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Friday Full-Length: Sgt. Sunshine, Sgt. Sunshine

Sgt. Sunshine, Sgt. Sunshine (2003)

It is somewhat in the nature of heavy rock and roll to be the underdog, and there are few records in the post-Kyuss era of the genre that emphasize this as well as Sgt. Sunshine‘s self-titled debut. Released in 2003 on Abstract Sounds, it arrived at the tail end of one era of Swedish heavy rock — Dozer and Lowrider were already years out from their debut, to say nothing of the likes of Spiritual Beggars or Mother Superior, both of whom debuted in the ’90s — but were part of a wider swing through Europe in general for sure. In the laid back grooves of “Kosmo Terra” and “Mountain Song” one could hear similar movement to what Colour Haze brought to Ewige Blumenkraft in 2001. There are countless bands from the post-2000-but-pre-Facebook years who’ve been lost, and I’ve done my best to highlight some of them here, but the trio of guitarist/vocalist Eduardo Fernandez, bassist Pär Hallgren and drummer Christian Lundberg were able to capture something of their own in the funky push of “Rio Rojo” that predates the emergence of jam-based heavy psych by years and yet moves fluidly into and out of a structured feel. The whole album is like that. I don’t know if I’d call it a “lost classic” — shit, it’s on YouTube, and Heavy Psych Sounds reissued it on vinyl last year — but more like a landmark that has some moss grown on it and could use some more recognition than it’s gotten to this point.

One can hear the threads of Kyuss filtered through an early Dozer influence on “Northern Light,” but there’s something looser that Fernandez brings to the riffing on Sgt. Sunshine and that Lundberg brings to the drums and Hallgren to the bass. The swagger in the intro to lungs shows it, or the Hendrix-style liquefaction of the penultimate “Sad Song.” It’s part of Sgt. Sunshine‘s dynamic that they sound like they’re going to lose control of the whole thing and then they don’t. Not every band can work like that naturally, but especially to do so on their first record makes it all the more a standout. With its silly cover art and veering into Spanish lyrics on “Rio Rojo” and going full-on heavy psych jam-out on the mostly instrumental closer “Culebra,” they genuinely played into giving the impression that anything could happen next, and not knowing where they might be headed only made the album more exciting, both within itself and in terms of what were then their future prospects. Of course, they’d go on to release a second album, Black Hole, in 2007, and a third, III (review here), in 2013, so we know where they’d ultimately end up direction-wise, first playing to a more straightforward sound and then bringing back some of the natural vibing present on the self-titled, but they continue to remain an undervalued act even within heavy rock circles as they head into the impending release of a fourth full-length, titled Plataformas, that seems like it’s going to be a digital self-release. Hopefully more to come on that.

In the meantime, enjoy Sgt. Sunshine‘s Sgt. Sunshine, and thanks for reading.

As of tomorrow, we’re two weeks away from The Obelisk All-Dayer, Aug. 20 at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn (BUY YOUR TICKETS). I’m starting to get nervous, and excited, and getting all of those something-cool-is-about-to-happen feelings in my stomach. I hope people show up. I hope bands show up. I hope the food shows up. Fingers crossed all around.

Better week this week. Just kind of plugging along. Long. Not sleeping particularly well, but some good records came in this week and that helps everything. Everything. Music still sounds good. Food still tastes good. That’s the update.

Next week’s already packed. Starting Monday I’ll be counting down to the aforementioned The Obelisk All-Dayer, Aug. 20 at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, featuring each band individually and basically talking about how and why they all fucking rule so hard. Also look out for streams from Howling GiantAugustine AzulThe Sweet Heat and maybe more. I wouldn’t mind reviewing the new Ahkmed or Dunsmuir either, but we’ll see if I get there.

I’ve also started planning the next Quarterly Review for the end of next month. Plenty of backlog to work from.

Please have a great and safe weekend. Thanks for reading this week, and please check out the All-Dayer, the forum and radio stream.

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One Response to “Friday Full-Length: Sgt. Sunshine, Sgt. Sunshine

  1. Jose Humberto says:

    Great album , impossible to find nowadays , too bad and its a shame that the company in charge of the reissue only released in vinyl , im sure they are waiting for a time machine to live in the 70s forever , ridiculous people!

    read Metal Fi you “purists”

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