Gee Whiz – Mr Dinosaur
I don’t think that it’s all going to work out too well for all the hundreds and thousands of serious-minded rockers writing songs about the Egyptian pyramids and trying to incorporate musical elements studied from Mahavishnu Orchestra records.
One only needs to look at the not-too-distant past. For example, all of the rockers who devoted themselves to esoteric concepts, bar a few, have been forgotten by history. On the contrary, people like Jonathan Richman, who wrote songs about loving spring, clouds, and dinosaurs, are seeing their reputation grow every minute.
I mention this because I’m glad to be reminded that bands like Gee Whiz, writing great, big songs about small, ordinary things, are still out there. And just like a movie star who is a natural in front of a camera from the first moment they hear the word “Rolling!”, the charm of their work simply does not easily vanish.
Gee Whiz’s “Mr Dinosaur” brings to mind Jonathan Richman and every rocker (although there aren’t many) who were able to bring a naive innocence, rather than cool arrogance, to their work. The lyrics, the false stops, the way that the vocals trade places, simply, are things a songwriter couldn’t learn from a book. They’re the result of wonderful mistakes, which, in turn, happen because the authors were smart enough to simply play around.
DÜÜL SUNS – Palace Of Glass
Ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space! And, the people flying us around, we hope, are the kind of psychonauts, eccentrics, and fanatics that made getting up in the morning and dusting off our space suits worth it.
The fact is that there are certain styles of popular music that require costumes, preparations, and, above everything, weirdness. Anyone dressed like a gym teacher can play merry Christmas tunes, or bring out some Texas blues riffs, sure.
But, you’d expect, for example, from the people playing spacey psychedelic rock songs that invite you to take your imagination out into the stratosphere by any means necessary, a bit of eeriness. You want a band that’s called DÜÜL SUNS to embrace the bizarre.
And, if that is the case, for the most part, you won’t be disappointed by “Palace Of Glass,” by DÜÜL SUNS, the kind of 1970s-inspired psych and prog rock excursion that is best enjoyed either staring out at the stars, or trying to get yourself up there.
It’s good timing, too! The holidays don’t provide much in the way of unpredictability, and, probably, you’ve already gone through all of the Pink Floyd bootlegs that exist on the internet. It’s time to stretch out to new frontiers!
