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KELLEY STOLTZ

Kelley Stoltz

The Stylist

    "The Stylist", Kelley Stoltz's 17th album finds him following up the Third Man Records reissue of his 2001 "Antique Glow", with a collection of 10 new songs. The album was recorded early in 2021, and has been languishing in the vinyl pressing log jam ever since - but luckily Stoltz writes timeless songs, the kind that might've appeared on the fringes of the late 60's or mid 80's. Acoustic guitars, synthesizers, drum machines and strong melodies abound. As with his other classic records "Below the Branches", "Double Exposure" and "Ah! (etc)" Stoltz plays most of the instruments himself and records in his home studio in San Francisco. Kelley says, "I chose the title 'the Stylist' because musically I guess that's what I am... because of the way I write, at my leisure over a period of months at home, I kinda flit around between styles. It's all in the pop-rock vein, but there's usually a wide range of sounds and inspiration from song to song. It sort of fits together in a mix tape kind of way, rather than an exploration of one particular mood. That's always been the case with my albums."

    The chorus-y guitar jangle of "Your Name Escapes Me" somehow name checks the New Bomb Turks, while reflecting on familiar if forgotten faces from Stoltz's past. On "My Island" insistent piano and saxophone solos take the listener on a tropical trip to the soft rock radio dial. Stoltz played rhythm guitar in Echo & the Bunnymen for a few years, and "We Grew So Far Apart" clangs like a lost Liverpool 80's classic. Stoltz says, "There's a touch more piano on this record... going back to my Sub Pop days, when I was writing more Beatle-y bits... Harry Nilsson... that kind of thing." Indeed, the piano led "It's a Cold World" plays like a holy union of Todd Rundgren and the Zombies where Stoltz declares, "it's a cold world at times, but I'm not ready to give up the fight."

    Thankfully, after 23 years the beat goes on... and no matter what style Stoltz chooses, "The Stylist" is another platter of tuneful delight in the impressive catalog of one of the great songwriters of our time.


    TRACK LISTING

    Side A
    Change
    We Grew So Far Apart
    You Had To Be There
    My Wildest Dream
    Its A Cold World
    Side B
    Is There Anything That's Better Than This , Babe?
    Your Name Escapes Me
    In The Night
    Wrong Number
    My Island

    Kelley Stoltz

    Antique Glow - 20th Anniversary Edition

      Third Man Records is proud to announce the 20th anniversary expanded edition of Kelley Stoltz’s defining album Antique Glow. The announcement is heralded by the release of bonus track "Too Beck". Limited-edition "rainy nights" UK exclusive vinyl will be available on release day.

      Originally self-released in minuscule vinyl-only quantities in 2001, Antique Glow has served not only as a template for the length of Kelley Stoltz’s twenty-plus year career, but has also served as a compass for other Anglophile, TASCAM 388 home recording acolytes. Original copies featured Stoltz’s clever, wry and fanciful hand-painted adornments overtop reclaimed thrift store LP jackets, Third Man’s release here utilizes some of those original unused images for a die-cut sleeve that ultimately gives the listener six different possible album covers.

      The songs are by-and-large masterpieces of bedroom pop magic. From the whispering “Here Comes the Sun”-adjacent acoustic underpinnings of album opener “Perpetual Night” through the fuzz-threaded leads of “Are You Electric?” Stoltz’s inspirations are impeccable and clear. Sixties Davies British Invasion through 80’s British Bunnymen post-punk, with appropriate off-shoots into West Coast American pop-psych, Velvets-indebted hooliganism and Drake/CSNY acoustic attenuations, the end result is pure joy.

      On the expanded version, standout tracks previously relegated to an Australian tour-only CD (like the breathlessly cinematic “Old Pictures”) see their first-ever vinyl and digital release while there’s an additional 10 songs from the Antique Glow-era seeing their first ever release in any format. The cutting room floor quality here is second-to-none, Stoltz clearly gifted with the curse of writing too many indelible songs, so the newly released “Too Beck” (originally cast off by Kelley because he thought “it sounded too much like Beck”) and “Umbrella” stand firm as some of the best, most timeless music Stoltz has ever released... a full two decades after he recorded them!



      With all instruments and vocals performed by Stoltz, the singularity of vision here is impeccably clear and executed.

      TRACK LISTING

      LP1
      1. Perpetual Night
      2. Crystal Ball
      3. Jewel Of The Evening
      4. Underwater's Where The Action Is
      5. One Thousand Rainy Days
      6. Tubes In The Moonlight
      7. 26th Street Floor
      8. Are You Electric
      9. Please Visit Soon
      10. Listen Darkly
      11. Fake Day
      12. Mean Marianne
      13. Mt. Fuji
      14. Silver Lining

      LP2
      15. Old Pictures (Bonus Track)
      16. Immobile Bones (Bonus Track)
      17. You'll Find The Truth In The Frying Pan (Bonus Track)
      18. You And Me And 100 Others (Bonus Track)
      19. You're Making Me Yawn (Bonus Track)
      20. Interplanetary Wisdom (Bonus Track)
      21. Harmonica Makes The Doggy Go Wild (Bonus Track)
      22. Dead John (Bonus Track)
      23. Baby's Fingers (Bonus Track)
      24. Too Beck (Bonus Track)
      25. Discount City VU (Bonus Track)
      26. Umbrella (Bonus Track)
      27. Spilled Milk (Live On PBS) (Bonus Track)

      Kelley Stoltz

      Ah!(etc)

        “I was guzzling wine at my favorite bar in San Francisco, the Rite Spot, and the entertainment that night was some local opera singers singing along with a big video screen showing a collage of various operatic moments with subtitles. One particular subtitle, ‘Ah!-(etc)’ made me laugh, I thought it was a perfect description of life - the joy of existence against the etcetera of it all, the struggle. With a heavy head of rose’ it seemed like ecstatic poetry! I scribbled it on a napkin and thought it might make a good title for something” And so the mystery behind the title of Kelley Stoltz new record is solved. Less of a mystery is the quality contained therein… after 12 self-titled releases and a several more under pseudonyms, Stoltz is the word for “one-man-band-home-recording-pop-songs of idiosyncratic character.” A quick follow up to his more power pop and pub rock LP only “Hard Feelings” offering in the summer, “Ah-(etc)” finds Stoltz returning to his sweet spot, writing songs that never were, but should have been in the 60’s and 80’s.

        As with other LPs Stoltz makes virtually every noise on the album which was written and recorded in 2019 at his Electric Duck Studio in. San Francisco. A few friends popped in to play along… Stoltz former bandmate, Echo & the Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant adds electric guitar to “The Quiet Ones” a sort of Scott Walker lyrical take on strangers and neighbors. Karina Denike formerly of Dance Hall Crashers adds gorgeous vocals on the bossanova groover “Moon Shy”, where Sergeant pops up again in a spoken word role on the outro. Allyson Baker of SF’s Dirty Ghosts sings on “She Like Noise”, a song Stoltz wrote for her in celebration of her love of seeing live bands.

        The album was mastered by Mikey Young in Australia, Tour dates scheduled for summer 2021.


        STAFF COMMENTS

        Barry says: Kelley Stoltz returns for his newest 'Ah! etc', brimming with the clever riffs and latent sunshine psychedelia we've come to expect. It's a refreshing and beautifully accomplished LP, and will certainly go on to reveal many layers with each subsequent listen. Gorgeous.

        TRACK LISTING

        SIDE A
        1. Team Earth
        2. The Quiet Ones
        3. Never Change Enough
        4. Dodged A Bullet
        5. Cold

        SIDE B
        6. She Likes Noise
        7. Some Other Time
        8. Moon Shy
        9. Darkness Too
        10. Chasing The Light
        11. Tomorrow
        12. Having Fun

        Dinked Edition Bonus 12” EP
        A:
        Gift Of Days
        Peace Together
        B:
        Pictures Of Me
        Casio Life

        Kelley Stoltz

        My Regime

          Kelley Stoltz enters his 20th year in the record business with the release of his 10th full length album, “My Regime”. This will be his second release for the Spanish label Banana & Louie after prior albums on Castleface, Third Man Records and Sub Pop. A longtime DIY home recording multi instrumentalist, Stoltz again engineers, mixes and plays all the instruments on the album and his unique brand of “60’s/80’s” pop, garage-rock and folk sounds seem to have gotten better with age.

          “My Regime” was recorded during an emotional year that saw him get engaged to marry, his father pass away and his tenure as rhythm guitarist with longtime heroes Echo & the Bunnymen come to and end. Jovial and reflective moods ensued and were put to tape by Stoltz in his Electric Duck Studios at home in San Francisco. The first single “Turning Into You” ponders the delight and soul connections of love, while “2020” asks “have you got what you need to ride it out… I wish I could see peace in 2020”, in reference to the chaotic politics at home. “Fire on Fire” written with his Dad on his mind, and is a big beat slow burner reminiscent of the Church’s “Starfish” years.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Barry says: Slowly wandering missives, phased guitar and Stoltz' reverbed vocal beautifully riding atop the swooning backdrop, 'My Regime' once again steps things up from last years' 'Natural Causes'. Lovely.

          TRACK LISTING

          Side 1
          1. SISTER
          2. 2020
          3. TURNING INTO YOU
          4. MY REGIME
          5. UH OH
          6. GOOD TO SEE YOU

          Side 2
          1. YOUR LIFE
          2. PERFECT STRANGER
          3. FIRE ON FIRE
          4. BABY, BE GOOD TO ME
          5. ZONKED
          6. THINGS GO BUMP


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