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Happy accidents
The Twinemen grow out of Hi-n-Dry and invite Caged Heat along for the ride
BY BRETT MILANO

As the Band observed a long time ago, life is a carnival. On their new Sideshow (Hi-n-Dry), the Twinemen up the ante a bit. To them, life’s a circus populated by eccentric types, where people stay out too late, music plays all the time, and impulsive relationships are likely to start up. In other words, it’s a place a lot of us call home.

The semi-thematic Sideshow is the Twinemen’s sophomore disc, but it’s the one where the core trio of singer/guitarist Laurie Sargent, saxophonist Dana Colley, and drummer Billy Conway find their footing. That’s not just because the band have come up with a collective sound that doesn’t simply cross echoes of Morphine with Sargent’s solo career. It’s also in the sense of renewal that’s evident throughout the disc — there’s a sense of new ideas being tried out and stylistic boundaries being tested. And a lot of neat new sounds being made, whether it’s the electronic treatments applied throughout or the low sultry edge that’s crept into Sargent’s singing.

"The band started as an accident, and it continues to be one," notes Sargent over the phone from the tour van in South Carolina. In fact, the band members’ friendship has as much to do with their getting together as anything else. (Sargent and Conway are also a romantic couple.) Sargent was one of the guest singers who got pulled in to front Orchestra Morphine in the wake of Mark Sandman’s death in 2000. As the guest singer who sounded the least like Sandman, she was probably the most logical choice to front a new full-time band. But that choice was never formally made — rather, Conway and Colley came in to play on a solo album Sargent was making, and the chemistry worked well enough to justify the new format. (So far, three players have held down the bass slot: Andrew Mazzone is now a practicing lawyer, and Stuart Kimball got hired away by Bob Dylan — "I can’t believe he’d leave us for some little folk singer," Sargent jokes. Jeremy Curtis is now touring with the band.)

"We became a band because we had made a record," Conway notes. "The personalities jelled; we became part of each other. So it sounds mildly familiar, but it’s a new conversation with different characters." And though the grouping was accidental, Conway notes that Sargent’s presence has kept them out of any post-Morphine syndrome. "A male singer would be bound to come under scrutiny — some people would love a male singer if he sounded just like Mark; other people would hate him for sounding too much like Mark. So yeah, a female perspective gives it a different twist." As does Sargent’s more straightforward singer-songwriter background (she fronted the Boston rock band Face to Face before going solo): "Dana and I come from a more improvisational background, and in Morphine, Sandman would bring in songs based on improvisations we’d been working on. As a songwriter, Laurie brings in a little more structure. So the way it works is that Dana and I hear the songs and learn all the parts. Then we forget them."

The songs on Sideshow are, then, the first that were written specifically for the Twinemen, and it’s no coincidence that Sargent found herself writing about friendships and family ties within a bohemian setting. "That sounds good — put down that I said that," she laughs when I bring up the apparent theme. "Really, the songs may sound more cohesive to you because they were written in a shorter time span than the first Twinemen record. Much as I’d like to take credit for working the whole thing out in my brain, I never work that way. I just hate to labor on writing, so if a song doesn’t feel like work, I don’t chuck it."

Adds Conway, "Those are the issues for us — relationships and community, or lack of it; the things one fits into as an adult. But Laurie maintains that none of the songs are about me, so I’m going with that." The one political song, "Slept Through It," doesn’t quite fit the concept, but it’s an obvious standout, both for its righteous anger ("They took down the frickin’ Dixie Chicks, won’t somebody come and pinch me quick?") and for its sinister snake-charmer-gone-funk groove. "I tried to keep my mouth shut, but that song slipped out," Sargent says. "We’ve seen a steady erosion of our personal freedoms, and people are either afraid of the truth or too tired to pay attention."

Meanwhile, Morphine’s Hi-n-Dry studio in Cambridge has become the focal point of a cottage industry. The label has a slew of releases planned: a Sandman/Morphine box due this fall plus discs by local favorites the Heygoods, Jimmy Ryan, and the Downbeat 5. Mazzone is acting as in-house lawyer; local musician and journalist (sometimes for this newspaper) Ted Drozdowski is working behind the scenes. And everybody’s learning some extra-musical skill. In Sargent’s case, that includes putting up the Web site and coordinating disc manufacturing. "It seemed a natural step — we were all playing on each other’s records, so now we’re helping each other create the records. We assign each other jobs, then carry them out and assign new ones. It’s not always fun stuff, but it’s better than being on a major label again."

CAGED HEAT leader Jill "Chilly" Kurtz may seem an odd match for the Hi-n-Dry crew, since she’s never been closely associated with the Morphine circle or its boho-jazz leanings — her image is more that of a backstreet rock-and-roller. Yet the release of Caged Heat’s homonymous second album ends a long period of limbo for the band she’s steered for the past six years.

Kurtz herself has been visible around town, and with her dirty-blond hair, copious tattoos, and piercing stare, she’s easy to spot in a crowd. As a skilled guitar/harmonica player drawn to both blues and garage rock, she’s plugged into some different situations: doing Little Walter covers with guitarist Asa Brebner; briefly assuming the lead-guitar role with garage faves Triple Thick; leading different line-ups of Caged Heat that have veered between her two musical bases, equal parts Nuggets and Fat Possum.

Yet it’s taken her till now to follow up the first Caged Heat album, which was released back in 1988. "God, I can’t believe it’s been that long." The reasons range from the break-up of the first Caged Heat line-up just after the debut was released to personal problems. (She lost her father last year.) "Some of those guys had a more metal past and didn’t understand the blues side of things. People say we’re hard to define, but rock and roll with a blues tinge is the sound I’ve always strived for. After this time, I wasn’t sure about keeping the name, but I figured Caged Heat deserved a good record."

It’s also a more polished disc, and there’s no shame in that. Although the recording is largely live-in-studio, the arrangements are more fleshed out to allow for some twang and more melody. Along with the current core of Caged Heat — ace guitarist Allen Devine, drummer/singer Bo Barringer, and bassist Paul Myers — the disc includes Hi-n-Dry regulars Colley on sax, Jimmy Ryan on mandolin, and Andrew Mazzone producing plus Asa Brebner and, yes, Juliana Hatfield doing some harmonies. Given Hatfield’s sensitive/wounded persona, it’s hard to think of two local female rockers with a more different image. "You might not expect it, but I really look up to her and think she’s amazing," Kurtz says. "I thought she was a great bass player in the Lemonheads. We met because we live near each other and got to be friends, and I played harmonica on her album. So yeah, it’s a strange mix, but I love playing with her."

Under Mazzone’s guidance, the new disc focuses on Caged Heat’s Stonesy rock side, and Kurtz’s still-growly vocals sound more assured than they did on the debut. She’s also gotten mighty gutsy with her songwriting, turning in a set of confessional-sounding songs about bad habits and relationships. "Everything I write is somewhat confessional, but it’s more about how I’m feeling at that moment — when I write songs, I always try to tap into the bad stuff." She didn’t write the closing "Animal," a Subhumans cover, but its lyric (which brings One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest to mind) proves an appropriate jumping-off point for some bluesy riffing and grisly harmonica. "Jennifer" concerns a past relationship that may or may not be romantic ("That one’s personal, so I’d rather let it be mysterious"); "You’re Dead" sounds like a cautionary anti-drug song. "God, no, I’d never write an anti-drug song," she maintains. "I guess it could be taken that way. But it’s about a guy I knew who I thought was not living up to his potential; someone who was an alcoholic. So yeah, maybe I’ve written an anti-alcohol song, though that might be a little hypocritical."

Having started on the next Caged Heat album, she’s now done something even more shocking: she’s written a couple of happy-sounding numbers. "But I don’t know how many more of those I can come up with, because I’m such a miserable person."

Caged Heat will play an animal-rescue benefit on November 18 at T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline Street in Central Square; call (617) 492-BEAR.


Issue Date: October 22 - 28, 2004
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