Playing casually uncategorizable music that is nonetheless relentlessly tuneful, Shrimp Boat is a Chicago treasure with a universal sound.
The quartet, which headlines Saturday at Cabaret Metro, has just released ”Duende” (Bar/None). It ranks with the half-dozen best albums of 1992, yet there is no denying Shrimp Boat is one prickly little rascal of a band to get a handle on.
In the middle of a loping folk song, bassist David Kroll and drummer Brad Wood will break out their saxophones for a free-jazz breakdown. Or guitarists Sam Prekop and Ian Schneller will slide into a modal drone accented by Kroll`s bluegrass banjo. Or the group will somehow manage to bridge the gap between Appalachia and Albert Ayler in one three-minute stretch.
Clearly, Shrimp Boat approaches ”rock” from a different perspective from, say, the Black Crowes.
”We`re extremely open to anything, but we don`t set out to baffle,”
says Prekop, whose just-rolled-out-of-bed vocal style is another of the band`s myriad facets.
During Shrimp Boat`s first shows six years ago, the band`s five-and-dime brand of multiculturalism tended to make listeners` eyeballs glaze over.
”We killed a lot of parties,” says Prekop, sitting with the rest of the band in its apartment/rehearsal space on the Southwest Side.
Inevitably, however, anyone who has heard Shrimp Boat for more a few minutes will go away humming one of its tunes. Frequent performances at Phyllis` Musical Inn have turned into rapturous three- and four-hour affairs, punctuated by ecstatic dancing.
”We had to deal with the apparition of the cross-eyed people on a regular basis,” says Schneller, as his band mates laugh. ”Now we spot these puppies out there and they have to deal with the fact that their girlfriends are rocking themselves into a sweat on the dance floor.”
Says Wood: ”When I first heard Shrimp Boat, they had these huge hooks
(melodies), placed in a strange kind of lettuce bed, rubbing elbows with some really weird things.” Wood joined the band after producing its first full-fledged album, the masterly ”Speckly” (Speciman Products), in 1989 at his Idful recording studio.
”But even with the most `out` jazz guys, the best stuff is based on a folk melody or a progression that everyone can hum or sing, something really simple that every culture has-like banging on coconuts that are tuned to the same pitch that (John) Coltrane played the last two years of his life. That`s the whole point. It`s supposed to be universal.”
Shrimp Boat stumbled onto its sound, placing its faith in inspiration, improvisation and its members after Prekop, Schneller and Kroll emerged from the School of the Art Institute.
Technique was developed by accident and songs were composed and then discarded; the band initially prided itself on never playing the same tune twice.
”I figured out that I could amuse myself for hours on the guitar, even though I didn`t know how to play,” Prekop says.
Better yet, ”we found right away that we could all play together without quite knowing what we`re doing.”
When Wood was brought in as the band`s drummer, he had never played the instrument before.
”It would have been hard to pull off with a so-called rock drummer,”
Prekop says. ”The idea was to treat him like a newborn on the instrument.”
The singer approaches lyrics to his offbeat love songs the same way:
While recording, ”I might have some lyrics I sing during the first take of a song and by about the fifth take they will have changed entirely. With the words, I try to pile up as many accidents as possible, and hope to find some sort of meaning beyond anything I could come up with.
”If you set out enough material, and weave through it, somehow these connections will be made in a brand new way.”
The group`s ”brand new way” became more melodic and accessible on
”Duende” and even more so on a recent EP, ”Small Wonder” (Ajax).
” `What the heck is it you guys do?` We heard that a lot from people,”
Schneller says. ”People who`d listen for four hours would still say that. And while I like that response, that was never the intention. We wanted to present a more easily digestible package” with ”Duende.”
The cover illustration of the duende-a mythical, leprechaun personage common in Spanish culture-was discovered by Kroll while on vacation in Guatemala.
”Later on I stumbled on some text on flamenco music, and the flamenco players were always referred to as searching for their duende, as an alternative to their angel or their muse, two other more commonly understood things that artists look for,” Schneller says. ”Duende is a more radical outpouring of inspiration.”
Inspiration has never been a problem for Shrimp Boat. Schneller says the band has several albums` worth of material ready for release.
”In spite of the fact that it hasn`t paid yet, I`m deeply enraptured”
by playing in the band, he says. ”My intention is to be able to pay my rent someday with it. But I can be patient.”
– Bruce Springsteen introduced his new band the other night during a gritty, three-song performance on ”Saturday Night Live,” his first network television appearance ever.
Drummer Zachary Alford, guitarist Shane Fontayne and bassist Tommy Simms joined the lone holdover from Springsteen`s longtime E Street Band, keyboardist Roy Bittan.
Springsteen opens his American tour July 23, with the first of five shows at the Brendan Byrne Arena in New Jersey, after a month of concerts in Europe. No Chicago date has been set.
On May 21, Columbia Records will release the second single from Springsteen`s ”Human Touch” album: ”57 Channels (And Nothin` On).”
– The nine-member South African choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo, currently winning rave reviews for its a cappella dramatics in ”The Song of Jacob Zulu” at Steppenwolf Theatre, will have the stage to itself in a late singing performance Thursday at China Club.
Those who know the group only from its current theatrical activity or from Paul Simon`s ”Graceland” album, most notably for the track ”Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” may be astonished to discover the group has been together some 30 years, releasing more than two dozen albums of classic mbube singing.
After its success with Simon, the group ventured into fusion experiments with backing instrumentation, but its precise harmonies are best experienced unadorned. On ”Classic Tracks” (Shanachie, 1990), a fine overview of the group`s history, the group sings in its native tongue, yet the voices convey an ecstasy and spirituality that are beyond words.
On Monday, Simon will join the group at Steppenwolf in a benefit for Headman Shabalala, one of Ladysmith`s founding members, who was found slain last December along a highway near Durban, South Africa. A white factory security guard has been charged in the slaying.
