‘Gum’ by Medicine off of a 4 track cassette from 1990 re-released with Shot Forth Self Living.
Looks like its time for me to take my first stab at Slaying some Tracks and since I’m still replaying the Medicine (Los Angeles natives) concert I saw Sunday, in my head, they seem like a good place to start. I went to the show with high expectations and expecting greatness from a band that hasn’t played a show together in EIGHTEEN YEARS is risky, but Medicine exceeded my expectations by far. Brad Laner’s guitar/effects work and ability to play “noise” like its an instrument itself, Beth Thompson’s ability to sing live just as good if not better than it sounds on recording, and Jim Goodall sitting behind his drum-kit still wearing his sunglasses and…lipstick(?) providing a danceable groove that invites you to move around to some guitar driven noise rock make Medicine an amazing live show.
Captured Tracks’ reissues of Medicine’s Shot Forth Self Living (1992 / Reissued 2012) and The Buried Life (1993 / Reissued 2012) are both solid releases. Each album comes with an extra disc of alternate mixes, live versions, demos, and tracks from limited cassettes released long ago. While I usually try to pick up original issue CDs/Vinyl that haven’t been remastered, in the case of these remastered reissues, they did a great job of not compromising the original sound of the songs (I listened to the songs back-to-back with the 92/93 original issue CDs). Check out Medicine’s new album To The Happy Few (2013) as well which sees Medicine returning toward their earlier guitar driven sound, but still not as distorted, after releases like Mechanical Forces Of Love (2003) took a more electronic route.
I feel like I’d be doing you all a disservice if I didn’t recommend seeing Medicine live if you get the chance. Medicine is a strong competitor for the best show I’ll see in 2013, and in fact I think right now they hold the #1 spot (but with My Bloody Valentine in 10 days, I can’t make a definitive call yet).
Well, that was my first slaying, sorry for the wall of text.
Took a brief listen to their new one the other day on Spotify and was blown away. I’ll definitely have to pick it up at some point. Can’t wait to see them live too.
Shane how I envy your access to good concerts, I need to get out of Ohio…
New York or LA is just a plane ride away, and I hear both are quite accommodating to architects…
You got an open invitation to stay in LA if you ever want to come out for a show. I did see that Built to Spill is playing Cleveland Heights, Ohio in November and Matt, Medicine is playing *tonight* 8/16 in Brooklyn.
BLAH! Ya I saw that. I wanted to go but after three days of walking around Brooklyn apartment hunting, I was too exhausted to stay another night… Finding an apartment in NYC = the worst thing ever. Quite disappointed.