There is nothing but bad news going around at the moment so I'm sure that many of you are, like me, taking solace in music. And one of the rare bits of good news this week is the release of Across the Barrier of Sound: PostScript by Game Theory. Collecting a wealth of rarities from the legendary band, this release is the latest (and perhaps last?) offering in a more than five-year string of reissues from Omnivore Recordings of the entire output of Game Theory. The genius of the late Scott Miller (and the late Gil Ray) is on display here, and one almost feels like this is a new Game Theory record. And what could be better, or more joy-inducing than that?
Joined on this set by Michael Quercio from The Three O’Clock, and with Gil Ray making the switch from drums to guitar and keyboards, and with Jozef Becker (brother of Nan Becker, original Game Theory keyboardist) on drums, Scott Miller leads a formidable band here. And if cuts like "My Free Ride" ring with promise, we're reminded again of just what a prodigious talent Miller was in the Eighties. "Inverness", here in an immaculate studio version and in a demo form, is elegant and precise, while "Idiot Son" bops along, even as the demo suggests another approach that could have been taken. Both numbers are awesome, and wouldn't have sounded entirely out of place on 2 Steps from The Middle Ages (1988), for example. "Forget All About It", while a demo, chimes effectively, and not entirely unlike something from Quercio's own Three O'Clock. These numbers, along with the wry "Slit My Wrists" demo and the poignant "Some Grand Vision" demo, and many others here on Across the Barrier of Sound: PostScript, peel back the curtain on the great what could have been from Miller and crew.
Along with the originals on this collection, there are a slew of covers that deserve some notice. Scott Miller was one of the few artists who could cover a song and make it sound like he wrote it, and do these sorts of things with genuine (read: non-ironic) affection. With the exception of perhaps Paul Westerberg, I can't think of another American artist from the era who was so adept at this. A stab at "All My Loving" by The Beatles is glorious, as is a live go at "The Door into Summer" by The Monkees. And while those two hit at the same sort of pleasure-points lots of Game Theory material hits, the real surprise here is a run at "Needle in the Camel's Eye", that Brian Eno solo gem. While it's largely just Scott on his acoustic, it's amazing how much he puts into this one, his strums and plucks on the axe putting his prowess near that of Michael Hedges, to use a very Eighties reference.
Props here to producer and mixer Dan Vallor and the team at Omnivore Recordings for offering up what feels like a complete record. Nearly. I say that because the absence of Scott Miller, and the fairly recent death of Gil Ray, factor into things here. There's a sadness behind this, of course, but a remarkable happiness too. For fans of college rock-era power pop, this is like our Anthology from The Beatles. That speaks to the talents of the compilers in making this such a coherent and complete package, but also further testament at just how amazingingly adept Scott Miller was at writing this kind of material. In some future, his legacy will be similar to that of Alex Chilton, and I think Omnivore Recordings have done a masterful job at keeping his name in the memory, and reminding long-time fans and newbies just what a pop genius Scott Miller was. Heck, his demos are better than other bands' entire outputs.
Across the Barrier of Sound: PostScript by Game Theory is out now from Omnivore Recordings.
[Photo: Robert Toren]