Golden Summer

Golden | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 1, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Slowdime
• ASIN: B00004TRDQ
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,311 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars desert rock, October 18, 2005

By 

J. Holmes "blood+whiskey" (yokohama, japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Golden Summer (Audio CD)

i was over at a friend's house, doing some work together, and he played me a 10" record by a band that he had been getting into. when the record finished playing, we listened to it again..and again. something about it struck me as really great. it was a tricky listen; containing practically no hooks, but full of some weird kind of force that propels you to listen deeper each time the record spins. the name of the band was Golden.

Golden keeps things taught and lean in their musical stylings. the drums are fabulous and flow with tight precision. the bass is right along it's side, busting out low tones that are both propulsive and creative. the guitars mingle around each other like two puppies playing. the notes skipping around one another and forming into dual melodies that lift the songs into greater terrain. it sounds like the members of Golden each have a fond appreciation of rock and roll of an era long gone...both in their songwriting and their production. when i hear their music, i can't help but think of the feeling of discovering some kind of curious album in the penny bin of a thrift shop. a mysterious and anonymous soul band that might have played local civic halls or maybe a blues band that held nightly gigs at the town bar...now add a very weird mathy approach to that formula, and you are on your way to understanding this band. maybe.

Golden Summer stands out as one of the bands more curious albums. on past releases, the self titled debut and the Super Original Movement records, the band's sound was math rock turning all ethnological on itself; but now the influence seems to be heavy on the blues and soul sounds. sure, the mathy stuff is still here (and some of the exotic instrumentation as well), but it's all implied, rather than excercised. and in that restrain, it shows the growing strength of this band.

there are some dull moments that drag out a bit too much on this album and it may leave the average listener feeling a bit stranded in a musical desert (much like the one the band find themselves on the cover); but the hooks are here in full force on the songs like "Hot" and "Executive Outcomes" which make the band sound like a weird cross between Booker T. and the MG's and Drive Like Jehu.

one thing the band got right with this album...and that's the title. this is music for the summer.

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Gold, September 21, 2005

By 

Z. Vigil - See all my reviews

This review is from: Golden Summer (Audio CD)

Few people will ever stumble across this album, but if you do, you won't regret it. It's fairly enigmatic, no credits or names of any kind, just a few pictures of four guys and a gold disc.

The music has a great analog jam-band sound. It's like Grateful Dead and Rolling Stones formed a band in the early days of punk and borrowed a couple guitars from Ry Cooder.

My only complaint is that the disc is a little short, coming up at around 45 minutes, and that's counting the strange opening track.

Still, it's one of those albums that seems a bargain at any price. If you can catch it, don't let it out of your sight.