New Music: MV & EE with the Bummer Road, Dead Meadow, Leaves

I'm putting the finishing touches on my Top 60 of 06; expect it very shortly. For now though, back to the reviews.




MV & EE with the Bummer Road - Canned Happiness (mp3) - Green Blues (Ecstatic Peace 2006)


MV & EE with the Bummer Road – Green Blues / Ecstatic Peace

Maybe it's because I haven't truly explored the genre to a full extent, but whenever I have come across an album dubbed 'acid-folk,' the resulting experience has never really lived up to what the name seems to apply. Sure the instrumentation is a bit more colorful and the song structures a little more obtuse, but rarely does it sound like the aural equivalent of an LSD trip. MV & EE with the Bummer Road on the other hand, truly sound as if they are making a go at pure acid-folk with Green Blues, the follow-up to the much heralded Mother of Thousands double LP. The band, which comes off as a backwoods/hippie rendition of Sun Ra's Arkestra (especially with instrumentation described as "Frontier & Lunar Drum Environments"), is composed of New England freak-folk stalwarts including Matt Valentine, a former Tower Recordings guitarist, vocalists/multi-instrumentalist Erika Elder, and a "revolving/evolving auxiliary of men, women, dogs and stars," which notably includes Quakebasket's prolific Tim Barnes. Their backporch, cosmo-reaching brand of music takes cues from traditional folk, head-hanging blues and exotic raga that while very much accessible in some instances, remains otherworldly throughout. Released on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label, Green Blues compiles a hypnotic arrangement of sounds that are intriguing sober but may only be truly decipherable while turning on and mentally dropping out. Don't automatically assume this is some hippie nonsense though; if anything really, it's the result of too much hippie nonsense, the painful descent back to Earth perhaps. Lines like "you can't pay the rent with love" from Canned Happiness is certainly not the trippy idealism our long-haired forefathers became known for 40 years back.





Dead Meadow - Sleepy Silver Door (mp3) - Dead Meadow (Xemu 2006)


Dead Meadow – Dead Meadow / Xemu

Originally released in 1999 on Fugazi bassist Joe Lally’s Tolotta Records, Dead Meadow’s eponymous debut introduced the music world to their simmering combination of stoner, psychedelic and classic rock basted lovingly with the influences of Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath and Led Zepplin. Re-released through NYC’s Xemu records with a fresh mix and rejuvenated spirit, the first recordings of the then D.C. trio (now expanded to a quartet with drummer Mark Laughlin replaced by Stephen McCarty and the addition of Cory Shane) quickly established the group as a welcomed escape from the abrasive punk outbursts that riddle the nation’s capitol. With the help of warm analog recording, Dead Meadow’s enchanting and hypnotic sound stems from Jason Simon’s patiently psychedelic guitar and ever-present wa-wa pedal, Steve Kille’s crunchy bass lines and the prog-leaning drumming of Mark Laughlin which is then doused in a syrup of wistful fuzz and Tolkien fantasy and then puffed out of a hookah the size of your refrigerator. Primed for seedy lofts garnished with bongs, beanbag chairs and blacklight posters, Dead Meadow is more than just a promising debut, it’s a chronologically misplaced album that is pleasing almost a decade after it’s actual conception while still sounding like it was conjured more than 30 years ago.






Leaves - Ash Wednesday (mp3) - Live at The Ice Factory (FP Records 2006)


Leaves – Live at The Ice Factory / Fresh Produce (FP)

Not to be mistaken with the grungy Icelandic indie-rock group by the same name, Leaves is a collaboration of four Chicago jazz/improv musicians weaving their individual sounds into a warm, autumnal blend of modern creative jazz, post-bop and the ambitious post-rock Chicago has become known for in the past decade. The focus of this album, recorded live during two spring 06 performances at Chicago's The Ice Factory, is the interplay of Tyler Beach's amazingly toned electric guitar and Charles Gorcyski's balmy saxophone. Beach echoes the likes of Bill Frisell, a jazz guitarist renown for the individual style he brought to a typically redundant instrument as far as tone goes, as well as a more restrained Jeff Parker of Tortoise fame, while Gorcyski's alto seems to descend from the school of Lee Konitz. They continually tease and dare each other in many directions over the slyly subdued and melodic drumming of Charles Rumback, the grounding bass of Dan Thatcher and garnishing electronic textures. Live at The Ice Factory rarely finds the talented musicians in a particular groove, but instead, themes and moods continually ebb and flow from melodic bop to restrained skronks with blaring technical prowess. They craft a sound that could as easily blend into the background of an art gallery, soundtrack an early, grey Sunday morning or provide welcomed ambiance to any knowing establishment.