FEBRUARY 23, 1995
Soundcheck
PRIVATE IDAHO Jeff
Martin wants you to know he’s not depressed. It s just
that slow, mournful music has always had an eerie appeal for him. Martin is the musical and
lyrical Svengali behind “This Way Out” the often
moody, sometimes dirgelike
sophomore effort by his band
Idaho. Joined by Dan Seta (guitar), Jim Brown (bass), and Mark Lewis (drums) on the road,
Idaho plays the kind of music that might lull you into a sense of
security only to surprise you with a
guitar-slap in the face. Martin cops to a closetful
of the expected Influences—Neil
Young, early Dinosaur Jr. and the Meat Puppets—but
also an unexpected fascination with “melancholic jazz”: •Weather Report and the
darker edges of Miles Davis, some of which float to the top in Idaho’s constantly evolving, rising-to-the-surface sound.
“I’m always experimenting with new
sounds because I still don’t really know
why people play electric guitars and drums,” says Martin. “I realize that this dark stuff can get pretty heavy-handed
and self-indulgent, so on the next record, we will take a further leap
into the sunshine.”
After years of
recording music for student films and a stint touring with David &
David, Martin formed his own band, and at the suggestion of a friend in the band Iowa, settled on Idaho as
a musical moniker. “It sounded a little like their name, which we thought would
look funny on a bill, and it was
also a nice, neutral non-statement of a name. Some people have commented on the name as a metaphor for
living in LA., where there is a big city, but you are essentially alone, devoid
of a cultural grouping. And the music itself is sort of vast and beautiful and
a little lonesome, but I don’t know, it’s not really that deep.” Idaho opens for the Cranes
on February 27 at Metro. (Gil Kaufman)