LOST TREASURES – The Sunset Bombers

Posted on 26 May 2015

LOST TREASURES

THE SUNSET BOMBERS

“The Sunset Bombers”

Sunset Bombers

By Peter Marston

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I must confess something about myself as a record collector: I am a completist. I have purchased many records that are, frankly, not very good but that I somehow believed I needed to complete some part of my collection. The most common instance of this personality defect is that I typically need to own all the albums of my favorite artists and even if I don’t need to own all of them, I do not like gaps in the chronology. An example of the first situation is that I own all of the Beatles’ solo albums; an example of the second is that even though I lost the trail of Cheap Trick after they left Epic, I am compelled to own all of their Epic albums, even the abysmal The Doctor.

Sunset Single

The present Lost Treasures post falls more or less in the former category. I am a big fan of the Knack and Doug Fieger. I love all three Capitol Knack albums and enjoy almost all of their post-Capitol output. Even the two albums by Fieger’s pre-Knack band Sky will occasionally get a spin when I play records for friends, but I assure you that only a completist will own the self-titled LP by the Sunset Bombers, a one-off album project that briefly occupied Fieger between Sky and the Knack. It’s not that the record is especially awful (it’s not), but it’s definitely the last Fieger album you need to own. That said, here’s the backstory:

 

After the two Sky albums failed to chart, the band went their own way—in Fieger’s case, to Los Angeles. He had a few music gigs here and there (including being hired to join the Carpenters stage band), and even though he and Berton Averre had already begun working together on the songs that would make the Knack famous, in 1976, Fieger joined the Rats, a local club band. In 1978, the Rats were signed to Ariola Records and, after a name change (the label, obviously not tuned in to the emergent punk aesthetic, was doubtful that a band named after vermin could be successful), the band began work on their debut album. The line-up: Nick Armand on vocals, Rick Armand on guitar, Brandon Matheson on drums and Fieger on bass.

Sunset Single 2

The Sunset Bombers sounds like any number of late ’70s American LPs by bands seeking the ride the currents of punk and New Wave. Most of these bands (including the Sunset Bombers) were a little too steeped in hard rock to be convincing, but the results are usually preferable to the overblown arena rock that dominated the airwaves. The album features a handful of covers—“Baby, It’s You” (The Shirelles and Beatles), “Gimme Some Lovin’” (The Spencer Davis Group),“I Can’t Control Myself” (The Troggs) and “Dirty Pictures” (Radio Stars)—all of which are handled with pseudo-punk abandon. The original songs are similarly catchy and full of punch and benefit from not having more successful versions as points of comparison. Five of these were written by the Armand brothers, the highlight being “Suicide Kamakaze Girls,” which sets a slow burn verse against a Stonesy chorus. One original, “B.F.D.” was written by Feiger and Berton Averre. It’s a marginal track at best, with lots of angry-young-man posturing and clumsy lyrics. Clearly, Fieger and Averre were saving their best work for their own project.

 

Only one single was released from the album: “I Can’t Control Myslef” b/w the non-album track “High Cotton” (“high cotton” is a colloquialism for flush times). It bombed; the album bombed. Brandon Matheson went on to join the Rubber City Rebels (whose first major label LP was produced by Fieger) and Fieger went on to the Knack. Rick Armand is currently a session guitarist and music teacher in LA. The whereabouts of brother Nick are anybody’s guess.

 

The Sunset Bombers has never been reissued on CD and is not available in the legit digital domain. I found my copy on eBay for about $10 and have since seen it on various second-market sites at fairly affordable prices.  Needledrops are also occasionally posted on various blogs. Fieger completists take note: it ain’t over ‘til the Sunset Bombers sing!

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Pop Pioneer and “Lost Treasures” writer, Peter Marston is the leader of long-running power pop band, Shplang, whose most recent album, “My Big Three Wheeler” has been described as “the Beatles meet Zappa in pop-psych Sumo match.”  Peter has a new project in 2015 under the name MARSTON.   They will have a track on the upcoming “Power Pop Planet – Volume 5” compilation due in June, 2015.

You check it out at this link:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shplang

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LINKS:

Wikipedia(Doug Fieger):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Fieger

Interesting blog post on the band and Doug:  https://artiewayne.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/doug-feiger-r-i-p-rock-in-perpetuity/   (and read the comments and…)

Then, go here, about half way down(so a search on ‘sunset bombers’ and it will bring you there):

http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2012_04_22_archive.html

From Doug Fieger’s site:  http://dougfieger.com/discography-music/sunset-bombers/

 

VIDEOS:

LET”S DRIVE TONIGHT:

I CAN’T CONTROL MYSELF:

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