Morphine (band)

Morphine
Morphine in 1997 at Mississippi Nights, St Louis, MO
Background information
Origin	Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Genres	Alternative rock, experimental rock, jazz rock
Years active	1989–1999
Labels	Rykodisc, DreamWorks
Associated acts	Treat Her Right, Twinemen, Bourbon Princess
Past members
Mark Sandman Dana Colley Billy Conway Jerome Deupree

Morphine was an American alternative rock group formed by Mark Sandman and Dana Colley in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1989. They disbanded in 1999 after frontman Sandman died of a heart attack.

Morphine combined blues and jazz elements with more traditional rock arrangements, giving the band a very unusual sound. Sandman's distinctive singing was described as a "deep, laid-back croon"^[1] and his songwriting featured a prominent beat influence. When asked by reporters to describe their music, the band created the label "low rock". One critical appraisal suggests that "Morphine immediately established a minimalist, low-end sound that could have easily become a gimmick: a 'power trio' not built around the sound of an electric guitar. Instead, with sly intelligence, Morphine expanded its offbeat vocabulary on each album."^[2]

Although Morphine was critically lauded throughout their career, it is difficult to measure their success commercially. In the United States the band was embraced and promoted by the indie rock community, including public and college radio stations and MTV's 120 Minutes (which the band once guest-hosted), but received little support from commercial rock radio and other music television programs. This limited their mainstream exposure and success in their home country, while internationally they enjoyed mainstream success and support, especially in Belgium, Portugal, France and Australia.

History

Career (1989–1999)

Morphine was formed in 1989 by bassist/vocalist Mark Sandman, who had previously played with the bluesy alternative rock band Treat Her Right, and saxophonist Dana Colley, a former member of the local Boston group Three Colors. Drummer Jerome Deupree, who had played with Sandman in a former project called the Hypnosonics, joined Morphine and completed its initial lineup. They recorded their debut album, Good, for the Boston-based Accurate/Distortion label in 1991. The album received positive reviews and established a small but devoted audience. The band subsequently signed to Rykodisc, who re-released Good under its own imprint.^[3]

Cure for Pain, 1993's followup, increased the band's audience outside of New England, and singles like "Thursday" and "Buena" picked up some college radio play. During the recording of Cure for Pain, Deupree, who was suffering from health problems, was replaced by Billy Conway, who had previously played with Sandman in Treat Her Right. However, Deupree still played most of the percussion work heard on the album. After the album was completed, the band toured the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia.

In 1994, "Sheila" and "In Spite of Me" were prominently featured on the soundtrack of the film Spanking the Monkey. The band returned to the studio in 1995 and produced Yes. The album featured the single "Honey White," the music video for which appeared on the MTV animated series Beavis and Butt-head.

Two years later, Morphine signed with DreamWorks Records, who released their major label debut, Like Swimming.^[3] It was a critical success, but did not break the band into the domestic mainstream as had been hoped. DreamWorks released a music video for the single "Early to Bed"; directed by Jamie Caliri and released in March 1997, the nightmarish yet humorous video became an instant favorite among fans and was later nominated for a Grammy award. The band also released B-Sides and Otherwise, a collection of B-sides and live recordings, on Rykodisc this same year.

In the following time, Deupree once again began performing live and in the studio with the band, making the group a four-piece. The band's final studio album, The Night, was completed in early 1999.

On July 3, 1999, Sandman collapsed on the stage of the Nel Nome del Rock festival at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Italy (near Rome).^[3] He was soon pronounced dead of a heart attack and Morphine immediately disbanded. His last words before he died were, "It's a beautiful evening and it's great to stay here and I want to dedicate a super-sexy song to you."^{[citation needed]} The Night was released in 2000.

Since then, Bootleg Detroit, an "official live bootleg", and The Best of Morphine: 1992–1995 have also been released by Rykodisc under the Morphine name. In 2009, Rhino Records released the two-disc set At Your Service, composed of unreleased Morphine material.

Posthumous projects (1999–present)

Within a year of Sandman's death, Colley and Conway created Orchestra Morphine, a group of Sandman's friends and colleagues who toured to celebrate the music of the band and to raise funds for the Mark Sandman Music Education Fund. Orchestra Morphine mostly performed music from The Night, but also included some other Morphine and Hypnosonics material as well. Orchestra Morphine still performs occasionally but no longer tours. Singer and guitarist Laurie Sargent, a member of Orchestra Morphine and former vocalist for the band Face to Face, later joined Colley and Conway in their first post-Morphine musical endeavor, Twinemen.

Conway and Colley also officially formed the Hi-n-Dry independent record label and studio, converting Sandman's workspace into a commercial enterprise. The label's roster includes a number of their friends, colleagues and other Boston-area musicians. In 2004, Hi-n-Dry released the Mark Sandman box set Sandbox, which contained two CDs and a DVD of previously unreleased material spanning Sandman's musical career. The DVD featured clips from early Sandman shows, interviews from the Morphine tours, and various videos from other Sandman solo and group projects, such as Treat Her Right. However, for copyright reasons the box set did not contain any previously released material found in the Morphine catalogue, Morphine videos, or promotional material produced by Rykodisc or DreamWorks Records.

Deupree continued to record with various jazz musicians and later became a member of the group Bourbon Princess. Colley formed the band A.K.A.C.O.D. with Monique Ortiz (the former leader of Bourbon Princess) in 2006. Their debut album Happiness was released in early 2008 and supported by a tour, featuring set lists fortified with Morphine material.

In 2009, Colley and Deupree began regularly performing Morphine songs and new material with a singer, bassist and guitarist formerly based in New Orleans named Jeremy Lyons as Members of Morphine^[4] (alternately, the Ever-Expanding Elastic Waste Band.) In July 2009, the group played at Nel Nome Del Rock Festival in Palestrina, Italy, marking the ten year anniversary of Sandman's death at the location in which it occurred.^[5]

Band members

• Mark Sandman – 2-string slide bass, vocals, organ, tritar (3-string slide guitar), guitar, piano (1989–1999)
• Dana Colley – baritone sax, tenor sax, double sax, triangle (1989–1999)
• Jerome Deupree – various percussion (1989–1993, 1998–1999)
• Billy Conway – various percussion (1993–1999)

Instruments

Morphine's instrumentation was unusual for a rock band: Sandman's primary instrument was a two-string bass guitar (with both strings usually tuned to a 5th or octave interval) played with a slide; however, on the group's records he added touches of guitar, piano, electronic organ, and other self invented guitar instruments such as tritar (three stringed guitar). Colley played primarily baritone saxophone, along with soprano or tenor saxes, and the rare bass saxophone, and he sometimes played two saxes at once, a la Roland Kirk; he also played occasional percussion, and Dobro on a B-side.

Discography

Studio albums

• Good - 1992
• Cure for Pain - 1993
• Yes - 1995
• Like Swimming - 1997
• The Night - 2000^[3]

Live albums, compilations and promos

• B-Sides and Otherwise - 1997^[3]
• Sampilation - 1997
• Bootleg Detroit - 2000
• The Best of Morphine: 1992-1995 - 2003
• Sandbox: The Mark Sandman Box Set - 2004
• At Your Service - 2009

Singles

• "Buena" (1993)
• "Thursday" (1993)
• "Cure for Pain" (1994)
• "Super Sex" (1995)
• "Honey White" (1995)
• "Early to Bed" (1997)
• "Murder for the Money" (1997)
• "Eleven O'Clock" (1999)^[3]

References

1. ^ Matt Ashare (1994-05-27). "Morphine's addictive music is seducing a phalanx of fans". The Boston Phoenix. http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/music/99/07/08/ASHARE_MAY_94.html. Retrieved 2008-03-29. 
2. ^ Greg Kot. "Morphine discography". TrouserPress.com. http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=morphine. Retrieved 2008-03-30. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. p. 661. ISBN 1-84195-017-3. 
4. ^ "Unity.edu". Unity.edu. http://www.unity.edu/NewsEvents/News/UCCPAReunion609.aspx. Retrieved 2011-08-07. 
5. ^ US. "Myspace.com". Myspace.com. http://www.myspace.com/membersofmorphine. Retrieved 2011-08-07. 

External links

• The Other Side
• Morphine data in Allmusic
• Twinemen on MySpace
• A.K.A.C.O.D.