Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti-Western film scores had more of an
impact on rock ‘n’ roll artists than big-screen composers. Indeed, it’s
difficult to imagine how bands like Fields of the Nephilim and Nick
Cave and the Bad Seeds might’ve created some of their best works
without drawing inspiration from the dusty splendor of A Fistful of
Dollars.
One group that’s eager to extend Morricone’s sonic trailblazing is
guitarist/vocalist Kirpatrick Thomas and his Los Angeles
compañeros. Together, they make up Spindrift, an instrumental
(with spoken-word accompaniment) band specializing in druggy desert
rock and featuring plenty of reverb-ed Fender guitar. Picture the Man
With No Name doing bong hits with the Velvet Underground in a Death
Valley cavern, and you get the idea.
Thomas’ godlike voice comes and goes, supposedly telling a linear
story, but it’s vague and lacks recurring characters, so none of it
sticks in your head. Who cares, though, with music this gritty and
adventurous? It’s the Old West with a psychedelic-rock twist, and once
you saddle up with the spooky “Preacher’s Theme”—a delicate
finger-picked guitar refrain that introduces Native American drums and
chants—dreamtime won’t feel so alien anymore. “Burn the Church,”
meanwhile, is frenzied, B3 Hammond organ-pounding fun, and the perfect
antidote to the lazy snake oil that is today’s indie rock.
Whether you’re into jazz, film scores or instrumental music in
general, Gun‘s aim is dead-on.
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2009.