Phantom Tollbooth - The Art of Geometric Derailment

Among the most interesting and overlooked proponents of a fusion between the explosive drive of (post-)hardcore, the detonating syntax of noise-rock and the structural complexity of progressive are without doubt New York's own Phantom Tollbooth.

Their adventure began in 1984, when guitarist Dave Rick, bassist Gerard Thomas Smith III and drummer Jon Coats were still three kids chasing the dream of shouting their truths to the world through the megaphone of rock, a music they'd fallen in love with between the late 70s and early 80s, a hugely intense period for the Big Apple's music scene.

Dave Rick: "We were really lucky to live in that era's New York. Influenced by our older brothers, we started listening to a lot of classic rock: Led Zeppelin, Who, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, Yes and some southern rock records. As soon as we met, though, each of us started zeroing in on certain things at the expense of others. At that point, we also embraced the more experimental sounds of garage-psychedelia, pushing all the way to the most radical work of Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa. From there, all that was left was to go back further in time, which led us to discover new wave and no wave, falling in love with the soundscapes of Sonic Youth and Swans, not forgetting Mission Of Burma, who would later prove to be one of the key building blocks in the genesis of Phantom Tollbooth. The next leap finally took us toward the sounds of Fred Frith and John Zorn. At the time, we were all seventeen or eighteen, and while we were rediscovering the past, we were already projecting ourselves into the future."

Eager to test themselves, every week Rick, Smith and Coats would pore voraciously over the music ads in the Village Voice, paying close attention to the ones looking for musicians to form a band. In the meantime, Rick had started playing bass with Ira Kaplan and his partner Georgia Hubley, both leaders of a band destined to make American indie-rock history: Yo La Tengo. It was only a temporary gig, though, since the music Rick wanted to play was heading in a completely different direction. Finally, in the summer of 1984, an ad written by a certain Amore (funny how life works, isn't it?), which also namechecked Saccharine Trust as a guiding spirit, caught our guys' imagination. Within a few days, the three of them found themselves in a rehearsal room under the watchful eye of this odd singer who, besides having a surname of clearly Italian descent, was also into industrial and noise music and apparently even claimed to know Jack Brewer of Saccharine Trust personally. One day, after they'd already been rehearsing for a few hours, Amore walked out of the studio without warning and never came back. Rick, Smith and Coats took it as a sign from fate and decided that, from that point on, they'd carry on as a trio. Before rehearsals, they usually warmed up with a good half hour of improvisation. Trying to capture ideas to develop into brand new songs, at some point they also started putting them on tape using the 4-track recorder Coats always carried with him. That's how songs came about that sounded like a strange mix of arty noise, progressive and evolved hardcore, reflecting not only their love for a band like Void and for the various projects of guitarist Fred Frith (above all Massacre), but also their desire to play music that, free of any commercial ambition, could venture into uncharted territory. "At the time," Smith recalls, "a lot of what was happening in American independent music didn't allow bands to make much money, so there was room to adopt a new mindset, one that pushed a lot of people to play without worrying too much about commercial returns. Basically, it was on that basic premise that the American Independent Underground movement developed."

In 1985, having accumulated enough material to play live, the trio — who by then had decided to call themselves Phantom Tollbooth (a name taken from the children's story of the same name published by Norton Juster in 1961) and had also recorded a seven-track demo cassette — played their first gig at Maxwell's in Hoboken, just north of New York. Among the guests was Gerard Cosloy, who had recently taken the reins of Homestead Records, one of the most important independent labels of the era. Among the songs the band played that night were "Jack Of All Phobias," "Filp Your Lid," "White Out" and "Valley Of The Gwangi." Captivated by what he'd just heard, Cosloy joined the band backstage and, without mincing words, invited them to sign to his label. To make their first recording, though, Phantom Tollbooth had to rely on their own resources: they found a small studio with an eight-track recorder and entrusted themselves to a sound engineer (Larry Buksbaum) and a producer (Chris Xefos) who were well versed in indie-rock's more adventurous proposals.

Within a few days, their first 7" Ep, Valley Of The Gwangi (its title a nod to the sci-fi western of the same name directed by Jim O'Connolly in 1969), was all set, with Smith and Rick splitting vocal duties. Wrapped in a cover drawn by Coats (inspired by a trip he'd taken a few years earlier to Badlands National Park in South Dakota), the Ep came out in 1986 and gave fans of hardcore-and-noise experimentation a very interesting trio of songs. The title track takes its running start straight out of Meat Puppets-style cow-punk, before scaling psych-noise walls in the wake of Dave Rick, whose guitar conjures a feverish hybrid of Joe Baiza (Saccharine Trust) and Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü). "Flip Your Lid," with its unmistakable post-punk pedigree, instead relies on the contrast between a percussive rhythmic bed and blazing guitar flare-ups. The more free-form side of their music finally surfaces on the closing "The Whaling Ultimate," a faithful mirror of their countless rehearsal-room jam sessions.

(Trivia: in the liner notes, Dave Rick's name is replaced by the initials F.D.M.R., standing for Fat Dave M Rick).

The critical reception (at least from those who actually noticed the Ep) was very positive, which spurred the band to keep pushing forward along the path they'd taken without a shred of hesitation. In fact, as their jams grew more intense, the instrumental interplay became ever faster and more dynamic, to the point that the three of them became convinced they could afford to take bigger risks when writing. Many of the new songs were also tested out live, usually in front of the crowd at Maxwell's, which had become something of a second home for them.

Once everything was ready, they shut themselves in the studio once again and recorded a second, self-titled Ep, Phantom Tollbooth (again with Xefos at the helm, this time assisted by sound engineer Tony Blockis). Alongside a re-recording of "Flip Your Lid," it made room for songs of enormous impact, first and foremost "Jack Of All Phobias," which, after a brief intro of creaking and collapsing strings, explodes into a hardcore hallucination whipped by savage screams and electro-acid froth. "White Out," meanwhile, thrives on the contrast between deafening bursts of noise, melodic flights and exhausted slowdowns. If someone told you it was a reworking of an outtake from Mission Of Burma's "Vs.", you wouldn't doubt it for a second. More complex in structure, "Sweat Blood" instead conjures a schizoid art-punk scenario, while "Ohm On The Range," driven by a bombastic bass, is lashed by a relentless succession of guitar figures whirling in triumphant abandon. The cacophonous commotion that accompanies the rebel cry of "The Fuck" then sets the stage for the cinematic weave of "More Paranoia," where the guitar spills over into automatic writing of feedback, modulations and deranged pitch-bends.

Once again met with glowing reviews, Phantom Tollbooth rented a van and set off on a short tour. On their return, with no rehearsal space left, they turned to their friends Sonic Youth, who, having just released "EVOL" (March 1986), were about to leave for a European tour and had no problem lending out their Manhattan rehearsal space in the meantime. It was there that Rick, Smith and Coats put the finishing touches on the songs that would fill out the tracklist of their full-length debut. Their friendship with Sonic Youth also put them in touch with producer Martin Bisi, who had already worked on the last two records by Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo's band. Despite the quality of their two Eps, Phantom Tollbooth still hadn't managed to capture their sound properly. Working with Bisi on production, the band finally achieved a more spacious, dynamic sound, yet not everything went as planned. "I don't know what happened with the recording and/or the mastering, but the record sounds like it's missing entire frequencies," Rick complains. "We were definitely all at our peak: Gerry played a heavily distorted Rickenbacker bass, I played a thin-sounding Hagstrom guitar plugged into a badly set Music Man amp. All things considered, nothing — especially the drums — sounds the way it should have. The whole thing is coated in a weird reverb and it's a bit compressed. We were novices back then."

Despite all that, though, One-Way Conversation (1987 – 11 tracks; 36:34) was destined to stand as their personal masterpiece, as well as one of the most original records of its era. The eleven songs that make it up are charged with an explosive tension, even though, overall, the band had learned to better calibrate their epileptic outbursts, their derailing cacophonous explorations and their dissonant, mathematical whirlwinds, delivering a listening experience that's both thrilling and traumatic — partly, in fact, thanks to the very production flaws mentioned above.

Once again it's Dave Rick's guitar calling the shots: acidic, noisy, schizophrenic, Hendrix-like, but a Hendrix filtered through the no-wave spirit of Bruce Anderson, who, back in his MX-80 Sound days, had proven himself one of new wave's finest (and most underrated) guitarists. Backing the guitar are Coats' solid, versatile drumming and Smith's funk-jazz bass, which, according to Rick himself, was the true driving center of their music: "Honestly, I think the essence of the Phantom Tollbooth sound lies in what Gerry did to his bass, which produced a sinuous, twisting blend of chords, glissandi and harmonics. Regardless of our obvious influences, his playing style was almost entirely original. By approaching his instrument as if it were a guitar, he managed to cross George Scott's bass style (Contortions, Eight Eyed Spy) with that of Mike Watt, which let him arrive at a sound all his own."

The opening "Significant In Ten Years" (much like "That's Where I Live") could pass for a fine indie-rock ballad, if it weren't torn apart and sent soaring by a whole series of jolts, sudden fits and atmospheric-psychedelic interludes. Phantom Tollbooth practice an art of geometric derailment, a sonic geometry subjected to every kind of stress. In the howling glissandi and industrial pulses of "Landing Is Gear," in the dissonant neuroses of "Poly-Razmatazz," in the breathless sprints that crash into grind-jazz chaos on "Crash Mode," or again in the Golden Palominos-like jagged edges of "Camel's Gak," some of the most dazzling moments of late-80s rock play out. And while "Pajama Joe" could be held up as one of the finest manifestos of this sound, where noise and melody, structure and deconstruction coexist seamlessly, "Daylight In The Quiet Zone" rushes along through galloping cadences and spastic bridges. For their part, the instrumentals "We're Paid By The Word" (featuring a piano line played by Chris Xefos) and "Last Exit Before Toll" (which even hints at traces of flamenco) turn out not only creative and gripping, but, despite their structural complexity, tremendously catchy too. To close things out, "Hellcat II," after yet another unbridled flight of sonic fancy, implodes into a metallic swoon.

Appearances aside, there's nothing on the record that suggests a direct free-jazz lineage. "We were actually closer to prog, if anything. Although, ultimately, what really drew us in was the experimental, 'open' nature of early-80s New York improvisation: Fred Frith, John Zorn, Eugene Chadbourne, Christian Marclay and so on. Unfortunately, though, we never fully explored what they had to teach about true improvisation. We settled for just evoking its textures."

Once the record was out, the band got back to its usual round of touring across the States. Later, with Rick temporarily away on a European jaunt with Kramer (at the time busy with the Bongwater project), Smith and Coats pressed ahead with new material. When the guitarist got back, the band asked Homestead for permission to record the new album with Spot, the legendary producer behind much of what came out on SST between 1979 and 1985, and got the green light. To do so, though, they'd have to relocate to Cedar Creek, a small town not far from Austin, Texas: which meant spending even more money. So they decided to line up a few shows in the area to help cover the costs. Once they got to Spot's studio, they'd cut all the tracks and then head straight back to New York.

That's how, in the space of a single week in the winter of 1987, Phantom Tollbooth put together Power Toy (12 tracks; 43:44). Released in March 1988, the new album came across as a slightly tamer version of the jagged, elusive sound of "One-Way Conversation". The opener, "Extinction Plus", still leans on the noise-ballad template of Mission Of Burma to fully set the tone of this new phase, one still capable of reckless, spectacular hybrids: the morbid distortions, funk-jazz complications and solemn flights of "Criticize The Critters" (basically Volcano Suns and Big Boys merging and blurring into one another, alternating between stunning density and sneaky catchiness); the funk-metal-pop rollercoaster of "Billie Holliday's Nightmare" (with its sticky chorus) and of "Blockbuster Bomb"; the oddball folk of "Why I See Why", roughed up by rocky detonations. "Paper House", on the other hand, weaves noise-rock textures loaded with creeping anguish, while "Circus of Wolves", with its wild charge, wouldn't have been out of place in one of Hawkwind's early sets.

On the album's longest track, "Over The Pipes", Phantom Tollbooth launch their definitive assault on the garrison of prog-rock, riding a jagged sonic flow that's the product of a compositional maturity and a quality of interplay that are by now genuinely remarkable. Rounding out the picture are a scorching cover of Heart's "Barracuda", the acoustic folk of "Down By The Gowanus" (which evaporates into chaos), and the hard-psych jams "Bonus Track" and "Bogus Track" (the latter two only appearing on the CD version of the album).

"Power Toy" also earned Phantom Tollbooth their first invitation to tour the Netherlands, where the band evidently had a bit of a following. Once the run of shows in the land of tulips wrapped up, the band returned home and set to work capturing the energy of their live sets on record.

The result was the EP Daylight In The Quiet Zone (1990), recorded half in the studio and half at the legendary Cbgb. The tracklist featured, alongside "Falling" (a song written right after their return from the Netherlands), powerful versions of the title track, "Landing Gear" and "More Paranoia", plus equally successful covers of "It's Not My Fault" (Mx-80 Sound) and "Wax" (45 Grave). Another unreleased song recorded during that period, "Quest" (still orbiting Mission Of Burma), ended up instead on the compilation "Human Music", put together by Homestead Records in 1988.

By the time the EP came out, the band had already been defunct for about a year, since Rick had decided to leave in order to focus on his increasingly demanding commitments with the various projects revolving around Shimmy Disc, the label founded by Mark Kramer in 1987. As a guitarist, and occasionally as a bassist, Rick played on numerous records for the New York label, but it was mainly When People Were Shorter, Bongwater and King Missile that made the most of his talent. A few years later, together with his friend Gerard Smith, he also tried his hand at a band called Odd Man Out, but it was a short-lived venture that never produced any recorded output. Then came the Martinets, a band with whom he instead dusted off the sounds of Replacements and Soul Asylum across a couple of solid records released between 2000 and 2002.

As for Jon Coats, after playing a mix of alt-rock, post-punk and math-rock with Down and Away (active between 1993 and 1994, with a cassette and an EP to their name), he moved into electronic territory with Antifade, who put out two decent albums straddling the turn of the millennium.

In the early 2000s, the name Phantom Tollbooth suddenly came back into the spotlight (so to speak...) thanks to Robert Pollard, frontman and singer of Guided By Voices. "For years I'd heard that he was a fan of ours", Smith recalls. "Finally, in 2002, Pollard got in touch with us, saying it would be fun to remix 'Power Toy', rewrite the lyrics (which he'd take care of himself) and replace my voice and Dave Rick's with his own". Once he received the original tapes, though, Pollard also built new melodies around the trajectories of Phantom Tollbooth's instrumentals, which, all things considered, makes Beard of Lightning (that's the title of the album released in 2003 – 11 tracks; 42:03) anything but a slavish rehash of "Power Toy". Compared to the latter, "Beard of Lightning" "is a completely new work", Smith continues. "If you listen to them back to back, you realize that even the vocal ideas and the mixes are different. One thing that stands out to me above all is the way Bob placed his words. In a lot of cases, he sings in places where Dave or I didn't, and eases off in places where we did. 'Beard Of Lightning' relates to 'Power Toy' in a wonderfully original way".

The cover of Barracudas' "Heart" was left off the album, while "Valley of The Gwangi", originally released on their first EP, was included here under the new title "Mascara Snakes". It was the hardest track to dig up, since the original tape was in poor condition and therefore had to be restored first. The album's masterpiece is probably "Atom Bomb Professor", a reworking of "Criticize The Critters", a track that had already stood out on "Power Toy" for its power, complexity and visionary quality. But, as Smith pointed out, pretty much every track deserves to be heard again in this new guise, from "Asleep Under Control" ("Why I See Why") to "Iceland Continuations" ("Paper House"), via "Capricorn's Paycheck" ("Extinction Plus"), "Gratification To Concrete" ("Billie Holliday's Nightmare") and, above all, "Crocodile To The Crown", which amplifies the grandiose feel of "Over The Pipes".

The following year, after opening a few shows for Guided By Voices, Phantom Tollbooth went back to being a fond memory for experimental rock fans everywhere. Starting in 2010, through the netlabel PT5Speed, the band has been releasing demo or remix versions of some of its signature tracks.

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