Here's something you might be interested in.
When nighttime has fallen and the township retires, a flutter awakens a young woman's desires. --Rick Sparhawk
Nothing better than two old and gifted friends in the studio, right? In this case, the two happen to be Jim Soldi and Rick Sparhawk, co-founders of a '70s-'80s raucous touring band from here called Montezuma's Revenge.
Montezuma's Revenge was an unusual band with a long and successful run. Formed in 1973, they called their music bionic bluegrass.
"One year," Sparhawk told me for a Reader story, "we won first place for best rock, best country, and best bluegrass. It was our Trifecta."
Soldi eventually went on to join up with picker Ricky Scaggs and later worked in the Johnny Cash band. Recently, Soldi and Sparhawk reunited as a recording act (they play scant few gigs) called Picus Maximus.
Picus Maximus?
That's the scientific name for a bird long thought to be extinct: the ivory billed woodpecker.
"It was registered as extinct for 60 years but now it's making a comeback," Sparhawk, who looks like a civil war-era general with his Colonel Sanders moustache-and-beard and long hair gone white told the Reader in March. "Well, now I'm making a comeback too." Their first album as such was titled The Tragedy of Johnny Patriot.
Soldi/Sparhawk are back for Halloween with a collection of spoofs based on the soundtracks of old Hollywood B-movie thrillers. Lullabies for the Cursed (Dakota Records 2012) was recorded and mastered in Ramona at Soldi's Outhouse Studios. It is dedicated as a "sonic tribute to drive-in monster movies."
Yeah, it's a themed record and kitschy in terms of subject matter, but Lullabies is surprisingly listenable. The lyrics are devilish and sometimes just plain cliché ("In darkness my tortured soul awakes,") but that was the whole point of the source material. If anybody who made those old black and white monster mash movies and scored them actually thought they were making art, they were only fooling themselves.
Soldi's instrumentation and production is crisp and leaves nothing to be desired. But Sparhawk once again proves that he's still got it. He handles the vocals in a voice now aged and seasoned by years of singing and that contains a reserve of interpretive flexibility that molds itself around each song. It's engaging stuff. You could listen to it year-round. I plan to.
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/25/34344/
When nighttime has fallen and the township retires, a flutter awakens a young woman's desires. --Rick Sparhawk
Nothing better than two old and gifted friends in the studio, right? In this case, the two happen to be Jim Soldi and Rick Sparhawk, co-founders of a '70s-'80s raucous touring band from here called Montezuma's Revenge.
Montezuma's Revenge was an unusual band with a long and successful run. Formed in 1973, they called their music bionic bluegrass.
"One year," Sparhawk told me for a Reader story, "we won first place for best rock, best country, and best bluegrass. It was our Trifecta."
Soldi eventually went on to join up with picker Ricky Scaggs and later worked in the Johnny Cash band. Recently, Soldi and Sparhawk reunited as a recording act (they play scant few gigs) called Picus Maximus.
Picus Maximus?
That's the scientific name for a bird long thought to be extinct: the ivory billed woodpecker.
"It was registered as extinct for 60 years but now it's making a comeback," Sparhawk, who looks like a civil war-era general with his Colonel Sanders moustache-and-beard and long hair gone white told the Reader in March. "Well, now I'm making a comeback too." Their first album as such was titled The Tragedy of Johnny Patriot.
Soldi/Sparhawk are back for Halloween with a collection of spoofs based on the soundtracks of old Hollywood B-movie thrillers. Lullabies for the Cursed (Dakota Records 2012) was recorded and mastered in Ramona at Soldi's Outhouse Studios. It is dedicated as a "sonic tribute to drive-in monster movies."
Yeah, it's a themed record and kitschy in terms of subject matter, but Lullabies is surprisingly listenable. The lyrics are devilish and sometimes just plain cliché ("In darkness my tortured soul awakes,") but that was the whole point of the source material. If anybody who made those old black and white monster mash movies and scored them actually thought they were making art, they were only fooling themselves.
Soldi's instrumentation and production is crisp and leaves nothing to be desired. But Sparhawk once again proves that he's still got it. He handles the vocals in a voice now aged and seasoned by years of singing and that contains a reserve of interpretive flexibility that molds itself around each song. It's engaging stuff. You could listen to it year-round. I plan to.
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/25/34344/