Rockbites: Primitive Radio Gods release long awaited 2nd LP

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February 2001 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

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Primitive Radio Gods release long awaited 2nd LP
22 February 2001

On Tuesday, Los Angeles quartet Primitive Radio Gods achieve a rare high point in a roller coaster career with the followup release to their 1996 Gold album Rocket. We’re pleased to report that White Hot Peach, recorded and produced by the band way back in 1997, proves worth the wait.
    Singer/ songwriter Chris O’Connor founded PRG ten years ago after the dissolution of his previous band The I-Rails, and is well accustomed to delays. PRG’s debut LP—recorded in 1991—didn’t see daylight for five years. It almost never did. But in 1996 O’Connor sent out a final, last ditch shotgun mailing of promo CDs and one landed in the mailbox of Fiction Records A&R rep Jonathan Daniel, whose legwork got the band signed to Columbia.
    The happy result was the multi-week number 1 alternative radio hit Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand, featuring a vocal sample from blues legend BB King. The song was picked up for the soundtrack for Jim Carrey’s dark comedy The Cable Guy.
    And then Primitive Radio Gods’ musical career doors slammed shut as Columbia dropped them. O’Connor, beaten but not broken, persevered, not wanting to spend the rest of his life staring at Radar screens as an air traffic controller (his job back in the Rocket days). Four more years of work, including the establishment of his own label, Kramden Enterprises, led to his current deal with Boulder, Colorado indie What Are Records?, whose roster includes Tim Finn, Frank Black, Stewart Matthewman, and The Samples, among others.
    White Hot Peach combines a mellow, electronic vibe (here and there reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon) with guitars, flute, Theremin, and sound effects—and dreamy, contemplative, romantic, and clever lyrics.
    On the slow, atmospheric ballad Ghost of a Chance, radio crackles and hisses set the stage for a melancholy reminiscence, painted with the titles of Jazz standards

Pull the shades
Let it rain all day
Radio station plays
Mr. Miles Davis’
Kind Of Blue
And I know it’s true
That I don’t stand a ghost
Of a chance with you

    The track Devil’s Triangle, with noisy, off-tune guitars, provides an aggressive, Nirvana-esque counterpoint. The album closer, Whatever Wakes McCool, is a very tasty six minute ambient/ electronic/ noise jam, capping a highly evocative set.
    Released with limited distribution this past October, White Hot Peach sees official North American release this coming Tuesday. Three bites out of five.

Rockbites ratings  5: life changing, 4: stunning, 3: captivating, 2: amusing, 1: annoying.

| Primitive Radio Gods | | What Are Records? | | Kramden Enterprises | | discography | | CD | | top of page |

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