Rode the bike on to the train again. Weather is nice today. Benched 185 again last night in sets of 10, 8, 6, 6.
Today, however, in a good mood this morning because of the news about the Screaming Trees!
I had read somewhere, a time ago, that they had shelved an entire album's worth of material but never thought it was true, nor that I'd ever hear it if it were. So, with a renewed enthusiasm for the band (whom I primarily save for Fall and Winter months -- there's something about listening to Sweet Oblivion and Dust while traveling to a pumpkin or apple farm that makes all the sense in the world), I decided to listen to some more obscure Trees tunes I've amassed over the years. I have been a fan since the 90s. I had acquired Sweet Oblivion in roughly 1995 and then, after seeing the band open for Oasis at Jones Beach in 1996 (and blowing them away, and then sitting right next to Gary Conner afterward) bought Dust and life has been fuller since then.
Here some autobiographical notes, thoughts and anecdotes will accompany the tracks I listened to today.
"Tomorrow's Dream" -- This was a song off the "Dollar Bill" single (the other is "Peace In the Valley"). "Dream" is a Black Sabbath tune and Lanegan has to match Ozzy's pitch. The music itself, while solid, isn't a whole lot different than Sab's other than the tempo may be upped a bit. Mark doesn't often sing so high and I think he had the ability to do back then (1992 -4?) because I reckon he hasn't yet smoked an Empire State Building's worth of cigarettes. He's got more than 15 years of smooth nicotine and tar in his throat now, and he still does great work, but I don't know if he could hit the notes in that key. Still, it's a great "garage band"-sounding cover. The entire 3-song single's concept is quite smart because the title track is truly a middle ground between both the metal and the folk/country covers. It exhibits the range this band possessed -- they truly were peaking at Dust (had another album followed it, I'm confident it would've been just as good, if not better) and this was a taste of things to come.
I think I bought that single in the little CD shop that had a short run in the Flea Market and that was roughly around 1996 or 7. Bought two Jon Spencer Blues Explosion albums there, too, and sold those.
"ESK," "Paperback Bible," "Watchpocket Blues" -- Sometime in '07 or '08 I hit the library and saw Ocean of Confusion. I didn't need it save for these three tracks, which were B-sides/unreleased. Elated, I burned them immediately.
There's certainly a difference in the tone b/w SO and Dust -- I think of SO as an 'earthy' album and the latter a more 'ethereal' -- and these tend to veer toward the former. They rock with a little more rawness and would've been the standouts of Sweet Oblivion, but then I can see how tunes like "Butterfly" would have been lost in the mix. I could even argue that they sound like the period b/w Uncle Anesthesia and SO, and I'd still veer toward SO. I tend to listen to these three in one felt swoop as they rock without being showy or overly heavy. The distortion is a little muted, as I can imagine you don't want to overpower your singer too much.
"Bed of Roses" -- Uncle Anesthesia had eluded me for years after becoming a Trees fan. I'm not entirely sure I had even seen what the album cover had looked like. In all the trips to music stores and used CD places I hadn't seen it in the flesh until I landed in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco in May 2007. It was toward the end of Liz and my California road trip and I was still suffering from allergies, but we would wind up at the greatest music store I'd ever been -- Amoeba Music Outlet.
I had bought music from them via ebay and they weren't originally on the agenda but we were on foot and walking through the district and there was a magnetic pull. I got this album, used, for 5 bucks. There were two copies. The only reason I wish I'd purchased the other is because the liner notes were stuck together. (I picked up the goods that day -- some of it really cheap -- got the Eric Clapton "Johnson" CD+DVD combo for 10 bucks, also.) This was a search mission, however, I'd been on for 10 years without really even knowing it.
The album, overall, is good. It demonstrates the maturity in sound from the prev. lo-fi efforts but there's some quality issues I have with it. Should it ever be remastered, I would probably pick it up b/c it sounds like the band is playing in a hollow apartment building floor. It's not the echo that irks me so much as the limitations of technology (and funding?). I don't "love" the album b/c I don't find the guitar riffs as challenging or interesting as the two later efforts. It's solid for what it is, but it's mostly glorified 4-chord stuff. Had I heard the Trees' catalogue chronologically I might feel different but it's pretty much the same way I feel about the Afghan Whigs regressing from Gentlemen, and I think that all stems from maturity (on their part and now mine) and production quality.
This song, however, might be the catchiest. This has Mark's voice confidently hovers above it all with slow, passionate lyrics. But he's not overpowering the band -- it's truly a complementary, gelling effort here. It's even got its pop influence here but in a Steve Miller sort of way.
I still buy almost everything Lanegan is associated with nowadays. He's got to be one of the most versatile musicians I've ever heard. It's not hard to find a song he's written that can mirror any mood you are in. I've seen him live as a Tree, a Gutter Twin, and with Isobel Campbell. Many have seen him as a Queen of the Stone Age.
As I approach Albany Street (the only light at which I need to stop, thankfully), I realize that Barrett Martin himself is on the Trees' facebook page and I had written a thank-you on the page as a comment. I wonder if he'd be willing to answer some q's for this blog.
This whole month has been on the bike. The days where I wasn't at work are like questions omitted from the SATs as they do not count against you. So this month I was 20-for-20. I'll cap it off with a lunch run.
Thank you for reading.
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