Morphine consists of Billy Conway (drums and percussion), Dana Colley (baritone saxophone), Jerome Deupree (drums and percussion), Mark Sandman (2-string slide bass, vocals).
This article is about the rock group Morphine. See Morphine for the drug.
Morphine was a three-piece rock band formed in 1990 by Mark Sandman in Boston, Massachusetts.
Sandman, something of a veteran of the Boston underground scene, had been active in several bands, including Treat Her Right, the Hypnosonics, and the Pale Brothers. He also collaborated with Presidents of the United States of America frontman Chris Ballew in a duo they called Supergroup, where they developed the odd string instruments that would become the staple of Morphine and The Presidents' sound.
Morphine's instrumentation was quite unusual: saxophone (sometimes two at the same time) played by Dana Colley, percussion played by Billy Conway and/or Jerome Deupree, and Sandman's own two-string slide bass and smooth vocals declaiming beat-influenced lyrics gave the band a distinctive sound that Sandman dubbed "Low Rock." There were significant jazz and blues elements as well.
One critical appraisal suggests that "Morphine immediately established a minimalist, low-end sound that could have easily become a gimmick: a ' power trio' not built around the sound of an electric guitar. Instead, with sly intelligence, Morphine expanded its offbeat vocabulary on each album."
Morphine recorded their debut album, Good, for the Rykodisc label in 1991. The album received positive reviews and established a small but devoted audience. Their second album, Cure for Pain, was released in 1993. It further grew the band's cult status, and singles like "Thursday" and "Buena" picked up some college and commercial radio play. "Sheila" and "In Spite of Me" were prominently featured on the soundtrack of the 1994 film Spanking the Monkey.
