SOUNDBITES:
    1:  Katydid
    2:  Gulag Archipelago
    3:  Jesus On The Radio
    4:  The Storm
    5:  Piano Interlude: Opus 1
    6:  Guitar Gritt'n
    7:  One Man's Trash
    8:  The Hoopty Man
    9:  Black and Blue
    10:  Got to Have Her
    11:  Field Recording: Pollard Street, Highland Park, 1971
    12:  Mistreatin' Mama
    13:  Trapped
    14:  Update
    15:  After Mary's Fall
    16:  Piano Interlude: Opus 2
    17:  Old Man Mose

COMMENTS:
The Mystery Band was started as a conspiracy between Ace Farren Ford, Richard Snyder, Gary Riley & Pierre Dupuy in 1987. Originally a quintet including Maurice Jones (who left in 1996 for an illustrious solo career) the group debuted at the legendary and now defunct Palomino club in North Hollywood in March of 1988.

Their first release was a 7 inch single entitled "Tasting The Smell Of Light" on Sympathy For The Record Industry in 1989, followed several years later by their first CD, the now out-of-print "Insert Title Here" on the Birdcage label in 1996 (during the interim they managed to back the notorious British artist Savage Pencil on an abstract CD called "Ether Hogg", also on Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1994).

In 1996 they contributed a track on the unlikely compilation "Merry Maladies" on Cleopatra (backing founder Ace Farren Ford on a "solo" track called "Scurvy") and closed the millennium by signing with the Aim Recording Company, who have released the 12 inch LP "Leo, Gemini, Capricorns and Jones, Ltd." and the 7 inch EP "Rebels Without Applause" from the original first album sessions, and will shortly be reissuing the out-of-print debut CD as "Resume (reinsert title here)." Naturally all releases contain previously unissued tracks so that die-hard Mystery Band fans will have to have them all.

The band was joined by the legendary Larry Mister E. Easter, (veteran of such history making outings as Harvey Mandel's Cristo Redentor and 3 Linn County LPs) on horns and woodwinds in 2001.

PAST REVIEWS (for "Insert Title Here"):
Debut album by this long-running CA-based group, including Ace Farren Ford (Ace & Duce, The Child Molesters), and Richard Snyder (Capt. Beefheart circa the Doc At the Radar Station tour and Ice Cream For Crow album). This LP version features 3 tracks not to be found on the forthcoming CD version. "Free Jazz? Country & Western? Sea Shanties? Barrelhouse Rock? What do you do with a group who refuses to play just one style of music? These and many other questions are being addressed by four fellows known or rather unknown as the Mystery Band. Playing an unusual blend of mostly original material (and a highly unusual array of covers), the Mystery Band have been lurking about the Los Angeles club scene for some 10 years, however, their musical association with one another goes back as far as the nineteen sixties." (from forcedexposure.com)

This new CD from The Mystery Band has Beefheart influence written all over it; The musicians include Rick Snyder, former bassist for the Magic Band, and Ace Farren Ford, a huge fan, from what I've heard. (The other band members may have links to Beefheart too - I don't know.)

In any case, the album is a strange mix. For instance, the first musical track "Espionage" starts well, with the band playing together very well. When I first heard the vocals start, however, I was startled by the harshness of the singer. The wonderfully smooth sound the band had was jarred by the sound of his voice. (No specific credits were given for which singer it was.)

This mix continues on throughout the album with different members singing for different songs. Sometimes the voices mesh, like on "El Camino Real", and sometimes it distracts, like on "Chow N' Plow". I'm not sure if this contrast is on purpose or not.

In any case, the musicianship is excellent. There are songs like "Paddy Doyle" and "100 Years Ago" that are a capella, which also strangely work within the structure of the album. The music is relatively "normal" in that it does not lapse into anything difficult - it's modern without being esoteric.

The best selection on the album, in my opinion, is obviously Beefheart-influenced. The poem "Wanderlust" is spoken over faint background noise, and sounds much like the unreleased Captain Beefheart poem "Seam Crooked Sam". However, it stands on its own as a work and is not just a remake.

The CD itself has primitivist art all over it, with a clever feature: Since the title of the album is "Insert Title Here", a small sticker sheet is included with which you can quite literally insert the title over where it is printed within the CD case. Each sticker strip has titles like "I Sink, Therefore I Swam", "Around the Spectrum Peppercorner", and "The Mystery Band's Self Titled Debut Swansong".

All in all, this CD has 21 selections (not all are songs), all the lyrics printed in the booklet and the above mentioned stickers, plus excellent production quality. It's quite a lot for the price.
(from homepagereplica)

LINK:
ACE FARREN FORD's website