Chagall Guevara - Halcyon Days (INDIE EXCLUSIVE) (CD) |

On paper, Chagall Guevara were an absurd proposition: Start with five musicians in their mid 30s who were already years deep into reasonably profitable music careers. Have them junk those careers completely and cram into a van to play remote clubs in the American South, subsisting on convenience store snack and scraping together their per diems to pay the bills and buy the occasional cheap gift for their wives and children. Appoint an absentee manager, fire the staff of their record company, and have them try to break into the mainstream almost a year before “Smells Like Teen Spirit” made al rock the lingua franca of American Radio. Oh, and also: Give them a band name that no one can pronounce. On the other hand, absurdism was a crucial part of Chagall Guevara’s DNA. [the band] imagines Jonathan Swift writing for The Stooges, pairing razor-edged social satire with searing guitars in songs that pierce like poison-tipped arrows. At the time, the band was fond of saying that they were trying to play intelligent music like mindless fools. As frontman Steve Taylor wryly put it during a 1991 press conference at a festival in the UK: “We got the last part right, I think.” Critics took note: A glowing, three-and-a-half-star review in Rolling Stone raved, “Not since the Clash has a group so effectively turned militant discontent into passionate rock & roll.” And while the band didn’t scale the heights of rock stardom to which it seemed they were destined, what’s striking now, thirty years later, is how prescient the band seems. A Kickstarter campaign allowed the band to finish mixing their follow-up album of songs, Halcyon Days, with Matt Wallace (Faith No More). The fans demanded a follow-up and here it is!

• Format Detail: CD Digipak
• Format: CD
• Label: Burnt Toast Vinyl
• Catalog Number: CD-BTV-126IE