ARTIST: Morning 40 Federation
TITLE: Ticonderoga
LABEL: M80 Music
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 205kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 39m total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-06-13
RIP DATE: 2006-05-24
Track List
----------
1. Gin Instead Of Whiskey 2:30
2. Intuition 2:25
3. White Powder 2:56
4. A + P 3:33
5. God Help Me 3:23
6. Corkscrew 4:06
7. Washing Machine 4:25
8. Skin 2:55
9. Toodle 3:14
10. Lancaster 1:37
11. Dumpster Juice 3:29
12. Conversation Whore 5:11
Release Notes:
http://www.morning40.com/
http://myspace.com/morning40federation
http://www.m80music.com/
So what does TICONDEROGA, the new record from New Orleans Morning 40 Federation,
sound like? Thats the million dollar-question isnt it? Well, heres our
ten-dollar answer. Dig it:
Lets call the time reverse magic hour, that maybe half-hour of grace between
when the darkness of the pre-dawn gives way to full blast sunshine, when the
colors of the greenery shrouded shotgun houses are weirdly muted and vibrant at
the same time. Youre standing on a deserted street; tree roots crack the
sidewalks and old cobblestones show through the blacktop. Its steaming hot
already despite the early hour (the humidity hasnt dipped below 100 percent all
week) and the air is alive with the tropical hum of insects. When you take a
deep breath of the heavy, wet air, the odors that assault your nose -- garbage,
river water, puke and urine, jasmine and honeysuckle, and the tangy odor from a
coffee-roasting warehouse -- create a weirdly invigorating stench cocktail.
The previous nights a blur. You have no idea whose place it was that you woke up
at, or what happened to the girl who brought you there. You only remember coming
to on a couch and nodding hello to the glassy-eyed guy watching cartoons in the
living room with stoned patience. But even though youre feeling the indelicate
first touches of a wicked hangover, your eyelids are sticking and your pits are
stinking, you feel like a king because on your way out you managed to snag a
crumpled pack of smokes and a tallboy of beer from the fridge.
And as you make your crooked walk on home, you accidentally pass one of your
favorite bars. Its still open, and Ernie K-Does Here Come the Girls is rocking
on the jukebox. Inside, a couple of cats you know are still going strong from
the night before. Your friends yell slurred greetings and before you know it,
youre heading to another joint, sitting on some fools handlebars and singing at
the top of your lungs as the squares going to work give you and your pals the
stinkeye. Goddamn if it aint another glorious, jacked-up dawn in New Orleans.
THATS what TICONDEROGA sounds like.
The Morning 40 Federation was born and bred in New Orleans Ninth Ward
neighborhood, formed in 1997 as a drunken quasi-dare by Josh Cohen and Space
Rickshaw, amateur saxophonist and trombonist, respectively. They hung the name
on their rough assemblage of amateur musicians/pro-drinkers as a sardonic
admission of non-guilt. They didnt know how their way around their instruments
(It sounded like I was strangling a goose, Cohen says of his first forays into
the wild world of alto sax), and their first gigs took place at house parties
and off-night in bars like the Hi Ho Lounge, were more like sweaty demolition
derbies soundtracked by some righteous feedback than actual concerts.
But despite their best intentions, the 40s began to develop honest-to-goodness
chops. Their sound -- a mutant hybrid of punk, jazz and what New Orleans
old-timers call fonk coalesced. Their gigs got sharper without losing their
anything-goes, gang-of-stinky-swamp-things onited in a Decatur Street dive his first
night in town; guitarist Ryan Scully was shanghaied pirate-style from a life of
playing cosmic country music, And by God, you could DANCE to their music, thanks
to Mike Andrepont and Steve Calandras booze stumblin rhythm section.
But it was their songs that put em over. The 40s specialized in hilarious
chronicles of boozy camaraderie, tales of the assorted noble lowlifes, space
cadets and other crazies that populate the parallel universe version of New
Orleans nightlife far off the beaten tourist path. Two self-produced CDs 2000s
YOUR MY BROTHER and 2002s TRICK NASTY started racking up regional awards, and in
2004, the band signed with M80 and released the self-titled MORNING 40
FEDERATION.
2004, the band signed with M80 and released the self-titled MORNING 40
FEDERATION.