The Successful Failures - Here I am

 

The Successful Failures release their 4th full length album, another jewel in the bands already sparkling crown!  Quite why this band has not been elevated to the dizzy heights afforded to bands like Fountains Of Wayne, Weezer, Wilco et al, evades me somewhat.  I guess it must be a sign of the times in the music industry because these guys have the songs, the well crafted tunes, in fact they have 3 previous albums of this quality behind them already, I guess they are the wrong side of 20 years old to be deemed worthy by the superficial industry, even though everything this band have behind them in terms of music (maybe even looks if we get superficial too) would run circles around what is deemed to be popular music in the mainstream, this is pop, this is Power Pop, pure, raw and exciting, go take a listen!

With a name borrowed from a Jack London short story, an indie rock work ethic, and a penchant for melody, harmony, and heart- in-your-mouth-foot-on-your-sleeve lyrics The Successful Failures burst onto the scene out of the NJ pinelands in 2006. The band have released 4 full length CDs.

 

The NJ Americana/indie-rock band, The Successful Failures, have released their 4th full length album, "Here I Am" – a 12 song barrage of roaring, kicking, indie rock fun. The 12 new songs penned by singer/guitarist Mick Chorba (formerly of well-loved NJ garage rock band, Dipsomaniacs) are about fallen Civil War heroes, shark attacks, Vikings, the rise of new world leaders, and surviving the NJ Turnpike: the typical off-kilter subject matter the band has become know for. This album is all about the rock - blanketed with sweet harmonies and hook-laden melodies and guitar riffs. The Successful Failures will play a series of shows and live performances in support of "Here I Am". 

 Stream and buy "Here I Am" here: Bandcamp

(Check out the really cool package with signed CD and T shirt)

Contact, befriend, like and love The Successful Failures here: Facebook

Official Page here: http://www.thesuccessfulfailures.com

Phenomenal Cat - The Volume Police FREE DOWNLOAD

 

The 8th single in the "Postcards From The British Empire" single a month is out now for FREE download and once again this band manages to blow us away with another fantastic slice of top shelf power pop!

The band played a gig in their hometown of Folkestone last Saturday and the "Ice Cream Man" took a short flight from Sweden to go and see the band play, play with the mixing desk and soak up some great music and atmosphere.

The venue, Chambers, was a small basement with loads of little nooks and crannies for people to sit and enjoy a drink or three and these started to fill up fast and the house was virtually full by the time, the very young, but very able support band "The Basement People" took to the stage to do a first class job on waking the venue up with their synth based indie/pop/rock, (check them out here Bandcamp and like them here Facebook).

 The Basement People

As Phenomenal Cat took to the stage with their new brass section in the form of Dan and Tim on trumpet and sax, the faces emerged from the nooks and crannies and Phenomenal Cat displayed why we shouldn't ignore them, nothing is lost in their live performance but so much more is added, Sam's wry sense of humour, Natalie's charming smile, Mik's cowboys and Indians shirt and Ben's unwavering concentration on the beat, creating the backbone to a band that already has more spine than your average Joe!

Sam, Mik, Natalie, Ben, Dan and Tim played through the 12 songs that will eventually make up the complete "Postcards From The British Empire" in its entirety, the brass section really adds an exciting dimension to a sound that was already something special, a band that is so quintessentially English in the same way The Kinks, The Jam, The Who  and Blur are, a band that sing observational songs about everyday life that are easy to relate to.  Phenomenal Cat are passionate about their music and work hard to deliver, both in their recordings, a single a month is no mean feat, and live too.

The night ended with the band playing "Ramshackle Heart" for the encore and the crowd still shouting for more half an hour after the set had finished and the band were packing their instruments away.
I hope the band will spread their wings and share this music around the country and beyond because they put on a great, fun live show, they certainly have the songs and they are one of the most friendly, unassuming bands that I have had the pleasure to meet as well!

All the proceeds from the physical single sales will be offered up in the usual fashion of this band to charity.  I would also like to give a special shout out to Holly Coull who crafted 30 very stylish "Cat" keyrings (one of which is now living here in Sweden with me) which were sold at the gig with all profits going to Guys and St Thomas' hospital charity.  Great work by both the band and Holly.

Download the latest single and check out the previous 7 releases here: Bandcamp

(The songs are available for free download, just put in "0" in the price field, but if you really enjoy the music, please consider making a donation to enable this band to continue making music)

Contact, follow, befriend, like and love Phenomenal Cat here: Facebook

State Records

State Records was founded in the Autumn of 2007 with the intention of making records that sound like records used to and they have certainly achieved that with some very fine recordings of a wonderful stable of bands.

The label records their signings on an 8 track anologue set up and produce and engineer the music to a very high standard, to my ears there is a certain warmth in the sound of the recordings which you just can't capture with a digital recording, kind of like the Vinyl over CD argument maybe?

State records very kindly sent me a whole pile of music from the label and as I was listening through it to see what I would feature on the blog, the pile for inclusion far outweighed that I was going to include, in fact there wasn't anything in the latter, so I decided to feature the label as a whole and include something from all the bands in the State Records family whilst recognising the work behind the recordings at the same time.

Before we head onto the music of the label, here is an interesting short documentary about the label.

 

The Higher State - Automatic Motion

"The Higher State" is the labels own band and this superb video was Directed by none other than Sam Carney, vocalist and guitarist with Ice Cream Man favourites "Phenomenal Cat" with the splendid camera work carried out by James Newton.

Follow, befriend, like and love The Higher State here: Facebook

Paul Messis - Time Will Tell

Paul plays an authentic 60's garage style of music incorporating elements from the Michigan and New England teen scenes along with West Coast folk rock and Psychadelic scenes.

Contact, follow and find out more about Paul Messis here: Official Site

Groovy Uncle - Count On Me

Groovy Uncle began as a solo venture for Glenn Prangnell way back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.  I am not sure how much truth there is in that, but, they are very good!

These are just three bands that make up part of the State Records label, other signings to the label, and all are worth hearing, are: Internationale, Hidden Masters, Marty Ratcliffe, The Lykes Of Yew, Bernard Eveleigh, The Wildkat Tamers, The Offhooks, Sleeping Bear, The Galileo 7 and Suzi Chunk.

This really is a great label with great bands and a fantatstic ethic of making records like they used to, so the least we can do is go and buy records like we used too!

State Records have a brilliant web site which gives you all the information about their studio, should you wish to record some fine anologue sounds, you can listen to music by all their signings and find out more about the artists too and of course you can buy all the music there too.

State Records Official Site

Contact: Info@StateRecs.com

The Ice Cream Man is off for a few days to see Phenomenal Cat!

 

I am flying over to the UK to catch a live performance by Phenomenal Cat who will be performing all of their songs from the single a month releases.

If you are in the area, come on down and say hi to the band and have a great evening with us in Folkestone.

Check out Phenomenal Cats music FREE here: Bandcamp

I'll be back soon!

Didn't Planet - We're Goin' Nowhere

Concept albums can be hit or miss, I remember reading about one very famous musician writing one and he gave up half way through because he couldn't get it to flow the way he really wanted, well, "Didn't Planet" did get it to flow and this one is definately a hit.

"We're Goin' Nowhere" is about a covers band going through the motions of getting it together, playing gigs, the crap promoters who suggest;  "Turn the music down, we had a band in here last night with half the equipment you guys have and they sounded great!" Also the trial and tribulations of audiences asking to hear something that you really can't stomach.
This is a rock 'n' roll album from a band that cut their teeth as a covers band who have now put that experience into this concept album for us all to hear, it is funny, it is sad, sometimes it is cringeworthy (the story, not the band) but this really deserves a listen, as with many CDs I listen to, I listened to this in the car and it had me nodding in agreement, laughing out loud, but most importantly, it had me gripped and drumming on the steering wheel.



"Didn't Planet" hail from Massachusetts and their mission with this album was to create an album that would compel listeners to listen from start to finish.  The stories told through the records songs and mini sketches, coupled with liner notes draw the listener into the concept and tie it all together and after a while, you almost feel you are there as a bystander in the audience or next to the band.

Contact, befriend, like and love "Didn't Planet" here: Facebook

Buy the album here: CDBaby

The Jac - Faux Pas. OUT NOW

This fine CD arrived in the post today, beautifully wrapped up in gift paper of the same print as the cover and a gift it is.

"The Jac" is a one man band and that man is Joe Algeri, member of Jack and The Beanstalk and The Brittanicas, a man who not only has an ear for a blinding tune, or eleven in this case, but he also has a pretty cool sense of humour too.

"Faux Pas" is a wonderful blend of Power Pop, New Wave, 60's and a dash of punk, music with no boundaries, plenty of humour and a little weirdness too, how refreshing that is!

Joe's press release for this album raised a few smiles with me and he can obviously introduce himself far better than I can, so over to Joe.



It feels silly that I should pretend to write my own press release in the third person as if I were someone else. I wrote and made every note and noise on this album and have released it myself so we’ll cut the bullshit.

After two decades of making and playing music, I decided that I wanted to challenge myself as much as I wanted to challenge people’s expectations of me. My first two solo albums, "Everything Under The Sun" (1999) and "The Stockholm Years" (2005) were rooted in some sort of acoustic, folk-rock idiom as far as being pop albums was concerned. But after a decade of tinkering with home recording, I felt confident that I could now do whatever I pleased. About 3 years ago I stopped writing exclusively on acoustic guitar. 2 years ago I started this project and it felt like a revelation - for the first time in my life I could record exactly what I wanted, the way I wanted.


Being house-bound with a young family also meant that I couldn’t necessarily be rehearsing and recording with a band as much I used to. This time around I didn’t particularly care if or how any of these tracks would ever be played live. All of a sudden I had that 1967 sense of adventure that many of my musical heroes must have experienced; let’s not set-up any creative boundaries.

I am truly grateful that over the years the music I have made with my main-stay in Australia, Jack & the Beanstalk and my more recent international collaboration with the Britannicas, have vaguely affiliated me with the "power-pop" scene. Some of the tracks from Faux Pas could have easily been recorded by those bands but most of them probably couldn’t. Some of the tracks won’t be to everyone’s taste; I’m bracing myself for some negative reviews but I’ll be over-joyed with any positive ones. Anything as long as it’s not just "nice" and conveniently filed under…

 For anyone that knows me personally they will understand my humour and I hope this shines through on the album. There are no serious or cryptic messages in these songs, the spirit of the album is meant to be fun and playful.

More than anything I’ve ever done in the past, I’m immensely proud of this album, it represents 2 years of my life. I hope you enjoy it too.

                                                                        Cheers,
                                                             Joe Algeri (the JAC)

Also included with the CD is a bonus disc entitled "Drugs Trucks and Jesus" which Joe recorded with various bands and friends which makes for excellent listening, including covers of The Kinks "Tired Of Waiting", a really cool version of The Nerves "When You Find Out" and my favourite The Turtles "You Showed Me" by The Turtles, written by Jim McGuinn and Gene Clark of The Byrds.

 This is a perfect compliment to what many people will consider "Faux Pas" to be, a perfect album.

                                     Contact, befriend, like and love The Jac here: Facebook
                     Stream, download and buy a physical copy of "Faux Pas" here: Bandcamp

Be sure to check out Joe's other ventures with The Britannicas and Jack and The Beanstalk too!

The Grimm Generation - 'Blink, I'm Gone' VIDEO

The Grimm Generation whom I featured a while back on the blog have just released a new video, which I think is rather wonderful, so I decided to share it with you all.  Enjoy!

'Blink, I'm Gone' is a song / video based on modern crime and old fashioned betrayals.

The Grimm Generation's 'Blink, I'm Gone' is a tale of marginalized people heading ever long into their only eventuality: oblivion. Directed by Zack Wussow, 'Blink, I'm Gone' tells the story of criminal conspiracies and the fall out of a few bad decisions. Starring The Grimm Generation's Jason P. Krug as 'The Driver', Carmen Champagne as 'The Muscle', and Lys Guillorn as 'The Boss',  'Blink, I'm Gone' also features a performance by Alexander delCampo as the star crossed 'Asher'. '

 The Grimm Generation sound has been described as Morning After Music and Radio Songs For Voyeurs though personally described as ‘If Alan Lomax and Ziggy Stardust had a baby’. It’s creepy, suburban pop-noir made and played by creepy suburbanites. Carmen Champagne and Jason P. Krug started The Grimm Generation as an outlet to tell real time stories of cheap excess and alcohol, but with the addition of Lys Guillorn (lapsteel, banjo, bells, rawk guitar), Eric Bloomquist (bass) and Julie Drechsler (cello) has evolved into more a sweeping soundtrack of a movie that may be your real life.

Contact, Befriend, Like and Love The Grimm Generation here: Facebook 

Listen to more songs and find out more at the official Grimm Generation site: http://www.thegrimmgeneration.com/