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| Meat and Drink to Me to hear the Clowns.... |
I'm listening to Ed Kuepper's post-Saints group right now, the Laughing Clowns. Cruel, But Fair, released in 2005 on Hot Records. It's taking me a while to navigate all three discs, basically the band's entire 5 year output. What a superb, one-of-a-kind band! The collection is a three disc circus of jazzy post-punk splendor.
Imagine a musician who as a member of the Saints, put out 3 of the best albums of the "punk era", and then put together a wildly innovative jazz-influenced post punk group dominated by horns and percussion! I mean, two amazing acts within a decade. Of course Kuepper has had a great run as a solo artist, and as the Aint's, his massively loud response to Chris Bailey's continued use of the Saints monicker. Listen to S.L.S.Q. (strictly limited sound quality!) and you'll see what I mean.
If you aren't familiar with the Saints, I would strongly recommend picking up the All Times Through Paradise box, or if you can find it the Raven Records release, Wild About You. Pretty essential music for music fans who like high-energy rock and roll. One of the greatest rock bands ever. Still have my fingers crossed, hoping they reunite again and do a few gigs in the American Northeast. They played some gigs in Australia fairly recently, but apparently they were one-offs.
But the Laughing Clowns, are quite a different animal altogether. The lineup must have raised the eyebrows of a few punters expecting music more in line with the old band. But this music is really just as brilliant and even more compromising than what he was doing before. The musicianship is first rate--and while Kuepper sings and writes the music, it is clearly a group creation, a great confluence of sonic ability.
I wouldn't call this Jazz-Rock, because there is a certain connotation to the term that would mislead you as to the nature of this music. If you view jazz music as a loose constructivist like me, yeah, you could call it that. If you view the genre narrowly, you can count it out. There are just too many sharp edges here. There are those fans that would inadvertently put jazz in mothballs, fill it with formaldehyde or stuff and mount it like a exercise in taxidermy. But everything evolves as long as people keep being creative. Probably the best way to look at it is, who cares? Maybe you could call it Jazziness, as defined like the new word coined by Steven Colbert, "truthiness.".
Certainly I think the songs are structured as rock/pop songs. There is not lot of lengthy improvisation; the instrumentation is different, dominated by drums and brass, the guitar downplayed a bit. Jeffery Wegener, the Laughing Clowns drummer is simply great, making everybody around him better. When all is said and done, these are Ed Kuepper songs. They could have been done with pedal steel and fiddles (well, sure there actually is banjo and violin in spots) in a a country western style and been good; instead the songs were infused with jazz rhythms, breaks and riffs, complex and evolving. Actually the Laughing Clowns remind me a little of the fake soundtrack work of John Zorn like Spillane and The Big Gundown, or his group Naked City, but with vocals. Or maybe John Lurie's Lounge Lizards.
The music is consistently exciting and challenging on all three discs in this collection. I was waiting for a bit of a let down or a drop in quality on this, but it never actually happened. And making music like this can't be easy at all. I can see how somebody could create a horrendous imitation of this. I've seen this selling for a lot of money used, but I just saw that the label Hot Records is still kicking, and they are selling it for 17 quid on their website. Well worth the expense. For a cheaper taste there is the History of Rock compilation that is also out there too.
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