Beachwood Sparks

Jessica Pratt, Michael Head, Khruangbin and more appear on our latest free CD. All copies of the May 2024 issue of Uncut come with a free, 15-track CD – Total Blam-Blam – that showcases the wealth of great new music on offer this month, from Jessica Pratt, Michael Head and Khruangbin to Mint Mile, Gospelbrach and Arthur Melo. Now dive in…

Jessica Pratt, Michael Head, Khruangbin and more appear on our latest free CD. All copies of the May 2024 issue of Uncut come with a free, 15-track CD – Total Blam-Blam – that showcases the wealth of great new music on offer this month, from Jessica Pratt, Michael Head and Khruangbin to Mint Mile, Gospelbrach and Arthur Melo. Now dive in…

The second album from GospelbeacH continues to deftly honor the grand tradition of West Coast rock and roll. This time around its more 70s FM rock than 60s AM gold, more cosmo than country with a theme of timeless love. Straightforward, inviting songwriting and singing by Brent Rademaker (a founding member of Beachwood Sparks). Warm classic production and tight harmonies once again by guitarist/vocalist Jason Soda. Recorded in Los Angeles at Palomino Sound, Jasons new 1970s vintage artisan recording studio. Third GospelbeacH core member Jonny Niemanns cascading piano, organ and mellotron ll out the albums rich sound. In the tradition of the Troubadour scene of the 1970s Another Summer of Love features some of the GospelbeacH friends and Los Angeles nest players and singers including, Pearl Charles, Miranda Lee Richards, members of Wilco, Mapache, Eels, and pickers from the Grand Ole Echo. The album artwork features re active photography by GospelbeacH guitarist/singer Neal Casal and Allah-Las drummer Matthew Coreia.

“One of music’s most perfect and unheralded rock outfits” – Magnet Magazine John Andrew Fredrick has written and released seventeen the black watch albums of sparkling, literate, jangly-distorted indie rock since the LA band’s inception in 1988 (as well as four works of comedic literary fiction and one book on the early films of Wes Anderson). For this record Fredrick had the idea of letting producer-friends Scott Campbell, Rob Campanella (producer for The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Beachwood Sparks, Dead Meadow) and Andy Creighton be his band and record the album. “I have had, I think, too much control, musically speaking, in the past.’ Fredrick says, “And the thought of experimenting this way was really thrilling.” The result was far from a failure, in fact this approach may have yielded TBW’s best album in years.

Celebrating their 25th Anniversary, and a formal introduction to their affiliate label, Alive!/Total Energy, Bomp! Records has released a two-disc set of past and present gems from their vaults and catalog. From the label that helped the punk movement in the 70's comes contributions from Zeros, Dead Boys, Iggy & The Stooges, Weirdos, Flesheaters, and the Lazy Cowgirls. And that's just disc one. Disc two offers up tracks from Davie Allan & The Arrows, The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs w/ Deniz Tek, U.S. Bombs, and MC5.

The term "lost classic" is applied liberally and often erroneously to unreleased recordings that resurface years later in a maelstrom of hype. However, for the forgotten mod rock also-rans the Action, the term is not only justified, it is painfully bittersweet. On par with such classics of the era as The Who Sell Out or Ogden's Nut Gone Flake but more focused than either, the Action's Rolled Gold goes beyond "lost classic" – it is the influential masterpiece no one was ever allowed to hear. Despite being signed to Beatles producer George Martin's AIR label and benefiting from a strong club following, the Action never scored a chart hit. By the time they recorded these demo tracks in 1967, the band had grown weary of the musically limited mod scene, which was on its last legs. Guitarist Pete Watson had been replaced by Martin Stone, and the band had developed a more mature sound, one only hinted at on such previous cuts as "Twenty-Fourth Hour".