OTR: Chris Butler - Easy Life

With the Kate Bush odyssey complete, it looks like I have a couple of "one-shot" musicians to go through before I arrive at another artist from whom I amassed a significant chunk of discography. This first one-shot would be Chris Butler's 2001 album Easy Life. This will be particularly interesting because I believe I've only ever listened to this disc once.

This is another album which takes me back to WAIH, like so many of the discs in my collection do. Several copies of Easy Life arrived at the station along with plastic figures of the cell phone yakking, coffee-drinking Buddha featured on the cover. I yanked a copy of the disc and one of the Buddhas for myself, amused that the figure not only squeaked when squeezed but that it's arm moved in such a way that it looked like he was taking a sip of coffee when you squeezed him.

One Buddha was left in WAIH's air studio, but I don't doubt it's been yoinked by now.

Easy Life contains a total of 18 unique tracks (or 17, if you disqualify "Easy Life (Redux)"), six of which are spoken-word pieces. Four of these seven at the end of the disc (plus one song divided into two parts) are collectively titled "Beggar's Bullets." These tracks, according to the liner notes were, "recorded in 1989 at [Butler's] house...for the 20^th anniversary of the murders of four students at Kent State University."

The remaining spoken word piece - "Pigeons" - opens the disc with an amusing tale about a "rat with wings" that refused to learn how to fly.

Butler's musical home base was Akron, Ohio, home to Devo and The Pretenders. His "group" circa 1980 was The Waitresses, best known for their quirky hit "I Know What Boys Like." The Waitresses sole LP, Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful? was written and recorded entirely by Butler with the exception of the vocals, for which he wisely recruited Patty Donahue. I say wisely because, in the course of listening to Easy Life (over now eight tracks) I can say that Butler does not have a particularly impressive singing voice.

After three years, The Waitresses imploded. Butler attempted to revive the group, but ultimately gave up on the concept after nothing came to fruition. He spent the next decade producing albums for other musicians before returning to his own work.

Months prior to the release of Easy Life, Butler attempted to make a Spinal Tap for the Europop crowd with Kilopop! Two songs from that disc, "Millions and Millions" along with "Red Drinks! Red Drinks! (Your Life Stinks)" reappear on this set. Of the two, "Millions" is the better song.

Stylistically, this disc is all over the place. There's a bit of jazz on one song, giving way to new wave on another and then pop a la XTC on yet another. The effect can be somewhat jarring, though it is not boring.

Standout tracks upon this first listen in a very long time (I reviewed the album in 2001 for WAIH, it is now the tail end of 2009) are "Convenience" and "My Hometown." Those "XTC pop" tracks I mentioned not long ago - "Easy Life" and "Millions and Millions."

Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of this album. I don't dislike it, but I don't know if I'll be visiting it again very often. For me, the most compelling segment of the album is the spoken-word finale "Beggar's Bullets." The first salvo, "Shit Hits Fan, Friday Evening, May 1^st" sets the scene for what would happen three days later: The Kent State Massacre. Butler also tells an amusing story about what Jerry Garcia was really like.