“(Brave New) World Series” — premiering exclusively below from Denver punk group Bud Bronson & the Good Timers’ upcoming sophomore album — does involve baseball’s fall classic. But it’s not about balls, strikes or which teams might meet in a few weeks’ time. READ MORE…
John Isaac Watters keeps his eccentricities at a grounded state in “If I Were the Smoke.” An introspective look into a debilitated relationship, Watters – who goes by Rainstorm Brother with producer Tyler Chester – explores the reasons why Watters keeps himself at arm’s length from someone he loves. The balladeer’s gruff, yet dextrous vocal delivery, which reminds me of a younger Tim Buckley, usurps his poetic sensibilities while a murky undercurrent of modular electronics and discordant chamber arrangements spread a tenebrous ambiance. READ MORE…
Charlie Overbey
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Charlie Overbey – Broken Arrow (out April 20)
Charlie Overbey may be a lifelong Californian, but his songs are steeped in the timeless traditions of the American South. After years of touring the world supporting acts ranging from David Allan Coe and Blackberry Smoke to Social Distortion and Motorhead, Overbey slowly amassed a collection of introspective original songs that transcend the endless rock & roll party, taking a stark, undeniably honest look at some of life’s most gritty moments. The result is Charlie Overbey’’s new LP, Broken Arrow.
A triumphant collection of road-hardened alt-country tunes born of Overbey’s upbringing in what he calls “the school and church of Johnny Cash,” Broken Arrow features guest appearances from The Mastersons (who also play in Steve Earle’s band The Dukes), Miranda Lee Richards (who sings on duet single “Slip Away”) and Eddie Spaghetti of the Supersuckers, and was produced by Ted Hutt who recently won a Grammy for his work with Old Crow Medicine Show, and has helmed multiple albums by Lucero, The Gaslight Anthem, Dropkick Murphys and many more.
“I’ve never worked with anybody like Ted,” Overbey says, reflecting on the sessions. “This is the first time I’ve ever let go and trusted somebody else as a partner in my songs. He really pulled some stuff out of me that I had not planned on delivering. Honestly, these songs can be hard for me to sing—they come from a deep, real and sometimes dark place.”
Self-aware and introspective without relying on played-out tropes of love and loss, Overbey’s songwriting is genuine, fearless and visceral. Authentic, reverb-drenched ‘70s-channeling album opener “Slip Away” gets right at the heart of life’s darkness, chronicling the heart-wrenching suicide of a young girl. Accompanied by wailing pedal steel and the haunting harmonies of Miranda Lee Richards, the song sets a tone of somber acceptance in the face of mortality.
“The Ballad of Eddie Spaghetti”—featuring a guest appearance from its namesake—also addresses mortality, though from a different perspective, confronting Spaghetti’s recent struggles with cancer. While the refrain, “If I die at 47, if I die before my time / Will they drag me up to heaven or deliver me to Hell in my prime” might read as a last will & testament, the soaring vocals and upbeat tempo elevate it to an awe-inspiring, fist-pumping battle cry. As Overbey sees it, “You gotta step up and kick life’s ass sometimes.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Overbey was exposed to country music early and often. It wasn’t something he sought out on his own—his father owned a 1947 Gibson J-45 acoustic guitar, and almost every time it was played, out spilled a Johnny Cash song. Overbey recalls these times fondly and admits they shaped his musical growth, though it took years of punk-rock rebellion before he’d come to appreciate the genre’s influence on him. “When you’re raised, and it’s all around you,” he says, “it’s the last thing you want to be a part of.”
Overbey’s first success in the music industry came when his cowpunk outfit Custom Made Scare landed a deal with Side One Dummy Records in 1998. But before the band’s debut album dropped, Overbey went on the run from the law for months, finally turning himself in and spending a year in prison. The very same week he was released, the band hit the road immediately, and toured heavily into the new millennium alongside seminal punk acts such as Suicidal Tendencies, Social Distortion, Agent Orange, Zeke and REO Speedealer.
A side project of Overbey’s called Charlie & The Valentine Killers also toured in the late 2000s with David Allan Coe and Lemmy’s side outfit The Headcat. “It was still days of angst,” Overbey says, but the country-leaning project’s sound served as an important precursor to his current solo work backed by the Broken Arrows.
Looking ahead to the April 2018 release of Broken Arrow, Overbey is gearing up to hit the road with a vengeance for the first time in years. He and the band are already working on songs for a follow-up record that will draw from the same rich vein as Broken Arrow. Overbey isn’t one for idle hands—when he isn’t playing or writing, Charlie has become a well-known name in the fashion world with his one-of-a-kind, hand-shaped Lone Hawk Hats, for devotees in the Americana scene, including the camps of Blackberry Smoke, Miranda Lambert, Lucero, the Foo Fighters, Dwight Yoakam, Cage The Elephant, Kaleo, and Miley Cyrus. Lone Hawk Hats were even the focus point in a recent Stella McCartney campaign.
It’s a craft Overbey taught himself by trial and error, ultimately carrying with it the same authenticity and attention to detail you’ll find in his songwriting. They are available at several high-end locations, including he and his lady’s brick-and-mortar shop Honeywood Vintage / Lone Hawk Hats on ultra hip York Blvd in Highland Park, Los Angeles.
As the album title suggests, an existential darkness permeates Broken Arrow. It is the work of a road-savvy rock & roll veteran who sees the world as it is, fully grasping the jagged pain of life. But this darkness isn’t a dead end—Overbey’s songs are shot through with enough hard-fought resilience, determination and optimism to remind listeners the only way out is forward, and that the wild ride of life is a mysterious and beautiful gift.
“A real-life outlaw” – Adobe and Teardrops
“Deep and growling…takes his mixture of music honed through decades on the country and punk rock scenes and gives it a modern day Outlaw twist.” – Americana UK
“The work of a road-savvy rock & roll veteran who sees the world as it is, fully grasping the jagged pain of life.” – Country Music Tattle Tale
“Country folk rock that packs a gritty emotional punch.” – Cowboys & Indians
Abhi the Nomad is an artist from Madras, India. He lived in 8 cities before he was 18 years old. He spent some time in LA before moving to Austin. He just put his album Marbled on Tommy Boy Records. He just put out a new single “Run” in August. We caught up with him before he goes on his first headlining tour, the American Alien tour, with Harrison Sands. READ MORE…
The funny thing about having an identity crisis as an artist is that you never really understand it’s happening until it’s over, because an identity crisis feels like inspiration, and inspiration feels like an identity crisis.
In the autumn of 2017, I found myself in the middle of such a state. That spring, I had quit my main gig as guitarist with a group (Two Cow Garage) that I had at one time considered “my favorite band,” and was struggling with having to find out who my identity was if I wasn’t “Todd from Two Cow.” I didn’t want to be a sideman anymore, and I felt like I had my own voice that couldn’t be loud enough while playing someone else’s music. READ MORE…
Mad Crush
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Mad Crush // Mad Crush (November 16)
You could say Mad Crush know a thing or two about music. Only years of experience can explain the wry wit and complimentary musicianship of the songs on the band’s forthcoming, self-titled debut album. One part June Carter sassing Johnny Cash along with two dashes of Itzhak Perlman on a midnight hayride, Mad Crush’s songs contain theatrical, back-and-forth performances between their singing protagonists Joanna Sattin and John Elderkin. Complete with humor and heartbreak, their songs are in fact bright little dramas about fussing, fighting, and occasionally making up—universal truths sprinkled with brand-new magic dust.
Hailing from Chapel Hill, N.C., Mad Crush brings together five talented players whose previous credits are widely varied. Drummer Chuck Garrison started as indie-legend Superchunk’s drummer, and he has toured the world with them and also with his later bands Pipe and Zen Frisbee. He has played in support of such luminaries as Sonic Youth, Screaming Trees, and Mudhoney, among others. Violinist Laura Thomas has worked with a bevy of heavyweights, from Ray Charles, Jay Z, and Judy Collins to acclaimed R.E.M. producer Mitch Easter, Itzhak Perlman, and Hilary Hahn. Singer John Elderkin’s songwriting has been praised by SPIN, Billboard, Jon Pareles of The New York Times, R.E.M. producer Don Dixon, and Cashbox. He has recorded with such VIPs as Stuart Lehrman (The Roaches, Paul Simon), Brian Paulson (Wilco, Son Volt, Superchunk) and Chris Stamey (Whiskeytown, Big Star). Ingenious electric guitarist Mark Whelan is a stalwart of the local music scene, having played in The Popes and The Veldt, among many other bands. And newcomer Joanna Sattin brings the hot, remarkable vocal delivery that gives the band its “certain something.”
Mad Crush, the album, operates under the guise of indie-folk, oiled to perfection with lyrics inspired by Elderkin’s desire “to get to the heart of what matters—how we deal with getting what we want in life, and also how we deal with losing it.” In this way, songs that first appear to be about romance are also roadmaps to much grander stories. For example, in the smooth-talking opener “Time for a Love Song,” Elderkin’s braggadocious leading man declares his infatuation for Sattin’s cynical woman, in much the same spirit of Tony Award winning playwright and lyricist Joe DiPietro’s popular 1996 musical, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. In lieu of shaded caricatures of modern love, Elderkin plants his characters in real, relatable situations and repeatedly employs humor as a way to expose his own insecurities.
With “Northern Lights,” Sattin takes the lead for the set’s most emotional moment. Her first time recording vocals for a full band, her performance here is a marvelous demonstration of true talent. “Joanna just owns it. The song would not work without her,” says Elderkin. Violinist Thomas agrees. “She came in and knocked it out of the park. And within days, she became an expert in the studio,” she says.
“Stay in Bed” is a canoodling romp around the cherished moments when the power of love pulls the pair through all doubt. “You give me a reason to stay up past 10, now and then,” coos Elderkin. The balancing act he executes with Sattin is downright charming, and the gentle push and pull between the two throughout the album cuts right to the heart of what Mad Crush does best. Conversely, “My Pre-Existing Conditions” is almost an Avenue Q b-side, spliced with comedy and misery. “Frankly, I used the ongoing healthcare debate as inspiration. I ran with that and made up this list of pre-existing conditions that are a jumble of character flaws,” he explains. “A lot of what I’m listing is true of myself, and, some of it, I made up because it fits the theme of rejection. So, some are silly and others are meant to be freaking heartbreaking. The payoff comes at the end, when I beg to be accepted despite all these flaws, the way we all want to be.”
That theatrical element to Elderkin’s songwriting and performance grew out of his previous project, a high-powered rock opera that was an unofficial sequel to David Bowie’s 1972 album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. With that band, ¡Moonbeams No Mas!, he went for larger-than-life, majestic storytelling. “I have an MFA in fiction writing, and I was ready to write something big,” he says. “That double album felt like writing a novel, and I worked on it line-by-line in that way. I think the story holds up the same way a musical works.”
When Elderkin returned to the Triangle area of North Carolina a few years ago, he was ready to satisfy a different ambition—trying a new dramatic style and approach with a new band. “I am incredibly lucky to be working with top-flight musicians, and frankly, our sound is a result of everyone doing their own thing in service of each song. You can hear each personality emerge as the music unfolds,” he explains. “That means we all have a say in the stories we are telling, so there’s a richness and freshness you can’t plan for in advance. It’s exciting.”
Without a bass player, Mad Crush’s new album is pinned somewhere between the earth and the stars. Guitars, violin, and percussion predominantly make up the arrangements and create an almost floating sonic effect. “We consciously made it our project to write these songs in a way that they work without a bass,” says Thomas. “That’s another reason we sound a bit different.”
With such a tremendous lineup of talent, Mad Crush is a saucy, heartwarming, and tragically poetic watercolor of lust, hope, and uncertainty.
“An aural performance piece, nuanced and quirky.” – Billboard