Something of a lost Psych-rock classic, “My Name Is Tom” was originally released as a 5-track EP into the eye of the Grunge hurricane in 1991 and since presumed missing in action.
Credited to the enigmatic THE JIGSAW SEEN (how very “Nuggets”), it’s really the brainchild of virtuosic LA pair Dennis Davison (guitar/ vocals/ keyboards/ songs) and guitarist extraordinaire Jonathan Lea. The band’s original rhythm section of bassist Steve LaFollette and drummer Tom Sullivan have since left the fold, and while I’m led to believe the band still exist, Davison and Lea remain the guiding forces. Nonetheless, they know/ knew what they were doing, for much of “My Name Is Tom” (now expanded with 5 extra tracks) really does peer over the cusp of both beauty and darkness the way Arthur Lee & Love did when they pieced “Forever Changes” together.
OK, let’s not carried away, because overall it’s not in the same league, but the album’s centre-piece – the epic, 7-minute raga-rock epic “My Name Is Tom” – was rightly featured on the contemporary “Children Of Nuggets” collection and richly deserved the attention, because this set piece full of doomy drums and more Eastern scales than you can lob a factory full of genetically-modified Jimmy Pages at is indeed monolithic. Actually, when you couple this with the mellotron-assisted “Satanic Majesties” vibe of “I’m So Happy Baby”, the spooky, Hispanic undertow of “Black Aggie” and the “Lucifer Sam”-style riffing of the strident “The Best Is Yet To Come” you’re in no doubt that this is the work of talented and devoted copyists.
And therein lies the rub, for however great Davison, Lea and co are in their toils, ultimately they are still genuflecting at the altar of the masters. Great fun though it is, surf instrumental “Murder At The Luau” is always going to sound “a lot like Dick Dale”; the sparse acoustic guitar, piano and shakers of “Off Track” will be “reminiscent of The Stones circa “Beggars Banquet” and ye olde Englishe whimsy of “Eight Lancashire Lads” simply threatens to turn “My Name Is Tom” into an LA version of The Dukes Of Stratosphear’s “Chips From The Chocolate Fireball”, which – if you recall – was really a thinly-disguised XTC indulging in what was a lovingly-recreated pastiche back in 1985.
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Horribly clever though it is, their practically-a-xerox cover of Love’s “The Daily Planet” represents the album’s nadir and you get the feeling that when TJS simply let rip (as they do on the exciting opener “Warehouse The Wicked” and get all raggedy on our asses on the Replacements-esque “Persephone Again”) they are delighted to be off the leash and simply doing what they do best. Actually, had they indulged us with more of this bravado then we’d probably be happy to give them the green light indefinitely.
At the final count, though, “My Name Is Tom” is a mite too clever for its’ own good. Yes, it seemingly effortlessly revisits those incense-laden days of 1967 and it’s a great listen in its’ own way, but repeated exposure eventually stirs the need to place Love’s first three albums on the turntable (followed by The Doors’ debut, “Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” and “Beggars Banquet”) rather than returning to The Jigsaw Seen and surely that would seem an exercise in shooting oneself in the foot, wouldn’t you say?
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