Sic Alps / Breadhead

Drag City

Late August: the sun is tired, the trees are weary, the air is gray. Ceiling fans revolve slowly, tracing their repeating path in the dust that clings to the top of the room. The stage is set for a SIC ALPS singles chart topper 2011! The four tracks on this record are stuck together from different sessions, recorded ½ by KING RIFF at Bauer Mansion and ½ by Sic Alps at home. Though the sound is classic Sic, their face has been rearranged, and this time out, MIKE DONOVAN is aided and abetted by a who’s-who of the SF gutter-gold scene: members of THEE OH SEES, TY SEGALL and all of BIG TECHNO WEREWOLVES made tracks on the last track of this mother. “Breadhead” was written in the NAPA ASYLUM explosion, with riff by NOEL—not a rarity, but a singular occurrence anyway. It plays much like one of Mike’s, so Mike makes an A-sided outing of it, rocking the tambourine for extra gleam. Then “Jammy Soc” dreams the grooves down to the play-out and it’s time to flip. “½ Rabbit Sandwich with Fries” was a title that’s been kicking around the Alps for a while, but now it can be known as a nocturnal number that gets the B-side off to an anti-shuffle. They wrap it up with a Wailers cover. The beat’s been relocated and the speed adjusted but the melody is let be, allowing Sic Alps to shine a little Who-ish light on the subject. This means guitars, guitars, guitars, guitars, guitars, guitars on the record all combed into the greasy mane with a jaundiced mini-eye towards the mini-prize. It comes rapt in a bright and white package with lyric slip. All in all, a varied and righteous noise. (STREET DATE - 8/23/2011)

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