GUADALCANAL DIARY

Jangle pop.  That cute li'l genre, full of Byrds-ian guitar strum and sensitive dreamy boy singers lamenting their lost/unattainable loves.  It was the perfect style for wimp kids who were scared off by hardcore frenzy or roots/punk fury.  Some nice records came out of it, but it didn't take long to notice that most of the bands sounded so much the same that they were practically interchangeable.

Now, if you wanted to ask - "but, couldn't you say the same thing about hardcore, about noise-rock, about pretty much every other subgenre of `indie' rock?" my answer would be a resounding HELL YES!  But "jangle" did have one thing going against it that the others didn't - it was cute.  It was wimpy.  Also not helping was its extremely limited range of influences - R.E.M., U2 ... and, um, other jangle bands who mostly sounded like R.E.M. and U2.  DON'T even bother bringing up The Byrds.  I don't buy that most of these outfits ever showed a Byrds influence other than a taste for folky melodies and 12-string Ricks.  I'm hard-pressed to think of too many outfits that really transcended this trend - one would be R.E.M. - who pretty much created it anyway, and the other would be Guadalcanal Diary.

Really, its unfair that they've been filed and forgotten as another Southern jangle band (GD came from Marietta, GA, which is something like 80 miles distance from Athens).  Its allowed them to largely be written off, which is decidedly unfair, because GD at their best were mighty fine.

Superficially, yes, there is a resemblance between the dense, ringing chords of many of their songs, and, admittedly, Murray Attaway's voice has a slight resemblance to Michael Stipe's - similar timbre and some of the same touch of twang you sometimes heard in Stipe's.  And there was a certain Southern gothic atmosphere which hung over both bands music (at least in the early days).  But GD was driven by the powerhouse drumming of John Poe, a drive the Athens crew never had, and Jeff Wall played real, classic lead guitar (something Buck studiously avoided), and Attaway could write better songs Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe.

I grabbed the first album, Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man, in part cause I'd read a short, complimentary (though not ecstatic) review in Record (remember Record?  Great rag.  Wenner should never have killed it), in part cause I knew it was an American underground band (I yearned to hear every such band in those days), and in part cause it had a cool cover.  I'm surprised the reviews weren't more enthusiastic, because I fell hard for Walking, with its punchy songs, roots-influences, silly humor and the fact that it rocked lamf!  Poe's drums were enormous, Walls lead guitar sterling.  "Watusi Rodeo", the tale of a cowboy snatched up by a flying saucer and dropped off in Africa, wasn't jangle - it was pure psychobilly frenzy.  The other songs rode along with a kind of Marty Robbins-meets-William Faulkner ambience, full of ghosts and Civil War dead, and strange biblical imagery that evoked snake-handlers and country preachers and mystic, backwoods hoodoo Christianity.  There was a great, kind of update Everly Brothers rocker ("Pillow Talk") and it all ended with a transcendent live version of "Kumbayah" complete with enthusiastically screaming audience (since I dropped out of Sunday school at 5 and never went to camp or scouts, "Kumbayah" was unknown to me).

I think I got Jamboree about a year later.  I was a little disappointed.  Despite having a gorgeous cover painting, the band seemed to have lost their confidence.  Time has been kind to it and Jamboree sounds better to me now, but its still a mixed bag.  The best songs ("Pray for Rain",  "Michael Rockefeller", "Spirit Train", "Lonely Street"- another Everlys-esque gem) are of a piece with Walking (an earlier version of "Michael Rockefeller" had, in fact, been on a pre-Walking EP released in `83).  I'm guessing most or all of these had been in the repertoire all along and had missed the first album.  Side two got seriously weird as the band swerved into full-throttle rootsabilly "Country Club Gun", "Please Stop Me" (another gem - something of a rewrite of Leon Payne's"Psycho", "Dead Eyes", "Cattle Prod")  and the truly weird "I See Moe" (an ode to the mean Stooge) and "T.R.O.U.B.L.E." a Patsy Cline-ish ode to BDSM.  Mostly successful musically, but highly schizophrenic as an album. Not helping was flat production by Rodney Mills - the songs would have benefited from the odd, hazy production that marked album no. 1.

Seeing them live was a different story - GD were an amazing live band.  I first saw them at the cavernous One Step Beyond in Santa Clara - fall 1986.  OSB was a bit new at booking live shows then - it had started as a slightly pretentious dance club.  Despite is inadequate sound system, OSB was our club - big enough and with sufficient clout to host a lot of major bands as they came through Northern California.  Having a place like that was a gold mine in the 80's, and I'll always be grateful to OSB, shortcomings and all, just for being there and providing me with many memorable evenings.

Anyway, back then the place had a slightly unfinished feel - a big room with a stage and a sound system and blank gray, white walls.  The stage lights through towering, distorted shadows of the band up behind them, and that's always how I'll remember GD, with those looming shadows behind them as they played.  The haze of their album was back in force thanks to aforementioned sound system; they had undeniable charisma (of a goofy, lovable sort) and they had a wild sense of humor their records only hinted at (none of which, unfortunately, would translate in print).  They closed the show with a weird, ominous, droning take on "Johnny B. Goode."

Amusingly enough, I saw them again about a month later, opening for R.E.M. at the huge Oakland Coliseum.  They made a game effort, but the sheer size and impersonality of the venue was hard for them.

After that, GD sort of fell off the radar. It was a couple years later that 2x4 turned up without fanfare in the store racks.  So I bought it.  I liked the spooky/goofy cover, and I liked GD.  This album's supposed to be their return to form (they worked with Don Dixon, who had producedWalking), but it's one of those albums I listened to a lot at first, then set aside for good.  The songs just aren't as inspired as before.  The band was treading water, and they'd lost much of what made them distinctive in the first place.  The exceptions were the eerie "Little Birds" and mournful and eerie meditation on Attway's drinking problem, "3 AM".  Still I was happy to check them out live again, and saw two of their three local visits - OSB again and San Francisco (The I-Beam) a couple nights before.  They still put on a hell of a show, highlighted by a hilarious, screeching version of "Immigrant Song" and an even funnier "Stayin' Alive" (introduced by Attaway as a tribute to the band they most wanted to sound like).


GD was back the next year with Flip Flop.  This album is generally considered their nadir, and I didn't even hear the whole thing until recently.  I recall being put off by the obnoxious ads - "rock with humor and heart from an acclaimed American band that knows where it's going" (where they were going was away).  I do remember seeing the video for "Always Saturday" on MTV, and, though I found it too slick and pop-ish for GD, it stayed with me.  Today I find the song and the video rather poignant, and I like it a lot.  Listening to Flip Flop now, I think it's a stronger album than 2x4, but I also see the threads of the band coming apart.  The songs are all pretty good, but the band had lost its identity.  I saw them again on that tour, and it was a fun show, but I could tell it was over.  And it was.  The band folded for good that year.

Since then, Murray Attaway released a solo album (In Thrall) which sounds pretty good based on the tracks I've heard - one day I'll pick up a copy.  He did a tour opening to bewildered crowds opening for Johnny Clegg.  He later recorded a second album which now sits gathering dust thanks to Geffen's disinclination to release it.  Jeff Walls has worked with some bands I really like: Southern Culture On The Skids, Dash Rip Rock, Man Or Astro Man - proving he's one cool dude.  Rhett Crowe is a yoga teacher.  John Poe I don't know about it.  In recent years, Murray and Jeff have been playing together in a band called  Bomber City.  What I've heard by them sounds pretty good.  GD reunites from time to time for special shows.  They left me with some fond memories.  Thanks y'all.

Guadalcanal Diary Allmusic
Guadalcanal Diary Wiki
Rhett Crowe's Page 
Bomber City - Facebook

Essential Listening

Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man and Jamboree are available as a nice twofer.  The deluxe CD of Walking features a couple worthwhile rarities, "Liwa Wechi" and "John Wayne", and can be had as a CD or a download. The much-lesser (but loved by some) 2x4 is still available in CD or download, but the superior Flip Flop is out of print - it can, however, be picked up inexpensively.  There is also a now rather rare live album, At Your Birthday Party, capturing a 1999 reunion show, but bootlegs of the band in their heyday are out there, and are preferable.