More Mary My Hope

Ironically, "pulling the plug" on this blog has rejuvenated my interest in posting - but not enough to actually want to post anything. Maybe in a few months....

So please don't consider this post a return to blogging. Regard it more as a "haunting" - a "dead" blogger returning to relive past glories! Or regard it as unfinished business - something I intended to post but didn't get around to posting.

Here is a collection of Mary My Hope tracks I have collated from various interweb sites. I figure it's better to have it all in one place than across multiple sites. Nevertheless, thanks to the original posters of this material - I wished I'd bookmarked your sites and could give credit where it's due, but so be it.

I've now re-upped about 10% of the Mega Upload links with Media Fire links. Again, if there are any dead links you want reposted don't hesitate to ask. I've already fulfilled a few requests, and it's no problemo.

Mary My Hope - Various

01 - One Cigarette
02 - Chains
03 - Goodnight (Demo)
04 - Grind (Live)
05 - Hourglass - She Will (Live)
06 - Wildman Childman (Live)
07 - Suicide King (Live)
08 - Swords (Live)
09 - All The Young Dudes (Live)

MP3

Pleasure Club - Here comes the trick

There's three bands/artists I feel that I've pushed harder than most on this blog (i.e. multiple posts) but which have elicited no comments: Arbouretum, Straitjacket Fits and James Hall.

Fear not, dear reader. The last thing I intend (or want) to do is lecture you on blog etiquette!

The reason for bringing this to your attention is simply that.....I'm puzzled! Is it that:

a) everyone already knows about these artists? i.e. don't bore us, Ralph, get to the chorus!

b) my musical radar is out of whack? Or to get technical, the Ralphee Dee musical radar has high sidelobe levels?!

Whatever.

But your penance is part three of the James Hall series! Or to be more precise, the debut Pleasure Club LP Here comes the trick. This album was actually intended to be the third Hall solo album. However, since Hall felt the album was more of a "band" effort he elected to release it under a band moniker rather than a solo project.

Here comes the trick follows the template set by Hall's second solo LP, Pleasure Club - a melting pot of Stones influenced rock, punk, funk and soul. Opener Permanent Solution starts (and ends) with eastern wailing, percussion and sitar, before breaking into a driving punky rocker, with a subdued midsection providing a brief respite.  High Stepping alternates between white-boy funk in the verses and driving rock in the chorus, and featuring a brief but great noisescape guitar "solo". Next is the Stonesy title track, which starts with acoustic guitar and vocals, developing into a swaggering rocker. One Hand Washes the Other starts with clean guitar and vocals, developing into Hendrix influenced heavy blues rock.

Roll Around is a slow tempo blues based around a sliding bass riff. Starting sparse and atmospheric, the song eventually evolves into a snarling beast with a huge guitar riff and unhinged vocals. Terrific stuff.

Shout! You're Automatic starts with vocals over a funky drumbeat. The bass and guitar eventually appear, and the song evolves into a white-boy funk rocker complete with wailing vocals and saxophone. Daze in Daze Out is a new wave/disco hybrid. Good Time Girl is late 70's Stones influenced, laid back, subtle funky in verses, driving rock in chorus, and featuring another great soundscape guitar solo.

Street Car  is a Beatle-esque slow tempo bluesy ballad. Marble Coast  is an excellent low-key, subdued rocker, with world wearied vocals. A supreme illustration of the concept of saying more with less. Holding Hands and Singing is a short lullaby, featuring just clean strummed guitar and vocals.

Another great album. Trust me, you need this album in your collection - hit that download link NOW!



Pleasure Club - 2001 - Here comes the trick

1. Permanent Solution
2. High Stepping
3. Here Comes the Trick
4. One Hand Washes the Other
5. Roll Around
6. Shout! You're Automatic
7. Daze in Daze Out
8. Good Time Girl
9. Street Car
10. Marble Coast
11. Holding Hands and Singing

FLAC Pt1, Pt2, Pt3
MP3

James Hall - Pleasure Club

Shoulda been huge returns to where it (almost) began, with James Hall, vocalist of sadly missed Atlanta gothic-psychedelic-post-punk rockers Mary My Hope.

Hall took a while to reappear after the demise of Mary My Hope. His first solo album My Love, Sex and Spirit showed promise, but was the portrait of an artist struggling to find his own identity while unable to break the shackles of the past.

However, his second solo album, Pleasure Club, delivers. It is the sound of a confident artist in full control. It runs the gamut from 60s/70s Rolling Stones (i.e. the best stuff), to Bowie-esque white boy soul/funk, to punk. A criminally under-rated masterpiece.

The album opens with the title track, a modern (for 1996) take on the Rolling Stones take on Chicago Blues, complete with wailing vocals and harmonica. Imagine a demented John Spencer's blues explosion and you're in the right ball park. Illingness is Exile era Stones, relaxed at the start, slowly building to a crescendo, with soaring chorus vocals.

Heatwave Radio starts with high intensity, featuring chiming guitars and desperate, snarling vocals. The intensity increases with an interesting tempo change in the chorus, before dropping down with a smooth sweet soul bridge complete with a sax solo, before another tempo change sends the song hurtling at high speed towards it's climax. A stone cold motherfucking classic.

Morninglust starts with subdued, clean arpeggio guitar, and builds slowly with shimmering guitar effects into the chorus. Honky Time starts umptempo and driving, with Andy Gill (Gang of Four) approved guitar bursts, and drops down into a subtle funky chorus complete with falsetto vocals. Should Know Better is Some girls era white boy funk.

Black is Black uses the old (by then) Pixies-Nirvana approved quiet-loud-quiet structure to great effect. It starts with subdued, desperate vocals and wah-wah guitar, before the band crash into the chorus, complete with snarling vocals: "I'm no rockstar, who's cracking". The last verse contains just whispered vocals, before the band again crash in for an even more ferocious final chorus. The albums second classic. A tour de force aptly demonstrating the understated sonic mastery of guitarist Lynn Wright.

I'm needy is in 5/4 time. It starts with subdued arpeggiated guitar, and slowly builds suspense until the band comes crashing in, eventually leading into an appropriately tortued guitar solo. Back stabbing has a relaxed Stones groove, with a great tempo change in the middle.

Elevation is subdued in the verses, with forlorn vocals, and slowly build into a melodic chorus with soaring vocals. Illustrated Babeis (sic) is relaxed and playful. Use me baby is white-boy soul/funk, with a great bassline and clean guitar throughout the verses, before the distorted guitars come crashing in for chorus.

So precious, from previous album My Love, Sex and Spirit, and is a curious addition to the album. It has a subtle reggae feel, accentuated by the guitar in the chorus. The drums kick in after chorus, leading into a descending chord sequences that is pure Mary My Hope - perfectly illustrating the midpoint between Mary My Hope and Pleasure Club that My Love, Sex and Spirit represented, while also illustrating the giant strides between the My Love, Sex and Spirit and Pleasure Club albums.

For a great interview with James Hall summarising his career, check out http://thesilvertongueonline.com/?p=347.


James Hall - 1996 - Pleasure Club

1. Pleasure Club
2. Illingness
3. Heatwave Radio
4. Morning Lust
5. Honky Time
6. Should Know Better
7. Black Is Black
8. I'm Needy
9. Back Stabbing
10. Elevation
11. Illustrated Babeis
12. Use Me Baby
13. Need My Man
14. So Precious


FLAC Pt1, Pt2, Pt3, Pt4
MP3

Mary My Hope - Museum/Monster is Bigger Than The Man

Like Sea Hags, Mary My Hope were a band you've probably only heard about if you had your ears to the ground at the right time. They emerged in the brief interlude between the hair metal and grunge eras. They were part of what I (pretensiously?) thought of as a new-wave of "intelligent" rock bands, including Jane's Addiction, The Big F, The Buck Pets, Green River and Soundgarden. I felt Jane's Addiction and Mary My Hope led this pack, and was convinced they both had enough talent to be successful without necessarily becoming mainstream. I was wrong on both counts!! While Jane's Addiction were spectacularly successful, Mary My Hope produced two masterpieces,  Museum and the Monster is Bigger Than The Man EP, before disappearing in a puff of smoke and apathy.

Despite their talent, Mary My Hope had some things going against them. They were not easily categorisable, and had no obvious ancestors. They were a post-punk rock band with a psychedelic streak, and sometimes referred to as gothic – a cringeworthy kiss-of-death if ever there was one. And vocalist James Hall’s reputed moody and sullen behaviour did not endear him to the music industry movers and shakers. Some years later Hall admitted that being a teenager at the time, he was too young to appreciate what he had. 

James Hall has a versatile classic rock voice, handling anything from a whisper to a scream with panache. It's hard to pin his vocals down, though there is a definite Jim Morrison influence. Guitarist Clinton Steele, bassist Sven Pipien and drummer Steve Lindenbaum had a knack of understanding what the songs needed, and understood the quiet-loud-quiet dynamics later used so effectively by Nirvana. Mary My Hope were more a chord based band than a big riff band. They were more about feel than flash, but were capable of producing a dense and claustrophobic wall of sound. They were more a “listening in a dark room with headphones” type of band than a “driving on a sunny day with the wind in your hair”.

So onto the Museum album. Opener Wildman Childman is a workman-like driving rocker, competent but unremarkable, giving little indication of what is to follow until the outro, where the band start to flex their muscles. It's about time is more intriguing: two verses built around a subtle funky bassline, followed by two meandering instrumental breaks.

Suicide king is where things really take off. The song starts with subdued clean-guitar minor-chord strumming through the first verse and chorus, and then takes off in response to Hall’s rallying cry of “lift me up". This structure is repeated, leading into a heavy rock psychedelic freak out filled with oohs and aahs, demonic screaming and wailing and spooky minor chord piano. Fantastic stuff. Communion follows a similar template to Suicide King, before changing tempo midstream, and leading into an adventurous instrumental break with neat soloing.

I'm not singing and Heads and tails both have a subdued, bluesy feel, the
former with unsettling The Wall era Pink Floyd vocals, the former with a
Stones influence. These are followed by Grind, a crunchy mid-tempo rocker,
with some resemblance to Pink Floyd's Run Like Hell.

I'm not Alone is the second great song on the album, following the Suicide King quiet-loud-quiet template with another psychedelic freak out at the end. Death of me is subdued, with psychedelic effect laden vocals by guitarist Clinton Steele, and a haunting violin solo. A perfect song to end an album.

The Monster is Bigger Than The Man EP is a hodgepodge of material from different sources, including two songs from Museum, a Museum outtake, three new tracks and two live tracks. It starts with the title track, another quiet-loud-quiet epic along the lines of Suicide King, except with a longer, slower build. The song starts with psychedelic effects laden guitar and subdued vocals, before taking off at around the three minute mark with oohs and aahs, distorted vocals, and a guitar orchestra - more psychedelic guitars, guitar solos and feedback awash in reverberation – fantastic stuff. Brian Eno’s Needles in a camel's eye won't go down in the list of great rock covers but is interesting nonetheless, owing to the heavily chorused guitar effect.

Salvation Bus inverts the quiet-loud-quiet structure. It starts "loud" with a great opening riff and settles into a nice groove, before entering a "quiet" pre-chorus (almost the musical equivalent of the floor falling from under your feet!), and a "loud" chorus. This structure is repeated, followed by a mesmerizing chord sequence, a tasteful melodic solo, and then back to the pre-chorus/chorus and outro. A songwriting masterclass. Seven minutes in length, but not a second too long.

The live tracks I’m not alone and It’s about time don't reveal anything not apparent on the Museum versions, but clearly show the band could cut the mustard live.

I've also included the only unreleased Mary My Hope material I've ever located - from so many years go I've long forgotten where! It is an incomplete version of Monster is Bigger Than The Man from the LA Roxy in 1989. If anyone has the complete version, or any other unreleased Mary My Hope material they want to share, please (please!!) contact me ASAP.

James Hall later went on to a solo career with albums My love sex and spirit and Pleasure club, before forming the band Pleasure Club and releasing Here comes the trick and The Fugitive Kind. Clinton Steele later joined Swans, and Sven Pipien joined The Black Crowes – both quality bands, attesting to the musical talents of members of Mary My Hope.

  

Mary My Hope - 1989 - Museum

1. Wildman Childman
2. It's About Time
3. Suicide King
4. Untitled
5. Communion
6. Hourglass
7. I'm Not Singing
8. Heads and Tails
9. Grind
10. I'm Not Alone
11. Death Of Me

MP3

FLAC Pt1, Pt2, Pt3, Pt4

Mary My Hope - 1989 - The Roxy, LA

1. Monster is Bigger Than The Man

MP3

Mary My Hope - 1990 - Monster is Bigger Than The Man

1. Monster is Bigger Than The Man

2. She Will

3. Needles in a camel's eye

4. Salvation bus

5. Wildman Childman

6.  Hourglass

7. I'm Not Alone (live) 

8. It's About Time (live)

MP3

FLAC Pt1, Pt2, Pt3