Sanctuary Records
2004
Live At Perkin's Palace
About This Album
While their last album, Anytime at All, had about 20 players on it, this time Banyan's Stephen Perkins stripped the band down to just its core: Mike Watt on bass, Nels Cline on guitar, Willie Waldman on trumpet, and Perkins on drums and percussion. Throw your preconceptions out the window, these guys come on more like Miles Davis' early-'70s band than an indie rock supergroup, and they make an absolutely glorious racket. The album has a very live feel to it, but Live at Perkins' Palace isn't a live album in the classic sense; there are clearly some overdubs and studio effects sparingly used throughout. "Mad as a Hornet" starts things out sounding like an outtake from Agharta, with Perkins doing an excellent Al Foster and Waldman's trumpet slurring like Miles. Watt's sturdy bass provides the same sort of fierce, driving bottom end as Michael Henderson, and Nels Cline's guitar snarls just as ferociously as Pete Cosey. "Oh My People" gets a bit more outwardly funky then leads to the slightly ominous "Om Om Om," where Cline unleashes some wonderfully sick and otherworldly tones from his guitar and some great delay work. "El Sexxo" sounds something like Miles meeting Robert Fripp in Morrocco.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9 and 11)

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