XANADU
(November 1978 thru January 1979)
Cary Loren:
Guitar and voice
Ben Miller:
Guitar, bass, and organ
Laurence Miller:
Guitar, bass, and voice
Rob King:
Drums
Donna and Tara Sevakis:
Additional vocals
XANADU was born out of the ashes of DESTROY ALL MONSTERS.
Exclusively a recording project only, XANADU managed to release one record
in it's short three month life span. A four-song 33 1/3 rpm 7" vinyl record titled
"BLACK OUT IN THE CITY"
"DAYS OF DIAMONDS"
A bootleg Destroy All Monsters EP, was released a few months prior by
members of XANADU. This record sported rough basement material from early
D.A.M. rehearsals, including a silly multitrack song of Laurence's recorded in 1977
at Cary Loren's request, called "There Is No End". If only it were true...
XANADU
"BLACK OUT IN THE CITY"
Black Hole Records
$20.00
(includes postage)
Less than 10 records left!
Side A)
NO CHANGE
TIME BOMB
Side B)
BLACKOUT IN THE CITY
SWITCH THE TOPIC
Cary Loren
Ben Miller
Laurence Miller
Rob King
Special Guest: Donna Sevakis
Front Cover  | Back Cover  |
"LOST IN THE GROOVES"
Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed
XANADU REVIEW
by Matthew Smith / Fall 1996
XANADU Blackout in the City EP (Black Hole Records, 1979)
Detroit in the late seventies was an exciting, gloomy, demented void. It was the nuclear aftermath of the Motown era. You could hang out at Bookie's Club 870 and go to record stores where you'd meet all kind s of acid-blasted walking ghosts still recovering from the shock of seeing, or being in, The Stooges, MC5, Funkadelic or countless lesser-known groups. Great music existed, but it was destined to fall into the same black hole that had swallowed ? and the Mysterians. While Ted Nugent ruled the airwaves, people couldn't have cared less about "City Slang" by Sonic's Rendezvous Band. At a record convention in 1980, I came across strange magazines by the Ann Arbor-based collective DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. I already owned their "Days of Diamonds" EP, featuring founding member Cary Loren. Having read various accounts of his mysterious disappearance, I asked the guy behind the table, "Whatever happened to Cary Loren?" "I am Cary Loren," he replied. I told him how much I loved "Diamonds". He said, "If you like that, you'll probably like this" and handed me the XANADU EP. I think it cost $4.00.
XANADU featured Cary and longhaired siblings Larry and Ben Miller. The Miller brothers played in countless bands, including SPROTON LAYER (1969-70, with their brother Roger, who later formed MISSION OF BURMA). The XANADU record is all acid flashbacks, atom-age uneasiness, fuzz-guitar storms, slithering prog-grooves, and lyrics that describe a panorama of astral destruction.
In an interview (Yeti #1), Cary explains that the lyrics to "Blackout in the City" were inspired by a vision of "an expressionistic black Jesus dripping blood from the sky". Twenty years later, Cary Loren explores similar vibrations with acid-folk improvisers MONSTER ISLAND and a reunited DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. Still, nothing quite captures the "darkness before more darkness" that was Detroit at the end of the seventies, the way this vinyl artifact does.
