It's notable that Tarpigh won't play their own CD-release show this Saturday. That would be the normal thing to do. And Tarpigh have never given Portland anything normal or predictable.
No, for Captain Cullpeppers Caribiners and the Twinkling Lights, a collection of musical thought pieces recorded in 2004 and 2005 at the old Stillhouse Studio, they don't disappoint the fans of their controlled chaos at all. Back are the sundry instruments (Tom Kovacevic seems to handle stringed instruments, Tim Harbeson keyboards and horns, Eric LaPerna percussion, but, then, they're all credited with "nuts, bolts, and springs"), back are the alternately comedic and sinister suites, back are the collections of sounds you just can't categorize.
If anything's new, it's the vocals and lyrics you haven't really heard before. Of course, they only add to Tarpigh's surrealist legacy, with lines like "Slippery clean solution/Naught and singles dance says/Smells like dung aught," from "A Slippery Naught," where the guitar, vocals, and flute all conspire to carve out something of a melody. Luckily, the lyrics are supplied, because they're worth contemplating: I would have thought it was "dung ought," but these guys have earned the benefit of the doubt by consistently creating music no one else creates.
What do you do with this record? Get stoned and listen in the dark? Impress your cynical friends who think they've heard everything? That's your call. But Tarpigh have once again given us something to chew on that's not easily digested.
Sam Pfeifle can be reached at sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com.
CAPTAIN CULLPEPPERS CARIBINERS AND THE TWINKLING LIGHTS | Released by Tarpigh | with Crank Sturgeon + Big Blood + Micah Blue Smaldone + Chriss Sutherland + Amos Libby + Vince Nez + Michael Gallant + Karl Greenwald + George and Mary Zarate | at the Meg Perry Center, in Portland | November 29
