Signs of Life
So M and I finally had a chance to get up to Amoeba yesterday and purchase some new CDs. We had a looong list…it seems like there’s a lot of great new music out there all of a sudden. It’s been so long since we bought studio albums, and all of a sudden we have six new ones. So, for the next few days I’m going to review our new albums here…for my own entertainment, really, and to “keep my voice up” as Larry says. Plus, my GAT review was cut from Relix, so I should have some music writing out there, right?
Anyway. This first review has more of a personal slant than anything I’d usually publish, and I’m feeling a little rusty, but indulge me all the same.
Twinemen: Twinemen
Currently spinning in my CD player is the debut album from Twinemen – the two remaining men from Morphine (saxophonist Dana Colley and drummer Billy Conway) and Conway’s partner and local Cambridge vocalist Laurie Sargent. Having thought about it for a day or so, I find it impossible to evaluate this album on its own merits without both delving into history and revealing my personal biases (hence the “personal” caveat above…it’s hard to take this album at face value).
I love Morphine. I still remember where I was the first time I heard a Morphine song at Harvard, and the first album of theirs that I bought could have been subtitled “Soundtrack to My Thesis” senior year....
I loved writing about them for the Indy, even though I didn’t love their fourth album. I loved that they were local to Cambridge when I lived there after college. I loved how Eliot used to tell me when Dana would ride by Eliot’s house on his bike on the way to band practice and wave. I loved seeing them at the Middle East with Michael just before we moved out to California. And mostly, I loved their music for being an atmospheric combination of sex, humor, and jazz, that was – at its core – totally unique.
I’ve loved Morphine for a very long time, and thus I miss them as a band and I desperately miss Mark Sandman who died a few years ago in that crazy, inexplicable way of Rock Stars (drugs? hard living? just exhaustion? I’ve never heard…) and who I thought was probably the soul of the band.
I seem to have been, thankfully, wrong about that “soul of the band” thing.
It seems now – in looking back at Mark’s death and watching how Billy and Dana chose to handle the aftermath, and in listening to the two of them back in that familiar groove – that Morphine was one of those great bands where, despite the larger-than-life presence of an engaging and enigmatic frontman, the heart of the band was truly a function of the trio. After Sandman died, Colley and Conway formed “Orchestra Morphine” and toured for a bit in what became a lovely, extended elegy to their lost bandmate, and a cathartic and celebratory experience for them and their fans. Now four years later, they’re still together having formed another band, whose name (and cover art) is taken from silly drawings Sandman made. And as a fan, I love them all the more for not having jumped into a new band immediately, for not having “replaced” Sandman and gone on as Morphine lite, and for the respectful way they’ve always treated Mark and the music the three of them made together.
As a debut album, then, Twinemen is as strong a showing as you’d expect from musicians who have spent the better part of the past 15 years playing together. Their manifesto professes to “combine improvisation and organic soul chemistry with a deep respect for the song to create music that is difficult to describe, and yet resonates with a warm sense of familiarity,” and indeed, what’s so wonderful about this album is that this new music rings familiar but still invites repeated listens for its hidden intricacies. (Morphine always was headphone music, sans distracting angst or psychedelic leanings.) The songs are Morphine-esque in that sexy atmospheric way they’ve always had: Sargent’s voice is just smoky enough to enchant, Conway’s percussion is as sophisticated and layered as ever, and Colley’s bewitching tone reverberates throughout both the melody and the bass line. Colley, in particular, continues to be one of a handful of current jazz saxophonists who has really developed a distinctive style within the genre, and it’s wonderful to hear him as the centerpiece of a band again.
And finally, the songs are all good. Some songs (most notably “Harper and the Midget,” and “Signs of Life”) are very good, and one song – the lead track “Spinner” – is brilliant: immediately engaging and a perfect introduction to the band’s strengths and creativity. To me, “Spinner” feels like a gentle promise of more things good and great to come – melodies, albums, concerts, tours.... There were so many other choices Dana and Billy could have made as they continued to make their music, but as a fan, I’m delighted and impressed with what’s in my CD player right now.