Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Sic Alps Make Dark Comedy of Rock and Roll
What got my attention focused on Sic Alps was the cover they did of Throbbing Gristle’s “United.” Not an easy task for a band with, say, a more ordered sound, but a perfect fit for Sic Alps’ self-wounded rock DNA. From San Francisco, the Alps calls itself a garage-rock band, but I hear something else. They come off more like the groups I played in as a teen. These were nascent rock bands that were trying to learn songs recorded by the popular rock acts of the day on instruments we had little mastery of.
By design, Sic Alps is loud and messy and a tad deconstructive with their slightly out-of-tune instruments, pained vocals, and charisma-on-loan via amplifier settings. How often does Sic Alps succeed in reaching its musical vision? “Sometimes,” singer/guitarist Mike Donovan says by phone from North Hollywood. “Sometimes,” he laughs. “We’re always trying to find the right way to do a song,” he says.
Sic Alps is equal parts acquisitive and inventive. On a different day, “Cement Surfboard” could have been Brian Wilson’s; “St. Peter Writes His Book” uses paint-by-numbers Creedence Clearwater Revival chord progressions. Other times, Donovan says he tries to not over-think it. “Once, I woke up from a dream, and I improvised guitar and vocals from beginning to end. Then I went back to bed.” Drums and bass got added a year later, and the song became “Nathan Livingston Maddox” on Napa Asylum. In their own reckless manner, Sic Alps makes dark comedy of rock and roll. Few of the band’s records (and they have released many during their decade of existence) sound alike. But this notion of lo-fi proto-punk is a hard road on which to maintain a career in pop music. Fads come and fads go, and after, what follows? Lucidity, at the risk of abandoning one’s fan base?
Thee Oh Sees also perform
Sic Alps: Monday, September 10, Bar Pink, 619-564-7194, 9 p.m. $6.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Sic Alps Make Dark Comedy of Rock and Roll
Sic Alps Make Dark Comedy of Rock and Roll
What got my attention focused on Sic Alps was the cover they did of Throbbing Gristle’s “United.” Not an easy task for a band with, say, a more ordered sound, but a perfect fit for Sic Alps’ self-wounded rock DNA. From San Francisco, the Alps calls itself a garage-rock band, but I hear something else. They come off more like the groups I played in as a teen. These were nascent rock bands that were trying to learn songs recorded by the popular rock acts of the day on instruments we had little mastery of.
By design, Sic Alps is loud and messy and a tad deconstructive with their slightly out-of-tune instruments, pained vocals, and charisma-on-loan via amplifier settings. How often does Sic Alps succeed in reaching its musical vision? “Sometimes,” singer/guitarist Mike Donovan says by phone from North Hollywood. “Sometimes,” he laughs. “We’re always trying to find the right way to do a song,” he says.
Sic Alps is equal parts acquisitive and inventive. On a different day, “Cement Surfboard” could have been Brian Wilson’s; “St. Peter Writes His Book” uses paint-by-numbers Creedence Clearwater Revival chord progressions. Other times, Donovan says he tries to not over-think it. “Once, I woke up from a dream, and I improvised guitar and vocals from beginning to end. Then I went back to bed.” Drums and bass got added a year later, and the song became “Nathan Livingston Maddox” on Napa Asylum. In their own reckless manner, Sic Alps makes dark comedy of rock and roll. Few of the band’s records (and they have released many during their decade of existence) sound alike. But this notion of lo-fi proto-punk is a hard road on which to maintain a career in pop music. Fads come and fads go, and after, what follows? Lucidity, at the risk of abandoning one’s fan base?
Thee Oh Sees also perform
Sic Alps: Monday, September 10, Bar Pink, 619-564-7194, 9 p.m. $6.
Comments