Mushroom - Foxy Music

Year of Release: 2001
Label: InnerSPACE Records
Catalog Number: CS049/EFA 05430-2
Format: CD
Total Time: 53:10:00

Hmmmm ... nice looking cover. I keep looking at it every five seconds and really can't seem to veer away from looking at its attractive center and thinking that I should have been born a couple of decades ago at least. Actually, this is probably one of the only albums ever that's worth its price alone for the cover...wait a second, I'm sounding like an absolute pervert here. And you know why? Because every damn review of Mushroom's Foxy Music seems to do nothing else but describe some vividly cheap pornographic imagery that seems to reflect the writer's thoughts after looking at our yummy cover girl. [Well, except for yours truly, I think - ed.] Problem is, we're not reviewing porn flicks here!

The porn reference, however, is actually somewhat valid when one listens to the groovy retro of "Grooving With Herbie" or "I Got Blisters On My Fingers," the latter of which starts off like a lost track from The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Electric Ladyland and then branches off into some more LSD induced sexiness that would get crowds of unshackled youths, who would later on become conservative nuns, into a go-go girl frenzy, if the time were only right. What kills the comparison, however, is that Mushroom is to cheap porno funk what erotica is to pornography: a much more tantalizing, sophisticated, and memorable experience. The raunchy bass lines and brass that focus on sweating, drugged out sexuality surrounded by lava lamps and garish clothing are offset by magnificent swirls of Krautrock-inspired embellishments, hidden subtlety garners attention after an initial and misguided focus on the most brazen aspects of Foxy Music, and the entire shebang is more than diverse and interesting enough to be considered more than just a mere element of ambience next time you make a bad attempt at getting laid.

What people always seem to inexplicably miss when describing this album, however, is not the fact that the master grooves on the record swagger with confidence and California coolness while keeping it smart, but that Foxy Music is far from being just a collection of nostalgic funky intercourse. There is the tripped out oblivion of "I Had Some Dreams, They Were Clouds in My Coffee," the clumsiness and plodding pseudo-monotony of "Joe Namath," the jazz dominance of "For Men With Beards," or the intimidating environment of atmospheric noise and threatening bells on "Getting In Thun." That's right; porn soundtracks were never this ambitious.

And they will never be, because Mushroom isn't about to start writing and performing them. What this band has done is indeed retro, and it will doubtlessly take the listener back to times when flowers were actually considered cool and irresponsible sexuality ran rampant like rabbits in Australia, but those expecting a romanticized version of retro music written to serve as background to an ad selling bell-bottoms better think again. These guys serve it up raw and horny, real and irreverent, groovy and ballsy, the way it was actually supposed to be done in the first place. Then again, what else could one expect from an album titled Foxy Music?

Similar artists: Tortoise, Can, Miles Davis

Tracklisting:
Grooving With Herbie (5:51) / The Greatest Pleasure In Life Is Doing What People Say You Can Not Do (2:06) / I Got Blisters On My Fingers (4:18) / Joe Namath (5:30) / Foxy Music (5:57) / I Had Some Dreams, They Were Clouds In My Coffee (6:43) / Getting In Thun (2:37) / Americans Own The Moon, They Bought It From The Germans - Who Won It During A Poker Game In World War II (3:57) / Don't Blame Me, I Voted For McGovern (4:02) / Terry & Jerry (0:26) / Super Goody Bags (1:13) / For Men With Beards (10:30)

Musicians:
Jon Birdsong - cornet, tuba, effects
Erik Pearson - snake guitar, flute, sax, violin
Patrick O'Hearn - drums
Michael Holt - Rhodes piano, Oberheim
Dave Mihaly - percussion
Carroll Ashby - trombone
Josh Pollock - guitar
Kurt Statham - bass

Guests:

Marc Capelle - trumpet (5, 12)
Michael Bluestein - organ (1, 2,3, 9)
Jay Radford - sitar, oud, saz (4,5,6,7,8)
Allison Faith Levy - vocal (5)
Michael Clare - bass (5)

Discography:
Mushroom (?)
'The Reeperbahn' (1997)
Alive And In Full Bloom (1998)
Cream Of Mushroom (1998)
Hydrogen Jukebox (1998)
Analog Hi-Fi Surprise (1999)
Leni Riefenstah (lp only) (2000)
Compared To What (2001)
Foxy Music (2001)
Glazed Popems (2004)
Really Don't Mind If You Sit This One Out (2006)
Joint Happening (w/Eddie Gale) (2007)

Genre: Other

Origin US

Added: July 16th 2002
Reviewer: Marcelo Silveyra
Score:
Artist website: www.myspace.com/mushroomoakland
Hits: 2733
Language: english