by Brian Andrew Marek #13
Sex Clark Five "Strum & Drum!" 1987
Boy, 1987 may have been a poor year for mainstream rock music (IMHO), but there sure were some weird gems bubbling underneath the surface, thus allowing me to complete my '80's Amerindie trifecta! Sex Clark Five is one of those goofy indie band names that almost makes sense, 'cos Dave Clark Five songs played with Sex Pistols attitude (but not Sex Pistols volume - acoustic guitar is a big driving force here) wouldn't be a bad place to start describing them. But most of the songs are actually SHORTER than your average DC5 (or SP4!) tune (how did ya think they packed twenty tracks into 35 minutes), they play instrumentals that combine surf rock with Eastern exotica, and they do a decent job of using Casiotones to emulate ol' garage band combo organs (and other coolly psychedelic sounds) here and there. The latter two tendencies occasionally bring to mind early Camper Van Beethoven, but the pop songs are a whole different ball o' wax - British Invasion ear candy with some trippy overtones played in the wrong place (Huntsville, AL, assuming they lived in the same town as their vanity label) at the wrong time (the dreaded 1980's). God bless 'em!
DL
BaM
Boy, 1987 may have been a poor year for mainstream rock music (IMHO), but there sure were some weird gems bubbling underneath the surface, thus allowing me to complete my '80's Amerindie trifecta! Sex Clark Five is one of those goofy indie band names that almost makes sense, 'cos Dave Clark Five songs played with Sex Pistols attitude (but not Sex Pistols volume - acoustic guitar is a big driving force here) wouldn't be a bad place to start describing them. But most of the songs are actually SHORTER than your average DC5 (or SP4!) tune (how did ya think they packed twenty tracks into 35 minutes), they play instrumentals that combine surf rock with Eastern exotica, and they do a decent job of using Casiotones to emulate ol' garage band combo organs (and other coolly psychedelic sounds) here and there. The latter two tendencies occasionally bring to mind early Camper Van Beethoven, but the pop songs are a whole different ball o' wax - British Invasion ear candy with some trippy overtones played in the wrong place (Huntsville, AL, assuming they lived in the same town as their vanity label) at the wrong time (the dreaded 1980's). God bless 'em!DL
BaM
posted by Lizardson at 8:55 PM
3 Comments:
Love the site.
Any way I could encourage you to re-up the album "Gaughan" by Dick Gaughan?
Keep up the good work!
Thanks
"Unfortunately, the link you have clicked is not available."
Darn. I really wanted this.
it looks like you have one of the rare strum and drum pressings. congrats on finding sc5 way back.
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