|
Many of these songs are woodshedding versions or works in progress that would later appear on Frederick's legendary Spiders in the Moonlight album, or on the seminal Have Moicy, long recognized by mainstream and underground critics alike as one of the classics of the '70s. You can hear studio versions of several of them on Rounder Records' retrospective I Make A Wish For A Potato. But there's something about the energy of a live performance that brings out the best in a band like the Clamtones, and that's abundantly evident here. The recording is remarkably high quality for one made in a bar 30 years ago, too. Frederick wrote most of the 28 songs on B.C., although some are by that other genius of off-kilter folk, Michael Hurley. Most of the songs are similar in type, wry parables and philosophical musings on mundane and banal everyday occurrences, or quirky and profane songs about equally quirky and profane characters. Like "Porky," about a guy who complains about a mooching neighbor, who retaliates by burning down Porky's house. Or the modern take on Jack and Jill in "Sweet Lucy." Or the woozy country of "Penile Malfunction," or the giddy playfulness of "Paraplegic Waltz": "Put your prosthesis in mine, let our limbs entwine, as we do the Paraplegic Waltz." The characters here resemble those in Steinbeck's Cannery Row, drinking, fighting and carrying on like the guy who cuts off his girlfriend's ear in "Jackknife," and the fellow who falls down and hits the back of his head on the bathtub because he sat on the toilet playing the guitar too long and his legs fell asleep, in |
"Toilet." In others, they adopt alley cats or mourn for dogs bitten by rattlesnakes, or get on buses and ask questions about the meaning of life in "What Made My Hamburger Disappear." The music spans the range of honkytonkand folk and rock, with elements of blues, jazz and Dixieland. Frederick's comically inflected baritone floats over the groove laid down by his own guitar, Remailly's fiddle and mandolin and Richard Tyler's piano, and Teddy Deane plays saxophones and flute, often in extended jams with the others. Remailly, Gross and bassist Reisch all provide harmony and sometimes lead vocals, but it's pretty much Frederick's show. And a wonderfully entertaining one it is. If you weren't lucky enough to catch these folks live back in the day, here's your chance; if you did, you can relive the moment with Clamtones B.C. |
---|---|---|
© Copyright 2007 Frederick Productions all rights reserved
|