has since become famous for his unique guitar compositions and style, and he has been performing and recording solo guitar for eager audiences since these early days. But here we just get a taste of the repetitive yet deeply textured, folky guitar work to come. Bundy dutifully follows around with his bass as Grubbs explores a bit of John Fahey and Leo Kottke territory. I wish the whole album was like this. ‘Eye Street’ is another piano piece. This time I think we can hear Vince Guaraldi and maybe this is the way that Schroeder will play if he grows up and becomes an intellectual. Maybe he’ll even top off his piano with some odd, non sequitur vocals like Grubbs does here. http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/3793/schroeder.gifhttp://img140.imageshack.us/img140/3397/grubbs.jpg ‘For Soren Mueller’ finally gives McEntire something to do as Gastr Del Sol begins to work as a three-piece band. It’s still a lot of guitar noodling but they do open the throttle in bursts to let McEntire go wild with the rhythm for a few moments. ‘Serpentine Orbit’ features more vocals up front that may tell some kind of story. Grubbs also plunks out a few notes and chords on his guitar. Meh. The last track, ‘Even the Odd Orbit’, is another instrumental guitar track. This is early math rock. Grubbs keeps tight control over the complex timing that he uses. Songs like this make me forgive Grubbs for his experimental indulgences; he’s got skills and he should use them however he likes. Overall, The Serpentine Similar is a fairly disjointed-sounding album that has moments of brilliance and excitement. In a way, David Grubbs is a virtuosic guitar player of which he gives us little glimpses on this album. Perhaps he was just discovering that himself as he made these songs. After this, Brown and McEntire moved on to make history with Tortoise and Grubbs continued Gastr Del Sol as a two-piece with fellow experimentalist, Jim O’Rourke. The Serpentine Similar is not one of the greatest Squirrel Bait family recordings but it is an important mark on Grubbs’s growth chart nonetheless. 6.8/10 |
Engine this is a wonderful idea. This is the best idea. I'm unaware of you're other posts but you are now my favorite.
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Thank you, swim. I'm glad you like the idea. Part of why I'm doing this is to give exposure to some of my favorites - and part of it is to reacquaint myself with bands and albums that have been collecting dust for too long.
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Brise-Glace - When In Vanitas... (1994)
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Released by Skin Graft Track list: 1. Neither Yield nor Reap (7:03) 2. Host of Latecomers (4:00) 3. Stump of a Drowner (3:58) 4. Restrained From Do and Will Not (Leave) (10:53) 5. One Syntactical Unit (24:12) http://beautifulnoise.files.wordpres...rise_bpic1.jpg Players: Dylan Posa – guitar Darin Gray – bass Jim O’Rourke – guitar, organ, avant-garde samples Thymme Jones – drums Brise-Glace were a project that famously involved Jim O’Rourke while he was also playing with noise and other music with David Grubbs in Gastr Del Sol. He teamed up with other experimental musicians and they recorded When In Vanitas… and gave another engineering credit to Steve Albini. I don't know if it is because this music was made during the carefree days of the Clinton administration when college kids and other slackers had plenty of free time to indulge in their artistic whims or if these guys are important musicians on a larger level than just experimental rock music. I really don’t. But here is what I think of the five songs that comprise the one LP that these musicians made together. ‘Neither Yield nor Reap’ starts with a spare, lazy guitar line and, after a couple minutes, O’Rourke injects some sound effects and ambient noise that build to a mad industrial noise beat. That fads out as Jones starts a jazzy, swinging beat that he pulled straight out of the 1940s. This eventually devolves into scratchy static stabs that close out the song. ‘Host of Latecomers’ has a sparse, drawn out intro that is hardly noticeable but it gets louder and a rousing drum beat enters (presumably to wake you up) and backs up O’Rourke playing with sounds. ‘Stump of a Downer’ has the drums and other beats kicked up a notch. They provide head-nodding rhythm behind improvised-sounding guitar riffs and strums; they all go on like this for a while before degenerating into sampled noise and finishing up. This is a really nice track. It’s short, catchy, and blissed out. It’s good when art music makes you feel that way. ‘Restrained from Do and Will Not (Leave)’ finds Brise-Glace getting down to the essence of what it means to be an experimental rock band. Lots of noodling, random drum beats, and playing with feedback. It’s always very mellow like the band is jamming like Mingus and Monk (who are, in this case, Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore). Halfway through, the beat gets insistent and then we are treated with a long stretch of silence. If you turn it way up you’ll hear some of O’Rourke’s ‘found sounds’. This song is a supremely artsy way to spend ten minutes. #5. 'One Syntactical Unit'. This is it. Here it is. Like Helen of Troy’s face launched one thousand ships, this song launched one thousand post-rock bands. A slow melody opens the song before drums bring the tension up to a hypnotic, soothing level. O’Rourke buzzes around the background with ambient noise that sounds like tree frogs and all the other creatures that live outside on summer nights. About five minutes in we get a spacey interlude. More O’Rourke I guess. Another five minutes later the band plays together again as quiet guitar riffs introduce another raucous beat the likes of which we have not heard since track #1. Art/Music/Drama all wrapped into one. I wonder how many kids dropped out of art school to pursue their music because of this song. I’ll bet there are a few. O’Rourke throws on a bunch of random stuff next which thankfully includes some good vintage jazz singing and blues guitar. It’s a good little break from his other, more meandering sounds. Drums return after a while and backup more noise until they crescendo to a noisy peak that marks the climax of the song, the album, and the band. Distorted lounge jazz buried low in the mix finishes it all. When In Vanitas… strikes you with a brazen and audacious mixture of playfulness and seriousness. I can’t tell if they made this album for joy or for artistic expression but, either way, the result is art music that never loses sight of the fact that they are a band making music. This was serious avant-garde music made in the mid-1990s. Oddly enough, in certain ways this album makes more sense than a lot of other supposedly generation-defining music made at that time. One thing that Brise-Glace were not was bored; When In Vanitas… is proof of that. 7.6/10 |
Yona-Kit (1994)
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Released by Skin Graft Track List: 1. Franken-Bitch 2. Dancing Sumo Wrestlers 3. Desert Rose 4. Hi Ka Ri 5. TWA Corbies 6. Skeleton King 7. Get Out of Here 8. Disembody 9. Slice of Life http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/9753/yonakitpic.jpg Players: KK Null – guitar, vocals Darin Gray – bass Thymme Jones - drums Jim O’Rourke – guitar Here are two words guaranteed to excite a certain demographic: Japanese Noise. The boys from Brise-Glace teamed up with KK Null to record an album (engineered by, you guessed it, Steve Albini) and named themselves Yona-Kit. Their self-titled LP is nowhere near as noisy as KK Null’s band, Zevi Geva, and it is also not nearly as artsy as Brise-Glace. Yona-Kit is a hybrid of both of those bands and this makes them more accessible than either of their parts. ‘Franken-Bitch’ is the opener and a definite crowd-pleaser. It begins with something that sounds like a cat fight or dolphin sounds – that is Yasuko Onuki of Melt Banana who offers guest vocals on this song only. A bouncy Albini-influenced guitar riff starts off the song which quickly lets the other instruments crash in to form a loose, noisy rhythm. But the fun doesn’t really start until Null’s vocals kick in. The man has a natural deep, guttural growl that must be the envy of metal vocalists worldwide. He vomits lyrics in a way that manages to be highly pleasing to the ear. Null is easy to picture as a vicious samurai in a Kurosawa film. Onuki helps out with the high pitched sounds she makes but she doesn’t go too crazy, just makes a beautiful noisy duet with Null. http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/6593/yasukoonuki.jpghttp://img259.imageshack.us/img259/2641/kknull.jpg ‘Dancing Sumo Wrestlers’ starts with more guitar work that reminds me of something I have heard on Shellac albums. I really don’t intend to keep mentioning Albini but it’s hard not to in this case. No offense to the guitarists but it really, really sounds like Steve Albini playing guitar here. Ghostly vocals hover in the air for atmosphere and texture while the rhythm stays steady and pronounced throughout. Most of this album rocks at about the same level that Shellac does. This is one of several songs on it with a steady groove that takes time to stretch out, slow down, or drag on at will. ‘Desert Rose’ brings some changes. Null starts muttering (in Japanese?) over a jazzy beat and melody that sounds like something Miles Davis might have done in the early-70s. Null quiets down and the guitar solos on a pretty melody for at least several seconds. This song is good but it reminds you of why they call this music experimental; because it sometimes sounds like just some shit that the band tried out for fun. In this case the experiment works out well, though. ‘Hi Ka Ra’ starts out with Null either laughing or crying for a split second and then lets loose with classic “experimental indie rock” from this period. That is, this is for fans of Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 and such. It still has a pretty deep groove in parts and more of that uniquely distorted Albini sound on the guitars. Most notable though is Null’s vocals which go all over the place or rather, sings a bunch of scales. ‘TWA Corbies’ features Null singing in a way that reminds me of some kind of ancient Japanese theater. He punctuates that with some spoken vocals while the band plugs away at a repetitive yet lively backdrop. Another breakdown straight out of At Action Park interrupts at one point. ‘Skeleton King’ is rocking good fun. If you are at all interested in anything I have said about this album then I think you will find this song extremely enjoyable and it may make you want to get up and dance. Brise-Glace finally found a way to make their artsy, jazzy shtick get your ass out of its seat. ‘Get Out of Here’ evokes a claustrophobic but still euphoric atmosphere like Times Square on New Year’s Eve or, I guess, downtown Tokyo on Oshogatsu. Null’s vocals prove that he’s a mad genius as he frantically bellows Let’s Get Outta Here/What the Hell as the chorus. The last actual song is ‘Disembody’ which is a mellow jazzy number driven forward by the rhythm section and accompanied by various other sounds. This sounds like it is better suited to a Brise-Glace album. It doesn’t exactly go anywhere but it also doesn’t interrupt the flow and it’s another generally successful experiment. ‘Slice of Life’ closes the album very slowly; it’s over 23 minutes long. Not only that but it doesn’t really change throughout the whole thing; and not only that but it’s a really good song. If you are or ever were in a band that wanted to jam extensively but hated the Grateful Dead, your music probably sounds like a poor version of this song (although I’m sure you’re very talented – keep at it, folks). The rhythm stays steady and soulful in a punk rock kind of way while the guitars do their experimental rock thing. The band always stays tight with just enough variation to keep you interested or at least hypnotized. Yona-Kit is for rock fans who don’t expect their music to do the work for them and for experimental noise fans who don’t mind a melody and for post-rock fans who don’t mind noisy punk. 9.1/10 |
It's time for...
Will Oldham http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5162/willo1.jpg Photo by Mark Whiteley You can tell from the photo that it is fairly old by looking at how many hairs are still left on top of the man’s head. Now, because of his grizzly beard, bald head, and the otherworldly folk music that he plays, you may have pegged Will Oldham as an old Appalachian Bluegrass man. While he definitely projects that image, he was actually born in 1970 in Louisville, Kentucky and hung out with the guys from Slint. The relationship is slightly difficult to trace because these bands did not like to plaster names and photos all over their album inserts. They often just submitted a few names and credits and otherwise let the music speak for itself. It’s an admirable concept but it’s hell on those of us who are obsessed with tracing histories and connections. The first clue that I found about Oldham’s connection to the Squirrel Bait family is in the sparse liner notes in Slint’s Spiderland album. There we see that he took the photo of Slint in a scenic swimming hole that adorns the cover of everybody’s favorite post-rock album. Will released his first album (There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You) in 1993. Just about all of his many recordings are collaborative affairs with rotating members who each often play various instruments. In the case of this album, Brian McMahon (Squirrel Bait, Slint) plays guitar, bass and drums and Britt Walford (original Squirrel Bait drummer, Slint) does the same. Since 1993, Oldham has made many albums, EPs, and has collaborated with a hell of a lot of musicians – some very notable. When Johnny Cash did his late-life albums of covers he chose Will Oldham's 'I See a Darkness' and asked Will to join him on the recording. He backs up Cash around the 2 minute mark on the video.. Will Oldham is a member of the Squirrel Bait family and he created his own unique creative path. His music gets called other things than post-rock (anti-folk, Americana, etc.) and I think it appeals to a lot more people than perhaps any of the other family members’ music does. It definitely appeals a lot to me; Will Oldham has been a consistent favorite of mine since the mid-90s. He deserves to have his own thread full of reviews of all of his output but since he is just one branch of this tree I will limit myself to three early albums: There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You, Palace Brothers (1993) Viva Last Blues, Palace Music (1995) Arise Therefore, Will Oldham (1996) |
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Palace Brothers - There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You (1993)
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/8388/noonecover.jpg http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/5820/noonetracks.jpg Players: Will Oldham – vocals Grant Barger – bass, organ, acoustic guitar, vocals Todd Brashear – drums, electric guitar, bass, lap steel guitar Brian McMahan – electric guitar, drums, bass Britt Walford – drums, electric guitar, bass Released by Drag City Early 20th century Appalachia is rife with American mythology. Old-time religions and isolated country living make for great literature, art and, of course, music. Today we have many musicians donning black vests, picking up a banjo and playing Gothic Americana. But before that existed as a well known music genre there was Will Oldham who rounded up a band and poured out his soul as if he was running his own tent revival. But he didn’t want to save your soul as much as to let you know that even a good church-going boy from the country has a soul as dark as anybody’s and probably an even darker one. The protagonists of the songs on There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You are holy people who have fallen from grace by their own undoing. His voice whispers, warbles, and soars through these stories of God-fearing people who are not sure where they will end up in the afterlife but are painfully aware of their surroundings in this life. 'Idle Hands Are The Devil’s Playthings' opens the album with some lively spurts of a banjo which eventually picks up a tune that the rest of the band follows. Will’s soft voice enters and, as usual, quickly takes center stage as he sings upbeat verses about the dangers of Hell. It’s just an earnest warning and he stops often enough to let the banjo spread out on a happy riff. Here we have a young man who is brazen in his sense of salvation. He is either inexperienced in life, or lying. 'Long Before' possibly stars the same character – years later after his house, family and life has deteriorated maybe beyond repair. Quiet banjo, guitar, and bass accompany Will as he morosely recounts the sad details of his existence. While he doesn’t come out and say exactly what’s going on there are some vague sexual references (“Mama suckled you on her holy breast/ Mama’s breast ain’t holy no more / Long before we shared a short sheet/ O, long before/ I stood above you as you slept / I don’t stand above no more”) There is something wrong at home for sure. 'I Tried to Stay Healthy For You' is a drunken confession of a man who can’t be faithful. The banjo sounds like it is crying in its own beer along with Will. '(I Was Drunk At the) Pulpit' is a long series of couplets sung over a repetitive guitar strum. The man talking seems to be a preacher who has made the drunken realization that his entire congregation is a bunch of hypocrites (“Well I sucked down a cupful and God shown within/ in a red earthen mask/ and I saw where I’d been was a palace of sin”). It makes him question his faith but at least he is reassured that, despite (or because of) his drunkenness, he knows God better than those fools. The title track is driven by the full band complete with organ. It’s a dirge about…fishing? I’m not sure about that but the moody organ pulls the band along at a steady pace as Will and other vocalists wail along. 'O Lord Are You In Need?' is another cryptic song that sounds simultaneously lazy and urgent. Lo-fi slide guitar caps it off. 'Merida' is more upbeat and sounds like Will playing around the fire to entertain the family on a camping trip. The subject matter is a common theme for Oldham: short, dangerous love affairs. 'King Me' is another love song of sorts. What’s most interesting about this song is that it builds to a crescendo in which Will begins to recite vaguely dirty lines like a possessed revival preacher. You can picture him with his eyes closed, brow furrowed and arms raised as he says “Yes you have pulled my manhood into your corner/ If I could get up enough strength, enough will/ To pull to your side, I want you to reach into your reserves/ Top me off, tide me over, make me a man”. Next song is “I Had a Good Mother and Father” which is a simple ode to dead parents. It is a celebration of worthy souls that have gone to Heaven. Will sings sweetly and offers a bit of his version of yodeling. 'Riding' removes any doubt that Will’s characters have practiced incest. This is the epic song of the album, chronicling one man’s sins. “Who ya gonna ride with, boy? I’m gonna bring my sister Lisa” is repeated until you understand. “Because I love my sister Lisa, I love my sister Lisa, most of all.” He is also unrepentant. “Don’t ya know that’s sinful, boy? God is what I make of him.” He is also resigned to his fate. “I’m long since dead and I live in Hell. She’s the only girl that I love well. We were raised together and together we fell. God is what I make of him.” And he still hopes for redemption. “And all I have I give to Him. All I own I owe to Him. All my life I pledge to Him.” And all the while the band plays ominous Western sounds like we are about to see a shootout at high noon. The final song is a lullaby entitled 'O Paul' in which Will sings kind reassurances to a dying family member. It’s a fitting end to the album. Paul will die but he will die loved and cared for. If only we all could be so lucky. Will Oldham didn’t grow up deep in the forest in a log cabin isolated form the world besides his large family and local church house. But you can’t tell that from this album. There is No-One What Will Take Care Of You is a surprisingly earnest display of creativity. Listening to it is like sitting on the porch of long-lost family members who live in a different world amongst thickly-wooded, strip mined mountains. 8.8/10 |
You know, I've been seeing this thread up there for weeks now but never came in here before because I had no clue what it meant. Now that I finally decided to give it a read I think I just found the next few bands I'll be checking out. I love Slint, Tortoise, Red Krayola, and the Sea and the Cake (though that seems strangely out of place to me on this list). I'm not sure what the deal is with Evergreen, I downloaded their self titled album which was really good. I also have a record that appears to be another self-titled album but it sounds very different, it's pretty much emo. Not sure what happened there.
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RE Evergreen - there are apparently several bands out there with that name so it gets confusing. I plan on reviewing that self-titled album one of these days. For reference it is the one with this cover: http://www.inmusicwetrust.com/articl...ges/64/p16.jpg and for more trivial fun: this Evergreen album was recorded and produced by none other than James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem). Strange relationships abound in the Squirrel Bait family. |
Yeah for some reason I just copied what was written on the paper rather than writing The Sea and Cake. Who knows. Thanks by the way, that's the one I thought it was the other one must be some weird obscure band. That does make it a lot of fun too, when you have a whole bunch of similar band members playing in bands that have such a variety. Maybe I'll be a poser and copy your idea with Dinosaur Jr, if you wouldn't feel to ripped off. I'm getting over my short obsession with trying to listen to all the good new music that comes out, there's an overwhelming amount of **** coming out and it's just starting to get annoying. And if I get tired of doing Dinosaur Jr thing I can link them back to Palace :p It's amazing how many bands you can link together.
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goddamn, that's an excellent post. My favorite line: He is either inexperienced in life, or lying. I wonder if there's a gentle critique to be made about the fact that the musician is telling a story he hasn't experienced--or if that strengthens his position as an outsider / appreciant/ imitator.
Regardless, fantastic post. I'm a new fan of Will Oldham and greatly appreciate this take on his earlier work. |
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But I think this case is different from that. Will Oldham doesn't step up to the mic and announce, "I am Will Oldham and I have had sex with my sister, muthafuckas". No, he simply writes songs in a literary, artful way like a novelist or an actor would approach their craft. I would say that any strength or weakness comes only from Oldham's imagination and talent. If you take his words seriously and then are disappointed that he is not an actual Appalachian mountain man, well, that's not his fault. Speaking of actors, Will Oldham is one of those too. He was in a semi-famous recent indie flick called "Old Joy" and also a film called "Matewan" in 1987 - filmed when he was a teenager. He plays a young preacher and the setting is the true story of a coal miners' strike in the 1920s that turned violent. http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/4...hammatewan.jpg I haven't watched it yet although I've been meaning to for oh so long. My point is Oldham can act and that definitely comes across in his songs (and especially in his live shows). He appears very authentic no matter what he does. So, my next Oldham review is Viva Last Blues by Palace Music. This is an important album to me in a larger way than just in terms of the Squirrel Bait family. It is probably my favorite Oldham album and one of my all-time favorite albums as well. It was also the first Oldham album that I heard and I bought it randomly, never having heard of him. So that I don't have to take up my review space here is some personal backstory: 1995. I had a lot of free time and I was a regular at the local record store (Plan 9 in Richmond, VA). I had recently started buying vinyl because it was cheaper than CDs and I had a cool old record player and my dad's bigass 70s speakers. So I was looking through the 'new releases' section of records and came across Viva Last Blues. http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/3456/vivacover2.jpg I already liked the skinny leopard-man on the cover and the title so I turned it over and saw the Drag City logo and Steve Albini's name in the credits and immediately decided to buy it. I brought it home, put it on and fell in love with the first track even before Will's atonal, voice-cracking vocals started. Of course after they did I liked the album even more. Review coming soon. *Note: There is a glaring omission in my There is No-One... review. I left out a crucial credit and that goes to Paul Greenlaw who played banjo on the album. The banjo is an essential element of the album so I'm sorry about that, Paul. |
Palace Music - Viva Last Blues (1995)
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Tracks: 1. More Brother Rides 2. Viva Ultra 3. The Brute Choir 4. The Mountain Low 5. Tonight’s Decision (and Hereafter) 6. Work Hard / Play Hard 7. New Partner 8. Cat’s Blues 9. We All, Us Three, Will Ride 10. Old Jerusalem Credits: Liam Hayes – piano, organ Jason Lowenstein – drums, additional singing Ned Oldham – bass, slide guitar, additional singing Will Oldham – singing, guitar Bryan Rich – lead guitar Recorded by Steve Albini Released by Palace Records / Drag City Viva Last Blues is an ode to the working man and all of his pains and pleasures. Palace Music approaches music often with a full band and, as usual, Albini’s production results in a tight, full sounding rhythm section that pounds forward no matter how slowly. The band plays like a honky tonk band in a bar on a Friday night well after hours. They and their audience are so inebriated that all the off-kilter melodies and missed notes form a beautiful symphony. ‘More Brother Rides’ creeps in with a slow beat and ghostly piano and then gets up to speed in time for Will’s voice to enter subtly but surely like its holding it all together. He rhythmically and poetically mutters about life as a young working man who can’t wait for the weekend. His lyrics are as dense as Faulkner but they tell a simple story of the frustrations that come with living only for free time for more drinking and fucking. Lyrics aside, the song is hypnotizing like countrified psychedelic jazz crammed into a traditional song structure. They slow it down in the next song, ‘Viva Ultra’, showing us that Will has not given up his passion for slow, lo-fi country blues. ‘The Brute Choir’ picks the pace back up and drags the mood down lower. He is angry at himself for something he has done and isn’t in the mood to listen the church choir singing like everything is alright, damnit. ‘The Mountain Low’ is another highlight of the album. It’s a song about a young man who loves mountains almost as much as he loves women – and he loves mountains a lot. The music sounds like it’s for dancing some king of jig in a square dance. ‘Work Hard / Play Hard’ is played with the excitement and intensity that is felt on Friday night after you already spent half your paycheck on alcohol and that’s why you feel so sure that everything is going to be OK. The band reaches the height of its energy and every element of the band rocks while Will belts out his words with abandon. This song confirms that Will Oldham has soul. ‘New Partner’ is a veritable love song without any of the callous sexual imagery that is usually present. It really is a beautiful song. When I saw Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy play live this past June, the crowd went wild when this song started. ‘Cat’s Blues’ is another quick paced song that plods steadily as Will reaches some emotional highs and lows. The last two songs are sparse and feature only singing and acoustic guitar. They seem a bit out of place among the relatively rocking songs that preceded them but they still feel appropriate or at least natural like Saturday morning’s depressing hangover. Today, Will Oldham has a relatively polished sound having played his own music with so many different musicians for so long, but Viva Last Blues was the first glimpse into what Will could do with a full band while fully opening the throttle on his voice. It is the result of Will taking his dark mountain folk concept into the realm of rock-n-roll. The album is raw but made to stir the listener physically as well as emotionally and it succeeds. There were probably not a lot of truckers and miners at Palace Music shows in 1995 but if there were, I’m sure that everybody got roaring drunk and had a really good time. 9.8/10 |
Album that introduced me to Oldham, excellent.
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Okay, so you know how Eminem tells half-truths about his life all the time? And that makes it hard to know what's biographical and what's fiction--and we hate that. It does seem that BPB is intentionally fictional in his approach in this album: We're not supposed to take it as "true." But then there's this other issue: Is he exploiting / stereotyping / ridiculing a genre and type of musician here? "I ****ed my sister, I'm a backwoods hick" etc.
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But, no, I don't personally feel that Oldham is guilty of exploiting or stereotyping and certainly not of ridiculing anybody. In the end, I sense mostly love. Also, most of this discussion should only revolve around There Is No-One... because I think that album is his most raw, youthful work and I think that his lyrics have become increasingly personal ever since. |
Arise Therefore - Palace (1996)
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Tracks: 1. Stablemate 2. A Sucker’s Evening 3. Arise, Therefore 4. You Have Cum In Your Hair and Your Dick Is Hanging Out 5. Kid of Harith 6. The Sun Highlights the Lack in Each 7. No Gold Digger 8. Disorder 9. A Group of Women 10. Give Me Children 11. The Weaker Soldier Credits: David Grubbs – piano, organ Ned Oldham – bass, effected guitar, additional singing Will Oldham – singing, electric guitar Maya Tone – drums, percussion Recorded by Steve Albini Released by Drag City In this case you can judge the album by its cover. The stark, half-done line drawing of a riverside wooden mill sits below red block letters that read ARISE THEREFORE like a command or a warning. It suggests isolation amidst beauty, unfinished business and dark, bloody secrets. This album is full of those things. Musically this album is distinguished from other Oldham albums by the presence of Maya Tone, who is a drum machine that provides all of the percussion, and David Grubbs on the keys, always inching the songs towards avant garde jazz territory. But he never gets too far because Maya pounds forward with repetitive beats and Will’s brother Ned rounds out a typically pounding Albini-produced rhythm section. Sometimes the songs plod and sometimes they swing. It’s up to Maya. Will sings softly most of the time; usually full of remorse or disgust. The overall effect on the listener is hypnotic and somewhat creepy. Arise Therefore is bleak and disturbing but comfortable, like how a murderer might feel when things are, despite everything, generally going alright. This album is a move away from the rock-n-roll of Viva Last Blues and into a new territory where his characters are morose and guilty. ‘Stablemate’ opens the album with a scathing rebuke of a woman who is stupid and indifferent enough to not realize that he is leaving her – tonight. She just sleeps through it, the bitch. This is followed by a downright evil tune, ‘A Sucker’s Evening’. The sucker, in this case, is a strong man who messed with the wrong man (more likely with his woman). The protagonist and his friend have some horrifying plans for him. The mood lightens a bit on the next song, the title track, in which more dirty deeds are hinted at but the music and the mood are cheerful. You can dance around a bit to a song that may be about something gruesome. The next song is listed as ‘You Have Cum (…)’ on the cover but the full name is written in the insert as ‘you have cum in your hair and your dick is hanging out’. It seems to be a song about a sexual encounter that is secondary to a larger issue in the participants’ life. As usual it is sung from the point of view of a man who may have an Antisocial Personality Disorder. He says “if god could make me cry / I’d run along the water” while his mind seems to be on something more sinister. Maya Tone kicks it up several notches on ‘Kid of Harith’ by featuring a relatively fast and complex beat, complete with cymbal sounds. ‘The Sun Highlights the Lack In Each’ is as soulful as Will gets on this album. This version of soul just happens to include off-key yelps and high pitched moans; it’s still soulful as hell. Like all good American soul, it is about dark subject matter. Here, it is rumination on how being outdoors in the daytime with your friends makes it all the more clear to you what awful people they are. ‘No Gold Digger’ is a story told by a man who had some money stolen from him by a woman as she thought he slept. That bitch is dead now but the story has a happy ending. The dead girl is nothing like the one lying next to him tonight. He knows this one won’t steal from him. She’s no gold digger. ‘Disorder’ is not an admission of mental problems. Well, maybe it is but it is also a description of how this life can make sense. All things live and die and are renewed. There will always be a new woman to fuck and to fuck over. It is the natural rhythm of life. Despite the insane genius that I have just described, the album is not great because of the literary heights that Will Oldham reaches here. The greatness comes from the way the album sounds. It is sparse, cold, and loose but still envelopes you with emotion. Albini's production places all musical elements on equal footing and makes sure that each one sounds crisp and clear while Grubbs adds en existential element with his piano. Arise Therefore is an album about an earthly paradise. It is a place where the sinner can feel safe here and now. 9.6/10 |
A part of me doesn't want to stop the Will Oldham reviews - he's made so much great and varied music and I'd like to talk about it for a lot longer. But this is not his thread so I'll leave him alone for now. Anyone interested in learning more about any Will Oldham project can find incredibly detailed information at The Royal Stable which is a website dedicated to all things Will Oldham.
Next up: The Sea and Cake http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/189...dcakephoto.jpg The Sea and Cake are one of the most interesting of all 90s indie rock bands and they have continued to make relevant music with their rare combination of sincerity and talent. This is a group of highly skilled and trained musicians who could have had succesful careers in far more commercial music (from pop to classical) but instead chose to play in a rock band in Chicago back when indie still meant independent. They do their own thing. Their thing is laid-back, jazzy, lounge rock with a fast precise beat courtesy of the Squirrel Bait family's percussion genius, John McEntire. The band also includes the prodigous talents of Archer Prewitt (mainly guitar) and Sam Prekop (mainly vocals). This is another band in the Squirrel Bait family who deserve an entire historical analysis but here they will get 3 albums reviews: The Sea and Cake (1994) Nassau (1995) The Fawn (1997) |
The Sea and Cake (1994)
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Track List: 1. Jacking the Ball (3:50) 2. Polio (5:24) 3. Bring My Car I Feel to Smash It (4:25) 4. Flat Lay the Water (4:51) 5. Choice Blanket (5:10) 6. Culabra Cut (3:02) 7. Bombay (3:59) 8. Showboat Angel (4:37) 9. So Long to the Captain (5:04) 10. Lost in Autumn (4:37) Players: Sam Prekop – vocals, guitar Eric Claridge – bass John McEntire – drums Archer Prewitt – guitar Recorded by Brad Wood (also sax, percussion, organ, backing vocals) at Idful Music, Chicago in 1993 Released by Thrill Jockey in 1994 In the early-1990s many journalists and other cultural commentators often used the word “slacker” to describe people who were born within a certain parameter of years and they latched on to it as if it could be as descriptive as the term “hippie”. There was of course a contemporary backlash to the word because, as everybody with a brain could see, the word was far too vague and anecdotal to describe a generation or even particular members of one. It got worse when the term was applied to musicians and artists. After all, is it fair to describe anybody who has the motivation to create art as a slacker? The philistines didn’t bother to think about that and they went ahead and erroneously called bands like The Sea and Cake “Slacker Rock”. I suppose their justification was that they were hearing a stylistic looseness that was not previously popular even among the “alternative” acts. While The Sea and Cake certainly did make music that has a lazy swing, it was anything but slack. In fact, they were one of the tightest bands around. In the beginning, The Sea and Cake was a bunch of art students who also played music. Prekop, Claridge, (and producer Brad Wood) played together in Shrimp Boat while Prewitt was playing lounge music in The Coctails. They got together and recruited drum wunderkind McEntire to form one of my favorite bands of the whole mislabeled slacker era. I could be mistaken but I remember reading that the band got together to record their self titled album just for fun without clear intentions to continue making music together. But the result was too good to ignore so they never stopped. That may be a bit of mythology but I like it because it explains the pure joy that is expressed in their first album. Like all members of the Squirrel Bait family, they seemed to approach their music with nothing but the urge to create which I like to believe is a recipe for success and fulfillment. It won’t guarantee any financial rewards but, as everybody knows, music that is made for a paycheck is highly likely to suck. So The Sea and Cake simply went at it – and it was good. It’s difficult to describe the band on a less than holistic level because while each member’s contribution is essential, the overall result is something far bigger than each of them and it is the blend that is important. That’s not to say that each part of the whole is impossible or even imprudent to describe because all of these guys are quite talented. Prekop’s voice is the most instantly notable aspect and the most confounding. He does the usual melody-making that most singers do but somehow he always keeps a tight cap on the energy level and this is certainly the biggest reason that The Sea and Cake were called slackers. I hate to describe a singer with mentions of other singers but…Prekop sounds to me like Stephen Malkmus tempered by Lou Reed. That is, Prekop’s voice soars into falsetto and also descends into monotony but it always stays melodic and low-key like a proper lounge singer. I can’t tell if Prekop sets the energy level with his voice or if he matches the band but, in any case, his voice blends in perfectly and also stands out strongly. He switches between mumbling and soulful crooning throughout the album and unlike a lot of his 90s peers he also stays on key. Prekop also plays guitar next to Prewitt and together they form a precise but hazy backdrop to the vocals. The atmosphere is usually reminiscent of a smoky jazz lounge as the guitars use soft tones and plenty of arpeggios to relax your soul and provide a cushy retro sofa for your reclination. The combination of Prekop and Prewitt is an excellent one but the band would go nowhere without its rhythm section. Claridge and McEntire drive the songs forward with rare precision. The rhythms of this album are exhibit A of why anybody who ever called this band “slack” is ignorant. McEntire takes control of the steering wheel throughout the album and shows off a side of his playing that got lost in his other bands (Bastro, Gastr Del Sol, Tortoise). The Sea and Cake is where he gets to let his machine-like ability shine with jazzy, poppy beats. Here is where I'm tempted go into detail about each song on the album. I have done that before on this thread because I feel that the albums I am reviewing are valuable as whole albums and that each song is a significant part. The Sea and Cake is no different but the songs don’t need to be described singly because they flow together so evenly. It’s better just to say that the album has two poles; one is the upbeat pop of songs like 'Jacking the Ball' and 'Flat Lay the Water' and the other is the expansive almost traditional soulful jazz on songs like 'Culabra Cut' and 'Lost in Autumn'. The band wanders between the contrasts over the course of the album. Interestingly, the band members are also visual artists. Prewitt and Prekop are involved in the world of independent comics (Prewitt also worked for Marvel at one point) and Claridge is a successful painter (his painting of Charles Mingus is printed on the album insert). So The Sea and Cake is truly an art band. That’s not to say that their music sounds bizarre or experimental and, in fact, it is very accessible. The album was clearly made by skilled artists who like to color inside the lines. Slack my ass. 8.7/10 Jacking the Ball Flat Lay the Water Culabra Cut |
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But that is the most interesting piece of news that I've read in a long time - thanks. I wonder if any of his clients would be surprised to know that their lawyer was the bassist for Squirrel Bait and Bastro. If he was my lawyer I'd let him charge a premium for regaling me with stories of the old days |
Great review of the album. I must admit that I have only played the album a couple of times which needs to be rectified.
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The Sea and Cake - Nassau (1995)
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Track List: 1. Nature Boy 2. Parasol 3. A Man Who Never Sees A Pretty Girl That He Doesn’t Love Her A Little Bit 4. The World Is Against You 5. Lamonts Lament 6. Soft and Sleep 7. This Cantina 8. Earth Star 9. Alone, For The Moment 10. I Will Hold The Tea Bag Players: Sam Prekop – vocals, guitar Archer Prewitt – guitar, organ Eric Claridge – bass, piano John McEntire – percussion, EMS VCS3, organ, electric piano And occasionally: Poppy Brandes – cello Marnie Christensen – violin Recorded by John McEntire 1994 Released by Thrill Jockey 1995 I imagine that the 1990s Chicago music scene was good to The Sea and Cake. Independently produced and ill defined music was well loved so the band must have fit in nicely with the burgeoning independent rock and jazz scenes. Whatever the reason, the band stuck together and made a second album, Nassau. It was their first album that I heard and it holds a special spot in my brain. It’s an idyllic spot where I lounge on a beach and listen to truly interesting and pleasant music; paradise. Essentially the album expands on the ideas expressed on their debut; Lazy precision, drunken melodies and pure freedom. Here they have added more instrumentation on some of the songs and developed their sound in several directions. The pop songs are poppier and the experimental ones sound more like the math/post rock that was in vogue. In comparison to the previous album, Nassau delivers a deeper musical experience. The first one relaxes me but this one sinks me into the floor several inches. ‘Nature Boy’ opens the album with farfisa driven sounds of a 1960s California beach party. You can almost picture people doing the The Monkey. But then Prekop’s voice staggers in and clears your mind of the Beach Boys. He mumbles, moans, and makes lazy falsetto stabs. Energetic is not a term that I would use for any of his singing but he seems to have abandoned the lethargic, almost-spoken delivery of the previous album. Next is a pretty song called ‘Parasol’. Here we have string-enhanced choruses that are rich with melody. The deep low end and loungy guitars tossed in the mix provide a cushy atmosphere – here’s where you begin to sink into the sand. The album takes a drastic yet smooth turn on the next song which is an instrumental and essentially a long drum solo by McEntire. Not the traditional Keith Moon type, though. This is more like a simple song where the percussion takes center stage while simply providing the beat. This is The Sea and Cake’s first real post rock song. The percussion is pounding and repetitive, the bass forms an ephemeral melody and the guitars exist only for ambiance. But it’s more than that; it’s a showcase for Mr. McEntire. If this guy had existed as a drummer 40 years previous he would have done battle with Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. ‘The World Is Against You’ is a return to pop driven by Prekop’s low-key yet pleasant voice and Prewitt’s lounge background. This is a song for your first drinks of a sunny day on a Caribbean beach. ‘Lamonts Lament’ lets the guitars lead with a groovy arpeggio and a funky riff. This is more good-time rock. Prekop goes wild with some muted screeches that somehow remind me of Prince. ‘Soft and Sleep’ is a lullaby for those who are not ready to go to sleep just yet. Maybe one last drink around the campfire is in order and this is the song for it. If McEntire would slow the beat down it would instill rest but his forceful rhythm makes you want to keep going. He gets even more riled up on the next song, ‘The Cantina’ which feels like a parasailing rush. ‘Earth Star’ is some more instrumental post rock where McEntire really plays around with sound. It’s like he took lessons from Jim O’Rourke. ‘Alone, For the Moment’ is the true lullaby. Prekop is as breathy as ever and the guitars are as laid back, the drums even slow down to offer a break from the percussion onslaught. The album finishes up with ‘I Will Hold the Tea Bag’ which is open musical territory. It gives me the feeling that this is what happens when The Sea and Cake just jam. A defined song still comes out but it sounds improvised – like post rock dipped in avant-garde jazz. The longwinded ending of the song reminds of a mellowed-out Bastro move. Why do I love The Sea and Cake so much? I think it’s because albums like Nassau allow me to listen to easily digestible pop music and still indulge my taste for experimental songs. Nassau is where The Sea and Cake experiment with happy sounds. If I could take only one album with me to a deserted island, it wouldn’t be this one because I would already have all the sunshine, solitude and good vibes that I needed. If I could only take one album with me to a cold, dark place where I would need a lift – Nassau would be a contender. 8.9/10 Nature Boy A Man Who Never Sees A Pretty Girl That He Doesn’t Love Her A Little Bit |
I'm downloading "Nassau" as we speak. "A Man Who Never Sees A Pretty Girl That He Doesn’t Love Her A Little Bit" has some damn good drumming.
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