Shiva Burlesque - Shiva Burlesque

"A powerful and graceful band that was too post-punk to be folk-rock and too folk-rock to be post-punk..."

The quote above is from the Allmusic site and I think it is a very good introduction to Shiva Burlesque and their debut album. They were mentioned in my post from January as one of the best concerts I ever attended, so you could say I like them quite a bit. This album was picked by Melody Maker and Rolling Stone as one of their year end best of releases for 1988. Unfortunately critical raves don't sell records or pay the bills.

An emotional, dramatic and sometimes extreme rollercoaster of a record it has been a favorite of mine since first hearing it in 1988. Consisiting of singer Jeffrey Clark (whose vocals might remind you of Jim Morrison), James Brenner on bass, Joey Peters on drums and Grant Lee Phillips on guitar the latter two would go on to form Grant Lee Buffalo when Shiva Burlesque broke up in the early 90's.

Like The Doors, Love and X they were an L.A. band that had great, literate, dare I say it poetic lyrics and music that explored the dark underbelly of that town and life in general while never losing sight of the spiritual fabric of existence. Or something like that.

Here is the dark and explosive song The Black Ship which should make most Nick Cave fans happy in theme and performance, plus the much more subtle, dreamy and psychedelic tune Water Lilies.

An undiscovered 80's gem.

Buy it here.