Crank It Up To Eleven! 05.12.09: Psychotic Supper
Posted by Sandeep Murali on 05.12.2009
This week, we take a look at what is arguably, the finest studio effort from a criminally under appreciated band.
Hello everyone and welcome back. Hope you're all doing better than yours truly, because I'm writing this column whilst suffering through some serious physical discomfort. Let's just say that a pinched nerve in the neck is nothing to laugh about.
In case you forgot to do it last week, bookmark 411mania.com RIGHT NOW! It's the only way to stop blue whales from going extinct. Or so Nat Geo says.
Talk dirty to me:
Good to see that last week's column kick started a neat discussion on the state of the recording industry. I am glad to see that music fans these days are clued-in on the intricacies of the business side of music. Hopefully, the system will change for the better in the coming years.
Forgotten genius:
The other day, I was reading one of them tech blogs that are quite the rage these days. Of interest was an article about preserving a building, which served as the location for one of the most spectacular (and failed) experiment by oft forgotten scientist, Nikola Tesla. As I skimmed through the passages, my mind kept wondering what a certain bunch of hard rockers from Sacramento had to say about the matter. You see, these guys are self professed fans of Tesla's work and have constantly included references to the late scientist in their work. No big surprise then that they decided to call themselves, er... Tesla
If you had been reading this column since I started this weekly gig months ago, you may recollect me mentioning that Tesla is one of my all-time favorite bands. While their contemporaries were donning makeup and spandex, Tesla have always had a no-nonsense approach to their music and theatricals. They let their songs do the talking and how! The band had always delighted me with their superb guitar work (by the formidable duo of Frank Hannon and Tommi Skeotch, with Dave Rude stepping in recently following Skeotch's departure). This week, I decided to revisit the band's third and perhaps, the most energy packed album in their catalog: Psychotic supper.
Tesla's first two albums, Mechanical resonance and The great radio controversy both hinted at event's in Nikola Tesla's career. But Psychotic supper was the band's proper tribute to the forgotten genius that was the Serbian inventor. The album name draws inspiration from Nikola's later life, where he suffered from dementia and was deathly scared of being poisoned via food.
The album starts off with the extremely fast paced "Change in the weather" and the band hits the listener full in the face with everything they got. Now a lot of bands arrange their track listing to include a ballad after a fast paced number, but Tesla is not one of them. The second track in the album is the iconic "Edison's medicine", which talks about Nikola Tesla's betrayal by his former employer and mentor, Thomas Alva Edison. Now a page in the history books, this event talks about how Edison decided to pull a smear campaign on Tesla who had the better idea for the distribution of electricity. Nikola went through a lot of hardships and disgrace before the world (and Edison) realized their folly and the song spells thing out perfectly. Brilliant lyrics, vocals (Jeff Keith is arguably at his best here) and simply stellar guitarwork are the hallmark of the track and unsurprisingly, it is one of their best known songs. If there is one song that you decide to listen to from this band to decide if they're worth your time or not, pick this one. Trust me, you'd be pleasantly surprised.
Here's Tesla performing the song with new guitarist Dave Rude.
If one thinks that TWO fast numbers warrant a change in pace, they'd be wrong again. For what comes next is yet another hard hitting song, "Don't de-rock me". This song has the unfortunate task of following "Edison's medicine", and thus, isn't a mainstay in the playlists of many a Tesla fan. Things finally mellow down a bit with the romantic "Call it what you want" and those not familiar with the band's work would have a tough time visualizing the same band that played the first three songs working on this one. And therein lies the magic of Tesla. They never tied themselves down with one sound and mixed things up regularly with blues, hard rock and even some heavy metal from time to time.
The fourth track of the album is yet another tribute, this time to the late great Steve Clark of Def Leppard, for whom Tesla opened for many a time. This is one of my all time favorite rock songs ever and is actually the track that got me into the band. It also has some personal value to me because the solo from the track is the first one I managed to nail on a six string.
The next three tracks, "Time", "Government personnel" and "Freedom slaves" all pack in political sentiments in various degrees and expose us to yet another side of the band. Strong lyrics are one of the strong points of Tesla's arsenal and none of the three tracks disappoint in this regard. "Freedom slaves" is my pick of the lot due to it's anthemic nature.
"Had enough" grabs one by the throat and sets them down with the top notch riffs which eerily remind me of Steve Clark's work from the early days of Def Leppard. Perhaps, the similarities aren't a coincidence. "What you give" delivers the album's soft ballad and showcases the positiveness of the band, which is something they have always been proud of. "Stir it up" follows in the same vein with a tad more tempo added for good measure. "Can't stop" is probably the weakest song of the album and has this disjoint feel to it that I can't quite put into words. Nothing to be worried about, since the album has enough quality material in it to redeem itself. "Toke about it" wraps things up with some clever word interpretations and progressive elements.
All things said, Psychotic supper is neck and neck with "The great radio controversy" as the best album in the band's catalog, but it is undeniably the most energy filled one of the lot. Two iconic songs songs arise from the album and the rest of it ain't shabby either. Hannon and Skeoch deliver some of their best performances ever on the six strings and keep the trademark bluesy, melodic feel intact even amidst some heavy shredding. The rhythm section, manned by Troy Luccketta on the drums and Brian Wheat on the bass is as solid and dependable as ever and Jeff Keith, with his Steven Tyler-esque voice is a delight to hear, as always. Almost two decades have passed since "Psychotic supper" came out and yet, it sounds just as frsh to me as it did the first time I listened to it. Ironic then, that a tribute to a forgotten genius suffered a similar fate itself.
Never say goodbye:
If I got you interested in Tesla, I'd gladly recommend the first three albums, plus their two live efforts, Unplugged Live" and Re-plugged Live". These represent pretty much everything that the band is capable of and let me assure you, that covers a lot of ground.
