((( on the stereo )))


Bill Wells Trio - Presentation Piece 1

New favourite song of the moment is the Bill Wells Trio's 'Presentation Piece 1', the opening track from the Also in White lp. You could listen to it endlessly.

Buddy Miles - Down By the River (live)

A great pic of the man ... never really got into Electric Flag or Band of Gypsys for that matter. But i've been appreciating the Buddy Miles Express ... especially the mogadon slow live version of Neil Young's 'Down By the River'.


Sandy Bull - Memphis Tennessee
Played guitar on the mid-60s Dylan records along with Bruce Langhorne (who's Hired Hand soundtrack is also incredible). Sandy Bull did a couple of instrumental records in the 60s which are great. 'Memphis, Tennessee' sounds like Dylan's thin, wild mercury sound and the Velvet Underground all at the same time. Proves how Chuck Berry was an influence on not just the Stones, Beatles and Stones but the VU too.  


Harvey Mandel - Wade in the Water

A few years ago the Sand Pebbles original lead guitarist and singer Tor Fredheim sent me Harvey Mandel's debut record Christo Redentor. I wasn't expecting much, all Mandel meant to me was bad blues noodling. So listening to this record, and especially this song, was a real surprise. An instrumental lp it mixes fuzz guitar with strings, great arrangements and percussion. From what I've read Nick de Caro did the strings (he also did the theme to Rosemary's Baby).

 

Other Tracks

* Richie Havens - "The Dolphins" from Live at the Cellar Door
* Hugo Montenegro - "Solo on a Raft" from The Man from U.N.C.L.E soundtrack
* Alice Coltrane - "Journey in Satchidananda" from Journey in Satchidananda
* Antoine - "Athenes Sous La Pluie"
* The Brunettes - "Talk to Jesus" from Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks
* Chuck Berry - "I Want to Be Your Driver"
* Psychic TV - "Just Drifting"
* Deodato - "Also Spach Zarathustra"

The DNA of the Sand Pebbles...heroes, inspiration and influence...by Christmas Hollow

 

LUNA - Rendezvous

"The band that Ben and I bonded over was the Velvet Underground. The band we listened to most was Luna. When we first recorded Shakes we were giving it away for free and our idea was 'if someone buys a Luna record then they get ours as a bonus'. They're an inspiration because their albums stand up to countless listens - always as enjoyable as the as the first time you heard them. Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips have branched out as a duo and their two records L'Avventura and Sonic Souvenirs are incredible too."

 

ALTERED IMAGES - Bite

"The inspiration for our song - in a fit of creativity also named 'Altered Images' - off the upcoming Atlantis Regrets Nothing record. Originally we were going to try and get Clare Grogan to sing it. Clare, her band and the film Gregory's Girl made a big impression on us as kids. The hits like 'We Could Be Happy' and 'Happy Birthday' are great. But recently it's been the album Bite that I've become obsessed with. Ben tells me it was slagged off at the time it was released - I can't imagine how. It's brilliant. My favourite track is 'Thinking About You'."

 

BLONDIE - Greatest Hits

"When we first started out together there was only one band that we all had in our record collections. Blondie."

 

 

 

 

NEU! - Neu! 75

"You put on first track 'Isi' and immediately you've got a template for a great journey - simple one note bass; hard driving, softly recorded repetitive drums with flashes of colour as you pass by. It's helped form the Sand Pebbles catchphrase: Why play three chords when you can play one?"

 

 

 

THE BYRDS - Notorious Byrd Brothers

"Fifth Dimension and Notorious Byrd Brothers were two of the Byrds worst selling lp's. But they've been the two most influential. We love their raga rock period - 'Eight Miles High' and 'Why' are unbelievable. Interestingly they never put a sitar on their records. Wonder why? 'Notorious' has spawned a whole sub-genre of rock - people trying to rip off the phased baroque sections of 'Old John Robertson' and 'Wasn't Born to Follow'. I've always wanted to too..."

 

 

 

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND - VU

"You could put all the Velvets albums up here - the studio ones, the live ones, the outtakes, the mono versions. I wrap my arms around them all. One phrase Andrew Tanner must hear rolling through his head as he's about to fall asleep every night is, 'can you make it sound a bit more Sterling Morrison...' It's been a maxim since day one. One of my favourite tracks off 'VU' is 'Temptation Inside My Heart'. The chatter throughout, the backing vocals. Inspired..."

Piet's fave = Velvet Underground & Nico; Ben's fave = White Light, White Heat; Chris's fave = 3rd album; Andrew's fave= Loaded

 

 

TELEVISION - Marquee Moon

"Two guitars intertwining - seemingly freewheeling but arranged within an inch of its life. We also took a lot of cues with panning from here. Guitars hard left and right. Piet's drumming is similar to Billy Ficca's style - he loves to do fancy shit with the hi-hat."

 

 

 

SPACEMEN 3 - The Perfect Prescription

"Drone symphonies, transparent radiation. Spacemen 3 succeeded in making psychedelic music that was informed by punk rather than the blues. We're fascinated by the idea of recording/mixing an album by bringing mattress into the studio, getting wiggy, closing your eyes and feeling it from the floor. Drone on."

 

 

 

THE STOOGES - Fun House

"You can't split the first two Stooges albums. The first one has sleigh bells, pounding Jerry Lee Lewis piano and Ron Asheton's wah-wah. Fun House doesn't have as many colours but the songs and the band's performances are stunning. The key note we took - you don't have to play fast to be exciting. Perfectly paced."

 

 

 

 

JULIAN COPE - Skellington

"The first cover we ever did was 'Out of My Mind on Dope & Speed'. We've never found another cover that we could sink our teeth into as much as that skewed little number."

 

 

 

THE SHANGRI-LAS - Myrmidons of Melodrama

"Most people grow up with the Shangri-La's. As a kid I loved 'Leader of the Pack'. But I forgot about them. It wasn't until the Spoils' Sean Simmons played them to me one drunken night that I resumed the love affair. 'Give Him a Great Big Kiss' is one of the all-time great songs. The foot stomping, the conversations, the 'ooh ooh ahh' backing vocals. 'Out in the Streets', 'The Sweet Sounds of Summer', 'I'll Never Learn', Mary Weiss. Is there a tell all bio? I want to know more of the story. We were listening to Missy Elliott and Neu! a lot at the same time and from these three disparate bands came 'Ripple'..."

 

 

 

DIED PRETTY - Using My Gills as a Roadmap/ Everyday Dream

"Died Pretty are a fantastic band, a real inspiration. We loved 'Mirror Blues' when we were first starting out. But we got even more out of their later efforts Using My Gills as a Roadmap and Everydaydream - their two most neglected records. They were much more experimental in sound, guitarist Brett Myers playing a lot more keyboard blippy stuff while singer Ron Peno wasn't afraid to let his falsetto freak flag fly."

 

 

 

NEIL YOUNG - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

"For us Neil Young means one thing - the one note solo. 'Down By the River' is where it's at."

 

 

 

 

MISSY ELLIOTT - Miss E ... So Addictive

"We're going through a golden age of pop at the moment. It's amazing listening to the charts and hearing tracks that are so experimental (for chart topping, million sellers) they completely blow your mind. Beyonce's 'Crazy in Love', Outkast's 'Hey Ya!', Britney's 'Toxic' and the list goes on. The production work by Missy Elliott, Timbaland, N*E*R*D and others is super sparse and exciting. The underground is dead ... long live the underground!"

 

 

 

SERGE GAINSBOURG - Melody Nelson

"Strings over sparse, hard rock has always fascinated us. So has doing a song whispering sweet nothings in French..."

 

 

 

 

JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE - Are You Experienced

"The song 'Are You Experienced' is the absolute pinnacle of psychedelic pop music. Incredible. The sound of a song sucking itself inside and out. It's still an experience today - people must've completely freaked out hearing it for the first time in 1966/67. We love the piano plonking away on one chord. We took a few cues for 'Big Left'.

 

 

 

NEW ORDER - Substance 1987

"When I was growing up I never bought any New Order. I never needed to - they were everywhere I went. Like Lionel Ritchie, U2 and Queen. But, later on, it was a matter of delving a little deeper and seeing how they take the Velvets and Neu! and all those great influences, mix it with dance and electronica to make something completely different. When we think of New Order it's music our girlfriends also like - something to aim for...unisex music".

 

 

YO LA TENGO - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One

"It seems most people like some kind of uniformity of sound when listening to records but we love the fact this lp is all over the place like a man woman's custard. It showed us you shouldn't be afraid to be eclectic. They go from heavy one chord freakouts to whispery French pop to white noise and beyond. Successfully melding together great, disparate sounds."

 

 

 

ROY BUDD - Get Carter soundtrack

"The Get Carter soundtrack made us fall in love with the idea of harpsichord. We were looking for the Get Carter effect on 'The Sundowner'. I also love the sound of the train in the main title sequence. The sound of a train from the inside rather than outside."

 

 

 

 

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL - Creedence Clearwater Revival

"Creedence are famous for making three minute pop radio statements in a time of heavy, elongated tracks. But Creedence were unreal when they stretched out as on their 11-minute attack on 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine', the brilliant 'Born on the Bayou' plus my all time favourite 'Suzie Q'. The drum pattern is to die for (it inspired 'Charmed') and the backing vocal sections are subtle pieces of doo wop experimentation (see 'Black Sun Ensemble'). John Fogerty is totally neglected as a lead guitarist too. Dig it."

 

 

THE ROLLING STONES - Through the Past Darkly, Big Hits Vol. 2

"We should actually sound a lot more like the Rolling Stones than we do. Ben has copped the 5-string open tunings that Keith Richards popularised. And the Telecaster. And the swagger. But not the skull rings. Maybe this is the reason he attacks the instrument from a completely different angle. I love the Brian Jones London dandy period Stones. I've been trying to adopt that fashion since I was a kid. The fact he was a midget and it's expensive to look that cool has always been a hurdle. We've also taken a lot of inspiration from his use of more exotic instruments like sitar, celeste, mellotron, dulcimer, vibes and we try to colour our songs with intriguing sounds. 'We Love You' is a totally underrated Stones song that I can always come back to."

 

DEVO - Freedom of Choice

"Ben used to get beaten up in the school yard for liking Devo. But he probably shouldn't have been wearing a pot plant on his head. Devo don't get enough credit for a number of magnificent riffs they've come up with. On this album alone there's 'Freedom of Choice', 'Girl U Want', 'Whip It' and more. I also love things like 'Beautiful World' and 'Gates of Steel' too.

 

 

 

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN - Ocean Rain

"Echo & the Bunnymen trying to do their Forever Changes. It's been a long held dream to get some strings onto a record of ours and when we think of strings and rock we think Ocean Rain, Melody Nelson and all those fantastic disco records. Also, all the great Bunnymen songs have a great, opening riff hooks. We've tried to do the same but sometimes forget."

 

 

 

 

THE EASYBEATS - Absolute Anthology 1965-1969

"What we love about the Easybeats is the fact that all their best songs 'Sorry', 'She's So Fine', 'Funny Feelin', 'Friday on My Mind', 'Good Times' are so exciting. They're perfectly arranged: each section gets more and more exciting as the song builds. We'd love to have George Young and Harry Vanda as producers. Their work with AC/DC is genius. They know how to use a shaker."

 

 

 

ED KUEPPER - Starstruck: Music for Films & Adverts

"The most inspiration we got from Ed Kuepper is from the spate of mail order records that he put throughout the 90s like The Wheelie Bin Affair, The Blue House, I Was a Mail Order Bride and many more. It was on these that he dabbled in electronica, instrumentals, cover songs, pop songs and radically re-inventing his own material. It's obvious he has catholic tastes and he's willing to indulge them."

 

 

 

THE BEATLES - Revolver

"Tomorrow Never Knows".

 

 

 

 

DAVE GRANEY & THE CORAL SNAKES - The Lure of the Tropics

"The hardest art in music to master is not playing or writing songs but how to introduce them to people live. Most bands either go for stadium shouting or painfully inward umming and ahhhing or nothing. The between song patter of Dave Graney is sublime. He's a natural racontuer, very dry, at ease - with the ability to engage an audience with abstract thoughts. Always something to aim for..."

 

 

 

 

The hidden genes of a band's DNA are probably more interesting than the obvious influences. Here's a few artists and records that have played a major part in the make-up of the Sand Pebbles.

 

BOBBY DARIN - Born Walden Robert Cassotto/Commitment

"Bobby Darin has long been written off as irrelevant in serious music circles. Painted as a glib teen star, a jive talkin' hep cat crooner and phony folksinger. However, a closer look at his life and career choices show quite the opposite to be true. It reveals an artist who gave his all to every phase of his career and was true to his instincts and convictions. Darin's boldest statement occurred in 1968. He left Atlantic records to start up his own label – Direction. The debut album, released in September 1968, was unlike any other in the Darin canon. Titled Bobby Darin Born Walden Robert Cassotto (his real name), it heralded a complete shedding of everything that had come before. There was no wig, no tuxedo, no finger poppin', no Tim Hardin cover songs or big band. It was Darin trying to find his true voice. Akin to Bob Dylan coming out and admitting he was Robert Zimmerman and trying to correlate the two entities on vinyl. The sleeve notes reinforced the solo nature of the project, declaring it written, arranged, produced, designed and photographed by Darin. Most of the songs were imbued with a staunchly left-wing political spirit. Although the album was critically acclaimed in some quarters it died a commercial death. Not many understood Darin's version of turning on and tuning out. It was too radical for Darin's 'Mack the Knife' fan base. It was also too radical a gesture for the counter culture to grasp. Darin followed it up with Commitment which is arguably an even stronger album. The two serve as perfect companions and sadly overlooked exercises in courage, integrity and great music. The Sand Pebbles are doing a cover of 'Distractions Part 1' for the follow up to Ghost Transmissions."


 

EDITH PIAF - Une Child

"I went away for a weekend with a girlfriend a few years back and we were staying at this old country homestead. They had a couple of records lying around. One was a cheap Edith Piaf record the owners had bought from the town's newsagent. For want of anything else to play I put it on and was just amazed. I played it back to back for the whole weekend. I was especially taken with 'Une Child' - which I later found out was covered by Sonny & Cher. It helped shape 'The Big V'..."

 

 

 

GENE CLARK - Gosdin Bros/Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark

"In the mid-90s the discovery of Gene Clark was a revelation. For a time he became the most important influence on music for me. When I first hooked up with singer Tor Fredheim it was through a love of Gene Clark. But it's strange cos when you listen to our music there's hardly a trace. No one else in the band has ever really got into him. The most conscious thing I can hear now is the old folk turnaround that Gene used a lot - where you start a chorus with the last chord of the verse. The ultimate hidden gene. Having said that we did cover 'Back Street Mirror' for 'You Can't Hide Your Love Forever' tribute album. We should play it live."

Want to read an article about the life of Gene Clark?

 

- Last Night a Record Saved My Life -

BEN MICHAEL X: Spacemen 3 - Revolution
"I thought I'd heard it all. I was jaded. I was only 19 (no really). I got this because I read about them in Forced Exposure - a genius mag from the 80's - anyway..took it home...on vinyl....blew my mind. true commitment to the sound. everything in it's perfect place. the idea that it takes time to build to something beautiful. the idea that sometimes a single reverbed bass note played for a few minutes is all you need. that takes guts...being minimal but never boring takes guts and style. the spacemen 3 are the greatest band of the last 20 years. no one comes close. they look great. sound amazing. went out into the strataphere to push them selves. they said "fuck you and love you" sometimes within the same song. viva la spacemen.

 

ANDREW TANNER: The Band - The Band
"Took a lot of flack for this in schooldaze - music snob, boring, etc etc - but hearing this album thru older brother and guitar teacher was the shock of realization that music could summon up a whole lot of other things besides the 3 minute pop thrill ... these guys had mature, 'fully grown men' voices, and they sang about arcane, obscure stuff that smelt of whiskey, backwoods secrets and tough lives (ie nothing I'd ever experienced). 'Unfaithful Servant' made me weep, and it still does. For a spotty adolescent, it was instructive to hear amongst the other hormone drenched, sexually charged glammed up noise some sounds that were just ... well ... manly. If I was old before my time, this was just the music for it ...

 

 

CHRISTMAS HOLLOW: The Stooges - Fun House
"A few years ago I'd just split from a girlfriend and was feeling a little sorry for myself. To find solace I was going through a phase of listening to the likes of Fred Neil, Gene Clark, Nick Drake, all the candlelight troubadours. But it was the Stooges' Fun House that eventually pumped up my tyres. While I was a big fan of the Velvet Underground, the Stooges hadn't made much of an impression. But I played it on a whim and, suddenly, it made complete sense to me. The music - slow, pounding, intense - energised me again. It's held up in the good times too. A genius record."