Review- THE GO/ FIESTA

Earth, the early 1960s. A quartet of time traveling space aliens come to the past from a post-apocalyptic future to stave off nuclear war amidst Cold War tensions. Armed with the greatest songs of the past 200 years, they set out to spread a message of peace and love. They called themselves The Beatles but failed in their mission to save the world, splintering and breaking up. The leaders of the parallel Earth in the dimension next door sent their musical ambassadors, The Go, into the past to mop up The Beatles' mess and try to save the world. The Beatles, evil Satanic time traveling sorcerer bastards that they are, used their futuristic alien technology to zap The Go, sending them spiraling through the timestream until they landed in Detroit in the late '90s. Stranded and with no means to return to their home dimension, The Go have decided to make this horrific divergent timeline their home.

John Lennon and George Harrison aren't dead, folks. They returned to the future. The reason that you don't remember that, or that my series of facts don't line up with your perception of reality, is because of The Beatles. They used their sorcery to wipe out everyone's memories. Using my crystal ball, I have been able to divine the truth and see past the smoke and mirrors. It's all in the 8s. You can't argue with science, man.

The Go come from a dimension where music never sucked and Justin Bieber never got a recording contract. There is no poverty or disease in their dimension, only Rock and Roll. Which brings us to this...

The Go/ Fiesta (Burger, 2013)

The further down the rabbit hole these cats go, the more the psychedelic elements become their dominant sound. There is a subtlety that requires repeated listening to grasp once you get past the choruses. Instruments fade in and out of speakers, EQs are different from song to song, etc. There are also funky and almost jazz-like textures in a few songs, which looks weird “on paper” but works in practice when you listen.

Being a double album, it would be easy to pad this out with superlong jams that fill up album sides in the name of “artistic experimentation”. Instead, we get 20 tightly arranged songs with economy in mind. I imagine that some of these songs were much longer and the fat was cut out with surgical precision. This is a filet mignon served on a paper plate.

John Krautner was a teen idol in the 1966 that The Go come from. Remember that episode of The Flintstones with The Way Outs? In their home dimension, Beyond the Beyond was on that episode, and The Go played the part of bouncing tire-body characters. Hire A Navy was a staple at high school dances and Can't Rely On It was performed on American Bandstand.

On the Bobby Harlow side of the coin, A Dot In Place is one that haunts me as I walk down the street. For Me Alone and No More Stars are also pure genius. I hope that the fellas didn't rupture something singing that high on the harmonies. Mere Earthlings don't sing this way in this time continuum. Tease My Ears is the best song that The Association never wrote.

I Fear To Think I'm Here could have been an early James Gang song, it's that awesome. Ya Gimme That Feeling has a funky, Motown vibe to it. If you listen closely, John's spleen ruptures hitting those high notes. Marc Fellis uses a cowbell on that one. Saturday Night Live and Blue Oyster Cult jokes aside, cowbells are awesome.

There are so many truly great moments on this album, and sadly, most of humanity will miss out on this album. Don't let this happen to you. If you don't own Fiesta, the Mothership won't permit you entrance to return to The Go's home dimension with them. I know that I don't want to stay in this crappy, fucked up timeline where America is going down the toilet. Don't be the only kid on the block without it. Fiesta.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.