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.
Boardman: About a year ago, my friend Rob D. turned me on to this interesting little group called the Grease Band. They were Joe Cocker’s backing band at Woodstock, and before that mad dogs and Englishmen thing kind of erased them off the map, and that Beatles cover they did of “A Little Help From My Friends” just hangs together like a motherfucker. Simple, visceral, musical, great singing, playing and arrangement, they’re all just floating on a lily pad, as Tony G. might say. They made two largely forgotten records; listen to “Let It Be Gone,” and marvel at how the added half a beat at the top of the chorus can feel so damned natural. Guitarist/singer Henry McCullough later played the shit out of one of the all-time great guitar solos on Wings’ “My Love” (before Paul kicked him to the curb), Alan Spenner plays and sings like a bass player shouldn’t be able to, played on some Roxy Music records before leaving this plane, and the band all contributed to the big required listening record of my parochial school days, Jesus Christ Superstar. Dig in; you shant be disappointed, there’s some great YouTube videos of them playing (“Honky Tonk Angels” is a gooder) on a Danish TV show.
Video after the jump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfoTSzCeRmo
