Cardinal Reunion On Again?

Eric Matthews was recently interviewed by Stereogum, and it appears his on again, off again collaboration with songwriter Richard Davies is on again for the moment:

"With Richard and I, there are always ups and downs. But, where we are currently is pretty much in a up," Matthews says. "And things are friendly. Often with us things can be tense. So this is a nice buffer, the space between us."

Plans for a new Cardinal album (their first since the 1994 debut) appear to be back on track. Matthews had previously posted a few demos online at a point when it looked like the collaboration would fizzle out, but those are now gone. You can download one new in-progress track, "Carbolic Smoke Ball," over at Stereogum.

Without any insult intended to anything either Matthews or Davies has done since Cardinal's demise, I think their individual talents complement each other very well, and it is good to see them working together again.

Cardinal - Toy Bell EP

Cardinal was originally a trio comprised of Australian ex-pat and former Mole Richard Davies, multi-instrumentalist Eric Matthews and drummer Bob Fay, but soon became primarily a collaboration between Davies and Matthews. Davies and Matthews strengths (songwriting and arranging respectively) complimented each other perfectly, but sadly their work together did not last very long. The collaboration resulted in a lone 7" EP and a stunning 10 track LP/CD. Originally issued on the late, lamented Flydaddy label, the self-titled CD was reissued a few years ago with 11 bonus tracks, including 2 of the 4 tracks originally featured on the Toy Bell EP.

Personally I was a bit ambivalent about the bonus tracks on the reissue. All of them are worth hearing, but part of what made the original CD release special for me was its brevity. When the album was released in 1994 it seemed record labels believed that every album had to fill a CD to near its 80 minute capacity. It was rare to hear an album that was less than an hour long, which resulted in a lot of over-stuffed, unfocused, tedious albums. By contrast, Cardinal, clocking in at just a hair over 30 minutes, was a model of concision. There is not a wasted note on the album.

Of course if all Cardinal had going for it was brevity, it would not be so warmly remembered today. Mojo called the album "one of the best albums of the 90s" and its hard for me to disagree. With post-Nevermind grunge lite wannabees flooding the market by 1994, Cardinal's lushly orchestrated pop felt like a breath of fresh air. While Cardinal's chamber pop had precedents in the music of The Left Banke, Emmit Rhodes, Love, Burt Bacharach and others, it was so skillfully executed and memorable that it sounded completely fresh, even if you were aware of the duos' influences.

For some reason two tracks from the Toy Bell EP were left off the CD reissue, the original version of "Big Mink" and "It Turns on in a Circle on a Pedestal." Both are worth hearing, but I imagine quite hard to find today given the relative scarcity of their debut EP.

Davies and Matthews attempted to resume their collaboration a couple years ago, but I understand the reunion was very short lived due to the same type of artistic differences that broke up Cardinal in the first place.

The Moles - Untune The Sky

The Moles' Untune The Sky, one of the great lost albums of the 90s, has been reissued as a limited edition 2 LP set by Kill Shamen records. The set looks to be a straight reissue of the Flydaddy CD that was released back in 1999 that included the entire 1991 LP, plus the 2 X 7" single that was released on Ringers Lactate in 1992.

Untune The Sky was almost impossible to find in the U.S. upon its original release, and the Ringers Lactate single was not much easier to come by. I did find a copy of the single, but then I was working at Kim's Underground at the time, and I bought one of maybe three copies that came in (the other two no doubt also snagged by employees).

This is an essential release for fans of retro 60s psychedelic pop, as well as devotees of Kiwi pop (though the Moles hailed from Australia). Even at this early stage in his career, bandleader and primary songwriter Richard Davies had a sharp ear for melody. The production and arrangements are less elaborate than those of his seminal duo Cardinal or his solo work, but they have a certain ragged charm missing from his later work.

"Bury Me Happy" the lead off cut from the album (at least on the reissue) to my ears has much in common with the experimental indie-pop of New Zealanders like The Clean, while "What's The New Mary Jane" takes Davies' pop-psych songwriting to the next level. It takes cojones to nick a title from Lennon-McCartney, but The Moles pull it off. Great as this version is, it compares unfavorably to my memory of Davies performing the song live with the Flaming Lips as his backup band.

If you don't have a turntable, the Flydaddy CD can still be found used and I highly recommend it.

Richard Davies with The Flaming Lips

Once again, I have to say I love YouTube. I get an extra kick out of finding a live clip from a gig that I attended. It's like a chance to re-live a little bit of your life in extremely low resolution. That's what watching this clip from a 1995 Richard Davies gig at Brownies in NYC feels like for me. Watching the clip I can remember how hot the club was that night, how the air stank of sweat, humidity and cigarette smoke, and how the music was awe inspiring. Even though I can only see a highly pixelated image and hear bad sound through my computer, somehow it's enough to open the floodgates of my memory. This was a pretty special show, both because of the high quality of the performance, and the fact that it was one of only two gigs in which the Flaming Lips served as Davies' backing band.

Some of you might be thinking at this point what the heck were the Flaming Lips doing backing up the guy from Supertramp? Different guy. This Richard Davies was leader of Australia's The Moles, and co-leader of Cardinal. For a shining moment I was certain Richard's music would conquer the world. I think pretty much everyone in attendance at this show felt the same way. I remember talking to a guy who was fairly prominent in the music industry after the gig and we both agreed the show made us feel like Richard's was the only music that actually mattered. I remember thinking to myself the Flaming Lips would be better off serving as Richard's backing band full time, which gives you a pretty good sense of my ability to predict the future.

Sometimes watching these YouTube videos I find myself wishing better audio of the song was available. In this case it is (sort of). These two live tracks were released as b-sides on a CD single for "Sign Up Maybe For Being." They were not recorded at the legendary Brownies gig, but several days before in the Lips hometown of Norman, Oklahoma. [Whoever put this video up also put up one of the Flaming Lips playing the Moles' "What's The New Mary Jane," which if memory serves was the encore performance that night.]

Meanwhile the world is still waiting for The Flaming Lips to back up that other Richard Davies on "Goodbye Stranger" and "The Logical Song."