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THE SPACE COSSACKS
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 Long
dead D.C. surfpunk kings the Space Cossacks get the royal treatment
on this 24 song ‘best of’ comp, which collects notable tracks from their
two albums and countless 7” singles, plus a smattering of exclusives,
including live and unreleased stuff. It’s all wrapped up in snazzy
spacegirl artwork, and the booklet is fulla gushing testimonials. Not bad
for an obscure band that broke up six years ago. Of course, you have to be
a hardcore surf fan to ride this wave from end to end, but even the casual
instro-rock fan has to admire the tasty, otherworldly zounds here. The
Cossacks were known-and-loved for tossing all sortsa weird elements into
the standard Dick Dale/Ventures surf-rock blueprint, including Middle
Eastern and Russian influences, and while I cannot tell you when they
switch from Yankee surf to commie surf, I will say that this album is full
of sweetly intoxicating head music that really takes you places, man. One
minute it’s a wild galloping horse charging through the desert with a
nameless gunfighter on it’s back, the next we’re all blasting off into
orbit with the miniskirt Martians, and maybe later on we’re at the
bullfights or getting chased through the cemetery by dead-eyed ghouls.
That’s a lot of bang for the buck, comrade. I mean Ruble. Whatever. ________________________________________________________ |
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-Sleazegrinder |