San Francisco

Preview: The Mommyheads @ Cafe Du Nord

San Francisco September 2, 2008 | 4:10 PM Categories: Live, Rock/Pop, Upcoming

Christmas Song - The Mommyheads

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mommyheads.pngWhy bother with new bands that sound like old bands when you can have the real thing? That seems to be the rhetorical question these days, as the rock scene feels more like a live-action version of Classmates.com every day. Dinosaur Jr. releasing a new album, Polvo and Swervedriver strolling through town, My Bloody Valentine arriving like a freaking winged unicorn at the end of the month. What's next? The return of Babe the Blue Ox? Lovechild? Butterglory?

Nope, it's the Mommyheads.
You'd be forgiven if you've never heard of the Mommyheads. They haven't been around for 10 years now, and even in their mid-'90s heyday they were only known to the rare few. They released five albums on five different labels, with only the last, 1997's self-titled effort, on a major. (The story doesn't get any better from there, as they signed to Geffen at the behest of Don Was, who produced their disc and then fell out of favor with the label, leading to the Mommyheads getting zero promotion and an unceremonious dumping just as the album came out.)

The Mommyheads formed as a trio in New York before moving to San Francisco around 1991. They fit in nicely with quirky local bands like Camper Van Beethoven, the Sarnos, and Ed's Redeeming Qualities, groups that took pop song structures and acoustic instruments and messed with their heads. They wrote songs inspired by Italian soundtrack composer Nino Rota and writer Henry Miller, concocted lyrics about fig trees wondering what it was like to be a brick, and played a homemade "space guitar" that mixed sitar with ukulele. Early on, they sounded like a mix of Snake- and Badfinger, a power-pop band poking its head out of a big basket of weirdness. Over time, though, they smoothed out the sandpaper edges and circuitous rhythms, aiming for commercial success that never came. For this reunion show (and tour), the Mommyheads will be playing material from a new disc that features half recent tracks, some unreleased tunes, and a few remixes. The songs on the band's MySpace site sound good: brawnier than the Geffen stuff, but compellingly accessible, like Fountains of Wayne covering Emmitt Rhodes.

The Mommyheads play with the Mumlers and Brad Brooks on Wednesday, September 3 at Cafe Du Nord. Tickets are $12 and doors are at 8 p.m.

29 Comments

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