Ride: Unfamiliar

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"Unfamiliar"
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Ride: Twisterella (Acoustic)

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[Download the MP3 Here]
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[Band Wiki]

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Why's This Bus Taking Me Back Again?

Writing in The Guardian, Alan McGee thinks we should give Ride their due:

With the resurgence of shoegaze - or nu-gaze - and Panda Bear, Animal Collective, Deerhunter and No Age all referencing them as an influence in interviews, I feel it's time to look back at one of the all-time underrated Creation bands, Ride.

In '91, Ride had the critical and commercial world at their feet. Their full-length debut Nowhere marked them out as teenage saviours of rock'n'roll. The Nowhere cover pictured an ocean wave, a knowing tribute to the wall of sound they were creating. And what a wall of sound: Andy Bell and Mark Gardener's guitars and harmonies underpinned by Steve Queralt and Loz Colbert's eight-mile-high bass-and-drum dance groove.

Nowhere fused Byrds and Sonic Youth influences with the exuberant spirit of their contemporaries, the Stone Roses and the House of Love. It epitomised the feeling that something was happening in independent music beyond twee C86 and third form baggy. However, by the time they released the follow-up, Going Blank Again (an album that originally had the title of Prog Rock), a year later, they were up against it. Critics accused them of having nothing to say. Their influence had spread - now they were competing with a hundred shambolic versions of themselves. Despite this, they triumphed with the lead-off single which went to the top ten - the first Creation single to do so. Leave Them All Behind was no longer the sound of shoegaze but full-blown psychedelic stadium rock. Their second single, Twisteralla, was played non-stop on Radio One. Going Blank Again demonstrated how powerful a group Ride had become. The sound they explored on Nowhere had coalesced into classic songs. The album's success kept Creation Records going during the My Bloody Valentine aftermath. Their sound was a revelation.

[Read the whole article]

Listen to "Twisterella":

[Download the MP3 Here]
[Band Wiki]
[Read my piece on Ride from "Creation Week"]

Hurricane #1

Hurricane #1 was the group started by Andy Bell when Ride folded. In many ways, the group epitomized one aspect of Creation's slow decline in the 90s: they wanted to be like Oasis a little too much. Watch any of their videos (such as the excruciating "Chain Reaction") and you'll see singer Alex Lowe strutting around like a Liam impersonator. Lowe, a former boxer, even went so far as to allegedly get in a fight with Liam, who had publicly called him out as a fake. Ridiculous.

All that being said, Hurricane #1 did produce two great songs. What do these songs have in common? They both turn Andy's guitars up and Lowe's vocals down. The first track you've probably heard before. "Step into my World" was featured prominently in an ad promoting the then-new Volkswagen Beetle.

Listen to "Step into my World":

[Download the MP3 Here]

The second track was on their otherwise awful second LP, the ironically titled "Only the Strongest Will Survive" (Hurricane #1 broke up shortly after its release). Called "Rising Sign" it's almost 9 minutes of layered, swirling guitars. Yes, it falls victim to two of late Britpop's biggest crimes: 1) it's very long and 2) there's a flirtation with dance music. But there's something hypnotic about this track. Check it out and see if you think it's a diamond in the rough too.

Listen to "Rising Sign":

[Download the MP3 Here]

Ride

Creation band Ride was one of the real driving forces behind the shoegazing movement in the UK. They had a minor hit in the US as well, "Vapour Trail" off their debut LP "Nowhere". You might have heard it on your local alternative station at 3 in the morning.

In retrospect, it's hard to say that Ride were a great band. They had some memorable moments, but there are a lot of songs on their earlier albums that just sort of blend together, while their later efforts are almost entirely piss poor. On the few occasions they really got it right, however, they were a force to be reckoned with.

The "Ride" sound, subsequently copied by countless bands, involved the slightly-off harmonies of Mark Gardener and Andy Bell, the maelstrom their guitars created, and the monstrous drumming of Loz Colbert. With the exception of The Stone Roses' Reni, there was no other British drummer in the 90s that approached the inventiveness of Colbert. A song like "Vapour Trail", for example, would sound entirely limp were it not for Colbert's octopus-like control of his set.

Probably my favorite Ride song, and possibly my favorite song ever, is "Twisterella". On this track, the band puts a Ride stamp on a straight-forward rock song. Whether it's Bell's infectious riff, or Colbert's musical fills in the middle-8, the song is just about perfect.

Later on, Andy Bell got obsessed with Oasis and The Rolling Stones and moved the band in the awful direction represented on "Carnival of Light". Their last album, "Tarantula", was written largely in the studio and is all the worse for it. The lone exception, "Black Nite Crash", at least ends the Ride story on a high note.

Not long ago, a great compilation called "OX4: The Best of Ride" was released. It collects the best moments of each album on one disc. Fans of guitar rock avoid "OX4" at their own peril.

Interview with Loz and Andy and the "Leave Them All Behind" promo: