Several chunks of media over that last two days have pushed me in direction of pulling out this old gem.

The first was a very interesting interview on New Hampshire's NHPR show The Front Porch (audio here or here) with Laurie Sargent and Billy Conway, two members of the group Twinemen. The second was a Boston Globe review of the soon-to-be-released Mark Sandman box set.

I was a huge fan of Morphine. What a sound. Dubbed "low rock", Morphine played a kind of sorta-jazz/sorta-blues/sorta-rock with a minimalist instrument lineup of bass, drums and baritone sax. It was shocking and depressing when Sandman, such a creative force, passed away from a heart attack at the age of 46.

After Sandman's passing, a collective of Boston-era musicians formed Orchestra Morphine. One of the members of that group was Laurie Sargent, formerly of the Boston pop/rock group Face To Face (anybody remember the song "10, 9, 8"?). Sargent and Conway (who are married and make their home in Hopkinton, NH) along with Dana Colley went on to form Twinemen.

I own the first Twinemen CD but haven't listened to it in a while. The snippet they played during the interview though, brought chills. The sound is very Morphine-ish, but with Sargent's vocals woven in. It reminds me of when I was first discovering Morphine. I was hooked, and played Good nearly every day for weeks. It also reminded me of when the band I used to be in played the song "Out Of My Hands", by Face To Face. "10,9,8" may have been a little new-wavish confection, but "Out Of My Hands" rocked!

If you've never heard Morphine before, Good is the place to start. By the time you hit the slinky "You Look Like Rain", you'll be hooked too.

(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)