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[Warning: Long - my apologies in advance, I got carried away.]
Satan's Pilgrims: Plymouth Rock Best Of (MuSick 2004)
It's been more than a few months since this has come out and several
other people have reviewed it by now, but I just thought I'd throw my
two pence in (judging solely by the length, it's more like `my $20'
the value is probably still two pence J). I've been digging the hell
out of this CD and I can't recommend it enough for all the surf music
fans out there. Plainly speaking, this is a MUST buy! The Pilgrims
have in many ways defined the nineties surf scene, and they are
probably the most influential nineties surf band today (a Danish surf
band El Ray have even named themselves after an SP song, as well as
very much copied the SP sound; the Nebulas have never been shy in
voicing what SP meant to them; and I see the Pilgrims come up quite
often in other surf bands interviews). They were among the most
prolific of nineties surf bands, as well, breaking the two-CDs-and-no-
more curse that afflicted many others (the Fathoms, the Penetrators,
the Space Cossacks, the Treble Spankers, the Huntington Cads, Husky &
the Sandmen, the Eliminators, the Volcanos, etc.). Between '94
and '99 they released five full CDs, each one packed with many, MANY
brilliant and inspired moments.
Those of us that actually were fortunate enough to share a stage with
them and get to know them as people can tell you two things: first,
they were an incredible live act, and second, they were truly kind
and friendly people. The first time the Space Cossacks played with
them was in Baltimore on their first US tour, in 1996. It was just a
few months after the Cossacks had formed and we really didn't know
what we were doing yet. But I remember Ted being full of compliments
afterwards, even saying that we were tighter than them, which I'm
SURE wasn't the case but it just shows what a good guy he is. More
importantly, I remember seeing them that first time and being
completely blown away. Having not seen many surf bands live at that
point, we learned quite a bit that night. There they were, in white
jeans and black (or red?) capes, backed with a wall of Dual Showmans
and a sound so thick it seemed one could actually float in it! I
already had their first two CDs ("At Home With
" and "Soul Pilgrim")
by then, so I was familiar with their songs and sound, but seeing
them live was something entirely different. The next time we saw
them was as part of our West Coast tour in '98. We flew to Seattle,
played a show with the Boss Martians, and then went down to Portland,
on the Fourth of July. These guys had a very lucrative gig at a
restaurant in Portland scheduled for that afternoon, but they simply
GAVE US the gig so we could make more money on the tour. I'm still
blown away by their generosity that day (and let's not forget that
Dave drove their van packed full of amps, guitars, drums, etc. to the
gig to let us use whatever we needed). The deal was though that in
turn we would play in their basement for their Fourth of July party
that evening hell, yeah!! We started the night, and then their
garage side project the Chimps came on, and man, oh, man, that was
FUN!! What a great night. It seemed that the entire Portland
surf/garage scene was there. Afterwards, Mark English, the Cossacks
rhythm guitarist, and myself stayed with Dave the guitar
player/keyboardist in his huge house, while the rest of the band
stayed at the Pilgrims HQ, where Ted (drummer), John (bass player)
and Scott (guitar) lived (Bobby, the third guitarist, had left the
band by then). I remember Dave plugging in an old Vox organ and
playing in the living room while Mark and I were trying to go to
sleep! He just wouldn't stop! I think it was something like 6am
when he finally quit. But there's no way we could hold it against
him, cause Dave is about the sweetest human being you could possibly
ever imagine meeting. A prince maybe a nocturnal prince, but a
prince nonetheless! The next day we packed up and drove to Corvalis,
Oregon, where we got to play a real gig with the Pilgrims and
again, they were awesome. Even without Bobby, they had a huge sound
and the kiddies (Corvalis is a college town) just ate it up, dancing
their brains out. That was the last time I saw those guys, but I
will always very fondly remember our gigs together. And once again,
thank you guys for everything you had done for us!
Unfortunately, over the last couple of years their CDs have been
becoming more difficult to find. That's where MuSick came in. Art
Bourasseau had signed the Pilgrims to MuSick for their final (self-
titled) platter, and had somehow secured the rights to the rest of
their catalogue to give us this double-CD collection which is simply
overloaded with goodies. For those that don't have a whole lot of SP
stuff, well, you gotta get this. For those that have everything
(like me), there are more than enough extras here to make this an
essential purchase. The first CD has 18 tracks culled from their
five albums, while the second CD has four brand new songs by the
recently reunited band (albeit on part-time basis), plus a couple of
previously unreleased tracks and some rare comp- or vinyl-45-only
tracks. It's a regular cornucopia of Satan! Here are some of the
highlights, in my humble opinion.
The first CD set out to do the impossible pick 20 or so tracks from
around 70 that appeared on their five albums yikes! Now, obviously
not every one of those 70 tracks is essential, but there are
definitely more than 20 that are, so consider this simply a sampler
platter. For a true fan, nothing but having all the CDs will do, and
I suspect that once most people here this collection, they'll quickly
become true fans. Anyway, given the limitations, I have to admit
that the selection of songs is really good. I miss a few (such as
Small Craft Advisory, Ghoulash, El Rey, Brokendown Deuce, Black
Marquis and their covers of Scatter Shield, Morpheus, and Wave), but
in a world of scarcity hard choices must be made (that's the
economist me speaking). What IS on the CD is incredible. Though the
Pilgrims are often simply labeled as a trad-surf band, they were much
more than that. First of all, they featured two other major
influences: mid-to-late-sixties biker-fuzz-music (a la Davie Allan)
and even more importantly the sixties Northwest r&b/garage/early-punk
stuff like the Wailers and the Sonics. I don't know of any surf band
that has that same mix of sounds and influences, which is what made
the Pilgrims unique. What I appreciate even more is that they were
not afraid to follow their inspiration and do things differently.
They definitely pushed trad surf into new territories. Just check
out the title track of their fourth platter, "Creature Feature"
(probably my favorite CD by them) after a LENGTHY intro of some
canned, tense horror-film orchestral music, the song itself is
completely unlike anything done by any sixties surf band, but yet SO
RIGHT! The mood of this four-minute epic is supremely creepy with a
forlorn melody that somehow seems to build and build in intensity
until you're just overwhelmed by the tension of it all. Harmonically
this song is unlike almost any other sixties song. But when they
play it with a true traditional surf sound and feel, it clearly
becomes a surf song. And then throw the crazy fuzz guitar that seems
to have come straight from a Cleeshays album in the middle of the
song, and it's all too much. Absolutely brilliant! From the same
album comes "Scorpio 6" which is again completely unique. A
beautiful-but-dark melody evokes an Eastern European feel that is
vaguely reminiscent of the Atlantics, but yet it is very distinctly a
Satan's Pilgrims song I can't imagine anybody writing and
performing something like it. It's worth saying that these guys were
also master arrangers, knowing how to write and put the parts
together in a way that would make the songs unfold like stories. And
their little touches made all the difference the organ part here,
the harmony guitar part there, it all added up to truly inspired and
inspirational songwriting. Speaking of harmony guitars, with their
three-guitar attack they were able to throw them in quite a bit
(another element pretty much non-existent in sixties surf), and I
love it. Check out "Que Honda?" from their first album, a gem of a
song if there ever was one. The song just unfolds in layers, one of
them being the addition of some harmony guitar which just works so
well it's scary. Another thing about the Pilgrims was the utter lack
of ego among all the players. Taking their cue from the Ramones,
they all went with the last name of Pilgrim and you can hear it in
the music. Solos were rare instead, each member played a part that
made the song better. And though they're all clearly excellent
musicians, it was never about showing off chops just do what's
right for the song. The first song on this CD shows that off very
well "Vampiro" is as simple as it gets, reminiscent of "Morpheus"
by the Toads in a sense that the lead melody is not much more than
two or three notes. But what glorious notes! You gotta have serious
musical talent to be able to make something so simple so good. And
this is always where the Pilgrims excelled. They could take the most
hackneyed, worn-out I-IV-V progression and make it sound cool and
fresh, as they did often. Though those types of songs were not my
favorites by them, they definitely got the dance floor moving and
added a big element of fun to their albums. The first CD is
relatively short on these types of songs (though there are a few,
such as the title track "Plymouth Rock", "Grave-Up", "Shit
Sandwich," "Soul Pilgrim"), emphasizing their more melodic material.
But what becomes clearly evident is how diverse their songs were even
then. I drive my wife crazy with surf music, but recently when
listening to this CD she asked me who it was when I answered, her
reply was that it's much more listenable than most surf music. I
think that's a perfect testament to the Pilgrims music. Besides the
tense and scary songs like "Creature Feature", "Scorpio 6",
and "Vampiro", they also had beautiful, evocative ballads such as the
moody "The Lonely Pilgrim", which is simply incredible, or the
exotic "La Cazuela", or the wifstful "Chi Chi". And then there are
the memorable trad-based surf monsters such as "Super Stock" which
takes the Astronauts into the 21st century, and "Boss BSA," "Badge of
Honor," and "Surf Lyre", all of which are about as good as melodic-
but-energetic surf music gets. Whew. Stunning.
The second disc is a bit more uneven, as can be expected. The four
new songs are good, but not essential, I think. "Soul Creepin'" is
minimalistic, building on the Ventures' "Swingin' Creeper" but giving
it a more of an r&b twist with an organ and a rave-up; "The Outsider"
is a full-on circa-'66 garage-rock instro, with a lot of syncopated
rhythms, and dry and fuzz guitars. These three two tracks are very
cool and the recordings sound great, but where's the surf? After
all, that's what we want from the Pilgrims!! The surf is there with
the other two new tracks: "Seaside Run" is a cool song and kinda
different for the Pilgrims, with a happy melody and a kinda
playground feel and the melody played mostly with fuzz; "Green Chili"
is very pretty and kinda mellow, evoking the setting sun over the
ocean as a beautiful Summer day comes to a close it even features
an acoustic rhythm guitar, which I think is a first for them. Of the
unreleased tracks, "Hot Coco" is another r&b workout, with an
excellent groove, though not much melody, and "If You Wanna" and "The
Hondell" are happy surf songs that sound a bit derivative of some of
their other stuff. Still, all three are cool tracks. The last
unreleased one is a cover of Richie Podolor's (well, actually the
Hondells') fantastic song "Black Boots and Bikes", and they do an
exceptional job with this one. I know this is was one of Rip
Thrillby's favorites and he wanted to cover it with the Penetrators
but never did, so maybe this cover stands as a bit of an unintended
tribute to him. Of the songs that were already released, "Spanish
Head" sounds the same as the version on the "Around the World" CD, so
I don't know why it says it's previously unreleased maybe a
different take? Anyway, it's a great surf mid-tempo
cruncher. "Haunted House of Rock" is the single version and is
different from the one that was on "Soul Pilgrim" (notably in the
absence of the Hammond organ). It sounds a bit fuzzy, probably taken
straight from vinyl, but is still supremely creepy, maybe even more
so due to the fuzziness. Probably my favorite on the whole second CD
is their Ventures tribute (one of the many highlights on
MuSick's "Swingin' Creepers") "Escape/Psychadelic Venture". Only one
word to describe this wow. Simply sublime and perfect. These guys
knew and understood their Ventures.
There you go. If you don't have this CD, please go order it right
now. I'll be accepting Thank-You notes later. Now, let us hope that
the occasional Pilgrims reunion turns into a more frequent one, and
that there is more new material on the way, as well as (we can
dream!) a full tour. Welcome back guys, we've really missed you!
Please stick around for a while the surf music world needs you!
There aren't many as good as you
.
