Let’s face it. We love live music. For many of us, live music is the nectar that nourishes the soul. And live improvisational music? Less like nectar, more like crack. Live music is more popular and more accessible than ever before. Whether trading tapes, downloading .shn’s from someone’s server, or purchasing a commercially produced CD, live recordings are in high demand. And for a band like Skydog Gypsy, whose fanbase arose from their live playing, the decision to release a live CD is often a natural one.
You Should Have Brought Your..., Skydog’s double-disc sophomore effort, is a collection of ten live tracks recorded over roughly six months from late 2001 to early 2002. Realizing their fans’ constant and rabid demands for the band’s best sounding live recordings, Skydog enlisted friend Pat Hutchinson to record and remaster a series of shows. Recording each show digitally, direct to his hard drive, Pat was able to work his magic using a wide variety of studio software. The result is crystal clarity and full-bodied sonics aptly reproducing the intensity and impressiveness of hearing the band live.
When asked about the album’s selections, bassist Aaron Goldberg states, “When we first decided to do the live album, we came up with a list of songs we wanted to include. We picked songs that could represent a setlist of sorts, to recreate the experience of being at a Skydog show.” As such, the album is mostly successful. The only limiting factor to the total recreation of the live Skydog experience lies in the variations in acoustic environments between tracks (as well, the album can’t reproduce the band’s fascinating intelligent light show). Listeners are presented with a generous and representative sampling of some of Skydog’s finest original tunes.
The first disc features four tracks, two of which (“Get On the Bus,” “Orion’s Belt”) come from Skydog Gypsy’s now legendary 9-29-01 Georgia Theater show. “Bus” leads off the first disc and serves as a bold testament to the band’s jam chops, as well as Pat’s ability to make a great recording sound that much better. Whereas Josh’s keys, especially piano, tend to sound slightly muted or distant on the “bootleg” recording of the show, Pat brings the keyman clearly forward. This remastered “Bus” has Josh practically hovering above the band, slyly dipping in and out of the prodigious jam (much like when witnessed live). Check out my review of the show in the JamBase HeadsUp Archives.
“Shape” and “Kierkegaard” fill the first discs even-track slots (Tracks 2 and 4). “Shape” is a wonderfully jazzy number that witnesses some of guitarist Dean Tovey’s most palpably soulful six-string musings. Finishing off the first disc, “Kierkegaard” reintensifies the listening experience, simultaneously bombarding the senses with Skydog’s collective charisma and individual mettle. By the time the first disc ends, you’ll be scrambling to pop the second one in.
Six of the album’s ten selections come from Birmingham, Alabama’s Zydeco bar. Immediately noticeable on these tracks is a prodigious bass boost, giving the tracks a very heavy, thick feel. The bass envelops the listener, accurately representing the subharmonic pounding evident during recording. Why so much thump? “Aaron [Goldberg] had a new bass, and he was trying out all sorts of crazy fills and tweaked lines,” explains Skydog’s sound engineer, Jeremy Ritchie. “At first, we boosted the bass in the mix just for laughs, but it sounded awesome.” Indeed. Listen to any of the Zydeco selections on a well-fortified stereo at full volume (the larger the subwoofer, the better). If the bass doesn’t bruise your kidneys, it ain’t loud enough.
Take the third and fourth tracks from disc two, “Intro” and “Synovus.” Bass rumbles from subsonic nether worlds, drum rolls encircle, and a conglomeration of howls and screeches swarm around the listener. As the chaos of the “Intro” dissipates and congeals into the funknasty bass vamp and cryptic cricket-chirps of “Synovus,” listeners hear why this is one of Skydog’s most popular tunes.
But subsonic bombardment is only part of the Zydeco story. “We had twelve shows to pull songs from,” states guitarist, Dean. “We found that the Zydeco show contained the best recorded versions of a lot of those songs we knew we wanted on the album.”
Rounding out the second disc, the final two tracks represent a couple of Skydog’s older tunes. “Peak” is, in my opinion, the best track on the album and really shows the extent to which the band has grown over the past few months. Opening softly with a dreamy quality, the tune quickly builds into a groove machine running wide open. Dean shines with frenetic forays into the funk abyss as the rest of the band carries the churning kinetic momentum behind him. Near the eight-minute mark, the boys kick into high gear with a blistering space-funk jam worthy of a thousand listens. “Peak” works its way back to familiar territory, drops the listener off at the terminal, and zooms back off into the cosmos.
“Captain” picks up for the final jaunt, cruising for a healthy seventeen minutes. Aptly chosen as the album’s closer, “Captain” sails pristine seas on the tradewinds of Skydog’s limitless improvisational abilities, and quite literally takes the listener home.
You Should Have Brought Your... compiles over two hours of live Skydog Gypsy mayhem. The album’s two discs present listeners with an accurate representation of the intrinsic adroitness of the band’s musicianship as well as the magical essence of a live Skydog show. The only thing missing is the band’s hypnotic intelligent light ensemble. Of course, the only way to witness the total Skydog Gypsy package is to see ‘em live for yourself. But in the meantime, stop by the band’s Web site (www.SkydogGypsy.com) and buy a copy of You Should Have Brought Your... It will prime your psyche and lube your soul, and you’ll be jonesin’ for the brain scramble in no time.
Rick Beatty
JamBase Alabama Correspondent
Go See Live Music!
|
