Ericland: Space Age

Space Age

so this is the space age

isn’t it crap?

it’s not at all how we expected

way back before modern was already old fashioned

so this is the future

is this all real?

I don’t think that I like it

it’s kind of disappointing

I wanted it to be like Dan Dare

Clockwork Orange, 2001

Brave New World and Ziggy Stardust

but here we are

and it’s all so mundane

doing some work in the coffee shop

communicating on devices with people who aren’t really here

maybe I’m not really here

but I’m glad if I am

I wouldn’t have missed it for the world

As Wreckless Eric he needs little introduction — he wrote and recorded the classic Whole Wide World and had a hit with it back in 1977. Since then it's been a hit for countless other artists including The Monkees, Cage The Elephant and most recently for Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day.
As Eric Goulden it's a little more complicated - a musician, artist, writer, recording engineer and producer, he didn’t like either the music business or the mechanics of fame or the name he’d been given to hide behind, so he crawled out of the spotlight and went underground. He went on to release twenty something albums in forty something years under various names - The Len Bright Combo, Le Beat Group Electrique, The Donovan Of Trash, The Hitsville House Band, and with his wife as one half of Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, finally realizing he was stuck with the name Wreckless Eric.
Eric’s three most recent albums ‘amERICa’, Construction Time & Demolition and Transience are widely praised as his best work to date. His albums encapsulate pop, bubblegum, garage trash and psychedelia. His live performance is a sonic journey through time and space incorporating songs from all stages of his long career. Unmasked, unhinged and still alive - a survivor of Covid-19 (resulting in a near-fatal heart attack), Eric presents himself alone if not simply with electric and acoustic guitars, electrified harmonica, piano and electronics of his own making.

The achievement for Wreckless Eric is to have made new music that connects to old music without maudlin nostalgia or huffy defensiveness, refusing to let age dim the passion for the music that means the most to him. In other words, he rocks.
Ken Tucker FRESH AIR / NPR

Burns like a lost Crazy Horse classic.
Ben Graham SHINDIG!

A scarily powerful and forward-moving musical threat.
David Quantick MOJO MAGAZINE

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