Jim Basnight
Lattes/Alone With Her (Single)
Power Popaholic Productions
This double A-side single is jaunty-jolly. "Lattes" salutes coffee and romance, with horns and violins adding to the fun. "Alone With Her" saunters all over, with more fun fiddles and horns. Two more very good songs from Jim, found on the album Summertime Peculiar, which is more than worth picking up.
Andrea Weiss
Box Of Letters is more LA magic from sparkle*jets u.k., a really good late 70s update, and just good music, period.
The band was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.
Andrea Weiss: This sounds very 70s, which I like. Who were you listening to from that decade that influenced the album?
Mike Simmons: The bulk of this album started 20 years ago, so who knows! But Beatles and everything after is kind of our thing. I, in particular, love early 70s AM hits, and late 70s cheese. But my 70s music and Jamie’s 70s music are super different.
Susan West: I love the cheese! I don’t want to live in a world without cheese, including musical cheese. I loved my AM radio during the 70s. AND ALSO I love the Osmonds, Jackson 5, The Defrancos. Sly and the Family Stone…
Jamie Knight: Both Mike and Susan grew up listening to 70s AM radio versus me listening to 70s FM radio. I loved the singer/songwriter music of the early 70s and then I gravitated towards jazz fusion and 70s soul music. I didn’t really like the whole rock attitude of the mid 70s. After I heard Cheap Trick and then the 70s power pop and new wave music I got back into rock music. Susan, Mike, and I get along so well because we all like similar music.
AW: This is sunshine pop for the most part, yet it seems downcast. Was this what you wanted to do, or did the songs you chose just go that way?
Mike: I don’t really think too hard about things. If a song comes I’m just happy it’s there, no matter what. It’s like a bread crumb thrown at you from the universe and you must see where it leads. The style of the music is just kinda what we like or where we’re at. The message, at least from my end, is love one another. That’s why we’re here.
Jamie Knight: I think it’s about maturity. When we started playing music together we were writing fun and very energetic songs. Susan and Mike have always been the primary lyricists and each has their own unique spin. Mike tends to be timely in his observations about life and culture, where Susan tends to like more obscure observations that are open to different interpretations. Mike will resolve conflicts with a message of love, whereas Susan will tend to be a bit “Sassy.”
AW: What’s “Hey Grandma” about, and is it a cover?
Jamie Knight: The song “Hey Grandma” is a cover by Moby Grape, who was a San Francisco band on Columbia Records. The Moby Grape was extremely popular in 1967-1969 but failed to “make it big” due to a series of management blunders and personal problems within the band. Since we didn’t write the song, I would speculate that the song is about the San Francisco Hippie scene. During the late 60s it was common to describe a girlfriend as your “old lady” and for a boyfriend to be described as her “old man.” The mini skirts were the look of the mid-60s and during the Hippie era girls started wearing “granny gowns.” sparkle* jets u.k had been invited to perform at The 2004 International Pop Overthrow in San Francisco at a club called Thee Parkside. Whenever I think of San Francisco I still think of the Hippie days and The Summer of Love. Since we were performing in San Francisco I suggested to Mike that we play The Moby Grape song “Hey Grandma.” I was surprised that Mike knew that song since he grew up listening to 70s AM radio. I should have known better when he said, “Yeah I know 'Hey Grandma,' that’s a song by The Move.” We rehearsed it with drummer Robbie Rist and we recorded it in one take. When Robbie started turning the song a from hippie-boogie song into a Who song Mike and I just went along with it during the “trippy” instrumental section. After the track was finished, Susan came by and she and Mike sang against the track. Mike also overdubbed another guitar part.
Susan West: This song is so much fun to play. It just feels good. It’s loud, the harmonies were so easy to nail. It’s like a family backyard BBQ. Everybodies is ROCKING…and the police might come, but they are digging it too and they start to dance a little and don’t stop the party.
AW: “Love Burn” sounds slightly dirty. Is it more about sex than love?
Susan: Not dirty really, but a love song for sure, though my personal pendulum of clean and dirty is a little off and does swing. I push the envelope, and then I hide the envelope. It’s a hurts so good kind of hurt. But to answer your question, it is more about LOVE than sex. If something burns when you are having sex, that probably is bad. But something better be burning somewhere if you're talking about a love thing.
AW: This album sounds so hopeful about the future, and looks to the past for inspiration as well. That’s great, and it sounds like this is also your statement of purpose. Is it?
Mike: The Zombies cover that starts the album was an old idea where I really wanted to plant my flag and say OK WORLD WE ARE HERE, PAY ATTENTION! Then our lives turned upside down a bit. All good things. But if I had a statement of purpose, it’s try and appreciate what you have and who surrounds you in this voyage of life. It’s not easy, even when life is easy. Even harder when life gets hard. But that’s the crux of it. Music is here to entertain and heal, both to the players and the audience.
Jamie: sparkle*jets u.k. have always been about positivity, friendship, silliness,and making great music. We have been best friends for over 25 years and the spirit and energy of the band got sidetracked by the music program that we started in the early 2000s at The Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts. The last few years we have been feeling nostalgic for the “good old days” of the band and have felt the need to finish all of the unfinished songs from 2004 and 2005 that were “placed on hold” due to our school music program.
AW: “I’m Away From My Desk” could be about working for a large corporation. Or is it about being stuck in a bad job and knowing it?
Mike: At the time, I was working in a cubicle. I thought it would be something many people understood…office culture. Copy machines, conference rooms, lunch runs. It’s just about that drudgery. I’m been a classroom teacher now for the last 15 years--totally different vibe!
AW: Would you come east to bring a bit of LA magic to the Right Coast?
Mike: It would be cheaper to fly you here. 🙂
sparkle*jets u.k.
Box Of Letters
Big Stir Records
This is their first album since last year's covers album, Best Of Friends, and features their first set of originals since 2002. It's chock full of goodies that ape the late 70s, such as the title song, the Zombies cover “This Will Be Our Year,” and “I’m Away From My Desk.” The Moby Grape cover, “Hey Grandma," improves on the original with better sound and a great update.
Then there is the disco break on “Princess Needy,” the disquiet of “Little Circles,” and the overall sunshine vibe of this LA band. It adds up to an album that's as good as Best Of Friends and celebrates LA just as much.
While at times they remind me of the well known Philly band SheerMag, in the main they are originals. They not only like the late 70s, they make it sound a lot better than it did at the time, and as someone who remembers that time, I find it great.
So if you remember that time too and want to relive it without any yacht rock vibes, this is for you. Or if you just want some good music, this will fit the bill too. It’s a wonderful album.
Andrea Weiss
SUPER 8
Retro Metro
Think Like A Key Music
The new album from one man band Paul “Trip” Ryan AKA SUPER 8 is sunshine pop in the style of mid 60s British Invasion rock, mostly the Beatles. It's very good--light without being lightweight, fun, with good beats, and yes, you can dance to it.
Lyrically it’s mostly romantic ups and downs, except for the instant classics “Just A Song,” which is about good music, and the Byrdsy stomp of “Almost Anything,” about unrequited love.
All the albums and singles I’ve heard from SUPER 8 have been great, fun, and yes, retro, but in a really good way, one that looks to the past to inform the present and never in a way that seems reactionary. This one’s not to be missed, so pick it up.
Andrea Weiss
Rome 56
Paradise Is Free
Think Like A Key Music
Arthur Lamonica, frontman for the 70s punk/new wave/CBGB’s band The Shirts, collaborated with his wife Kathleen Lamonica on this new album, and it's great.
They combine roots rock, power pop, and melodic rock. It's enjoyable, but somewhat dark, like the album opener, “The Man Behind the Man With a Gun,” yet it never gets that disturbing. This isn’t a horror movie.
Disquieting, but in a good way, these songs will make you think, like “Hustle of the Crowd,” a political song. And they don't forget to rock out. If that sounds like a good album to you, and it does to me, then you will like this, a lot. Maybe even love it.
Andrea Weiss
I’d seen the name Hungrytown before, and always meant to follow up, as the name sounded interesting. Now I finally have, and I'm glad I did. It’s always great to hear cool folk, and this certainly is.
Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson, who are Hungrytown, were kind enough to answer a few questions for me.
Andrea Weiss: For those who don't know who you are, could you give a short history of Hungrytown?
Rebecca Hall: I started singing semi-professionally while living in New York, doing mostly old jazz and blues standards. Ken has been a drummer since he was a teenager, performing in many numerous bands, and always with a strong 1960s feel. In 1997 a mutual friend was diagnosed with late-stage cancer, gave us her nylon-stringed guitar and asked that I sing at her memorial, which I did. One Christmas, Ken gave me the Sounds of the South CD collection, which contained a wealth of folk songs collected by Alan Lomax. I started picking at that guitar and before too long started writing my own songs that reminded me of some of those old traditionals. I started performing at open mics and eventually gathered a band which we called Rebecca Hall and the Falling Stars. Ken would usually sing harmony and play a little harmonica. We did various shows around NYC and also a couple in London. As happens so often, the band became difficult to manage (I'm not a leader type) and Ken and I started performing more as a duo. Over the next few years, Ken learned bass, then guitar, then mandolin and banjo! We made a couple of early albums under my name, called Rebecca Hall Sings! (2000) and Sunday Afternoon (2002). Ken performed on those recordings, but I felt bad that only my name was credited. In 2005 we were recording our next album, mostly in the hills of Virginia, with several superb bluegrass and old-time country musicians. They have awesome place and road names down there and one that we noticed was Hungrytown Road. I wrote a song with that name, and after a while we thought that it would make a good band name. We Googled it and saw that it hadn't yet been used, so that became the eponymous name of the first Hungrytown album--plus it saved on typesetting fees!
Ken Anderson: Yeah--what Rebecca said.
AW: Who are your influences?
Rebecca: Way too many to list here. The first handful that come to mind are Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Leonard Cohen, Tia Blake, Anne Briggs, Syd Barrett, Vashti Bunyan, Pentangle, Gene Clark, Karen Carpenter, the Kinks, Bridget St. John, Emitt Rhodes, Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Cat Stevens, Heron, and the entire Fading Yellow compilation series.
Ken: All of the above plus Phil Spector, the Pebbles collection, the Nuggets collection, Jackson C. Frank, the Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel, Honeybus, the Zombies, and everything on early Motown and Stax Records.
AW: I hear folk, folk/rock, and baroque pop in your music, and I like the combination. Which one would you say there is more of in your music?
Ken: It's all there, and the combination depends on the song, our mood and the time of day.
AW: Which genre do you feel your band fits into best?
Rebecca: All of the above!
Ken: None of the above!
AW: These songs seem suited for mornings, like "Morning Brings Peace Of Mind," or even twilight. Would you say your songs have more morning or evening moods?
Rebecca: I tend to get up late, so I'm going with evening.
Ken: I tend to get up early, so I'm going with morning.
AW: I know some of these songs, like "Feel Like Falling," deal with the pandemic. How did the pandemic affect you, and did that experience make it into the songs?
Rebecca: Definitely! It was a very scary time for us. We were hearing reports of old people dying from COVID from being in senior living centers, so we rushed to get Ken's elderly mom from Boston, and we took care of her at our rural home in Vermont for about a year. Of course, nearly all of our shows were canceled for two years. So this was an abrupt and wholly different way of life for us, and generally stressful. But we had the backhanded gift of time, which I used for walking through the hills and meadows, and just sitting and observing nature and the beauty around me. I think that period comes out most obviously in "Feel Like Falling," "Trillium and Columbine," and "Late New England (Afternoon in June)," but I think you can detect the sense of foreboding of that time in every song.
AW: Some of these songs seem so sad. Would you say it's easier to write sad songs or something happier?
Rebecca: As I mentioned above, it was a sad time, but I never set out to write sad songs. That said, I don't really trust happy songs--they often don't feel honest to me. Maybe that's a reason we seem to get on pretty well in the British Isles--I would say that a sense of melancholy permeates your music more than it does ours.
AW: Is there any chance of a tour, or just shows here and there?
Rebecca: We book shows here and there, and at some point we call it a tour!
Here is a link to upcoming Hungrytown shows dates.
Hungrytown
Circus For Sale
Big Stir Records
This delightful folk/folk rock/baroque pop album, which also is tough in a very subtle way, is perfect for quiet times, mornings, and twilight. The Vermont duo of Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson recorded the album in their barn, including vintage instruments in their arrangements, and with help from UK violist Rachael Birkin and New Hampshire’s Aliento Chamber Players.
The lyrics are subtly dark, with songs about the pandemic, struggling through life, and even a murder ballad, “Man Of Poor Fortune.” “Green Grow the Laurels” is traditional folk given a modern spin, and a good one. I was already familiar with this song, but their version makes it sound new.
Folk music, in any form, will always survive and thrive, because people are constantly reinventing it. Hungrytown is the latest, and they stand out for their willingness to blend in other types of music. There are even hints of power pop. It's all very appealing, always interesting, and always good. Recommended for those who know folk, and those who don’t. Let this be an introduction to folk music, and you can take it from there.
Andrea Weiss
