Goo Seneck by mark bingham

This record reminds me of a night in 1997, when I passed out face down in a Cobb salad at Commander's Palace.

Ketel One vodka was just starting and the distributor was the friend of a friend. They invited me and Joe Boyd and Andrei Codrescu to dinner. The vodka won. Ketel One became a big deal brand. The next day, Joe and I finished our mixing with bad hangovers.

The working title for this record was The Long Hangover of History. After years of looking at the title, I decided it sounded like some grad school thesis. Nope.

In 2009 I met and began working with Michael Cerveris, who was not only a great musician but also an actor with deep roots in modern musical theatre. I'd always loved Sondheim and I swear Michael called him Uncle Steve. Wow. Not a day goes by.

But, despite adoring the songs and persona of Sondheim, I was never really a devotee or even a fan of musical theatre. I wished they could make full plays that were 20 minutes long, as per my rocker attention span. Still tripping on the episodic tunes of the Incredible String Band in 1967-68, I loved using their form - many small segments strung together and mostly through-composed. With that in mind, I began making a series of Condensed Musicals.

There are 2 of those here; "The Long Hangover" and "Gargantua and Pantagruel". We know the Gargantua story but when was it ever told as a condensed musical? The Long Hangover starts sounding almost like a real musical before meandering through 10 distinct sections a la the Incredible String Band, telling the story of musicians playing weddings, the collision of art and wealth, the end of authenticity, and an homage to Richard Rogers.

Goo Seneck began in 2013 at Piety Street in New Orleans. It was during sessions with the Iguanas. I pulled Joe Cabral to play bass and Doug Garrison to drum on "the musicals". Jimbo Walsh played piano and helped me organize. We knocked out both pieces in an afternoon.

The rest of the songs were done with drummer James Alsanders. Carol Berzas Jr played guitar on much of the record.