Musical Morphine Strange Facts

There was a band called Morphine that existed almost solely within the 90's decade (from '89-'99) lead by a chap named Mark Sandman. They were a power trio, but not in the typical rock and roll guitar-bass-drums fashion. Think more altered bass-sax-drums. I say 'altered' because leader Mark Sandman would often play a two stringed electric bass, even so with a slide.  Morphine members would dabble with some other instruments such as banjos or dobros, organs and piano, usually dubbed over for color on studio albums. The music as they liked to call it was 'low rock'...as in 'low down, groovy, dirty yet smooth, funky, jazzy.' That kinda thing. The more bland term is alternative rock. Either way, their sound was unique. Now here are some interesting further facts:

• Mark Sandman has once quoted: "The word 'Morphine' comes from the word 'Morpheus,' who is the god of dreams, and that kind appealed to us as a concept...I've heard there's a drug called 'morphine' but that's not where we're coming from...we were dreaming, Morpheus comes into our dreams...and we woke up and started this band...we're all wrapped up in these dream messages, and we were compelled to start this band." Interestingly enough, in some popular folklore, the 'Sandman' is the one who brings us to the realm of sleep and dreams, sharing the connection with Morpheus. 

The Sandman of folklore, not to be confused with the Spiderman villain, but sharing some definite characteristics with Metallica's 'Enter Sandman', Neil Gaiman's Sandman, and of course Mark Sandman!

• Saxophonist Dana Colley would usually play tenor or baritone sax (sometimes bass sax!) and sometimes even play two saxes at once!

• Mark Sandman experimented with some other homemade instrument combos aside from just a 2 stringed electric bass. Sometimes he'd use one bass string and/or add a guitar string or two to make weird bass/guitar combo instruments such as the 'bassitar', 'tritar', or 'guitbass'. The band 'Presidents of the U.S.A.' were known to use these weird hybrids and consequently were friends with Morphine!

• Les Claypool of Primus is also an admirer of Sandman and Morphine, and he is a pretty experimental bassist himself.

•  Sandman had his own home built recording studio called Hi-N-Dry, which Morphine adopted as their sort of HQ. Hi-N-Dry still exists as a sort of studio/label rolled into one, dedicated to releasing output from local Boston area independent musicians (the area is Morphine's home so to speak). 

• Morphine had great impact on many and a fair bit of success, but Sandman's life in particular was marred by tragedy. He worked a bunch of blue collar jobs before music, one of them being cabbie. He stabbed in the chest by a robber during this time, but survived. Two of his brothers died in other incidents. When he was just 46 he died of a heart attack in Italy while performing. It is said is was a combination of stress, cigarettes and heat that did him in. R.I.P. Sandman!       

• This is no official band statement or anything, just something I noticed. It appears all Morphine albums follow a sort of 'elemental' sequence of earth, air, fire, water, and void/ether/other:

 

Hot Squaws

Another forage into the cheapies bin of a record store has revealed a quick flash of shining diamond. It was some album by Native artist Jana Mashonee, and this time, I can't honestly say it was the music itself.  I was like, dang, that chick's beautiful! I didn't buy it, I mean the music has to come first in terms of that. I did decide to look up her music and maybe buy the album later if I did indeed like it. Well, the album was a bit safe and poppy for my taste. There were albums in Jana's discog that were more in key with traditional Native music that I'd probably dig more, and I dunno maybe sometime I'll get one of those if I don't get 10,003 other albums first, there are so many on my list. But I digress.

 I got to thinking, almost everyone's heard of Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss, Tyra Banks, and blah blah blah. In the Native American cultural world, it seems they fight to keep more than their old customs and traditions, or basic land and living rights in today's world. If we are to think of the popular consciousness of media and the entertainment industry, many Natives are virtually unknown. It seems almost criminal. I did some digging, and found there are so many beautiful Native actresses/entertainers/models/etc who most people would not have a clue about. Or they might recognize them but not know them as predominantly Native.

At first my searching yielded a lot of Cameron Diaz, Fergie, Beyonce, Carmen Electra, Demi Moore, Jessica Alba, Heather Locklear, and so forth. Really, a lot of names that could fit up with the roster of well-knowns just mentioned above. They would go on to say something like 'so and so is 13% Native blooded'.  I  don't want to fully discount the '13%' or whatever, it's cool for people interested in Native things to know that some of these famous chicks actually have some of that descent and they probably honor it in SOME way. But hey, I'm not going to make some list about let's just say, the hottest German girls, and then for almost the entire list talk about girls who are only a tiny part German. Or in the very least, I aim to say all those super popular at-most-a-tiny-fraction-Native girls are all over the place, so it's better for me to focus on some of the underdogs or lesser knowns, who preferably have more Native blood. I guess you could say it's yet another raising Native awareness and pride thing. So here's what I came up with for some 'hot squaws', starting with Jana, the catalyst of all this:

Jana Mashonee

Brenda Schad

Molly Culver

Ashley Callingbull

Tonantzin Carmelo

Camille Nighthorse Gordon

Shannon Baker

Shauna Baker (actually Shannon's twin)

Karina Lombard

Sera-Lys McArthur

Elle Maia Tailfeathers

Dawn Buggins

Lisa Charleyboy

Taysha Fuller

Sacheen Littlefeather -an old skooler, see what her link is to Marlon Brando..

Sandra Hinojosa

Alex Rice

Rayanna Zaragoza

Jamie Everett

Wu Tang Clan Name Generator

If you don't already know, the Wu Tang Clan is one of the greatest rap groups/collectives to enter this side of the galaxy. Hailing from Staten Island, New York, the original members are RZA, GZA, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, Masta Killa, Method Man, U-God, and Ol' Dirty Bastard (now deceased). Their debut album, regarded as a classic, is called 'Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).' This was followed by 'Wu Tang Forever','The W','Iron Flag' and '8 Diagrams'. More albums are rumored to be on the way. Just about every member has (or has had) a prolific solo career, and the Wu Tang Clan has countless affiliates and guest appearances. One of the most notable affiliates is Cappadonna, seen at times almost as a full member. Another name to watch out for is 'Killa Beez', one of the main size projects.
With all these cool names, it's natural some aspiring rappers (or just some bored folks) want in on the fun to some degree. The Wu Tang created a 'name generator' where you can type in your name and have it 'Wu-Tang-ized'. Cool. Some imitations popped out of the woodwork in the meantime. It's hard to tell which was the first or 'official' one, but take your choice from these:
http://www.mess.be/inickgenwuname.php
http://www.recordstore.com/wuname/wuname.pl
http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/toys/namegen/2433/

Now, let's take some famous folks and see what some of their Wu names are, for fun:

Donald Trump -Childish Gambino  (<-Hmm interesting, the rapper Childish Gambino said he got his name from the Wu Tang name generator, and Trump ends up getting the same tag)

Barack Obama-Babyfaced Bastard (hahah)
Adele- Profound Lover
Charlize Theron-Othorized the Darkwoman
Conan O' Brien-Phantom Swami
Mark Zuckerberg-Quiet Destroyer
Oprah Winfrey-Monolithic Fishmonger-X
Meryl Streep-Loose Lipped Controller
Bruce Springsteen-Babyfaced Priest
Shakira- X-Cessive Beggar
Jessica Simpson- Ruff Genius
Ryan Seacrest-Jive Talkin' Choirboy (baha)
Martin Scorsese-Fearless Worlock
Nicolas Sarkozy-Illmaster Starks
Rick Santorum-Flippant She-Creature (haa)
Mitt Romney-Thirty Sixth Hyper Sniper
Rihanna-Roxanne Dragon
Queen Elizabeth II-Queen Killah
Vladimir Putin- Sabre Toothed Portillo
 Brad Pitt-Gorky's Zygotic Glove Puppet
Angelina Jolie-Top-Heavy Hookjaw (heh)
Michael Phelps-Cybernetic Tiger
Ron Paul-Lazyassed Ambassador (ha)
Nicki Minaj-Ticallion Ninja
Kate Middleton-Homicidal Terrahawk
George R.R. Martin-Radiophonic Oddity
Lady Gaga-Well Liked Assman (haha)
Maggie Gyllenhaal-Pesty Desperado
Rush Limbaugh-Curly Haired Slacker
Beyonce-Greasy Choirboy (haa)
Alec Baldwin-Undiscovered Bum
Usain Bolt-Sparring Abbot
Stephen Colbert-New Fast Automatic F-REEK
Newt Gingrich-Ancient Fingers
Michael Fassbender-Amateur Dreamer
Drake-Drunken Rakeem
Warren Buffett-Mighty Mastermind
Madonna-Misunderstood Destroyer
 etc..

*Final notes: try multiple sites to try and come up with the best name. Also try variations like middle names or initials and so forth. Many names or words are repeated, which kinda is more unoriginal and sucky, perhaps try your own method of coming up with a name like flipping through random words in a book, or if yr a programmer make yet ANOTHER engine for name generation! I'm guessing the 'recordstore' one was the original official one, and prolly is the best of the three listed. 'Mess' seems to almost guess the real identity of the person behind the name at times, and 'rumandmonkey' allows the option of choosing gender (though sometimes it's funnier when the gender is wrong).  Peace out..

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