Customer Reviews

Sand Rubies

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nice vocals, catchy rifts, pleasant melodies and variety are all over this album. I ran across it while preparing for a radio show I do in Cincinnati, Ohio. The group broke up in 1993, and even if the tunes are a bit dated in style, they are all still excellent. Lots of different styles with excelent vocals and playing throughout the entire album. Two of the origional members are back together and playing. HIGHLY RECOMENDED!

I loved the Sidewinders/Sand Rubies back in the late '80's and early '90's. It wasn't a good weekend if I wasn't able to catch them playing at the Sun Club or Hollywood Alley, or some other dump around Tempe, or to get in the car with a couple of friends and catch them down in Tucson.

I remember when this album came out in '92. "Goodbye" got a lot of airplay on Jonathan L's alternative station, KFMA. It was hard to pick up in Phoenix, especially downtown, and I remember pulling over and then creeping the car forward a few feet at a time until the reception improved.

"Goodbye" does the best job I've ever heard of focusing all the anger of a failed relationship, everything that's ever bothered you about the other person, be it major or minor: "for drivin' my car into the lake/for never bakin' my birthday cake." Just a blistering attack on the ex-lover. I probably related to it a bit personally, as my girlfriend and I were breaking up at the time, but it's still a great song. "Hit the Brakes at the Pearly Gates" is one of the goofiest songs, lyrically, that they've ever done, with lines like "Guy Lombardo loves Perry Farrell." Huh? "Guns in the Churchyard" is a snapshot of a mythic Southwest past straight out of a Sergio Leone movie. But "Never," which they apparently wrote to close their shows, much like "What She Said" off "Cuacha" or "Witchdoctor," is a nine minute fusion of noise and angst that begs to be played LOUD.

And then the band broke up.

Rich Hopkins has released many albums since then, and David Slutes an album or two, but they were never as great apart as they were together. They got back together several years back, and play occasionally as the Sand Rubies. I saw them several months ago, and it's just not the same. I'm nearly twenty years older, so going out to a dumpy bar isn't as much fun as it used to be. The bars in AZ now stay open until 2AM, so the main band isn't going on until midnight, at least. I'm elderly. That's late. Rich, Dave, can't you guys go on first, once in a while? And the shows are getting shorter, more like a run-through of the greatest hits. So I'm very excited that the Sand Rubies are back with a new album.

Led Zeppelin is currently attracting all the attention, getting back together and possibly recording a new album. So what? For the first time in ten years, the Sand Rubies have a new album out, "Mas Cuacha," and are playing together with new music. I don't see it listed here on Amazon, so look for Rich's website, San Jacinto Records. The Phoenix CD release party is in a couple of weeks, so I'll get my copy then. Hopefully, it will be up on Amazon shortly.

And I'm sure it will rock as triumphantly as this album, "Sand Rubies," does.

They started in Arizona as Sidewinders, put out two very good albums of music the critics tagged "desert rock" (think of a less radio-pandering version of the Gin Blossoms with whiskey-drenched vocals and distorted solos). A frat band back east called Sidewinder (that I saw while at a frat party in Auburn during the mid-80's) sued them for name infringement and the Sidewinders disappeared in court fees and record deal Hell, only to emerge a few years later as Sand Rubies. This is that eponymous comeback album. It picks up right where Sidewinders' Auntie Ramos' Pool Hall left off and contains more of the same, which in the case of this band is a very good thing indeed. By now the boys had lost their idealist visions of rock and roll paradise and were fueding internally, mostly frontman Dave Slutes and guitarist Rich Hopkins, who always had a love-hate relationship. The band disappeared again, reunited in 1997 to release Back from the Living Dead, and has since disbanded again. Rumors circle from time to time that Slutes and Hopkins are writing together again, the band reunites for an occasional music festival in home state Arizona, but nothing concrete has materialized. This is unfortunate because as this album will attest - they were a very good band with an unmistakable sound. Hopkins fronts his own good band, Luminarios. Slutes has been in several side projects of moderate but non-lasting success. When I think about that pathetic posturing frat band I saw at the Lambda Chi house back in 1985, how that band triggered the beginning of the end for the Sidewinders, it makes me sick. A ridiculous cheesy big-haired cover band got to keep their name, and one of the great undiscovered bands of my time became a casualty of this dirty record business. One cent? I want to cry.

I know it is too late to help this band, wherever they may be now but this is an amazingly good album. A number of "names" were involved, one way or another, in it's production and the musicianship and material are first class. My nomination for the absolute best $.01 CD on Amazon! If you like rock and roll, get this one. You won't be disappointed.

The Sand Rubies used to be Arizona's Sidewinders, who got to toss two
meritorious releases to the wind with former label RCA's blessings. Now
they've got a new label, a new name, a new album, and pretty much the same
old aggressive rock sound with a solid melodic base. Which is absolutely
enough on the album's opening and second strongest track, "Goodbye", 4:45 of
classic post-relationship vitriol. Perhaps it says something that the
album's best track--the countryish duet "Black Eyes and Broken Noses"--seems
to deal with the same relationship. On this track, both sides of the
relationship vent their unhappiness in no uncertain terms. If country radio
weren't so rigid, they'd be playing this one into the ground. If pop radio
weren't so rigid, they'd be playing this one into the ground. If...Well, you
get the idea. Which is why you'll never hear this song unless you pop your
own copy into a CD player. But don't say that I didn't warn you that the
remaining album isn't quite up to those standards.

Talk about bud luck, were talking about the Sand Rubies. First they were called The Sidewinders, they had 2 excellent albums then found out another band had the Sidewinder name, so they had to change there name to the Sand Rubies. But with this album they should of gone Gold or Platnium. From the opening chords of "Goodbye", i knew they had another winner on their hands! "Santa Maria Street" should of been a big hit, but wasn't. (what a shocker!). Some other songs that make this album a winner are: "Your Life Story", "Guns In The Churchyard", "Hangman In The Noose", the classic cow-punk rocker "Hit The Brakes (At The Pearly Gates), played this song to death when it came out. The 8 minute tour deforce "Never" with Ian McLagan of the Small Faces on Organ and the country-twang duet with Andrea Curtis-Olsen on "Black Eyes And Broken Noses", country radio missed out on this great song. After this release the label folded and the band folded. A few more years later they released the lackluster "Return Of The Living Dead" and broke up again. Rich Hopkins formed the Luminarios. David and Rich buried the hatchet again in 2005 and released "Mas Cuacha" in 2007. The Band in 1993. David Slutes,Rich Hopkins, Bruce Halper and Mark Perrodin.

On this album, they changed their name from the Sidewinders to the Sand Rubies due to a trademarking complaint.

Same great sound as on the classics Witchdoctor and Auntie Ramos' Pool Hall, but there are a few dull spots (Barroom Light). Goodbye might be the best f-you to your ex ever recorded. Interstate was written by Neil Young and given to them to record; it sprawls like an elegant Cowgirl in the Sand or Down By the River. Drugged is pure pop energy, and Never is both tragic and beautiful, and Rich Hopkins' cascading guitar complements it perfectly.