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Fluffy
Administrator
USA
10739 Posts |
 Posted - 04/20/2002 : 05:56:47 AM
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Well I waited and waited to see if this was brought up, and much to my surprise, it was not. What a great CD!! Think Tool meets Pink Floyd or better yet, psychedelic Tool. This things kicks major ass. Not as heavy as Tool but still just as interesting. The year it came out it was on my "best of the year" list. I have provided lots of info so you can get a good feel for it, but with all the major Tool fans on the board I am sure someone besides me will really dig it. Remember how I talked about Stone Gossards solo CD comparing to his Pearl Jam work? Same thing applies here. Please check it out and LMK what you guys think. Hopefully I will have been able to turn you onto an album that will give you as much listening pleasure as it has given me.
LUSK
Paul D'Amour - Chris Pitman
If Free Mars, the mystery-riddled debut album by Lusk, leaves you
teetering between bliss and bewilderment, you're not alone: even it's
creators admit to being caught off-guard by the album's careening blend of surrealism and sharply etched songcraft. "It's completely different than what I expected," shrugs Paul D'Amour. "I had hoped to do this psychadelic, fucked-up, lo-fi, edit loop madness, but it turned out to be a highly orchestrated pop record. I guess I've learned to let myself go wherever the music leads. The songs are already there, just waiting to be discovered and as a result this album sort of created itself." Having arrived at their otherwordly destination, D'Amour and his Lusk co-conspiritor Chris Pitman now invite the rest of us to follow along. Leadoff track and debut single "Backworlds" embodies the entire vibe of Free Mars: strikingly unconventional - but in am unforced, unplanned manner - "Backworlds" wraps its dark themes in disarmingly SILKY sonics. Juxtaposing Pitman's breathy vocals against D'Amour's soundscapes, "Backworlds" also features contributions from Brad Laner (Medicine) and Greg Edwards (Failure, Replicants). The playfully macabre "Backworlds"
video is co-directed by D'Amour and Len Burge. Amid the stately guitar jangle of "Gold" and anthemic "Mindray", Free Mars emphasizes velvety harmonics and pop infrastructures. But elsewhere, Pitman and D'Amour give vent to well-focused ferocity: the storming rhythm of "The Hotel Family Affair" foreshadows outbursts of guitar on "Kill The King." The diversity is purely intentional. "A lot of music today seems so monochrome," laments Pitman. "Everyone knows that feeling when you get when you hear one song and you've pretty much heard the entire album. We wanted to mix up all the sounds and make it a circus, with a bit of humor thrown in." With that in mind, Free Mars is peppered with classical instrumentation, including horns ("Savvy Kangaroos", "Gold"), harp ("Doctor", "Mindray"), and especially cello - which infuses more than half of the albums tracks, most notably "Free Mars" and "Undergarden." Moreover, D'Amour and Pitman eagerly employ just about any electronic gadgets they can get their hands on, be it Sandoz drenched vocals wired into Vox AC30 amps, or musty vintage gear (mellotrons, chamberlins and theremins are just the tip of the iceberg). "We torture guitars, use old effects pedals -all sorts of of stuff that most other people use a little more subtly than we do," admits D'Amour. "Subtlety is great, but sometimes it's nice to mix things up. We're mainly concerned with making each song a good song, and then you can beat it to a pulp: you can discombobulate all the sounds, but the underlying melody should be strong enough to come through all the racket." Ultimately, Free Mars is heavily influenced by the site of its genesis: The Alley, a notoriously freaky Los Angeles rehearsal studio. "It's where Fleetwood Mac, Crosby, Stills & Nash and all those 70s bands rehearsed," nods Pitman. "I swear, you could scrape resin off the walls." The Alley not only inspired Lusk's music, but the group's very name. "The whole place is filled with crazy posters and graffiti," laughs D'Amour. "There's even an entire wall with denim pants embroidered ontoit. We saw a poster of two stoic, politician-type people with 'Lusk' written underneath. We loved the word. It sounded kind of primordial, blending lust and musk and tusk. When we looked it up, we found it's a British term for an unemployed, lazy layabout. There's also a Swedish word spelled 'lusk' which means gypsy or vagabond."
The vagabond definition seems particularly appropriate; both
D'Amour and Pitman followed roundabout paths into their Lusk partnership. A native of the Pacific Northwest, D'Amour originally moved to Los Angeles to pursue a film industry career, but ended up making his mark in music. As co-founder of Tool, he helped create the group's massively successful 1992 debut Undertow, and after working on much of the material for Tool's sophomore album Aenima, he left the band shortly before recording sessions began. "I liked the physicality of Tool, and being in the band was an amazing experience," he explains. "But I was ready for something different
and that's why I decided to move on." After first meeting D'Amour via the Tool orbit, Kansas City-native Pitman became charter member of the Replicants with Greg Edwards. Later, D'Amour and Pitman played together in the Los Angeles experimental improvisational group Zaum (a Russian phrase for "transcendental language of the future"), before setting up shop at The Alley in early 1996. Eventually, the two gravitated toward a more cohesive studio aesthetic. "We took the skeletal songs from The Alley," says D'Amour, "and basically
overdubbed the shit out of them at my house. We fleshed out the ideas and mutilated them like crazy." The resulting Free Mars somehow manages to simultaneously combine jam-induced spontaneity with meticulous musicality. Look for Lusk to tour throughout the U.S. later in 1997 with D'Amour on guitar, Pitman doing vocals and accompanied by drummer, keyboard player, stand-up bassist and harpist (!). The unusual live instrumentation just seems better suited to conjuringthe off-kilter beauty which lies at the very core of Free Mars.
-=#=-
Live instrumentation:
Paul D'Amour - guitar
Chris Pitman - vocals
Chris Forrest - drums
Joe Kennedy - keyboards
Chris Wise - stand-up bass
Patti Hood - harp
Lusk
Free Mars
(Zoo)
I'll admit that I'm a sucker for nicely designed CD packaging. Back when I was in college, I wrote a column for a newspaper and would hand out awards (well, at least mentions) for my picks of the year in the design department. I've always been a very visual person and sometimes I feel slagged-off if an artist I enjoy releases a disc with shoddy packaging. On occassion, I've even bought a cheap CD that I hadn't heard, simply because it looked nice. Most people don't even know that at the Grammy awards every year, they actually give away an award for such a thing (and it's usually the only one that I'm interested in). The point I'm trying to get to is that the Free Mars album by Lusk was nominated in this category in 1998. While it didn't win, it still gave me an excuse to seek out the disc and check it out.
Fortunately for me, the packaging is not only nicely designed, but there is some catchy music on the disc as well. The group is made up of a duo of artists, as well as random contributors and creates sort of new-wave sounding pop songs with not only the standard guitar, bass and drums, but the addition of nicely layered keyboards, stringed instruments, horns, and other randomly placed odd instruments (shortwave radio, concert harp). Most of the songs have dual vocal parts and stretch out to longer than the standard radio fare without managing to get boring, and the hidden track on the disc of 3 guys running around a studio while trying to smash a spider (with nothing more than a drum machine as backing music) is very funny. It's an interesting listen overall, and quite pretty to look at.
MORE TO THE STORY:
Not a lot is known about GN'R's current keyboardist/programmer, Chris Pitman. In the early 90's, Chris was a member of a cover band, The Replicants. The idea stemmed from Tool's Undertow tour, where Failure was the opening band. After rehearsing without intent, Failure members Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards and Tool bassist Paul D'Amour decided on a purpose and added keyboardist Chris Pitman, forming the Replicants. What followed was a combination of influences ranging from David Bowie to Neil Young, resulting in a diverse album that covers a wide spectrum of rock n' roll. In 1995, The Replicants released their self-titled debut album, which was an entire album of covers. Later, D'Amour and Pitman played together in the Los Angeles experimental improvisational group, Zaum. Eventually they made it to The Alley, an old vintage studio, in early 1996 to lay down some tracks. Also in 1996, Chris Pitman is featured on the synthesizer on the Tool album, Ænima.
Eventually, D'Amour and Pitman came towards a more solid studio aesthetic. They took the songs they recorded at The Alley and basically re-constructed them. This reconstructed became the Lusk debut album, Free Mars, released in 1997. Later that year, Lusk toured throughout the U.S. with Pitman on vocals and D'Amour on guitar accompanied by Chris Forrest on drums, Joe Kennedy on keyboards, Chris Wise on bass, and Patti Hood on harp.
In 1999, Chris left Lusk to do engineering, writing, programming, and keyboards for the upcoming Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy. Chris also appeared at the two GN'R shows earlier this year and will support the upcoming tour. Chris is also listed in the credits of the 1999 GN'R album, Live Era '87-'93.
Discography
The Replicants – The Replicants (1995 Volcano)
Tool – Ænima (1996 Volcano)
Lusk – Free Mars (1997 Volcano)
Blinker the Star – August Everywhere (1999 Dreamworks)
HERE'S ONE where they keep comparing it to Matthew Sweet's Blue Sky album for some unknown reason. They reviewer obviously doesn't like it, but all the reasons he gives for not liking it are the reasons I like it. Like when he complains about them switching back and forth from minor to major. Why should that make it suck.
Free Mars
When compared with Blue Sky, Free Mars has a surprisingly similar sound, overall. Unfortunately, it doesn't attract the listener as well as Sweet does. Lusk's uniqueness seems to depend on the fact that its electric guitar stands out more than most similar bands. Lusk's singers sound like Paul McCartney wannabes. For some reason, the Benedictine monks come to mind more easily than Paul McCartney.
To their credit, though, only Lusk could come up with a song title like "Savvy Kangaroos." Unfortunately, the song switches from minor to major and back again too frequently; the listener gets so confused by the switch in keys, and therefore moods, that it becomes difficult to concentrate on the music itself. The song's most distinguishing characteristic seems to be the slides from one note to another within a word, somehow losing the listener somewhere along the way.
At least Lusk has some noticeable lyrics, once you can actually separate the lyrics from the muddled music. In "Gold," they declare, "Death deserves my window/I can't wait." More noticeable than Sweet's, at least.
The title song is the best on the album, and, not surprisingly, contains the least musical confusion. The lyrics throughout the song are contradictory, in an interesting way: "All of us will always be right here with you/You'll never reach the sun." Also recommended off this album is "Kill the King." The only salvation for this song is that it's more alternative, with less of an attempt to sound New Age.
And guess what Lusk does: they throw in a hidden track. Actually, it's listed as track twelve, but there is no track twelve. Blair's Spiders is an annoying, scratchy song with little musical tracking thrown onto the album about nineteen minutes into track eleven. I guess they figured, if it worked for Nirvana....
The music at the beginnings of most of the songs suggests that the image they're looking for is smoke and mist all over the room. If this is the case, however, the middles of these same songs does not maintain this image. This adds to the confusion of the entire album; just like any good story, a song should know what its ending will be from the beginning. Lusk's songs don't give that impression of foreknowledge. They seem too random from beginning to end.
If you're planning to buy a new album from Zoo, and you're looking for musical quality and variety, stick with the tried and true Matthew Sweet. Lusk needs to come out of its state of confusion.
I also found a place where you can buy it for $5 !!
http://www.rockbottomcds.com/bargainslo.html
Peace & Keep the Faith
Fluffy          |
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Fluffy
Administrator
USA
10739 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2002 : 06:02:45 AM
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Just so ya know, The Replicants covers CD is also alot of fun. Just a great pop album of covers by people you just wouldn't expect to be doing them. Check it out as well.
Peace & Keep the Faith
Fluffy |
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Jason
Chatterbox
194 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2002 : 11:18:29 AM
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I was almost interested, but you didn't give me enough info on the group........just kidding...I will have to check them out! Thanks Fluffy..once again above and beyond the call of duty.
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Captain Petersburgh
Yak Addict
Canada
779 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2002 : 3:20:13 PM
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neat.
i'm keepin' TIMe with my own set of keys.... |
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someguywithaguitar
Chatterbox
USA
122 Posts |
Posted - 04/21/2002 : 01:34:43 AM
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Hi Fluffy.
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Fluffy
Administrator
USA
10739 Posts |
Posted - 04/21/2002 : 05:32:05 AM
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Just trying to spread the "Good Music" and there are so many Tool fans here I was surprised it had never been mentioned. Hopefully some of you will dig it as much as me.
Peace & Keep the Faith
Fluffy |
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Fluffy
Administrator
USA
10739 Posts |
Posted - 06/17/2002 : 12:16:21 AM
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TTT for Kaleigh. I think I posted this before you were a member but I think you should really check them out. ENJOY!! LMK what you think.
Peace & Keep the Faith
Fluffy |
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Saint Jude
Alien Abductee
USA
2144 Posts |
Posted - 06/17/2002 : 12:25:45 AM
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looks like i have to head to my local record store to make a purchase.
- Without you, without you everything falls apart
Without you, it's not as much fun to pick up the pieces.
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Fluffy
Administrator
USA
10739 Posts |
Posted - 06/17/2002 : 7:38:48 PM
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LMK what you think St Jude. I think they are amazing. Very different from their other projects but quite amazing and interesting.
Peace & Keep the Faith
Fluffy |
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Captain Petersburgh
Yak Addict
Canada
779 Posts |
Posted - 06/17/2002 : 9:04:36 PM
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interestin'
i'm keepin' TIMe with my own set of keys.... |
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Fluffy
Administrator
USA
10739 Posts |
Posted - 06/19/2002 : 03:09:46 AM
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TTT not sure if Kaleigh has seen this one. I think she would be very interested in this.
Peace & Keep the Faith
Fluffy |
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revrendmaynard14
Chatterbox
USA
359 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2002 : 12:41:23 PM
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Wow, thanks Fluffy, I didn't think anyone had even notived I was gone, I feel special now, thanks for the e-mail, I will check them out and let ya know....thanks again
*~Kaleigh~* |
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Fluffy
Administrator
USA
10739 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2002 : 4:47:38 PM
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I think all of us regulars notice when other regulars are gone and we used to wonder why and send folks emails asking them where they were, but everyone always said the same thing, "I have just been busy." So now I think we just wait and see if they show back up after a little while and then when we haven't seen them in a VERY long TIMe we email to make sure everything is OK. My sister even noticed you had been posting alot and commented on it to me. Then you just kinda disappeared. Hope all is well and we see you back around more often when you have the TIMe. We missed ya!
Peace & Keep the Faith
Fluffy |
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dan p.
Alien Abductee
Uganda
3776 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2002 : 5:49:29 PM
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everytime i see TTT i think of the next lotr movie, "The Two Towers" which looks incredible.
get in the car, little girl. |
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enthuTIMsiast
Alien Abductee
6990 Posts |
Posted - 06/25/2002 : 12:02:07 AM
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Yeah, I used to email people. And I'm with you Fluffy...hearing "too busy" got old. Basically the way it worked was Fluffy emailed me when I wasn't here for a while, and I emailed everyone else (and maybe Fluffy did too). But I haven't been around for a while myself (which maybe no one noticed?  so I didn't notice you weren't here, Kaleigh. Sorry...
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I waited and waited but no LUSK!!
