{"id":12873,"date":"2017-06-22T05:30:24","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T09:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=12873"},"modified":"2024-03-02T15:00:30","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T20:00:30","slug":"the-allah-las-record-store-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/22\/the-allah-las-record-store-days\/","title":{"rendered":"The Allah-Las: Record Store Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Allah-Las make original music that evokes the shimmering, melodic end of mid-to-late 1960s psychedelic scene. But because the members of the Los Angeles-based group write and perform their own material, they shy away from the \u201c60s revival\u201d tag. Still, there’s no denying that they honed their songwriting craft by absorbing the influences of that bygone era.<\/p>\n

Much is made of the fact that several members of the Allah-Las worked at the sprawling Amoeba Music in Los Angeles. \u201cWe’ve been asked that question a number of times,\u201d says Pedrum Siadatian, the band’s lead guitarist. He compares his time at Amoeba to working in a library. \u201cYou could get a little log book and take stuff out of the store,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were able to find out what we really liked, and home in on certain genres that appealed to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One thing that Siadatian and two of his coworkers\/band mates (bassist Spencer Dunham and drummer Matthew Correia) agreed upon was an appreciation for garage rock and psychedelic music. \u201cIt’s something each of us discovered as we became more interested in music,\u201d Dunham says.<\/p>\n

Siadatian concedes that drawing on 1960s rock isn’t exactly a new idea for a modern band. But he believes creative success has more to do with how an artist uses those influences. \u201cThere are lots of bands that seem like they draw from ’60s and ’70s rock ‘n’ roll,\u201d he says. \u201cBut each band tends to channel the things that they like about those bands and those genres in different ways. So there’s crossover with people who just like music that sounds like it’s older, or that draws from those influences.\u201d<\/p>\n

So despite their discovery of riches in the music of 40-plus years ago, once the Allah-Las got together in 2008, they didn’t take the oft-traveled path of playing covers. Instead, they began with their own material right from the start. \u201cBut they were incomplete songs,\u201d Siadatian admits. \u201cThey were kind of jams that we would play \u2026 until it seemed like we were playing them too long. And then we’d do another one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually \u2013 about a year into the band’s existence \u2013 the Allah-Las added a few select covers into their set, songs that felt right in the context of their original material. Siadatian recalls, \u201cwe used to do a Beat Happening song, and the Flamin Groovies’ ‘Slow Death.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly three years after forming, the Allah-Las released their debut single, \u201cCatamaran,\u201d backed by a song called \u201cLong Journey.\u201d While \u201cCatamaran\u201d was an original number, the flip-side of the 45 was an obscure cover of a 1965 single recorded in South Carolina. The song, properly titled \u201cIt’s Been a Long Journey,\u201d was the product of a Greenville combo called the Roots, and was written by a teenage guitarist named Rudy Wyatt.<\/p>\n

As a fan of the Allah-Las, an Asheville radio host made the connection, and when the group first played Asheville, he brought Wyatt along, and introduced him to the band, who greeted him enthusiastically. So while Dunham goes to some length to differentiate between the Allah-Las’ original music and the music of the ’60s in general, he allows that \u201cWe’re very much inspired\u201d by the kind of songs Wyatt was writing.<\/p>\n

To some extent, the group’s signature sound is a product of the kind of gear used to make it. Both in the studio and \u2013 to a slightly lesser extent \u2013 on tour, the group favors vintage equipment. \u201cOld Fender amps sound amazing,\u201d notes Dunham. \u201cLive onstage, we try to use the gear we use on the records. But sometimes,\u201d he admits, \u201cthe vintage equipment isn’t sturdy enough to tour with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Allah-Las often include Asheville on their tour itinerary. The band played the Mothlight in 2014, and four years ago the Allah-Las first performed in Asheville at the Orange Peel; that night’s bill included two other bands with a similar musical sensibility: Elephant Stone and the Black Angels. \u201cWe consider them kindred spirits,\u201d Dunham says.<\/p>\n

When it comes to live performance, the Allah-Las do seem to have absorbed an important lesson from the music of the mid 1960s, one that would be largely forgotten toward the end of that decade. Both on record and onstage, the Allah-Las tend toward succinct arrangements, with little in the way of aimless meandering. \u201cSometimes we fold in medleys or combine songs, or add an instrumental,\u201d Dunham says. But usually we play the songs pretty much the way they are on the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might do a longer intro or outro, but nothing too crazy,\u201d says Siadatian with a chuckle. \u201cWe’re wary of being a jam band.\u201d<\/p>\n

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