Brent Rademaker would like to think that GospelbeacH’s Pacific Surf Line is a celebration of our country’s two left coasts—though maybe he would’ve preferred a bit more Old Florida charm to counter the L.A. swagger. “I really wanted to make this album sound like the kinds of music I listened to growing up in the ’70s,” says Rademaker, a native of the Gulf Coast. By and large, though, Pacific Surf Line celebrates Rademaker’s return to Southern California. For a collective ef fort, the LP is surprisingly lean, with more refined nods to the Flying Burrito Brothers twang that informed Rademaker’s former group, Beachwood Sparks. GospelbeacH—Rademaker, Neal Casal, Jason Soda, Kip Boardman and Tom Sanford—isn’t afraid to broach the breezy accessibility of yacht-rock mainstays like the Eagles and Loggins & Messina, either. The band will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on them.
Casal: Mu was a one-of-a-kind California psych band that released one record in 1971, and recorded two more that remained unreleased until the 1980s. The band was the brain child of underground legend Merrell Fankhauser, who had previously released records with Fapardokly and HMS Bounty’s Things.
In its early days, the band discovered a copy of James Churchward’s The Lost Continent Of Mu, a book about Hawaii’s version of Atlantis. This gave the band their name and inspiration. They became so obsessed that they later moved to Maui to try and find the lost city on their own.
Their debut record is a totally unique synthesis of psych rock, blues, and the further afield leanings of the Magic Band. There are many records with these kind of influences, but there’s something special that sets this record apart. A hypnotic rhythmic quality, the wiry and weird slide guitar, the strangeness of the songs, and the way it was all recorded and mixed. A high quality sense of otherness at work makes it a stand out record that still sounds fresh today.
Video after the jump.
