Search - Randy California :: Kapt. Kopter & The (Fabulous) Twirly Birds

A fine acid rock souvenir from the early '70s

The Sanity Inspector | USA | 12/04/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"If you're here, then you know. Just pull out your credit card while you read this. First, the Jimi thing. Randy California may have influenced him, rather than vice versa. In "Jimi Hendrix Electric Gypsy", we read about how a young California runaway played in a band with Hendrix for a little while. His name was Randy Wolfe. Since there were two Randy's in the band, Jimi called them Randy Texas and Randy California. The latter went on to form Spirit with Ed Cassidy. Shortly after Jimi's death, Randy C. turned solo, letting his guitar playing burn more than it had in the jazzier Spirit. His first solo album, "Kaptain Kopter and the Fabulous Twirly Birds", is as devout a testament to Hendrix's music as has ever been waxed. Mind you, it isn't a _great_ album. Randy never did get very good at being a front-man. And the crew obviously toked up and decided to fiddle with every dial on the mixing board, not always to enjoyable effect. In fact, much of the album sounds like it's being played through blown tweeters--the joke being that they'll save us the trouble, I suppose. But check out his cover of "Day Tripper." It is very much in the same vein as the Jimi version on the Radio One cd. "Devil" is an affecting acid ballad, I guess you'd call it. "Downer" is a cacophany of guitar noise--heavy, man! "Things Yet To Come" is a long, simple tone poem for bass line and wah-wah, very early 70's, very groovy, very hard to get out of your head. And he hits an opposite field upper deck home run with another Beatles cover, "Rain". It starts off with a silly country-rock riff which gets progressively more manic. This collapses into a hideous laugh, and the song gets in gear, in earnest. California overdubs himself VERY druggy lead, and letting fly with some jimi-ish glissandi, screeching and swooping over the song. This is the song that the Rolling Stone reviewer was probably thinking of when he called the album a "mega-watt garage bomb." To make the Hendrix tribute more obvious, Randy brought in Noel Redding to play bass, under the name "Clit McTorius." One listen to this and you'll immediately catch velvet pants, fringed leathers, American flag headband, the whole trippy works. The cd has kind of a half-baked feel to it, but the well-done parts are well done indeed. Any chance to buy this out of print cd is to be seized immediately."

Raw Studio Homage to Hendrix

xplodit | 05/13/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Kaptain Kopter and the Twirlybirds is a tribute to Hendrix; on KK&T Randy California not only manages to layer the Hendrix style over covers, "Day Tripper" and "The Mother and Child Reunion" and originals "Downer" and "Devil", he does it effortlessly. Instead of simply imitating Jimi's sound, he plays it as if he knows exactly what he's doing, instead of guessing at producing riffs here and there. The music is at times rough, other times fluid, and sometmes blistering; it can be listened to repeatedly for nuance, power and melody. The cover of "The Rain", a Beatles tune, slips into fusion, not long after, or during the advent of the hybrid of rock and jazz made its advent. Legend has it that Hendrix took California into the studio once and taught Randy things about treble, volume and wah-wah that Jimi showed no other. Makes sense if you listen to it. The album is more than an oddity, it is a required delicacy in the collection of any serious rock music fan, now and forever."

Very different, very rough mix, somewhat chaotic.

tvan97@prodigy.net | florida | 02/14/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is nothing like Spirit's great classic Dr. Sardonicus. This is California paying homage to Hendrix (esp. on "Downer") they had a band together before Jimi hit it big. This is like "Spirit of '76"; only more hard rock; disorganized. Songs fade out & return. Really odd guitar overdubs (backwards playback?)loop & droop all over the place. Check out the guitar scream at the end of intro to "Rain". Original, it will take some time to let this one grow on you. Then you'll agree it's a (hard rock) classic, although some might say it's strictly a period piece. Best cut: "Things yet to come". Like nothing you've heard. Very original Not for the faint-hearted or seeker of pretty songs."