Mellow Down Easy "Cosmisutra" A Simple Model of Popular Music revisited (gravity included)
"What, then, is this blue sky, which certainly does exist, and which veils from us the stars during the day? ... And yet this dome does not exist. In a balloon, I myself have risen higher than where the Greek gods were supposed to live without getting to this point, which of course disappears at the same rate in which we approach it." ~ From the inscription underneath "The Flammarion Woodcut"
"'Scuse me while I kiss the sky." ~ Jimi Hendrix
"Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life." ~ Benjamin Disraeli
Once in a long while an album slips by the barricades and slays me. I knew I was in danger when I first heard Cosmisutra in download from the band. My first impression was over the top. Listening to this album for the first time reminded me of when I first bought Disreali Gears by Cream on vinyl for $2.99 at Long's Drug Store. That album was a breakthrough, like the first time somebody in the Middle Ages noticed that the sky "disappears at the same rate in which we approach it." If one word could do for a review, I'd just say "Wow!"
There are art rock albums I buy and learn from, and those I rush out to get 'cause they rock and make me happy. Mellow Down Easy was like falling down the rabbit hole for me, and just as trippy. I went out and bought a copy of Disraeli Gears at Shake-It Records to try to save myself from embarrassment. God help me! It didn't help. The comparison stands, though I can feel the ground shake beneath my feet and credibility draining from my typing fingers. I used to feel that buying Bowie in his prime, and omigod don't I know that's saying too much but I feel like that now with my Mojo working, and Kundulini rising through my subtle body while I study this Cosmisutra. It's enlightenment with a buzz on, which just might be the secret formula for hit-worthy power pop. To quote the wisdom of Brother Theodore: "I don't understand music, but I like the noise it makes." It is a joyful noise.
Mellow Down Easy is a pop band raised on Mick Ronson, Son House, Robert Johnson, Eric "Almighty" Clapton, Marc Bolan, Hank Williams and just basically all that is good and decent in popular sound, and they show it in tip of the hat and wags of the finger throughout. The song "Yesterdays" sounds like Warren Zevon singing country with Eddie Arnold backing vocals and a pedal steel guitar. "Long Road Now" is a big-picture-message-folk ballad Fred "Other Side of This Life" Neil might have sung. I will say far too much about "I Am The Universe" to mention but to quote Kier Dullea in 2010: "My god! It's full of stars." I've written and rewritten this review and listened for comparison to Dave Edmunds, T-Rex, The Beatles, Eddie Arnold, Mick Ronson, Bob Dylan, Bobby Darin, and Cream. Bad bands borrow, big bands steal. MDE finds the groove in each song to bring it all home all by itself with tips and nods to legends thrown into the mix like chips in the cookie dough.
What makes this album feel like genius to me may be the deep expansive eclectic scope it manages to fuse into one damn fine cohesive disc. That is not the norm! Most groups or songwriters dappling in eclecticism seem to be screaming "Look what I can co!" like that annoying six-foot-something, rouge-cheeked Stuart character on the TV. There are no songs to skip over on this album, though they range from classic country through a crooning folk ballad into psychedelic rock and blues. Mellow Down Easy has a road-tested, studio-savvy sound loaded for bear like George Martin's production from Revolver to Love, Bowie, Bolan, Jimi H. and Jimmy P.
I repeat myself when I'm under stress, and this album had me nervous from the start. I don't think Mellow Down Easy sounds like Cream like some sort of tribute, but the last time I felt this respectful of a pop album by a three-piece band was back when I spent $2.99 of my allowance at Long's Drug Store for a vinyl record. I went home to record it on my reel-to-reel so I wouldn't wear out the grooves, and looked up the entry for a politician maligned as "The Jew," whose chosen nick was Disraeli. I've been staring at my new copy of Gears looking for some sign. Ginger and Jack seem to be sneering, but I think I just saw Clapton smile. That green-skinned pink angel just winked, I swear! Mellow Down Easy is one helluva pop band. I haven't changed my opinion on that in a week, though I have surely tried. A comparison like that can follow a man to his grave. I think I might play this album backwards in Garageband to make damn sure there isn't some magic spell in the backward masking. This music has made me do it. I can't be held responsible. 'Scuse me, please. I'm as dizzy as Flamarrion when first he stuck his head through the sky.
Mellow Down Easy has ingested the roots in subatomic detail. This album is the byproduct of some noble and holy listening by these musicians. The best description I've been able to find for their accomplishment is a thinly veiled theft the from title of a PBS series on rethinking the universe in light of the quantum of what might be with strings. Heretofore I have primarily heard bands performing according to the "General Theory of Popularity." That theory has not aged well. Mellow Down Easy's Cosmisutra is best described in the title of this review: "A Simple Model of Popular Music revisited (gravity included)"
THE SONGS
1. I AM THE UNIVERSE
The song you were talking about is "Universe (Revisited)" - hence the relation, musically, to "I Am The Universe". THAT was our little tip of the hat to "Sgt. Peppers" and Brian Wilson's "Smile". ~ Andrew from Mellow Down Easy
This song takes aim at the strut and circumstance of pop with the artificial swagger of Bowie in full makeup and costume, Marc Bolan's "bang the gong" megaphone or radio-mic voice descended from Jolson through Westminster Cathedral, sly absurd accusatory Dylanesque attitude, brandished Brautigan cosmic imploding self-description, a glittering art-rock swagger, Eno atmospherics and guitar drive, dive and hive like Mick Ronson trading solos with T-Rex. The opening cloud of begins at the end of "A Day In The Life," which opening jumps into a riff like T-Rex joined by a voice like Bolan in "Bang a Gong" or "Johnny B. Goode" ringing a bell. That may be a nod to A Day In The Life in the intro, and there's a false ending and Mick Ronson one-bent-note return in this song like Mick Ronson playing Bowie's vocal leadup to "Slam bam thank you, Ma'am" in Suffragette City. The references I was able to grab in my very own dream catcher are exhausting but not exhaustive. There are more music references to great moments in pop in this song than there are nods to songs and history in Don McClean's "American Pie."
The lyrics range from a Tower of Psycho Babel to a casually inflected, hepatic inflicted hep cat, hip-talk banter-fest given in request for directions to the Statue of Liberty. A one-time faked chaos of studio conversation puts tongue-in-cheek at loose extraneous cascades of camaraderie salted into canned albums to resemble inside-dope mic-left-on candid conversation. This song has its groove on at all times making the hidden Trivial Pursuit reference puzzles just a generous color-dipped assortment of Easter Eggs to amuse the true believers and obsessive compulsives among the listening. One more: a muted group rhythmic grunt of "uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh" making a direct hit at the mind field trail out of "I Am A Walrus." I like finding references. I haven't found half of them I'm sure, but I feel like Detective Monk collecting a mayonnaise jar load of pennies thrown to the floor of the crime scene I'm so distracted by the enormity of the exercise.
I believe I heard this song on the radio once. If I had known the song was from a new album by Mellow Down Easy, I would have pulled off the road and written down the name. Thought it was some classic I had missed. I just felt embarrassed.
The opening lyric: "I'm a polyester Novocain with a Freewheelin' microphone like a narcoleptic jubilee on a holy-roller coaster." Well, isn't that interesting? A list like that nails the high and low street talk bluster of the species known as Populus Starius commonly called Pop Star as nick. There's a nod to the ladies of the road in love "with the boys in a rock 'n' roll band." The pop audience is properly skewered playfully as competing souls in search of a personal myth in the lines: "They all want to see you / They all want to be you / On with the show!" Pop goes the weasel.
(I've written too much on this song. Please, forgive me. I'll slight its return, I promise.)
2. LOVE MONEY
For the shear poetry of a short title, this song carries a wallop. Its got that "love of money" Bible quote sifted in, a profession of love for dough, and the thought of cash set aside for ass in those two words. There's a touch of Cream in the harmony and a graphic grit and metaphoric flavor suggestive of whoever wrote Spoonful. (Oh God! Please don't let it be Willie Dixon!) Little production note: I haven't heard guitar levels pumped for excitement with such variable skill since Mono passed into Binaural Stereo. Sounds like there's some tremolo, echo, and phase shifting on the rhythm guitar. I don't understand that stuff, but I love the noise it makes. The lyrics are delivered with a gravel tinged ironic sweet sneer like Jack Bruce singing anything in harmony with "God." The half spoken "move a little closer, come on a little closer" builds the R&B staple "talking to the girl" through a building sense of urgency that sounds very very naughty. Everything about this song is illegal in Hamilton County. I'll have to take the bridge to Kentucky to listen to this one loud. You've got a love, got a love for the money We've the drug, got the stuff for you honey, now. To fill the hole in your heart Fill, fill, fill To fill the hole
3. YESTERDAYS
There's a new voice heard from in this song both musically and vocally. This isn't a rock band doing Country, these boys have morphed like the Mighty Morphin Rangers into a real damn Country band. I read somewhere this blues-based pop group produces country albums in their spare time! Yikes, that's cool! There's no twang here, and nothing that smacks of hayseed put on for show. This is a country voice from so far back it sounds like a crooner feeling blue and singing Appalachian Americana with a little quiver in his voice, or Warren Zevon's country voice singing "Carmelita." I believe that's a pedal steel I hear, and no training wheels slide version of the instrument. I'm new to Country but a true believer. This song has the feel of J.D. Crowe or Jerry Mac singing the A.L. Owens/Dallas Frasier song "(I'm So) Afraid Of Losing You." What makes this song fit in the Cosmisutra is honesty. If that don't fit the cosmic heart of space, then that astronomical everything is too damn small. This song is so right I know to a certainty these three believe that Grand Ole Opry roster ain't worth a chicken wing without Hank Williams. I can hear that when MDE sings Country.
Yesterday, I wish it didn't happen But it did and now I'll pay I'll keep paying for all I've done now Until all of my yesterdays are over
And tonight I've got this brand new roll of smoke And a bottle I can hide in And when I'm through I'll use it to Dig myself this grave that I will die in But then again and again and again
4. Undergoing Resurrection
Again the title slays me. I picture a man with a warning sign around his neck like a store or a high closed for remodeling and construction. I heard a fine musician tell me this week he "doesn't like the rock, but he loves the roll." That's all about the high and low and change of mood that builds the drama in the journey. This song starts folk honest with a browbeat timbre to the voice like Chris Bell singing I Am The Cosmos pristine and solitary to a building beat headed toward a "bop bop boppa, dubop bop da bugga bugga" beat. I hear that as self-doubt to ironic swagger or something close. That's drama! That's the roll of rock 'n' roll. The rock is child's play. The subject of this song includes some artificial confidence powder, but it's also about a girl. If I had the time, I truly think there are about five fingers worth of levels of confidence and doubt in this song. That's drama and subtlety! Once again this song is mixed in old school stereo so you might want to make sure you are getting both signals or that left speaker might make you think this is a song for drums and Fender Rhodes, or maybe that right speaker with convince you it's just a drum bass guitar thing. These guys are mixing this album right like they are supposed to. They are settling for better than right. Those drums are just about a one-handed drum roll this side of jazz. Don't tell the record store. It will sell better in rock and pop. Forget I told ya'.
Oh, take a look at me I made a mess of myself And I'm not sure where to go from here . . .
Lay cocaine down Or you just might be the one to fall apart . . .
5. TICKET
This song has such an infectious hook, I think I just grew some gills. There's a building storm in this song, with every damn new guitar sound adjusted for maximum R&B as a new cast member in this musical. These music mavens know how to modulate! Yeeee Haw! I'm listening on repeat, and it's just looping me higher and higher like Darius Milhaud's "Le Boeuf sur Le Toit." (Spoiler alert: that's my mandatory obscure composer reference but it's accurate.) Okay, the style song is deep blues based rock/pop like Cream, but the way this thing flows is inching toward King Crimson's soaring build in something like "Thrak" or "Red." This song flows, ebbs, floods and storms with tones and overtones and undertones all flying like a flag in battle. There's more to the lyrics than meets the ear, i.e., "eat the fruit but plant the seeds" would make my mother think of recycling but it feels sexy. I believe this song is about the ecology of love and the love of nature both. Hell, they make recycling sexy and sex seem natural. I want to join any church can call this a hymn. Looking at those words on the page, looks like ecology wins by a nose, but damn if it don’t make my neck tingle and my stomach feel that good kind of funny. Hell, I'm feeling so frisky I want to Boogaloo out to the blue bin and sort same aluminum cans. I'm feeling too sexy to waste the landfill! Guess this song follows that old saw of a formula: Rub in the Fresh Cream in gentle circular motions until you begin to see Crimson. Repeat!
I don't guess the band will mind if I reprint all the lyrics for a message song. File this one in the same bin with Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi with a parental warning: "This song may cause confusing emotions for Pentecostal children under 14." Here they are:
"TICKET"
You and me play in the sun Does it feel the same to everyone People torn apart by love of greed Distracted by the next new disease
We could meet at the sea Find the way to harmony Eat the fruit but plant the seeds We've got a ticket going somewhere slowly World's got a ticket going nowhere fast
Pavement grows much faster than the trees Diseased by weeds they'll soon be gone People torn which way to go This way that way is there right from wrong
We could meet at the sea Find the way to harmony Eat the fruit but plant the seeds We've got a ticket going somewhere slowly World's got a ticket going nowhere fast
We've got a ticket goin' somewhere slowly World's got a ticket landing flat on it's ass
6. PURE GOLD
Oh Lordy, this one has the sexy without the redeeming political correctitude! The band admits right there in the song they are "up to no good." I know it's wrong, but I like it. If I'm not mistaken those are soul harmonies. Please don't tell the category police! What the hay? Is that a cameo on that pedal steel? Somebody ought to teach these boys to stick to a genre! (NOT!) Honestly, there's something about this song that leaves my little imagination gasping for breath. Seems like everything fits in this song, and all it is just right. Listen carefully, and weep if you think you are the king of knobs. I'm gonna get the hell out of this song before I make a pun about Cream in this context. TMI! Never has a song had such an emotional build in this sort of thing since Roxy Music sang, "I blew up your body. But you blew my mind." I've never understood what the hell that was about. No, really! On second thought, I believe this song is about finding a sense of spirituality in the nature order.
You decide! Here are the words:
"PURE GOLD"
I've got lovin' in my hand Gonna spread this love across this land
Just a worn out junkie's Hollywood With a guilty smile you know you're up to no good
I've got lovin' in my hand Gonna spread this love across this land
What we all could use is some love, sister. Sweet, sweet love From the earth at our feet to the sky up above.
And i've got lovin' in my hand Gonna spread this love across this land
7. (SHE MUST BE) RADIOACTIVE
There's some crazy sounds floating around in this song make me imagine Jimi H. and Stevie R.V. are laughing their asses off in heaven. There's a heap of Double Trouble and a generous helping of "Axis: Bold As Love" in the process of this hairpiece. There's something in the air makes things undulate and might just cause epileptic fits in the susceptible. All the things the singer "don't want to be" leaves nothing left but something fun. That process of elimination might be a nod to that song Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon wrote: Just Want To Make Love To You. I may be wrong, but I've got the feeling these guys have heard every song that matters and took whatever was worth the trouble. "Good composers borrow, great composers steal," said Igor Stravinsky. Takes one to know one. Come now don't be so uneasy Come and make your body glow
8. LONG ROAD NOW
This is a folk song! If you did this acoustic and put a waltz beat to it, this would be a Gordon Lightfoot message folk ballad. Burl Ives would sing it in it's native 4/4, and Ian and Sylvia could match or surpass the harmonies and make it something to sing around a campfire. I don't know where this band finds its wisdom, but it feels right. The lyrics below are just a little of this road song. The line that gives me the most hope: "Maybe all roads lead to a better road." Wisdom is very cool. That's when a good idea finds its home in a good heart. That's where real folk songs come from.
If two wrongs could make a right Would it be well worth the fight? Couldn't two fools just get along? Tomorrow now A long road now
Would hunger really end hunger? Could war really end war? Wouldn't we just ask for more Further down the road?
9. SOUL FULL OF HOLES
The form of this song may date all the way back to humorous stage songs from minstrelsy, but Mellow Down Easy drive this one deep into some substance murky and deep. Whiskey had something to do with turning this soul into a Swiss cheese, and the blues is the result and gets this song "Waiting until the party was over / Done got knotted on whiskey / And crawling on the floor." All the low string bass and guitar pound this one down so low it looks like up to me. In a brief respite for hope and meaning, the pedal steal sneaks back, but those guitars pound it down and shoo away all those without the sense to cry in their Jack and Coke. This song pounds like a hangover when the bass line in a neighbor's house has come up for a malicious visit. John Barleycorn must die! He was only wounded in Traffic apparently. I swear that guitar is channeling Stevie Ray with that tone and timbre. Hope the next song is a spiritual.
10. CRAZY & WICKED
The opening electric strum sounds like Ike's holding pattern when Tina is saying "We never do anything nice and easy," but vocal over that rock 'n' roll is Jack Bruce to a T. There's just something in the flow of the melody suggests Bruce, or you don't know Jack in my opinion. So these restless musicians do a momentary switcheroo for a beat break for funk, but I'm getting used to the unexpected on this album so I'm not surprised. I've heard guitarists like this before. There's one cat in Los Angeles plays all the same chords as everybody else, but he makes people excited when he plays. It's the damnedest thing! There's nothing you can figure out to make that happen. I think that excitement is a lesson learned on the road playing the blues. Mellow Down Easy knows the road like a Thomas Guide.
11. THE GREAT BIG MELANCHOLY
I read once that the activity slyly alluded to in Pure Gold leads to solipsism. That's Catholic wisdom I read once in a pamphlet. Maybe yes, maybe no, but this song is about the guy who has money on trashy clothes or something going up his nose talking about Louisiana. There he is! The man! The island! The druggy dreaming about revolution, but living a 360 degree turn. Watch him dream of Hollywood! Dream addict dream! Takes more and more powder sometimes to care about anything but getting high. Everybody just go away! I'm dreaming of adequacy, don't ya know. "When you become alone You burn your picture books When you become alone Everybody just goes away."
12. UNIVERSE (REPRISE)
Live reprise of Universe. (I promised to be brief. I even left out the verb to be more concise.)
13. A MILLION PAGES OF UGLY STORIES
This song takes a slow tempo in a complaint song and takes it to the edge of gospel. Like a good evangelistic sermon, it starts with the bad news and finds its inspiration in the escape. That slow deliberate pace demands a turnaround, and the song pays off. I love the New Orleans harmonies in the horns and I think I hear a church bell low in the distance. Regret and redemption equals hope. That's gospel an agnostic can believe in.
MELLOW DOWN EASY is:
Andrew Adkins: Guitar/Vocals Daryl Dashner: Bass/Vocals Rodney Russell: Drums/Percussion
Now this just takes the cake. I told you I was trying to avoid saying anything about Willie Dixon in this review because I'm way over my head comparing this band to Cream. Well, I can't keep that promise. I looked it up, and the song from which this band got its name was written by Willie Dixon. Crap! I should have said I wouldn't mention Tom Waits.
In keeping with the theme of Cream, here's Jack Bruce and Dick Heckstall Smith plaything a version of Willie Dixon's 1950's hit "Mellow Down Easy:"
