Morphine broke through with the moody murky low rock sound of their soporific sophomore stunner. Their debut album 'Good' was released on the Cambridge-based Accurate/Distortion label and led to a record deal with Rykodisk. 'Cure for Pain' was produced by Paul Q. Kolderie and frontman Mark Sandman with Sandman on his homemade 2-string slide bass and tritar (which had two guitar strings and one bass string), as well as guitar, organ, and lead vocals; Dana Colley on baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone, and backing vocals; Jerome Deupree on drums; Billy Conway on drums and cocktail drum overdub; Jimmy Ryan on mandolin; and Ken Winokur on percussion. During the recording of 'Cure for Pain', Deupree was replaced by Conway, who had played with Sandman in Treat Her Right.
Their unique sound caught on with college and alternative audiences and the group went on to tour the US, Europe, Japan, and Australia. Colley considers: "My major influence when I was growing up was guitar players. I've tried to use the saxophone in that role, or at least with the same approach as guitarists like Billy Gibbons and Frank Zappa. That kind of guitar tone, that fat sound where one note has such a dynamic range, is what I wanted from the sax...The double-sax thing is just another aspect of creating a sound that has its own limitations, the way any other single instrument does. It just happens to be photogenic so people enjoy looking at it. It's part of the vaudeville approach to selling things -- `Look here, we have a man with three heads' -- or a man with two saxes. It basically amounts to the same thing."
Sandman: "Every article about us starts out with stuff about the two-string bass, baritone saxophone, and no guitar. Personally, I'd like to see reviews that say we're a good band with good songs and good playing first, and then mention that we have real different instrumentation. There are plenty of bands that are a lot stranger than us. Basically, we write pretty standard three-minute rock songs with verses, choruses, and hooks ... I'm not trying to play soft and slow, I'll tell you that...We're not exactly mellow...[we're] low rock...We spent about as much on the second album as the first album, whic was about six or seven thousand or something...The word morphine comes from the word morpheus, god of dreams, and that appealled to us as a concept...I've heard there's a drug called morphine; but that's not where we're coming from...We were dreaming and morpheus entered our dreams and we woke up and started this band you know it's like he appeared in our dreams. It's like that movie with the pod people...'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. We were wrapped up by these dream relayed messages and compelled to start this band...Now our music pertains to the things that we like...sexuality and directness and emotion and mutual attraction...those sort of things...We're rational positivists...The lyrics are all really up front. They're the sort of things that you can really hang your head on. Like 'Good'...that is kind of a mediation on ten words, mostly on the word good, which is kind of a deep word when you think about it."
'Cure for Pain'
full album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWKYxhyKja4
1. Dawna (00:03)
2. Buena (00:50)
3. I'm Free Now (04:13)
4. All Wrong (07:41)
5. Candy (11:25)
6. A Head With Wings (14:43)
7. In Spite Of Me (18:26)
8. Thursday (21:04)
9. Cure for Pain (24:33)
10. Mary Won't You Call My Name? (27:50)
11. Let's Take a Trip Together (30:23)
12. Sheila (33:26)
13. Miles Davis' Funeral (36:15)
Cure for Pain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgSH_eXjJA0
Buena
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNEYKrFJgRo
Thursday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyYQYmgTrrI
In Spite of Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTUFsL659jQ
'Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PSZ_4Xn7lo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRbFLnSf-Cg
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