(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Michael Hall, a central figure in the Austin scene, wrote with the Wild Seeds some of the most intense songs, at the crossroads between Springsteen and Petty, marked by heartfelt common-sense, and an existential drift that is never openly acknowledged nor resolved.
Brave Clean + Reverent (Jungle, 1986) is a small gem of “Sixties revival,” arranged with modesty yet great effectiveness, nostalgic but not overly so. Sharlene is the standout track, where the craft of songwriting and the passion of Hall’s vocals blend most seamlessly; from there on, the album is a rollercoaster of impeccable references: the folk-rock of Big Mimosa Sky (full of jingle-jangle and harmonies), the surf instrumental Hurricane Girls, the soulful I Work Hard (dancing sax, gospel-jazz rhythm), and overarching it all, the rockabilly A Girl Can Tell (hiccuping vocals and hard-rock riffs). The emphasis is that of the “Boss” (especially on the more rock-inflected ballads like Love Will Make You Weak), but the interpretive verve often recalls Fleshtones. The lyrics are memorable: in the album’s most poignant track, Shake This World, Hall confesses, “I did shake this world like a man shakes a tree, but the leaves came tumbling down and buried me.”
Debi Came Back and I Can't Rock You All Night Long are classics from Mud, Lies + Shame (1988).
Quarter To Three (Record Collect, 1990), Hall’s first solo album, disappoints expectations—not for lack of songs (in fact, Congratulations and Roll Around Heaven This Way live up to his past work), but for the absence of electric arrangements.
Hall remains, nonetheless, one of the great rock lyricists of the 1980s and one of its true rebels: Let's Take Some Drugs And Drive Around proclaims one of his anthems.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Michael Hall's solo career, that started with the mostly acoustic and spare
Quarter To Three (Record Collect, 1990) and rowdy anthems like
Congratulations and Roll Around Heaven This Way,
peaked with Love Is Murder (Safe House, 1992), equally divided between
philosophical meditations (Love Is Murder) and blasphemous sermons
(Let's Take Some Drugs And Drive Around).
Hall then started the Setters (Watermelon, 1993), a supergroup with
Alejandro Escovedo and
Walter Salas-Humara of Silos.
A live 1991 performance of the trio will be released as
Dark Ballad Trash (1995).
Hall's Don't Love Me Wisely and River of Love are not among
his most daring compositions.
Adequate Desire (Dejadisc, 1994) marks a turn towards a senile, romantic
form of ballad (Under The Rainbow With You, Merry Christmas from Mars),
although his songwriting remains impeccable.
The EP
Frank Slade's 29th Dream (Dejadisc, 1995) is an experimental work that
came out of the blue: the title-track is a 38-minute concerto for small chamber
ensemble, sort of Proust put to the music of the Velvet Underground (the
death dream of a soldier).
Day (Dejadisc, 1996) is a concept album, carefully arranged with
trumpet, keyboards, and violin (Susan Voelz), and featuring members of
Poi Dog Pondering
and Mekons.
The song cycle is symmetrical, starting with a bleak portrait of
Los Angeles and ending with an apocalyptic portrait of
Las Vegas, sandwiching everything else between two dejected, horror
stories like Their First Murder and Ghosts. The arrangements
are funereal at best.
Back again in Austin after years of travel around the world,
Michael Hall formed the Woodpeckers with veterans of the
Texas music scene and released Dead by Dinner (Blue Rose, 2000),
whose first song, I Can't Believe You Touched Him sounds like vintage
Wild Seeds.
The 10-minute I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground is worthy of Neil Young at his best, while In The Crypt With Eleanor,
If You Knew How Much I Wanted You and
No One Can Tell You When It's Time To Leave
are delicate vignettes that evoke a neurotic version Leonard Cohen.
