| CD REVIEW The Morlocks |
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Band : The Morlocks Originally released in 1985, Emerge was The Morlocks's debut mini-LP, a San Diego based band which first started performing together in August 1984, and took their name from the underground dwellers in H.P. Wells' Time Machine story. Soon after, core members Tom Clarke (guitar), Jeff Lucas (bass), and Mark Mullen (drums) were able to entice former Gravedigger Five members Leighton Koizumi (vocals) and Ted Friedman (guitar) into their fold. The new line-up did their debut performance that September, and the same night they got two recording offers. Opting, after deliberation, for the New York City based Midnight Records, the band recorded the 8 songs for Emerge that same December, with a borrowed set of shashed instruments destroyed at a show in San Francisco two days earlier by the band The Tell-Tale Heart. Producer of the album was one Jordan Tarlow (alias for Nadroj Wolrat, who would later join The Fuzztones). After the album's release in Spring 1985, the band moved to San Fransisco. The band's 1988 sophomore album Submerged Alive (featuring a 1986 live recording which was treated labourously in the studio for audience noise, thus prompting many's opinions of it being a "fake "live recording), was released through Epitaph. By Summer 1987 however, the band had started to fall apart, with Lucas being the first to leave just prior to a support gig for The Cult. The rest of the band apparently held together long enough to record a handful of songs which were then posthumously released on two 7-inches (1989's She's My Fix/ You Must Not Be Seen As I Am on Earache and Under The Wheel/ Hurrican A'Comming on Iloki). In 1991, a live LP was released with the title Wake Me When I'm Dead on Craotian label Listen Loudest. In 1997 followed the officially released live CD (material provided by Friedman) Uglier Than You'll Ever Be, issuedon the Voxx label. In 1999 Spin Magazine wrongly announced that Koizumi had died from an heroin overdose shortly after being released from a jail sentence...while in fact it would turn out to be that he had reformed The Morlocks with a line-up including guitarist/ backing singer Bobby Bones, guitarist Lenny Pops (which have since apparently been replaced by Johnny and Jake), bassist Nick "The Canadian", and drummer Marky (might just be the original guy)...and was touring in the Los Angeles area. In addition to playing the old songs, the band was also performing newly written material, and somewhere in 2006 Koizumi rumoured the possibility of a live album to be released in the future. These rumours seem to hav substanciated themselves, as Wikipedia reports the existance of a 2008 album on Go Down Records titled Easy Listening For The Underachiever (actually, it's been available from the band before since Oct. 2006). On the European continent, physical proof of the band's resurgeance came with the re-issue of the band's debut mini-LP on Italian label Area Pirata. From May 28 through July 4, the band then undertook a European tour which would see them play (7) shows in France, Spain (9) and Portugal (2), Italy (7), Germany (5) and a final one in London. The albums now also being distributed in the rest of Europe, you can imagine reviews already being available on the Internet, and a somewhat common comparison used for The Morlocks weems to be vintage The Stooges...a discription which I find to be somewhat lacking in imagination, as The Morlocks are more than just that, in fact taking influences from mid to late '60s British Pop, Blues, Soul, Folk, and Psychedelica. Bands like Kinks, Chocolate Watch Band, Yardbirds, the wonderful The Troggs and some experimental (stress on the "mental" aspect) and Freakbeat stuff! The fact that the guys used somewhat smashed instruments gave the sound a little something which makes it quite late '60 vintage indeed, but if one thing becomes immediately evident in comparison with The Stooges (who, and that's a known fact, hardly knew how to play when théy debuted), it's that thése guys sure knew how to play their instruments at the time of recording their first album. To make your acqaintance with the band's music, visit their website themorlocks.net (several videos available), or myspace.com/themorlocks (where you'll find several studio tracks, but only "By My Side" isoff this album...better sound, but still sounding quite "vintage"). The lead singer has a somewhat hoarse voice which is not without some charm. On Emerge though, he also displayed a certain degree of...shall we call it "psychedelic nuttiness", which doesn't quite come trough on the newer songs posted at MySpace. Nice stuff if you're into the whole retro sound thing, and when listening to the album, you'll have some moments when you'll turn your head, questioning whether the band's not covering someone else's material (check album opener "By My Side" and "Born Loser"). One negative point: due to the fact that there's only 8 tracks of relative short length (between 1:59 and 3:14), you get only just uneder 20 minutes worth of listening time with this album. On the positive side...you can listen to the album thrice in one hour! It's rumoured that more old material by this band is scheduled for re-release in the future, which I am actually looking forward to hear/ review...but really I'm looking forward most anticipatingly to a new studio full-length! Next up, apparently, the band will be putting in a series of shows in China during November!!! 86/100 Tony. |