THE FIRST TIME JEFF PARKER SAW TORTOISE, AT CHICAGO’S NEWLY OPENED Empty Bottle in the early ’90s, he was stunned by the silence.
Not, of course, on-stage: with their two drum kits and dual basses, Tortoise offered something the guitarist had never heard before. Their regimented rhythms harnessed dub reggae’s magic but crystallised it in warped rock terms. No, it was the rapt crowd that fascinated Parker, how everyone seemed to be absorbing every note. They were noticing, Parker reckons, the same thing he did: new ideas.
“It sounded punky, but not in an aggressive way,” Parker tells MOJO today. “It sounded experimental. Actually, when I heard them, I heard possibilities. I thought, You guys are looking at things in a different way, aren’t you? It was powerful, in a…
