Return of the Hindu Love Gods
Somebody asked me to repost this a few weeks back and I'm just now getting to it. I threw in a couple bonus songs to make up for the delay.
The Hindu Love Gods started out as a side band consisting of the instrument playing contingent from R.E.M. with Bryan Cook (from Time Toy) singing. If I remember correctly, the idea was to play parties and the clubs that R.E.M. had grown too big to play. In 1984, Warren Zevon achieved Love God-hood when he moved to Athens GA to do some recording. The band went into the studio with John Keane in 1984 and recorded some songs. That’s where this 45 comes from. IRS Records finally got around to releasing it in 1986. The songs are a good cover of an Easybeats song and an unreleased R.E.M. song about a guy with a Jacques Cousteau fixation. Dig the watery guitars! Warren Zevon is playing guitar, I guess. Otherwise, I don’t hear him it all.
In 1987, R.E.M. backed up Zevon on his pretty good SENTIMENTAL HYGIENE album. The Hindu Love Gods had been playing some of the songs since way back in 1984. The band (minus Cook) recorded some songs, mostly blues standards with a couple of notable exceptions, live in the studio during the SENTIMENTAL sessions. That batch of songs was released in 1990. If I remember correctly, R.E.M. did not know the songs were going to be released and wasn’t happy when the record came out. Some people think it’s great, I don’t. The band doesn’t sound like they’re having much fun and that’s not a good thing for a bunch that started out as a party band.
The original Hindu Love Gods 45 was included with some copies of the vinyl version of HINDU LOVE GODS, I guess to remind people about what they missed the first time around.
The Hindu Love Gods started out as a side band consisting of the instrument playing contingent from R.E.M. with Bryan Cook (from Time Toy) singing. If I remember correctly, the idea was to play parties and the clubs that R.E.M. had grown too big to play. In 1984, Warren Zevon achieved Love God-hood when he moved to Athens GA to do some recording. The band went into the studio with John Keane in 1984 and recorded some songs. That’s where this 45 comes from. IRS Records finally got around to releasing it in 1986. The songs are a good cover of an Easybeats song and an unreleased R.E.M. song about a guy with a Jacques Cousteau fixation. Dig the watery guitars! Warren Zevon is playing guitar, I guess. Otherwise, I don’t hear him it all.
In 1987, R.E.M. backed up Zevon on his pretty good SENTIMENTAL HYGIENE album. The Hindu Love Gods had been playing some of the songs since way back in 1984. The band (minus Cook) recorded some songs, mostly blues standards with a couple of notable exceptions, live in the studio during the SENTIMENTAL sessions. That batch of songs was released in 1990. If I remember correctly, R.E.M. did not know the songs were going to be released and wasn’t happy when the record came out. Some people think it’s great, I don’t. The band doesn’t sound like they’re having much fun and that’s not a good thing for a bunch that started out as a party band.
The original Hindu Love Gods 45 was included with some copies of the vinyl version of HINDU LOVE GODS, I guess to remind people about what they missed the first time around.
posted by KS at 3/05/2007 07:04:00 PM
2 Comments:
Hey, thank you, thank you, thank you! Looks like I just managed to get back before the uploads expired. I always assumed Zevon was involved in the single too, but, as you indicate, there's no audible evidence of such. Great to hear it a mere 20 years down the road...
Glad you got them! Enjoy!
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