Stereophonics - You Gotta Go There To Come Back

If I’ve ever been able to lie claim to “I’m into this band and that makes me cooler than you”, it’s Stereophonics.  In fact, when I saw them for the first time in April 2000 at the Vic Theater in Chicago, I bought a t-shirt that I would wear everywhere.  That following summer, my friend Brad was working at X103 in Indianapolis and during a pre-concert meal for Counting Crows and Live, Ed Kowalczyk, the lead singer of Live, approached me to tell me how much he loved them and how they were supposed to have toured together. 

Thanks to Oasis, I was into all things British at the time (Stereophonics are from a small town in Wales).  I was reading Q, NME and Mojo and learning about bands like Stereophonics, Travis, the Stone Roses, and many others.  Their first two albums, Word Gets Around and Performance and Cocktails, were both great and you could tell how great of a songwriter Kelly Jones was.  He also had an incredibly unique voice (see the wonderful documentary, Kelly Jones: Don’t Let the Devil Take Another Day).  They were touring for Performance and Cocktails when I saw them in 2000.

In April 2001 they released Just Enough Education to Perform (J.E.E.P.), which garnered them a tiny bit of recognition in the States. Especially with the song “Have a Nice Day”.  Still, they were relatively unknown on this side of the pond. 

Then, in June 2003, they released You Gotta Go There to Come Back.  I fell in love with this album immediately.  It took the sound they moved into with J.E.E.P. but it came to fruition.  They had parted ways with drummer Stuart Cable after the recording and were touring with Black Crowe’s drummer Steve Gorman.  I saw them twice on this album cycle: September 17, 2003 opening for Liz Phair at the Avalon in Hollywood (ran into Waz, not surprisingly, R. Walt Vincent produced that record, you know the one everyone hated at the time because she went pop?) and then again March 7, 2004 at the House of Blues Sunset Strip (R.I.P.) with Kay Hanley of Letters to Cleo in support.

Produced by Kelly Jones, the lone songwriter, the album covers a lot of sonic ground.  From blues rock and soul to experimental rock and soft country balladry with horns.  It draws heavily on Kelly’s break-up with a girlfriend of twelve years, who left him for one of his friends.  This led to a fairly scandalous situation in the British press where Jones drunkenly committed some vandalism.  Thankfully, he channeled this emotion into this wonderful batch of songs. 

This record not only showcases Jones’ writing and singing abilities (listen closely for his own harmonies) but his production and instrumental skills.  In addition to killer guitar lines, he plays: clavinet, Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Mellotron, harmonica, and while not an instrument, he did the artwork as well.  Recorded at Abbey Road and Hook End Manor it was mixed at Ocean Way Studios by Jack Joseph Puig, then mastered back at Abbey Road and the albums sounds amazing.

It’s incredible how they’ve been one of the biggest bands in the world for twenty-five years and, even to this day, I rarely meet anyone who has heard of them.  I love all of their records (and Kelly’s solo work) but this one still gets me down deep.  “I’m Alright (You Gotta Go There to Come Back)” was a huge influence on the production of “Drop a Pin” off my recently released EP, Let the Blood Flow.  The arrangement and production inspired me to pursue the feeling of the song as opposed to trying to make it go somewhere else in order to fit the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus format of popular music. 

And, yes, I love the hard rock bangers on this record, but the other song that just hits me deep down is “Nothing Precious at All”.  A very simple, acoustic and piano driven song.  If I can figure out how to sing it, I’d love to cover it one day. 

The emotional journey of highs and lows this record takes you on is one you rarely see anymore these days.  It’s all highs or all lows, there’s very little ebb and flow anymore. 

I saw them a few more times over the years, but not recently.  We saw them with Augustana at the Metro in Chicago May 9, 2005 when they were touring for Language. Sex. Other? And then I saw them solo at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles on October 10, 2013 but I haven’t seen them in the ten years since. 

Still one of my favorite bands of all-time… and that makes me cooler than you.