Bassist Chris Lightcap and his pals in Superette (the band and the album title) are having a party, and everyone is invited. Two guitars plus bass and drums has always been a popular rock and roll format, but lately it’s been gaining currency in improvised music. Superette is Lightcap’s electric guitar venture, and he plays electric bass exclusively in this band, alongside Jonathan Goldberger and Curtis Hasselbring on guitars plus Dan Rieser on drums. (An aside: Hasselbring is best known as a trombonist, first appearing on record with the Either Orchestra and other Boston-area ensembles in the late Eighties. I’d appreciate it if someone could tell me the connection between trombone and guitar, a double that goes as far back as Eddie Durham with the Bennie Moten orchestra in 1929!) With special guests Nels Cline (of the Nels Cline 4 and Wilco) on guitar and John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin & Wood) on organ joining in on a few pieces, this is a gleefully genre-obliterating stew of rock, funk, blues, jazz, surf music, African pop and more. Six of the pieces are Lightcap compositions, and Hasselbring offers a pair of songs, Far Away Planet and Frozen Bread. To give a sense of where this band is coming from, there are also covers of three songs written by guitarists. Ace of Spades is by famed electric guitarist Link Wray, All Come to Meet Her is an elegant ballad from Skip Spence’s Oar, the 1969 cult album by the former member of Moby Grape, and Birds is from Neil Young’s classic 1970 release After The Gold Rush. Superette’s music pretty much ignores the typical rock structure of lead and rhythm guitar in favor of a robust group ethos. The groove and the ever-shifting texture of the instrumentation are what count. No one really stands out from the pack for long, even though there are plenty of opportunities. Superette is big loud fun from start to finish, and it’s cheerfully recommended.
Royal Potato Family no#; Jonathan Goldberger, Curtis Hasselbring (el g) Chris Lightcap (bass g) Dan Rieser (d) Nels Cline (el g on 3,5,7; lap steel g on 8) John Medeski (Hammond B3 org on 3,6,8; Wurlitzer org on 2); NYC, no dates specified; 1.Selector/ 2.She Walked In/ 3.Far Away Planet/ 4.While You Were Out/ 5.Djali/ 6. Calling On Cars/ 7.Ace of Spades/ 8.Light Trails/ 9.All Come to Meet Her/ 10.Frozen Bread/ 11.Birds; 55:38. www.chrislightcap.com
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