SOUNDTRACK: CHRIS FORSYTH WITH GARCIA PEOPLES-Peoples Motel Band (2020).
This is a fantastic document of a band an an artist who are totally in sync with each other, making forty minutes of amazing jamming music. I saw this combination of artists in New York City on New Year’s Eve and the set was spectacular.
I absolutely could have (should have) gone to this show. It was recorded on September 14, 2019 at Johnny Brenda’s in Philly, a place I have been to many times. I can’t recall why I didn’t go to this one. But this document (while obviously shorter than the real set) is a great recording of the night.
Recorded September 14, 2019 before a packed and enthusiastic hometown crowd at Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia, Peoples Motel Band catches Chris Forsyth with Garcia Peoples (plus ubiquitous drummer Ryan Jewell) re-imagining songs from Forsyth’s last couple studio albums with improvisatory flair.
As is often the case with Forsyth shows, the gloves come off quickly and the players attack the material – much of it so well-manicured and cleanly produced in the studio – like a bunch of racoons let loose in a Philadelphia pretzel factory.
Recorded and mixed with clarity by Forsyth’s longtime studio collaborator, engineer/producer Jeff Zeigler, the record puts the listener right in the sweaty club, highlighted by an incredible side-long take of the chooglin’ title track from 2017’s Dreaming in The Non-Dream LP (note multiple climaxes eliciting wild shouts and ecstatic screams from the assembled).
The disc opens with “The Past Ain’t Passed” a kind of noodling warm-up with three guitarists all taking various solo pieces and it segues into the catchy riff of “Tomorrow Might as Well Be Today.” It’s a bright instrumental with a series of jamming solos all around a terrific riff.
Up next is “Mystic Mountain,” the only track with vocals. It has a classic rock vibe and Forsyth’s detached voice. The highlights of this nine-minute song are the riff and the soling.
The best part of the disc is the 20 minute epic “Dreaming in the Non-Dream.” The studio version of this song is terrific with Forsyth playing some stellar riffs as both lead and rhythm lines. But here with three lead guitarists Forsyth, Tom Malach and Danny Arakaki) the experimentation is phenomenal. But it’s Forsyth’s wailing solo at 18 minutes, when he is squeezing every noise he can out of his guitar, that is the peak of the song and the set.
Also playing: Peter Kerlin: bass guitar; Pat Gubler: organ/synthesizer and two drummers: Cesar Arakaki and Ryan Jewell.
This is a great release and I’m pretty happy to have gotten the vinyl of it..
[READ: September 1, 2020] “Serenade”
I started reading this and thought it was a short story (the title where it says “Personal History” was blocked). It seemed to be oddly written. Then when I got to the paragraph where he talks about writing Love in the Time of Cholera, I realized it was non-fiction.
He says that Love is based around his parents’ own love story. He had heard it so many times from both his mother and his father and he seemed to remember it in different ways, so that by the time he wrote the book he no longer knew what was the actual truth.
And what a fascinating and tangled story of love they shared. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: MARTHA WAINWRIGHT-I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too (2008).
I’ve been a fan of Loudon for years. I also rather enjoy Rufus. So why not check out Rufus’ sister Martha and see how she stacks up in the family canon. Actually, it’s not fair to compare because she is an entity all to herself. And indeed, I feel that she sounds nothing like her family (maybe a weeeeee bit like Rufus, but not really).