Roger Miller's Exquisite Corpse: Unfold (CD, cass)
SST 307: recorded 1994.

"Exquisite Corpse" is a game invented by the Surrealists in the mid-1920's. The results (initially verbal) produced unorthodox imagery by juxtaposing unexpected words side by side.

The unorthodox instrumentation of this ensemble seemed to warrant that name:

Roger MIller: Guitar, piano, synthesizer, samples, drum
Ken Winokur: Drums, ethnic and junk percussion (Alloy Orchestra, No Man's Band)
Dan Stillman: Shawm (large medieval oboe), Sackbut (medieval trombone)
Judith Cohen Stanton: 5-String Electric Violin (Xylyl)
Rich Gilbert: Pedal Steel Guitar.

The inside artwork was a "visual" exquisite corpse game played in 1976 by the artist and two friends (including brother Laurence Miller, member of Sproton Layer and M3).

(NOTE: the first sound you hear on the CD (before "Mud") is the sound of the kitchen sink in my house. I did this so that reviewers who claimed that I "throw in everything but the kitchen sink" would be incorrect.)

1. Entry (mud)
2. Dance in the Poet's Eye
3. Djinn
4. Mentabolism
5. Loony Tunes
6. The Mooche
7. Nothing What
8. Game #2
9. Gargoyle
10. Owl
11. Machete Hacker's Boogie-Woogie
12. Game #3
13. The Cheese and the Worms
14. Prelude to the Demolition of the Teal Building
15. Dream Interpretation No.1
16. Exit (Bach)

Dream Interpretation No.1 (for solo violin and recitation) was written in 1975.
Loony Tunes is an arrangement of the two main Loony Tunes themes (by Carl Stalling and Raymond Scott).
The Mooche is by Duke Ellington.
Games #2 and #3 were musical "exquisite corpse" games - the best out of four games played.
Exit (Bach) is side B of "Pop Record/evolving" (see discography) played on a turntable.

The initial name of the group was just going to be "Exquisite Corpse". But SST suggested that it might be better if the leader included his name in the title, so it was changed to "Roger Miller's Exquisite Corpse." The irony showed up shortly thereafter. Mr. Miller has been humorously dogged by another musician who has the same name (though in the country charts rather than in the extreme underground) throughout his career. Two weeks before this bandŐs first performance (there were 4 in all), the "other" Roger Miller died. Hence the name "Roger Miller's Exquisite Corpse" took on new meaning. Not unsurrealistically.



REVIEWS:

Option Jan. '95, Bill Tilland:
"Miller, late of avant-rock band Birdsongs of the Mesozoic and the influential punk band Mission of Burma, is a true musical treasure - a witty, inventive guitarist, keyboardist, studio technician, composer and bandleader wha has provided quality music throughout his career, regardless of the chosen genre. In this latest incarnation, he is joined by percussionist Ken Winokur, violinist Juidth Stanton, occasional pedal steel player Rich Gilbert, and not least, by Rennaissance instrument specialist Dan Stillman, who plays the alto and bass shawms and the sackbut (an early precursor of the trombone). It is indicative of Miller's sensibility that the two covers on this CD are a short but intricate, whacked-out version of Carl Stalling's "Looney Tunes" theme and an idiosyncratic but soulful version of Duke Ellington's blues standard, "The Mooche." The reamining 14 compositions by Miller mix various proportions of jazz, early music, punk, 20th Century minimalism and popular forms like cartoon music, as well as industrial (a pounding metal machine track titled "Prelude to the Demolition of the Teal Building") and a dream narrative with violin accompaniment ("Dream Interpretation No.1"). The best thing about Miller's music on this CD, though, is not is eclecticism or virtuosity (although Exquisite Corpse is a VERY tight, well-rehearsed group): rather, it's that the music, in whatever form it takes, lives and breathes and has a heart."

Milwaukee Journal, Nov.'95:
"Some of the most ancient instruments appear alongside samples and percussion assembled from scrap, endowing this disc with a timeless spirit."

Boston Rock, April '95, Michael Bloom:
"..."Dance in the Poet's Eye" is nearly a straight tarantella, while "Mentabolism" hallucinates Lollapalooza in the donjons, and "Machete Hacker's Boogie-Woogie" insinuates jazz into the Casbah. The ensemble also commits a couple medieval- industrial spontaneous compositions. It was that type of a scientific expedition."