Having emerged from the fertile ‘80s Hoboken scene, Speed the Plough thrived into the next decade and after a long hiatus returned to activity in 2010. Over the years they’ve amassed a catalog intermingling guitar pop with shades of indie rock and helpings of effervescent electric folk; their new album finds them back on Steve Fallon’s rekindled Coyote imprint and proves a welcome addition to a worthwhile discography. Pressing plant delays have pushed back the availability of Now on vinyl, but it’s slated for release this month.
Succinctly, when guitarists Glenn Mercer and Bill Million left The Trypes to reactivate The Feelies with drummer Stanley Demeski and bassist Brenda Sauter in tow, the remaining members, namely keyboardist-vocalist John Baumgartner, guitarist Marc Francia, and multi-instrumentalist-vocalist Toni Paruta, located bassist Pete Pedulla and drummer Jim DeRogatis and shed their former moniker to become Speed the Plough.
They debuted with a 10-song self-titled platter in 1988 on Coyote, an important ‘80s independent (highlights include The Feelies’ The Good Earth, the first three Yo La Tengo LPs, and the Luxury Condos Coming to Your Neighborhood Soon compilation) having recommenced operations for the occasion of Speed the Plough’s latest.
Of course, the story is a bit more complicated; for ‘91’s sophomore outing Wonder Wheel (the first of three discs on East Side Digital, the company also issuing a remixed Speed the Plough in ‘92) Paruta was credited as Toni Baumgartner while Demeski and Sauter comprised the rhythm section in place of the departing Pedulla and DeRogatis (the latter is now a well-known music critic and radio host).
Rich Barnes and Chris O’Donovan of Wild Carnation (a trio completed by Sauter), John Neilson (of Wharton Tiers’ band), and DJ Frank O’Toole are all Speed the Plough alumni, but John and Toni are the vets of an increasingly family focused endeavor; the new century brought the Baumgartner’s son Mike into the fold on guitar and founding member Francia’s sons Ian and Dan into the drum and bass spots. That lineup cut the self-released Swerve and the 3-song “The Summer Sessions” in 2010. The following year guitarist-vocalist Ed Seifert joined as they recorded Shine for the Dromedary label.
The Plough and the Stars, a set combining a CD of 17 tunes from their Coyote/East Side Digital albums with a 12-inch of six new studio numbers (designated “Tag Sale” as a standalone collection) and five live tracks from a ’93 performance on radio station WFMU, was issued by Bar-None in 2013. The same year marked the departure of Ian and Dan, the void filled by Cindi Merklee on bass and Stanley Demeski’s son John on drums.
In some ways Speed the Plough was an odd fit for the grunge/indie ‘90s; well-behaved, earnest and wielding meticulous instrumental breadth (notably Toni’s playing on various horns), they instead expanded upon the promise of the college-alt era from whence they sprang, in particular the Hoboken division (it’s worth mentioning that Coyote’s Steve Fallon was also a founder of the linchpin Jersey club Maxwell’s).
While Shine did unveil a few cool boundary stretches such as a nod to John Coltrane in “Madeleine” and a nifty cover of Lee Hazelwood’s “Pour Man,” a few of Now’s 12 songs register as reinvestigations of the group’s early string of records. This makes for a nice though ultimately far from calculated companion for the smartly assembled The Plough and the Stars. Interestingly, Now is the first Speed the Plough effort that hasn’t utilized any guest musicians.
Produced by the band and Don Sternecker at Mix-O-Lydian studio in nearby Delaware Water Gap PA, the results are immediately bright-hued and robust as “S.O.S.” makes its initial mark via John’s keyboard and Tori’s voice, her singing sweet-toned but sturdy at the core. One of seven numbers credited to John on Now, it reaches peak intensity through soloing of somewhat unexpected raucousness.
Speed the Plough has been frequently noted for their politeness, but thanks in part to John’s electric piano the lengthy “Midnight in the World” exudes a late-‘70s AOR feel, the atmosphere thankfully non-labored as Toni’s voice and the interjections of gentle flute and guitar wah lend contrast. It leads into the first of Now’s fruitful twists, the straight up melodic rocker “Garden.”
Written by Michael, it largely travels down a post-‘Mats/Dü path that Speed the Plough elected not to travel back when it was all the rage. Boosted by organ and a smattering of chimes, in the opening moments of 2016 “Garden” augments their established sound quite nicely. The same can be said for “Be With You,” Seifert’s country-tinged composition sporting sleepy vocals and fluting lingering between soft-rock and a folk place.
It provides a strong segue into “Because,” a John-penned piece evincing a rural-prog and decidedly Anglo sensibility; it stands as a Now highpoint and complements the harder-edged rock excursion of “More and More” as the comparatively laid back strum (with further AOR flourishes) of “Hey, Blue” lends range to Michael’s compositional input and by extension the LP overall.
The tune does eventually work up a head of steam, however. From there “Buttermilk Falls” reengages with an advanced folk-rock state of affairs, its prettiness followed by a literary wrinkle as the Merklee-written “Miss Amelia (for Carson McCullers)” unfurls a little like Mazzy Star waiting to catch a bus on a Nashville street corner.
“On a New Day” blends piano-driven pop approachability and one of Toni’s best turns at the microphone with a near-prog aura cultivated by the collective acumen of the participants. Its pleasurable tone (one with basically no contemporary equivalents I can gather) is given a tightly-wound rock shakeup on “Telegraph,” the track fleetingly suggesting Moe Tucker singing for a rougher-edged early ‘70s Traffic.
Written not by Seifert but Michael, “Ed’s Song” wraps up Now with another visit to the heavier end of the ‘80s college rock spectrum; concise, dynamic and catchy, it manages to eclipse the second and third-rate Westerberg/Mould motions that were so prevalent back when Speed the Plough was a strapping young entity on the scene and underscores a recurrent disinterest in formula as this (unpremeditated family) affair endures.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
