Artist.......: Lambchop
Album........: Paperback Bible (with Drums)
Label........: City Slang
Genre........: Indie
Catnr........: n/a
Source.......: WEB
Rip.date.....: Oct-26-2008
Str.date.....: 000-00-2006
Quality......: 256/44,1Hz/Full Stereo
Url..........: www.lambchop.net
track title time
01. Paperback Bible (with drums) 06:06
Runtime 06:06 min
Size 11,2 MB
Release Notes:
Touted as "Nashville's most f*cked-up country band" by
their label Merge Records, Lambchop was arguably the most
consistently brilliant and unique American group to emerge
during the 1990s. Their unclassifiable hybrid of country,
soul, jazz, and avant-garde noise seemed at one time or
another to drink from every conceivable tributary of
contemporary music, its baroque beauty all held together
by the surreal lyrical wit and droll vocal presence of
frontman Kurt Wagner. Although Lambchop's ever-rotating
roster would later expand to over a dozen members, the
group formed in 1986 as a simple three-piece teaming
Wagner, guitarist Jim Watkins, and bassist Marc
Trovillion, former high school classmates already ten
years removed from the educational system. Originally
dubbed Posterchild, the trio made its earliest recordings
in Trovillion's bedroom, self-releasing a series of
cassettes with titles like I'm F*cking Your Daughter. In
time, the lineup began to grow and the band regularly
performed live in and around the Nashville area, often at
the area record shop, Lucy's (not coincidentally owned by
Wagner's wife, Mary).
In 1992, Posterchild -- now consisting of Wagner,
Trovillion, guitarist Bill Killbrew, clarinetist Jonathan
Marx, multi-instrumentalist Scott C. Chase, drummer Steve
Goodhue, and percussionist Allen Lowery -- released An
Open Fresca + A Moist Towlette, a split single with
friends Crop Circle Hoax. The 7" brought the group to the
attention of entertainment lawyer George Regis, who issued
cease-and-desist orders on behalf of his clients, the
noise pop band Poster Children. After rejecting the names
REN, Pinnacles of Cream, and Turd Goes Back, the band
settled on Lambchop, added vocalist/saxophonist Deanna
Varagona, steel guitarist Paul Niehaus, and organist John
Delworth, and signed to Merge to release the 1993 single
"Nine." Their debut LP, I Hope You're Sitting Down (aka
Jack's Tulips), followed a year later. In many ways, this
album would be the most conventional Lambchop record. Its
Nashville origins and torch-and-twang ambience would
saddle the band with the increasingly erroneous alt-
country tag, although Wagner's Lou Reed-like vocals and
bizarre narrative conceits -- in particular the fan-
favorite "Soaky in the Pooper," a vivid recounting of a
bad LSD trip -- immediately signaled their obvious
distance from the likes of Uncle Tupelo or the Jayhawks.
The lovely How I Quit Smoking appeared in 1996 (although
on the subsequent "Cigaretiquette" single, Wagner would
proudly announce, "I'm smoking again"). Recorded live the
previous Independence Day, the Hank EP followed later in
1996. Marking the debut of drummer Paul Burch, the disc
represented the apotheosis of Lambchop's Billy Sherrill-
inspired phase, its lush production evoking the Nashville
sound so popular three decades earlier, but now completely
passΘ among Music City's chart superstars. 1997's Thriller
proved a major turning point; highlighted by the Muscle
Shoals soul of "Your Fucking Sunny Day" and including no
fewer than three songs penned by East River Pipe's F.M.
Cornog, this sprawling, difficult album introduced the
uncompromising eclecticism that would dominate Lambchop's
work from here on out. The follow-up, 1998's What Another
Man Spills, upped the ante further; for remarkably soulful
covers of Curtis Mayfield's "Love Song (Give Me Your
Love)" and Frederick Knight's "I've Been Lonely for So
Long," Wagner's baritone drawl even gave way to a Prince-
like falsetto. That same year, the group also backed Vic
Chesnutt on his album The Salesman and Bernadette.
Lambchop's fifth full-length, Nixon, appeared in the
spring of 2000. Supposedly a concept album exploring the
presidency of the infamous Tricky Dick, Wagner even
included a bibliography in the liner notes -- a direct
connection to the Watergate scandal remains unidentified.
Though still criminally unknown at home, Lambchop enjoyed
a much more substantial following overseas, and on May 13,
2000, they appeared at the London Royal Festival Hall; the
gig was recorded and made available at U.K. appearances
that fall as the Queens Royal Trimma limited-edition EP.
(A 2001 European tour yielded the Treasure Chest of the
Enemy EP.) The 2001 collection Tools in the Dryer
assembled many of Lambchop's scattered singles,
compilation tracks, and remixes.
After recording the purposefully spare Is a Woman in 2002,
Wagner and company moved on to their most ambitious
project yet -- two simultaniously released albums, Aw
C'Mon and No, You C'Mon, in which Lambchop was returned to
full power and joined by a lush string section. The next
year the musically experimental EP CoLAB came out,
followed in the spring of 2006 by The Decline of Country &
Western Civilization, Pt. 2: The Woodwind Years, an
eclectic collection of tracks that had never appeared
before on Lambchop records, including one new song,
"Gettysburg Address," and a record of all new material
called Damaged later that summer.
In addition to Lambchop, several members of the group
pursued side projects. Burch led his own band, the WPA
Ballclub, Varagona released a fine 2000 solo record,
Tangled Messages, and Mark Nevers led CYOD. Wagner even
teamed with Josh Rouse for the 1999 EP Chester.
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