Jam band's new album is "wu"nderful
By ANDREW JONES
Scene Music Critic
Only three years ago, a band playing in a tiny Minneapolis bar started to attract crowds that filled every inch of the bar. Live recordings of its zany performances began to circulate, and the word spread.
Today, that band, The Big Wu, has one of the most unique sounds in a large underground scene of jam music.
After graduating from its weekly performances at the small Minneapolis bar, within the last three years, The Big Wu has gone on to play the most honorable festivals and venues of the jam scene.
Elaborating on musical influences like The Allman Brothers, Phish and the Grateful Dead, the songs on Tracking Buffalo Through the Bathtub represent a tease of the endless possibilities for the band's compositions during a live performance. While the album only contains a portion of The Big Wu's repertoire, it clearly showcases the basis of the band's incredible talent and unique sound.
Fun is a good way to best describe that unique sound. The album begins with "Silcanturnitova," a hilarious song about flipping burgers. Two guitarists provide various instrumental parts to every song, especially in "Silcanturnitova." Chris Castino, lead guitarist for The Big Wu, fuels the band's Grateful Dead sound with a distinct guitar tone almost exactly like Jerry Garcia's.
The Big Wu's extraordinary bassist, Andy Miller, and percussionist Terry VanDeWalker fortify most of the tracks. Miller and VanDeWalker spice up the band's sound with their funk-oriented techniques. Songs like "Kangaroo" display the band's ability to sustain a funk sound while singing tight harmonies about a kangaroo that "means more to me than just another wannabe wallaby."
Tracking Buffalo Through the Bathtub exemplifies the Wu's talent for writing catchy lyrics that add to the effect of its positive grooves. Yet, when the band slows its tempo, the insolence of its lyrics becomes highly evident.
The middle of the album lags with slow songs like "Puerto Rico," and is dragged down by lyrics that are simply annoying after a while. "Puerto Rico" is probably the most annoying song with the worst lyrics, yet all of the slow songs redeem their quality with lengthy and beautifully melodic instrumental sections, as evident in "Take the World by Storm."
Tracking Buffalo Through the Bathtub ends with the band's brilliant original, "Red Sky," a lengthy song that entails all of the band's talents. "Red Sky" consists of a funk groove that gels with articulate guitar phrasing, keyboard fills and lovable lyrics.
Under the track list a sentence states: "All songs written (and re-written every show) by THE BIG WU." This album doesn't deserve five stars because it isn't the band's best work. Bands such as The Big Wu are fighting an audiophile-dominated culture that only knows music as it lays on album tracks — a culture that only wants to hear songs in performance exactly how they are on a compact disc. The Big Wu's best renditions of these songs occur on a stage, which is the true testing ground of great musicians.
Feedback is welcome at Jones.146@nd.edu
All Scene Stories for Tuesday, November 16, 1999
