Mamo Waves
(Bulbous Monacle) LP $20.00
Named after a West Coast grocery store chain, this eccentric mid-’80s band drew on free jazz, The Velvet Underground, Caribbean music, and improv noise. Their sole self-released album Roast Belief (Bogden 1985) served up eclectic derangement on a par the Butthole Surfers, Meat Puppets, Sun City Girls, Tuxedomoon and Eugene Chadbourne. Originally planned for release by Camper Van Beethoven’s Pitch-A-Tent, Mamo Waves is every bit the mind-melting jumble of the unheralded genres that popped in and out of existence like subatomic particles, and belongs to the same 1980s Californian sub-underground aesthetic that nurtured mythical ’80s bands like Departmentstore Santas and Prominent Disturbance. It’s a real WTF m.o. that still sounds like the future.