The Trash Company - The Earle Hotel Tapes (Steady Sounds/PPU)
Steady Sounds have made a good name for themselves over the past few years as one of the newer and more noteworthy record shops in town. With their focus on vinyl from all eras, they've made sure that Richmond collectors can find everything from brand new releases to rare vintage pressings and cool dollar-bin scores under one roof. Now they make their first foray into actually pressing and releasing vinyl with this archival compilation by The Trash Company. Mostly consisting of home recordings made between 1979 and 1993, this album collects the works of Max Monroe, who formed The Trash Company in the mid-70s with friends the Cheatham brothers--Watusi, Bee, and Pop. Initially existing as a real performing band playing Bohannon/P-Funk style heavy funk, The Trash Company gigged around Richmond for several years without much success. The group dissolved by the end of the decade. However, Monroe kept recording, either on his own or in collaboration with Watusi Cheatham, in his room at the Earle Hotel.
The Earle was a rundown longterm-occupancy hotel located at the corner of Adams and Main streets, near the Jefferson. Both hotels had fallen upon hard times by the 70s, and the Jefferson spent most of the 80s closed and unoccupied. Monroe lived at the Earle Hotel for nearly two decades, finally leaving in the mid-90s only a year or so before it was demolished (the spot where it stood is now a parking lot for the reopened and refurbished Jefferson Hotel). The first song on The Earle Hotel Tapes was actually recorded in a studio (engineered by Carlos Chafin, who now runs In Your Ear Studios), but even "Come To Me Softly," the sole recorded remnant of the original Trash Company band, is quite strange. A ballad featuring acoustic guitars and xylophones run through echoing effects, it's far from the funky sound that the Trash Company initially attempted. However, it does have a spooky allure, which makes it a haunting listen.
The Earle Hotel shortly before demolition. Photo by Joey Harrison
The entire album is haunting, though, really, and that becomes much more clear as it goes on. "Come To Me Softly" is followed by "No Regrets," a home recording (like all of the others here) featuring a drum machine, heavily reverbed vocals, and a snarling guitar riff that seems more in line with the heavy-funk sound The Trash Company were initially going for. For the most part, though, these songs have a mellower, soulful feel, which might be driven by the fact that Monroe recorded all of them in his bedroom. One of the common factors here is a primitive drum machine, which keeps the beat for almost all of the home recordings and is often fed through some echoing effects. While Monroe's voice is always deep and smooth, his minimal instrumental accompaniment and tendency to indulge in the rudimentary processing effects he has at his disposal results in an off-kilter musical mood that pushes much of this music across the line from primitive soul into full-on outsider art. Those who come to this album expecting to hear something that sounds like solo demos by Marvin Gaye might be a bit surprised to discover that some sections of this album are, if anything, more reminiscent of fringe 90s alt-rock weirdos like Daniel Johnston or Jim Shepard (Vertical Slit/V3).
Ultimately, the feeling that comes from The Earle Hotel Tapes is one of loneliness. Many of the songs' lyrics are tales of lost love. And they aren't just from the male point of view, either--while "So You Don't Love Me" is the typical first-person lost love lament from a soul man, "He's Only A Man" documents the loss of a relationship from the female point of view. Max Monroe's work here is mostly of demo quality, and a listener can't be blamed for wondering what these songs would have sounded like if they'd been recorded in a real studio by a full band. However, even these primitively recorded tracks, with their strange, echoing emptiness, capture a unique mood that is worth spending some time with. The Earle Hotel Tapes help to provide recognition to local talent that was sadly unrecognized in its own era.
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On Wednesday, February 20, Balliceaux, located at 203 N. Lombardy St., will host a listening party for The Trash Company's The Earle Hotel Tapes, which kicks off at 9 PM in the restaurant's back room. Steady Sounds will be giving away a test pressing of the album to one lucky attendee, so make sure you're there! Then on Saturday, February 23, come back to Balliceaux starting at 10:30 PM for a special edition of Michael Murphy and DJ Mordecai's Body Talk, featuring a guest DJ set from Andrew Morgan of Washington DC's PPU Records, Steady Sounds's collaborator on the release of The Earle Hotel Tapes.