Being a weeklie podcaste from Madison, Wisconsin featuring several remarkable curiosities therein occurring being a compendium of live music from divers artistes
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Show #168: The Treats
Sorry it's been so long since I've posted but I recently moved and life has been busy.
About a year ago I reviewed the sophomore album by local power trio The Treats. Shortly after that I attended the CD release party at the now-defunct King Club. Although it's taken some time, I have finally cajoled a live gig from the band.
As I noted at my reviews, The Treats start from a bluesy hard rock base but eventually find themselves meandering out of the garage to destinations of all sorts. It's a great mix and, despite this being an audience recording, the energy of their live performance manages to come through. The opener, "Better Things to Do" sounds like an Exile on Main Street outtake here with a bit of that Stones swagger and sway while "Cuchillo" and "Eve's Playground" are noisy and always threatening to career out of control. But that's rock'n'roll. And this will probably be the first time you've heard a Peter Gabriel/Mungo Jerry medley.
The performance this week was recorded at the Crystal Corner this past spring on 12 April.
Setlist:
Better Things to Do Second Hand Reserve Paint Your Blood Digging in the Dirt Swimming With Sharks Cuchillo Come Around Feral Ground Cut Me Straight to the Bone Chantilly Lace Gaberdine Eve's Playground EBGTG Ever Been Down Highway 61 Revisited I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Up at Slate today is a nice piece about the Hungarian composer György Ligeti called "Ligeti: A Sound Odyssey". Like most people who know of him, I learned of Ligeti via Stanley Kubrick who used many of the composer's works in his films, most notably in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Requiem, for Soprano and Mezzo Soprano solo, mixed Chorus and Orchestra is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music and is one of the most intense, visceral listens you will ever have. If you like the bits of Ligeti that are scattered across Kubrick's films, I highly recommend you listen to the pieces themselves. Aventures was altered for use in 2001 and its original form is a whole different animal. I would also suggest buying an album as opposed to just the individual pieces with which you may be familiar. By doing so, I came across more great music by Ligeti including Apparitions, String Quartet No. 1, and his Études pour piano.
For more on Ligeti, try the Braunarts website dedicated to the composer. (You'll need Shockwave installed.)
(Ligeti's La Grand Macabre in performance. Found here.)
Someone recently requested some more 70s progressive rock and, shortly after I received the comment, I inherited an old friend's Jethro Tull collection. This latter bit of luck has led to Tull's A Passion Play getting rather a lot of time in my CD player. The confluence of these events will be realized with this week's show – a live performance of APP.
Although the album was released in the UK on 13 July 1973 and in the States 10 days later, its genesis lay nearly a year previous, back in the summer of 1972. The band's tour in support of Thick as a Brick ended in July of that year. Come autumn, Tull were back in the States with a revamped setlist that included three new songs (four if you include a lone performance of "Only Solitaire" on 14 October). The new tunes were "Left Right", "Audition", and "No Rehearsal". Sometime around the end of the year, Ian Anderson retired to Switzerland to work on composing enough material for an entire album. With that being done, the band assembled at the Chateau d'Herouville outside of Paris to record the material. Problems with the recording equipment, problems with the food, and general homesickness halted the sessions with the backing tracks for three sides of a double album having been completed as well as the odd overdub/vocal. With all the trials and tribulations, Anderson nicknamed these the "Chateau d'Isaster" sessions.
These sessions seemed to have taken place in January/February 1973 as they performed just a few concerts during this time. March, however, saw them on the road and all over Europe. According to Tull's website, "With only seventeen days left before the American tour, Ian wrote new material and vastly restructured some of the 'Chateau d'Isaster' ideas and the band recorded the 45-minute album." This looks to have been a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. The American tour started the first week of May after two late April dates in London having been cancelled. Presumably the band recorded A Passion Play during the cruelest month.
Some of the tunes from the scrapped Paris sessions found a home on APP. "Tiger Toon" was transmogrified into "Prelude"; "Critique Oblique" was shortened but retained its name; "Post Last" was bifurcated with part of it ending up in "Best Friends" and the other in "Critique Oblique". While "No Rehearsal" didn't make it onto APP, it remained in the live set until August 1974. Also surviving the Chateau d'Isaster sessions were "Only Solitaire" and "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day", both of which surfaced on Tull's next album, WarChild. Most of the rest of the material from these sessions eventually saw the light of day on the 1992 set, Nightcap, which was a collection of unreleased songs.
Thematically, the pieces from Chateau d'Isaster often reflected Anderson's interest in the books of zoologist Desmond Morris which approached human beings with an eye towards our similarities with our ape kin. This notion was abandoned for APP but briefly returned on their next album with the song "Bungle in the Jungle".
Instead of hearing Anderson anthropomorphize, Tull fans heard in APP the bizarre story of one Ronnie Pilgrim who witnesses his own funeral before ending up in a very odd afterlife. Anderson's musings on "life and death", as he blithely described the album, were presented, like Thick as a Brick, as one continuous block of music. However, unlike its predecessor, APP lacks the recapitulations of musical themes and tacks a sea of minor keys. Live performances continued the theatrical bent of those from the previous tour with the addition of two films on a screen at the back of the stage. From the Ministry of Information, here is how the shows began:
Two giant silver masques hung high above the stage. The huge speakers were housed in large cages above the stage on either side. An enormous white movie screen was hovering above the rear of the stage.
Well before the show was due to start, as the audience took their seats 15-20 minutes beforehand, a white dot (spotlight) "about the size of a softball" was projected onto the screen, accompanied by subsonic pulse, so low as to be inaudible but slowly rising in pitch until noticeable at a low level. The dot gradually expanded, pulsing in time with the (still barely audible) "Lifebeat". When it filled the screen, it turned red, and was replaced by a photo of the dead ballerina in the album cover pose: lifeless, bleeding from the mouth.
As the Lifebeat built up, the audience were given a shock - the ballerina started to move… she pirouetted, accompanied by synthesiser 'swirls' (John Evan was on stage, but obscured by a black sheet). At the crescendo of the 'swirls', the ballerina suddenly hurled herself through the mirror, shattering the glass in slow motion, and ran through the other side, away into the music.
The interlude "The Story of the Hair Who Lost His Spectacles" featured a surreal six minute film which included scenes of a host of ballerinas plus actors in full animal costumes dancing around a maypole as well as acting out the story itself.
The show this week features A Passion Play in its entirety. It was recorded on 23 July 1973 at the Oakland Coliseum. It is nearly an hour and includes the full 8+ minutes of "Lifebeats" which features lots of chat by the taper and a companion. I know of no soundboard recordings from this tour nor any FM broadcasts so we are left only with audience recordings. This one is pretty good and was remastered by the folks at the Progressive Rock Remaster Project.
Setlist:
Lifebeats Prelude The Silver Cord Re-Assuring Tune Memory Bank Best Friends Critique Oblique Forest Dance #1 The Story of the Hare, Who Lost His Spectacles Forest Dance #2 The Foot of Our Stairs Overseer Overture Flight from Lucifer 10:08 from Paddington Magus Perde Epilogue
Although no shows from the APP tour were recorded professionally, many in the audiences captured footage with Super8 cameras. One particularly intrepid fan has assembled the amateur films to create the closest thing to a live performance of the album we have. The "Lifebeats" section is presented in all its glory with the light on the screen and the ballerina footage, though it's not as crisp and clear as we'd like. The viewer is also treated to Ian Anderson in his Mad Dog Fagin prime, hopping about in between bouts of flute, saxophone, and guitar playing. Plus there Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond leaping around the stage with his stylish Panama hat. Too bad John Evans' maniacal clown expressions are lost.
Ellas McDaniel, a.k.a. - Bo Diddley, passed away last month.
He's probably the only musician to have a beat named after him which Buddy Holly put to good use on "Not Fade Away". The Stones covered him as did Creedence Clearwater Revival. And Quicksilver Messenger Service made a career of doing his songs.
Born in Mississippi, his family moved to Chicago in the mid-1930s where he would study violin and then guitar. As a teen he played at the Maxwell Street market and eventually was signed to the legendary Chess Records where he recorded numerous songs that are now rock'n'roll classics.
"I'm a Man", "Bo Diddley", "You Can't Judge a Book By Its Cover", "Mona", "Who Do You Love" - the list of great Bo Diddley tunes goes on and on. Check out his Wikipedia entry for an extensive list of those who covered his songs and co-opted his famous beat. The Who, U2...You know the Bo Diddley beat even if you don't know you do.
Last weekend was the Senior Scenester Potluck over at Tenney Park. Someone had issued the threat of hazing to anyone under 30 who showed up and very few youngins who weren't the children of a SS made an appearance. Instead greying Madison musos and the fans that love them gathered on a beautiful Sunday evening to relive past glories and catch up with what everyone is doing today.
I moved to Madison in 1990 which means that I am not exactly a Senior Scenester. But I've been around long enough to have seen a few of the bands that were the object of the reminiscing on Sunday and heard of most of them. And although names may have been useless, I recognized a large section of the crowd by their faces. The Dulcinea was a teen back in the day and did some singing so she came in at the youthful end of the Scenester crowd. She knew several of the folks there and didn't miss her chance to schmooze with Gordon Ranney.
There was plenty of food, beer (after a brief trip to replace the first half barrel which was emptied quickly) and folks chatting about the bad old days when Killdozer and Tar Babies were center stage in the Madison hardcore music scene. Adam Powell has a nice write-up over at The Daily Page while there are more pictures to be had, including many of handbills featuring classic bands, up at Photobucket. I chatted with Steve Burke of The Gomers as he plowed through a 3-ring binder full of such handbills for Club DeWash (R.I.P.) and it was a hoot. One was plugging Uncle Tupelo's appearance there on 12 September 1992. Then there was one for the Dread Zeppelin show I saw there in '94. Biff stopped by and Steve pointed out a Pere Ubu show and Biff confirmed the obvious – he was there. There were lots of appearances by bands that would go on to some degree of fame such as Pavement and Smashing Pumpkins (both in one week, no less), but there were also countless shows by local bands of yore such as Pachinko, Tongue, Killdozer, Tar Babies, Appliances SFB, Cattle Prod, and on and on.
Plus there was live music. An abbreviated Tancho Tancho!, Art Paul Schlosser, Jonathan Zarov, and an incestuous Headpump/Drug-Induced Nightmare combo performed.
Although I missed Madison in the 1980s, the day still brought back a lot of memories – Tongue, Pachinko, Velveteen Snackcake, and Cup O'Joe. Speaking of Cup O'Joe, I worked with drummer Tim Kinzy and I see that he is now an assistant editor for Battlestar Galactica. I wonder if he cut his hair and stopped doing so much acid…
Last month came the announcement that a bunch of locals here in Madison have organized a new two-day music festival called the Forward Music Fest. It will feature a myriad of musicians including a healthy selection of Madison bands.
One of the headliners will be Bob Mould. Mould is perhaps best known for his work with the hardcore band Hüsker Dü from Minneapolis. The band broke up in 1988 and Mould began his solo career. In 1992 or thereabouts he formed Sugar with bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis which lasted for a few years before Mould went solo once again.
This past February he released his seventh solo album, District Line.
This Sunday is the Senior Scenester Potluck for aging members of the Madison music community. It will no doubt be fun for musos and fans alike.
In honor of this gala occasion, I present some classic Madison tunes from Tongue who were active from c. 1993-1999. These recordings were given to me by bassist Alex Fortney (he currently of Tancho Tancho!.) The show notes are his.
The Story
Shad (Williams) and Britt (Dichraff) asked me to play with them after their first bass player left to pursue other things. I happily joined their band. Our first practice was in a barn, our first van was nicknamed The Black Death and our first show was... I have no idea. The earliest I can remember was playing a house party with Creature Custard near the old Mifflin St. Coop. I remember it being really crowded, really loud and really fun.
We got a practice space on Bedford Street and started playing around. Like a million other bands we had big amps, big ideas and small interest in the business/busywork side of being a band. All in all I think we did the best we could. On the one hand we played a lot of cool shows and met a lot of cool people. On the other hand we had a lot of fights over too many bad habits and not enough hard work, not a few of which ended in tears.
The furthest we ever traveled for a show was Minneapolis. And for me the best show was one we played at the 7th St Entry. I remember it because when we hit the first note all together it was like my brain just washed out to sea. It was so loud, so on. We didn't have to look at each other to make a change, we'd just feel it coming and we'd go there together. Next thing you know it's over and people are saying really nice things about you. You don't know exactly what you just did but apparently it took about 45 minutes and sounded great.
That's what it was all about I guess, that release. I think that's what we wanted every time we played. Some nights we missed it completely, some nights we struck a glancing blow, but on those nights we really hit it, when we really let it all go, it was cool.
The Songs
Untitled Futehana Dogs w/ Alcoholic Owners State County Farm Jazz Dink Martini Machine Fields are in Line Clean Up Lyle Dick in Feathers Slowboat to China Delique Futehana Cowgirls Boom The Trolley
1-4 were recorded at the Green Room in 1994. It was an 8 track studio in the basement of the building that is now home to the high noon. The first song appeared on a Green Room compilation, the next 2-4 we put out as a cassette.
5-6 were recorded at Sleepless Nights in 1995 and were put out on a Big Money Inc. compilation called Workmans Comp. We tried to record a whole album at Sleepless Nights but the place just never worked for us.
7-16 were recorded at Coney Island Studios in 1998. We finally found a happy place in Wendy Schneider's basement (where Coney Island was at the time) and put these songs out as a CD called B. Spot: A Holiday in Reality.
