Issue
#151
Sept. '11
The kids are
alright.
“Hey Man, we’re
getting the band back together…”
That 2nd phrase has been uttered countless
times,
and very rarely succeeded
Of course there’s always Vegas and the Casinos.
For as long as there has been music there have been
independent bands, in fact it could be argued that the prehistoric
tribes could
each boast of their bands – but how many got heard outside of
their locale? So,
for a Local Independent band to “get back together”
30+ years later after hardly
being heard outside of their locale, all you’d really expect
to be listening
would be the elders of the tribe (that’s why they are
commonly referred to as:
“The Wise Ones”)…
Are you listening?
second saucer
isn’t so much a “getting the band back
together” thing, as it is a – “life got
in the way of recording these songs, but that’s ok because we
never lost our
vision of expressing ourselves through the art form of music, no
matter” – thing.
With only Mark
Mulcahy unable to be in town, Craig
Bell (bass, vocals, rhythm guitar), Malcolm
Marsden (guitars, vocals, harmonica), and Malcolm
Doak (pianos, organs, analog synthesizers, vocals),
¾ the
original 1978 SAUCERS line up,
asked
Kerry Miller
(partner in Ron’s Place
crimes) to sit in on drums as they ventured into Ron
Sutfin’s Wildwood Ranch Recording Studios to lay
down some
songs…
“Hey Man, we’re
getting the band back together…”
Punk wasn’t a genre, it was an attitude…
It all starts with the drums up front. Then Craig Bell’s
driving bass line, as Marsden’s guitar rips through it there
is no doubt where
these guys are from (and Sutfin’s production resonates his
‘Valley
Of
Kings’ stamp). Doak’s synth touches bring
to mind the craft of the synth in
the 70’s - starting with Prog., running through Disco, and
then set right by
the Punk/New Wave movement that was rejecting all commercialized music
at that
time – in a song that conjures the images of how local DIY,
was, for a time, a
legitimized but then forgotten force. As hard as they were, those were
the good
years, so let’s not forget how we survived them, where we
found our Security.
We can still do that now, 32 (or however many years you want to insert
here)
later.
“I remember when /
Things were so good…”
SAUCERS were the
innovators for the reckless abandon that the New Haven/CT scene has
held since
even before the Punk/New Wave movement from which the band emerged.
Here, 30+
years later, they assert their rightful claim as heroes of a
generation that
has not faded away like so many before…
“I remember when /
Things were so good…”
Punk wasn’t a genre, it was an attitude…
“Hey Man, we’re
getting the band back together…”
Attitude with wisdom.
The CD ends with a big, lush, grand, swirl-tasic homage to
lovers who drift apart, as those in bands tend to do, and a Backing
Choir that is
brilliantly inspired by Mott The Hoople, (as is the intense musical
bridge)
which lets us know that 30+ years later, the kids are alright.
Are you listening?
SAUCERS -
Second Saucer
is available now for: $5.98 +s/h*
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