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comment by hiss
hiss  ·  4335 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Second Weekly "What Music Have You Discovered This Week" Thread

Got into The Blasters a bit thanks to a belated listen to Dave Alvin's appearance on the WTF podcast. Didn't know they pre-date Los Lobos and similar "Americana by way of LA" bands by a few years. Don't know if I can recommend their whole catalogue based on a few cursory listens but, as noted on the podcast, "Marie Marie" is a jam and well worth the two minutes it takes to hit your eardrums. "Marie Marie" by The Blasters on Spotify

Hosted a comedy show tonight and a band called The Funk Crusaders capped it off with some exceptionally tight soul, funk, and r&b covers. The drummer is from a local "speed-pop"/"space-surf" group called Merlin Wall and apparently he's been playing with this band for a lot longer, since back in high school. BLOB_CASTLE was especially fascinated by the band's use of two guitarists as opposed to the more traditional addition of an organ or keyboard player in similar setups, and I think it served them well. Check out the link for a cover of "Tighten Up" (!) amongst others, although admittedly this might translate better in a live setting with the full force of a stage PA as opposed to weakly pumped out the speakers of an idevice or similar. The Funk Crusaders on Bandcamp





BLOB_CASTLE  ·  4334 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah I thought it a little strange that they had two guitarists playing almost the exact same thing. The benefits to that though are that there's a fuller sound, especially if they have differing tones.

user-inactivated  ·  4335 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I haven't a clue what space-surf purports to be, but I think I'll make myself acquainted.

EDIT: and I would have pegged The Blasters as being about ten years older than they actually are. (The riff right at the finish is reminiscent of The Byrds, among other things.)