Vic Theater concerts yield Poi Dog's first live album

CHICAGO After 11 years, the sweepingly eclectic collective ofmusicians known as Poi Dog Pondering - whose multimedia concerts havehelped spawn a devoted cult following - is finally releasing itsfirst live album. "Liquid White Light," a two-CD, $17.98 set thathits stores Tuesday, is the first wholly independent release fromPoi Dog's Chicago-based Plate-tec-tonic label.

Recorded during the band's sold-out five-night stand last fallat the Vic Theater here, "Liquid White Light" will benefit from asolid grass-roots marketing push.

It is being distributed nationally by the independent MidwestArtist Distribution, which is headquartered in the northwest suburbof Rolling Meadows; its proprietor, Dave Slania, specializes inlocally based indie product. A short early-June tour will bring thegroup to six of its biggest markets, including Chicago, where theband will play June 3-5 at the Park West. And the Internet is beingused to mobilize loyal fans, known as Poi Pounders, to help spreadthe word about the album.Poi Dog Pondering's leader, singer, and chief songwriter, FrankOrrall, notes that the band had taped numerous live gigs in the past,but that "we'd never ended up with recordings we felt good about"until now."Those Vic shows laid out like a retrospective of the band,"Orrall says. There are songs from each phase of Poi Dog'sdevelopment, he notes, encompassing its early days in Honolulu andAustin, Texas, as well as the five discs the band made for ColumbiaRecords between 1988 and 1991, and including selections from its mostrecent indie releases, "Pomegranate" (1995) and "ElectriquePlummagram" (1996)."Liquid White Light" illustrates Poi Dog's evolution from"acoustic to groove-oriented to world music to rockin' groove todance/house," says Orrall, noting that the first disc contains mostlyacoustic-based numbers, and the second disc high-energy material.The one previously unreleased track is "Searching for the FertileFields."Though "Liquid White Light" is Poi Dog's first whollyindependent release, "Pomegranate" was the first Poi Dog product onthe band's own label. It was released nationally, however, byBar/None Records of Hoboken, N.J., which is distributed by KochInternational. "Electrique Plummagram," the club-mix companion discto "Pomegranate," also was released through Bar/None."This one we did all on our own," says Carolynn "Chaka" Travis,Plate-tec-tonic's manager of business affairs. A former manager ofthe Chicago club Schuba's, Travis has been working with the band fora year. Orrall says, "Chaka's taken over the business end, so I canconcentrate on the music."The sound of "Liquid White Light" is lush and vibrant, givingfull play to each of the group's dozen-plus members. They includeviolinist Susan Voelz; guitarist Dag Juhlin; drummer Steve Goulding;percussionist Leddie Garcia; and backing vocalists Newson, KornellHargrove, and Robert Cornelius (who also helps out with Poi Dogpublicity).The band will appear at various summer festivals - including achildren's show at the Ravinia Festival on Aug. 24 - and plans to doits first shows with its current lineup in Orrall's home state ofHawaii, also in August.Poi Dog is set to begin working on the next studio album. "Thisnext record will be different," says Orrall. "We're setting it up sothe band members will go in first and record snippets of things -orchestral washes, chord changes, drum bits, guitar swatches, etc.Then we'll stitch them together, taking a drumbeat from here and anorgan part from there, etc."Now that Poi Dog Pondering is solidly in a self-sufficientgroove, major labels are once more making overtures. But, saysOrrall, "I love the situation we're in so much, the idea of givingour rights away to anyone is (crazy). We're a family, with nodecisions or friction coming from the outside."