ANN
ARBOR REVIVAL MEETING - Scott Morgan's Powertrane featuring Deniz Tek (Real
O Mind)
Pure, unadulterated rock and roll is a powerful thing in the live setting.
Exhibit A is this disc, Your Honour. It's not hip hop and there's
not a trace of sampling to be heard, but if you'll excuse some anatomical wordplay
I'll submit that it's music with balls played from the heart and it deserves
your immediate attention.
Scott Morgan shouldn't need an introduction but he does in many places and that's
a shame. He paid his dues with inestimably great Michigan beat-stompers-turned-white-boy-soul
outfit, The Rationals, in the '60s, should have struck gold as a member of the
criminally underrated Sonics Rendezvous Band in the '70s, and led his own Scott
Morgan band in the '80s, combining soul and power rock. A mutually beneficial
teaming with the Hellacopters in the '90s spawned The Hydromatics, a class vehicle
to be sure but one that's scarcely known outside the European back blocks. Powertrane
is Scott's current project, equipping him with a manic engine room in Andrew
Frost and Chris "Box" Taylor and a hot shot guitarist in Robert Gillespie.
Radio Birdman's Deniz Tek, ex-Stooge Ron Asheton, crazed vocalist Hiawatha Bailey
(of the Cult Heroes) and veteran singer Mitch Ryder have joined them for various
live dates.
This disc captures one night at Ann Arbor's Blind Pig in November 2001, with
all but Ryder from the aforementoined list joining Powertrane's proceedings.
The album's name comes from a piece of Tek patter (everybody gracing the stage
being A2 alumni) and pretty well sums things up. There's a religious fervour
to this. It might be preaching to the converted, but there's always a chance
that the word might spread and inspire someone, somewhere to pick up a guitar
and do likewise. Just as various influences did for these guys.
There are parallels with the 1981 supergroup (love that term) that was New Race,
comprising as it did former Birdman, MC5 and Stooges members for a one-off tour
of Australia. Granted, it's not as maliciously focussed as their disc, "The
First and the Last", but that band was a little more road hardened by the
time their recordings were put down and the disc was substantially tinkered
with in the studio. The point is that New Race was a gathering of the tribes,
and a validation for Birdman of what they'd done by elder statesmen joining
them on stage. It's not being too indulgent in saying that there's a bit of
that happening with Powertrane and that "A2 Revival..." is just as
substantial an event in its own way.
But on to the music and Powertrane is a three-headed guitar machine for most
of the journey. That could have been one axe too many, but for some judicious
playing and a mix that gives each room to breathe. As Deniz said to the Bar's
Ken Shimamoto in a post-Powertrane tour interview, there's almost an orchestral
thing at work when he, Gillespie and Morgan get it on. Witness Tek's own "Hangin'
On" which, in these hands, serves as a blank canvas for the guitarist to
go weaving another version of that stinging guitar line.
"Shellback" takes on a new power before Morgan weighs in vocally on
the bridge to lighten the load. "Taboo", a tune Gillespie wrote with
Rob Tyner and which appeared on the latter's solo album, is worth hearing and
gets an outing here, while three contemporary Morgan/Hydromatics songs ("R.I.P.
R & R", "Runaway Slaves" and "Ready to Ball") are
righteously rolled out in rip roaring style.
Of the tunes to make the cut from Sonics Rendezvous days, "Dangerous"
lacks ferocity (and I'll make a case that "What Gives?" also lacks
the electroshock edge that Birdman gives it) but we're talking degrees on both
counts.The angular guitar attack of "Love to Learn" lacks nothing
when stacked up against the Sonics rendezvous Band or Hydromatics versions and
a storming "Outside" - the traditional Deniz Tek Group set closer
- caps things in fine style before the run home through a quintet of classic
Stooges songs. If hearing Powertrane churn these out (The Iceman and Hiawatha
capably handling vox) with the additional sting of Ron Asheton on board isn't
your idea of a Musical Wet Dream, you're reading the wrong review.
Rooted in the past? Undoubtedly, even allowing for the contemporary contributions
from the catalogues of Morgan and Tek. But with Real Rock and Roll becoming
an endangered species, sometimes a return to the past can cast a light towards
the future. - The Barman
