Morphine - Buena

Morphine was an alternative rock group formed by Mark Sandman and Dana Colley in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, in 1989.

Morphine combined blues and jazz elements with more traditional rock arrangements, giving the band a very unusual sound. Sandman's distinctive singing was described as a "deep, laid-back croon", and his songwriting featured a prominent beatnik influence. When asked by reporters to describe their music, the band created the label "low rock". One critical appraisal suggests that "Morphine immediately established a minimalist, low-end sound that could have easily become a gimmick: a 'power trio' not built around the sound of an electric guitar. Instead, with sly intelligence, Morphine expanded its offbeat vocabulary on each album."

Although Morphine was critically lauded throughout their career, it is difficult to measure their success commercially. In the United States the band was embraced and promoted by the indie rock community, including public and college radio stations and MTV's 120 Minutes (which the band once guest-hosted), but received little support from commercial rock radio and other music television programs. This limited their mainstream exposure and success in their home country, while internationally they enjoyed mainstream success and support, especially in France and Australia.
doremifasays...

Morphine songs were all over film soundtracks. They probably did very well by those royalties but they were touring worldwide too (Both usually equate to breaking even. Their songs were usually used in the background of scum, badasses (pardon) and the like, palying pool, etc. "Cure For Pain" did very well for them after the exposure from an indy film called "Spanking the Monkey." Mark Sandman, RIP, died on stage in Italy from a heart attack.

tremormilosays...

Love and miss this band so much. It's a damn shame he passed before they could tour with Soul Coughing. That would have been phenomenal.

FYI Morphine fans: There's a little Cambridge label called Cosmic that has a Mark Sandman solo 7" called _Like Swimming_ (not to be confused with the Morphine LP of same name), and a 7" from a duo called Supergroup, which consisted of Sandman and Chris Ballew from the Presidents of the USA.

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