{"product_id":"new-mars-live-at-the-village-gate-lp","title":"New - Mars - Live At The Village Gate - LP","description":"\u003cp\u003eA common misconception about MARS is that their music was meant to be\u003cbr\u003edark and nihilistic. That’s not totally wrong: When their guitars\u003cbr\u003esawed noise, rhythms lurched heavy and words came in howls, listening\u003cbr\u003ecould be a harrowing experience, as suffocating as any of their\u003cbr\u003eapocalyptic No Wave counterparts. But the quartet’s work was also\u003cbr\u003eenergetic, joyful and buoyantly melodic. After all, they started by\u003cbr\u003ejamming on tunes by the Velvet Underground, pretty much the ur-band\u003cbr\u003ewhen it comes to sounding both dark and bright. As much as MARS\u003cbr\u003estretched and remade that model into new wiry shapes, the spark of\u003cbr\u003ebrightness sustained.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s easy to hear when listening to this set recorded in the summer of\u003cbr\u003e1977 at a series of shows put on by the late Terry Ork at the Village\u003cbr\u003eGate, a renowned jazz club in Greenwich Village. All eight songs have\u003cbr\u003ean urgent bounce, which is clearest in the caffeinated energy of the\u003cbr\u003evocals, usually delivered in the pungent wail of either Sumner Crane\u003cbr\u003eor Connie Burg. Mark Cunningham’s rubbery bass and the chopping\u003cbr\u003eguitars of Crane and Burg shoot flares as if they were running a\u003cbr\u003efireworks display. Add Nancy Arlen’s nonstop drumming – roughly\u003cbr\u003eechoing Mo Tucker if she had extra limbs and\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLive at the Village Gate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003ebecomes a dizzying rush of tunes that zooms by in a taut 24 minutes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough Mars hadn’t even recorded at this point, they were already what\u003cbr\u003eBurg called “like a machine in a way – a really out of control\u003cbr\u003emachine.” Most of these songs were honed when the band was called\u003cbr\u003eChina, a name they changed a few months before this gig after\u003cbr\u003ediscovering other, potentially litigious groups bearing that moniker.\u003cbr\u003eIn fact these songs were so far along that when Mars did start\u003cbr\u003erecording, only “3E” would survive, none of the other seven would ever\u003cbr\u003esee the dank light of a studio. That’s a shame, but it’s also hard to\u003cbr\u003eimagine a studio capturing the same spilling ecstasy of what Mars\u003cbr\u003emanaged live – from the chugging pre-Feelies slash of “Cry” to the see\u003cbr\u003esaw sway of “Compulsion,” to the absolute rhythmic mastery of “81\u003cbr\u003eWarren Street,” with its slipping beat like thread darting through the\u003cbr\u003eeye of a needle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat would become the a-side for Mars’ first single, “3E” plays out\u003cbr\u003emuch differently here from what it later became. Cunningham’s\u003cbr\u003einsistent bass and Crane’s hyperactive yelps are firmly in place, but\u003cbr\u003ethis version is longer and looser, not as tightly wound as it ended up\u003cbr\u003eon record. It’s all the more exciting for it, as the band seems ready\u003cbr\u003eto collapse at any moment, only to steer the teetering ship back to\u003cbr\u003esafety every time. Like much of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLive at the Village Gate\u003c\/em\u003e, it’s a\u003cbr\u003eperfect manifestation of what Burg often said she hoped for Mars. “I\u003cbr\u003ewanted to see how far it could go and still be called music.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tone Deaf Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50008779260144,"sku":null,"price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0053\/3315\/5912\/files\/0045640325_10_493cdd73-7f7e-4f1c-b6fc-599b37d93dd0.jpg?v=1783718469","url":"https:\/\/tonedeafrecs.com\/products\/new-mars-live-at-the-village-gate-lp","provider":"Tone Deaf Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}