Ever heard of them?
I accidentally bumped into one of their records, â,"Thank God for mental illnessâ, and quickly fell in love with the sixties vibe. I looked a bit into the band and couldnâ,,,t believe they were from the late nineties. With a little digging I scrounged up pretty much all their albums.
Thereâ,,,s nothing revolutionary there. No super innovative structure or anything. Just pure, good music which echoes the late great sixties surprisingly well. It had me hooked like electric heroin.
They were featured in a documentary a few years ago with the Dandy Warhols called Dig(push the link). Itâ,,,s pretty well done even if it can be a bit pretentious at times. I enjoy most rock docs anyways.
The bandâ,,,s a train wreck. The lead singer, Anton, is a broken space case who, while being very talented, believes heâ,,,s something more important than he really is. The original band line-up, which was excellent, has long since been destroyed due to the ugly volatile situations the band painted themselves into. Newcombe still records, but the line-up is constantly moving and revolving. Theyâ,,,re not that important. The musicâ,,,s still consistently good.
So, if you have a couple of hours or so, check out the documentary and fish around for a few of their albums. Theyâ,,,re certainly the best sixties revivalist band Iâ,,,ve ever been privy to.
Dig it.
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/watch/dig/
Interesting you mention this, because I just found out them yesterday from an acquaintance of mine at my university. He saw them in Minneapolis. I heard a few of their tracks on last.fm and I dig them well enough. I agree with the notion that there's absolutely nothing there but good music. No fanciness whatsoever, and it's totally derivative of their inspirations.
They're rather infamous for their live performances, as the doc shows. Still touring though.
There's a lot of variation between records too.Where "Mental Illness" is rough and scratchy around the edges, "Strung out in Heaven" is robust and well produced. You can tell when they switched studios.
"Give it back" is a damn fine album. I love sitar.
I've heard of this band before but never got any of their albums. This thread reminded me to do so. When getting into a new band, I look at reviews of the band's albums to see where to start. I've downloaded "Take It From The Man!", which is their best reviewed record. Gonna give it a try tonight.
I've heard about them. My dad saw the doc and said that it was entertaining yet depressing. They've been in the back of my mind somewhere for a while, but I still haven't taken the initiative to check them out yet. 60's revival stuff is great when I'm in the right mood, but when I'm not in the right mood it doesn't interest me much.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9admQrK9Bzs[/youtube]
It is a bit hard to watch at parts. He's confrontational to begin with, but the drugs really mulled him over. It's like watching a series of serious vehicle accidents.
I listened to Take it From the Man! and Thank God For Mental Illness. They were both excellent. Took everything that's great about the 60's and merged it together.