I might me stretching my assumptions here, but I don't even know how LESS IS MORE could exist in a 2020 reality. The band featured Myron Isaacs on drums, who was the drummer for ALL YOU CAN EAT when I played bass for that band on one very weird Japanese tour in 1996. We only practiced a few times before we left, and the moment I remember the most clearly from those rehearsals was Myron getting excessively frustrated with me trying to synch up with him on one particular song - "Don't you have any soul at all? This part is supposed to be funky!" - and I was thinking to myself "uhhhh, no, actually, I don't have that kind of soul at all." I probably didn't even know what being "in the pocket" with a drummer meant at the time. But I listen to this 1992 cassette and I get it, I get his frustration. Beach House Memories is a product of time and surrounding - JANE'S ADDICTION, PRIMUS, alt/funk/punk was the sound of the day, slap bass wasn't completely forbidden (yet), and this one holds up far far better than it has any right to because the songs are good and the chops are supreme. Accidental perhaps, but there are guitar/vocal harmonies a la HELMET or MOTHER LOVE BONE and the fellas sing about sweet things like lost love and revered pets and they honestly just sound like some dudes having a really good time jamming together. There's an innocence and an honesty that peeks out from behind the chops, and I'm not really concerned about how many cool points I lose when I say that "Face Off" (which opens the second side) totally slaps. Because...well, it fucking slaps.
1. Myron was only Myron in ALL YOU CAN EAT, he prefers "Seth."
2. I really did not do a good job on that tour, objectively speaking.
3. The tour was great though...for me. For Seth? Not so much.
4. I am still not funky at all, and though I have a soul, I do not have soul.
2 comments:
"I Saw Your Girlfriend in a Movie" had a funky bass line. Hey man you tried, and you just can't fake the funk.
Craigums did an interview on a Australian punk podcast, he talked about those tours (Australia, Japan, can't remember if they were both the same?).
I'm so glad you reviewed this album. I'm Michael Joseph, and I engineered and co-produced the Less is More record. You're right when you say it was just a group of guys jamming and having fun (lots of fond memories of recording in the analog world). I haven't seen or spoken to Seth or Michael in decades. Sadly, Pete passed away in tragic accident, not too long after the CD was released.
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