Giant Sand
Box 1
Besides the exploration of a new operatic expression in the chamber opera, our repertoire is focused on the contemporary opera and its influence on the modern art. Discover the best performers and plays.
Box 2
Besides the exploration of a new operatic expression in the chamber opera, our repertoire is focused on the contemporary opera and its influence on the modern art. Discover the best performers and plays.
Box 3
Besides the exploration of a new operatic expression in the chamber opera, our repertoire is focused on the contemporary opera and its influence on the modern art. Discover the best performers and plays.
Box 1
Besides the exploration of a new operatic expression in the chamber opera, our repertoire is focused on the contemporary opera and its influence on the modern art. Discover the best performers and plays.
Box 2
Besides the exploration of a new operatic expression in the chamber opera, our repertoire is focused on the contemporary opera and its influence on the modern art. Discover the best performers and plays.
Originally from Tucson, Giant Sand are considered the forerunners of so-called desert rock. With over twenty studio albums behind them, their music is a fusion of alternative rock and country, a concentration of psychedelia and acid sounds that go beyond the underground paisley. The first album, “Valley of Rain”, was released in 1985. Recorded two years earlier, in 1983, by the original line-up – which included Howe Gelb (guitar and vocals, as well as founder and only permanent member), Winston Watson (drums) , Tommy Larkins (drums) and Scott Garber (bass) – the story of this first record is quite funny. At the time of the recordings Howe, unable for economic reasons to record in a more suitable studio, plays the entire album in an improvised situation which however allows him and the band to abandon themselves to an adrenaline-filled flow of spontaneity. The result of a day and a half of recordings, for a total of 400 pounds, is an hour and a half of playing.
When Enigma Records asks to add another fifteen minutes of music, Giant Sand returns to the studio and Howe approaches a tube amp for the first time, in particular a Fender Twin Reverb. A new world opens up to him and a new creative flow is added to the previous recordings. The band thus decides to release two albums, except that the contents of the van with which they are on tour is emptied and the band loses most of the recordings, except for a tape hidden among the cacti (what the cacti were doing in the van is not to be known). Both albums, which were supposed to have a double release, with Enigma Records for North America and with Zippo/Demon Records for Europe, are released late, but this “unforeseen” made the sound of “Valley of Rain ”, even more particular, between recovered mixtapes and subsequently discover
Thirty years later, Giant Sand decides to give “Valley of Rain” the right sound. And the right amps. Two new young members join the original lineup: Gabriel Sullivan and Annie Dolan, both on guitars and backing vocals. The disc is deliberately recorded with an 80s approach and with the use of a Fender 30 amplifier produced only between 1980 and 1983. The result is an “insane” sound, but “Valley of Rain” sounds exactly as it should have sounded thirty years ago.