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Friday Full-Length: Across the River, 1985 Demo Tape

Posted in Bootleg Theater on May 9th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

Across the River, 1985 Demo Tape

The credits that Scott Reeder includes with the YouTube post for Across the River‘s 1985 Demo Tape read as follows:

Mario Lalli – guitar, vocals
Scott Reeder – bass, vocals
Alfredo Hernandez – drums
Mark Anderson – guitar

photos by Larry Lalli, Dave Markey, and ???

This is the entire demo cassette that we put together in 1985, recorded on a 4-track cassette “Portastudio” in our garage in La Quinta.

side A includes:
N. O.
Leaving
Back To Zero/No Mas
White Man’s Dream
Blues One

side B includes:
To Fly
Silent Ride
The Silver Tree
and various jams in the garage

As you might expect, the tape itself is pretty raw, but it remains one of the lost artifacts of desert rock, and whether it’s “N.O.” which Reeder would bring to Kyuss years down the line or the nascent elements of psychedelia and jamming sensibilities that show up later on, blended with punk and alternative, it’s all there. I guess the majority of the appeal for something like this is academic, and it seems kind of out of the blue that Reeder would post it this week, but next year is 30 years since this demo came out, so maybe something is in the works to mark the anniversary. To get these guys in the same band now would be a coup if it came to it, and even a vinyl reissue for this demo would likely be gone as fast as it went on sale.

That’s all speculation, if it needs to be said. Still, these songs had potential that would later pan out in Kyuss, in Fatso Jetson and in the countless bands splintered off from there. I guess in the desert at this point it was pretty much Across the River and Yawning Man getting things going. The 1985 Demo Tape is amazing for how punk it isn’t as much for how punk it is. Ditto that for grunge. Hope you enjoy it.

The Patient Mrs. and I are headed south to New Jersey tomorrow morning for a weekend full of Mother’s Day shenanigans. Next week, I’m reviewing Wovenhand and Fu Manchu and maybe the show I went to tonight with The Body, Whitehorse, Rozamov and SET, at which everybody was very loud and the room was very dark. It ended on kind of a bummer note — no the cops didn’t come — and if I decide to review I’ll explain that Monday, and if not it’ll just have to be one of the mysteries of the universe that nobody will give a shit about. Tree in a forest, dude.

Anyway, it’ll be good to be in the Mid-Atlantic for a couple days, though New England treated me pretty good this week between the Stoned Goat fest and the Floor show on Wednesday. No complaints.

Trying to work out a Radio Moscow interview for sometime next week. Not sure if it’ll come together by next Friday or what, but if it does, I’ll post as soon as I’m able. Being unemployed, at least I’ve got a little time to do that kind of thing again. Want to get to more reviews as well — always — and I think I might like to restructure how I do the Radio adds, so if I can get to that next week and change it up, I will. Time’s always short, but I’m trying my best to cover as much as I can. I’ve got a stack of CDs I feel guilty for not writing about. Looking at you, Demon Eye, and you too, Prisma Circus.

Hope you have a great and safe weekend. If you need me, I’ll be on I-95. Please check out the forum and radio stream.

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