The Six Musical Degrees of Separation, Part 3: Hampton Grease Band is related to Walls of Genius

 

For the third edition of The Six Musical Degrees of Separation, I decided to trace a relationship between two very interesting experimental rock collectives. Those bands are Hampton Grease Band and Walls of Genius. First, Hampton Grease Band were a collective from Atlanta, Georgia that existed between 1966 and 1973. The band became famous for their wacky stage performances, and they released their first and only album, Music to Eat, in 1971 on Columbia Records. HGB’s music is a mixture of the crazed humor and experimentalism of Frank Zappa, the angular blues of Captain Beefheart, the lengthy improvisational jam sessions of the Allman Brothers Band, and the country-tinged psychedelic stylings of the Grateful Dead. Second, Walls of Genius were a trio from Colorado formed in the early 1980’s by Dave Lichtenberg, a.k.a. Little Fyodor, Ed Fowler, and Evan Cantor. They were key figures in the Cassette Culture movement, recording and releasing many tapes since their creation, although some of the band’s recordings you can find as CDr’s and Bandcamp downloads. WoG’s music is a blend of Pink Floyd-style space rock, strange experimentalism bordering on both Frank Zappa and the Residents, ambient electronics, and deconstructive covers of popular songs. I find the music of both Hampton Grease Band and Walls of Genius to be entertaining and fun.

The relationship between Hampton Grease Band and Walls of Genius is summed up in 5 moves:

1. In 1967, Bruce Hampton and Harold Kelling, two members from the Hampton Grease Band, including former bassist Charlie Phillips (that was before he was replaced by Mike Holbrook), were invited by Frank Zappa to record some conversations for his debut solo album Lumpy Gravy. This was according to the history of the HGB as told by guitar player Glenn Phillips on his own website.
2. Frank Zappa was in the Mothers of Invention with Don Preston.
3. Don Preston contributed some synthesizer work on the Residents’ 1979 album Eskimo.
4. The Residents were guest musicians on Negativland’s 1987 album Escape from Noise.
5. And, finally, Negativland went on tour in 1993, when they were joined by Little Fyodor, who was from Walls of Genius!

I should admit that compiling this information was a little difficult, since I didn’t know what band I should connect Hampton Grease Band to. But, I was glad I was able to find a second band!

Hampton Grease Band-Music to Eat (1971)

Today, I’m going to review an album that I seriously want to get on CD or vinyl (it sucks that this album isn’t even on iTunes yet!). The album in question is Music to Eat, the only album released in 1971 by the Hampton Grease Band. The Hampton Grease Band was formed in Atlanta, Georgia, and before they recorded this album, the band became known for their wacky and quirky stage antics ranging from covering the whole stage with junk to inviting a lot of friends over to do random things. Here’s a review, from the album’s gatefold, that describes the latter performance:

“On stage with the Grease Band were friends who danced, watched TV, listened to the music and marched around stage as if at home in their living room. One girl even read a book and another sewed on an American flag during the Grease Band’s performance. 

As to their `music’–and I use the term loosely–the band performed much the same way. Very little of what they did had any context within itself. The casual actions on stage relayed directly to the audience and caused wandering, talking and virtual unrest.”

The band even performed at the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1970, and the band was brought to the attention of Columbia Records, who wanted to give the band a record deal. Music to Eat was the second worst-selling album in the history of Columbia Records at the time, as the honor for the worst-selling album stayed with a Maharishi Mahesh yoga record. Because of a lack of potential radio hits, Columbia marketed it to stores as a comedy record, which makes perfect sense because a famous comedy troupe that were on Columbia Records at this point was the Firesign Theater. However, Music to Eat was far from being a comedy album, but the lyrics are full of lead vocalist Bruce Hampton’s strange sense of humor, and some tracks have sound effects that give the album a rather whimsical feel. The music is a perfect mixture of Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, The Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead, and Frank Zappa. Even Bruce Hampton’s vocals sound a LOT like Captain Beefheart himself. but with a more tenor voice.

I listened to all the tracks on the album before, thanks to YouTube. Here are each of the track descriptions, by order:

“Halifax”-The 19-minute opening track starts off in a soft rock manner, similar to the Journey classic “Lights”. The lyrics for this track was literally taken from an encyclopedia page about the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The music develops a drumbeat and the guitars begins to have a more progressive tone. Try to imagine Captain Beefheart making a lengthy progressive rock song! Glockenspiel appears for a bit with soft guitar jamming. The music changes in tempo, and one of the guitarists begins to sing a duel (not duet) with Bruce. Vibraphone appears in a jazzy, lounge-style jam. The guitars begin to dart in like a satellite signal beaming into outer space, with the drums having a more jazz-fusion approach. Later on, a guitar begins to make an experimental sound that sounds like a telephone ring being echoed into space, and a similar sound comes in after some more guitar jamming. More vocals come in, with the guitars futzing around a little and making weird sound effects. A reprise of the vocal duel appears, but with a different key. A Minutemen-style punk jam appears, reminding me of the band’s 1984 classic Double Nickels on the Dime, which I have in my ITunes collection (great album, by the way). The guitar soloing in this part sounds like Led Zeppelin. Another jazz jam appears. After all of this endless jamming, a voice sample of one of the album’s recording engineers appears, talking about how he doesn’t trust the tape recorder that was used for the track (it was an 8-track recorder that had only 5 tracks working). A reprise of the very opening part of the track appears to close it out.

“Maria”-This piece is about Mexican teenagers stalking a woman taking a bath. A quirky, Frank Zappa-style folk rock number with acoustic guitar. The glockenspiel from “Halifax” makes a return. This time, it’s not just Bruce Hampton singing the lead. Silly voices appear throughout the track. The track gets a bit ethereal later on, with a rather calm acoustic solo. Afterwards, it gets upbeat with group vocals, with one of the vocalists sounding a bit like “Weird Al” Yankovic. A noodley solo appears, reminding me of the solo from the Residents’ 1971 cover of Frank Zappa’s “King Kong”. The track gets dramatic at the end.

“Six”-This is another 19-minute track about a series of weird events involving aliens from the planet Pajodis, as how Bruce Hampton describes it. Like “Halifax”, this has a lot of bizarre jamming. Near the end of the track, an old-school country hoedown appears, before reprising to the original opening jam.

“Evans”-A 12-minute piece that is about a guy named Jim Evans. A majority of this track consists of uninspired guitar soloing. Before the track finishes, you can hear a bunch of people running around the studio and freaking out, in a manner similar to that of the unreleased Residents rarity “Going to Arcata Blues” off of The Warner Bros. Album, which was also recorded in 1971.

“Lawton”-This is a jam between guitarist Harold Kelling and drummer Jerry Fields. A majority of the opening consists of strange electronic sound effects and percussion, sounding like something Pink Floyd would do in the late 60’s and early 70’s. When actual guitar sounds do show up, it’s just strange jamming. Tribal chants also appear, and the track ends with a Hammond organ-like distorted guitar chord along with semi-choral vocals.

“Hey Old Lady/Bert’s Song”-This track reminds me a LOT of Minutemen during their Double Nickels period. The track is divided into two themes, one about a crazy old lady, and the other about a garbage truck driver.

“Hendon”-This closing track is over 20 minutes long. It features stuff ranging from Bruce Hampton singing lyrics from a can of spray paint, an anatomy lesson, horse hooves clopping about, and a lot of jazzy, abstract jamming that all leads to an Allman Brothers-style improv. Practically the best track on the whole album.

I told my Mom practically the whole story behind the Hampton Grease Band and this album, and I even shared a couple of the album’s tracks on Facebook, and to her, they all sounded incredibly weird. This album is so awesome that I may buy it on either CD or vinyl, so that way I can listen to it at home. If I want to form my own band, it would be like the Hampton Grease Band, but also fusing with the arena rock styles of Journey. It would be awesome combining two of my all-time favorite bands!