Cool obscure band of the week: Simply Saucer

[RandomKoolzip]

Interesting band out of Hamilton, Ontario...formed in 1972, broke up around the crest of Punk Rock (1977-1978). Used synths for odd, abrasive textures and white noise, almost exactly like Pere Ubu did a few years later (and the Grateful Dead did on their 1974 track "Unbroken Chain"), which they would apply to wiry, garagey, Velveteen rock action. Lyrics were are also prescient in that they tackled themes of alienation via technology and bad sex, just like many punkers.

They gots ONE CD, which compiles all the tracks they ever recorded (you can count them on three hands). It's called "Cyborgs Revisited." So put down that 70 dollar bill you were gonna use to buy the latest Destiny's Child, and ram this up your snoot-snout.




http://www.blastitude.com/15/pg4.htm

 Canada's SIMPLY SAUCER, however, may be reckoned to be the single greatest 1970's band to have influenced absolutely no one. Now, it's quite possible that the rock world's eyes weren't exactly riveted on Hamilton, Ontario in 1974; it may be that the band themselves were less than ambitious in getting the word out via touring; maybe there truly was a vast conspiracy orchestrated by the Laurel Canyon cocaine cartels that drugged North America into temporary abeyance with a steady diet of Eagles, Poco and Fleetwood Mac. More plausible was the lack of any recorded representation of the original band until the late 1980's, which prevented some of the most jarring & transcendent rock and roll ever laid down from letting a hundred apocalyptic electro-rock bands bloom. Combining a dense, guitar-heavy surge with a bizarre dose of space-age electronics, Simply Saucer set up a uniquely futuristic sound marked with a lyrical vision of modernity gone very, very wrong. Author Grady Runyan once wrote that in dissecting the band, one must "imagine Hawkwind ditching their Sabbath/Deep Purple tendencies for "Sister Ray," or better yet the Count Five pounding out "Interstellar Overdrive" in the middle of "Psychotic Reaction"". The comparisons are apt, as the band hued well to classic rock structure while flailing wildly within its borders. It's not just the lyrics that call up images of robotic dominance and the dreaded black helicopters; the often Teutonic music does the job almost as well. Yet it would definitely be a misnomer to compare the band to the Germans who were busy creating an avant-garde rock wave of their own in 1973-75. This shit definitely kicks out the jams.

From Julian Cope's website:

The splatter-clatter drumming of Neil DeMerchant is at the amphetamine heart of Simply Saucer. He seems to have had a kit made up entirely of snare drums. His ride cymbal was a snare drum - his crash cymbal may have been a snare drum. He wore an "I play snare drum" t-shirt. Simply Saucer rhythms sound as though 30-piece teenage marching bands are here to terrorise your neighbourhood. DeMerchant squirms and swivels around the beat like Cheap Trick's Bun E. Carlos copping dollops of Buffin during his astounding "Walking with a Mountain"-period. With a stick up his ass.


http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/351

[SouthoftheBorderPaul]

1. $70!?!?!?!

Uh...no.

[RandomKoolzip]

2. Haven't you heard?

Destiny's Children's new fuck-opera, "Booties in Orbit around Planet Sex," reatils for 70 bucks! (That's, like 4,800 pesos!)

Nah, I kid...the Simply Saucer album is only selling for 20 bucks. I used "70 dollar bill" as a literary device.

[tigereye]

3. that sounds pretty cool!

"His ride cymbal was a snare drum - his crash cymbal may have been a snare drum."

I am highly in favor of "off-beat" drummers.

[RandomKoolzip]

4. To be fair, I think Julian Cope may have been tripping on nutmeg

when he wrote that. SS's drummer was actually pretty rudimentary, but he definitely got the job done.

I though that paragraph was hilarious.

[flamingyouth]

5. Great band

:thumbsup:

[RandomKoolzip]

6. You've ridden the Saucer before?

Excellent.

[flamingyouth]

7. Somewhere in my papers is an unpublished interview with two of them.

We talked to them about 10 years ago. I really should go through that and do something with it. At least put it up on the web or something...

[RandomKoolzip]

8. Oh, please PLEASE do!

That would make my year.

[quispquake]

11. Hear Hear!!

PLEASE post that...I've been a fan ever since the album finally came out in 1989...

[RandomKoolzip]

12. Iremember reading Byron Coley's Underground column about them

in Spin in early 1990 and was intrigued ever since...Finally got the CD in 1998 and was definitely worth the wait.

[XNASA]

9. Thanks.

Looks like I'll have to pony up for that one.

[RandomKoolzip]

10. Or you could just buy it.

Oh, wait....okay, now I get it.

[cleofus1]

13. nektar!

the guitar solo on fidgety queen is unparralled in the annals of fusion rock history...
except for maybe the solo in chicago's 25 or 6 to 4