Spilt Milk- Jellyfish

British/American Hybrid Jellyfish released their first record "Bellybutton" to critical acclaim and moderate international success. The record did particularly well in the UK. The foursome were considered somewhat of a pop supergroup. Jason Falkner (guitars/vocals) had been at the front of several succesful American bands, Roger Manning was a widely recorded studio keys/synth player and an outstanding male alto, his brother Joseph was an excellent bassist and singer, and the drummer... well that's where Jellyfish is a little different. The band revolved around the drummer, who sang lead vocals, wrote a majority of the songs, and played his set standing up. A huge influence on me as a singer, songwriter and drummer, Andy Sturmer was the thing that made Jellyfish weird (and cool if you ask me) and thus hard to market. It's easy to see what was attractive about the group. They routinely interpolated unmistakable tributes to their big influences, namely the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, and Electric Light Orchestra. All very popular groups with installed fan bases. It was the fact that you could call much of the rest of what they did circus, carnival, or pirate music that presented a challenge.

In 1992 Charisma called on Jellyfish to write and record the 2nd LP in their 3 album contract. Sturmer and Falkner had already had some spats and Falkner left the group. With an increased budget for this project, the group sought out the eccentric producer/engineer Jack Joseph Puig. Puig consented to record the album, but insisted on months of preproduction. So Jellyfish lived in the live room of Ocean Way's Studio A. Literally, the fold out of the album art shows a stitched panoramic of the room (incidentally showing off some of Puig's legendary instrument collection) and you can spot sleeping bags beneath pianos and organs. Then one day, Puig announced that they were finished, and that he'd scheduled a chamber orchestra for overdubs in 2 weeks. So they recorded all of the instrumental tracks for a 12 song album in 2 weeks. Not an easy job, especially if you've ever heard this album and have an idea how many different instruments are on it. The orchestra recorded Sturmer and Manning's spastically wonderful arrangements which consist of mostly flourishes and random bursts of "hello strings!" Vocals took another couple of weeks which is also amazing if you've ever heard the complexity of vocals on this record (think Queen meets the Beach Boys, meets Ben Folds Five). All without an ounce of pitch correction. As an interesting note, the album was released to meager sales despite rave reviews and following the American leg of the support tour, Charisma dropped Jellyfish.

Spilt Milk may be the most sonically interesting thing I have ever listened to. Every sound is vivid and attractive. I've listened to it thousands of times and I'm pretty sure I have every note and every noise memorized and I'm still floored by it. To really appreciate it you have to have a wide listening experience and not mind all kinds of musical ideas being mashed up and spat at you at random. If you enjoy that sort of thing, Spilt Milk may change your mind. Or it may change your life. I love it, and I'm sure that says some things about me... But do you love it?