Medicine - Off the Vine EP

We're gonna start with something very symbolic, something that says a lot about what I collect and why.



When I was 15 or so, my mind was WIDE open. I'd found my first Sonic Youth record (actually, it was the "Starpower" 3-inch CD single, which I dearly love. To this day, the album versions of those songs just sound wrong to me) and I was ready to explore further. A good friend of mine, Mason, one day handed off to me a stack of tapes and CDs, which I then copied onto a series of six cassettes. These albums were to influence me greatly, and be a solid signpost of what I like and what I play to this day. Loveless was there, as well as Mingus and Roland Kirk. Morphine's Cure for Pain and the Stone Roses singles collection. Frank Zappa and Syd Barrett, too. But what ended up hitting me hardest, and meaning the most to me, was a band called Medicine.



Medicine were a band from Los Angeles. Their guitarist/mastermind, Brad Laner, had a long-standing background in experimental music (much of his work with bands like Steaming Coils and Debt of Nature, amongst many others, can be found at the truly wonderous Mutant Sounds blog.) He teamed up with drummer Jim Thompson and singer Beth Thompson in 1991, along with a couple other guys that quit after the first record. And what a first record! Shot Forth Self Living (which I'm sure I'll post here someday soon) starts with a solid thirty seconds of distorted, bee-hum drone, finally breaking into an amazing, semi-psychedelic dance tune with gently sung vocals hovering over the undulations. And so the record went, as did the band: sweet melodies and harmonies collided with screeching noise and quintessentially 90's dance beats.



I was simply agog when I heard this, and their second album, the Buried Life. You could do that? And it would work? Things would never be the same.



A couple of years later, when I was seventeen, I went to a Tuba and Euphonium conference at Northwestern University one weekend. It was my first trip by myself. Mom dropped me off at the dorm and gave me $100 (as I recall, it could have been less...) for food and necessities. I hardly attended any of the conference. I don't know what I would have gotten out of it, really. But it was important. It was a first step towards being on my own, which I essentially would be from September 1996 onward. And it was then as it is now: you couldn't keep me away from the record store.



I found a phone book and located the nearest one: Dr. Wax. I went as soon as I got myself oriented, and spent a long time browsing. I found a Sonic Youth record, a Miles Davis CD...and as I flipped through the 7"ers, I saw a Medicine record. This was 1995, when new vinyl was becoming very scarce, so I was mightily impressed. I didn't even know Medicine put out records! I've never heard of this! I bought it immediately.

It was a mysterious, pretty little item. A double 7" on clear vinyl. Three cardboard dividers, with a picture for each side. Seemed to feature a lot of penises. The music was mysterious, too. Some songs more than others...

Side A was "Off the Vine." Its illustration featured a Victorian-type lady, reading a book labelled "PURE" to two small children. The song is a sexy creation, at least to my ears: the bass is a slow, sensuous groove, the drums thwack behind the beat. Beth coos through multiple delays while Brad lays squawks of feedback over the top and drones underneath. It ebbs and flows somewhat, but that's the deal for the first three and a half minutes. Then, as a seemingly unrelated coda, Brad plays a simple riff and sings a lovely melody heavily featuring the line "nothing left to chance."

Side B is "Hull," represented by...uh...is that a fat nun? Well, she's naked, getting her nipples and toes sucked by winged baby heads, and a baby angel is...er...thrusting his penis, rather forcibly, into her mouth. Okay. Musically, this is a rather abstract number, also in two halves: the first one full of thumb piano bits and Beth's percussive vocals, the second all grinding guitar feedback and booming gong-like tones.

Side C is "Heads," which would be re-recorded for their final album, Her Highness. This recording is similar, if a bit rougher: much delay and filtering on the drums, a one-note bass part matching a one-chord heavily phased guitar, and Beth's etherial pipes. Its illustration is of a dandy fellow with a great deal of skin issues. Yay! Oh, did I mention the labels are all individually illustrated, as well? Mostly it's unremarkable, but the "Heads" side features, yes, heads, which tumble in circles when you play the record.

Side D is "Becky." This one's really abstract, bleeps and bloops, and ring-mod noises? Maybe some more of that shortwave stuff that popped up on "Beneath the Sands." The drawing for "Becky" has a scientist with a penis-injector thing (not his penis, he's holding this thing) inseminating vagina-plants.


Later, I tracked down some information by posting on the (extremely old-school reference) Medicine AOL group. Got a response from Brad Laner hisself, but the only thing I really found out was that the EP was limited to 1000 copies. That, in and of itself, was an interesting feeling. The idea that the ownership of this record was limited to 999 other people and me was fascinating.

Afterwards, I slowly but surely managed to track down every Medicine recording that was available (and, as previously noted, they'll surely show up here.) And thank goodness I found this one when I did, cos I've never seen another one...those 999 people are keeping this record close to their vests. But here it is, for you. Enjoy.

I internet-chatted with Brad Laner once, many years later, via Soulseek. He wanted to talk about basketball, a subject I know nothing about. Oh well. Still my hero.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q95ZCCSM