The Gerry Alvarez Odyssey

The Gerry Alvarez Odyssey
floats downstream

REVIVAL OF THE FITTEST: Gerry Alvarez

by LORRAINE CARPENTER
When the Gruesomes brought their brand of garage goofiness to the local scene, a bit of the mid '60s in the mid '80s, they captured a certain spirit that had been quashed in the '70s, when rock started taking itself too seriously, and punk pushed cynicism to the fore. They led Canada into the (first) garage revival, and 10 years later, there were bands of damned kids across North America who'd raided their parents' record collections (and closets, in some cases) and hit the road with music that was fun and easy to play, and almost always guaranteed a good time. And 20 years later, a second revival has come and not quite gone, and the style is nothing less than a staple. Likewise, bands everywhere have been mining the psychedelic sound that branched off of both garage rock and British-invasion pop in the '60s, and that's where Gerry Alvarez comes in.
The former Gruesomes guitarist always aspired to the surreal streams of consciousness and Eastern intonations of Revolver (the Gruesomes, in Beatles terms, were always more Help!), a tendency he's explored in the solo material written during the band's many hiatuses. In 2005, Alvarez selected his greatest hits, assembled a band and released his debut album, Candy Prankster by the Gerry Alvarez Odyssey, on Montreal's Ricochet Records. The Mirror tracked him down in Toronto, where he's been living for four years, pursuing a career in graphic design for advertising.

Mirror: I gather there's more of an audience for your music in Toronto.
Gerry Alvarez: Oh yeah, a lot more people understand what it is that I do, and there's a lot more musicians, so it's way easier to get a band together to record an album.
M: When you and the Gruesomes first got going, did you think the style would still be going strong 20 years later?
GA: We just did what we really liked. We were '60s music nerds, so we started off with mod music, and then we got into garage stuff and said, "Hey, let's just do it." And it just so happens that there were these American bands like the Chesterfield Kings and the Fuzztones doing it too, but they didn't inspire us, we just did it because we loved those old '60s records. And we were practically the only ones doing it in Canada. It does surprise me when I read in glossy magazines that people are into '60s music now, but obviously I can relate.
M: So you're playing more shows with the new band—do you still enjoy touring?
GA: Yeah, I enjoy it when everything works out and the places we stay are comfortable and the shows are fun. At the beginning [with the Gruesomes], it was sleeping on floors and in bars and in the van, anywhere. Then, after a while, we got the nice hotels and got to be flown around too.

With Sonic Avenues at le Divan Orange
on Friday, Aug. 17, 9:30 p.m., $7 - Montreal Mirror

From Aural Innovations #35 (January 2007)

Man, I used to love The Gruesomes back in the 1980's! No, I'm not talking about that creepy family who were neighbours to The Flintstones, though I think that's where the band got their name. I'm talking about that group of crazy kids with the long, wild mop tops, who, in an age of overly synthesized dance music and watered down alt-pop for the masses, were belting out psychedelic garage rock to other Canadian kids like myself who were craving something that wasn't Madonna or REM.

Well, Gerry Alvarez and his old band The Gruesomes are apparently back together again, but over the interim, Alvarez spent a lot of time working on his own material for this, his solo debut. Obviously wanting to do something that was different from what his band does, but still allow him to pursue his love of psychedelic rock, Alvarez eschews the garage approach for a tighter, fuller sound. This is like guitar based album oriented rock with Beatles style pop melodies. Actually, I have to admit though, after the first 3 or 4 tracks, I didn't find it to be really very psychedelic at all. More just some good, solid rock tunes, with perhaps a bit of a psychedelic edge. But Alvarez was just warming up, because then along came Urban Shaman, with its swirling trippiness and evocative melody. This was the song where it also struck me what a great lyricist Alvarez is, tackling unique subjects with literate style, a sense of humor and obvious pleasure. Another highlight of the album is the Tomorrow Never Knows-like Heaven, with lots of fuzzed out guitars, Eastern tinges and tripped out vocals. Open Up Your Mind has a bit of a George Harrison feel to it, with some descending melodies that send shivers up the spine. The epic 7-minute album closer, The Trail, has a bit more of a Lennonesque feel to it, with lovely strumming acoustic guitars, a searching melody, and some very freaky guitar fills, and it all builds to a glorious conclusion.

Okay, so Alvarez is not about to give The Beatles a run for their money. But who is? I don't think that's his intent, anyway. This is just simply an album that oozes with Gerry's obvious love for that band, but also for psychedelic rock in general. A first-class collection of original tunes to groove to!

For more information you can visit the Gerry Alvarez Odyssey web site at: http://www.gerryalvarez.com.

Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald - Aural Innovations

By Christopher Duda
SugarBuzz Magazine

Visions of lysergic filled atom bombs skating in the inside of the skull like an overweight retro roller derby throwback. Waves of light filter through nerve cells numbing the cadaver into trance like states common to areas in countries that practice Voodoo.

Is Gerry Alvarez the second coming of rock and roll saviour a la John Lennon? Psychedelic abundance and rubber soles. Captain Alvarez steers the magic bus through doors of perception and into the land of Siddhartha

A member of the legendary Montreal based garage band-The Gruesomes; Gerry has graduated from bug juice to blotters of cosmic beings.

Swatches of chimerical brain waves send pulsating rhythms thus releasing endorphins; causing the body and mind to become one with the odyssey the candy prankster has sundered from the other world.

Want escapism from the daily grind of the 9 to 5. Let the candy prankster reach into your bag of sugar swill and replace it with a mind-numbing alternative. - SugarBuzz Magazine