'Grass' - the legendary “lost” psychedelic / experimental rock masterpiece featuring members of Espers, Vetiver and Brightblack Morning Light. A band of six individuals who met, played some shows, recorded an album, and then went dormant until, in Spring - or thereabouts - they revived their cherished document in hopes that it would not again go to seed.

New England in the early 2000s was home to a plethora of kindred psychedelic, experimental, folk, and rock bands who played shows together, recorded each other’s records, and otherwise felt something like a large extended family. Grass was formed, for a brief moment in time, out of members of several of those bands, from across Vermont, New York and Philadelphia: Espers, Currituck Co., Feathers, Brightblack Morning Light, and The Valerie Project (a band solely devoted to live soundtracking the 1970 cult classic Czech film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders). During the late summer of 2006 the band sequestered themselves in a barn in rural Northern California and wrote or arranged the bulk of the material that would go on to be the album. Many songs emerged out of group improvisation, others were
brought to the band either partially or fully formed, for collaborative arrangement.

The album was recorded throughout 2006 at band member Greg Week’s Hexham Head studio in Philadelphia. The all analog studio solely used 2-inch tape at the time. Improvisations from the previous writing sessions were refined and recreated in the studio. Dueling acid leads were conjured by Weeks and Kevin Barker, and the band’s two drummers, Otto Hauser and Ben McConnell, held court. A range of vintage and invented instruments were also played; omnichord and space echo (expertly wielded by Brooke Sietinsons), Fender Rhodes, and a homemade electrified gamelan Meara O’Reilly designed and built, fondly dubbed “The Jamelan” by members of the band. And then the project languished for almost two decades.

By 2023, Weeks and Barker had begun discussing the album again in earnest. It was decided to remix the tracks at Miner Street Studios with seasoned mix engineers Brian McTear and Amy Morrissey. Label Spiritual Pajamas got involved, and the emergence of this musical time capsule was set. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Jamelon
2. Summer In The Wasteland
3. Sleep
4. Taunta
5. Redwing
6. Killing Time
7. 6/6/06

“In Season 5, the long-awaited fifth full-length by beach-pop project The Tyde, frontman Darren Rademaker unveils his vision of an ’80s-inspired Suave Nouveau, with a clutch of sweet, melancholic love songs evoking lush mustaches, mellow macho, the ghost of Jimmy Buffett, white sand beaches, flamingos swooping across a cerulean sky, speedboats cutting through the bay and pastel linen suits billowing in the breeze as the sun dips beneath the horizon.

“Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León ‘discovered’ Florida in 1513, naming the peninsula La Florida, the flowering land. In Season 5, Rademaker reflects on his own return to the flowering land, and the artistic diaspora that caused him to quit California in 2020 in search of a New World of his own. ‘I lived in Florida from the ages of ten to twenty-five, but never really got to explore it,’ he says. ‘When I came back, I decided to really embrace the whole Florida aesthetic. I moved into an art deco home in Sarasota with pink seashell lamps. I visited Key West, like seven times. I also quit smoking weed and cigarettes, and stopped saying shit like LOL and amazeballs. It felt different. It felt good.’

“The record features the talents of many good friends, including Dan Horne, Colby Buddelmeyer, Matt Correia (Allah-Las), Clay Finch (Mapache), Albert Hickman, Derek James (The Entrance Band), Alex Knost (Tomorrow’s Tulips) and Adam MacDougall (Circles Around The Sun / Black Crowes), with artist / musician Matt Fishbeck (Holy Shit) designing the deco-inspired album artwork.

“And as much as they are inspired by the past, these songs are keenly aware of an uncertain future—because there is no such thing as a time machine, and there is no going back. Ultimately, Season 5 asks the question—where do we go after the sun sets on our dreams? Where the fuck is the New New World? In Rademaker’s eyes, it no longer exists in any specific American geography—rather, all hope remains in the timeless, unending power of music, and its power to take us to the places we wish we could be. Even if they don’t exist anymore.” - Caroline Ryder.

TRACK LISTING

1. Heal Thyself
2. Tropical Madness
3. Glades
4. Did You See The Sunrise
5. Legend Of The Lost Art
6. Streetwise
7. Use Them
8. Leaving California
9. Let Me Hear The Music

“Driving up the coast highway from LA, once you hit Santa Barbara you are struck with a noticeable change in landscape. It is the gateway to the Central Coast, where the contours of the land begin to take on more dramatic inclines and feelings burn like wildfires. This was the childhood home of Lauren Barth, ranch-living and horseriding amongst the golden and dusty open ranges that still expand through parts of California. It is at these gates of change that Lauren Barth explores on Stormwaiting, her second solo effort and first on the Spiritual Pajamas label.

“Behind the musical landscape of Stormwaiting, Lauren drew from a backstory she created as inspiration. A young woman and spiritual leader of a commune, blind yet finds her way by a heightened sense of awareness, is caught between the physical world of ‘Rialto’ and the spiritual—‘Morian.’ ‘Stormwaiting’ is slang for living in Rialto and the storm is the tempest within Morian. The cult’s most important message is one of Awareness. Like her protagonist, Lauren steps through these contemplations of change coming, treading one step at a time between the physical and spiritual realms, in a bittersweet anticipation of something upon us. Each song is like a deep breath in, an exhale, a pondering of the past and a wonder about the future with an acute awareness of each passing moment.

“Barth is a true seasoned folk music player, evoking the California folk movement of the late 1960s like David Crosby (who also hailed from the Santa Barbara area), while also calling upon British influences such as Bert Jansch, Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, and Pentangle, and the later American progressive folk music of Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell, and early Bonnie Raitt. In the time since her last solo record in 2017, she picked up the bass with Farmer Dave and the Wizards Of The West, and with her own music gained experience with the process of composing, recording, arranging, and ultimately the confidence to allow her creative instincts to flourish. She found the perfect partner with producer Lewis Pesacof, recording in his Echo Park home studio and has worked with artists such as Pearl Charles, Best Coast, Fidlar, and also works in the world of classical and world music. Tellingly, Stormwaiting has an expansive spirit, a document of a woman and creative spirit finding and embracing her voice beyond folk music and into her own spiritual universe.” —Scary Flowers

TRACK LISTING

1. Casita
2. Durango
3. Stormwaiting
4. Family Chant II
5. Paisley
6. Leave Behind
7. Highway Sleeping
8. Lord Of The Lake
9. Family Chant I

Supergroup featuring featuring Cass McCombs, Farmer Dave, Neal Casal and Dan Horne from Circles Around The Sun, and Aaron Sperske (Beachwood Sparks).

Their second album, Skiff, is a new direction for The Skiffle Players. Now, they all sing and write. There is no leader. Recorded at Infinitespin Recorders in Van Nuys CA, with engineer Matt “Linny” Linesch, the album begins with a bold opening; the Farmer Dave Scher-penned “Cara,” heavy information for the soul. Then, into classic Cass McCombs insanity on “Local Boy,” a wild ride on the run from the cops. Third is a touching tribute to a bygone companion, “Miss It When It’s Gone,” written and led by Neal Casal.

The album’s revolving perspective continues to bounce around, leaving no apparent land to stand upon. In that, it is deeply subversive. For there is nothing to defend, but the ability o transform and imagine.The album continues to unfold back to McCombs with a satire on justice, “The Law Offices Of Dewey, Cheatum And Howe.” It goes from the saloon “Long Horns, Long Necks, Long Legs,” to the rainforest “Herbamera.” Casal blasts in again with the sun-bleached rambler, “Los Angeles Alleyway.” Scher’s “Skiffleman” sings a song for everyone. McCombs plays with memory in a song about coming of age in the Bay Area on “Oakland Scottish Rite Temple Waltz.” Penultimately, “Santa Fe” is an elliptical broadside about materialism and waste. The album concludes by pushing off again, out into the familiar waters of a traditional skiffle number, “Sweet Georgia Brown,” each member taking a perhaps all-too casual solo.This is acoustic dance music at its finest. It is also refreshingly contradictory, irreverent and mystical, deeply personal and communal, and traditional and profane—the ever revolving and disintegrating ship known as Skiff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cara
2. Local Boy
3. You'll Miss It When It's Gone
4. The Law Offices Of Dewey, Cheatum, And Howe
5. Wham!
6. Long Horns, Long Necks, Long Legs
7. Herbamera
8. Los Angeles Alleyway
9. Skiffleman
10 Harsh Toke
11. Oakland Scottish Rite Temple Waltz
12. Santa Fe
13. Sweet Georgia Brown

Supergroup, side project, high-school-garage-band-of-brothers-from-other-mothers, whatever its called, this band formed to play a one-off show in Big Sur and had so much fun they’re still at it. On guitar, Neal Casal (Circles Around The Sun) sticks mostly to the acoustic allowing his elegant affinity towards melodic craft to shine. Cass McCombs’s guitar wizardry and acclaimed compositions are at their peak, and his raw, mostly first-take vocals bring the core of the song to the forefront. And when asking “what the hell was that sound”—it was probably Farmer Dave, the official leader and founder of the band, his keyboard / lap steel / harmonium work is the glue that holds the flotsam together.

Dan Horne’s bass (Circles Around The Sun) and Aaron Sperske’s percussion (Beachwood Sparks) are so intertwined it sounds like each of them are both playing drums and bass at the same time.After the instant classic and record store rare find Skifflin’ (2015), The Skiffle Players are ready to release two new works. The Piffle Sayers EP ss made up of a few gems from the Skifflin’ sessions, and can be considered a companion piece to that debut LP. This foreshadows the release of a new full length album scheduled for this fall.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's no way with this calibre of musician, that the debut release by the Skiffle Players would be anything but brilliantly executed and immensely enjoyable, and you'll be happy to hear that everyone is indeed on top form. Beautifully evocative, brilliantly written and (as expected), played perfectly. Can't wait for the full-length!