PROFILE OF GROOVIE RECORDS by Lenny Helsing
One of the best, hippest labels in recent
years is Portugal’s dynamic Groovie Records, a small but
steadily thriving outlet founded in 2005 by Edgar Raposo. In four
years the label has issued some of the choicest vinyl titles around.
Edgar is helped out by friend Luis Futre who manages their Groovie
shop in Lisbon; also researching vintage titles the label can
run with.
With true international vision they’ve unleashed records
by some great ‘60s names, foremost among them French / German
/ Dutch aggregation The Rhythm Checkers, Lebanon’s The Sea-ders
and, lest we forget, the no-fi rock’n’roll genius
of Portugal’s late Joaquim Costa. They’ve also knocked
out Portuguese Nuggets, a series of LPs that best exemplify that
country’s rich legacy of surf, garage and psychedelia. Os
Haxixins, modern psychedelic beatsters from Brazil, and Moscow’s
The Cavestompers are also on Groovie’s books.
Having begun the Groovie journey using up all their money issuing
the first single by The DTs – the US bunch fronted by Estrus
label’s Dave Crider, the label is now seriously hitting
its stride. “We are two guys who only want to get high on
psychedelic and garage music” explained Edgar when I asked
him what things Groovie considers important. With a brace of new
titles, including the debut 7” by raucous Mexican noiseniks
Os Explosivos, an LP by French garage-dudes The Dadds, and anthologies
from Brazil’s Os Baobas, and Uruguay’s Los Blue Caps,
followed soon after by Mexican fuzz teens Los Mustang ’66,
and such down under ‘60s legends as The La De Das and The
Human Instinct, the label’s immediate future is looking
pretty groovy indeed.
www.groovierecords.com
LANA LOVELAND
The Lana pulls off a very difficult work that
only a handful of Garage Psych revival bands will even bother
with by writing songs that go beyond mere cult of vintage melodies.
Is debut album “Order To Love”, on Groovie Records
is more than the collection of hooky singles that honestly was
waiting. It's a real album, with a composite laminate, which I'll
continue to listen for an extended period in order to really know
and not just because I am addicted Garage and Psych highs. The
first two tracks, “Black Glove” and “Missing
Illusions”, previous release on a 7’’ at Butterfly
Records are, the first a “catchy poppier” and the
second a sweet psych jams. “Theater Of Dreams” is
an 80’s revival 60’s song, as “Nervous People”
is a stunningly successful piece of vocal feminist and organ-driven,
terminating in psychotic state. Of course, that “Missing
Link” is easily the album's best track, a topic about staying
true to yourself. These songs are part of a surprisingly good
argument for screwing the idea of the Garage as a way to always
be an emotional realness. Then there’s “Paranoia”
a songs that would work well as a basement garage sing along songs,
but “Silence Everywhere” and “Constant Furs”
show that Lana Loveland can write the kind of catchy, super concentrated
psych garage that could leave everybody asking they were not able
to do this.
Get this album, learn all the lyrics of all the songs, and then
go to the streets and spread the words, peace, love and Loveland.
rock around the blog - www.rockaroundtheblog.com
More news from Portugal’s Groovie
Records! Crimson Shadows are getting a reissue, to accompany their
brand new 10? coming out this year. And Groovie, who are probably
most well-known as the home of Brazil’s own Music Machine,
Os Haxixins, are putting out another Sean Bonniwell-influenced
group. Loveland, is Lana Loveland’s (The Fuzztones, Bonniwell
Music Machine) new band, where she is the main songwriter and
vocalist. The debut album Order to Love was released a few weeks
ago, following the Black Glove 7? from last year. That song was
written as a tribute to The Music Machine, who were known to wear
black gloves on one hand, and is included on the album too. Also
check out her other band Lana Satana & Her Organs In Orbit
in a more lounge/exotica style, but who haven’t released
anything yet.
http://www.kristerbladh.co.uk/blog/
OS HAXIXINS
It's like traveling through time, going
to the golden age of darker and acid music from the end of 66.
"De Baixo das Pedras/Under The Stones" is the second
album from the Brazilian Haxixins, transporting the listener on
a journey to the obscure charm of his poetry and psychedelic schizophrenia.
Throughout the album we are inundated by the sounds "60's
Garage Psych" and effects of "fuzzed" anchored
on the Farfisa organ that supports real deadly sounds, with the
bass jumping into our brain. The record is composed by twelve
original songs that show that the Haxixins are well ahead of the
"platoon" of the followers of Garage 60’s, with
consistent ideas of the primitive further druid and condiments
"tripping" deliciously psychedelic, “De Lei”
is one of the examples , sparse in words says that "if we
are strong in the tie, it can never break even on any spell",
as in “Noites Brancas” reporting "a moment of
sanity in reports of loneliness and delusion", and this entire
"lyric" message is one of the great consistencies in
this album. It is still unclear what the Haxixins capture your
inspiration from greats of the 60’s, giving us music with
the sheer weight of that time, example is the two "covers"
here, “Ain't It A Shame” by The Wave Riders and "Hey
Conductor" of de Sonny Flaharty & Mark V.
The Haxixins are undoubtedly the best thing that the music scene
of "garage" Brazil has to offer, brilliantly dark and
unspeakably powerful, they have in their short existence the transcendence
of anything that many of the musicians expect to achieve and this
is why “De Baixo das Pedras/Under The Stones" is of
essential acquisition, for followers of the "garage”
Psychedelic Sixties and who just like good music..
rock around the blog - www.rockaroundtheblog.com
I was just joking last week when I said
I couldn’t believe São Paulo psych garage band Os
Haxixins’s name was a drug reference. (“Haxixe”
is Portuguese for hashish. But, technically, the name refers to
the Club des Hachichins of 1840s Paris, making it also a literary
reference.) Either way, the name really couldn’t be more
appropriate, since their driving, dark, organ drenched rock ‘n’
roll is both intoxicating and potentially habit-forming.
Os Haxixins Photo: myspace.com
Alexandre “Alôpra” Romera’s vintage Diatron
organ gives their songs a swirling intensity that seems to suck
you into a time warp, transporting you to the golden era of mind-bending
music. Drummer Sir Uly is also the riveting lead vocalist and
fills each song with a wild, desperate melancholy while holding
down the beat.
The quartet claims many early Brazilian rock bands as influences.
But their music is more than faithful garage revival. They infuse
their sound with raw punk ferocity and their psychedelic groove
takes on a steamy tropical character when it really gets under
way.
There’s a humidity in Fábio Fiuza’s fuzzed-out
guitar tone and relentless riffage. And on songs like “Depois
Eu Volto (Gimme),” off their 2009 self-titled debut album,
it sounds like Sir Uly is wailing through a veil of wet hair.
(Their second album Debaixo das Pedras/Under the Stones is out
on Portugal’s Groovie Records.)
Os Haxixins have also studied the finer points of ’60s hipster
menswear as closely they’ve studied obscure psychedelic
nuggets from the decade, so they always look sharp while from
blowing minds São Paulo to Berlin. More importantly, these
guys are freaks for antique instruments and like to take their
vintage amps on tour. Maybe that’s why no one else sounds
quite like them. Listen closely and you’ll see. Even if
their music doesn’t belong in this era, they’re not
a throwback. This happening is beyond time.
MTV IGGY!
PARALLÈLES
For some reason I’ve only been playing Spanish/Portuguese
language music today. Did I forget to say how great the new Dávila
666 album Tan Bajo is? Well, it’s already on Spotify and
available from In the Red. Another LP you should look out for
this year is the debut from Brazilian all-female group Paralléles.
Their first 45 (above, cool Ric there) came out on Groovie Records
in 2010 and they subsequently recorded a full-length for them,
that should be out soon. It’s coming out on cd on Rastrillo,
and they’re already taking pre-orders. The a-side and several
other songs (perhaps from the album?) are available on Soundcloud,
here’s my favourite.
http://www.kristerbladh.co.uk/blog/
Los Mustang 66
On this, yet another debut, the
top of the sleeve proclaims ‘Desde Mexico – Wild Garage
Punk’. So then, a wild garage punk band from Mexico, and
here in a none too common aggregation of three girls and two guys.
Furiously pounded skins, rumbling bass, mucho stepping on the
fuzztone, and Teresa Farfisa’s deliriously hypnotising organ
squeal are to the fore on opening instro ‘Fuzz On’.
They pretty much stay that way throughout too, adding to the mix
plenty of surly-flavoured femme howling in the process, with lead
singer Kika sounding a lot like Paula Pierce of The Pandoras,
back in that band’s early days. This girl can give out with
some pretty great screams at times too.
They’ve put together a fair few of their own songs, best
among them the likes of ‘Esquizofrenico’, ‘Mustang
Rojo’ and my fave, the effusive ‘Si Quieres’.
To supplement this lot they’ve also chosen to let fly with
a few of their fave wild garage punkers from the past, including
Texas gang Murphy & the Mob’s ‘Born Loser’
(here as ‘Perdedor’), The Wailers’ ‘Hang-Up’
(‘Sufriendo’) and, somewhat surprisingly, a cover
of modern-day heavy duty garage rock contingent The Lords of Altamont’s
‘Lean On Me’; and pretty excellently done it is too.
They close out in terrific style with The Five Canadians’
wicked teen punk blaster ‘Writing On The Wall’. All
told this is a great first effort.
Lenny Helsing
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