C
hicago has long been recognized as fertile grounds for hard work and liberal, free thinking. From Wicker Park’s sense of artistic creativity to the city’s working-class, blue collar appeal, the Windy City maintains a character of diligence and freedom of First Amendment expression.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Tortoise, Chicago’s leading purveyors of highly artistic music that defies genre boundaries and any labels that one may attach. Not clearly post-rock, prog-rock or punk rock, the Windy City’s quintessential quintet offers a multi-faceted, multi-instrumental approach unmatched in today’s music scene.
“Chicago is a really good place to work,” said Tortoise bassist Doug McCombs. “It’s a good, affordable place to live where the people have a lot of diligent work ethic. There’s a lot of sharing of ideas-90 percent of the people I know as friends play music.”
With their roots tracing back to 1988 when McCombs (who was then a member of 11th Dream Day) joined future Tortoise member John Herndon (of Precious Wax Drippings) and Michael Cergizen as Simple, the band has progressed much like their name: slowly and gradually. After a few years playing throughout the Chicago underground music scene as a rhythm section for hire, McCombs and Herndon added bassist Bundy K. Brown (who later left the band in 1994 to pursue other interests) and multi-instrumentalist John McEntire to become a double rhythm section, dubbing themselves Mosquito. Within a year’s time, Tortoise was born and the band was completed with the addition of yet another multi-instrumentalist, in the form of Dan Bitney.
Trying to put a name to Tortoise’s style poses many problems. They touch upon all of music, from mellow jazz to super-synthesized electronic, feet-moving funk to classical; it’s all there. From Jeff Parker’s meandering jazzy guitar lines to John McEntire’s funky drum beats to the band’s extensive use of vibraphones and multi-instrumentation, Tortoise remains a unique entity painting ultra-creative palates of vibrant tapestries, tightly woven into compositional polyphony. Imagine Radiohead meets Steve Reich and has dinner with Bjork and Charlie Parker.
“I think of it in the punk rock spirit, to be adventurous and push boundaries,” explained McCombs. “We try to make the music vital in some way, to have some kind of edge to it.”
McCombs said, “Most of our music is pretty composed, with maybe little open sections. All of us are great fans of improvised music in general, but our group works better with a composition in-front of us. With improvised music, there’s a lot of potential for things to go wrong. For us, there has to be a certain amount of spontaneity, but it’s more controlled.”
Through the years, Tortoise’s post-modern art has been translated onto five, full-length albums. From the band’s self-titled debut to the addition of guitarist Jeff Parker on TNT to the atmospheric landscapes of 2004’s It’s All Around You, a clear depiction of a band unparalleled in music can be found. Album to album, Tortoise draws their listeners in and takes them for a wild ride into profound space seldom traveled.
“Each time we make an album it becomes harder to not repeat ourselves,” maintained McCombs. “We tend to write songs that have a certain theme; the songs that don’t sound like anything we’ve done before are the real advancements.”
Each album contains it wonders, whether it be the cosmic rock epic pulsations of “Djed” on Millions Now Living Will Never Die or the in-your-face, brain-buster delivery of Standards, Tortoise is fully capable of providing a complete glacier bursting performance with each track.
Now utilizing John McEntire’s Some Electronic Music Studios, Tortoise is finally able to make the album that clearly defines the band’s five distinct musicians and how they work together. Being that the band produces their own records and records it in their own studio, It’s All Around You was the product they were looking for, also helped by the fact that this was the first album in their ten-year plus career that didn’t include a line-up change.
“It was really collaborative. Almost always all five of us were in the studio together at the same time with everybody contributing material, for sure. We have the luxury of John (McEntire) having a recording studio. We still pay for it, but we pay at a low rate and don’t have the constraints,” said McCombs.
Live, a totally different story is told. Translating the epic appeal of colliding walls of a dozen instruments with deeply layered sounds from the studio into the live setting can be very difficult.
“We can’t really lug 20 synthesizers on the road with us, a lot of stuff we utilize in the studio we can’t bring with us on the road,” he said. “So, we have to figure out what the most important parts of the songs are and find the most practical way to play these parts. We juggle all the stuff around until it makes sense-it’s a matter of adaptation.”
So for a band that maintains early American and British punk-rock as its earliest influences, it’s quite startling to hear where they’ve taken their sound. Tortoise is one of those bands you just have to see or hear for yourself. Taking Devo and Television and Gang of Four and molding them with avant-garde jazz, electronic landscapes, funky undertones and a blue-collar work ethic, Tortoise emerges with uniqueness almost alien to today’s music scene. Not to mention, all five band members actively contribute to a plethora of side projects when Tortoise is off the road.
“All of the side projects help inform us as musicians, they make us better musicians,” admitted McCombs. “Tortoise always ends up having a bunch of downtime. We want to stay active playing music, so it’s mainly trying to remain active and to keep busy and keep ideas going.”
Currently, the band has just returned from the road and will be back out performing internationally later in the year. But until then, it’s business as usual for the Chicago art-rock quintet.
“In a certain way, it feels like I’ve been doing the exact same thing for 20 years. Tortoise has had the most success of any band I’ve been in, to the point where I haven’t had a day job since 97’ or 98’. Tortoise has been successful enough that we’ve been able to concentrate on doing it, and that’s great,” McCombs added.
