You may recognise this fine fellow as the bass player for such acts as Spoon, Lee Fields’ Expressions, Reigning Sound and The Jay Vons. Or perhaps you’ve heard the man himself wailing away on several well-received 45’s released on Wick Records and compiled on the digital EP ‘Hey Lovers’.

Former member and leader of The Reigning Sound, and has leant his talents to key Daptone family artists such as Jalen Ngonda, Lee Fields’ Expressions and Charles Bradley’s Extraordinaires.

With ‘Do You Still Think of Me?’, his debut album for Wick Records, Trokan takes the listener through the full spectrum of 60s influenced music: the moody teen-beat bop of ‘Save a Place’, the garage dwelling angst of ‘Nowhere to Be Found’, to the sweet soul sound of the title track. But throughout the records, it’s the unique sound of Benny’s raspy, vulnerable lead vocal that carries us across this truly stunning collection of modern pop. ‘Do You Still Think of Me?’ is a breath of fresh air from a well-seasoned veteran. Unquestionably worth the wait.

TRACK LISTING

1. Fever
2. Get It In The End
3. Long Shadows
4. Walking Back
5. Save A Place
6. Turn Back You Fool
7. Nowhere To Be Found
8. It’s Time
9. You Don’t Get Me Down
10. Just Wanna Love You
11. Sorrow
12. Do You Still Think Of Me?

The Mystery Lights return with their most ambitious offering to date. With Wayne Gordon back in the producer's chair, the group delivers an eclectic mix of real-deal psychedelia, punk, art rock, and even a splash of country via the Kinks(y) pop earworm "I'm Sorry I Forgot Your Name".

The psychedelic highlights of the album, "Purgatory", "Cerebral Crack" and "Can't Sleep Through the Silence", are dark and trippy, landing somewhere between the guitar-driven, lysergic mayhem of the 13th Floor Elevators and the punked-up, tongue-in-cheek insanity of The Monks. But throughout there's a cohesiveness threaded by the elevated musicianship, earnest lyrics and attention to detail that make for a fiercely raw, yet unabashedly catchy album–dripping with all of the sing along hooks that have made Mystery Lights one of the most exciting live bands on the scene.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mighty Fine & All Mine
2. Memories
3. Purgatory
4. In The Streets
5. Together Lost
6. Trouble
7. Sorry I Forgot Your Name
8. Can't Sleep Through The Silence
9. Cerebral Crack
10. Automatic Response
11. Don't Want No, Don't Need No
12. Snuck Out

The Mystery Lights's sophomore album on Daptone's rock subsidiary, Wick Records, finds the group digging deeper into their well of eclectic influences, enriching their sound without echoing the past.

It mixes the energy and swagger of punk’s golden age, the pop sensibility of The Kinks, and the stark, deliberate execution of Television and the eerie, insistent synth sounds of groups like The Normal and Suicide.

The Mystery Lights are taking their idiosyncratic brand of rock and roll to dizzying new heights.

The Mystery Lights story begins in 2004 in the small town of Salinas California when friends Michael Brandon and Luis Alfonso -whose shared fondness for groups like The Mc5, Velvet Underground, Dead Moon, and The Fall (just to name a few) -decided to join forces and craft their own brand of unhinged rock and roll. From there they spent the better part of 10 years touring relentlessly before migrating to Queens, New York in 2014.

With a live show known for its raw, visceral energy and relentless assault –leaving little to no stoppage between songs –they barreled through countless NYC haunts and DIY venues, quickly amassing a fervent local following. The buzz soon caught the attention of Daptone Records execs who were in the beginning stages of launching a new rock-centric imprint, Wick Records. Impressed by the groups’ musicianship, groove, endless supply of energy, and understanding of musical history the Mystery Lights were quickly signed to Wick. Though a rock band at heart, the parallels to what Daptone Records had traditionally looked for in their Soul artists was undeniable. Soon sessions were booked with Producer/Engineer Wayne Gordon, and the release of their debut single “Too Many Girls” b/w “Too Tough to Bear” launched to mass critical fanfare.

TRACK LISTING

Synthtro
I'm So Tired (Of Living In The City)
Can't Get Through To My Head
Someone Else Is In Control
Goin' Down
Wish That She'd Come Back
Thick Skin
Too Much Tension
Watching The News Gives Me The Blues
It's Alright
Traces

Features current and ex-members of Chain & The Gang, Pygmy Lush, and The Shirks. Moody lo-fi garage rock.

Coasting into town on fumes, late and not speaking to each other because nobody would stop to ask for directions,The Ar-Kaics take their cues from the first wave of ‘60s punk — American teenagers taking cues from the British Invasion, in turn taking cues from pilfers of the hinterland originators — with the added vantage of several subsequent decades worth of wayward balladeers, no names and psychedelic rock hangovers.

The Ar-Kaics have been delivering their off-brand, spot-on garage rock originals out of Richmond, VA, via a flood of small press singles and a s/t debut album - all of which have since become highly desirable in the collectors market - and several successful DIY tours across the lower 48, with shows in Canada and Europe to boot. Since, they've drifted around some, gotten and lost jobs, opened a record store and label, and started families.

In the summer of 2015 the group hooked up with Wayne Gordon and Mikey Post, of Wick Records to record a couple tracks at the Daptone Records' House of Soul - resulting in 2016's critically acclaimed - Just My Life b/w It's Her Eyes 45.

After the success of their debut single on Wick, plans were hashed to record their sophomore full-length, which took place over three days in the Spring of 2017, at Adrian Olsen's Montrose Studio in Richmond, VA.

Produced by Wayne Gordon (Black Lips, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion), and Mikey Post (Reigning Sound, The Jay Vons) the fruits of the heady three day retreat produced the forthcoming Long Player, "In This Time"...a low-brow journey through the Teen-Beat sounds of the 1960's...and beyond! From the opening, crude thud of "Don't Go With Him", the Velvet Underground tinged swagger of "She's Obsessed with Herself", the breezy, late-period psych of "Long Way Down", to the unpretentious, sap-free balladry of "It's Her Eyes" - The Ar-Kaics flex their deft understanding of the subtle intricacies that defines bonafide Garage Rock.

In spite, the band remains, taking its time with In This Time, void of professionalism or self-preservation, just an unquenchable thirst to lap it up and pass it around — the good stuff that is — before it’s all gone.

TRACK LISTING

1. Don't Go With Him
2. Some People
3. No Vacancy
4. She's Obsessed
5. Sick 'n' Tired
6. Cut Me Down
7. Distemper
8. It's Her Eyes
9. What You Do
10. You Turn Me Bad
11. In This Time
12. Long Way Down