|
(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Al Larsen launched the Some Velvet Sidewalk project at the end of the 1980s,
when he released the cassette
From Playground Till Now (AL, 1988) and the EP I Know (K, 1988).
With two more albums,
Appetite For Extinction (Communion, 1990),
recorded in 1988, and Shipwreck (K, 1995),
recorded in 1990 with the collaboration of Donna Dresch and others (featuring
Boardwalkin', Eye Of The Storm and Unhitched),
and after releasing under his name the album
The Insect Way (Pebbles, 1991),
Larsen established himself on the Olympia (Washington) scene as an
eccentric songwriter in the vein of Jad Fair, imbued with the decadent
spirit of Marc Bolan and Lou Reed.
The single Pumpkin Patch (K) resurrected Some Velvet Sidewalk.
Larsen's pervertedly creative genius was fully revelead by
the album Avalanche (K, 1992), at last recorded by a real band.
The trio starts off confident and belligerent with the
frantic boogie of Avalanche and the
devilish New York Dolls power-pop of Loch Ness, fast and ripping songs
that are matched later on by
the breathtaking rock and roll of No Real Home.
Larsen does not indulge too often in his amateurish quirkiness.
His new model seems to be Jonathan Richman, echoed both in the rant on pow-wow
rhythm of Peaches and in the anthemic Modern Lovers ode of
Ice Cream Overdrive
(with the famous generational lines: "You're headed nowhere and it
feels like home").
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Preceded by the single Eyes Like Yours, the EP I Scream (K, 1993) instead presents them in a dance-oriented guise, complete with sampling and remixes (Shame being the most controversial track).
Whirlpool (K, 1995), largely composed in 1993, returns to the primitive punk-rock of Avalanche, capitalizing on the popularity of the "lo-fi" rock and roll popularized by Pavement. Some Velvet Sidewalk emerge here as a genuine band, pushing their way forward with determination through the riffs of Mouse And Rat (which fuse the Kinks' You Really Got Me with Captain Beefheart's Drop-out Boogie) and through the epic, rebellious notes of Big City Plans (whose garage-rock chorus is echoed by a prominent trumpet and a background organ). The usual quota of drunken chants is not lacking, from Whirlpool, as ramshackle as a saloon country-rock tune, to One Bear Alone, shouted into the wind and strummed on guitar in the tradition of Syd Barrettsongs steeped in poetic solitude and human helplessness. To complete the picture, and reveal their sources of inspiration, Oscar Says sinks into the quicksand of an overdose, while How Will I erupts into a racket of hallucinatory distortions.
Al Larsen has the undeniable distinction of never having hit the right note throughout his career. But on Generated (K, 1997) he does assemble a lineup that gives meaning to his project. The band's nervous instrumental racket is unfortunately constrained by the song structures of pieces such as Generate and Ghost Travel (the best track), but it is allowed to run wild in the Hendrix-like frenzy of Refuse, the Television-style syncopations of Consequence, and especially in the Hawkwind-inspired excesses of the instrumental Altocumulus, a torrent of feedback propelled by a relentless rhythm. The use of dub in Split The Scene and the hypnotic chanting of Day Follows Night demonstrate the band's eclecticism and open up new horizons.
Among the rockers of the Pacific Northwest, Larsen is one of the most distinctive and brilliant, capable of reinventing the history of rock from scratch.
Paul Schuster is the driving force behind Internal External's Featyring (K, 2000), a supergroup collaboration featuring Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson, Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna, Unwound's Justin Trosper, and others.
|
