J Neo Marvin & the Content Providers
Make Out Room (5/20/03) / House Party (5/20/03)
 Above: Flags are us.... the party @ our place 5/10/03. That's (L-R): Pam, Me, Neo, Alan, Mike, Davis & Diane. Notice the Omani flag on the keyboards on the far left..... |
Singer / songwriter /
house-mate J Neo Marvin played two brief sets in San Francisco in the space of
ten days in celebration of the release of his 2nd solo effort, What is
Truth? The first was a private party at our place in Cole Valley on May 10,
2003 with the 2nd show taking place at the illustrious Make Out Room in the
Mission District. After breaking up with his long term Bay Area troupe X-Tal,
Neo has adjourned his musical career as a solo artist. Using a variety of
selected Bay Area artists to collaborate with; Neo has now released two solo
CD’s (Slowly I Turned and What is Truth?) and is now taking
his music to the live stage with a backing band, aptly named the Content
Providers.. The band that played throughout was mostly a conceptual band; with various musicians coming in for sessions and rotating instruments. The core live musicians however came mainly from the "At Last I Am Free" sessions and consisted mainly of those on the left: Pam Davis (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Glenn Stevens (guitar, cumbus, keyboards), J Neo (vocals, guitar), Alan Korn (bass), Michael Walsh (percussion), Davis Jones (keyboards, vocals) and Diane Wallis (violin). |
The house party was a huge success with several of the 25 musicians who made What is Truth? coming to see the live consortium warm up for the live debut. We were treated to not only great night of music but also a wonderful Middle Eastern dinner prepared by none other than Neo and Davis Jones themselves. We ran through a batch of Content Providers songs before breaking out into a free for all jam frenzy. |
It's always a little nerve-racking to make a live debut as headliners, as we did at the Make Out Room on the 20th. While the majority of the band are experienced musicians and had all played with Neo at some point or another, we had only played sporadically on selected sections of What is Truth? and were playing as a live unit for the first time with only a handful of practices leading up to the gig. This left a huge threat of being overawed by the opening acts; The Lipsey Spring Band and 86. These two excellent bands had been playing together live for some time and had already established a firm synchronicity amongst themselves as well as with their audiences. Nevertheless, despite awesome performances by both The Lipsey Spring Band and 86, the show was a monumental success as we were joined by Terri Manning (saw, vocals), Franco Reguzzoni (keyboards), James O'Terreau (flugal horn, clarinet) and Nick Phelps (soprano sax) to produce a resonance that brought to life the psychedelic indie folk rock that made What is Truth?. We kicked off with "At Last I Am Free", a track that was made just a little too late to make it on What is Truth? but did appear on the Rough Trade compilation Wanna Buy A Bridge CD. "ATLIAMF" is a rendition of Robert Wyatt's cover of the Chic's original with Davis adding a Krishnamurti spoken word section. |
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We soldiered through a good 7 of the songs from What is Truth? with perhaps the boisterous "Formerly Boomtown" (a track about the dot-com tumult that came through SF), the haunting "Stick Figure" and the sensational closure "Fiscal Year Zero" which Neo describes as, "Mark E. Smith in Turkey backed by a jazz combo and a Rasta drum circle". This one is my personal favorite as I get to play the cumbus (Turkish banjo below) as Neo reminds us all, "We've burned all our history books to keep warm, now that news looks like science fiction". Despite the catchy tunes, it's not exactly singalong stuff as Neo's witty / somewhat controversial poetry and finely crafted lyrics may be a little poignant for some. Still, the crowd certainly seemed to enjoy it as we got a huge set of cheers from the packed Make Out Room audience at the end of each song. Either that or they were just being nice but I'd doubt it, given that it was past midnight on a Tuesday night. We left to a standing ovation and a sigh a relief as everything had gone smoothly: the music sounded good, the crowd did not riot and no one was killed – at least not yet. The best feeling however was the sense of accomplishment and optimism that could be felt amongst every band member about the potential shown tonight and the prosperous future that lies ahead for Neo & the Content Providers. |
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Right: Buy the CD "What is Truth?" now!!! .... can also hear some sound samples here too.... Below: photos from the making of "At Last I Am Free", taken at Wally's Studios, Oakland, CA. |
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Left: Former She Mob constituent Diane Right: Erm, not exactly sure what I was thinking about this precise moment in time... |
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Left: J Neo, free at last, looks irritated at the rather awkward lead guitar playing. Right: (Above): ex-X-Tal bassist and long term Content Provider, Alan Korn (that's Alan on the right) played on most songs on (Below): Pam Davis, noticing that there is a bass growing out of the back of her neck, looks worried... Questions, Comments or Complaints: e-mail me @ glennaldo_sf@hotmail.com |
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