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Friday Full-Length: Nebula, To the Center

Nebula, To the Center (1999)

Toward the end of what we’ll call their initial run, which found them unceremoniously calling it quits six years ago — then not calling it quits a month later — California’s Nebula dipped back toward a more psychedelic style, and one would have to imagine that the longer-term impact of their Jack Endino-produced 1999 debut, To the Center, was a large argument for doing so. Even that record’s name, Heavy Psych (review here), signaled its intent, and though the only remaining founder by the time 2009 came around was guitarist/vocalist Eddie Glass, it seemed an awful lot like a conscious decision to bring the band full-circle, particularly as a genre boom was just getting underway. When To the Center was released, it played off desert rock ideals but had a spacier trajectory — at the time, you’d probably call it stoner and leave it at that — and the band who played on it, with Glass, bassist/vocalist Mark Abshire and drummer Ruben Romano (the latter two fresh off a stint in Fu Manchu), would go on to develop earthier fuzz on records like 2001’s Charged, 2003’s Atomic Ritual and 2006’s Apollo (by which time Abshire had left the band, replaced by Tom Davies), but the impression of what Nebula was all about would always be colored somewhat by the blend of laid back swagger and swirl that To the Center proffered. That’s not at all a negative.

In many ways, it let Nebula become a pivotal heavy rock act — distinguished in intent from the Kyusses and Fu Manchus and Monster Magnets of the world, but not entirely separate from them. With the first line of its opening title-track, “Taking off to the center of the universe,” To the Center tugged on cosmic threads and unraveled fluid, riff-driven vibe. The record offered plenty of punch in songs like “Whatcha Lookin’ For” and the attitude-dripping closer “You Mean Nothing,” but the acoustic/electric blend of “Clearlight,” “Freedom,” the Stooges cover “I Need Somebody” (sung by Mudhoney‘s Mark Arm), “So Low” and the sitar-topped “Fields of Psilocybin” assured that the molten spirit was always intact to some degree. I’d have to think if they were making it today, To the Center would be shorter — 47 minutes is on the longer side for an LP — but 1999 was arguably the peak of the CD era and the record holds its roll and atmosphere for its entire run while showcasing the tone, groove and trip that made Nebula such a special act to start with, so you won’t hear me argue. One more aspect of listening to it that lets you go, “They don’t make ’em like this anymore.”

Nebula don’t, anyway. There are all kinds of rumors around Nebula‘s Eddie Glass and what his and the band’s situation was and is, but it’s been a while since there was any kind of official word one way or another. In the meantime, the band’s influence has spread far and wide — look at Black Rainbows, if you don’t believe me — and I think To the Center might be even more relevant 17 years after the fact than it was when it was first released. If you don’t know it, their 1998 split with Lowrider (complete with badass Arik Roper art), is also essential.

I hope you enjoy.

Next week is the Quarterly Review. I almost can’t believe it myself. As I type this, I’m in the midst of laying out links and images to fill in the reviews later, and as ever it’s an organizational nightmare. But it’ll get done, the way things always get done. It’ll just take time. And effort. And more time.

I also need to get copy together for the Roadburn ‘zine over the next couple days, and I have a story due for the Desertfest London program on Trouble — who apparently don’t like to be asked what their former members are up to; okay guys — a bio to read and a bio to write, so yes, I’m feeling completely overwhelmed and I expect it will be two early mornings over the weekend so I can work on this stuff. Whatever. Shut up and talk about riffs, right? The hours of my day are my own problem.

If you missed the news or didn’t see it in the sidebar, my short story/poetry collection is available now to preorder through War Crime Recordings. You should buy five of them.

If you celebrate Easter, happy Easter.

Added onto the Quarterly Review, look out next week for track premieres from BoudainDesert SunsOryx and Conclave. There’s also news to come about Desertfest Athens (yup, that’s a thing) and an announcement from Psycho Las Vegas that’s bound to make heads spin — including mine, as I haven’t seen it yet.

I also have interviews in the can with Brant BjorkHoly GroveGreenleaf and Crypt Sermon that need to get posted. Not next week though. Sometime thereafter.

Buy my fucking book. It’s cheap and short.

Alright. I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Please check out the forum — which I’m appreciating all the more these days because of the nightmare that Thee Facebooks has become — and the radio stream.

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2 Responses to “Friday Full-Length: Nebula, To the Center

  1. Gaia says:

    I laughed, coughed, then laughed some more at ‘Buy my fucking book.’ I wish all promo took cues.

  2. jose humberto says:

    Very hard to find , but I managed to have one copy , I love it !!!!!

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