Tag: Reunion bands

Fans fuel Toad the Wet Sprocket’s success

by thedailyrecord, posted in band feature

(Above: Toad the Wet Sprocket “Fly from Heaven.” The band lands at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City, Mo. on Thursday, Nov. 20.)

By Joel Francis
The Daily Record

The question never went away. Inevitably, someone would ask Glen Phillips when his old band, Toad the Wet Sprocket, was getting back together.

When that finally happened, the question changed: When are you making a new album? Sixteen years after their previous release, the answer arrived last summer with “New Constellations,” a Kickstarter-funded set of 15 new songs.

If that sounds like a long wait for a fan, think of it from Phillips point of view. Although happy to be back onstage with his friends, he was confined to singing material written during his early 20s.

“It was nice to be young, but I don’t want to live there forever,” said Phillips, now 43. “The new songs feel like us, but also feel relevant to what we do now. In addition, they have also brought our older material into new, broader context.”

1-toad2Toad the Wet Sprocket formed in the late ‘80s, and peaked in the early ‘90s. The quartet’s laid-back vibe provided an antidote to the angsty grunge dominating the radio at the time. In 1998, after two platinum albums, one gold record and a dozen Top 40 hits, the band called it a day.

“Enough years have passed and there is enough ease between us now that it was fun to come in and get to deal with Toad as a project,” Phillips said. “It used to be every song I wrote I brought to the band. If it didn’t work there, I had no other outlets.”

That depth was also helpful in selecting songs. “Finally Fading” originally appeared on Phillips’ 2005 album “Winter Pays for Summer.” “Bet On You” was built on “See You Again,” a song from fellow Toadster’s Todd Nichols and Dean Dinning’s Lapdog project.

“We did a lot of culling. Todd and Dean brought some songs in where I’d finish lyrics on them,” Phillips said. “When we reached the end it felt like there was a lot of up-tempo pop songs. We needed more slower, emotional material. That’s when I came up with ‘Enough.’”

With the amount of time between releases and amount of preparation that went into “New Constellations,” Phillips cautions this may be Toad’s final album before conceding even he doesn’t know the band’s future.

“What we may do in the future is do a single than a full ramp-up to an album,” Phillips said. “Making an album puts you on a long schedule. It is interesting to think about. We may look back and say ‘Why did we go through all of that?’

“Or maybe we will do another whole album. I don’t know.”

When Phillips and his bandmates last came to town, they were previewing “Constellations” material. Now, 15 months later, audiences have had time to learn the new songs and sing them back with the same passion as old favorites.

“We were never the cool kids,” Phillips said. “the people who stuck with us did because our music means a lot to them. That really benefited us (with the Kickstarter drive). We have been speaking to people’s hearts for a while and they decided to give back.”

Keep reading:

Review: Toad the Wet Sprocket

Matthew Sweet returns to Midwest Roots

Review: The Rainmakers

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Morris Day makes up for lost time

by thedailyrecord, posted in band feature, Kansas City Star
(Above: Morris Day and Jerome riff on Abbott and Costello in this scene from the 1984 film “Purple Rain.”)

By Joel Francis
The Kansas City Star

The original members of the ‘80s funk band the Time, including Morris Day, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and Jesse Johnson, will have an album of new material out within the next year if Day has his way.

“The original members get together when we can,” Day said. “It’s getting to the point where we can put something new out within the next year.”

After dropping three classic albums in the early ‘80s, the band briefly reunited in 1990. A group appearance at the 2008 Grammys kicked off the latest reconvening, Day said.

“What happened was we’ve been getting together and doing tracks for fun,” Day said. “It so happens Jimmy Jam is chairman of NARAS (National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences), the company that does the Grammys. They found out he was an original member of the Time and thought we needed to come out together. So we did that, which lead to a string (of shows) in Vegas at the Flamingo, then we decided to keep on going.”

Just don’t expect Jam, Lewis, Johnson or any new cuts on Morris Day and the Time’s current tour.

“We’re holding up on that (playing new cuts). We’re going to launch it in a way that makes sense at the time,” Day said. “I do know we sound even better than the old records. You’ll be surprised how good everybody looks and sounds. There are still a few original members. We still have Jellybean (Johnson) on drums and Monte (Moir) on keyboards. “

In 1980, Prince culled the best musicians from local Minneapolis bands Flyte Time, the Family and Grand Central to be in his pet side project, the Time. Although the Time’s 1981 debut album featured Prince on most of the instruments, the other musicians gradually had more input.

“On the first record, Prince played a lot of the instruments, but I played drums,” Day said. “Every time he was in the studio, I was down there with him working just as much. We cut the tracks together. With each album, the musicians played larger roles. You can see it from all the spin-off careers. Everyone became very efficient in the studio.”

Jam and Lewis made their name as producers working with Janet Jackson. The pair brought in Jellybean Johnson to help produce Jackson’s 1989 hit “Black Cat.” Jesse Johnson also worked with Jackson and has written music for several movies, including “The Breakfast Club,” in addition to recording as a solo artist.

“I knew we had something special right away from the first song the band had to learn,” Day said. “When we played our first big show at the 20 Grand in

08-24-2009.ngl_24MorrisDay_Product.GH72M5BFB.1
Day performs onstage in Ft. Worth, Texas in August, 2009.

Detroit, I started out with my back to the crowd and I could hear the people going nuts. Then after the show I saw the response from the musicians and people into music and knew we had something special.”

The Time found their biggest success after appearing in “Purple Rain,” which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

“When we made ‘Purple Rain’ we weren’t thinking the movie would be a blockbuster, we were just having fun,” Day said. “I’ve only seen once in its entirety and that was at the premier. That said, I think it’s held up well because I always end up running into people who can quote my lines like they wrote the script.”

Unfortunately, the band was no longer intact to enjoy the results.

“What happened was Jimmy and Terry missed a show in Atlanta. They were somewhere producing for S.O.S. Band, missed their flight and because of bad weather couldn’t get out,” Day said. “Because we were signed to Prince’s production company, he fired them. The band never felt the same to me after that. I wasn’t feeling it any more so I decided to start a solo career.”

Day continued to work with Prince, though, appearing in the film “Graffiti Bridge.” Eventually Day realized he liked music more than movies.

“Acting is not an easy gig. It takes a special talent that not just anyone can do it,” Day said. “It takes a lot of memory and concentration, things that don’t come easy to me. I like to work an hour, hour and a half, and be able to go into the studio at my leisure.  The musician has more control over life than an actor.”

After a lengthy absence, Day returned to the big screen for the “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” in 2001.

“That’s an interesting scenario, because apparently (director) Kevin (Smith) wrote the script with us in mind before he contacted us,” Day said. “It was a good experience. I had teenage kids at the time, and they just thought of me as the guy who dropped them off at school. But after ‘Jay and Silent Bob’ so many kids were coming up to me. It set young eyes hip to what I do.”

(Note: This article was written in advance of a scheduled concert by Morris Day and the Time on Nov. 6, 2009, at the Midland Theater in Kansas City, Mo. Unfortunately, Day cancelled the concert hours after the piece was submitted. It is published on The Daily Record for the first time.)

Review: Toadies

by thedailyrecord, posted in Concert review, Kansas City Star

(Above: “Possom Kingdom,” in case you forgot how it goes.)

By Joel Francis
The Kansas City Star

The Toadies’ career has been one of fits and spurts, so it was only fitting their concert at the Beaumont Club Thursday night be filled with stops and starts.

The Fort Worth hard rock quartet broke into the mainstream with their 1994 hit “Possom Kingdom” but didn’t get around to releasing their sophomore album until 2001, just in time for the band to break up. They regrouped in 2006 and cut their third album last year.

Just as most bands don’t wait seven years to deliver a follow-up, most also take their soundchecks before performing. The Toadies, however, let the roadies test their instruments for 10 minutes, starting less than a half hour into the 90-minute set. An hour later, the band aborted “Possom Kingdom,” the one song everyone in the room came to hear, to chastise a couple overly aggressive fans up front.

When the number resumed, it was a success for the same reason the band was even able to have a career at this point: The audience’s enthusiasm helped recapture any momentum that may have been lost.

The night opened with “I Come From the Water,” which fed the crowd’s hunger and got them involved early. The band knew just what the audience wanted – stuff from their breakthrough first album, “Rubberneck” – and gave them plenty of it. Before the evening was through, they’d played nearly every song of that release and a handful of tunes from the other two records.

The warhorses – “Backslider,” “I Burn,” “Away” – hadn’t lost any of their punch. The newer songs, like “Sweetness” and “So Long Lovely Eyes,” were cut from the same cloth and distinguishable only by the smaller number of people were singing along.

After waiting so long, the third-full room was appreciative of everything it got. The anthemic “Tyler” won back any goodwill squandered by the mid-set soundcheck. The band, meanwhile, worked out their sonic frustrations out with an especially angry “Velvet.”

Although most performances were taught readings of the album arrangements, the band took some time to stretch out during “Hell in High Water.” The new number started with an extended instrumental – too calculated for a jam, but looser than anything else played that night – and featured two guitar solos and another lengthy breakdown.

The band wasn’t shy about showing its influences. They snuck a snippet of “Eruption” into the closing of one number, and teased the audience with fragments of ZZ Top, “I Can’t Explain” and “Aqualung.”

Singer Todd Lewis summed up both the band and the crowd in the lyrics to “I Am A Man of Stone”: “You said baby don’t change/and I did not change.”