Morphine (band)

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This article is about the rock group Morphine. See Morphine for the drug.

Morphine
From left to right: Mark Sandman, Dana Colley, Billy Conway
Background information
Origin	Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Genre(s)	Alternative rock, Indie rock
Years active	1989–1999
Label(s)	Rykodisc, Dreamworks
Former members
Mark Sandman Dana Colley Billy Conway Jerome Deupree

Morphine was an alternative rock group formed by Mark Sandman and Dana Colley in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, in 1989.

Critically-acclaimed for their innovative music and unique instrumentation, Morphine combined blues and jazz elements with more traditional rock arrangements, giving the band a very unusual sound. Sandman's distinctive singing was described as a "deep, laid-back croon"[1], and his songwriting featured a prominent beatnik influence.

When asked by reporters to describe their music, Sandman labeled it "Low Rock". One critical appraisal suggests that "Morphine immediately established a minimalist, low-end sound that could have easily become a gimmick: a 'power trio' not built around the sound of an electric guitar. Instead, with sly intelligence, Morphine expanded its offbeat vocabulary on each album."[2]

1 Line-up
2 Releases
3 Live performances
4 Sandman's death
5 Orchestra Morphine & Twinemen
6 Band members
7 Discography
- 7.1 Studio albums
- 7.2 Live Albums and Compilations
8 External links

[edit] Line-up

Morphine was formed in 1989 by bassist/vocalist Mark Sandman, who had previously played with the bluesy alternative rock band Treat Her Right, and saxophonist Dana Colley, a former member of the local Boston group Three Colors. Sandman and Colley asked drummer Jerome Deupree to join the group and complete the initial lineup.

Sandman's primary instrument was a two-string bass guitar (with both strings usually tuned to the same note) played with a slide (though on the group's records he added touches of guitar, piano, electronic organ and other instruments). Colley played primarily baritone saxophone, along with soprano or tenor saxes, and the rare bass saxophone, and he sometimes played two saxes at once, a la Roland Kirk; he also played occasional percussion, and dobro on a B-side.

During the recording of their second album in 1993, Deupree was replaced by Billy Conway, who had previously played with Sandman in Treat Her Right. Colley has reported that Deupree had to be replaced because he was suffering from a serious illness. Before leaving the sessions and the band, Deupree continued drumming in the studio while fighting the illness, completing most of the percussion work heard on the album. Conway would stay on as a permanent member of Morphine while Deupree would later return to perform with the band, both in the studio and on the road. Morphine's final album credits both men and includes a photo of both drummers playing with the group simultaneously.

[edit] Releases

Morphine recorded their debut album, Good, for the Boston-based Accurate/Distortion label in 1991. The album received positive reviews and established a small but devoted audience. The band subsequently signed to Rykodisc, which re-released Good under its own imprint.

Cure for Pain, released in 1993, increased the band's audience outside of New England, and singles like "Thursday" and "Buena" picked up some college radio play. "Sheila" and "In Spite of Me" were prominently featured on the soundtrack of the 1994 film Spanking the Monkey. The music video for "Buena" was featured in a 1999 episode ("Boca") of the hit HBO television series The Sopranos, a first for the television series. "Have a Lucky Day" was featured in the 1997 film "Nothing to Lose."

The band toured extensively in support of the album in the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia, bringing an international audience to their next Ryko release in 1995, Yes. In 1996, Morphine signed with Dreamworks Records, becoming the second act signed to the new label.

Dreamworks released their major label debut, Like Swimming, the following year. It was a critical success, but did not break the band into the domestic mainstream as had been hoped. Dreamworks released a music video for the single "Early to Bed". Directed by Jamie Caliri and released in March of 1997, the nightmarish yet humorous video became an instant favorite among fans and was later nominated for a Grammy award.

Although Morphine was critically lauded throughout their career, it is much more difficult to measure their level of commercial success. In the United States the band was embraced and promoted by the indie rock community, including college radio stations and MTV's 120 Minutes (which the band once guest-hosted), but received little support from commercial rock radio and other music television programs. This limited their mainstream exposure and success in their home country, while internationally they enjoyed mainstream success and support, especially in France and Australia.

The band's final studio album, The Night, was completed before Sandman's death and was subsequently released in 2000, becoming the band's most critically-acclaimed album to date. Since then, Bootleg Detroit, an "official live bootleg", and The Best of Morphine: 1992-1995 have also been released under the Morphine name.

In 2004, the Mark Sandman box set Sandbox was released by Hi-n-Dry. It contains two CDs and a DVD of previously unreleased material spanning Sandman's musical career. The DVD features clips from early Sandman shows, interviews from the Morphine tours, and various videos from other Sandman solo and group projects, such as Treat Her Right.

However, the box set does not contain any Sandman material found in the Morphine catalogue, Morphine videos, or promotional material produced by Rykodisc or Dreamworks Records. Many believe this is the result of a less-than-cooperative relationship between the surviving members of the band and their former record labels, although both Colley and Conway contributed to the release of The Best of Morphine, released by Rykodisc in 2003.

[edit] Live performances

Sandman introduced the group at every live performance by declaring, "From Boston, Massachusetts, we are Morphine at your service." Over the years he developed a reputation for antagonizing certain audiences and even his own road personnel by inviting song requests and then ignoring them. The band would also force encores, even if they were premature, with Sandman declaring the audience had "received [its] money's worth" before exiting the stage. When one of the band members had a broken leg and had difficulty walking, the stage lights would be dimmed without the group leaving the stage; when the lights came back up, Sandman would welcome the audience to the encore.

A more popular feature of Morphine live performances became known as "Poetry Time" - a short beat-inspired spoken word session conducted by Sandman and accompanied by Colley on saxophone. During breaks between songs, audience members would sometimes tease Sandman by shouting, "Play something good!" - a reference to lyrics from the song "Buena".

[edit] Sandman's death

On July 3, 1999, Sandman collapsed on stage at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Italy (near Rome). He was soon pronounced dead of a heart attack and Morphine immediately disbanded.

[edit] Orchestra Morphine & Twinemen

Within a year of Sandman's death, Colley and Conway created Orchestra Morphine, a group of Sandman's friends and colleagues who toured to celebrate the music of the band and to raise funds for the Mark Sandman Music Education Fund. Orchestra Morphine mostly performed music from The Night, but also included some Hypnosonics material as well.

Later, singer and guitarist Laurie Sargent, a member of Orchestra Morphine, would join Colley and Conway in their first post-Morphine musical endeavour, Twinemen. Conway and Colley also officially formed the Hi-n-Dry independent record label and studio, converting Sandman's workspace into a commercial enterprise. The label's roster includes a number of their friends, colleagues and other Boston-area musicians. Orchestra Morphine still reunites on occasion but no longer tours.

Jerome Deupree continues to record with various jazz musicians and later became a member of the group Bourbon Princess.