Giant Sand – reissues (Fire)

Giant Sand has a massive catalog going back to 1985, but everything prior to 2000’s Chore of Enchantment is out of print. Fortunately, the Tucson-based band has a new deal with British label Fire Records that includes a comprehensive reissue program that will over the course of a year see all the group’s work brought back to record store shelves with new covers, bonus cuts and autobiographical liner notes. Thus will one of indie rock’s pioneering talents be introduced (hopefully) to a new generation.

Originally released in 1985, Valley of Rain is the kind of opening salvo for which many bands would kill. Though some of bandleader Howe Gelb‘s idiosyncrasies are already present – particularly his casual delivery and occasionally opaque lyrics – in many ways Giant Sand’s debut is its most straightforward record. Investing his songs with a dusty, unfancy production, muscular guitar flailings and heaps of rock & roll drive, Gelb blasts out rootsy mini-anthems like “Black Venetian Blind” (which has a great squealing solo), “Down On Town/Love’s No Answer” and “Tumble and Tear” with the energy and enthusiasm of someone making his mark in the studio for the first time. (Even if it was actually the second, as Gelb had already recorded a LP with his side project The Band of Blacky Ranchette.) The title track stands as one of Giant Sand’s crowning achievements even a quarter century later. Played by a basic trio (with two different drummers alternating cuts) with occasional piano from Green On Red ivory tinkler Chris Cacavas, Valley of Rain is a superior rock & roll record, and a good entry point for newcomers. This edition comes with an instrumental mix of the title song and a repaired version of “Tumble and Tear,” the original of which contains some audio warp due to a tape wrinkle.

1986’s Ballad of a Thin Line Man, which adds Gelb’s significant other Paula Jean Brown as a co-guitarist and singer, keeps the pace but adds new steps. “A Hard Man to Get to Know” rocks hard with a borrowed Led Zeppelin riff, but jerks off kilter into spastic new wave and spacey psychedelia too often to be a classic rock knockoff. “Thin Line Man” also keeps up the drive but stretches out into a Grateful Dead-like jam. The group’s more sedate side comes to the fore on the solo ballad “Who Am I,” the chiming “The Chill Inside” (co-written and sung by Brown) and the folk-rocking “Graveyard.” Written with and sung by Falling James of the Leaving Trains, “Last Legs” barely raises its head off the floor for some boozy balladry – a true oddity, even by Giant Sand standards. The set is rounded out by ramshackle but heartfelt covers of Bob Dylan (“All Along the Watchtower,” with a screeching cello intro) and Johnny Thunders (“You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory*), which possibly indicate a lack of original material but fit it just fine anyway. While the LP has a slight transitional feel, it’s more of a piece than Valley of Rain with the looser, goosier music Gelb and company would make from then on.

Storm, from 1987, attempts to get back to the straightforward rock attack of the first album, but ends up meandering down the by-roads anyway. By this point Gelb had decided to shut down The Band of Blacky Ranchette, folding both pedal steel player Neil Harry and that group’s countrified air into Giant Sand. (Brown moved to bass as well.) The result is a snappy C&W beat driving tunes like “Three6ixes” “Uneven Light of Day” and the title track, grounding them in earthier territory than Gelb’s witty lyrics might require. Harry’s steel guitar, ironically, acts more like an aggressive slide, a la “The Replacements,” than as a traditional country instrument, but that’s appropriate to Gelb’s vision. Said vision also encompasses “Right Makes Right” and “Bigger Than That,” rambling narratives of a type that would become increasingly prevalent as the years went by. The tent also covers the gospel piano ballad “Was is a Big Word” and plenty of snarling, noisy rock & roll, including “Town Where No Town Belongs,” “Town With Little or No Pity” and, appropriately enough, “Big Rock.” Gelb’s vocals have become looser, more conversational, as if the words were mere afterthoughts, but the obvious care put into the libretto of “Town With Little or No Pity” and “Was is a Big Word” belies that notion. The album ends with a swaying cover of the Band‘s anthem “The Weight” that is a further clue to Gelb’s many inspirations. Though not as accessible as Valley of Rain, Storm is still one of Giant Sand’s most instantly appealing LPs. This version adds an alternate, less rocking take of “Uneven Light of Day.”

It’s Fire’s intention to re-release nearly everything Gelb has produced, from the Giant Sand albums to his The Band of Blacky Ranchette and solo records. To be continued.

http://howegelb.com
http://www.firerecords.com