Preteen Zenith is the new collaboration between Polyphonic Spree’s Tim DeLaughter and Secret Machines Philip Karnats and the duo is set to release Rubble Guts and BB Eye on May 29 via Good Records.
The Zenith doesn’t fall too far from the Spree although there are about 45 less band members in the new collaboration! If you’re into feel good, Flaming Lips-style quirky pop, you’ll want to give Rubble Guts and BB Eye a listen. If you’re not into this kind of stuff, you must hate life.
Duquette Johnston’s a good cat – I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him a few times throughout the years, first as a fresh-faced bass player with Verbena and years later as an up-and-coming solo artist (in between, he toured with the Blake Babies and played in a few local Alabama bands).
Exposure is key in this day-and-age, never know when a placement in a TV show, commercial or movie may open otherwise closed doors so it’s exciting that Johnston’s “Roll Baby Roll” is going to be featured on this week’s Private Practice season finale on ABC (Dang, does this mean I have to watch the show for the first time just to support my old pal?).
DOWNLOAD: “Roll Baby Roll”
This song is featured on a Communicating Vessels 7″ which can be purchased here should you be interested in supporting an independent artist.
Check out Johnston’s 2010 CD, Rugged & Fancy, available as a FREE download.
Johnston’s always got something musical up his sleeve and is currently working on a new record (Rabbit Runs a Destiny) with producer Armand Margjeka which is due out before the end of the year.
Everybody loves the Boss for his blue collar rock anthems – the kind that make you stand up in your chair, throw your fist in the air, sing along at the top of your lungs, maybe even make your feet shuffle – but there are very few songs that move me the way the slower, driving late at night number does.
Glancing through YouTube, there are dozens of covers by all sorts of artists from many different genres. This morning I stumbled upon a version by Kate Tucker backed by members of Lovedrug.
Kate’s made her version of “I’m on Fire” available for free via Bandcamp where you can also listen to (and buy) Kate’s most recent release, Ghost of Something New.
From Darren at Bobby Best Creative:
This is one totally messed up group, but you just gotta love ’em!
Check out the way Reverend J. Peyton plays some mighty fine fingerstylin’ American country/blues on his 1930 steel-bodied and his 1934 wood-bodied axe and the way Breezy Peyton plays her washboard with golf gloves to which thimbles have been attached.
All in all, perfect fun for all the family and I, for one, can’t wait to see them perform at the Bunbury Music Festival in Cincinnati in July.
This week’s “Pick of the Week” by the guys over at Bobby Best Creative is Hannah Peel’s cover of Tears for Fears “Head Over Heels”. The instrument featured in the video – the pin-barrel harp (Sharpsichord) – is a programmable mechanically-played harp.
Here’s what Darren from Bobby Best Creative had to say: I was digging around looking at remixes of New Order’s “Blue Monday” and stumbled across this little beauty.