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At the conclusion of "House of Blue Lights, " a 1986 live recording featured on the Radiators' new two-disc retrospective "Wild & Free, " singer/guitarist Dave Malone exclaims, "We got all the way through it!"
He's referring to the song, but his mazed exclamation could just as easily practice to the band's entire career. Malone, singer/pianist Ed Volker, guitar player Camile Baudoin, bassist Reggie Scanlan and drummer Frank Bua have gotten through 30 days and enumeration. As evidenced by the three decades of audio frequency odds and ends self-possessed on "Wild & Free" (Radz Records), the Radiators have remained remarkably genuine to their unique identity as a Big Easy Little Feat.
They have issued nearly as many resilient albums as studio albums, indicative of their priorities. The stage is where they shine. They've supplied the soundtrack for everything from hometown Mardi Gras bacchanals to funky throwdowns in such un-funky locales as the St. Paul, Minn., theater where Garrison Keillor broadcasts "Prairie Home Companion."
Through it all, Volker has compulsively taped Radiators gigs and rehearsals. Audio quality varies across "Wild & Free"; on the poor goal, the vocals in "Last Getaway" and "All Meat Off the Same Bone" distort as if passing through blown-out speakers. But the sound is by and large better than might be expected from old reel-to-reel source tapes submerged and mildewed in the May 1995 flood.
A dozen "Wild & Free" tracks originated at two venues that figure prominently in Radiators lore: Luigi's, the lovingly remembered pizza pie parlor on Elysian Fields Avenue good the University of New Orleans, and the Dream Palace, the Frenchmen Street den of iniquity today occupied by the Blue Nile.
Years of onstage marinating typically precede the conventional recording of Radiators songs in a studio. "Wild & Free" showcases familiar tracks early in their evolution. "All Meat Off the Same Bone" dates to Luigi's in June 1978 -- five months after the band's formation. A 1980 version of "Suck the Head, Squeeze the Tip" is particularly raw.
"Like Dreamers Do, " maybe the to the highest degree instantly addictive pop strain in the vast Radiators canon, is documented via a Dream Palace gig from 1986, a year before the song turned up on the Rads' Epic Records major-label debut, "Law of the Fish." The alive version doesn't quite foam like the studio recording, but the song's core is intact.
The collection's opener, a 2000 studio recording of "Wild and Free, " is the Radiators at their best: A tidy bit of songcraft by Volker with an unproblematic piano melody goosed by blues-rock jumper cable guitar lines and literate lyrical references. He's written such singsong melodies at least as far back as 1984's "Hard Rock Kid." (The Radiators cannot fully oblige the fertile Volker's voluminous output; "Prodigal, " credited to Zeke Fishhead, is his most recent solo effort.)
Malone tears into "Oh Beautiful Loser, " from a 1988 New York show during the band's Epic land tenure. Engaged guitar interplay simon Marks "My Home Is On the Border, " from 1984 at the Dream Palace. Former percussionist Glenn "Kul" Sears appears on nine-spot tracks, most prominently a bare-bones, slide guitar-juiced "Doctor Doctor" from 1984.
Two remnant recordings from the 1992 Minnesota gigs that yielded the alive album "Bucket of Fish" finally see the light of day here. "Strangers" ends with a guitar freakout, and an 11-minute "Songs From the Ancient Furnace" demonstrates exactly how agreeably malleable songs are in the practiced work force of the Radiators.
Not every track here is substantive. "Tear My Eyes Out" should non have loose the 1998 rehearsal where it was recorded. "Love Trouble, " recorded two decades earlier at Tipitina's, is unremarkable. The high-pitched keyboards on "Hard Time Train" and "Stand By Me, Baby, " both from a 1986 gig at the Dream Palace, sound like a peaked synthesized string section.
Two longtime favorites freshly spiffed up in the Music Shed studio bring out the Radiators' current mentality. "Where Was You At?" finds Malone engaging in a comic bit of New Orleans-ese over a gritty guitar riff. "The Girl With the Golden Eyes" is another mid-tempo Volker gem.
But mostly "Wild & Free" excavates the band's past. "Cupid's Got a Mighty Arrow, " a '78 studio recording with a robust Scanlan bass line, makes its debut on "Wild & Free" -- a record from the crypt well worth exhuming.
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