True West - Hollywood Holiday Revisited

Atavistic 179

Whatever one thinks of the “Paisley Underground” of psychedelic bands emanating from Los Angeles in the early 80s (Dream Syndicate, Green On Red, etc.), the first four tracks on the Hollywood Holiday EP (Bring Out Your Dead Records) from True West are an exercise in glorious schizophrenia. Somehow, through the wisdom of programming, the band moves from jangle and ringing clamor over a lockstep beat, to a collage of percussion befitting Animal Collective, to stark balladry and austere pop. It’s a hallmark, evidently, of True West to be at odds – their personnel changes mirrored a profound aesthetic push-pull in their brief life, and the scarce EP, single and LP that existed until now as their only recorded output didn’t lend much to a clear history. Thankfully, Atavistic has collected and resurrected the True West catalog, fleshed out with a few Tom Verlaine-produced demos and detailed notes, to satisfy the appetites of the curious and the diehards.

The band comes like a bat out of hell on “Steps To The Door,” matching the dusty range of ragtag power from bands like the Dream Syndicate to a nearly compulsive urgency, lockstep and contained whilst guitarists Russ Tolman and Richard McGrath spin out like uncoiled wire. It’s an auspicious beginning that is echoed in the utterly weird howl of feedback and PVC on “I’m Not Here,” but which morphs into twangy stratospherics on the title track. Their cover of “Lucifer Sam” (originally on a rare self-released single) is a fitting occasion for the twin motors to get some stretching room, yet vocalist Gavin Blair’s urbane disaffection is a far cry from the wry madness of Syd Barrett. Still, this stripped-down affair brings about the tune’s blueprint distorted yawp in spades.

Drifters, the band’s only proper LP, was criticized by some for its highly crisp production, leaving the caterwauling guitars for clean stereo separation and a top-heavy drum sound. Yet the impulse toward pop song craft of a less elliptical bent, allowing Tolman’s lyrics a fighting chance for equal visibility alongside feedback and distortion, is even apparent on earlyish tunes like “You” and “It’s About Time.” There is a charm to overdriven guitars eclipsing even a well-recorded drummer, Blair’s clarion vocals just-buried-enough, but the intricacies of Tolman and McGrath can certainly coexist with lyric clarity and precise toe-tapping. Here, the urgency of “Look Around” may not be imbued with paranoia, but rather the crispness of hefty morning coffee. “Speak Easy” is charmingly confusing, its minimal chorus having nothing perceptibly to do with the rest of the tune, but somehow eclipses most of the “get over it”-themed songs I’ve heard in a while. “What About You” is probably the most delicate display of the two guitarists’ work on record and, while not incus-rattling the arpeggiated drifts assembled here are as psychedelic as any jangle one’s likely to hear.

Alongside the Atavistic reissue of the Dream Syndicate’s Out of the Grey, Hollywood Holiday Revisited presents a fine opportunity to experience the evolution of one of the more interesting outfits in West Coast rock of the past two decades. But since the last vinyl copy of Drifters I saw was only $3, hopefully the stratosphere will only remain audible and not soon felt in the pocketbook.

- Clifford Allen