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Brevity — Home Is Where Your Dog Is
(Think Like a Key TLAK1176, 1971/2024, CD / DL)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2024-12-05

Home Is Where Your Dog Is Cover art

There is the bare minimum of information available about the underground 1970 band from Chicago called Brevity, which featured Rick Vittenson, Mark Breyer, and drummer David Winogrond. I can only assume that Brevity’s Home Is Where Your Dog Is was a one-and-done. Recorded by Zappa's Straight / Bizarre label, the album sat in the vaults for over 50 years before being unearthed, lovingly restored by Prof. Stoned, and now released on Think Like a Key with the addition of nine demo tracks. Listening to this album, I fail to understand why Zappa had decided to record Brevity. I don’t hear any of the bizarre or cutting edge music of other artists in Zappa’s world, such as Captain Beefheart or Chrysalis. I certainly don’t agree with the promo hype “as quirky as The Kinks, as majestic as Procol Harum.” I am not all sure that the author and I have been listening to the same music. Of the original ten studio tracks, most are bland middle-of-the-road folk rock tunes. Only four of them stand out:  the album opener “Oleoleo,” “Lullaby (On Vacant Eve),” “Cakewalk,” and the album closer “A Niche in Time.” In point of fact, the eerie and gothic “A Niche in Time” is by far the best song on the album. The addition of the nine demo tracks saves the album. These stripped down unplugged demos are wonderful, though the muffled sound quality was probably the best you could achieve with a demo in 1971. Having said all this, I am uncertain who the audience is for this unearthed album. It is a snapshot in time, and being unknown, not an example of essential music for your collection.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases, 1971 recordings

Related artist(s): Brevity

More info
http://thinklikeakey.bandcamp.com/album/home-is-where-your-dog-is-unreleased-1970-album

 

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