From the pallid, jangly melodies submerged within the final recordings of Honeywell there surfaced a more realized model of the members’ psychedelic, garage rock inclinations. Los Cincos, rooted in surf guitars and garage dirges, first came together in 1994, and, with a seemingly constant rotation of members (often just to different instruments), stuck together until 1999.
I have both the double 7 inch and the CD versions of the record displayed above. Here is the CD version for you all. The differences between the two are: The CD has two extra songs – “The Phantom Attack,” and “Marching with Mr. Mustard”; “Barbituates” has a couple more minutes added to it (starting after the backward warp-pipe); and “I am Victoria” has expanded from a modest 5 minutes to twenty two minutes (the extra time is spent in an extended jam, and then with various recordings, both audio and “field”). This record came out in 1998 on Sympathy for the Record Industry.
Also included in this post is this Japan-only release (on Horen, 1997) of a collaboration between Los Cincos and April March!
It’s a 7 inch. Two songs, both closely related to one another. “Baby Blue” begins with horns (making me, for a moment, think of Spoon’s latest… in all honesty), setting an up-beat, but laid-back beat to carry the record from sunny California beaches to “Winter Caves.” April March’s sharp vocals (as usual, sung in both English and French) pair up nicely with Los Cincos’ rich, twangy melodies and punctuated rhythms. The Choir backs up the two tracks with lush, but almost lo-fi harmonies that keep it from being too reminiscent of clean ’60s pop. Toward the end we feel the cave icing over, filtering out the sparkle – seasons never lasting and always repeating, until soon we are left with just a persistent mid-end buzz.