Although The Grateful Dead might be (and we do mean “might,” because really, who knows?) putting a cap on their relentless touring and recording cycle, there’s an easy transition to make to fill your GD void that a few people have already tapped into: Chris Forsyth and The Solar Motel Band.
The uninitiated can scrape the tip of the Forsyth bootleg archive at NYC Taper, while the rest of the hardcore Motel-Heads can collectively rejoice at the announcement of the band’s next album, The Rarity of Experience, which will be released March 4 on No Quarter.
The Rarity of Experience is a massive (in every sense of the word) double album that brings in new members of the Solar Motel Band to accompany Forsyth and his guitar, as it wigs out into multiple dimensions of awesomeness.
In addition to new members and new tunes, The Rarity of Experience also features the group’s take on Richard Thompson’s “The Calvary Cross” and the old Forsyth standards from his solo days, “Boston Street Lullaby” and “The First Ten Minutes of Cocksucker Blues.”
No Quarter reckons that “few modern groups would sound equally at home onstage at the Fillmore East circa ’69, CBGB’s circa ’77, and Lounge Axe circa ’96, but the Solar Motel Band of The Rarity Of Experience is such a band.” They also left off Hotel2Tango circa forever, because The Rarity of Experience touches all the hallmarks of modern American guitar music and throws them into an epic echo chamber of stoned doom. But we had you at Grateful Dead, right?
The Rarity of Experience tracklist:
01. Anthem I
02. Anthem II
03. The Rarity of Experience I
04. The Rarity of Experience II
05. High Castle Rock
06. Harmonius Dance
07. The First Ten Minutes of Cocksucker Blues
08. Boston Street Lullabye
09. Old Phase
10. The Calvary Cross
More about: Chris Forsyth, The Solar Motel Band
