So the new Pink Chameleons single ‘Slow Me’ has really got me thinking: what’s the best sax solo in a rock song? Not a George Michael pop track, but a good solid rock song with guitars, drum and added sax. The Rolling Stones perhaps with ‘Brown Sugar’ or David Bowie as featured in a few tracks. Deerhunter? Pink Floyd? No of course, all wrong, it is of course Cardiacs with their track ‘The Whole World Window‘, which I never saw performed live as I was too young, but the grainy Youtube footage still makes me weep buckets every time I watch it.
But ‘Slow Me’ is without question up there with anything I can remember, and unusually it mixes grunge rock with sax, which I can’t recollect many other bands trying either – although I’m more than happy to be corrected. It’s the quality of that solo that stands out too, which courtesy of Jussi Hurskainen is introduced just when you’d expect a guitar solo, and positively bellows out a sound that really puts the guitars firmly in their place.
Combined with the thumping guitar riff which carries the track through, this is a pretty bold statement from the band, who also impressed with the catchy ‘Hot Dog’ released earlier this month. Led by Paltsa-Kai Salama, who is no stranger to these pages thanks to the excellent Black Lizard and his own solo work, Pink Chameleons will release their debut full length ‘Peace & Love’ On May 21st via Soliti Records.
Speaking about the album, Paltsa-Kai says “I have always loved and played garage punk but the last five years or so I wanted to explore also a more mellow and arts-y sounds so in a way this is a kind of a return to my roots. Lyrically the album is dealing with a lot of frustration, anger and boredom. All those random feelings can be expressed quite easily with the aggressive sound of garage punk. I’m a lazy dude so it was quite an easy option"
He might regard himself as lazy, but the Paltsa-Kai Salama back catalogue is getting pretty extensive now, and it’s all worth checking out.
It’s Bandcamp Friday, so hurry along to but buy the track for less than 1/2 the price of a cup of coffee.
And because it’s Friday and because Tim Smith made me love music so much that I wanted to write about it, I’ll allow myself the self-indulgence to leave this old footage here too. hope you don’t mind. Stick with it, the last few minutes are extraordinary.