33 rebellions per minute
"Gonna go all around the town and check out all the sights"
1992
Maestro Subgum, LOST LOST LOST
"I met this guy; and he looked like he might have been a hat check clerk at an ice rink. Which, in fact, he
turned out to be. And I said: Oh boy. Right again"--- Laurie Anderson
I bought LOST LOST LOST because, well, I saw this record (vinyl--- 1992, the dark ages). The band's
name was Maestro Subgum. The instrument list had four vocalists, trombone, trumpet, flute, piano- Farfisa
(cheap garage-band organ)- Roland, percussion, cane, and _no guitars_ (this is before the swing revival, the
ska revival, or even Ben Folds Five; this is, everyone shudder on cue, grunge era!). The players were
named "Lefty Fizzle", "Mickey da Lip", "Sister Kate", "the Squirmin' German", "Red Ned the
Flame-Haired Messenger of Love". The song titles included pseudo-Godfather ("Early Nunnly", "That's
Some Serious", "mickey takes the wheel") and the generally odd ("Bamboo Guru", "Love Elevator",
"Lullaby From A Weird Place", "Prayers For The Undoing Of Spells"). I thought: I bet these guys are a
bunch of flakes who are having a fine old time pretending they're playing to Prohibition-era speakeasies, but
who, probably to the benefit of the music, do in a pinch know better.
Yep.
I'm aware of four bands/artists whose debuts strike me as not merely brilliant, but perfect. All but the
Sex Pistols' occured in 1992, and here's one of 'em. It's true that for strategic reasons, they probably
shouldn't have opened the album with "O You're A Dandy/ Stink", greeting newcomers with a skewed 5/4
piano line that's quickly joined by a trumpet in 4/4, then Jenny Magnus, a forceful singer even without
trying, doing her best opera-soprano imitation in apparent disregard of the whole _concept_ of time
signature. This turns to a barrelhouse-piano-led 4/4 as Jenny returns to her normal voice, but her normal
voice is just a bit flat (though once you're used to it, she's the one singer I know who makes this sound
good), then there's a waltz-time chorus, then a syncopated staccato 4/4 section ("you eat the world in
bite-size pieces/ and spit the bad bits out") that turns into a jittery, brassy overdrive where as the male/female
vocal duet accuses the song's addressee "You try to scream fire (fire), but even someone standing there
would never hear". I know now it's a terrific, exciting, even magical song; it's also intimidating at first.
On the other hand, it leads into "Bamboo Guru", which settles into prettiness and a devout tribute to
how "I live in a Sharper Image where my purchases are assured, and I listen at the newscast to each and
every word"; the drums are propulsive rock, but the song ends with soft cymbals and a person whistling.
Then "Love Elevator" is an attractive waltz (with energetic tambourines) by any standard, the vocals of
Sister Kate being an easily inherited taste, not an acquired one. "Early Nunnly", like "Rising Like Steam"
amd "Downtown" later, is a mid-tempo piano-and-harmonies stroll; the slow-building "Downtown" is
centered on the perfect '20's flapper-era motto "Because we do what we want, and we don't do what we
should", while "Rising" has the chipper chorus "It's terror, terror time!" and eventually turns into a soft
piano lament that's then taken up by the horns. "Rainy Day", re-emphasizing the horns, powered by creative
percussion textures, and using nearly choir-like vocal depth, is faster and more unpredictable, while
"Sooner Or Later" races by with Jerry Lee Lewis abandon. "Lullaby..." and "Prayers..." are unusual,
haunting vocal exercises, the former with dissonant-into-minor-key-theatrical piano, the latter a cappella
except for some tabla percussion. "Pony Tail" is smooth vaudeville. The dark percussive "Seven", when I
was taping this for my Belgian friend Stefaan, didn't fit the cassette and was perfectly apt, for length and
mood, at the end of Miranda Sex Garden's goth-experimental FAIRYTALES OF SLAVERY.
But "Seven" also works great on its own album, you know. The sheer unusualness of their lineup and
their 70-year-old approach, plus their care in working everyone into the mix as frequently as makes sense,
gives the album a unity, a Maestro Subgum feel, no matter who's singing what. The vibe is friendly even
when the words aren't, the music is attractive most of the time and interesting always, the four vocalists
each play intelligently to their own strengths, and the songs are excellent. And they have a gimmick. What
more could they need? Nothing! Especially not guitars.
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