WL//WH Video Of The Day Royal Ottawa
Photo by John Major
Royal Ottawa, the Ottawa, Ontario 4-piece guitar rock outfit made up of Philip Hogarth (Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards, Lyrics), D’Arcy Walsh (Drums, Keyboards), Alan Pollock (Guitar, Vocals), and Michael Griffin (Bass), announces the release of a special 30th Anniversary Edition of their 1996 album, “Heaven,” with a video for “Desert Song”, a bonus AVI on the original pressing, via the DIY label The Beautiful Music.
Originated from an early ’80s New Wave /Post-punk band called Bugs Harvey Oswald, who brilliantly supported many legendary acts such as The Ramones, The Fall, Stray Cats, Bauhaus, Mission of Burma and many others, with only a 7” single, “Bye Bye,” in 1982, most of its members regrouped in 1996 as Royal Ottawa and dropped the promising mini-album, “Heaven,” to then vanish again.
The group wandered through sporadic releases over time; the superb 2015 LP, “The World We Know,” followed several years later, in 2023, by the massive double album, “Carcosa,” from which the association with The Beautiful Music label kicked off, and brought into the fold last February’s well-received “Here Comes Everybody” EP, featuring four new recorded tracks.
A straightforward, groovy slice of classic American guitar rock imbued with earnest emotional rawness, set in the middle of the desert under the pouring rain, the song sparks off a warm nostalgic rush of vibrant, punchy drum beats that trot along the sulky throbs from a nervous, slinky bassline, while abrasive, sometimes jagged, shimmery guitar riffs swirl and ring, laced with warped, echoing edges, around passionate male vocals, swaying between angst and melancholy next to a little sister, wrecked as a product of the USA.
To shoot the video, Hogarth and lyricist Ian Carter headed down to Las Vegas with a Super 8 camera and rented a red Mustang.
The DIY visuals for “Desert Song” use old, 1996 travel footage, from a trip to Vegas, to sync with the jangly sentiments of the soundtrack. Momentous gambling landmarks lit up by a thousand light bulbs set the epic final destination for a road trip through the seemingly endless sands. Candid, goofing around in the desert, clips combine with backward clock flows and crafty color editing to create a neon pastel daydream vibe with a ghostly electric mirage at night on the flip side.
This remastered new edition of Royal Ottawa‘s 1996 album, “Heaven,” features one previously unreleased song, “Glue“, recorded in the same sessions, as well as bringing the CD hidden track ‘Easy Come Easy Go’ out into the fold. “Heaven” will be released on vinyl and digitally on December 1st.
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