Mutton Birds--The Brown Paper Bag series available again!!!

Well, here we are once again in a New Year.

I guess I've been a little overwhelmed lately but I'm glad to get back to my other job, jibber-jabbering about music, and whatever else crawls into my consciousness.

I went on the fab web site for New Zealand's Mutton Birds, A Religion of  a Kind and found to my surprise that the self-released CDs that were sold on their defunct web site store are now available again.

The discs are Too Hard Basket, a collection of B-sides, unreleased and alternate tracks, Angle of Entry a live acoustic set, and Live in Manchester, a live electric set. If you go to the website there is a link to Discogs where they are being sold.

I had the first 2 discs, which I purchased directly from the Mutton Birds website.

Too Hard Basket, as I said, is an odds and sods compilation--completists will want it most definitely. Some of the material I could do without, but there is a lot of  great stuff. Notably, their version of Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear the Reaper, which appeared in Peter Jackson's movie The Frighteners. Less cowbell, but a lot more of Don McGlashan's harmonium. But there is a lot more. Inbetween Man is a great number--for a split second you might think you were listening to a Martin Phillips/Chills tune. There is the simmering Zombieish He Turned Around (with Time of Season "ahs") and the torchy country rockin' Ballad of Kelvin. Three minutes is essentially a perfect 60's pop tune with great harmonies. Hard to believe it didn't make any of their albums. Ash Wednesday is another brilliant song, maybe the best song on the record, a song that had not been released before. So Long is also a great, more uptempo number. Face in the Paper and Answerphone are also very good. So basically I am saying the good songs greatly outweigh the so-so tunes. So all in all a worthy addition to the Mutton Birds canon.

Angle of Entry is a corker, Live at the 12 Bar Club in London. An acoustic set circa the release of Envy of Angels, probably the first album for the uninitiated listener to pick up. Great, great album. So, while there is a lot of Envy of Angels represented on the set list, there are also the old classics for the Kiwi expatriates in the audience to sing along to, like White Valiant, Dominion Road, and the great nostalgic I wish I was in "Wellington". I think even with the old songs, you have a road tested band playing an intimate setting. The there is a warmth and ease to the set that shines a different light on the earlier numbers. Really great disc--I've played it to death over the years.

Live in Manchester was a tough one for me to get. I procrastinated and procrastinated, and during this period the band stopped being a band, and Mutton Birds store became a historical, inactive shop. I had trouble finding the disc for sale anywhere, much less actually being able to buy it. This past year I got lucky and won an Ebay auction. Live in Manchester is an electric set, recorded around the time of their also highly recommended Rain, Speed and Steam album. Very glad I was able to get this, and this particular disc was autographed by 3 band members. Another great set. It includes classics like Winning Numbers, which is one of my favorite song of theirs, Pulled Along By Love, and Small Mercies. It also includes tracks from their first two albums and Envy of Angels.

I have no idea whether they whipped up a new batch of discs, or they were stock that has been sitting around for years. If you are an interested party, I wouldn't wait around on these.





It came to my attention that the Mutton Birds reunited last year and did some touring. For those of us who didn't make the shows, the band released a live album Free Range, commemorating the tour,which is readily available. I would definitely recommend A Religion of A Kind, the aforementioned fan site, which has loads of live mp3's and info about the band. I remember actually pinching myself when I got to see Don McGlashan briefly perform in Brooklyn a few years back at Big Takeover Magazine's 30th anniversary show. Seeing him sing Anchor Me left an indelible imprint on me. Who knows? Maybe the Mutton Birds might someday come tour in the US and Canada. It would definitely make me pretty happy.

The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer!----Part 69!!--Mutton Birds!!

The Best Way to Spread Christmas CHEER is singing loud for all to HEAR!

Mutton Birds---Envy of Angels

Post One Five Oh!!! The Mutton Birds' Envy Of Angels--Best Album You Never Heard

If you're on your high horse....

The Mutton Birds were one of the best bands you probably never heard of. I have to credit the Big Takeover for finding out about them. I'm surprised that I didn't know about them sooner being an avid collector of musical Kiwiania. Envy Of Angels is a superb mature pop album loaded with beautiful complex melodies and intelligent well crafted lyrics. The album was produced by the illustrious Hugh Jones and that only further adds a crisp bright texture to an already stellar set of songs. The music here is as good as anything Crowded House or the Go-Betweens did in their illustrious careers. The music business works in mysterious ways indeed. They are no secret in the Antipodes, better known in the European Union. In other places their music is treasured by select initiates.

The Mutton Birds never put out an album in America, though this album was released on EMI in Australia, and licensed in Europe to Virgin, big labels.

They never did a tour in the United States. The fact that Don McGlashan of the Mutton Birds was performing a short set at the Big Takeover's Anniversary party in July was one of the main motivators for me to haul down to Brooklyn for the show. Even though it was not a Mutton Birds reunion, it was really a long deferred personal thrill to see this great songwriter performing 20 feet away from me, strumming on acoustic guitar and demonstrating his prowess on the French Horn. When he broke into the euphoric ballad Anchor Me I definitely considered myself one lucky punk.

So why was America left off the Mutton Birds guest list? It probably was some quirk of the recording industry at the time. If I was to overanalyze, it might have to do with Terroir--maybe they were deemed too Kiwi to sell mass quantities here, in the same way that the great mid-period albums of The Kinks were deemed "too English" for the American market. But that's probably an overstatement which is probably true of their earlier albums, with literary songs like A Thing Well Made, or with a local flavor like Wellington or Dominion Road. Great songs, endearing to their countrymen, but maybe not the songs that would translate to a big global cash payout. But I think that with the right promotion, Envy of Angels would have sold well here.

If Crowded House was in steady rotation on MTV, you would think that they would have been scouring the North and South Islands for similar product.

In the final analysis, let me just say that Envy is one of the better pop albums of the 90's, with beautiful chiming guitars, sophisticated song structures with underlying complex and sometimes dark lyrics. Certainly some of the love songs are simply unparalleled. While You Sleep Sounds like a section from a chapter in a novel set to music. People have been composing songs like these since before we were writing things down, and he manages to put a new spin on things with evocative imagery, taking the personal and making it universal. I wish I wrote this.

While you sleep

Coiled up like a spring

I remember everything

from the first day

Summer flowers

Shimmering in the street

Plastic sandals on your feet in the doorway

You looked so hungry

You couldn't stand still

You made everything in the flat

Look so cheap

I showed you round

Forgetting when to breathe

And that's still the way I feel

When I watch you when you sleep.

While you sleep

The Earth revolves in Space

Ships and planes they race

Towards tomorrow.

You took the room

And pretty soon I knew

That we all would fly to you

Like little arrows.

Fancy dressers

Queens and jesters

Throwing glances your way.

In the street

Never worries me

Cause I'm the one that gets to be

Beside you when you sleep.

Once on a still grey, motorway day

We jumped the fence and we lay

Watching all the expensive people

Speeding away.

Just before the sun's up

The wallpaper lights up

And another car climbs the hill.

They will keep whatever plans I've made

They'll wait another day

When I will tell you things that now

I only tell you while you sleep.

Wow! In addition to Don McGlashan, the Mutton Birds are Ross Burge (drums), Alan Gregg (bass,vocals,keyboard) and David Long (guitar). Alan Gregg found the group Mushroom after The Mutton Birds disbanded. On Envy of Angels he also was the author of the irresistible classic Come Around, which is probably the most radio ready pop song on the album. One of the best songs on Envy.



Of course there is the aforementioned Anchor Me, half love ballad, half sea chantey. The whole song is effused with nautical imagery, and the impression is that the person Don McGlashan is singing about is at a distance. Another of my favorites here is Trouble With You, with a muted dark verses crescendoing into a sublime falsetto chorus. Also notable is the infectious kinetic April. Other standouts include She's Been Talking, which was released as a single, the strong opening number Straight To Your Head, and the titular dramatic closing song Envy of Angels.

If you are from New Zealand or Australia I'm probably preaching to the choir here. But if you like the bands aforementioned in this post, there is no reason why you shouldn't own and cherish this album. Ditto for their other albums, including Rain Steam & Speed, which is nearly as great as Envy of Angels. And Don McGlashan has a few nifty solo albums on Arch Hill Records. Some of the best songwriting of the 1990's is on this excellent Cd. This album is one of personal favorites and I could not recommend this more highly.

More On Big Takeover's 30th

Went back to Brookyln for more music on Saturday, the 2nd day of the BT fest. Missed the 1st 2 bands (would have liked to see Paul Collins), but caught most of the set of The Sharp Things, a large symphonic pop band, (think Zombies, Love). They were OK--I liked what they were trying to do and you really don't see a 10 piece band with violins, trumpet, & flute everyday. To be fair, it must be complicated to set up & coordinate such a big ensemble, so I think under other circumstances I would have liked them better

Even though a brief set, seeing Don McGlashan ex-Mutton Birds was an event I had been looking forward to for a long time. Envy of Angels, produced by Hugh Jones (who also produced Echo & the Bunnymen's Heaven Up Here!!), is one of the great kiwi albums, unfortunately never released in the US. I don't believe they ever toured here either. He really is a great songwriter, and played songs solo with acoustic guitar & french horn, and with a band of Jack Rabid on drums & the Posies/Big Star Jon Auer on bass. The set was entirely too short, but it was great that he came from New Zealand to join in the celebration. Got to here the poignant "while you sleep" live!

Jon Auer also performed a short set. Love the Posies. Could go on about Big Star for a month. Only 1 original member left now, Jody Stephens. Lost Alex Chilton in March and just recently Andy Hummel. Chris Bell died tragically more than 30 years ago. Anyway the Posies are simply terrific musicians with unbelievable harmonies who sort of fell off the radar after the first few albums. Some power pop purists seemed to scorn them because they alternatized & punked up their sound. I don't have any problem with bands evolving, so I think it is all rather silly. Creative people aren't going to sit still. Solar Sister is one of my favorite songs, & I had never seen the Posies before so I was looking forward to this.

Unfortunately, in between sets, people didn't seem get back to the stage in time, so he started playing to a handful of people. I made sure to get up near the stage, as it seemed a little weird for an act of this pedigree to be ignored. Thankfully it was not long before people came back inside to listen. He gave a solo set,  distinguished by a very dark self-deprecating humorous patter between songs. He played some things from his terrific solo album,  a song from their upcoming new album & a Chameleons cover. The vibe was very much like his birthday album, where he did a set in the living room of friends. Very enjoyable.

The penultimate band that evening was For Against, a power house of a band who performed live on this coast for the first time in 16 years. They went through a tight ascetically powerful set. Another one of the great american bands that I think a lot of people don't know about. That could be a catchphrase for a lot of the music in this festival. Jangly & dour at the same time, its very easy to think of REM & Joy Division stuck in a blender. Sometimes the interplay betweens the instruments gave off almost an aural strobe effect. The singer reminds me so much of lead singer in my college band (Tom), who was in ROTC and had to down to Camp LaJeune in SC. They really delivered the goods and I again was very happy that I came to Brooklyn.

Jack Rabid's band Springhouse played sets on both evenings. The first thing you would notice about this band is the pretty unique sounding guitar sound, maybe making the guitar sound almost organ like, swirling & full. It looked like an amped up acoustic guitar with vinyl strings. Another thing I noticed is the drumming, a very important part of this band. I don't claim to be an aficionado of drums, but even I notice things sometimes. He is a good creative drummer, not ostentatious, but switching things up and driving the music to better things. It makes a difference. I went to a blues festival in Jersey & the roteness and sameness of the percussion made the music so bland & boring. Contrast that with the jump blues of a Levon Helm & you can see what a difference creative drumming can make. I saw Calexico at Tarrytown Music Hall last year & was blown away by John Convertinos drumming/percussion & realized that he almost looks like he is playing on a childrens drum set. In high school I saw a local band & the drummer had like 80 drums & 102 cymbals in his set. To play the outer reaches of his drum set he would have had to get up & run to the end of his drum kit or maybe if he was part mutant spider he could have utilized what he had at hand. I remember seeing Elliot Smith backed by Quasi at Tramps in NY, with Janet Weiss pounding the holy hell out of the drums, making Baby Britain sound more like London Calling. Anyway digression is my middle name. What I'm trying to say is he helped keep things fresh & energized. I think I enjoyed the 2nd Springhouse set a little more, when they went with a four man combo and played Postcards from The Arctic in its entirety. Very nice indeed. They just put a new album out after being defunct for many years with one of those very interesting letterpress cardboard covers.

Of course the biggest stir was the final act--I've already heard what some people have said--that this set was one of the greatest rock performances they had ever seen. I could go along with this. The Mark Burgess Band, the former lead singer of the Chameleons with a white hot backing band. I thought it would just be Mark Burgess, but this was quite a capper to a great event. They played a long & ferocious, passionate, at times hypnotic set of Chameleons tunes. You would come along through droning psychedelic passages only to be catapulted into hyper aggressive in your face pounding driving bliss. Listening to Burgesses backup band I kept thinking about Nick Cave's birthday party for some reason. I recall someone referring to them more as a gang than a band & I got a little of that vibe here. And Mark Burgess really pulled out the stops himself, putting on a brilliant show, yet on another footing,he performed with a certain joy, knowing on another level that he was at a party, and was celebrating his heart out. What a set !!! I would definitely pay big bucks to see this lineup again!!! I only wish my friend Mr. Baseball had been there, who is a huge fan of the Chameleons and other British Neo-psychedelic bands. He would have freaked.

One more post on this for Sleepover Disaster & Libertines.