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Reverb Syndicate a Space Oddity

Sputnik A-Go-Go is a timely tribute to the satellite launch

The Ottawa Citizen, 21 Nov 2007.

By Fateema Sayani

First it was spy-surf and now it's space-surf. The Reverb Syndicate keeps to theme on its second album with more soundtrack surf rock wrapped around a story. The new album is called Sputnik A-Go-Go, a timely tribute since it's been 50 years since the satellite launch. On the first track, called This Is Not A Test, you can hear the actual recording that Sputnik broadcast back from space.

The album moves into the song Lunar Attack! . The title track follows, before segueing into Bolshevik Boogie and The Martini Cluster -- get the vibe yet?

Reverb Syndicate fans will know the flow. On the band's 2006 debut called Operation: Jet Set! the four-piece wrote each song as a theme to a spy-movie scene. There was the car chase, put to a tune called Oil Slicks and Ejector Seats. They upped the schmaltz factor with Shake Don't Stir and, of course, the album ended with the pomp and romance of And the Hero Gets the Girl.

This time, the album ends with Trans-Siberian Sunset. Imagine the credits to this imaginary film rolling -- it's the great dénouement with all the syrupy sentimentality of a slick film coming to a close. This is a band that likes the flow of a good narrative arc, one that's familiar and fun. It's their exultant Space Oddity.

Much like a movie, the band has defined characters. There's Jeff Welch, the Syndicate's bassist who goes under the cheeky handle Reginald Goodthrust. His imagined alter ego is a billionaire weapons expert with international status. He's joined by his co-characters: the suave gadget expert Victor Tremolo on lead guitar (Mike Bradford), the Soviet turncoat and ladies' man Casanova Red on guitars and keys (James Rossiter), and the mysterious utility man The Fixer on drums (Mike Rifkin). Their leading ladies are Nastaya and Katya Gogodancavitch (gal pals Lauren Hart and Katie Bonnar) whose hype woman status had crowds revved at this year's Bluesfest and the band's debut CD release.

So, with all this talk about cinema, what film would The Reverb Syndicate's new disc play alongside?

"One of the new instalments of the In Like Flint movies," Welch says. "I don't think either of them have much space in them. It's definitely more of that '60s schlocky kind of Danger Diabolique kind of thing -- it's more of a spy parody than the actual movie."

So, like Peter Sellers? "There's definitely that element because it's got that slinkiness to it."

There's also an element of surfy sass and throwback charm that has the '70s- and -'80s-born rockers churning up the 1960s as they understand it from movies and TV re-runs--full of glossy, necktied charm. The Reverb Syndicate's CD release party takes place Saturday at Irene's Pub, 885 Bank St., with Evil Farm Children and The Bible All-Stars, 9 p.m., $6.