The Unheard Music (Volume LXIX)

Sometimes music fails to find an audience because it's 'difficult'.  Other times, music finds an audience because it's difficult. In the latter case, My Bloody Valentine fits that bill.  There is very little about My Bloody Valentine that is conventional or normal but look at any critic's list and you'll find MBV's "Loveless", a groundbreaking album of the highest order. There is so much beauty in the dissonance of a song like "Soon' that it is difficult to describe its' appeal. Until you hear the song. I will not be writing about My Bloody Valentine this time. Let's learn a bit more about their American acolytes--Medicine. This isn't gonna be an easy journey.

Formed in the Land of Porn--California's San Fernando Valley--Medicine were unfairly overlooked, perhaps because of their remarkable similarity to their sonic cousins, My Bloody Valentine.  The aural similarity is uncanny, layers upon layers of dissonant guitar noise, the interplay of male/female vocals and the sheer brutality of it all. It's not easy listening by any stretch.  Where MBV's "Soon" has a hypnotic groove underneath the noise, "One More" from Medicine builds for 2 1/2 minutes on a single guitar note and a rudimentary bass line (very similar to Verve's "Slide Away" which came out two years later) and simple drum pattern. Then finally, the rest of the melody arrives with buried vocals and a slightly more complex guitar line.  It's the red-headed stepchild of "Soon".  But that's damning it with faint praise.  "One More" is every bit as compelling as "Soon", just not as pretty.  And a minute longer.  A bit more compact, "Defective" is yet another example of Medicine's unique sonic identity, if you need a palate cleanser.  Shot Forth Self Living is a force to be reckoned with.  

Medicine went poppier with The Buried Life.  Calling it poppier is a stretch. It's like saying Sarah Palin went for a more refined approach after the Katie Couric interview, after all it was still Sarah Palin. The highlight was "She Knows Everything", which rendered Garbage useless before they even existed.  Medicine split up in 1995 and then reformed in 2003.  I haven't heard anything from them since 1995.

Like I said, this isn't easy music to get into but well worth the effort.  It will either make sense to you or it won't.  I hope for you it's the former because that's why I do this, to expose you to this stuff, to broaden your musical horizons.  Have a great weekend, enjoy the music. 

Comments

[drcastrato]

Yay - I really like Medicine. One of those bands I always assumed I was alone in liking. I enjoy that aural process of sifting through the noise to find the simple pop song underneath. My favorites are the two tunes right after She Knows Everything, "Something Goes Wrong" and "Never Click." After a minor line-up change, their '95 album Her Highness is a little less noisy, but still full of good tunes. I find myself listening to it a lot.

Two of the former members formed Maids of Gravity who apparently put out 3 albums, although I've only heard the first one. Its not too bad.

The comeback Medicine album (from '03) I think features just one original member, Brad Laner, and is just OK. A couple neat tunes but it's largely electronic and kind of annoying, and just doesn't really sound like the same band.