GOLD CHAINS and SUE CIE "When The World Was Our Friend"

The second LP from San Francisco producer Gold Chains finds long time collaborator Sue Cie as a permanent addition to the band . Their sometimes haunting voices tell stories of loves lost and meanings found artfully stitched into tapestries of pure No-Cali attitude. As with previous releases (PIAS, Tigerbeat6, Musork) "When The World Was Our Friend" casts a hex on the unsuspecting listener who may have been previously unaware that such music even existed.

"you be the follower lets kill the leader..."

Gold Chains:
"We had talked a lot about making a punk rock record that somehow still felt like a house record and had elements of psyche and soul. To a lot of people these would seem to be pretty disparate influences but somehow they make sense for us once we get to work. This is just the music we like."

From sound system burners like "Come To Cali" and the farfisa driven madness of "No Tommorrow" to the heartfelt house bumper "Crowd Control" and the seasick Mexican flavored garage punk of "Multifear", GCSC deliver a soundtrack for romatic sunsets and extended nightlifes in an advanced west coast pop format.

"We were listening specifically to stuff like old Pink Floyd, John's Children, T-Rex, Black Flag, acid house, Beach Boys, Luomo, The Doors, mid-90s techno, old psyche records, Pleasure Forever, X, Song of Zarathustra, and Antioch Arrow to name a few."

"the thought of us just losing somehow seems so soothing, deranged on the radio, pacific highway cruising..."

San Francisco Bay Guardian:

Gold Chains and Sue Cie
When the World Was Our Friend (Kill Rock Stars)

After the loving's over, after the trend's moment has passed, after the hype has died down to a dull roar, how does a Gold Chain swing? Stripped of the bling, costume thing, and parodic posturing, Gold Chains comes clean on When the World Was Our Friend, gives Sue Cie credit as his partner in rhyme, and gets back to the pop basics - though Green Day he ain't, with rhymes like "You look like Monaco but you move like the Vatican." Nonetheless, he comes close with the Joan Jett-like, digitized rock 'n' roll stomp of "Stretch." And is that '60s Brill Building songcraft discernable on "High Tide" and "Runaway" - spinning "Be my baby" lyrics into "I'll be with you, baby"? There's a plainspoken, punk-but-thuggish bent in the former, while the same song's beat is twisted into a open-ended riddle in the latter. Can you hear the insanely, infectiously repetitive synth pop of a thorny "Walking in LA" on "Runaway," or the gothed-up, mechanistic Mexi-ska workout on "Multifear"? Though the emotional bids to "show us your heart" hint at greater intimacy from the swingin' Chains Ð could his onstage persona be permanently merging with his mild-mannered programmer alter ego Topher LaFata? - one suspects there are larger issues at stake. Is "Come to Cali" a bid for economic revitalization? Titles like "Crowd Control" and "Multifear" touch on urban anxiety. And does it matter when Chains and Cie seem to be so clearly on the right fast track themselves? When the World Was Our Friend comes out Oct. 12. (Kimberly Chun)