masterbrawn
beyond demented. especially the instrumental versions. "brain damage" damaged my brain. fabulous. further evidence of mr minnick's genius.
Favorite track: Brain Damage.
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Comes in a shrink-wrapped jewel case with a tri-fold insert. Gorgeous artwork by Josh Silverstein and insightful liner notes by Rick Hines. The CD includes instrumental versions of all songs from the record which were not originally instrumental: 75 minutes of suave music in all!
Includes unlimited streaming of Suave Side of the Moon
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In 1947, Les Baxter’s first album “Music Out of the Moon” presaged the launching of Sputnik by ten years with a haunting theremin reverberating across boundless space. World War II had ended and a new postwar boom was just getting started. Roswell was in the headlines, and though the specter of the Soviet Union and possible extraterrestrial invaders hinted at fears, the spirit of the era was also filled with optimism. The era of the Space Age bachelor pad was born. Nuclear power would bring clean and cheap energy to all. Rockets would take explorers to exciting new worlds. Hamburger joints would sparkle with chrome and neon facades. The future held the promise of one day clinking Martian Martini glasses on a space station to the tune of Jovian Jazz, watching exotic dancers doing the Limbo on Luna, and lovers embracing in the Samba of Saturn. Flying cars would whisk sharply-dressed men from plush offices to lofty apartments high up on Tesla towers, where TV sets stood on dagger-pointed feet, casting stark purple shadows over pink carpet. The future was bright indeed.
Twenty six years later, 1973’s “Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd heralded a new era, characterized by energy shortages, environmental and population fears, and the end of the Apollo Program. Paul Ehrlich had just released his “population bomb” scaring the youth with Malthusian fears about the Limits to Growth. Freedom fighters and civilization builders from John F Kennedy to Robert Kennedy, to Martin Luther King, to Malcolm X, as well as Patrice Lumumba, had been murdered, thrusting society into a new, more pessimistic world order in human affairs. Wages that had been rising took a U-turn while prices and crime began rising. The Postmodern Era, a retreat from modernity under a cynical dark sky, had arrived. Dark Side of the Moon reflected this, with its somber organ melodies and saxophone resigned with the defeat of a tired generation settling down from activism into Me Generation materialism and cocaine yachts. Probably one of the darkest, if not the darkest album of the 1970’s, Dark Side of the Moon was about selfish animals competing under a soulless, Newtonian regime of scarcity, symbolized by the prism splitting the light against black on the cover. Lyrics on Time hinted at the despairing prospect of a Universe grinding down to an eventual heat death of undifferentiated equilibrium. In every way, Dark Side of the Moon was the very antithesis of “Music Out Of The Moon,” and the “Space Age Bachelor Pad” music era.
Enter David Minnick, a musician every bit as brilliant as the artists that he covers, from the Residents to Negativland. One only needs to hear his production of 180G’s “Commercial Album” to get a sense of the appreciation he has for both the joyous marimba of Lounge Exotica to the creepy lighting of film noir, while still remaining utterly faithful to The Residents’ original masterpiece. Listening to his album, “Suave Side of the Moon” by the Sursiks is an invigorating experience. In Suave Side of the Moon, as if victory is snatched back from defeat, Pink Floyd is given a new upbeat interpretation in an amazing union of opposites. The sad despair of Dark Side of the Moon is transformed into the mysterious smokiness of a detective story at midnight, complete with inspectors donning fedora hats and wearing dark suits. More appropriate for a David Lynch film than a lament over the death of the hope and idealism of the 1960’s, it conjures up images of Italian men in Armani suits driving fancy cars along the winding turns of Mulholland Drive. In Time, he artfully replaces the guitar with a theremin right on cue, pulling the listener into the same psychological depth as Spellbound. He also spices it up with a hint of Northern Soul in some of his string vibratos and guitar refrains, paying homage to his home city of Detroit. He weaves a Latin feel throughout, changing between Salsa, Samba, and Meringue with his orchestra including marimba, xylophone, and vibes. One may be especially delighted to hear an accordion come out in Any Color You Like, giving it a touch that could easily take the listener to Morocco, Spain, or perhaps Madagascar. To top it off, David Minnick even manages to incorporate the drum march of Ravel’s Bolero into the mix.
Even though “all that you taste and all that you feel and and all that you love and all that you hate” may be “eclipsed by the Moon,” it is now a bright moon rising over a sultry resort in Amazonia. Maybe the ‘Market Forces,’ -as Roger Waters calls big business and the ‘Powers that Be’- don’t look so awful, when you see them dancing in spiffy attire on the Suave Side of the Moon. But then again, maybe these were not the same “Market Forces” of the 1970’s either, but an earlier, more benevolent version helping to build Modernity. Maybe there is no Suave Side of the Moon, really. Maybe it’s all suave!
-Rick Hines
credits
released November 1, 2022
Judith Teasdle: Violins
Kenny Robinson: Trumpet
Gary Robertson: Alto Sax
John Kachnowski: Trombone
Heather Robinson: Flute
Mark Tarabusi: oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet and bassoon on tracks 11, 12, 13 and 14
Harv Irla: Guitar solo on song 5
Kelly Minnick, Kate Richardson-Anselmo, Chris Stokes, Jason Haddad: Speaking Voices
The 180 Gs: Backing Vocals
David Minnick: Drums, percussion, bass guitar, guitars, piano, celeste, organ, keyboards, marimba, vibraphone, xylophone, chimes, lead vocals, theremin, melodica, sequencing and programming.
All songs arranged, recorded, produced and mixed by David Minnick: 2005-2006 and 2021-2022 at Crabid Studio, Waterford Michigan.
Album cover design and artwork by Josh Silverstein
David Minnick is obsessed with choosing seemingly impossible musical projects and seeing them through to completion. He
creates music in a multitude of genres (orchestral, blues, ska, free jazz, gamelan, klezmer, psychedelic pop, pirate music, a cappella, to name a few) and plays several instruments. ...more
"I didn't know i was singing" was originally released in 2006 and re released on Housecore Records in 2010. It is an album of phone messages transformed into musical arrangements. David Minnick
supported by 15 fans who also own “Suave Side of the Moon”
In 2019, I was in Salisbury and attended the Alphabet Business Convention without knowing any artist. Lost Crowns was my favourite band that played there. Pablo P.
