2000 Great Songs #1211: Rocket Machine

After co-founding Rain Parade and contributing to what is, IMHO, the greatest retro-psychedelic album ever, guitarist David Roback left the band and--after a brief one-off side project, the wonderful covers collection Rainy Day--formed Opal with bassist Kendra Smith--who, likewise, had departed fellow Paisley Underground band Dream Syndicate after a lone LP. (Confusing!)

Opal only released a single LP, 1987's Happy Nightmare Baby (plus an EP and some other stray recordings collected on bootlegs) before Smith split, but it's a pretty damn cool album--raw 60s-styled psychedelia, with some dark, bluesy strains of garage rock, ideal for a late night with the headphones on but not exactly soothing. The album itself probably works better on the whole than on a song-for-song basis, but "Rocket Machine" is still pretty freaky on its own, the sound of a band getting a little wasted and cranking out some grungy psychedelia late one afternoon. But it's also enlivened by some serious T.Rex glam vibes, albeit shrouded in heavy murk.

After Smith's departure, Roback found a young singer named Hope Sandoval to replace her, changed the band name to Mazzy Star, and produced some stunning (and more commercially viable) work, with Opal's lo-fi grit sanded off. Sadly, Opal's recordings are all long out-of-print (I've duped my CDs for friends over the years because they're so hard to find). But you can find them on YouTube.

Wicked-cool live version with Hope Sandoval in 1988 before the Mazzy Star name-change:

Live 1987, with Kendra: