Tuatara |
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Mon. April 27.1998 11:52 AM EDT |
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Tuatara Show No Fear In Facing The EnemySophomore album from collective ranges from cop-rock to township grooves. by Senior Writer Gil Kaufman |
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Group (pictured) minus Scott McCaughey released its debut album, Breaking the Ethers, a year ago. ( ) |
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The members of Seattle's Tuatara sound fearless -- when it comes to their
music, at least. They'll be the first to tell you that they wouldn't mind hearing their jazzy world vibes remixed, re-configured and regurgitated in as many
"I definitely wouldn't be averse to a remix album," said R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, who along with Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin, Critters Buggin' saxophonist Skerik and Luna's Justin Harwood make up the core of the experimental, instrumental band. With a sophomore album, Trading With The Enemy, due on June 16, Buck, Martin and their newest recruit, multi-instrumentalist Scott McCaughey of the Minus 5, sat down earlier this year to discuss the endless creative possibilities open to the band. The new, 12-track album features songs that run the gamut from movie soundtrack-sounding pieces to cop rock a la '70s TV action-drama "Starsky and Hutch," with a Japanese folk song and the odd township-jive groove thrown in for good measure. "We use loops and some dub stuff live," Buck said. "We're not afraid of technology. I'd even like to hear a female vocalist belt out some tunes someday. Maybe make a really lush diva record, like a k.d. lang-type of thing." Considering that this is a band that prides itself on freeing its members to experiment and, as Buck described, "pick up instruments I don't even know how to hold," it's not surprising that Trading With The Enemy sounds nothing like each of the members' main bands. "Yeah, what would end up happening is that you'd walk over to some instrument that wasn't being used," McCaughey explained, "and you'd just pick it up and end up composing something on it; and that was a really cool, liberating thing." Drummer Martin said the group -- which a year ago released its debut album, Breaking the Ethers, including the title track (RealAudio excerpt) -- is an ideal blend of personalities and musical sensibilities. "We all like each other and each other's music, and here's an opportunity to bounce ideas off each other," Martin said. "Plus, we all work really fast." In fact, it is just such a spirit of cooperation and cross-pollination of musicians and musical ideas -- not the now passé grunge explosion -- that could be the lasting legacy of the Seattle scene. And it's in that spirit that Tuatara will embark on yet another musical adventure, this time with an upcoming tour on which they will be joined by Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan. This is a sequel of sorts to last summer's critically acclaimed "Magnificent Seven" tour, which featured members of Tuatara serving as the backing band for ex-American Music Club crooner Mark Eitzel, as well as participating in sets by McCaughey's Minus 5. Tuatara will take to the road in mid-June to play nightly sets of their own music, as well as perform as Lanegan's backing band on a tour to support his upcoming third solo effort, Scraps at Midnight (July). "We're in the process of putting together a tour called 'A Night of Music with Tuatara and Mark Lanegan,' " said Tuatara manager Erin Haley on Tuesday. Haley said the tour is tentatively slated to start on the East Coast around mid- June (after R.E.M. perform -- for the first time without founding drummer Bill Berry -- at this year's Tibetan Freedom benefit concert, June 13-14) and continue on the West Coast in late July. Tuatara also will be playing at the WOMAD (World of Music Arts and Dance) festival at Seattle's Marymoor Park from July 31-Aug. 2 on a bill that also features Joan Osborne, the Klezmatics, Bela Fleck, African legend Baaba Maal and Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo, among others. The only other confirmed date is a July 11 appearance at the American Music Festival in Winter Park, Colo., on a bill that also will feature Morphine and Pakistani singer Badar Ali Khan. |
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