40,000 Tons of Devotion---Message To Garcia--Visqueen and the Unsinkable Rachel Flotard

Picking Up The Pieces Without Taking Them

I wrote a little bit about Seattle's Visqueen in an earlier post, Rachel Flotard's terrific band. I saw them perform at the Bell House in Brooklyn earlier this year at the 30th Anniversary blowout for The Big Takeover Magazine. Visqueen is one of my favorite newer bands and their presence on the showcase was a big incentive for me to take the trek South. I have to say that I fully expected a good performance. I'm happy to say that they exceeded all my expectations. I had wondered how the new band lineup would be live, and I learned first hand that they were smoking hot! Though I had never seen them before, I thought they really brought their A-game that night. Rachel was a complete firestorm, hopping up and down, bashing out one power chord after another in her mighty flip-flops. The whole band was equally energetic. Cristina Bautista, the new bass player did a great job, as did Cellist Barb Hunter. Long time drummer Ben Hooker was his superb self as you would expect. Tom Cummings, Visqueen's other guitarist was not there that night. My lone regret was that the set could have been longer, but realistically, there were many worthy bands coming to bat that night.

But what bugs me is that these guys remain relatively unheralded. Rachel is an undercover rock star that more of the world needs to know about. There is so much crap being trumpeted as art these days that great bands fly under the radar. Commercial radio is so bad, such a far cry from what it should be. These days it seems that it is basically the final product of contractual negotiations between monopoly corporations. The same stuff gets foisted on consumers ad nauseum--you might think radio executives recruit directly from Abu Gharaib. Pandering vs Art. There is almost a two or three tiered music business today and they don't seem to have much in common. Getting a contract with Anti, Merge, or Subpop has become a more valid career move than signing to a major label for many bands. It probably would insure a much longer recording career.

Message To Visqueen is simply wonderful, moving, passionate art, an album with great lyrical depth and musical diversity. I would highly recommend her other albums King Me and Sunset On Dateland. Those albums are full of punked out harmoniously memorable songs. All the Buzzcocks, Cheap Trick, Fastbacks comparisons are valid. But I feel like Col. Tom Parker when I try to describe this. She rocks out hard, but she does not sound like she is trying to simply follow in footsteps of The Who or some other macho band. She brings it with visceral energy, but as a woman, without being girly. Though certainly there are other worthy groups, I think that this puts Visqueen in rare company. But Message To Garcia builds on the strengths of their first two albums and expands outward, with more subtlety and new musical directions. And of course there is a tremendous outpouring of emotion here--the album is raw and confessional, packing a punch that goes beyond any volume adjustment. Non-generic music for the non-generic music fan.

Quite to my surprise, my favorite here is the country tinged ballad So Long. Cello and Piano instrumentation here, plus a pedal steel cameo by Jon Rauhouse. Though there are mostly uptempo songs on this album I think that this is really the cd where really she demonstrates her vocal chops. I consider Message To Garcia to be her crooners album, similar to Jeff Tweedy on Sky Blue Sky. So Long is certainly a good example of this. She succeeds in a completely new direction. It shows what the band and Rachel are capable of, and I hope they continue trying new things.

Here's Visqueen at Rabid in the Kennel...



All the songs are good on this album. So I'll make note of a few here. Summer Snow is a great uptempo number with great cello guitar interplay with a surprising Burt Bacharach flugelhorn interlude. Barb Hunter's cello is an integral part of this albums sound. Fight for Love is an irrepressible tune replete with a full on classic greasy guitar solo. When I hear Rachel sing on this song, I think in essence it epitomizes her indomitable spirit, her determination to keep battling. And since she has been through so much in the last few years, you can't help but root for her success. The recent loss of her father who she took care through a long illness (the album is dedicated to him), vision problems, dealing with the crappy music business, a rotating cast of bass players, and she perseveres. And she gives so much of herself on this record.

The Capitol is another great track a song that fiercely offers up relationship advice. On this song she channels her inner Janis Joplin. My second favorite song has to be the poppy joyous song Ward with the burbling synth ostinatos. Equally great is Tall Grass and the wistful ballad Forgive Me. "Run into you, once in a while."

Polishing What Was Inside

As I've said before, and don't mind repeating, if one of my nieces told me that they wanted to form a band, I would give them a Visqueen album without hesitation to help guide them with a strong musical role model. Consider this: Kim Warnick left her band of 20 years, The Fastbacks, to be part of Visqueen. And Neko Case sings backup vocals on 5 songs on Message To Garcia. Christmas is coming soon, and Visqueen would be a nice gift for any audiophile, or a musical grinch in need of a sonic intervention.