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Where to start with this one? There’s so much I could say about the sprawling 4CD set Tales From the Mothership<\/em>. But let’s start with a bit of history to contextualize things.<\/p>\n Tales From the Mothership<\/em> is credited to Jefferson Starship<\/strong>. Note that’s not<\/em> Jefferson Airplane<\/strong>, the group that gave us the hit versions of \u201cWhite Rabbit\u201d and \u201cSombody to Love\u201d as well as \u201cVolunteers\u201d and \u201cWooden Ships.\u201d But all four of those songs do appear in one form or another on this set. No, this is the Starship, the group that grew out of the ashes of the Airplane upon its early 70s demise. But it doesn’t sound a bit like \u2013 nor does it feature most of the musicians from the era \u2013 the 70s pop group that scored hits with \u201cPlay on Love,\u201d Miracles\u201d and other AOR tunes.<\/p>\n Right: no Grace Slick<\/strong> (she’s long since completely retired from music), and no Mickey Thomas<\/strong> (if you’re not confused yet, he has or had a group called Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas<\/strong>). But lest I use up my allotment of zeroes and ones telling you what this isn’t, here’s what it is: Jefferson Starship circa 2009 (the time of this live recording, made in Roswell, New Mexico at an annual UFO festival \u2013 no, really) is a group led by Paul Kantner<\/strong>, original member and primary songwriter in both Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship. This particular aggregation is, both musically and conceptually, a continuation of the kind of thing Kantner did on the very first Jefferson Starship album, 1971’s Blows Against the Empire<\/em>. On that<\/em> record, Kanter (and Grace Slick) put together a loose aggregation of like-minded musicians (including members of The Grateful Dead<\/strong>) to perform their science-fiction-themed songs.<\/p>\n That’s the kind of thing that is \u2013 to a certain extent \u2013 on order here, and in fact a suite of tunes from that LP are included on the third of these four discs (more on what’s where, forthwith). So the sci-fi angle means that it’s something of a good fit to have the band appear at a festival saluting Area 51. Or, I guess it is.<\/p>\n The set is designed to appeal to adherents and fans of taper culture: while the actual performance fills the second and third discs (divided into a nominally acoustic and a fully electric set), the 4CD package also features an entire CD’s worth of rehearsals (in low fidelity, even) and a fourth disc of dodgy soundcheck performances. One hopes that the band knows its core audience better than I do: it’s hard to imagine who would want to listen to the first and fourth discs more than once. Truth be told, one listen is tough enough going.<\/p>\n But more on those in a moment; let’s concentrate on the performance discs. The show opens with a short set by Tom Constanten<\/strong>, perhaps most famously known as The Grateful Dead Keyboardist Who Lived. He turns in some thematically relevant but otherwise odd song choices: The Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band<\/strong>‘s \u201cI’m the Urban Spaceman\u201d (mis-titled in the packaging as \u201cUrban Space\u201d) and the novelty smash \u201cThe Eggplant That Ate Chicago.\u201d But he also does an early Dead tune, \u201cMountains of the Moon.\u201d Truth be told, he’s a good enough musician, but there’s nothing especially distinctive about any of these performances.<\/p>\n Next up is Jack Traylor<\/strong>, a folk musician who \u2013 we’re told \u2013 was a big influence on Kantner. Well, assuming that the arrangements of some of his songs are true to his original versions, I get it: the familiar chord figure upon which \u201cVolunteers\u201d and \u201cWe Can Be Together\u201d (and, it seems, perhaps a few too many other Airplane\/Starship tunes) are built does crop up in his songs. He’s an earnest foklie in the Burl Ives<\/strong> mold; your liking for that sort of thing will be a good indicator of your likelihood of enjoying Traylor’s set.<\/p>\n A set of Airplane numbers given a more acoustic-leaning (as opposed to actually acoustic) arrangements comes next. What’s oddest about these is the participation of two vocalists, Cathy Richardson<\/strong> and Darby Gould<\/strong>. They both sound like tied-for-first-place winners in a Grace Slick sound-alike contest. Slick’s hallmark approach \u2013 strident vocals with a ton of controlled yet liberally-applied vibrato \u2013 is on full display here. The thing is, after awhile they come off as almost a parody: even Grace didn’t turn on the trademark vibrato as much as these two. It’s as if they’re needing to consistently remind us that, hey, we sure do sound a helluva lot like Grace, don’t we. What’s thrilling for the first few songs becomes a bit unnerving after awhile.<\/p>\n The third disc includes the \u201celectric\u201d set. Again with the supposedly thematic cover songs: The Grateful Dead’s \u201cDark Star\u201d gets a doppelganger reading, though it’s mercifully brief; and a few songs from Pink Floyd<\/strong>‘s The Dark Side of the Moon<\/em> are featured. A longish number called \u201c(Paul Kantner’s) Science Fiction Movie\u201d could also be titled \u2013 if one were feeling sarcastic \u2013 \u201cNot Quite as Dark Star.\u201d The set also gives us a horrifyingly sloppy reading of David Bowie<\/strong>‘s \u201cSpace Oddity,\u201d and \u2013 finally delivering some real rock to what\u2019s otherwise a slow- and midtempo set of tunes \u2013 some Jefferson Airplane hits to close the set.<\/p>\n The rehearsals on the first disc are performed pretty well, and if one can listen past the bootleg-quality fidelity, they’re enjoyable. The sound check is another story altogether: why anyone would wish to hear the band break down mid-song while making sure mix levels are right, it’s hard to know. The sound check does serve to prove that the band could actually get \u201cSpace Oddity\u201d right; the actual performance version shows that for whatever reason, they completely lost their way.<\/p>\n Both the live performances and the behind-the-scenes material feature all manner of onstage patter, lots of what-shall-we-do-next muttering, and the like. For fans of that kind of thing, Tales From the Mothership<\/em> will be a treasured addition to the CD shelf. Most others would likely prefer a double-disc, or \u2013 better still \u2013 a single CD putting the spotlight on the best bits.<\/p>\n
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