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When critics try to describe Mushroom, they call upon labels like krautrock, free jazz, freakout, ambient and electronic. Launched in 1997 by drummer Pat Thomas, Mushroom is all of those things and none of them. The San Francisco instrumental collective played its first-ever gig at The Make Out Room; now, more than 24 years later, the group returned to that venue for a show in celebration of Songs of Dissent<\/i>, its first album in more than a decade.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a playful sensibility at work when putting together Mushroom albums. Thomas has a habit of quoting from lyrics of classic and progressive rock tunes. To wit: 2010\u2019s Naked, Stoned & Stabbed<\/i> quotes The Who\u2019s \u201cBargain.\u201d Really Don\u2019t Mind if You Sit This One Out<\/i> is the opening lyric from Jethro Tull\u2019s 1972 Thick as a Brick<\/i>. And Songs of Dissent<\/i> includes a track called \u201cTwo Men Say They\u2019re Jesus, One of Them Must Be Wrong,\u201d a phrase drawn from Dire Straits\u2019 \u201cIndustrial Disease.\u201d Another new tune is titled \u201cKraut Mask Replica.\u201d<\/p>\n
One could argue that it\u2019s a tic only a music journalist could love. The thing is, Mushroom never, ever sounds<\/i> like Dire Straits, Elton John or The Who, and only rarely a bit like Jethro Tull. More relevant stylistic touchstones might include Can, Guru Guru or \u2013 in Mushroom\u2019s jazzier moments \u2013 Les McCann.<\/p>\n
When the term is used properly, supergroup<\/i> refers to a band lineup featuring individuals who have already made names for themselves. In the jazz idiom, the concept is both more common and less rigid: classic jazz combos like the one that made Cannonball Adderley\u2019s landmark 1958 LP Somethin\u2019 Else<\/i> existed for only one day.<\/p>\n
Mushroom has one foot in rock, the other in jazz. By rock standards, it is something of a supergroup, counting Camper Van Beethoven multi-instrumentalists David Immergl\u00fcck and Victor Krummenacher among its participants. But the ad hoc jazz approach is key to the Mushroom aesthetic: the group has also seen free jazz giant Eddie Gale, British psychedelic rock legend Kevin Ayers and Thomas\u2019 fellow music historian Alec Palao pass through its ranks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re far from one of the most popular bands,\u201d says Thomas with wry understatement. \u201cBut after 25 years, we\u2019re kind of a San Francisco institution.\u201d He notes that to date, Mushroom has had more than 40 members. He\u2019s the common thread that runs through the collective\u2019s body of work, but the music is the product of real-time creative and spontaneous collaboration. The free-wheeling, improvisational nature of the group\u2019s music ensures that no two shows are ever the same. Like most of the albums in Mushroom\u2019s catalog, Songs of Dissent<\/i> is the recorded document of a live performance, this time an August 2019 return to The Make Out Room.<\/p>\n
Mushroom\u2019s origins are as against-the-grain as its music. In the 1990s, Thomas was making a go in Europe as a singer-songwriter. \u201cI did three German tours and three albums where I was kind of pretending to be Dylan or Lou Reed,\u201d he quips. But he says that as that decade neared its end, German audiences collectively decided that \u201cthey hated singer-songwriters.\u201d So rather than make a crass, calculated shift into classic country, he headed in another direction. \u201cI decided that my next career move\/musical progression would be an all-instrumental band with me as the drummer and band leader,\u201d Thomas says. With the help of Immergl\u00fcck and Krummenacher, that marked the start of Mushroom.<<\/p>\n
Against all odds, Mushroom had superb timing. The krautrock flavor of its first single, a 20-minute motorik<\/i> piece called \u201cThe Reeperbahn\u201d gained a good bit of underground popularity. \u201cIt was the time of Tortoise,\u201d says Thomas. \u201cPeople were rediscovering Neu!, and so by coincidence, we were the right band at the right time.\u201d The band scored a break when German experimental\/proto-industrial band Faust picked them as the opening act for a San Francisco date. Soon Mushroom was collaborating with Ayers and Gong guitarist Daevid Allen, opening for Porcupine Tree and generally flirting with the fringes of mainstream popularity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a prog band, but not really,\u201d Thomas says. \u201cWe were an indie band, but not really. The jam band scene was going on, so we kind of attached to that. But we weren’t exactly a jam band.\u201d He admits that being impossible to classify was both an asset and an obstacle. \u201cWe kind of fell in these cracks,\u201d he says. \u201cSometimes the shit worked, and sometimes it didn’t.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Mostly, it did. While Mushroom has never become a household name, through more than a dozen albums and EPs the collective has charted its own unique path. Sometimes difficult, often hypnotically alluring, Mushroom music is always unpredictable. And lack of planning is part of the plan. \u201cMushroom has never<\/i> rehearsed,\u201d Thomas says with pride. \u201cThere have been 400 Mushroom shows, and 375 of them have been pure improvisation. We set up a groove, and people like it,\u201d he says, \u201ceven if they don\u2019t own anything in their record collection that\u2019s quite like us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas allows that there is some<\/i> planning involved in a Mushroom performance. \u201cI curate the music by whom I invite to play,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you came to see us, you might\u2019ve seen three horn players, two keyboard players and no guitars.\u201d Another show six months later could have been quite different, featuring two guitarists and no horn section. \u201cThat kind of keeps it fresh,\u201d Thomas says.<\/p>\n
Though Thomas is the force that keeps Mushroom moving forward, he considers himself anything but a virtuoso. \u201cI’m extremely flattered that these guys will play with me,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is my personal masterclass in musicianship from all these great people.\u201d He thinks of himself more as a prime instigator, and cites early \u201870s loose aggregation Ginger Baker\u2019s Air Force as an inspiration.<\/p>\n
Speaking of plans, Mushroom\u2019s original plan called for releasing Songs of Dissent<\/i> \u2013 its title a \u201clittle fuck-you\u201d to the outgoing Trump regime \u2013 in early 2020. But the pandemic put the project on ice. Yet Pat Thomas believes that the album\u2019s rescheduled September 10 street date \u2013 and the homecoming gig at The Make Out Room on September 12 \u2013 feels perfectly timed. And experience tells him that adventurous concertgoers will find something to like. \u201cWe once did a jazz festival,\u201d Thomas recalls with a chuckle. \u201cAnd people were actually dancing!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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