Dear Friends,
Short and sweet today as I have not really put myself into the best situation to be able to write lengthy blogs. Doing them on the phone kinda sucks, but what can you do? It’s off to San Diego today to finish this run.
The show last night was fucking awesome. I’ll get into more details later, but The Sardine is quickly becoming one of my favorite venues. Todd C. is good people and the rest of the staff is pretty right on, too.
Don’t snooze on the street tacos if you go there, either. Across the street is one of the best taco stands I’ve ever eaten at and, as previously mentioned in last year’s blog about the Hillbilly show there, the onions are fucking crazy good.
I’m looking forward to seeing some friends and family today. San Diego can be a weird place to play, but the last time The Freeze played there, it went off. Hopefully today will be more of the same and even better.
I’ll be at the beach if you need me.
*****
During my time with Slope Records, one of the things I really wanted Slope to do was put out music by Weird Radicals. After meeting Andrew (aka Drew) Cameron Cline a few years before they put out the sublime Bangers Ball in 2018, I thought I had met my new favorite Phoenix songwriter, and I had. If Slope would have been able to make a similar to commitment to Weird Radicals as it did with a few of the other bands on the label, we would have had a hit on our hands.
Bangers Ball is an EP, but it packs a mighty power pop punch. The way Drew, who was kind enough to sit in on drums a few times with The Father Figures, approaches a song is very refreshing. The tunes on Bangers Ball reflect a healthy curiosity for finding that elusive brand of musical alchemy that makes you want to bob your head and sing along.
The song that really hooked me was “John Lennon (Headbangin’).” It is a total earworm. I can instantly hear it in my head at any time. If I think of it, I hear the chorus and the epic guitar riff that accompanies it so perfectly.
This is not to say that the two songs that precede it, “No One’s Gonna Make Me” and “Slow Knife” aren’t great, because they are. Cline just shared “John Lennon (Headbangin’)” with me first. I wanted so badly for Slope to put out this record, but we just couldn’t make it work.
“Don’t Want Yr. Love” is a beautiful, melancholy ballad. As I sit here and listen and write about it, I can feel it’s magic working inside me. It’s the right (or wrong) song for the moment, I suppose, and I feel pretty melancholy myself. This is the mark of a great piece of writing by a songwriter who has a lot to share.
The collaboration with Paul Collins from LA power pop legends, The Beat, is another fun song. I remember Drew telling me about this and being so excited about it. He and Nick Florence, who recorded the record with him, did such an amazing job on the EP. Bangers Ball is a fully realized musical treat.
“Human Being” is another song that I fully dig. “All that I really want is to be beautiful/I don’t care what it costs, I just want to be happy/ I just want you to love me (x2)/Is that a crime?” Those words are so heartfelt and just lovely over the kick ass instrumentation. I could listen to this song over and over and not be bummed at all.
The seventh and final song is “Super Stoker.” This is another rowdy good time that starts off kind of heavy and noisy. I’ve always been curious if the guys ever jokingly referred to this one as “Super Stoner” as it could easily have been called that, too. The band reins it in a bit toward the middle of the song, but the big riffs and steady hand ramp it right back up. Nick Florence’s guitar is rad on this one, too.
I wish Weird Radicals would have hung around a bit longer, but Drew’s new project, Astrologer, is excellent. I encourage everyone to dig into his stuff. You won’t be disappointed. I know I never am. Looking forward to making some noise with Drew one day down the road again.
*****
See you tomorrow.
Punk! Ocean Beach! AI!
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