Around about Christmas 18/New Year 19 I picked up a vinyl copy of Jamboree in the Oxfam Charity Shop at Clarkston Toll on the Southern most extremities of Glasgow.It is from 1986 and is the second album by Athens, Georgia band Guadalcanal Diary and it is on the Elektra label.
The name was vaguely familiar thanks to our dear friend Brian. Also, A couple of their songs featured on the now legendary Hoboken to Athens compilation CDs by kevinpat which some of you may have been fortunate enough to get a copy of.
As is the way of these things it got a couple of plays and was filed away on the shelves. I've just completed the Gs on the database and this one was near the end alphabetically. I dusted it down and gave it a listen and was pretty much blown away.
There are obvious comparisons with their Athens neighbours R.E.M. but that is no bad thing given that it would be R.E.M in their more jangly IRS period. Allmusic states that this is an excellent, if sometimes bewildering album very much worth hearing.. I concur.
Lovely to hear some Guadalcanal Diary again. But, this is so strange. Mr SDS and I were first introduced to the band's output by someone from NY who Mr SDS got to know through some record exchanges/sales etc. back then - he also met him a few times and I did once, at a Ramones gig! - and it would completely stack up that it was the very same person, kevinpat, whom you mention here, compiler of the legendary Hoboken to Athens comps (which I've just gone back and looked through over at LTL). If so - and surely it must be - what lovely serendipity and a small world! And if not, then just one of those funny coincidences....
ReplyDeleteHope it was!
DeleteHe used to comment occasionally but doesn't these days
C, Wouldn’t that be something? This is where I would step in, contact kevinpat and sort out this mystery. Alas, I haven’t been able to get a hold of him for a number of years. Either he dropped the email address I have for him, doesn’t want to be contacted... or worse. Given that we corresponded so much for a while there I fear the worst. He was very giving to our community, and his passion for the music was infectious.
DeleteThanks Brian, I'm very sorry to hear that - whether or not it is the same person - it's always a worry when someone drops off the radar. Mr SDS lost touch many years ago. Hopefully he (or both of them, if they're not the same person!) are ok.
DeleteGuadalcanal Diary's previous album is even better. It was played a LOT on the radio (well, one station) in Washington back in 1984-85. Sadly I never got to see them live. And I just now read that their guitarist, Jeff Walls, died about 3 years ago.
ReplyDeleteMarc