Merry Go Down: Flashbacks
This album is a collection of reinterpretations of songs from the Merry Go Down set list. Active from 1989-1992 Merry Go Down was a rock/funk 5 piece with a penchant for theatrics, paintings and mannequins. Being a hard working band was part of their ethos, on average rehearsing 4 nights a week and usually performing on weekends, they were tight.
A blend of compatible personalities and a love for collective effort made the band capable and bold, meaning in a short amount of time they were entertaining sizable audiences in San Diego bars and later moving on to larger venues opening for bands like Rage Against the Machine, Tool and others.
Offering their unique blend of upbeat rock with tinges of psychedelia, funk and sampling in a time when loading a 3 second sample took two minutes Merry Go Down earned their keep as grunge raged on.
Founded by Steve Espinoza (drums, vocals, task master) and Marcelo Radulovich (guitar, vocals, song writer) Merry Go Down had an inviting presence, a cartoon-like look and home grown chops. Daniel Pritchard (keyboards, vocals), Pete Johnston (bass, vocals) and Frank Gaeta (guitar, keyboards) rounded up the group, each contributing to the sound, look and feel of the band.
Merry Go Down was all about performing to an audience, they delivered many high energy driven shows throughout their short existence, yet no really good recordings were captured and that is where this collection comes in, 30 years later a well-produced album of something resembling Merry Go Down.
At this point we’ll let co-founder Marcelo Radulovich provide further context:
“I, Marcelo, began working on this album in 2017, a part time labor of love for sure, guided and fueled by a simple mission: make good recordings of a few Merry Go Down songs. On the surface a simple task yet as I dug in I was riddled with a series of questions, which called for choices to be made, after all, that was then and this is now, there is no Merry Go Down and whatever new hybrid is formed I thought, it will never be the original, not a big problem though. Stick to the songs I told myself. Stick to a blend of what was with a focus on what is.
I re-learned the songs listening to old cruddy recordings, created drum machine arrangements and recorded the bare bones for 8 songs at my home base, Titicacaman Studio. I contacted my living band mates and they were keen to the idea of participating in one way or another, great I thought, that’ll help create the illusive connection I as producer felt was necessary to brand the recordings as a Merry Go Down album.
The most pressing question related to drums. Steve the drummer chose suicide a few years ago so I was faced with who to fill that role. While the original Merry Go Down was a rock/funk band my sense and inclination for this new version was funk/rock, which called for someone with a feel and love for funk music. That led me to Jake Najor, a busy San Diego drummer with a natural groove, he graciously accepted my invitation and is featured on all 8 songs.
Next issue: lead guitar. Frank served that role well in the original line up but his focus these past years has been on sound design and editing for films. This led me to approach my Nicey Nice World band mate Mike Watson who at the time Merry Go Down was active played with a band called Daddy Longlegs, we shared the stage on many a night, kindred spirits for sure. He accepted my invitation and recorded some very sizzling, lyrical leads that give the songs a seasoned tone. Frank did contribute some guitar to one of the songs and even brought in his son Diego to add some very tasty Rhodes piano.
The other issues were easy to deal with, Pete contributed bass for a few songs, I played bass on others, Daniel added synth bass to most of them. I kept filling up the holes and enjoyed working long distance with Daniel who took the time to dive into every song and delivered a familiar Merry Go Down timbre as well as assisting in the mastering process.
End result, 8 catchy, bouncy songs each packing unique flavorings and ear candy. 33 minutes of introspective tongue in cheek funk, moody and sensual, fun and engaging, stuff you can dance to if you should so desire. In no way does this album cover the breadth and span of the originalband but then again that was not the intent, that was then and this is now, this is a musical temporal distortion, a sonorous flashback, a night out with old friends and, as Ammonia D would say: Play It On!”
Have a listen and connect with Merry Go Down:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2M84k4cOfkjTfSpnOo7zwa?si=uDjNj5NSS1Cf08_xaSklXw
