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Friday Full-Length: Orange Sunshine, Homo Erectus

Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 16th, 2018 by JJ Koczan

You wanna hear something wild? Go ahead and click play on Orange Sunshine‘s 2001 debut, Homo Erectus. That’ll qualify for sure. Something else, demonstrably less wild: I was all set to close out thweek with their second album, 2003’s Love = Acid Space = Hell, but as I started putting the post together, it turned out I already did, like two years ago. Hell, at least I’m consistent.

When it comes to boogie and/or fuzz rock, they don’t come much more undervalued than the Den Haag-based power trio. They were there early — Homo Erectus lit a fire under the ass of anyone who heard it upon its release in 2001 as the band — now comprised of Arthur van Berkel (guitar), Mehdi Rouchiche (bass), Guy Tavares (drums/vocals) — dove headfirst into the fuzzed-out heavy blies of “Catfish” — coated in ’60s whiteboy soul like a slightly less frantic Radio Moscow — ad the unmitigated swing of… well, just about all of it. In its original form, the album’s got six tracks. Take your pick and insert namedrop here.

Of course, Blue Cheer are a influence in sound and style, but one can hear plenty of bluesier-minded Hendrix throughout Homo Erectus, as well as The Kinks on album-closer “Free” and some shades of Sabbath on the otherwise Leaf Hound-referential “Girl, You…” or the Stoogesy vibe in opener “Hush Hush” serve as distinctive moments, driven by powerhouse basslines and the loose-feeling vocals of Tavares, who also mans the helm of Motorwolf Studios where the album was recorded for release on — wait for it — Motorwolf Records. These sonic references would become even more of a theme on Love = Acid Space = Hell, when Orange Sunshine dug deeper into specifics on Thin Lizzy and MC5, but “Magic Ship” here does a damn good job of getting the point across of proto-heavy swing, and the immediate shuffle of “Hush Hush” and stoned bluesy stomp of “Catfish” do pretty well too. If you’ve never heard Orange Sunshine before, you’re not going to come out of Homo Erectus with any mistake about where they’re coming from, is what I’m trying to say.

A few different versions of Homo Erectus have been released over the years, by Motorwolf as noted and then subsequent reissues in 2004 through Leaf Hound Records and Headspin Records. Leaf Hound would also do versions of Love = Acid Space = Hell and the third Orange Sunshine LP, Bullseye of Being, which saw initial release in 2006 under the title Ruler of the Universe before a revamp made the collection of covers what it wound up being. The band put out a couple live records this decade — both Live at Roadburn 2007 (released in 2011) and 2014’s Live at Freak Valley (review here) — but there hasn’t been much activity on the studio front. Still, I recall fondly seeing them at Roadburn 2010 (review here) and watching them play three Blue Cheer covers. In fact, it was regaling The Patient Mrs. with that story a couple days ago for probably the 80th time that made me want to close out the week with them. So there you go.

When I was a lad. Just a wee college boy doing wee college radio playing heavy rock and roll even as I was still in the process of discovering what it was, I wrote an email to Guy Tavares as representative of Motorwolf. I sent out a lot of that kind of note in those days to bands and labels I discovered mostly by perusing SoulSeek and the All That is Heavy store : “Hey, send me CDs and I’ll play them on the radio in the NY market.” It wasn’t a bad pitch, to be honest. Tavares not only sent me Homo Erectus and Love = Acid Space = Hell, but also the Den Haag Motor Rock compilation and a few other odds and ends. This was maybe in 2003. I still have those copies of those records, and there continue to be times when nothing else quite seems like enough of a party.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

I made this pot of coffee yesterday, it was so good you would not have fucking believed it. It was a medium roast custom blend I’ve put together through Dean’s Beans, and I don’t know if it was the grind, the water temperature, the amount of water or what, but wow. It was smooth and delicious and so god damned good that I actually stopped drinking my first cup of it so that it could come to room temp and I could make The Patient Mrs. — who prefers colder coffee to hotter — give it a shot, even though she’s supposed to take it easy on caffeine while breastfeeding. If our son got some second hand, I feel like it can only go toward developing his palette for the better. Or make him poop, which he was going to do sooner or later anyway.

I’ve got another pot of the same roast brewed right now and I’m a little nervous to take it on, to be honest. What if it’s not as good? What if it was a fluke? A one-time deal? Guess I’ll never know until I give it a pour.

The Patient Mrs., The Pecan and I have shared a cold all week. Same cold, the three of us. Only the Little Dog Dio seems to be immune, and more power to her, because it’s been more than its fair share of terrible. Hurts to swallow my delicious coffee and all this food that medical professionals are obliging me to consume — I’ve put on so much weight in the last month-plus it makes me so sad; let’s not talk about it — plus my sinuses feel like they’re in one of those hand-crank vise grips, and I’m all coughy and swollen throat glands and all the rest. It has sucked and continues to suck. I’m hoping over the weekend to get better but I’ll be plenty busy this weekend too.

Because next week — actually through the end of the month — is totally and completely packed. Here’s notes subject to change:

Mon.: Blackwulf video premiere/album review; Supernaughty album stream/track-by-track.
Tue.: Apostle of Solitude album stream/review.
Wed.: All Souls Six Dumb Questions; maybe a Besvärjelsen track premiere.
Thu.: Deathwhite album stream/review.
Fri.: Strauss EP stream/review.

I’ve got a couple other projects I’m working on and so forth — somebody’s willing to pay me to write bios! — and the process of putting stuff together for the Roadburn Weirdo Canyon Dispatch has begun, so I’ll be dedicating some time to that as I continue to recover from this cold this weekend, but beyond that, I’ve got a good friend coming north tonight to spend some time with us and the baby, The Patient Mrs. plans to make lentils for dinner that I’ll have with brown rice and I’ll make homemade peanut butter granola sometime either today or tomorrow using my own mixed-nut butter and oats and cereal and whatever else I can get my hands on.

It’ll be a good time all around, even with the screaming baby who doesn’t understand why he feels so crapped out. Sorry kid.

Whatever you’re up to, I hope you have a great and safe time. Please enjoy yourself, check back Monday for more whatnottery, and in the meantime hit up the forum and the radio stream, which Slevin was kind enough to fix this week when it went offline. Much appreciated, sir, as always.

PS: The coffee is delicious.

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