With the exception of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, very few bands experience the kind of success the Spin Doctors had with their 1991 studio debut Pocket Full of Kryptonite: The record not only went triple platinum, it yielded sales of more than 5 million units in the U.S. and an additional 5 million internationally.
Even more astonishing: Those lofty numbers were mostly the result of one very popular song. The excessively cheerful “Two Princes” was as equally adored as it was loathed, but even those who despised the Prozac pop tune – and frontman Chris Barron’s goofy ski hat – couldn’t deny that it took up some real estate in their heads.
As rapidly as “Two Princes” sunk its fluffy teeth into the entire world – “If you want to call me baby just go ahead now/ If you like to tell me maybe just go ahead now” – the Spin Doctors slipped into obscurity. But the foursome never went away entirely. This past April, exactly 20 years after “Two Princes,” the New York City outfit released their first record in eight years, the all-blues If the River Was Whiskey. It may be the most dynamic work of their career.
“I think a lot of times the best music happens when you’re not really trying to do it,” says drummer Aaron Comess. “We went in the studio with the intention of cutting some demos and seeing how the material worked and after a couple days we were like ‘Fuck it, it doesn’t get any better than this, let’s put it out.’”
Just like that, the Spin Doctors are back in the game with heavy touring worldwide, including tonight’s show at the Monterey County Fairgrounds, and even an upcoming spot on the “Conan O’Brien Show.”
The group’s transition from sunshine-daydream pop to deep blues steeped in whisky, like the electric-smooth Chicago style “Scotch and Water Blues” and the Albert King-esque “So Bad” wasn’t much of a stretch. They spent most of their early years performing only blues in New York City blues clubs.
“We had a whole repertoire of original blues material,” Comess says. “In some ways the album is a throwback to where we started.”
In 1971, 20 years before “Two Princes” exploded, Tower of Power founding members tenor saxophonist Emilio Castillo and baritone saxophonist Stephen “Doc” Kupka had been living in Oakland, sleeping on worn mattresses on a dirty floor after forming the band three years earlier.
“One morning, I heard ‘Sparkling in the Sand’ when I opened my eyes,” Castillo says. “It was playing on a Bay Area radio station. I banged on the wall, cause Doc was in his room on the other side of the wall, and yelled, ‘They’re playing us, they’re playing us!’”
That marked Castillo’s first realization that his soul/funk/R&B collective could be on its way out to the world. Soon after that morning, multiple radio stations were playing Tower of Power several times per day, every day.
“Next thing you know we moved up to the hills of Berkeley and were living in high style,” Castillo says.
Recently, the 10-piece band, playing the Fairgrounds on Friday, celebrated 45 years together.
“I always tell people ‘God did it, I just showed up’,” Castillo says.
Tower of Power’s unique vision, which the frontman calls “urban soul music,” is a socioeconomics-music blend – now such a fusion is just as prevalent in pop music as the electric guitar.
“Soul music has a lot of energy and moves you emotionally, whether it’s an up-tempo funk tune or a heart-wrenching ballad or a pop and shuffle,” Castillo explains. “I relate to urban areas and I think this type of music is popular in working class urban areas.”
But TOP’s backbone – and the reason Castillo wanted to start a band in the first place – is its horn section.
“A great horn section is something that made the music more exciting for me personally,” he says.
The horns in the aforementioned “Sparkling in the Sand” take the tune from sexy Delfonics soul to compound soundscapes of perpetually changing tones and time signatures, Latin rhythms, orchestral harmonies and even a delicate fluttering flute.
As legendary as TOP’s horn section was – and still is – by the late-70s, Columbia Records execs insisted they introduce some disco into their sound. Castillo politely refused and the band was left label-less throughout most of the 80s.
But since TOP said no to disco, they haven’t really slowed down. They’ve collaborated with everyone from Phish to The Grateful Dead to Dave Matthews, in 2009, they released The Great American Soul Songbook and in 2011, their 40th anniversary concert was released.
“We were written off as dinosaurs,” Castillo says. “But at least then we were able to make music the way we like it. We still played live and we still had fans that wanted to see us.”
SPIN DOCTORS perform 7:30pm Thursday, Aug. 29 and TOWER OF POWER perform 7:30pm Friday, Aug. 30, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds, 2004 Fairgrounds Road, Monterey. Free with fair admission ($7; $3 children 6-12; free 5 and under). 372-5863.www.montereycountyfair.com
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