How come Usher's "U Got It Bad" is at best tolerable, but when Eugene Chadbourne and the Malachy Papers stretch the song out to nearly 8 minutes, it's astounding? Is it the novelty? The kitsch? Maybe at first. But Chadbourne and the Papers invest as much in Usher as they do in Thelonious Monk's "Epistrophy" on And the Wind Cries Malachy. This live recording culls material from three shows in May 2002, when Chadbourne and the Papers joined forces for improvisational takes on the Usher and Monk covers, two original collaborations and a medley of John Lee Hooker's "I Had a Dream," Captain Beefheart's "Buggy Boogie Woogie" and Roger Miller's "The Last Word in Lonesome Is Me." The result is interesting and unpredictable. Experimental electronics and marimba-laced jazz yield to spare honks before giving way to the mean groove of the full band leading either into the musicians' collective chaos or to individual retreat. But why is "U Got It Bad" here in the first place? "I only know it because I have teenagers at home," Chadbourne explains in the song's introduction. Hey, whatever gets you through the night, sir.
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