Welcome to Talking Albums.
Many of my friends are involved in music to some capacity, and while I may have a sense of the types of music that they would listen to, we’ve not really talked about albums in some time. Gone are the days when we would get together in a friend’s bedroom and dissect the vinyl collection.
Talking Albums is a chance to sit down and do just that.
In each episode, we’ll be looking at 6 albums.
- A must-have / go-to album
- An album more people should hear
- The first album bought
- A Sunday morning album
- An album that has stood the test of time
- A favourite new album
Enjoy!
Talking Albums Episode 1: The Reverb Syndicate
There’s a genre of music that grabs your ears immediately. And your feet. And your hips.
It’s a groovy sound that blends twangy, reverb-drenched guitars, and florescent kitsch, with 60’s spy film soundtracks and lounge cocktails. It goes by many names – classic surf, surf rock, surf punk. Think The Ventures, Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet, Dick Dale, Atomic 7, Phono-Comb, and even The B-52’S.
Oh, and think Ottawa’s The Reverb Syndicate. Formed in late 2005, the quartet began with the simple concept of exploring and re-imagining the music of classic surf rock via Saturday morning B-movie spaghetti western soundtracks.
They have independently released four albums, Operation: Jet Set!, Sputnik A-Go-Go, Mondo Cacti, and Odyssey.
Their fifth album was released at a Surf & Turf evening at House of Targ on November 16th. Last of the V8 Interceptors is an ode to turbo-charged car movie classics like Bullet, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Mad Max and Two-Lane Blacktop.
We asked Lead guitarist (and Commodore 64 aficionado) Mike Bradford, and bassist Jeff Welch to talk albums. And they did.
The result was Talking Albums Episode 1: The Reverb Syndicate. Listen below!
