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Morphine (band)

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Morphine
From left to right: Mark Sandman, Dana Colley, Billy Conway
Background information
OriginCambridge, Massachusetts
Years active1989 – 1999
MembersMark Sandman
Dana Colley
Billy Conway (1993-1999)
Jerome Deupree (1989-1993)
This article is about the rock group Morphine. See Morphine for the drug.

Morphine was a three-piece alternative rock band formed in 1989 by Mark Sandman and Dana Colley in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Although the band was formed and based in Cambridge, Sandman would introduce the band at every live performance by declaring to the audience, "From Boston, Massachusetts, we are Morphine at your service."

Members

Sandman, a veteran of the Boston underground scene, had been active in several bands, including Sandman, Treat Her Right (with future Morphine drummer Billy Conway), the Hypnosonics, and the Pale Brothers. He also collaborated with Presidents of the United States of America frontman Chris Ballew in a duo they called Supergroup, where they developed the odd string instruments that would become the staple of Morphine and The Presidents' sound. He also appeared as a guest musician with the eclectic jazz ensemble Either/Orchestra. Colley was a former member of the Boston band Three Colors.

Morphine's instrumentation was quite unusual: Saxophone (sometimes two at the same time) played by Colley [1], percussion played by Jerome Deupree and later Conway, and Sandman's own two-string slide bass and smooth vocals. Sandman's beat-influenced lyrics along with this unique instrumentation gave the band a distinctive sound that Sandman later dubbed "Low Rock". There were significant jazz and blues elements as well. 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]

Recording & Touring

Morphine recorded their debut album, Good, for the Rykodisc label in 1991. The album received positive reviews and established a small but devoted audience. Their second album, Cure for Pain, was released in 1993. It further grew 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. "Buena" was also prominently featured in a 1999 episode ("Boca") of the hit HBO television series The Sopranos. The music video for this single was also featured in the same episode, a first for the series.

During the Cure for Pain recording sessions, Deupree was replaced by Conway. It has been reported by Colley that Deupree had to be replaced because he was suffering from a serious illness. Before leaving the sessions and the band he 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 the band while Deupree would later return to perform with Morphine, both in the studio and on the road.

While touring domestically, Sandman 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 [it's] money's worth" before exiting the stage. A more popular feature of Morphine live perfomances became known as "Poetry Time", a short spoken word session conducted by Sandman and accompanied by Colley on saxophone.

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. Like Swimming was a critical success but did not break the band into the domestic mainstream as had been hoped.

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 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.

Sandman's death

On July 3, 1999, Sandman collapsed on stage at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Latium, Italy (near Rome). He was soon pronounced dead of a heart attack and Morphine immediately disbanded. 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, an "official live bootleg" and a "Best of" collection have also been released under the Morphine name.

Orchestra Morphine & Sandbox

In the year following the death of Sandman, Colley and Conway put together 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. Deupree continues to record with various jazz musicians and later became a member of the group Bourbon Princess. 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 now includes a number of their friends, colleagues and other Boston-area musicians. Orchestra Morphine still reunites on occasion but no longer tours.

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. Unfortunately, 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. This is the apparent result of a less-than-cooperative relationship between the surviving members of the band and their former labels, although both Colley and Conway contributed to the release of The Best Of Morphine: 1992-1995, released by Rykodisc in 2003.

The intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Brookline in Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts is named in honor of Mark Sandman.

Personnel

  • Mark Sandman - 2 string slide bass, vocals, organ, tritar, guitar, piano
  • Dana Colley - baritone sax, tenor sax, double sax, triangle
  • Billy Conway - various percussion (1993-1999)
  • Jerome Deupree - various percussion (1989-1993)

Discography

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