Friday, September 10, 2004
A Good Tip For A Good Time
Emporer Norton Records, 2001?
The Hives have so much to answer for. Or was it The Strokes, or perhaps The White Stripes, that kicked off the most recent wave of Garage Rock bands, about five years ago. The Cato Salsa Experience, however, are, like The Hives, from Scandanavia. Unlike most of you civilians out there (and I use that term tongue-in-cheek for the masses of not-insane non record collectors, i.e., 99% of the population), I have been aware of the untoward number (proportionally speaking) of Sixties-influenced Garage Rock combos lurking amongst the fjords and permafrost of Scandanavia since the mid 1980's.
Why scandanavia? Why do supposedly mild-mannered, national-health-care patron, Volvo-driving white people gravitate toward what are gritty R & B sounds played on loud, distorted guitars? Admittedly, most of the original Garage Rock combos from the USA back in 65-66-67 were white teenagers, but at least they had SOME passing familiarity with Black People. They may have known some black people in their communities, been to some concerts with black musicians, even purchased a few Motown 45's at their local Ben Franklin stores. A few may even have had real live Black People in their teenage rock bands! How cool would those guys have been? The coolest possible!
But what in the name of Gravlax would cause Sven and Anna to take the tramway through downtown Stockholm or Oslo to search out imported ? and the Mysterians 45's to worship at and emulate? What the?
Who can say? My only hypothesis is the harsh weather of the northlands may have drove them to it. I can only compare the extremes in temperature to those in Texas, a land which back in the day was the proud producer of more lysergic rock shamen than you could shake a stick at, buddy, and I know you can do some pretty intense shakin'!
So, musically, whaddawe got here? This is good solid stick-to-the-ribs garage hooch. Sometimes more on the R & B side, sometime more on the rock tip, but with loadsa fuzz and several cuts with criminal over-use of wah-wah pedal: just the way I likes it! There's also plently of organ, an instrument I consider mandatory in Garage Rock, and even some theremin! The song titles say it all, and include "I Can Give You Anything," "Time To Freak Out" and "Albert Bones Electric Meal."
All the musicians use fake noms-de-garage: Francis Moon, Cato Salsa, Jon E. Lugar and Nina Delay. You're not foolin' anyone, Lars and Ole. All in all, this is a good pick for fans of the genre, but I wouldn't go out of my way or pay full retail. I would guess, however, that uninformed used-record-store clerks would not know the true greatness of this disk, and throw it in the bargain bin. At 3 or 4 bucks, this thing is a no-brainer. It shreds. And it's made me want to go searching for the great, lost, unknown native Alaskan garage combo that must be tearing up an igloo somewhere in the tundra right now! Rating: Used Buy
See The Cover
