The Wake's songs mix musical elements willy-nilly: Three female singers, their voices playing off each other in counterpoint or united in sweet, soaring harmony, are regularly supplemented by spiky keyboards, elegiac flute, trumpet blasts and a hot-rod guitar sound that would thrill most metalheads. The results are always interesting, but they don't always work--Martha's Wake can send audiences on a roller-coaster ride of dizzying highs and snoozy lows. One minute the group is slicing along the cutting edge; the next it's indulging in the type of overcooked noodling favored by pretentious art rockers.
The band was formed six years ago by Nichols and his wife, Melody, a bassist who also writes the majority of the lyrics. "Basically," Jon says, "we started the day we got back from our honeymoon."
"We never really expected to ever play out," Melody adds. "We stayed in the basement for a long time."
At last count some 21 players had passed through the Nicholses' cellar. Lead singer Leah Carson began singing backup vocals before stepping center stage. Keyboardist J.W. Penzien joined in 1990, with drummer Drew Cullis coming aboard a year later. Penzien's wife, Lori, who provides supporting vocals and plays flute, trumpet and extra percussion, was made a member in the summer of 1993. "They had to get married," Carson says of the Penziens, "or we knew J.W. would be miserable when we went out on the road."
With wedded couples now constituting two-thirds of the band, its players hope the lineup has finally stabilized. "It's all come together now," Jon notes. "We have the people to do what we're trying to do. Our sound has become tougher and harder. We're using more dissonance, exotic scales and different sounds."
"We always wanted extra instrumentation," Melody continues. "Our old vocalist played flute, and we always begged her to practice. When we found out Lori played also, it was like, `Yes, excellent.'"
The one truly excellent musician in the band is Jon. He serves up a different guitar sound on virtually every song, producing biting solos that can turn heads at the bar. The other players are merely competent. The drumming is solid but repetitive, the bass rudimentary, and while the keyboards add texture, they're often swallowed in the overall sound. Although used sparingly, Lori's instruments provide the most effective coloration. Her flute adds ominous shadings to "The Race of Life," and her trumpet lines spice up the chorus of "Children." Other impressive songs in a typical live set include "Shadows," which showcases Carson's powerful voice; "Lament of Planet Earth," a slinky funk number; and the scathing "Political Garbage," featuring anti-abortion lyrics such as, "The sanctity of life is a universal truth/The unborn are the victims of rhetorical abuse."
The problems that crop up elsewhere may be due in part to the band's largely collaborative approach to songwriting. Because everyone is trying to pack in his own ideas, many of the songs run two or three minutes longer than they should, provoking listeners who were tapping their toes to start glancing at their watches. In spite of strong vocals, hooky choruses and hot instrumentation, the numbers often add up to less than the sum of their parts. Martha's Wake needs a strong internal editor to pare down its abundance of ideas.
The bandmembers feel they're moving in the right direction. "We're starting to mesh more and understand where we're going," Melody says. "We trust each other more, and are writing more as a group." And clearly the players are nothing if not committed. After spending over a year working on the CD Romans, they went back into the studio so Carson could rerecord the lead vocals. They also spent a weekend producing 1,000 individual versions of the CD cover art. And since the disc's August release, they've written so much new material that only two songs from the disc remain on the group's current set list.
If money allows, the band will begin recording a new disc in early 1994 and hit the road next summer. "We realize that talking about plans is strange," Melody admits, "because it could all collapse tomorrow. Nothing is definite."
Maybe not, but if the group can sharpen its focus, it definitely has a future.
Martha's Wake. 10 p.m. Saturday, January 8, Cricket on the Hill, 1209 East 13th Avenue, $3, 830-9020.
