Last February we made up for lost decades with a review of the earliest recordings from a band that somehow slipped by me for decades before the surfaced in my ocean. The band were Savage Republic and they were perhaps the only band I’d ever heard from Southern California who could rightly be typified as Post-Punk. In the classic sense of the phrase. L.A. had no shortage of New Wave acts, but Post-Punk; New Wave’s older, nervy big brother, was never a fit with that locale.

I’d found Savage Republic to be a bracing cocktail of tribal/industrial beats, hard anti-fascist politics, and …surf rock? One of their original vocalists, Jeff Long seemed like he had stepped out of an L.A. hardcore punk band into the radically different togs that Savage Republic sported. At times, the disconnect between his delivery and the music grated on my ears. But what I’d heard was intriguing enough to have piqued my interest. With that in mind, my next move was to see where the band were at, headwise, 40 years later, on their last studio album, 2021’s “Meteora.”

Savage Republic: Meteora – EUR – CD [2021]

1. Nothing At All
2. Stingray
3. God + Guns
4. Bizerte Rolls
5. Meteroa
6. Unprecedented
7. Boca Del Vaca
8. Newport ’86
9. Ghost Light

“Nothing At All” proffered a cavernous, thunderous din of orchestral power wedded to a strident vocal that threatened to blot out the sun. This sounded huge! And before we even had time to get our bearings in this tumultuous new world of sound, it was over like that. Two minutes and five seconds of electrodes placed at one’s neck with enough jolting power to reanimate a corpse.

Then the band took an extreme volte face on “Stingray” with its thunderous Surf Rock sound that was almost sexy. The bass solo managed to get way up into the thoracic cavity and reverberate magnificently. And it seemed even faster at 2:20 that was over in a blink of an eye. Then, “God + Guns” appeared on the horizon.

There was a squeal of guitar feedback and an underlying hum as a baleful yowl intoned the lyrics that utterly failed to sugar coat the problem at hand. Then after making an already strong impression, repeated those words even more forcefully, changing the word “follow” to “worship.” As duly noted below. Then steel percussion and massive, grinding guitar chords howled through the barren hellscape of the song. When the vocals rejoined the track they were doubled as the lyric was repeated ever more forcefully.

Just when the paint was peeling off of my walls came the stylistic whiplash of “Bizerte Rolls!” [Bizerte being a city in Tunisia] and you would be forgiven for thinking that Dick Dale was still walking the earth as fat Lebanese riffs chugged along forcefully; stopping only to take in a surprising middle eight of percussive rim hits ticking away as the jazz piano accompanied them.

The title track was announced with liquid guitar riffs and a stout rhythm moving us through the doleful sonic landscape. There was even a plaintive organ riffing along with the guitars and bass as the haunting theme of the song developed. The guitar tone here was impeccable with just the right amount of distortion to convey the world weary melancholy of the track. Then we were surprised by the appearance of a vocal verse in what was the coda of the heretofore instrumental number.

“Unprecedented” sounded like it was another Savage Republic song but was actually written by Graham Lewis of Wire! The vocals were given a spoken-word recitation in nearly whispered tones as the same stentorian vocal that gave us “God + Guns” shouted along in a cave a couple hundred feet away for every utterance of the title. These had to be the most extreme split octave vocals I’ve ever heard.

The not-quite Surf Rock of “Boca Del Vaca” was another instrumental that trafficked in twang yet also featured hazy, almost shoegaze vibes as this band were gleefully throwing the Rock Rulebook™ onto the scrapheap of convention. The following “Newport ’86” almost reached a kind of euphoria as the Shoegaze/Surf fusion was recalling The Mermen to these ears.

The concluding “Ghost Light” opted for a more disquieting miasma of unresolved guitar harmonics that were punctuated by martial drum fills and subterranean bass lines. Troubled music for troubled times; giving the drums the last word.

After now hearing the earliest and latest recordings of Savage Republic, I have to conclude that their artistic DNA was almost there from the start as they have plowed their unique Post-Punk via California furrow along over the many years. Forty years later they are still merging morose Post-Punk which would ideally emanate from Manchester, UK with the roiling ecstasy to be found in Surf Rock from their native California …while also attacking fascism with a vigor that burns with every fiber of their being. This, in a nutshell is apparently Savage Republic. A wholly unique proposition in this world of disparate musics and rigid silos in which to hear them. It’s available in DL/CD/LP in their Bandcamp store at a delightful $7/$15/$22 price points. That’s amazing if you are of a LP persuasion. If you hear their siren call then DJ hit that button!

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