L. Marie Cook and Crazy Baldhead Collaborate for 'Stowaway' and 'Soft Landing' on "Go Oasis"
Badasonic Records 2020
Go Oasis - Spotify
REVIEWS
Rude Maker
Jay Nugent a.k.a. Agent Jay a.k.a. Crazy Baldhead is to most known as the guitarist of The Slackers. While there he's disciplined to give the band a good backbone, he lets himself loose in his solo project.
And how! As Crazy Baldhead he knows no boundaries and is ready for bold experiments.How come, members of The Slackers, one of the busiest bands out there, find time and energy for other projects? There are countless solo albums of Vic Ruggiero not to even mention him being one-third of the supergroup Reggae Workers Of The World. Dave Hillyard on regular basis puts out new music with his Rocksteady 7 and never says no to guest appearances on other artists’ recordings. The amount of music in which members of The Slackers took part can overwhelm.
Jayson Nugent is no exception. Although a bit hidden on stage when touring with The Slackers, he is the main figure in Crazy Baldhead. I can’t imagine a better name for this project (and I don’t mean his haircut) – Agent Jay realizes any crazy idea he wants. Have you ever wondered how would major hits from 1969 sound if they were composed in Jamaica? No problem – “The Sound Of ’69”. Or maybe you also miss the voice of The Frightnrs’ vocalist Daniel Klein? He’s the lead singer on “Boots Embraces”, and “Shirin” might be one of his most touching performances. Rules are simple – no rules. Crazy Baldhead records what he wants, how he wants, and with whom he wants.
Crazy Baldhead – Go Oasis
Where does he take us this time? Already cover of “Go Oasis” gives us a good clue. Desert, Joshua trees, car speeding in the direction of some unknown oasis. We’ll get some open spaces, chill, and… well yes, we’ll get some psychedelia. Of course, it’s all blended with Jamaican rhythms and proportions are well-chosen. It seems that great production and rich but subtle arrangements (oh, this sweet vibraphone in background) make already the first listen such fun.Like any other previous Crazy Baldhead records, this also is almost swollen from the amount of guests. This guy just knows everyone and his tentacles reach further and further, as beside crème de la crème of New York scene you’ll find here names like Victor Rice and Roger Rivas. This time around there are fewer singers than before, which is only for the better, making the album more consistent. It opens with the voice of his frequent collaborator – Maddie Ruthless, but only with the second song “Hey Monday” featuring Vic Ruggiero (you guessed it, Dave Hillyard is also present) the album reaches its wonderful laid-back tempo, just like the first working day after an intense weekend. This feeling of escaping hectic reality is even more intensified when L. Marie Cook sings that she would like to stowaway somewhere far from here. She is the one who gives this record a psychedelic touch. She, and Agent Jay’s guitar with maxed out tremolo effect, which will come back in a few more songs. Surprisingly, with this relaxed unreal mood throughout the album it passes quite fast and just after the last note of closing “Go Oasis Adventure Theme” you feel like playing it all over again.
It’s worth mentioning how this album was released, as it’s the latest entry in a growing catalog of fresh founded Badasonic Records. A pretty heavy vinyl has a good quality inner sleeve with record company logo printed on it. It’s obvious that they don’t cut corners on quality, and they do keep consistent and well-designed layout. A small leaflet with a download code is also included. With 5th LP in their catalog Badasonic Records starts to be a serious player in reggae business, especially by keeping the high repertoire and production standards.
Coincidently “Go Oasis” was released just in time to cool us down in these strange times. It will not only make you relaxed but also take you somewhere where all this craziness is just not happening. Without a doubt, it’s the best and most consistent Crazy Baldhead’s album.
Rootfire Review
Artist Spotlight: Crazy Baldhead
About five years ago, Jayson “Agent Jay” Nugent, guitarist of the internationally adored NYC-based ska/reggae band, The Slackers, had been cycling north on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. After hitting a patch of construction that was not barricaded, Nugent badly broke and dislocated his shoulder, paralyzing his whole right arm within minutes. Doctors diagnosed him with acute brachial plexopathy; essentially the nerve junction in the shoulder that controls all the nerve endings down into the arm suffered severe damage. This injury would be awful for anyone, but for a professional musician like Agent Jay to find himself suddenly bereft of the tools he needs to make a living, it was particularly devastating.Sensation and mobility slowly returned over the next few months, along with a great deal of pain caused by the healing nerves. After five months, Nugent could finally hold a guitar pick. An additional month elapsed before he could, with extreme difficulty, perform with The Slackers again. It would take another full year of healing before his playing returned to “normal,” although permanent damage remains.
This ordeal taught Nugent to take nothing for granted, especially his decades-long career making music and touring with The Slackers. As a silver lining, when the injury forced Nugent to miss the band’s European tour in the fall of 2015, he took advantage of the additional time at home to advance studio work on multiple albums for his long-time, lesser-known side-project, Crazy Baldhead.
Nugent started Crazy Baldhead, which has been described as a “Who’s Who” of NYC ska and reggae musicians, as a recording venture in King Django’s New York Version City Studio in 1997.
“Django had brought together a great band to create the Stubborn All-Stars in ‘95,” Nugent recalled. “And even though we had never played together before, the band just clicked really nicely, musically and vibes-wise. We were all on the same page, but bringing something slightly different to the table.”
A couple of years later, Django got an 8-track tape machine, mixing board, mics, and some other gear. Nugent helped him set up what would become Version City Studio and in so doing, Django showed him how everything worked. This gave Nugent a newfound obsession with recording and, recalling the chemistry amongst the Stubborn All-Stars, Nugent decided to put together a similar project. “With a great pool of musicians hanging around, I wanted to make some tracks,” he said. “I had some ideas for tunes so I asked them if they wanted to record and find singers to front them.”
Since then, Nugent has released numerous LPs and singles as Crazy Baldhead, most of which can be found on the group’s Bandcamp page. The original Crazy Baldhead rhythm section included Vic Ruggiero (The Slackers) on keys, Victor Rice (The Scofflaws, New York Ska Jazz Ensemble) on bass and Eddie Ocampo (The Insteps) on drums, but the lineup changes somewhat from album to album, depending on who is available.
Just recently, Crazy Baldhead released a new LP, titled GO OASIS. Eddie Ocampo and Victor Rice returned to do most of the drums and bass work, with Matt Burdi (The Far East) and Dan Jeselsohn (Rocksteady 7) contributing on drums and bass, respectively, to a couple tunes. Vic Ruggiero sang on two tracks, but Roger Rivas (The Aggrolites) handled most of the piano and organ work. Nugent recruited Dave Hillyard (The Slackers, Rocksteady 7) and Buford O’Sullivan (Easy Star All-Stars) to play the horns.
When asked about the pros and cons of overseeing a recording project with a lot of moving parts, Nugent said that on the positive side, he can work mostly on his own schedule, choose the material, and apply heavier production than is generally used or wanted with Slackers records. “The obvious benefit to a solo project — I can do what I want,” he summarized.
Yet, on the flip side, he countered, “It’s really just me that has to put it all together, see it through from start to finish over the course of, at least, 1-2 years per record. Funding it myself, then hoping to recoup via crowdfunding or a small label. Trying to get anyone to listen and give a shit. Surprisingly, these things happen enough to break even and make a small profit. Enough people buy it and spread the word to keep wind in my sails. I’m very fortunate.”
Nevertheless, with GO OASIS, Nugent managed to pull off another successful record, a mostly melancholic mix of early reggae and ska with plenty of surprises lurking in dark corners. Ruggiero lends his baritone singing to a couple of subdued reggae numbers, but Nugent recruited some new contributors for vocals on the rest of the album, including Maddie Ruthless of The Far East, as well as two singers new to the genre of Jamaican music, L. Marie Cook and Kat Minogue.
“I like working with people outside the scene because they don’t lean on cliché or derivative singing styles,” Nugent said. “L. Marie Cook is more of an indie singer/songwriter, and Kat Minogue plays and sings in bluegrass bands in NYC.”
It’s Kat Minogue that handles the singing duties on the track that Rootfire highlights today, titled “No Night For Magic.” According to Nugent, the song “is a lover’s rock tune for the nights things don’t work out. All the nights you don’t find love, the moon and stars aren’t shining, star-crossed lovers don’t meet or have nothing clever to say to each other, and sparks don’t fly.”
This “love song for the 21st century,” as Nugent put it, features Minogue’s raspy, hushed vocals delivered dispassionately over a slow reggae beat, tender piano and organ strokes, a sad little guitar riff and muted horn accents. Meshed together with lots of reverb, the end result is a forlorn, kind of haunting ballad.
“No Night for Magic” blends perfectly into the sonic palette of GO OASIS, a fitting record for listeners compelled to embrace the blue. Thematically, Nugent says the record is about escapism, as well as aging and removing unnecessary or toxic things and people from your life.
“There’s actually a narrative story,” he explains, “In the retro-future gilded age a Titanic-like luxury leisure/exploration vessel is heading into the unknown on its maiden voyage. A ‘three hour cruise’ boldly going where no man has gone before. They reach the new world and celebrate, but unbeknownst to everyone but the less-than-experienced captain — who only got the job because of family connections — there has been a major malfunction and they are all stranded there for eternity.”
So the album really relates this detailed, avant-garde tale?
“The story is not very literal in the lyrics,” Nugent clarified. “Although there are vague hints of it. It’s really mostly in my head.”
He then countered, “An ex told me that was all bullshit, that the record is clearly about my relationship to women…You decide.”
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