Shipwrecked

After 2 years THE SULTANS finally follow up their critically overlooked and criminally underappreciated debut (Ghost Ship) with Shipwrecked.  This time around Slasher (aka Speedo  on guitar and lead vox) Black Velvet (aka Dean Reis on bass ) and Tony DiPrima (aka Tony DiPrima on drum kit) shed the fuzz in favor for a castrated, white, chiming sound.  Shipwrecked is an amalgam of simplistic chord thuggery and late 70’s power pop, psuedo sheen.  Slasher’s quest for innocence finds him right back where he started from, 25 years ago.  Like a shark he keeps moving or he will die.  Frustrated by the misuse of bedrooms (“they are for love making, not music making”) computers (“good for email”) over the counter ephedra (“we only use it to combat writers block”) and an overall lack of compassion (“why can’t we all be acquaintances?”), he deflates the uber-posturing of the rock myth and reunites with his brother and his yachting friend to get the ‘band back together’. 

http://www.last.fm/music/Sultans/Shipwrecked

But this time around the scenery has changed.  As always, a reactionary knee-jerk is the impetus.  This time THE SULTANS decide to keep it weak, naked and malnourished. Distortion is deemed passé. What the people want are Byrdsian guitars played ineptly that shrill and irk their way towards palette cleansing.  This is music that longs to be forgotten as THE SULTANS herald unfulfilled prophecy more than true genius itself. Shipwrecked  is the music of the layperson. Tragic is the way he/she spills their drink or breaks up with their significant other or crashes their car or gets fired from work or goes another year completely unrecognized as an individual.  It is within this microcosm that a universe of inspiration to get back to the basic framework of the pop idiom exists.  Where  THE SULTANS originally inspired to play Bowling Alleys (Aztec Lanes 2001) High Schools Dances (Alexandria Middle School 2002) and  county fairs (Ramona Livestock Festival and Native Pottery Fair 2002) the band has now taken their new found sensibilities and have set their sights higher. 2003 saw the band commanding audiences at Perky’s Haven Coffee House and in-store performances at Vidz Movie Rental and Brooklyn Brothers Pizza. Although the band prefers to headline in order to guarantee their 34 minute set is never cut short, opening slots for Zen Guerilla, Swedish black metal band Moonstruck, and Guided By Voices are some recent billings. Slasher explains, ”The Guided By Voices show went down terribly.  First off, I didn’t know they were a Christian group so a lot of what we were doing on stage offended the crowd.  Our entire set was met with a complete lack of respect. The crowd insisted on making a horrendous ruckus between