FIDELITY

The Spine Hits The Road is technically the second live album from the 2004 Spine On The Highway Tour that's been covered by this project; Venue Songs also counts, but it was included in the main block because of its importance. Notably, this is the first chance we have to hear the "modern" TMBG line-up: that with Marty Beller on the drums, Dan Miller on the guitar and keyboard, and Danny Weinkauf on the bass. Marty ostensibly wasn't present for the recording sessions for The Spine (I think), since he joined in early January 2004. If I'm wrong about that feel free to literally kill me.

This era's relationship to live sets is decidedly an new one, especially with the birth of the modern lineup; it's the era that spawned Venue Songs, for one. Furthermore, by listening to The Spine Hits The Road, you get the sense that TMBG is writing songs that are meant to be heard live now; eschewing some of the experimentation such as Ana Ng's gate pedal in favor of creating new, live-only improv bits. This is exemplified by the breakdown on Damn Good Times, with the frantic energy sounding like it's meant for this.

Additionally, the birth of TMBG's kids albums means that we begin to hear live kids songs. The songs on No! sound great here — John Lee Supertaster gains a new character from it being played while rocking out. Solely by the merit of their setting, they gain a more mature character to them; even if it's at an all-ages show. Robot Parade gains a frantic energy to it, once again making the case for these songs being designed for live sets.

The revitalization of old material continues with the live rendition of I Palindrome I as a full band; it sounds like it's been transposed into the Fidelity era, as if it was always meant to be there despite the fact that it wasn't. The live sets of this era gain depth to them that I really enjoy. I don't have music terms for it, because we don't know music in that way. The fact that Fingertips is being played live at all is insane.

Anyway. Almanac is also both from this era and this tour; notably, this tour is the only one we're covering, since we think it's pretty representative of the whole era (being at its midpoint studio-album-ways and all). Given that it's the same tour, I don't have a lot of extra stuff to say; opening with Clap Your Hands and doing intense audience participation about it really does hammer in the aforementioned themes though. It's hilarious to hear "Shit!" during a track off No!, also. Everybody conga.

There's a whimsical quality to this cut of Doctor Worm, even moreso than the usual version, that I find neat. Strange that I'm praising a live version of a song that was a studio song on a live album. I dislike Wicked Little Critta but this version is more enjoyable than the studio one.

That's about all I have — it's a natural evolution, far more than the dissonance between Mink Car and all before it. I find that interesting.