Anyone in a band will tell you that really, deep down, they don't feel like they're truly in a band if they don't play live. Obviously this isn't always true, especially if something like stage fright is in the equation, but for the most part it really is. This was especially the case for Honey White, who defined themselves right away as a live act, and one that was immediately different from the Mojo Wire. The new band's first gig was in downtown Santa Barbara, always inaccessible to the Mojos, and what's more, it was an immediate success on all fronts- personal, technical, and aesthetic, not to mention the crucial bonus of surprise and acceptance by their audience. These two self-produced albums document that for the rest of their first year together, Honey White would soon become a formidable gigging band, pulling off tight shows in unique and sometimes trying circumstances.
Unencumbered (at first) by the time constraints of a conventional club gig, Honey White steadily compiled a massive arsenal of songs for their 2002-2003 sets. The few originals from the new My Band Rocks E.P. alternated with jumpy, frantic versions of Bryn and Keir's best Mojo Wire tunes, plus two Bryn solo instrumentals, and spiced up with some unique cover choices, notably Jeff Buckley's "Lover, You Should've Come Over", Cracker's "Been Around The World", Neil Young's "Dead Man" theme, Johnny Cash's version of "Wayfaring Stranger", and the occasional Radiohead song done solo by Bryn. The actual locations varied widely, from the usual backyard Isla Vista keg parties (and one outdoor carnival in Goleta) to moderate-sized indoor venues in Isla Vista, Santa Barbara, and on campus at UCSB. The band adjusted the sets for each appearance, sometimes throwing them out altogether pre- or mid- show, but always managed to pull off a comprehensive showcase of their songs, and both these discs exemplify Honey White's wide range of material.
Assembled and released quickly (who knew if they'd ever do another?), Live And Unprofessional does feel rushed, but still fresh. It covered Honey White's 2002 shows in all their (mostly) open-aired, semi-organized glory. Recorded on the fly by Keir using his Roland VS-890 digital 8-track (both albums thus credit "Keir and Roland"), this album caught the band as their shows became streamlined and focused, demonstrating on tape the remarkably speedy process of Honey White's meshing as a performing unit. Generally, the guitars were unaffected and plain as they zoomed through any given song, the bass was thick and creamy, the drums (as a result of only two microphones) sounded light and flexible, and the vocals soared above (Bryn) or stretched around (Keir) everything else in the mix. With lots of room for each instrument, the overall live Honey White sound became huge when compressed on disc, cementing an epic feel to each snappy pop song. This same sweep was explicit only in the last two songs, however: the behemoth "My Second Shipwreck" instrumental, and the definitive live take of "The Lightning Rod".
The key ingredient, thanks to Billy's punkified background, was speed. Live performances inevitably beat studio takes off the line in terms of sheer adrenalized movement, which is down to lots of things like nervous excitement or other stimulants (natural or chemical). What happened with Live And Unprofessional involved employing power via accelerated tempos only- no gainy, crunchy, guitars to speak of, so things rarely spun out of control. "So Cold" illustrates this right off the bat, and the album goes on to race right through the next four songs- Mojo retreads all- at a breakneck pace. The same jittery, organic rush pops up in a few places later in the record, ("Windward Mark", "Unprofessional", and the exceptional "How Far Away") but still has the last word, again thanks to the relentless, echo-bass propelled "Lightning Rod".
Epic Noise Now followed its predecessor only five months later, but it was drawn from a smaller group of gigs and displayed a slightly different band. Honey White's 2003 shows had moved inside, and the ambient crush of indoor air only hinted at on the previous disc was now the defining characteristic. Differences between shows are easier to detect based on sound, but the quality of each performance was still better. Every song repeated from the last disc saw an improved incarnation- with some give-and-take: "So Cold" and "Shivering Sand", wrapped in shredded six-strings, now pummeled heavily despite being tracked in mono, and both "Heart On A Platter" and "Mercy Rule" got tighter despite a few technical glitches. A sinewy take of "You Let Me Fall" grew impressively from its recorded version, while "Pisces" almost turned into a power ballad. Significantly, the disc shows the first hints of sonic experimentation of the band's next phase, both in the effects freakout of "Distorchestra" (later "Blacking Out"), and the dry-run takes of "Dead Man" and "Sweet Oblivion", all of which, along with Brian's instrumental "Polarity", would feature in some form on the How Far Is The Fall album.
Both albums also used snippets of chatter to help capture the buoyancy of the live shows, though far less so on Epic Noise. The very beginning of Live And Unprofessional finds Bryn confidently declaring "all right gang, we're called Honey White and we're gonna be playing 'til we get shut down!" Both he and Keir are subsequently caught on tape yammering about falling into the terrible jam-band trap, I.V.'s vomit-filled streets, "ass pants", and in tones dripping with ironic, casual hubris, responding to the inevitable "you guys rock!" yell from the crowd with stentorian omniscience (Bryn: "YES, I know") and flippant condescension (Keir: "It's pretty easy, actually"), all to the hooting delight of the audience. The brothers DuBois seemed to relax their nerves a bit in between songs on Epic Noise, though, preferring to use the time to introduce each other, acknowledge the writers of their covers, and compliment their silent guitarist Brian, even while everything was still punctuated by the occasional euphoric "wheeee!" from Billy.
The breadth of material covered by both Live
And Unprofessional and Epic
Noise Now was considerable, as was the discernable
arc of Honey White's growth as performers and creative
forces. That alone justified the release of both,
but the fact that My
Band Rocks only shed a sliver of light on
what the band could actually do (not to mention
the inclusion on both live discs of many songs not
properly recorded in a studio and otherwise unreleased)
made them more than the usual stopgaps these types
of collections usually are. Ultimately, though,
both albums still carry the vibe of "minor release"
about them; as self-produced compilations, they
cannot ever come close to the quality of Honey White's
studio recordings, let alone the post-production
glitz present on professionally made live discs.
Additionally, the exhaustive effort of actually
doing it all was apparently an intense enough experience
on the band to cause a sudden and immediate hiatus
in mid-2003, just as Epic
Noise was released. True forward momentum
would have to wait almost another year.
