"As far as I'm concerned, all we've ever been is a rock band... Maybe a slightly unconventional rock band, but isn't that always what it was about? It's very easy for journalists to create this idea that there's some kind of a reaction happening, like we were out to destory rock or something. I think we're way more grounded in our traditions than anyone has ever given us credit for." - John McEntire - guitar, drums, percussion, EML 101, marimba, drum programming, melodica, etc.
Discography:
1994 - 7 inch -
Mosquito /
Gooseneck (Torsion Records)
1994 - 7 inch -
Lonesome Sound /
Reservoir /
Sheets (
Thrill Jockey)
1994 - lp/cd -
Tortoise (Thrill Jockey)
1995 - lp/cd - Rhythms, Resolutions, & Clusters (Thrill Jockey)
1995 - 7 inch -
Why We Fight (Soul Static Sound)
1995 - 12 inch -
Gamera /
Gorirri /
Restless Waters /
Cliffdweller Society (
Duophonic)
1995 - comp. - A Means To An End (
Virgin) (Covering
Joy Division's
As You Said
1996 - lp/cd -
Millions Now Living Will Never Die (Thrill Jockey)
1996 - comp. - Macro Dub Infection Vol. 2 (Virgin U.K.)
1996 - lp/cd -
A Digest Compendium of Tortoise's World (Jade Records)
1996 - 12 inch -
Djed (Thrill Jockey)
1996 - 12 inch -
Music for Workgroups (Thrill Jockey)
1996 - 12 inch -
Rivers (Thrill Jockey)
1996 - 12 inch -
the Taut and Tame (Thrill Jockey)
1996 - 7 inch - Stereolab split (Duophonic)
1996 - comp. - the
Lounge-Ax Defense & Relocation Compilation (
Touch and Go Records)
1996 - comp. - Headz 2 (
Mo' Wax)
1996 - comp. - Offbeat: A Red Hot Sound Trip Compilation (Wax Trax)
1998 - lp/cd -
TNT (Thrill Jockey) (
Japanese edition includes a TNT remix by
Nobukazu Takemura)
1998 - 7 inch - Madison Ave. / Madison Area (Thrill Jockey)
1998 - 12 inch -
Derrick Carter Remix (Thrill Jockey)
1998 - 12 inch -
Autechre Remix (Thrill Jockey)
1998 - cd -
Remixed (Thrill Jockey)
1999 - lp/cd -
Reach the Rock Soundtrack (Hefty)
1999 - cd/ep -
In The Fishtank with
The Ex (Konkurrent)
2001 - lp/cd -
Standards (Thrill Jockey)
2001 - cd/ep -
Gently Cupping the Chin of an Ape (Thrill Jockey) with multimedia content
2004 - lp/cd -
It's All Around You (Thrill Jockey)
Core & current members: (those who have remained unchanged over the years)
John McEntire
Douglas McCombs
Johnny "the Machine" Herndon - percussion
Dan Bitney - percussion and electronics
Jeff Parker
Past & Revolving Members:
David Pajo - guitar and bass
Bundy K. Brown
Rob Mazurek - cornet, trumpet, & electronics
In
1999, Tortoise spent time as
Brazilian composer/singer
Tom Zé's back-up band touring the United States and
South America.
Live
The experience of seeing and hearing Tortoise live, in concert is singular. Here you have a group of indviduals who are masters at their craft, manipulating the very structures that underly their compositions. For the Standards tour, they began almost every show with Seneca, which prior to seeing them I had associated with the Pledge of Allegiance. There, they stood, viligantly waiting, staring, pledging their allegiance to the music they were about to ignite. There is something so wholesome about watching intensely complicated counter-rhythms played on multiple drumsets, or the tender moving fingers of a versatile hand over the fretboard of a bass. Manipulating plugs and levers, McEntire makes destructive, unique sounds with the Putney he drags from show to show. And then switch instruments. Marimbas, melodicas, keyboards, back to the drums, loopty-loop. It's amazing.
Bootlegs
If you do not have the means by which to see Tortoise in person, I suggest tracking down the following bootlegs:
10-23-1999 Tortoise with the Chicago Underground Duo - Frankfurt, Germany
05-25-1996 Tortoise - @ Bimbo's 365 Club - San Francisco, CA
06-06-2001 Tortoise - @ the Fillmore - San Francisco, CA
"The guitar work is ultimately challenging in that it deals with sound and space more than anything, and challenges my musicianship and my perceptions of musicianship, constantly. It's easy to move alone, and very difficult to move as a group, just as it's difficult to play quietly and with precision." - Jeff Parker - guitar, 1998-present
"TNT is the best Tortoise record, it's epic.... Tortoise has always been about making records that are important to Tortoise and meaningful to them -- to push their own creative envelope -- but when you reach a certain degree of popularity you have to start to live up to people's expectations. When you make a monumental recording like TNT, people's expectations are gonna be set pretty high. For better or for worse, whether Tortoise subscribes to this viewpoint or not, there is this popular school of thought that they are at the vanguard of some kind of movement. People expect them to carry the torch, so when they decide to follow their own direction instead of carrying it... I dunno..." - Bundy K. Brown - bass, producer 1994-1996
The eponymous album, Tortoise
"Slint were really important to us at that point... in a way they developed this thing that I heard in my head -- this thing that I imagined myself plaing... With the first album we knew we were really on the verge of developing our own personal thing -- that this bandw ould be a really good expression of who we are and where we're coming from." - Douglas McCombs - bass, 6 string bass, lap steel
Magnet Pulls Through
Night Air
Ry Cooder
Onions Wrapped in Rubber
Tin Cans & Twine
Spiderwebbed
His Second Story Island
On Noble
Flyrod
Cornpone Brunch
Tortoise at this time was just Bundy K. Brown, John McEntire, Douglas McCombs, Dan Bitney, and Johnny Herndon.
This is an album I have nowhere near as much to say about as any of their other albums. It introduces the basic sound of the band: that of a gathering of drummers and bass players, working towards a vision.
Magnet Pulls Through begins in the sound of a dropping distortion, a rustling of leaves--the effect of the listener feeling as the magnetic hairs on an old man's face, being pulled by forces unknown. Night Air's forlorn melodica crawls like the band's namesake, while a muffled voice talks about "a friend of mine." The snares are crisp and the mood is dry and humid. One can see why the band originally called themselves Mosquito in the time period they were composing these songs. Ry Cooder wanders through distortion and head wobbling bass opponentry, before shaking its butt off in a cool breeze. At moments, a television can be heard in the background. The song then snaps a groove so thick, one could spend a good many hours spitting it up from the depths of their chest. The marimba calmly lights a direction, and the listener is further pulled towards that destination.
Onions Wrapped in Rubber is just weird. A constant shifting of high pitched drones, and faraway distances being destroyed by lazer beams, the howling of digital wolves, the thundering of drums, a means to reach an end--Tin Cans & Twine. Out of all the songs on this album, this one is the only that I've heard played at live shows to this day. Its infectious melody and crisp direction, its bassline's resemblence to hard core hero's the Pixies and the simple statement of beauty in the mundane make it the real classic of the album. The sound of coils working their way in and out of constriction and restriction can resonate for days within the cranial depths of a listener's, unraveling logic, mathematics, and innocence like... well, tin cans & twine. In concert, few of their songs are so shapeable, so much like the silly-putty of their canon as this--easily manipulatable and ready for modification. Spiderwebbed further demonstrates the dueling bass esthetic, allowing countering time signatures to loop in webs of intrigue without having to really go anywhere.
There are other great songs on here, but they are just that. Great songs, good music. As a Tortoise primer though, this would not be my suggestion for a listener's first exposure. Without this album there would be no Dianogah, and as a historical artifact into Tortoise's past it offers many illuminations. In contrast to the incredible single that followed, Gamera Tortoise is a musical walk in the park.
Inevitably, one cannot write about Tortoise without mentioning the plethora of musical projects that its members have participated in.
5ive Style, Isotope 217, the Sea and Cake, Gastr del Sol, Jim O'Rourke, Directions in Music, Pullman, Chicago Underground Duo, Chicago Underground Trio, Chicago Underground Quartet, Rob Mazurek, Stereolab, brokeback, Papa M, Aerial M, Bablicon, Mushroom, Nobukazu Takemura, HIM, Sam Prekop, Bastro, Slint, Palace Brothers, Shrimp Boat, Tom Ze, the For Carnation, Eleventh Dream Day, Yo La Tengo, Royal Trux, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Will Oldham.
Sources:
Kindamuzik, interview with Jeff Parker: http://www.kindamuzik.net/q_and_a/article.shtml?id=438
Official Tortoise site: http://www.brainwashed.com/tortoise/bio.html
Thrilljockey Records: http://www.thrilljockey.com
the Wire magazine #204, February 2001