Music DVD Review: Tea Leaf Green - Rock N Roll Band
Published October 16, 2006
Featuring most of the bands concert on May 19, 2006 in Boulder, Colorado the film intertwines band interviews and a few impromptu jam sessions. Making great use of split screen Kreutzmann creates an excellent portrait of the band and the music they create.
Honestly, Tea Leaf Green is a name I knew from bootleg trading circles, but I had never actually heard their music until I plugged in this DVD. At first listen, I gotta say I counted them as another flakey band riding the jam band wave, but after a few more spins there’s another level to their songs that pushes them forward. The bottom line still seems to be about having a good time, but there is craftsmanship to the music that makes it more than just party music.
Take the lead song, “These Two Chairs,” for example. It doesn’t have a chorus to speak of but there is a repeated line that just kills
“They just don’t understand
But they got a rock and roll…”
Then pause and wait for it
Crash boom…”ba-a-and.”
It is a great moment that gets the whole audience jazzed. It might not be studied by graduate students in years to come, but it sure is a lot of fun.
And what else do you want from a rock and roll band anyway?
The DVD doesn’t come with any extras to speak of, but it sounds good and looks fantastic. Justin Kreutzmann obviously knows his way around a rockumentary and creates a video that is more than just another rock concert caught on tape, but is cinema, and an important portrait of a band.
The soundtrack album to the movie comprises thirteen of the songs played, including "All of Your Cigarettes” from the sound check. It's a nice disk, and a good companion to the movie.
Mat Brewster is an American stumbling as an ex-pat through the streets of Shanghai. He is helped by his lovely wife and an enormous piles of bootleg DVDs. He is chronicling his adventures in the Shanghai Diaries and musing on pop culture at The Midnight Cafe.
- Music DVD Review: Tea Leaf Green - Rock N Roll Band
- Published: October 16, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Writer: Mat Brewster
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Comments on this articleComments
I haven't seen the DVD but Faced with Love, All of Your Cigarettes, One Reason, Devil's Pay, etc. are brilliant songs. It is certainly fun to see Tea Leaf Green but the lyrics take you on a journey that is both light and dark, fun and serious.
I won't disagree. Honestly, I'm not much of a lyrics man. This is the first I've heard of the band and I really didn't "get" most of the lyrics. What I did hear and understand sounded like a band out to have fun. If their lyrics get deeper, I'll take your word for it, and I'll pay more attention next time.
Thanks for the comments.
Mat,
Please take a chance to listen to songs like, "Devil's Pay" about a whore house that is presumably set on fire by the Devil because sins committed by the women inside. One woman escapes, but not without sustaining burns, only to open another brothel up from her trailer. This stuff in great! I could go on, but that would ruin the fun and adventure you will have if you choose to search and find out some of the deep and provacotive lyrics that Trevor Garrod lays down day after day. He will be remembered as one the top rock 'n roll lyricist's of our time.
I will do just that. Like I said in the review on initial listen I wasn't even digging the music, but after letting it settle in I really dug it. I'll start digging into the lyrics now.
This article has been placed at the Advance.net websites, a site affiliated with about 12 newspapers.
One such site is here.
Great review though! These guys definitely have a lot of fun out there, some of their lyrics are indeed for fun/not as serious, but they definitely have some lyrics that have much more punch than your average jamband. Check them out further, I'm sure you will not be disappointed. Again thanks, and rock on!
Great responses Matt. To help in your journey...your article starts out, "From the ashes of the Grateful Dead"...One Reason starts out...
"At least we'll get a story from it,
Let's go find a nice place to sit
Where we can spit in the wind;
Confess all our sins,
Before we turn ourselves in.
We must be out of our wits
Like a temptress in love,
We're going to pull down the bridge
Just to watch it come tumbling down."
I think you may be talking the same language.
Thanks folks. I was a little worried about the fan response I'd get out of this, but you guys have been great.
As it sounds I come from a nonfan place, or rather someone who just wasn't familiar with their music. So my review came completely from the handfull of spins I gave this DVD/CD set.
I think my lyric thoughts come the line I quoated in the review about a rock and roll band and a few others. I remember something else about rock and roll, and part of the lyric quoted by sarah and
Where we can spit in the wind;
Confess all our sins,
isn't exactly the deepest of lyrics to grasp upon first listen. So again, thanks for the comments and I'll keep listening.
BTW I'll be seeing the band in Bloomington, IN this thursday and writing up a review, so check back on blogcritics for it.
These guys are one of a kind in the Jam_band scene... seing them for the first time at the 10klf music festival all i can say is they truely Blew my mind and rocked my socks
TLG is doing something new and fresh, they're a fun band to see live. Both the new live DVD and CD are awesome and give great insight into the individuals in the band. Check out some clips and more info.
spme lyrics are for fun eg. sex in the 70s, the invasion, and such but many border on the simon, dylan, hunter tip.
how about kali yuga? even the title is deep (if you know your krishna culture)
devils have danced on my doorstep
angels have sung in my yard
there are wise men hiding in the mountains while most of us are working too hard.
or my favorite line:
baby let's let our hair grow long
we can work on a farm maybe live on a mountain
got an old hound dog likes to run, needs a lot of room and he hates to be chained up. just like me just like we are supposed to be.
how about rapture, or bastard brother, or 7th story? i could go on and on.
check out the cafe du nord show on www.archive.org
for more of these excellently written songs.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/54445)
"These are serious musicians who create songs that aren't meant to be taken seriously."
I have to respectfully disagree. Some songs are not, but, lyrically, this band is on another level than their musical counterparts.