Tag: Smokescreens

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formed earlier this year, the Chico, CA-based punk duo Beehive features Jake Sprecher (vocals, guitar), a former member of Terry Malts, Smokescreens and Business of Dreams and Shutups‘ Bud Amenti (bass). And in a short period of time the duo have managed to play venues up and down the West Coast, while writing and recording their debut EP, Depressed and Distressed, an effort recorded on 1/2″ tape in one take.

Slated for a September 6, 2019 release through Jester Recordings, the duo’s forthcoming EP quickly establishes their sound. Drawing from the likes of Suicide, The Splits and Television Personalities, the material is centered by desperately howled and repeated vocal phrases, a repeatedly hammered riff and a propulsive bass line played over a Hammond Auto-Vari 64 drum machine.

The EP’s latest single “When Can I See You Again” is centered around slashing guitar lines  and a forcefully propulsive bass line that seem as though they’re desperately trying to attack the incessant and emotionally indifferent drum machine. At its core, the song seethes with the desperate, lovelorn obsession of young lust.

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Earlier this month, I wrote about Corey Cunningham and although he’s best known for being a member of critically acclaimed bands like Magic Bullets and Terry Malts, as well as Smokescreens and Mike Krol’s backing band, his latest musical project, Business of Dreams can trace its origins to when Cunningham took leave from his long-running musical partnerships when his father died. Returning back home to Tennessee to grieve and to confront his past, Cunningham wrote music that would eventually comprise Business of Dreams’ critically applauded, eponymous, full-length debut back in 2017.

Building upon a growing profile, Cunningham along with a live backing band opened for Rogue Wave, and played a number of local shows with the likes of Frankie Rose, Real Estate and others. But for the sake of this post, you really need to know this: Business of Dreams’ sophomore effort, Ripe For Anarchy is slated for a February 1, 2019 release through Slumberland Records, and the album finds Cunningham honing his songwriting both sonically and thematically, with the material touching upon regret, existence and perseverance.”The album is about living in the moment, shedding neurosis, and the desire to discard the general societal malaise we’ve been roped into,” Cunningham says in press notes.

Ripe For Anarchy‘s first single was a shimmering guitar pop track “Keep The Blues Away.” Centered around ethereal and plaintive vocals, shimmering and arpeggiated synths, staccato drum machine-like drumming, shimmering guitar lines fed through delay and effect pedals and a soaring hook, the single sounds as though it could have been released during 4AD Records heyday — and while indebted to the sounds of the past, the track is bolstered by an urgent sincerity that comes from lived-in experience. “N.R.E.A.M.,” Ripe for Anarchy‘s second and latest single is a jangling guitar pop track that sounds inspired by New Zealand guitar pop, complete with an infectious hook, arpeggiated keys, a sinuous bass line and an underlying mischievous (and somewhat cynical) air. “This song was my attempt to write something fun for the album. Of course it had to be the one song focusing on negativity but I think a dose of cynicism is quite healthy these days,” Corey Cunningham explains in press notes. “Humanity isn’t exactly passing its classes lately so I decided to poke a little fun at the more coarse side of our nature. It’s my version of “Ring-a-round The Rosies.” Ashes, ashes we all fall down! Wee!”

Business of Dreams are currently on a late January tour, and the tour includes a January 25, 2019 stop at Alphaville. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

 

Tour Dates:
Jan 25 Brooklyn, NY – Alphaville *
Jan 26 Philadelphia, PA – Super Wimpy HQ *
Jan 27 Baltimore, MD – Joe Squared *
Jan 29 Indianapolis, IN – State Street Pub
Jan 30 Detroit, MI – Outer Limits
May 2 Paris, FR – Mains D’Oeuvres
May 5 Berlin, DE – Internet Explorer

* – with Corduroy

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Perhaps best known for being a member of critically acclaimed bands Magic Bullets and Terry Malts, as well as Smokescreens and Mike Krol‘s backing band, Corey Cunningham’s latest project Business of Dreams can trace its origins to when Cunningham took leave for his long-running musical partnerships when his father died. Returning back home to Tennessee to grieve and confront his past, Cunningham wrote music that would eventually comprise Business of Dreams’ critically applauded, eponymous full-length debut back in 2017.

Building upon a growing profile, Cunningham with a live backing band opened for Rogue Wave, and played a number of local shows with the likes of Frankie Rose, Real Estate and others. Business of Dream’s sophomore effort, Ripe For Anarchy is slated for a February 1, 2019 release through Slumberland Records, and the album finds Cunningham honing his songwriting both sonically and thematically, with the material touching upon regret, existence and perseverance.”The album is about living in the moment, shedding neurosis, and the desire to discard the general societal malaise we’ve been roped into,” Cunningham says in press notes.

Ripe For Anarchy‘s first single is the shimmering guitar pop track “Keep The Blues Away.” Centered around ethereal and plaintive vocals, shimmering and arpeggiated synths, staccato drum machine-like drumming, shimmering guitar lines fed through delay and effect pedals and a soaring hook, the single sounds as though it could have been released during 4AD Records heyday — and while indebted to the sounds of the past, the track is bolstered by an urgent sincerity that comes from lived-in experience.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Currently comprised of founding members Chris Rosi (rhythm guitar, vocals)  and Corey Cunningham (lead guitar, keys), along with newest members Jenny Moffett (bass) and Brice Bradley (drums), the Los Angeles-based indie rock outfit Smokescreens can trace their origins to when its founding duo initially met and became friends while touring in their previous bands — the critically applauded Plateaus and Terry Malts — back in 2011. By 2015 Rosi and Cunningham relocated to Los Angeles to start Smokescreens, an act that they’ve described as a love letter to the 1980s New Zealand’s Flying Nun Records scene.  As the story goes, after cutting their teeth playing in bars and bowling alleys across Southern California, Rosi and Cunningham recruited engineer/drummer Jon Green to help them put their shambling love letters to Kiwi guitar pop on tape.

Initially released through Cunningham’s Parked in Hell Records and re-issued by Spanish indie label Meritorio Records, the Los Angeles-based indie rock band’s self-titled, full-length debut was recorded in a disused dairy factory and was mixed in mono. After Jon Greene’s death, the band decided to continue onward, recruiting their newest members Brice Bradley and Jenny Moffif, which enabled Cunningham to switch to lead guitar and keys. As a newly constituted quartet, the band spent time tirelessly working, nurturing and refining their sound and writing batches of songs before eventually heading to Primitive Ears Studio to track the ten songs that would eventually comprise their sophomore effort Used to Yesterday in rapid-fire fashion. Armed with tapes from the sessions, the members of the band brought them to The Allah-lahs‘ Kyle Malarky, who created a final mix that reportedly captures the band’s rhythmic drive and melodic verve. Unsurprisingly, the band’s sophomore effort continues the band’s longtime obsession with 80s, New Zealand guitar pop — but while expanding upon it, incorporating some new influences, including Messthetics-era DIY pop; in fact, the album’s latest single “Someone New” is a jangling and breakneck, propulsive bit of guitar pop with razor sharp hooks  that sounds as though it could have been quietly and quickly released in 1982, and was discovered by a collector in a random used record bin.