One of the few experiences from my life I will never, ever take for granted is that I got to see Morphine live before frontman Mark Sandman died eight years ago. Here's a picture I got from the show on a disposable camera, circa 1994 at a HORDE tour stop (headliner: Neil Young & Crazy Horse) in Michigan. Morphine played the secondary stage just after the Ben Folds Five.
And now, as God's my witness, the man is back.
A.K.A.C.O.D. comprises Morphine saxman Dana Colley, various drummers (including both Morphine drummers, Jerome Dupree and Billy Conway), and -- most important -- singer Monique Ortiz, who, like her predecessor wails low and plays the bass, sometimes even the two-string slide bass, Sandman's weapon of choice. It's uncanny.
Some may just say it's Morphine redux with a girl singer. And A.K.A.C.O.D. probably wants to be recognized as its own thing. For the real deep fans, though, this is nothing short of reincarnation -- and for Sandman to be reborn as a hot, savage, sexy woman named Monique, well, that's kismet, baby.
Visit the group's MySpace and hear it for yourself. It is Morphine fronted by a woman and it's something new, too. I should probably reserve judgments like this until the album's out (February of next year), but, hey, I know electric super sex when I see it.
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Thanks for the interesting website. This is what most people are not aware of. I love your perspective. Well reasearched and quite an eye opener! ...� :)
Harper - that "Twinemen chick" is Laurie Sargent. she was a close friend to Sandman, and she is a grade A badass... to whom Monique almost certainly looks up. i'm not here to rag on your opinion, but i do disagree with it, and i think you might too after seeing a live Twinemen show and meeting her in person.
You're right, Tom!, it was 97. I also saw Medeski Martin & Wood and Primus there, which afforded me my first glimpse of twirling jam band fans.
That was an incredible show. I remember seeing Ben Folds Five and Morphine back to back on that second stage, then being too trashed to see straight by the time Neil Young took the stage. But hey, I was on the lawn laying on my back, so seeing straight wasn't really necessary in the Sandstone scheme of things. And isn't that what being 17 is all about? (It was 1997, btw.)
Tom!
Jason, have you checked out Bourbon Princess? Good stuff too.
http://bourbonprincess.com/
Twinemen was originally a cartoon Sandman drew. I remember reading the whole thing online sometime in college. The art looks like this, http://www.twinemen.com/twinem... The band took its name from that, obviously, after Sandman died.
The Twinemen MySpace has a Morphine cover and a downloadable original, looks like. http://www.myspace.com/twineme...
Anyway, I think AKACOD sounds more like Morphine revamped than Twinemen does/did. Hell, that Twinemen chick sounds like a cut-rate lounge singer. Like Kirsten Dunst in Spiderman 3. Ouch. Don't mean to sound too harsh, but I'm not digging it. Monique has my heart.
ok, i looked it up.
twinemen is 2/3 of morphine and a different girl.
on this akacod stuff, the original morphine drummer plays "sometimes."
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