MV & EE with The Bummer Road
Mother of Thousands 2CD/LP
(Time Lag)

Mother of Thousands is being touted as one of the few MV & EE releases that is available to a relatively wide audience. Until now, most of their releases have been micro editions on CDR and LP. Matt Valentine (MV) and Erika Elder (EE) have both been a part of the Tower Recordings, along with Tim Barnes (who also runs the excellent Quakebasket label) and Sumara Lubelski. They are joined on this release by Nemo Bidstrup and Sparrow Wildchild. I've followed the Tower Recordings over the years since their Siltbreeze days and have never been disappointed. As for MV&EE and the Bummer Road, I've just jumped on the bandwagon, having just recently acquired three of their recordings, including this one. First off, I can see only minor similarities between MV & EE and the Tower Recordings. MV & EE are much more free-form and wacked out, to my ears. Since this release is more widely available than usual, it's strange that it's no more accessible than the other work that I've heard. In fact, it's more "out there" than anything I've heard by them to this point. The album opens with "the Joyous Within", a spaced out droney piece which sets the scene for the remainder of the first disc. "Cold Rain, "Beautiful Mountain" and "Sunshine Girl" are the most song oriented tunes on the first disc. There is a whiff of Neil Young influence to these songs at times, although that description would be misleading in it's over-simplification. A sense of rural detachment is present in this work, as if it was created in a vacuum. The brilliant "Anthem of the Cocola Y&T" takes the first four or five minutes of its 13 minute plus length to get off the ground. It starts off with some at times almost Jandek-like guitar plunking, then slowly unravels as additional guitars join in, seemingly playing random guitar riffs. Somehow it coalesces into a kind of folky tune, with cool detached vocal harmonies by Matt and Erika (and their dog!), ultra reverbed psych guitar and violin. The second disc consists of interpretations of blues songs by Mississippi John Hurt, Charey Patton and Rev. Gary Davis. "Meditations on Payday" is as spaced out as a take on a blues song has ever been. It's a fascinating track from beginning to end. I'd try to describe it, but I'm not sure I could do it justice. "Banry Rooster Blues", which just Erika sings over spare guitar accompaniment, is probably the most straight-forward track on the album. "Dissatisfied", which I'm guessing is "traditional" since it's not credited, is a quiet track as well. It includes harp, more guitars, and some stoned sounding vocals by Matt. The last track, "Death Don't Have No Mercy" is over 23 minutes of haunted atmosphere. It comes across at times as a soundtrack for being lost in the woods, and ends the album on a high note. It's really hard to analyze this album on a track by track basis, but allow me to make some observations about this music: Matt and Erika's vocals are strange to the ear at first, since their singing style is unique. Once you listen for a while, however, the vocals make perfect sense. The music goes in so may directions at once, that the simple vocals, with their odd harmonies and relaxed feel, fit in with the backwoods vibe. Mo' Jiggs is credited with "harp environments" among other things here, and that description makes a lot of sense. The harmonica's rustic, lonesome tone is actually the base atmosphere at times during several of these songs. The interesting thing about this music is that there's no heirarchy between the different instruments. No one instrument dominates the proceedings at one time. Because of this multi-directional style, there is always something new to find in these recordings with repeated listens. Listening to this music, I'm reminded of another time in life when I first heard PIL's Metal Box. Of course this music is nothing like PIL, but that's not what I'm getting at here. When I heard that album, I was only familiar with Johnny Lydon as Rotten from the Pistols. The only thought that I had when I first heard Metal Box was "what the fuck is this?" I'd never heard anything like it because there was nothing like it. It took me a while to be able to process it enough to know whether I liked it or hated it. In a couple of weeks, I came to the realization that it was brilliant. When I introduced the album to my friends, there were polarized views, but most didn't take the time to get it. Well , like I said, MV & EE with the Bummer Band and PIL aren't alike. Except for the fact that they're creating something completely new.