CATCHING THE SUN WITH OLD CALIFORNIO


Pasadena, California may be better known to the more well-versed of Shindig! readers as the spiritual home of The Association but in recent years, a burgeoning scene of Pacific Coast acts have shared their mutual obsessions with acts like Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Grateful Dead and in doing so have turned out a distinctive scene fashioned on classic leanings. None however have managed to capture that spirit – in Shindig!’s ear at least – as immediately as Old Californio, who sprang to our attention last month upon the release of their debut record Westering Again. “The landscape had a tremendous affect on


both the writing and the sound of Westering Again,” explains chief songwriter Rich Dembowski. “We all hang out on each others front porches drinking wine and philosophising, everyone knows everyone here, so it’s a very colloquial environment. We wanted the album to retain that spirit, that unpressured and laid back feel.”


More than mere revivalists, wearing the


LIGHTS, CAMERA, ROCK ACTION – IN THE COURT OF THE THREE KINGS


As album number six assumes the unofficial guise of a soundtrack to a film of their own creation, RICHARD S JONES talks to Dead Meadow’s JASON SIMON about their latest “art project” Three Kings


Despite originally hailing from the temperate climes of Washington DC, Dead Meadow have always managed to naturally hammer out heavy, riff shaped grooves from the cooler shades of acts like Blue Cheer, Josefus and Led Zeppelin. After five albums there’s certainly no doubting that musically sound they most certainly are, yet what has sometimes frustrated me personally about them is their reticence. Not on record, or even live on stage, but instead quite simply, in their approach to packaging the reality that they at the root of everything a great psychedelic-rock band. Maybe it’s an assured reserve they have that I simply can’t


fathom. A reluctance to not play up to, assume, or even toe that line of overkill – whatever it is it’s often left them saddled in the minds of many with that lazy “stoner-rock” label. A label that by its very disposition sits easier as a bridle, than a platform on which to step up proudly toward future greatness. So after relocating to LA last year, on the release of album


number six they deliver what can only be described as a spectacular catchall riot for the senses that goes some way to lifting that veil of modesty. A two headed behemoth with both audio and feature length film visuals (more on which later), Three Kings fork-tongues into nine tracks of carefully chosen live cuts and five new recordings. Which by anyone’s definition signals the intentions of a band not only taking stock of their cosmic destiny but a band keen to baptise those who failed to take notice first time around. “What really excites me is when the band sinks into that great


groove that comes from us playing together for so many years,” explains guitarist/vocalist Jason Simon. “That’s what makes things heavy to me these days, not the volume or huge distorted sound [although that’s all good too]. I’m real proud of the fact that both the live and studio tracks capture the band playing at our absolute best.”


That they most certainly do as the live recordings from last


year’s Old Growth, namely ‘Seven Seers’ and ‘Between Me And The Ground’ roll out with more swagger than ever possibly imagined. Even live cuts of early tracks like ‘Everything’s Going


10


On’ from 2001’s Howls From The Hills stand up flawlessly alongside the slower more pensive production of new songs ‘That Old Temple’ and the romantically weathered ‘Push ‘Em To The Crux’. But are the bells and whistles of soundtracking a new album,


splitting the format, and even going so far as to build an entire feature length film around it’s origin the easiest way of allowing Dead Meadow to truly cut loose? “I guess we’ll see. We wanted to feature an array of old and


new songs, especially ones that have developed and changed over the years. As for which ones are in the movie, it also depended on the ones that were shot the best,” says Simon. Unbeknown to Dead Meadow, LA’s self-styled media militia


Artificial Army had already pre-empted the band’s interest in recording live material at the Little Radio Warehouse show back in May ’08 where most of the live songs were recorded. “The original idea for Three Kings as a live album came from


us recording that final show of an 87-date tour. Only later we learned that the Artificial Army guys had filmed the same show and as we started talking with them we all became friends and the project grew more and more ambitious.” So ambitious in fact, that the content of the film’s storyline is


still one shrouded in a very uncharacteristically cloak and dagger way, leaving the band’s references and quite possible red herring planted mentions of ’60s British Hammer horror and nods to early ’70s US cop shows annoyingly hearsay.Yet on evidence of the film’s teaser trailer – a Bedouin-by-way-of- Jodorowsky trip across LA – through the splintering of narratives (much in the manner of The Song Remains The Same), Dead Meadow have appeared to fully envelope their prominence in a package befitting their ceremonial sound. Leaving us as listeners to simply hail Three Kings for the truly majestic epic it is, and Dead Meadow the rock royalty we always knew they were. Dead Meadow tour the UK in May, for details of dates visit www.deadmeadow.com. Three Kings is available through Xemu Records (www.xemu.com) on May 17th


rootsy, organic heart of California on their sleeves, from bucolic harmonies to the traditional country song lines as aired on album opener ‘Mother Road’, a sense of freedom, one quite possibly inborn in bands of this geographical ilk, has allowed them to faithfully blend a definite sense of time and place (circa ’71 should do it) with a unique approach to what the music of that era means to them personally. “I don’t think there’s ever been a conscious


effort to really revive anything,” believes Old Californio’s drummer Justin Smith. “We just try and serve the song for the sake of the song, allowing it to become what it wants to become. We definitely lean towards a ‘freer’ approach, but that comes from always wanting the music to evolve, to allow everything to grow – ourselves as musicians and songwriters, and the songs themselves.” Their next album Sundrunk Angels is already


pencilled in for an August/September release thanks to the support of Ric Menck and his Parasol/Bird Song imprint, and with any luck Old Californio will eventually get around to bringing their live show to “Old Britannia”. Needless to say we’ll be first in the queue,


ready and set to bask in the glorious rays of their pastoral sounds. Richard S Jones Westering Again by Old Californio is available now at www.parasol.com


Photo: Didier Chevalier


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