11/01/2005

What becomes of the musical packrat.

Today I dug something up randomly from deep in the annals of my music collection. Specifically, I'm talking about The Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, an Athens, Georgia-based band from the early 90s that are so forgotten at this point that I wouldn't be surprised to learn that I'm the only person not connected to their musical career who remembers them. The fact that I could randomly have one of their songs pop into my head while I was in the shower and be able to dig up both of their records within 10 minutes of leaving the bathroom is one of the truly great things about my tendency to obsessively cling to every piece of music I've ever owned. Sure, I'll occasionally sell stuff when I need money, but even though I sometimes think about how I have way too much stuff (usually around the time of a move), I never even consider throwing away or donating, for example, the boxes and boxes of cassettes I taped off the radio in high school and haven't listened to since. And it's times like this that I remember why that is.

Chickasaw Mudd Puppies only existed for a brief time in the very early 90s, and were the sort of band that are just too unconventional to describe in terms of genre or band comparison. Like many bands of this nature, they slipped through the cracks, only releasing an EP and an LP before disappearing. I found out about them when I saw the video for "Do You Remember" on MTV's 120 Minutes in 1991, and was intrigued enough to dub a copy of their EP, "White Dirt", from a friend of mine's mom (of everyone I knew, she was the only person who owned any of their albums. I should have seen the foreshadowing in that fact). I didn't get a copy of "Do You Remember" until much later, ordering it off half.com a couple of years ago for around $5 including postage. It's not all that common of a used CD, but people just don't want this stuff.

I, for one, think that's a shame. It may not be easy to say what genre of music Chickasaw Mudd Puppies play, but one thing's for sure: it's a lot of fun to listen to. Their band came out of isolation; they were only discovered because singer/harmonica player Brant Slay happened to live next door to Michael Stipe, who heard Brant and guitarist/backup vocalist Ben Reynolds practicing on their front porch. During live shows, Brant would sit in a rocking chair like he had on his front porch when they practiced. Other instruments would be brought into the mix, especially on record, but Brant and Ben were the only real members of the band, and they had a fair amount of songs that used no instrumentation but guitars, harmonica, and Brant's feet stomping on the floor as he sang.

My copy of "White Dirt" was dubbed 13 years ago, and has been stored coverless in a milk crate with a lot of other coverless tapes for at least a decade of that time, which necessitated 10 minutes of digging before I found it. For all that, the damn thing still sounds really good. It's a bit muffled, but the production on the original recording was raw enough that it doesn't make that much difference. The album starts with "McIntosh", a rollicking, upbeat tune backed by skiffle-sounding percussion, heavy on the speedily brushed snare. Ben Reynolds plays an electric guitar, but his riffing is descended from a time when country and rock n' roll were far closer to each other than they are now. Meanwhile, Brant Slay's frantic harmonica solos and absurdist lyrics that pile up non-sequiturs about "a three-leg alligator layin' in a wallow" and "a great blue heron boxing with his shadow" without ever assembling them into any coherent narrative give the overall impression of hearing a radio station that's being beamed in from the bayou swamps of Venus or something. It's completely out of nowhere. It also fucking rocks.

The other songs on "White Dirt" vary in intensity, from similarly upbeat tunes like "Lon Chaney", which tells the story of the famous silent-film actor, but still from the perspective of the insane alien swamp creature who narrates "McIntosh" (sample "Lon Chaney" lyric: "Laugh that ol' laugh or he'll get slapped, the eyes are connected to the brim of your cap") to mournful country wails like the percussion-less "Skinny" and "Prison," which features a violin and at 3:57 is twice as long as almost every other song on the album. The entire thing is over in less than 25 minutes, and by the time it's over you just want to hear the whole thing again.

"8 Track Stomp", the full-length followup, is not bad, but it sadly loses a lot of what made "White Dirt" so weirdly transcendent. The production, jointly handled by Michael Stipe and blues legend Willie Dixon(!), is far clearer than that of "White Dirt", but this if anything does a disservice to Chickasaw Mudd Puppies' music. The raw, grotty sound of "White Dirt" accentuated the uniqueness of their sound, and removing it does a lot to diminish the mysterious, alien intensity that Chickasaw Mudd Puppies found on that album. That's not to say that it's all bad--"Do You Remember" is every bit as great as it sounded when I first heard it 14 years ago. It's aided by a riff structure that utilizes a lot more complicated chording than the standard blues progressions that most Mudd Puppies songs are based around. Also, the band members make some rare choices with their instrumentation that change the impression the song gives. Ben Reynolds plays an acoustic guitar, which allows the natural resonance of that instrument to draw more of the song's natural melody out into the open, while Brant Slay forgoes his usual technique of singing through a harmonica microphone, exchanging the metallic echoing sound that this gives his normal singing for a clearer, more melodic vocal tone.

They are less successful when attempting to repeat what they'd already done on "White Dirt". Some of the more standard Chickasaw Mudd Puppies songs here still work well, especially "Jambalaya", which features clanking cowbells and grinding ratchets as its sole percussion, "Night Time", with more of Brant's swamp dada approach to lyrics, and "Moving So Fast", a cover of producer Willie Dixon that is faithful without failing to inject a healthy dose of the unique Mudd Puppies personality. Tellingly, all of these tunes are grouped closely together at the beginning of the album. Things start to peter out toward the middle, especially when they hit "Shannon Loves Bisquit", a slow ballad that gives lead vocals to Ben while leaving Brant to play harmonica--a mistake the producers shouldn't have allowed them to make. While the social commentary of "Wasp" shows that Brant and Ben are not so isolated as not to be aware of the problems in the world, it seems awkward from a band who you'd expect to write a song with that title about insects, not white men. A second Willie Dixon cover, "Oh Yeah", sounds almost gospel at times, and is as awkward musically as "Shannon Loves Bisquit".

In the end, the lesson of "8 Track Stomp" may just be that Chickasaw Mudd Puppies shouldn't try to stretch what they do far enough to fill an entire full-length. Perhaps if they'd left the listener wanting more, as they did on "White Dirt", instead of making the album feel just a bit too long, it would have worked better. In the end, though, it's still a pity that so little recorded work of theirs exists. I'd love to hear what they'd have come up with, given another year or two to sit on their front porch and write another album. Hopefully they'd have kept it quick n' dirty, too. But there's really no use pontificating about it. Instead, those of you in the mood for something unlike anything you've ever heard before would be well advised to hunt down a copy of "White Dirt". And play it loud. With the windows open. Trust me.

20 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Perhaps it's a bit absurd to respond to a post a year later, but I just stumbled upon this while looking for any indication that any music at all was being produced by either member of one of my favorite bands. I'm glad to see someone else found them remarkable. I bought both albums back in the day, and waited many sad years for a follow up to '8-Track Stomp.' While I agree that there is something darker and grittier about "White Dirt," I'm goofy for both recordings("WASP" is actually one of my favorites and "Oh Yeah" has shown up on a few of my mixtapes.) While playing the Mudd Puppies at work, I startled a co-worker who was also shocked that anyone not connected to the band owned any of their albums. As it turns out, she is friends with Ben Reynolds and used to let the guys crash at her place when they would play up here in the north. She claims the demise of the band was due to a falling out between Ben & Brant. Bummer.

1:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ohhh sppoooky that you get 2 comments long after you originally posted! i was just googling to see what ever happened to them and found your post. i would have thought they'd have some sort of solo action.

i have both albums on my ipod & they sound pretty damned good.

7:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Make that three. I was googling for Brant and found this post. Love the band, have both albums on CD now. Had "White Dirt" on tape way back when and found the empty box years later. Never found the tape so I had to go on a search for the CD's. Finally got both for $15 total -- an absolute steal. Still some of the most original music out there.

What the hell happened to Brant Slay?

4:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Want to know what happened to Brant Slay: he's a nature conservationist in Georgia:
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/georgia/files/year_in_review_06.pdf (see page 4)

8:48 PM  
Blogger cleanhead said...

Yet another voice from the tiny population of those who know and remember the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies. I bought White Dirt when it first came out, after hearing one or two of the songs (don't remember which on WUOG, the UGA radio station. It took me 16 years to find a copy of 8 Track Stomp, but I finally got it.

Your review is excellent. I can't explain why these guys never found a following, but there's a lot about music I don't understand.

9:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The preceding posts are spot-on (about how great this band was)... I happened to be in the Atlanta/Athens GA area when the Mudpuppies were working that circuit pretty hard. I saw them perform live 3 or 4 times and they were a captivating live show. I own both of their studio recordings (as far as I know, there were only 2 records). I think these records are a fine representation of the band's stunning live performances (though, of course, one loses the electricity of the audience-performer interaction - and these guys definitely interacted with their audience)....

Frankly, the Mudpuppies' performance is difficult for me to describe (beyond the "swamp stomp" label they gave themselves). It's two guys: one playing a bass drum, washboard, harmonica, whiskey jug (yes, all at the same time); and another playing electric guitar. At full-steam they are a bona fide force.

In any case, I left the Atlanta/Athens GA area long ago (about 15 years ago), having enjoyed many great bands from around there. The Chickasaw Mudpuppies were absolutely one of the greatest of those bands....

Obviously, I remember them fondly. I wish more of us were out here issueing the kudos those guys deserve.

4:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just found this blog after finding a
video by The Mudpuppies on YouTube.
I went to school with Ben. Great Guy!
Their music was so raw yet so real. It is ashame that they couldn't have
produced more music.
Hope you guys can check out the video from YouTube.

6:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was at the right place at the right time to enjoy the beginning of the Mudd Puppies, and stayed through to the end. I loved their music and went to every live show I could (I was a grad student at UGA). I loved many bands and was a huge R.E.M. fan, but never heard anything like the Muddpuppies, before or after they were popular. They drove their audiences crazy back then. I even caught them when they were on tour for 8 Track Stomp - I saw them in Philadelphia at a small club, and I think I was the only Athenian there. Fantastic original sound that for reasons not known to me, is no more. I suppose poor sales of their second record was the main reason. Very sad - I still miss them today (July 2007).

8:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ben put out and album with workhorses of the entertianment/recordeing industry (we/ri) that is worth a listen. The song Donkey Show is about the last days of the Mudpuppies.

10:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just happened upon this posting (2 years+ later) when I decided to google them after burning "White Dirt" for a friend whose band oddly enough reminds me of the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies (check them out, they're called Restaurant). Being a generation (and then some) younger than me, he'd never heard of them. I first saw them at SXSW in about 1989. I was blown away! So was the A&R person I was with and she signed them to Polygram right after that. Their shows were raw and raucous and a good time was guaranteed for all!

7:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

WOW...
its crazy after all this time that I stumbled onto this blog.
I can still remember seeing these guys in Athens...I was completely blown away! White Dirt is still one of my favorite CD's and I continue to tell friends about their music...

it's nice to see they have not been forgotten :D
(Dec 2007)

3:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hootie hoo!

3:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

wow. this is fucking cool. i was a HARD CORE "Mudd-head." brant's mom taught me grade school, & i was a senior in high school when white dirt dropped. bought a copy that day. couple of buddies & I saw every show they played in athens for about two years straight. had bootlegs, including a show in amsterdam when they opened for jane's addiction. knew every song in their live catalog. still have white dirt on my ipod. lost 8 track stomp & have yet to replace. brant lives about 20 miles from me now. the boys friggin' rocked. they were unbelievable. billips, if you're out there, post something. Hootie-Hoo!

2:31 PM  
Blogger Runs In Circles said...

I saw the Mudd Puppies in Cicero's basement in St Louis, one of the places Uncle Tupelo got their start, and have never forgotten them. Now I need to dig up my cassettes.

12:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure the band broke up because the two members could no longer work together.

12:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I saw them in Austin around 1992 I think. I stumbled on this blog looking for what happened to them as well...very unique band.

11:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was also a big fan, my friend's sister was a college DJ up in Vermont and she gave me a tape. I then went to College of Charleston. My first attempt to see the band in Charleston ended in me being arrested for under age drinking on the ride to the bar. I was dressed in my finest stomp clothes with duct taped boots and the cop told me that I reminded her of her "crackhead" brother from New York- I took it as a compliment.

7:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i still talk to brant every once in a while..

11:30 AM  
Blogger greguzzi said...

I, too, stumbled on this after googling them. I saw them play three time. First at Mpls.'s First Ave., when they opened for Jane's Addiction. Talk about a mismatch. The second time was a short time later when they opened for Jane's Addiction at the Civic Center in St. Paul. The final time was at the 7th St. Entry. All three times, they totally kicked ass. I was hoping to find that there was something beyond 8-Track Stomp and those shows. Sadly, no.

11:16 PM  
Blogger Brett Larner said...

I'm not sure what compelled me to google the Mudd Puppies tonight, but somehow or another "Do You Remember" is stuck in my head. I saw them at the same St. Paul Civic Center gig opening for Jane's Addiction in '91 that someone else mentioned. Great show. (May, 2010)

8:41 AM  

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