I was at this show, and I recall it specifically both because the wind off the river on that side of Philadelphia was so goddamn cold and because I was supposed to have a tooth pulled the next day. I had been to the dentist a few weeks prior and he was like, “Dude, we gotta get this thing outta here,” and I was like, “Hey man, is that really the proper medical terminology?” and he was all, “Whatevs, we’re yankin’ it,” and then we both laughed because he said “yankin’ it.” Best dentist I ever had.

Anyway, I was going to the show in Philly at the Khyber Pass — Pale Divine also played and were killer — and I treated it like the last hurrah for my tooth. The tooth always liked Wino, so I was taking it out for one last night on the town. We went to dinner beforehand — the tooth always liked Chinese food — and had a couple drinks to celebrate the tooth’s life. “Taken too soon,” went the toast. I remember it well. The tooth and I had a great time at the show. The Hidden Hand had put out their Night Letters split with Wooly Mammoth a few months prior, and they were still playing a lot of material from 2004’s Mother Teacher Destroyer, which was excellent. That was always the tooth’s favorite The Hidden Hand record.

A wild time all around. The tooth briefly met Wino (no, I don’t mean I bit him) and it was a crazy late night. I was living in West Paterson at the time, had been married just a few months, and I didn’t get back north from Philadelphia until the sun was coming up. The tooth and I had pulled an all-nighter. I shudder to think what my breath must’ve smelled like at the dentist’s even after a vigorous brushing. Maybe that was why he decided he couldn’t bring himself to pull the tooth. He said, “Let’s wait five years and revisit the idea.” Eight years on, I’ve still got it and no other dentist I’ve gone to since has even broached the subject. The tooth got a going-away party and didn’t have to leave. Neither would it be the last time it or I saw The Hidden Hand.

“Sunblood” comes off the trio’s 2003 debut, Divine Propaganda, and the vocals are a little low in the clip below, but should be enough to get the point across. Enjoy and have a great Wino Wednesday:

The Hidden Hand, “Sunblood” Live in Philly, Feb. 5, 2005

I know I’ve gone on about the persistent undervaluing of The Hidden Hand in Wino‘s catalog again and again. How they’re constantly overshadowed by Spirit Caravan, which came before, and subsequent acoustic work, the Wino trio, the Saint Vitus reunion, and so on. The fact remains that particularly with their last album, 2007’s The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote, the trio began to hit on a progressive, conceptual sound unlike anything else Wino played on, before or since. Obviously things weren’t good in the band at that point, or they’d probably have kept going, but considering that The Hidden Hand got three full-lengths out during their time, that puts them on numerical par with Wino‘s run with The Obsessed and it’s more than Spirit Caravan ever got out.

Although a reunion seems unlikely at best, the progression with The Hidden Hand is of special interest because the collaboration between Wino and bassist/vocalist/producer Bruce Falkinburg — however bitterly it may have ended; I’ve heard some stories — was among the most successful of Wino‘s career. The only other people he’s worked with consistently enough to get three records out are Saint Vitus‘ Dave Chandler, Mark Adams and Armando Acosta (R.I.P.). With them, he produced three full-lengths between 1986-1990 (and other singles as well) and with the former two, reunited for last year’s Lillie: F-65, which if you saw the news last week, you know they’re continuing to support with touring.

So while the profile wasn’t quite the same as The Obsessed or Spirit Caravan or certainly Saint Vitus, The Hidden Hand remains a fascinating section within the Wino canon and the progressive spirit that emerges makes one wonder what might have been had some of the other bands, Spirit Caravan come to mind first, been able to keep going, or what a reformed act like The Obsessed might be able to do now on a studio album. We’ll see if they get there.

Until then, here’s The Hidden Hand early into their run, about a decade and a month ago, performing “Sunblood” from the first album, Divine Propaganda, on July 23, 2003, at Schwimmbad Musik Club, in Heidelberg, Germany, taped for Underground Live TV. Happy Wino Wednesday:

The Hidden Hand, “Sunblood” Live in Heidelberg, Germany, 07.23.03

Youngstown on my mind…

As I type this, I’m getting ready to head out to Days of the Doomed III in Wisconsin, and I can’t get on Route 80 and head out past Pennsylvania without at least tipping my hat — note: I never wear hats; ask me about it sometime — to Youngstown, Ohio, which played host to the glory days of the Emissions from the Monolith festival. Held at the Nyabinghi and masterminded by Greg Barratt (also at the time of Tone Deaf Touring), it was for many a Memorial Day weekend unlike any other.

I only had the opportunity to go once, in 2006, where as well as humbly introducing myself to Johnny Arzgarth and handing him a demo from my band, I was “voted off the island” by a buddy of mine who I’m pretty sure was on shrooms at the time. Can’t lie, that still hurts a little, but I guess I had it coming.

But Emissions was the place to be, and as I anticipate driving past Youngstown and maybe making it my stopping point as I divide up the trip to Days of the Doomed III (which has its own atmosphere; less weed, more beer), it seemed only prudent to dig up some Emissions footage for Wino Wednesday. There isn’t much out there, but The Hidden Hand played in 2004 — I actually posted another clip from the set for the second Wino Wednesday post ever — and though the quality isn’t great, I’m sure there are attendees whose memories are even fuzzier. It went like that sometimes.

Spirit Caravan also were supposed to play in 2001, but no dice there. In any case, whether you ever got to Emissions or not — there are some who speak of it as a religious experience; a Hajj of riffs — I hope you enjoy “The Last Tree,” which appeared on the first Hidden Hand album, Divine Propaganda, in 2003, and I hope you have a great Wino Wednesday:

The Hidden Hand, “The Last Tree” live at Emissions from the Monolith VI, 2004

“Purple Neon Dream” was the opening track on the last and most progressive of the three The Hidden Hand albums, The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote. Compared to some of what follows it, I wouldn’t go as to call it a highlight, but it does its job well enough. Like a lot of the record, it seems to lose its sense of structure about halfway through and just kind of collapse at its ending, which, incidentally, is also what the band did after The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote came out.

Be that as it may, and whatever brought about their end before they could do another full-length — by all indications it seems to have been a falling out between Wino and bassist/vocalist Bruce Falkinburg — The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote is a standout in the Wino catalog for how its textures unfold. Where sometimes Wino‘s heavier material retains the stripped-down structured feel of his acoustic work, the final Hidden Hand outing didn’t, and both Wino and Falkinburg pushed the band’s sound to places it hadn’t gone on either of the two prior albums.

All the more interesting, then, that Wino should wind up in Germany being recorded playing the song acoustic in what looks like a kickass shag chair in a kickass living room. The clip below of “Purple Neon Dream” predates Wino‘s acoustic debut, Adrift, by some three years, but it’s plain to see the roots of what would become that album taking shape in the below. Of course, in the interim, Wino‘s Wino trio would release their only LP, Punctuated Equilibrium (2009), followed all too soon by the death of bassist Jon Blank, and Wino would front the reformed Saint Vitus on European and US tours in 2009, so there were certainly plenty of other factors to consider in going from one to the next.

Still, this one’s a great listen. Hope you enjoy and have a happy Wino Wednesday:

Wino, “Purple Neon Dream,” Acoustic in 2007

It’s been a minute since the last time The Hidden Hand was featured for Wino Wednesday, and for my money, 2004’s Mother Teacher Destroyer was the best thing the band put out in their unfortunately short run. While the prior year’s Divine Propaganda debut had a raw sense of punkish purpose and the follow-up swansong LP, 2007’s The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote, was more complex both thematically and musically, Mother Teacher Destroyer struck and excellent balance of both sides of the band’s personality, propelled by driving fuzz and the dual vocals of Wino and bassist Bruce Falkinburg.

Ultimately, it would be the clash of those two personalities that undid the band, but on Mother Teacher Destroyer, the two figures worked brilliantly off each other, trading off in the lead spot while drummer Dave Hennessy (Evan Tanner joined the band for their third album, but also left soon after) solidified the tracks behind. Whether it was Falkinburg‘s dire proclamations on opener “The Crossing” — the start of that song and the album as immediate as immediate gets — the “we will overcome” call and response of “Half Mast” or the later disillusionment Wino loosed upon “Travesty as Usual,” the album was both viciously of its moment politically and honing in on epic themes. To wit, a track like “Sons of Kings” — my personal favorite and a one that’s been a Wino Wednesday pick before — is as much a fantasy narrative as it is a metaphor for the Iraq War, already endless in its beginning stages in 2004.

This is the 75th week of Wino Wednesday, and as such, I’m stoked to be able to feature an album that I still consider underrated in the man’s discography. You’ll find Mother Teacher Destroyer in full and in HD on the YouTube player below. As always, please enjoy and have a happy Wino Wednesday:

Whatever your political affiliation, I think it’s safe to say at the very least that the middle of the last decade was an interesting time to be an American. Still reeling from post-9/11 paranoia about terrorism, the country having split into vehement factions either for or against going to war in Iraq (for all the good it did, either the war or the protests leading up to it), George W. Bush‘s reelection in 2004 — things seemed to be tripping over themselves to fall apart. But you know, you had to go buy an iPod or the terrorists won.

Through all this mass psychosis and jingoistic fuckery, The Hidden Hand released their second album in 2004’s Mother Teacher Destroyer. In my opinion, it’s the strongest of the Wino-led trio’s three albums — striking a balance between 2003’s punkish Divine Propaganda and 2007’s more progressive The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote — but more to the point, it’s a solid and concise chronicle of the sentiments in both the public conscious and unconscious. Together with bassist Bruce Falkinburg and drummer Dave Hennessy, Wino made some of the most explicit social commentary of his career.

To wit, the third song on the album, “Desensitized.” At six and a half minutes, it was the longest track on Mother Teacher Destroyer, and while other songs delved into Zeppelin-style epic themes and tales of battles lost and won, “Desensitized” and “Travesty as Usual” stood in the tradition of protest songs, each driving riff serving as another mark of resistance. The lyrics echoed this sentiment as well:

Sad times are here today all around
Strange vibes here to stay to bring us down
For the people they don’t care
Pushing all into despair

No, it can’t be true
It couldn’t happen to you
Hey, it must be clear
They’ll try to keep us in fear

Disinformation is the tool
Media controlled, divide and rule
Anxious minds their questions lead
To the structure of deceit

No, it won’t be true
Don’t let it happen to you
Hey, it must be clear
They’ll never keep us in fear

Note that the last chorus ends in a hopeful tone, but there’s something too in the verses that seems to know the size of the struggle being engaged. Wino‘s always had a socially conscious side to his songwriting, but that was never quite so prevalent as in The Hidden Hand, and they were nothing if not timely in their arrival.

Here’s “Desensitized” in HD. Happy Wino Wednesday:

By the time they got around to releasing their swansong, 2007’s The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote, it was becoming clear all was not well within the band. They’d toured hard in the US and Europe for 2004’s Mother Teacher Destroyer and the ensuing Devoid of Colour limited EP, and having seen a couple drummers come and go and the straining relationship between guitarist/vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich and bassist/vocalist Bruce Falkinburg, the band simply dissolved after the release of their third record.

They broke up despite some considerable momentum in their favor. For the stylistic shifts it represented — more progressive than the album before it, more conceptual — it was nonetheless a killer record, with Weinrich‘s signature tone a distinct factor in carrying across the songs while both he and Falkinburg showed off how tight their vocal arrangements had become. It didn’t last — three albums in five years is more than a lot of bands get to do — but their work during their time together is worthy of consideration as more than just what Wino was doing before he started the Wino band and hooked up with Shrinebuilder. Underrated, I guess is what I’m saying, and I know I’ve said it before.

“Slow Rain” closed out The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote, and so would be the final song of The Hidden Hand‘s career. At 7:20, it’s also the longest track they ever wrote, and hearing it again now, it’s a shame they couldn’t have built on what they did here for another outing. So it goes. Good band, good album, good listen. I hope you enjoy it, and hope you have (or have had, given the time of day) a happy Wino Wednesday:

Looking back at past Wino Wednesday posts, it’s been an egregiously long time since the last time The Hidden Hand was featured. I guess between new projects, collaborations, that new Saint Vitus album, Roadburn performances, etc., the post-Spirit Caravan trio fell by the wayside for a bit, but no more. I never got to see Spirit Caravan live (to date; one never knows), but I did catch The Hidden Hand a bunch of times, and I’ve noticed one consistent thing about their clips on the YousTube that I’d like to share with you before presenting this video of “Sunblood” from 2006.

Namely, it’s the fact that the videos — with a few rare exceptions — blow. Part of that is timing. The Hidden Hand began before streaming media took off as a mundane part of everyday life — their first album, Desensitized, came out in 2003 — and ended before it really took off, their third and final album being 2007’s The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote. There is quality live footage of them out there, mostly from the Emissions from the Monolith festival, so it’s not like it doesn’t exist at all, but they never quite hit the level where people went out and documented every move they made, and it was before the time where every move a band made was documented and uploaded for all to see. If this band was touring today, we’d have clips of Bruce Falkinburg farting in HD. There isn’t a doubt in my mind.

By my estimation, that makes The Hidden Hand something special both in the Wino catalog and in general. Living as we do in an age of increasingly prevalent and pervasive media of a variety of forms and delivered across a range of platforms, I like the thought of a band like this, led by an artist who’s by no means obscure at this point in his career despite never having broken fully into the commercial mainstream end of the music industry, being relatively obscure.

Something to keep in mind, or not, as you watch the clip of “Sunblood.” Of course, part of the reasoning behind there only being a handful of The Hidden Hand videos uploaded could also be that the band was so fucking loud they blew out everyone’s mics. That could be the issue as well.

Here’s “Sunblood,” which appeared on Divine Propaganda, filmed at the Black Cat in Washington D.C. on Dec. 29, 2006. Happy Wino Wednesday: