Akron/Family : Love Is Simple

CD + DVD. One of the best bands on the planet! I don't recall seeing such fantastic live shows ever, except maybe Pere Ubu at the Whiskey in LA circa 1978 or Ummagumma-era Pink Floyd circa 1968/9. Take those unrelated reference points and mix in The Beatles, Chicago Art Ensemble, CCR, The Grateful Dead, The Hollies, The Butthole Surfers, Led Zeppelin, and you might get a notion. Anyway, this record comes the closest to bridging the gap between the chaos, rock action, tribal bongo-banging and sentimental sing-alongs of their live shows and the necessarily more cerebral, or at least worked-over and layered process of recording in the studio. So, there are beautiful songs and harmonies on this album, and also wild and weird jams, all in the service of their chosen Deity, or Nothingness, or LOVE, or whatever it is they're on about. The album was recorded and produced by Andrew Weiss and mixed variously at Trout Recording by Bryce Goggin, at Excello Studios by Ethan Donaldson and by Andrew Weiss at Zion House of Flesh.