The balearic beardo beach hippie album canon

oh jeez, where to start. santana have so many amazing albums. and so many different periods and sounds...

i spent a lot of time this spring with the first disc of this, but there is also a lot of crap in that box.

http://peelout.typepad.com/peel_out/images/wolf_king.jpg

^^ if this doesnt say undead hollywood goth pimp to you i dont know what does

buy LOTUS, i dare you. so amazing...

http://i.inlive.co.kr/alb/m00/d26/l0026439.gif

i like that john phillips record. i haven't heard it in years. i like almost everthing he ever did though. um, with group and on his own.

sorry, my last post was a confusing xpost re crosby.

u know what tim? im listening to no other right now with beach in mind and i think it might fit. title track in particular.

speaking of shadowfax, i always really dug tri atma too:

(first tri atma album is awesome, and sadly i no longer own a copy)

title track of no other fits everything that i am on earth. getting strength of strings tattoo one of these days.

Re No Other, I still plan to get it either way max.

I also liked the idea Jeff W proposed early on in the West Coast thread of a studio session musician artistry album canon (though he didn't put it quite like that) - something quite separate both to Gene Clark and balearic beardo beach hippies.

http://www.chaineux.de/kitaro/disco/clip/sm_astral_voyage_geffen_24082_cover.jpg
http://lh5.ggpht.com/MyJazzWorld/RoZecNHWxcI/AAAAAAAAAGU/KvTfovYGy-M/s288/SeaLevel_OnTheEdge.

Just to recap.

this is kind of hard cause some of this stuff--gene clark & john phillips say--doesnt necessarily scream "beach" (tho they do scream "70s LA" to me), but would totally fit in a mix sandwiched with 'beach party'-er songs. if that makes sense. so like "no other" doesn't necc work as part of this "canon" 'cause as an album its a little too c/w, i think, but individual songs given a chance would fit well

sorry i have to correct myself, "no other" isnt really all that country, im just using that as shorthand for like... "i was in the byrds and hung out with a bunch of LA cats in the 70s"

the new reissue of john phillip's "lost" jagger/richards record, pussycat, totally fits the wasted beach vibe, it's sleazier than wolfking

Obligatory shout out for On The Beach here.

max feel free to err on the side of inclusiveness when making these suggestions, but qualifiers like the above are interesting too.

In a more pop sense, I absolutely adored David Cassidy's "Romance (Love Mix)" (as used, go figure, on a Ronny & Renzo djhistory.com mix) - would love more stuff like that.

Not sure if this works with all the 70s beach pop, but its got a Roxy connection so maybe

http://www.disco-robertwyatt.com/images/reprises/images/Primitive_Guitars_big.jpg

Phil Manzanera - Primitive Guitars

Even though it has been over talked a bit on this thread, the theme of recontextualization played with my head when I first listened to No Other this morning front to back and the first track is extremely country to me. But then the rest of the album departs into coked out bluesey folk country madness. I mean i think all the music on this thread is the type that crosses typical genres such that the expectations to begin with dictate how the rest of the record can be perceived.

No Other was recommended to me by jax when I asked for more coked out 70s LA rock like Pacific Ocean Blue, all Fleetwood Mac, early Dan and such...

Fixed

I mean i think all the music on this thread is the type that crosses typical genre boundaries such that one's expectations upon listening dictate how the rest of the record is perceived.

Not that that is a revelation but the country aspects of No Other really blew my mind in this way. For instance, the slide guitar and the cracks in Clark's voice, typical country elements with a completely different context.

you know i feel like i have a long and complicated "personal essay" or something to write someday about all this music (by which i mean trad-balearic and nu-balearic and 'cosmic american music' and what have you--everything on this thread & the balearic thread and the 70s thread) and my relationship to it and its relationship to LA and my relationship to LA as filtered through this stuff. its weird--maybe not actually--but i dont think i really actually started to love and enjoy los angeles as a city and on its own terms until i started dipping into all of this, the sunny-tropical-cheerful music. i went from listening to a lot of east coast mobb deep/dj premiere/rza ice-cold winter-night rap to all these warmer records and i found that I started to love LA even more.

which is all sort of a preamble anyway to the half-formed idea i have about the way all this stuff relates and the way it relates to LA and to the beach and most importantly how LA itself relates itself to the beach and to its beaches and to a certain extent to the beautiful near-wilderness around it. and its so half-formed i dont really know how to articulate it--i sort of want to draw a diagram--but part of me thinks that what makes crosby and phillips and f'wood mac "fit" fairly easily under the umbrella of "balearica" and acts like the band and the dead (and feel free to disagree with me, anyone) fit far less easily under that same umbrella is some kind of interestingly-felt relationship with the beach or the idea of "beach" that LA has and SF doesnt.

i guess my theory is kind of shot down now because there are way more balearic-y guys coming out of the bay area than LA right now, but i think what i am sort of trying to say (and i guess i should mention that this is as much about the mental filters w/ which i listen to this music as anything) is that theres something very specific about los angeles that makes these acts work. like they occupy some LA-only space between what gram parsons called "cosmic american music" (which i guess i take to mean all these pseudo-revivalist 'americana' acts from the 70s incl. the band, the byrds, the dead, etc) and what ill just call "balearica" (by using which i mean to imply that im casting a slightly larger net than just "balearic") that isnt exactly a "beach-y" country & western pastiche (thats kenny chesney, right) but some kind of weird los angeleno thing.

and ill admit first that i am into this theory because it has a neat geographical symmetry, i.e., LA is "west" in a lot of ways--desert, hot, etc--but its right there on the beach, too.

looking at my post i see im casting an imagined dichotomy between 'americana' and 'balearica' and ignoring the sort of essential "hippy beardo" aspect

and you dont have time to post to my blog...

beaches in nor cal are way more desultory and beardo hippie than so cal

tbh im not really sure what a desultory beach party is, partly cause i dont really know what desultory means

"lack a plan, purpose or enthusiasm" sounds fun & balearic until the fourth word

Hey, Japanese beaches have hippies too. At least they did in the early 80s.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/501054475f84fc55/

Kitaro - Dawn of the Astral

maybe i should be clearer--this is sort of a pet theory that has as much to do with my own relationship to the music & to a place that ive lived as it does with any objective reality about this music or where it comes from in a geographical and/or spiritual sense, i dont actually think that ppl from the bay cant make good cosmic american balearica or that japanese people arent beardo beach hippies, i just think there are interesting things abt LA geographically & maybe culturally too that allow it to produce a high volume of music that fits well in this sub-sub-genre

i think desultory basically equals "moody cosmic" in this case, but maybe tim could clarify

dude max, i have to disagree with you there. how much of the stuff mentioned in this thread comes from LA? the 70s rock scene may be the major contributor, but honestly i think what makes it so amazing is to take a typical example, Studio, come from a completely different geographical and climate perspective. it seems to me more escapist, the tropical element. and while it works perfectly and could be very well meant for enjoyment in desert beach oases, i dunno if LA is the epicenter of creation you are making it out to be.

i did fall in love with this music in LA though, and I understand your connection. i went down last weekend and i miss the sunshine and the blue skies.

"lack a plan, purpose or enthusiasm"

I don't know, I reckon "lack of enthusiasm" kinda fits, maybe if you read it more as "lack of energy/drive". Sometimes this sort of music holds itself at arms lengths from "fun" and physical release, and also feels wistful and and sad about that. Like when you're at a party and you've drunk too much or you've had a bad pill and you think "I really want to dance right now, I love the idea of dancing, but nothing on earth is gonna get me off this couch right now..." That point of relaxation where you become supremely supine.

So in this context "desultory" for me means a certain gesture or allusion towards a party that cannot work itself up to inhabiting a full-blown party mindset (else, wouldn't we just play straight disco etc?) because inaction is sufficiently satiating.

Compare/contrast with the disco-punk revivalism of a few years ago, which had a precisely opposite relationship to disco - it was too pent-up, couldn't relax enough to just go with the flow, let alone lie down on the sand.

xp jimmy i meant mostly just the 70s cosmic american crosby-phillips-young-buckingham-nicks axis, the overlap btw. that 70s thread & the balearic thread basically--i mean i dont know that id call studio beardo beach hippies anyway--beardo beach maybe, but the hippie bit of what tim is asking makes me think of the 70s

i have a difft set of theories about why swedes are so good at balearica but i have to leave work now

haha studio is a little metropolitan, listening to buckingham nicks on the drive to vegas was pretty epic i must admit

That point of relaxation where you become supremely supine.

^^ not to make light of addiction, but i wonder if a lot of these LA cats tended to make good 'desultory' shit because a lot of them were into heroin in a big way

I got to admit that I sort of wish that Disco had become more of a big thing in Laurel Canyon.

Maybe it was just too insular back in the late 70s, not much from outside seemed to make a dent.

But then I really like the idea of Yacht Disco, so maybe thats just my thing.

Smacked out studio musicians playing lazy music with superb chops. Yup.

Its entirely possible that I've listened to Gaucho more than is healthy for any one person though.

yeah I think the important thing to stress here is that we're dealing with a continuum here that (I think Max correctly suggests) has one foot planted in "americana" and one foot planted in "balearica". And these aren't mutually exclusive terms but I think they define the state of play, in which all sorts of varying articulations can occur. Max's bio stuff seems to fit the americana end, definitely, though I'm hardly one to judge.

Another way to put the above is that this continuum stretches from a very rooted sense of geography at one end to a very internationalist, escapist idealized vision at the other. One thing I like about the term "yacht rock" is the fact that it implies a sense of placelessness - quite obviously, yachts aren't tied to the land, they can go anywhere. Yacht rock and balearic are different things, but they share that impulse I think, and that sense of upper-middle-class "global village" syncretic fusionism that I think really begins in the 80s (though there's a few 70s antecedents).

And the music that I think defines the core of the continuum-canon I'm trying to sketch out is the stuff that sets the two polar impulses off against each other, dialectically as it were - one difference between The Band and Fleetwood Mac for me is that the former seem totally, er, geographical, whereas Fleetwood Mac seem both "of a place" and "internationalist", they turn their geographical particularism into a universal. But you could run it the other way: maybe Studio and other Swedish bands are the anti-Fleetwood Mac, in that they turn an apparent geographical universalism (in their music) into a byword for "Sweden".

The covers of DJ Harvey's (bootlegged?) Sonic Disco DJ mix series are pretty telling:

http://img02.shop-pro.jp/PA01009/066/product/1612857.jpg

http://www.zona.ws/uploads/posts/1165495829_dj_harvey__sonic_disco_2.jpg

the jack nitzsche solo stuff that came out a few years back called "three piece suite" is def in this category. surprised i haven't heard much talk about it on ilm, maybe i missed a thread

The narrative that I'd like to hear in a mix of this stuff is roughly:

Yacht sets sail in the Bermudas in the late 70s loaded to the gills with models and playboys, blow and champagne.

Finds a mysterious hole in the fabric of space time, and is mysteriously shunted forward into 1988, right off the coast of Ibiza.

Sort of going from international waters into deep space and then back to the beach.

Alright, I'm only sharing this because I really like everyone in this thread.

If I was going to do that mix, I'd start with this song.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/5010660562548279/

Recorded in California but from an band from Illinois.

The Ship - The Ship, The Order

WTF I don't see any connection between any of these things. But the first thing that came to mind for me was Summer Breeze (Seals and Crofts) which is mellow and smooth but also creepy and weird, to me anyway

http://www.101apparel.com/_2008SUMMER/t-shirts/balearic_kelly.jpg

haha we got people making balearic t- shirts now !!!

So where does a band like High Llamas fit in this conversation?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410AEFRBZSL._SS500_.jpg

JD feels your pain

Another way to put the above is that this continuum stretches from a very rooted sense of geography at one end to a very internationalist, escapist idealized vision at the other. One thing I like about the term "yacht rock" is the fact that it implies a sense of placelessness - quite obviously, yachts aren't tied to the land, they can go anywhere. Yacht rock and balearic are different things, but they share that impulse I think, and that sense of upper-middle-class "global village" syncretic fusionism that I think really begins in the 80s (though there's a few 70s antecedents).

^^ this is a dope idea that helps put into place some things ive been thinking abt balearica.

what interests me most though--and i think u point toward this, or are saying it in a slightly different way--is the interplay btw the placenessless/rootlessness of the stuff (in the specific sense of, lets say, lacking definite coordinates) vs. the serious dependence on, i dont know how to put this, but, like, geographical zone? or something? by which i mean: beaches, obviously. or, you know, The Beach. i dont know if that makes sense! but im into the way that balearica taps into a this cosmopolitan/internationalist fantasy of never being tied down, whether its boating around on ur yacht or jetting from island to island for beach parties--while still being totally dependent on a very specific *kind* of place, i.e., The Beach. so its sort of internationalist in a very narrow sense--the music doesnt imply the frozen tundra or, like, the desert, or uh, stonehenge, or whatever. (i think btw that this dual sense of rootlessness/rootedness is intrinsic to the idea of the ocean and the beach and sailing in general--complete and utter freedom to go wherever you want, as long as that place is a port, and i think that the fact that balearica taps into the same feeling is part of why its so successful at evoking those ideas/places/practices)

what is interesting to me (as a geographical literalist who only wants to interpret musical production around the framework of climate zone) is how swedes and brits and dudes from the bay area, none of whom have proper beaches, are cranking out the best 'balearica' around. but i guess the answer to that is sort of apparent--if balearica requires a certain placelessness (and i think thats true in particular of the 'nu'-balearica of the last 3-4 years) it is probably advantageous to have no beach-y tropical art forms around that will influence and make specific your far more 'general' Beach music.

i am not sure that i believe any of what i am saying about why artists from some places are making certain specific types of music but i enjoy doing it as a thought experiment, and i have to say that it seems particularly 'right' to do so when talking about so much of this--its weirdly difficult to have a conversation about studio, say, without talking about how theyre from sweden

good beach music from germany too

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Boney_M._-_Oceans_Of_Fantasy_%281979%29.jpg

I think that for me this music is almost purely escapism, I've only been to LA a couple of times and they were two very short visits.

As someone who lives a fantasy life through music the reverse slumming of listening to music that was explicitly upper class can be sort of freeing.

That and I live in the center of the North America and coastal beaches are in short supply here.

Its interesting that you choose the Band as an example of specifically regional music Tim, seeing as they were a Canadian band making music heavily indebted to a rural and mostly Southern experience. The Dead were similarly very far away from the Ozarks from which they derived so much of their sound. But yes, Fleetwood Mac took that a step farther (UK band making music that was sort of a cosmopolitan synthesis of blues and country and arguably some soul). Almost all of these Californian bands who went so stylishly rural in the 70s had very little to do with the experiences made reference to in their music. Except for some very specific cases like Gene Clark or Gram Parsons.

I feel that the yacht sound was more honest, it at least sounded like California, like privilege and wealth.